A Gonzo Futurist Manifesto
Justin Pickard’s “Gonzo Futurist Manifesto” (PDF) is as fun a read as its title would suggest.
“The gonzo futurist is resilient. She works smart, not hard. She has one eye on the ‘adjacent possible’ (Johnson, 2011), switches codes, and contributes to the commons. She may be privileged, but has no time for competition, alpha male dick-waving, or beggar-thy-neighbour. Her success does not come at your expense.”
Image by Victoria Coles.
Walk Off The Earth covers “Little Boxes,” the 1962 song made famous by Womenfolk and Pete Seeger.
The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of beauty is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, but indifference between life and death.
—Elie Wiesel. (1986, October 27). US News & World Report. p. 68.
Jenny Holzer, Some Days You Wake Up, from The Living Series, 1980-82.
We look at the dance to impart the sensation of living in an affirmation of life, to energize the spectator into keener awareness of the vigor, the mystery, the humor, the variety, and the wonder of life. This is the function of the American dance.
—Martha Graham. (1935). “The American Dance” in Modern Dance. Virginia Stewart, ed. New York: E. Weyhe.
Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson: A fascinatingly disturbing thought.
It is good to tame the mind, which is difficult to hold in and flighty, rushing wherever it listeth; a tamed mind brings happiness.
—Siddhartha Gautama. (c. 563 – c. 483 BCE) Dhammapada. Translated by F. Max Müller.
(via yolk-of-the-sun)
Something there is that can refresh and revivify older people: joy in the activities of the younger generation—a joy, to be sure, that is clouded by dark forebodings in these unsettled times. And yet, as always, the springtime sun brings forth new life, and we may rejoice because of this new life and contribute to its unfolding; and Mozart remains as beautiful and tender as he always was and always will be. There is, after all, something eternal that lies beyond reach of the hand of fate and of all human delusions. And such eternals lie closer to an older person than to a younger one oscillating between fear and hope. For us, there remains the privilege of experiencing beauty and truth in their purest forms.
—Albert Einstein. (1936, March 20). Letter to Queen Mother Elizabeth of Belgium.
The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.
—Masanobu Fukuoka. (1975). The One-Straw Revolution.
(via caminandoentrenubes)
While our art cannot, as we wish it could, save us from wars, privation, envy, greed, old age, or death, it can revitalize us amidst it all.
—Ray Bradbury (1990). Zen in the Art of Writing (Preface). Santa Barbara, California, USA: Capra Press.
Todd McLellan painstakingly deconstructs everyday objects, then precisely lays them out on the floor to shoot them. The examples above are a flip clock and a typewriter.
(via myedol)
Emotional responses showing the “uncanny valley,” a hypothetical construct in the fields of robotics and animation.
Be aware of this truth that the people on this earth could be joyous, if only they would live rationally and if they would contribute mutually to each others’ welfare.”
—Kurt Vonnegut. (1981). Palm Sunday. New York: Delacorte Press.
Not every philosophical system views the execution of a mass murderer as morally imperative—or even morally permissible.
Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.
Immanuel Kant. (1784). “Idea for a General History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose.” Sixth thesis.