Tom Cruise the Scientologist

Th video closes with the words "the world of tom cruise the scientologist has only just begun." If this is true, the world could be in store for a reality worse than the robot aliens that invaded in "War of the worlds." In this post i will take quotes from the video (in italics) and offer my critique of them.

"A scientologist 'does'! they have the ability to create better realities." This is such horse-shit. Which reality is TC talking about? God's objective reality or his own subjective reality? The first one doesn't exist, so therefore tom cruise is shoving his own definitions of "a good reality" onto everyone else. why should a scientologist 'do'? This means they are doing something to effect people and make the world better. They should just mind their own business and cultivate their own personal realities, rather than shoving their definitions of betterment onto everyone else. It seems that scientology is creating totalitarians.

"I won't hesitate to put ethics into someone else". Of course you won't TC. Your totalitarian ways are always trying to make people live by your own standards and ethics. TC should really learn to let each human being live by his own ethics. unforunately, there are no religions in the world that allow every human being to live by their own ethics. all religions share the same principle that every human being should live and act in a certain way in relation to society and humanity>>>>>>morality. When TC says "We can unite culture", he means that if scientology takes over the world and destroys all other cultures then cultures might be united. i dont see a religion being something able to unite cultures... not even government policies of multiculturalism can unite cultures.

"You're either in or you're out, the spectator is something we have no time for right now." This is the first thing he says that makes sense, only because i am assuming that TC would consider me a spectator. At least he is saying that he has "no time" for spectators, which means he won't waste his time trying to convert me. The spectator can live in their own reality, and the scientologists can try cultivating some value laden idealistic reality.

"We have to educate and create the new reality" First of all, why is everyone supposed to abandon their own personal subjective reality to be educated on a stupid mass scientology reality? secondly, education is the worst way to get people to do anything because it proves that your reality does not exist on its own. If the reality did exist on its own, people wouldn't need to be educated and they could just find the reality themselves. Education proves that you are creating a fake reality.

Valkyrie will be released December 26, 2008. Even though Tom Cruise is crazy, i will definitely be there cause it looks like an awesome movie. Its about the attempted assasination of adolf hitler.

a critique of TC

i was hoping the entire hubbubists crew could get on board and critique this tom cruise video. everyone has seen the simple-minded critiques that youtube has offered. theres usually south park style anectdotes about the crazy unreleased bibles of scientology. but considering that oprah is turning housewives across america into scientologists, it is important to look deeper into this matter. lets have our intellectual think-tank analyze the type of world and human being created by these type of scientological ideas.

Election

I am heading to my Obama/McCain class. I can't stand to hear any information on the election, so i will hand in my paper and leave. I read some really intellectual coverage of the election on another blog today.

>Link<


Nemmy puts it all on perspevtice. He understands how to be a team player. when George Bush Sr. lost the election in 1992 to Clinton, Bush said "I know i lost but its time to rally behind your new president." In Canada you would never get this. Dion hates harper more than he hates high school english teachers

The Politics of Cool

This is a post i made 9 months ago concerning Obama. I was really on the ball. i feel i attacked CNN viewers and Oprah Winfrey a little too harshly (but only a little).

Earlier this week, Rolling Stone Magazine announced that they would put Barack Obama on next month's issue. This is the first time that Rolling Stone has ever made a cover story out of a nominee for the leader of a party. In the past, they have made cover stories out of Democratic Presidential candidates. But 'the curse of the rolling stone' proved fatal for both Al Gore and John Kerry. Obama will get his issue now, and it would not be surprising to see him get another cover story, during the weeks leading up to the presidential election this Novemberish. Obama has a knack for capitalizing on crowds that are unable to think for themselves. Earlier in January, he got the free-spirited Oprah Winfrey to tour on his campaign trail, and also appeared on Oprah's show, where she fully endorsed him.

Even with Barack's appeal to all these forms of 'cool' media, the race does not seem to be over. Anybody that has followed the Democratic election (meaning anybody bored out of their mind, who has a full selection of cable channels, yet out of complete disrespect for their own intellectual well-being, decides to watch CNN), has been told several times that election is nearly over. All of January, we were told that Super Tuesday (in early February), would determine the Democratic nominee. When that didn't pan out, CNN told us it would be the next state election. And when that didn't pan out, they said it would be the next one; and this pattern continued for quite a while. Well, there have been numerous state elections, and CNN has been wrong numerous times. But for some reason, i keep tuning in.

This is very reminiscent to the 'kiefer Sutherland effect'. Anybody that has watched the tv show 24, knows that at the end of every episode, there is a delightful cliffhanger and then footage from next weeks show. If you own the dvd's, you have no choice but to watch the next show immediately. If it's on cable television, you book off your next tuesday at 9pm. I fell under the spell of the 'Kiefer Sutherland effect' during my final exams at the end of my second year at Uvic. I awoke in a daze, back in calgary, having done very poorly on many of my exams.

PS) the republicans and democrats have probably begun working on the campaigns for the next election. the party nominee process begins in 2 years. My hope for the next campaign: Obama vs. Shwartzennegger. Or Obama choosing shwartzenneger as his VP so they can run on the ticket: the Obamanator.

Don't let your guard down

Obama will be the next president of the United States. This is certain. Or at least I hope it is. But we cant simply forget the last 8 years, and more importantly, we cannot forget the last 50. Obama has already been called "the new Reagan" and if that's true, he is soon to be the most polarizing president in the history of the United States. The election was far from a landslide, a 3 percent difference. 3 million people. Half of the country down there doesn't want Obama to represent them. There will be tension, there will be horrible things said, racism will become a new issue in the forefront of our minds.

We also cannot forget that Obama is a religious man. He's a step away from the evangelical policies, true, but he is not a secular man. I hope he, being by far the most secular since... well since Clinton, we'll see some more progression in the school systems and text book authorities, but we must never let that thought leave our mind.

We must also not forget that he is an American president. He is not a representative of the world. He is going to fix his country first, most likely at the detriment of Canada's economy and welfare. Maybe even at the expense of Mexico. We may see a shift away from a strong united North America through free trade to a more globally minded trade system.

Regardless, be vigilant and never forget that yes, this is a significant day for change politics, but simply being a dynamic leader of a large government is not enough. All those people we hated with Bush are still in middle management, in the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, the school boards. New face, yes. New body, no. In the spirit of this blog, embrace and celebrate this man's journey, but do not let your guard down.

Liveblog of the Daily Show, Colbert Report... ELECTION NIGHT

12:11 - Man with a cockatoo comes on, it's beautiful wildlife with wicked amazing puns by colbert, and deadman insanity. Stewart plays straight man, colbert has a motherfucking bird on his shoulder

12:12 - Election talk! Colbert says Idaho is fucking Cuba. NY is Obama, incredibly surprising that is.

12:14 - Cockatoo still on colbert's shoulder. Jersey for Obama. Dorito Colbert is the greatest thing to ever happen.

12:15 - Wow, first commercial break, this show is amazing. The chemistry between Colbert and Stewart is so perfect I almost forgot for a second they had separate shows. This show makes Stewart's straight faced and stereotyping self deprecating humor seem like a circus act in comparison to his solo work; Colbert's jokes collide with Stewart's like fireworks.

12:20 - First Jason Jones segment, this guy is my favorite field reporter, he's really the anti-news anchor. Very smarmy but smart societal critiques. Woodland creatures are apprehensive. You'll see these images on the internet.

12:23 - John Oliver, my least favorite but most subversive field man is on his A-game, and is actually pretty funny. Worst french accent ever, no new ideas really but some good historical jokes that are actually pretty clever.

12:23a - Commercial! Phew, not as hilarious as first segment but still very clever. I thought they'd both run out of jokes when the bush administration wound down, but they still manage to keep the satire there, and have instead moved into (here ve go!) a Hegelian dialectic. They're now working in opposition towards each other to keep afloat, and can do this successfully with even generic politics. This is philosophically interesting but an interesting TV tactic. Kind of like Ren and Stimpy.

12:28 - Stewart is relaxed, cool as a cucumber. Some advisor guy. Predictably a Gore voter.

12:30 - Advisor is even funny!

12:32 - Commercial!

12:33 - I'm watching Obama's acceptance speach, and it's beautifully amazingly good. Jesse Jackson cries when he sees the results.

12:35 - Louisiana chose Mcain, because all the black people were killed by the Bush administration. Hey now!

12:36 - John Oliver segment, god he's a dick. Samantha B is the only funny female commedian.

12:38 - John Oliver is such a racially motivated comedian, which should be funny but it's counter to what he should be doing. Focusing on race should not be a core issue anymore, I wish there was some way to get rid of peoples vision for 18 months leading up to the election. Commercial right after that segment. Creepy "just for laughs" commercial.

12:44 - Colbert/Stewart banter is great here. Aasif mandvi is predictably funny as the whitest Indian man I've ever seen. He's like an Indian Chow. Sounds like Ron Burgundy. Colbert steals the show!

12:46 - commmmmerrrcial

12:51 - Barack and Michelle Obama's old harvard law professor is hilarious and honest, he said he thought michelle would be the candidate. Hilarious! As if America is ready for a black and female president!

1:33 - I started watching south park

Newton as God

The reason that religion was so useful as a mechanism of society, is that it homogenized society. Everyone believed in the same thing (that goodness was everywhere thanks to the grace of god), and therefore people were better off at relating to each other.

One day god died (or maybe he never existed) and religion was no longer able to homogenize the masses because many people viewed religion as not true. Welcome the world of science and the religion of the true. Newton's goal (Newton was the evilist man in the history of earth) was to create a universal system of communication that could be used by humans to make sense of the world. The typical aethiest, in the aftermath of finding out that god doesn't exist, turns and clings tightly to something else (scientific rationalism). But at no point does the Human question why they must cling to something at all. Scientific rationalism is always already a deeep faith for all of western thought... even for me. But it is nothing more than a faith that makes us modern western individuals.

There is no way to think outside of scientific rationalism. People that are capable of thinking outside scientific rationalism, are thrown in insane asylums because they can not objectify the world any longer. The only attempts to think outside the scientific rationalism that makes us human beings, is to tell ironical stories like mine yesterday. That is as close as possible without going insane (but what is insane?). Of course time exists, but at the same time, time doesn't exist.

However, people that need science to make sense of the world, are no different than religious people. They need a faith to cling to. Scientific rationalism emerged out of an era deeply indebted to christian thought. Newton's rules of objective truth are narratives that are fed to society... naratives of truth. But when will society learn to make sense of the world for themselves? when will the kid with the tonka truck take over?

Destroy your paintings

We as Canadians have a rich artistic history, but it is surprisingly antique, and depressingly shallow. The group of seven were Canada's answer to the fat republican party of today, they were old white men, born rich, with enough time on their hands to paint landscapes. Emily Carr was born wealthy, her parents sent her to Paris, London and San Francisco to study art, which at the time was a journey all combined of more than 3 years travelling. Her parents were ridin dirty on dubs, they were sipin on gin and juice, so to speak.

And now we're fucked. We've spent so long idolizing and enshrining these 20~ish rotating members of the group of seven and that Victorian matriarch Emily Carr, and here's the result: 4 degree granting art schools in a country of 30 million. Iceland has more. Only the continent of Africa has less, with 1 single art school in South Africa. We're told we're a cultured people with diverse art, but imagine what we're missing! There's a migration process to art. You score your undergrad degree at a pretty good school, make art for a year, get your masters, try to succeed, if not, teach. Sometimes people skip to teaching because they enjoy it, but it's rare.

That's all well and good. When you live in Toronto, when you live so close to New York, it's a small migration to the capital city of art. Better yet, when you're on the west side you've got Los Angeles, an emerging city that saw its peak in 60's and after. You've got San Francisco, Colorado, all these great schools to chose from. Canadian art is the undergraduate section, it's where you start, and then peace out to good old NY.

Almost no one stays in Canada to make their fortune. Glass ceilings suck.

Time does exist, the word is just misleading

First of all, tip of the hat and a "well said" badge to Mr. Self Destruct.


Time is decay. Time is literally the decay of atoms, the deceleration of light, and the breakdown of order. Time is chaos. Time does not have to be something we can travel through, it is simply a fact of life.

I would say that the word "time" needs to be separated from its fictional history. The only reason we can measure time to its most exact proportions is because of the decay of a Cesium atom in a laboratory, forming an atomic clock. Time is not real as a word, but time certainly exists as a function of the universe.

TIME

Time is a human word. A human idea. Yet succumbing to natural aging is inescapable. Unless you can stop the world from turning and the Earth from rotating around the sun, etc, we are all destined to grow a little older every second of every minute of everyday. 

If anyone wants to see death. Take a trip to your local hospital, befriend a fellow senior citizen in a hospice, or watch Al Jazeera. 

Death was around long before the idea of religion was ever muttered. 

What the sacred and the secular have in common: When we die, we like to think that the suffering of our existence is over. 

No one knows what happens after death, either than flesh rotting and being eaten by insects, and those who claim to know are liars. 

We are all dying right now. Take a look in the mirror. If you have just done this, then you were experiencing death. Your own death. 

Leaving a tombstone, or even a stick in the ground, or scattering ashes in a river, or even being put in a burning boat riding the waves of the ocean are all forms of benevolent gestures if these actions were performed by loved ones.

Sure religious people think of death as a ticket to an afterlife, but not all people are religious. 

Religious people are crazy.

There does not need to be a religious message attached to death. Sure the majority of people are religious, and yeah they have a religious stigma attached to death, but if they renounce their atheism at the end, then they were never really an atheist. 

Born and raised as an atheist, I conclude that religious people are crazy and the majority of the world is insane and unable to cope with reality so they make shit up. However, I think that the religious leaders of the world know that the whole 'God' thing is ridiculous, but that is another can of worms.

Death is natural and we and all other organic creatures are all dying. Think of it this way and suddenly death is now seen in all aspects of life. 

Spread the word brother, and teach your children the objective truth. WE KNOW NOTHING EXCEPT THAT DEATH IS INEVITABLE AND ALWAYS NEAR!!!

Assumptions involved in the word Death

Obviously our ideas on death are influenced by our western metaphysical gaze. Let us look deeper into the issue, and analyze the assumptions that this group of whities is making when we talk about death

assumptions: time, life, beginnings and ends, somethingness to nothingness.

Lets try and think our way outside of death, by thinking our way outside of time. According to my physicist friend Mann, it is a scientific fact that time does not exist. Rather, it is a construct of the human mind that helps explain the world (why humans need to explain the world is beyond me). The human being has senses, and they use these senses to bring the outside world into their mind. The mind is the only playing field the human can operate with (the computer screen you are looking at exists only in your mind; nobody has access to the computer screen "in itself"). The outside universe is an eternal existing realm that has been around forever (the big bang is just a conspiracy theory). The universe has always been and will always be; the earth is only a hot piece of molten rock that somehow formed in the universe.

Lets take the optimistic young kid that believes that he will never die. Rather, he becomes like the universe (eternal and always having been). He abandons notions of time and decides to sit and play tonka trunks, in that moment, for eternity. That moment never ends. He plays with tonka trunks forever; continously dumping gravel to bring pleasure to imaginary school yard playgrounds. Unfortunately for the kid, the tonka truck becomes boring, and he eventually gets his mom to make him a grilled cheese. He had eternity in his hand, and he abandoned it for mere melted cheese! I curse time and its seductive partner: the grilling of cheese.