Philosophy without the Woo-Woo.... Red Lenses.

I see red
And it hurts my head
Guess it must be something
That I read

It's the color of your heartbeat
A rising summer sun
The battle lost or won
The flash to fashion
And the pulse to passion
Feels red
Inside my head
And truth is often bitter
Left unsaid
Said red, red
Thinking about the overhead
The underfed

Couldn't we talk about something else instead?

We've got mars on the horizon
Says the national midnight star
(It's true)
What you believe is what you are
A pair of dancing shoes
The soviets are the blues
The reds
Under your bed
Lying in the darkness
Dead ahead

And the mercury is rising
Barometer starts to fall
You know it gets to us all
The pain that is learning
And the rain that is burning
Feel red
Still...go ahead
You see black and white
And I see red Red
(Not blue)

Welcome to my world, folks. I welcome you to the murky inside of what makes me, well...fabulous.

Above is merely one example of an influence that has been in my life for...oh....36 years.

Not all songs are vapid or self involved.

But, is the above a philosophy? To me, yes... it is. It is the pearly distillate of truth. It is not clear cut. It requires that thought be applied. It requires internalization. Self examination, and reflection. And most importantly, it takes honesty.

Am I serious about this? More serious than a heart attack.

Now, I know... I know. Already, there are twitching fingers dying to say "But...it's THAT band....they're lame!"

I really don't care. I only hope you have something that helps you...guides you....forces you to engage in introspection.


I was having a fairly bad day. I lied to friends and made an excuse for not going out. On the way home....this song came on. As soon as I'd heard the opening notes...I felt sincere joy.



So I just thought I'd share.

I thought you would be quoting Neitzsche...

Another example.

To live between a rock and a hard place
In between time
Cruising in prime time
Soaking up the cathode rays

To live between the wars in our time
Living in real time
Holding the good time
Holding on to yesterdays

You know how that rabbit feels
Going under your speeding wheels
Bright images flashing by
Like windshields towards a fly
Frozen in the fatal climb
But the wheels of time
Just pass you by
Wheels can take you around
Wheels can cut you down
We can go from boom to bust
From dreams to a bowl of dust
We can fall from rockets' red glare
Down to "Brother can you spare..."
Another war
Another wasteland
And another lost generation

It slips between your hands like water
This living in real time
A dizzying lifetime
Reeling by on celluloid

Struck between the eyes
By the big-time world
Walking uneasy streets
Hiding beneath the sheets
Got to try and fill the void

You know how that rabbit feels
Going under your speeding wheels
Bright images flashing by
Like windshields towards a fly
Frozen in the fatal climb
But the wheels of time
Just pass you by
Wheels can take you around
Wheels can cut you down
We can go from boom to bust
From dreams to a bowl of dust
We can fall from rockets' red glare
Down to "Brother can you spare..."
Another war
Another wasteland
And another lost generation

originally posted by: cavtrooper7
I thought you would be quoting Neitzsche...

I prefer Gibran, Freud, and Jung....

“For what is it to die, But to stand in the sun and melt into the wind?” - Kahlil Gibran

"Synchronicity is an everpresent realtiy for those who have eyes to see it." - Carl Jung

"This transmissibility of taboo is a reflection of the tendency, on which we have already remarked, for the unconscious instinct in the neurosis to shift constantly along associative paths on to new objects." - Sigmund Freud


However, were it not for Peart.....

I never would have been compelled to read the words of these men.

a reply to: nullafides

Speaking as one who toured watstelands I am mostly just pissed.
I understand them of course but I'd say I guess Kipling's work would reflect the sentiment,but not the overall betrayal of the oligarchs.
I confront therefore my breath MAY continue...I'm working on the rest...

Now, this one has been in my head lately. You know, when you wake up...and there's a song in your head already?

All this time we're talking and sharing our rational view
A billion other voices are spreading other news
All this time we're living and trying to understand
Why a billion other choices are making their demands

Talk of a Peaceable Kingdom
Talk of a time without fear
The ones we wish would listen
Are never going to hear

Justice against The Hanged Man
Knight of Wands against the hour
Swords against the kingdom
Time against The Tower

All this time we're shuffling and laying out all our cards
While a billion other dealers are slipping past our guards
All this time we're hoping and praying we all might learn
While a billion other teachers are teaching them how to burn

Dream of a Peaceable Kingdom
Dream of a time without war
The ones we wish would hear us
Have heard it all before

A wave toward the clearing sky
A wave toward the clearing sky

The Hermit against The Lovers
Or the Devil against the Fool
Swords against the kingdom
The Wheel against the rules

All this time we're burning like bonfires in the dark
A billion other blazes are shooting off their sparks
Every spark a drifting ember of desire
To fall upon the earth and spark another fire

A homeward angel on the fly
A wave toward the clearing sky

A homeward angel on the fly
A wave toward the clearing sky
A wave toward the clearing sky

All this time we're burning like bonfires in the dark
A billion other blazes are shooting off their sparks
Every spark a drifting ember of desire
To fall upon the earth and spark another fire

That stanza....it sends my mind into a myriad of directions. And each and every one of them...is sumptuously beautiful...

Respond...Vibrate...Feedback...and Resonate....


I don't expect many to understand. If any at all.

I find the beauty in the connections. Like a resplendently astral needle.....looping through the collective soup we call reality...threading it's way through....

I'm really not at all surprised that nobody is reading this.

To be honest, I don't really care.

This is an exercise in reflection for me.

I know! I've got it!

Much like Pavlov, I'll ring the bell...

And that bell is.... RACISM!


Come to me, dogs... it's time to salivate.

originally posted by: nullafides

originally posted by: cavtrooper7
I thought you would be quoting Neitzsche...

I prefer Gibran, Freud, and Jung....

“For what is it to die, But to stand in the sun and melt into the wind?” - Kahlil Gibran

"Synchronicity is an everpresent realtiy for those who have eyes to see it." - Carl Jung

"This transmissibility of taboo is a reflection of the tendency, on which we have already remarked, for the unconscious instinct in the neurosis to shift constantly along associative paths on to new objects." - Sigmund Freud


However, were it not for Peart.....

I never would have been compelled to read the words of these men.

The first quote I call living... as that breeze it what makes that melting heat worth being where ever one is. Optimist vs. pessimist in the moment it is arising towards creation or destruction I suppose... one says heaven is right there in that breeze, and the other says death is required.

Synchronization disregards relativity, when one needs time set a watch with a glance otherwise it's an immaterial construct to make use of material via some work based on a schedule.

Freud was more anally fixed than canines, and wished all womens teats were his mothers. So the underlying desire he had was pampering and not wanting to work... rebirth handles such matters when one is so narcissistic it turns into nihilism or denialism

Take ones pick when it comes to life and it wraps right back around in a tidy system one could set a watch to time and time again.

Living life as it arises and passes is much more simple than constantly questioning it... when the mood blows winds of change one door slams shut from the atmospheric pressure while another one opens.

So hey go with the flow and the bobbing and weaving becomes natural as we sew our own clothes in time.

a reply to: nullafides

The band is known for complex compositions and lyrics with a sci-fi, philosophical tone. Who are you calling lame?

But if the end of the world gives you joy, at least you're right on ATS.

originally posted by: Peeple
a reply to: nullafides

The band is known for complex compositions and lyrics with a sci-fi, philosophical tone. Who are you calling lame?

But if the end of the world gives you joy, at least you're right on ATS.

I'm not calling anyone lame. I'm saying that I know what alot of people would typically say. Most are only interested in the superficial.


Personally speaking, were it not for the insights gained, I would not be the person I am today without their rather significant influence.

The times I've seen them live....are the only times that I would say for me that I was in church. Where I felt a communion with something higher...something greater.

Truth.

a reply to: nullafides

I wonder what people at a Justin Bieber concert feel?

a reply to: Peeple

I really don't care.....as I would not have the same reaction.

If his work helps them...well, I guess that it has merit.



I am not about to say anyone is wrong. That would be rather naive on my part. Where I see Bieber's music as shallow, superficial....lord knows, it is possibly a lifeline for someone out there. They do not need my validation of a positive influence in their life. Just as much as my personal dislike of the work is my own perception, my own evaluation.


Art.....music, writing, painting....anything artistic... only has a palpable worth in the reality of the person who is positively influenced by the art. It is subjective, and highly personal.

a reply to: nullafides

Just compared my two happy songs the one is Firewater Sonido Amazonico here without lyrics.
Or We were evergreen Baby Blue
either is philosophical and I can't say I ever learned something philosophical from art. To me it's a mirror of zeitgeist. Art should be emotional, not super intelligent, but describing the overall feeling of their time and people.

But I got my standpoints from various weird places, so whatever works, right? Which makes me wonder about life and what tiny things can result in which big changes... coincidence Or fate? The corner question of all woo.
That moment when you feel you're connected with everybody in the room, is this then telepathy, or the root of the idea? Also pretty woo.
What inspires you? In german it's even better, inspiriert. Where the spirit comes in. Also woo.

Philosophy is full of woo, life is full of woo, art is full of woo...

a reply to: nullafides

So superficial that millions of young females were cutting themselves to add some depth to it. I've never analyzed any of the lyrics written for the fellow to sing but digging into what part of the human psyche of programming would certainly be worth while to study.

Stereotypes don't form out of thin air, they come in wave forms not necessarily .wav format either.

Of course those prone to such programming become the very status quo that is said to keep society in a predictable balance or be molded into whatever direction in which it flows.

I suppose I have a blind spot for such things; having never felt urges to be something or do something solely from peer influences. Either I tried it out of curiosity and if I liked it a choice was made to continue in whatever practice or just not interested, whether anyone else found it intriguing or liked it played no part in my decision of liking or disliking.

So the herd/group mentality is something I chose to study for quite some time, and the result is such often see themselves as a conglomerate with only an identity formed by labels and can only feel emotionally stable due to ones group or peers that is how they soothe instead of being personally responsible and self soothing and well independent of any group for emotional stability for a life balance to occur.

Of course there is a danger of such individuals not feeling a part of the herd; or alien to it. Socio or psycho pathology can result as forms of coping mechanisms. But seeing the cycle of dependence we all have regardless of station in life, the 1000s that made a pizza possible over the years and the millions that continue to make it possible whether self or other made is something to be respected, and in the same way no matter all the ideological attachments beliefs etc that groups use as individual justification for such behaviors as the ideologies or banners are molded to their individual self anyway the ego blind cant see this and will defend an ideology or banner to the death even if who they are does not fit the banner or ideology in some held cognitive dissonance that they do... but seeing such desire and sense of longing to be happy as the root one can empathize with those lost in sense of purpose and trying to find it out there somewhere instead of through self determination and education to support what they already have natural inclinations for.

But of course, the systems in place seem to require workers and drones of all types to trod away on projects, of course if one chooses something they enjoy then that really doesn't matter... stuck in whatever just because it pays for the responsibility that one has created whether they were responsible in it's creation it or not? Can be a huge divide between a populous of happy and unhappy, and of course those unhappy want to spread their dissatisfaction as enthusiastically as those in awe of a new discovery that excites and makes them happy.

There is a way out of such cycles and society has been trying to accomplish it for a very long time called equality, and well some ideologies think if everyone was blank, blank or blank then society would hum along under one banner... well no sh-t it can when the singular banner chosen is simply that called humanity. That of course takes acceptance of those not oneself or under ones chosen banners, groups or lines of demarcation drawn against anything not those or accepting of those...

Might sound simple, and it really is but people not accepting people makes humanity very complex and a constant issue where change for a better future of the entire world is involved.

Does drowning in the words of like minded people, in a pool of negativism, really achieve anything for you, apart from acknowledging your own belief system against others. Its negativism that empowers evil. Far better to mount our horses with swords to live one day of moral happiness than an eternity in hell.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul

a reply to: Peeple

I am not going to say your idea is wrong. What I am going to say is that your perception and digestion of the title I gave this thread was incorrect.

Philosophy at best, is of course, conjecture. However, as this forum links philosophy with "metaphysics".... I was looking to divest the metaphysics from my chosen topic and instead focus on the thought and the conjecture.

Now.... art should be emotional, not super intelligent? Sorry, but I thoroughly disagree.

Art and beauty are nebulous. They are both the result of the chemical reaction that occurs within the nether reaches of ether between the observer and that which is observed. It is really not unlike the spooky point of intersection between Heisenberg's principle of uncertainty and the heart sutra of buddhism. The impact of the observed upon the observer is one of synergy. It is the combination of all that goes into both which results in far, far more than that given sum. You will not have the same observation, the same reaction, as anyone else. It is ephemeral and non-existent to all others, but quite real and present to those involved parties.

Quite often, I find myself sitting back in awe of the code I've just written. Taken with it's beauty and elegance. Whether anyone else would see it as undecipherable words on a screen, or find something similar to that which I find within it, is entirely circumstantial. I can say the same thing with regards to a beautiful woman. Or a painting done in the form of pointillism. Or poetry. Or my eight year old daughter's drawings in crayon.

Also, if I am reading you correctly, it appears you are saying that the sense of communion I regarded was some sort of connection to other people.

If that is the case, then no....you are unfortunately wrong.

The connection I felt, the communion, was with something much higher than any human being. It was clear cut and precise. And it was magical..... supernaturally so....most importantly...to me.

a reply to: BigBrotherDarkness

You really seem to be hell bent on opposing what I have to say rather than accepting that to me, it is true.

That I am saying, if you've read what I am saying, that this is unique to every thing. That no two will perceive something the same way.

This is precisely why I chose to deliberately not respond to your earlier comment.

a reply to: glend

I do not agree that such things as good and evil, positive and negative exist.

There is only action, and consequence.

You choose to see that which I've quoted as being "negative".

To me, it is the truth. I find truth to be "beautiful".

I would gladly take the ugly, the negative, the evil...any day.....if it is truth.


In my world, my reality.... quite separate from yours, I value truth. That which can be relied and depended upon.

There is nothing more positive, beautiful, and good than that, in my world at least.


To shed light on this.... I wrote the following years ago.


flakes of metal and slivers of human flesh
the stuff of stars we all are, as it has been said
it’s the way the two twine, and mesh

as though through some inner lattice
a rose trellis to some, rising up from their beds
upwards and onwards from the brackish end

pure chance, happenstance, possibly even a glance
was what occurred to cause the cacophonous creation within our heads
the beauty isn’t in the rose, but in the circumstance

I don't have an explanation
For another lonely night
I just feel this sense of mission
And the sense of what is right

Take it easy on me now
I'd be there if I could
I'm so full of what is right
I can't see what is good

It's a hopeless situation
Lie awake for half the night
You're not sure what's going on here
But you're sure it isn't right

Make it easy on yourself
There's nothing more you can do
You're so full of what is right
You can't see what is true

A quality of justice
A quantity of light
A particle of mercy
Makes the color of right

Gravity and distance
Change the passage of light
Gravity and distance
Change the color of right

Folks....

Nobody is wrong, and nobody is right.

Nor are these things universal.

Even my vaulted "truth", is based on perspective, time and distance.