...Industrial Society and Its Future

My disdain for the social circumstances of the present were stoked today after reading through Theodore Kaczynski's Manifesto. Here is a quotation from the section entitled 'Surrogate Activities', which seems to me a remarkably apt appraisal of a cruel social phenomena that I had lightly touched upon in several of my unpublished posts. The desire (nay need) for purpose and the fabrication of goals as a sort of psychological security blanket. Enjoy:

41. For many if not most people, surrogate activities are less satisfying than the pursuit of real goals (that is, goals that people would want to attain even if their need for the power process were already fulfilled). One indication of this is the fact that, in many or most cases, people who are deeply involved in surrogate activities are never satisfied, never at rest. Thus the money-maker constantly strives for more and more wealth. The scientist no sooner solves one problem than he moves on to the next. The long-distance runner drives himself to run always farther and faster. Many people who pursue surrogate activities will say that they get far more fulfillment from these activities than they do from the "mundane" business of satisfying their biological needs, but that it is because in our society the effort needed to satisfy the biological needs has been reduced to triviality. More importantly, in our society people do not satisfy their biological needs autonomously but by functioning as parts of an immense social machine. In contrast, people generally have a great deal of autonomy in pursuing their surrogate activities.

I strongly encourage you to read this text in its entirety. It is my belief that this whistle blower is one of the most admirable personalities of our age. While I cannot condone the use of violent force as a catalyst for awareness or vehicle of revenge; Theodore Kaczynski is a hero of so-called 'modern' thought. It is my personal belief that his insight into the schizophrenia of industrialized peoples is on par with Martin Heidegger's Question Concerning Technology, and could be taken as a less academic expatiation on those principles.

...the weekend madness (installment 10)

Firstly, let me apologize for not keeping my promise of new posts every day. My "job" is slowly getting work and my time has luckily become more filled out with responsibility and purpose, which is good for me, at least, if not for this blog.

I've had a lot on my mind recently and spent much of this past weekend riding around trying to forget my worldly troubles, when in hindsight, I probably would've been better off going for a long ride out of the city somewhere to clear my head.

Friday night i met up with some friends at Coco66 for beer and pool. Here's a spy photo of yours truly sharking the competition (like famous people, vampires, and the Met, I have an aversion to flash photography):


Saturday rained on my plans to go cycling in the morning, so once it cleared up a bit I decided to ride around in Cobble Hill and Brooklyn heights before meandering to Bushwick to look at an apartment I'm probably not going to rent.

Here's downtown Brooklyn on that overcast day:


I really like to just lazily pedal around these neighborhoods, fantasizing that one day I may make enough money to afford even a closet in one of these magnificently overdone buildings that are so common around here:


I always thought you could tell the general level of wealth in Brooklyn neighborhoods by the density and lushness of the trees lining the blocks.


For some reason, vehicles always look better when photographed on moist pavement with cloudy skies. The blues are supposed to be indicative of my mood at that moment, but since many vehicles have expressive headlight-grille styling, these two appeared as though they were having a friendly chat as they waited which struck me as a charming way to suffer dour weather. I could've really used someone to chat with right about then...


Then I rode around some more and after checking out the apartment, I happened upon this (someone told me it's an art-supply shop) place in the no-man's-land betwixt Bushwick and Williamsburg. Nice Murals:




It always brings a gentle smile to my face when I happen upon works of art for public enjoyment such as this. I wish more of the dilapidated structures in this city would just allow graffiti or commission a mural from a local artist.

Then I cut through the heart of hipsterville to check out my friends' loft they've been busy building out, filling the space with a real beast of architecture. I lent a hand cutting a few pieces of wood here and there, but otherwise I think I was more in the way than helpful. To preserve their anonnymity (at least for now), I took a couple of ambiguous snapshots of some of the spaces within it:




I can hardly wait until its completed and inhabited by them; Its going to be really a special thing and a place where even more drunken debauchery and poor decision making can take place than already does...


Sunday I watched a rerun of the Tour of Switzerland and a Masters Golf tournament at another friend's place before retreating back to my own apartment to watch Vexille; which I assumed was going to be either retarded, uninteresting, or both. To my surprise, it was neither and was rather entertaining in a Children of Men X Gundam sort of way. Worth checking out....