I seem to be more attractive in a state of complete detachment. As I brisk walk down the street plugged in to my mp3 player I am completely immersed in the Swedish lessons I am listening to. I am listening very carefully and repeating the language they are introducing me to. I barely take a few quick moments to direct my attention out into the world to make sure I know where I am going, or to keep half an eye out for the street down which I should turn. I pass hundreds of people and barely notice their reactions. Perhaps they find it amusing or confusing that someone is speaking clear simple sentences in some foreign language with a tone as if they are speaking to an idiot. But the day is hot and I am wearing only a pair of shorts, no shoes or shirt. My body is exposed to the weather and the world. A young woman whose beauty deserves more than the attention I give her is trying to elicit donations for the Red Cross. When she approaches me I assume she will ask me for money, but she asks me if I am going to the beach and then admits that she would love to come with me. I invite her silently with my hand as I brisk walk away and we both smile and we both know that she's not going to come with me. Again I am completely immersed in the world of abstract Swedish language until I am stopped again by a couple of guys who tell me they are making a video for a Christmas party and they need me to perform for it. I give them two minutes of attention and enthusiasm, receive their brief thanks, and continue walking at the same pace as before. I finish the "tape" and begin the same lesson again. I am profoundly excited at how fast it is possible to learn a new language.
I am a part of this capitalist world but not so identified with its seriousness. I am a hypocrite for criticising it with such moral superiority and then desiring its objects. I desire its food and literary objects. I am not one who is pathetic enough to be defined by my low economic status. The fact that I have very little money and currently have no income whatsoever does not mean that I have to buy house brand noodles and white bread for nutritional support. I desire these superfoods like chia seeds, goji berries, unhulled tahini and New Zealand manuka honey. I don't see why I would muck around with anything else simply because it is cheap. There are ways of shopping, of course, that many people are not aware of. There are now cloth bags which are reused and increasingly common. One can simply shop with one of these green cloth bags, putting all their items into the bag with the most expensive items on the bottom. When one reaches the checkout one simply digs as deeply into the bag as finances allow. Sometimes only the cheapest two items are scanned through the checkout and the rest simply remain in the bag. Life is more simple than people are telling us. Of course I would never do this because it is against the law and I face the prospect of an awkward confrontation; and it is morally evil to enjoy the pleasures of the Earth's nutritious plants without financially supporting multinational corporations.
Whatever the city, I can behave in as unusual a manner as I like, and it is only my shame or self-consciousness that will attract negative attention. If I perform my strangenesses with complete self-confidence I will radiate an attraction that will draw all sorts of beauty into my life.
The city is a place where we live so violently close to one another that at any moment we can create the experience we want and need by finding precisely the right person to share this experience with. Perhaps this is the real deep-seated reason for the modern tendency towards urbanity. The world is speeding up, time and space are expanding and we all need to contribute to the exponential increase in novelty in human society. This tendency we are all manifesting will lead to a collective catharsis because as a universe we need an eschaton in order to be reborn. Together we will create the global experience we need to experience. In exactly the same way that individuals carefully subconsciously select each other because we know the experience we need, so the collective mind of all life is bringing about the experience we all need to share in order to destroy the veil of separation and bring us back to our god.
This brings me to my favourite Australian city, which only exists for two weeks per year; one week over Easter and one week over New Year. I don't see Confest as a festival so much as a city. A festival is a temporary distraction from life, an amusement or an entertainment. Confest, however, can be seen as bringing you intensely into the reality of your life in a deeper and more immediate manner than is usually experienced. As an "alternative" event, Confest is not an alternative to society at all. Confest is a city, Confest is what a city can and should be, Confest is practice for what the cities will become, once we have achieved the catharsis that will bring about the manifestation of our joy. The intensity and delight of this world is available now for those who want it and for those who somehow know that in the years to come they will be ready for the inevitable.
A New Heaven and a New Earth have been promised to us and the city is making it happen. Thank you, Sydney.
2010-12-08
A New Heaven and a New Earth in Sydney
Abstract connections:
attraction,
capitalism,
city life,
collective unconscious,
Confest,
detachment,
God,
illegal behaviour,
Immanentize the Eschaton,
manifestation,
revelation,
Swedish,
Sydney,
theft
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