On Violence And Lust - A Short Note On Election Day

Transcript

This morning I downloaded and logged into Instagram

Something I haven't done in a month or two

I mostly got off of the platform because I don't really think it's doing good things for humanity

The problem is so many people use it

Their communication and time is used up on it

And many people have a picture of their reality from it

And so to not participate is somehow to not exist as a creative person

This is something I've been ruminating on for years

But this is just such a short note because what I saw on there this morning, after I made a post about possibly selling some prints to support my schooling, was the two of the most extreme directions that humanity participates in, which are death and birth

Death and birth

And I saw them in extremely gross expressions

I saw an explosion on a roadway

I saw a giant fireball engulfing cars in a place that I have no idea if I've ever been to or will ever go to or know any of the people or even if it's real

Because it very well and even likely could have been something that an application generated

I don't even like to use the word, but artificial intelligence

It was probably that

It probably wasn't even real

Another thing I saw was a video of someone getting slapped so hard that they passed out

But it wasn't only that

It was an AI-generated image that showed his face collapsing in an unbelievable way

But it wasn't real

But if someone's just scrolling and they're not paying attention and they see these things, they think, oh, this is real

That just happened

Something I thought could never happen just happened in front of my very eyes

And so that's death

That's actually the death of the human spirit

That is complete collapse and destructiveness

Basically to be creating fear through falsehood

And then on the other side, I saw a picture of a woman in a dress

Could have been AI

I don't know

I don't know the context

I didn't click on the image

But she was standing in a shimmery dress

And so these images..

I guess I should add that the dress was very tight-fitting

So basically what I saw was extreme violence and pornography

That's what is being shown in the algorithmic feed on Instagram that people in general are just being subjected to

So what do we do with that? Well, I reported every single post that I saw

It's not going to change anything

It's not going to do anything

But it made me feel better to at least do something

In fact, it might make it worse

It only took me about five seconds to do these things

But I think it was worth it

The point of this, though, isn't to blame the Instagram platform and the creators for being evil, even though they are

Even though the platform is destructive and horrific and terrible and useless

It's also useful and creative and profound and abundant

The fact is, everything in the world ends up being related to these things

To skate along on the surface and believe that these experiences won't touch us is impossible

But by interacting with the world through a screen, it seems like we can have some distance from the realities

And we can just entertain ourselves by watching them instead of engaging with our lives

And I think that this is extremely dangerous, and actually more dangerous than being shown violence

I think what's more dangerous is complacency and lack of connection and engagement with life, which is what these platforms really want

They want you to just feel fear, feel lust, and then not do anything about it

Just to consume more fear and more lust

That's the goal

But there's something profound beneath all of this, which is that the reality of fear and desire is inescapable in life

But the fact is, we have to be in control of our fears and desires

And it doesn't matter what the world shows us or serves us, what the algorithm displays, if we can't keep a center, there's no hope

Right now, it's election day, and the political stratum is basically birth and death

Not a positive form of birth and death, but the most deranged forms

Is one better than another? I don't know

It's all part of a cycle

The cycle doesn't want to end

So, we have to be the end

I don't really know what that means, but I'm going to keep engaging with my internal world, with my internal work

Staying true to what I know is important and what matters

I'm going to keep focusing on what is beautiful, and what seems powerful to me

And I won't let my center be swayed by violence and lust

Thank you for listening.