Psychopathic thoughts are a fact of living but when people actively motivate their body/mind/spirit connection to purposefully do great harm to others, the only logical response is to morn the death of those trapped by someone's sick actions. The pain is layered and deep. It sends me spiraling into thoughts about what makes people tic and feeling my artist mind begin synthesizing. Part of my artist credo is to delve into what motivates people. What sparks spontaneously communication (spoken/unspoken) and how perception is applied to human nature. Kind of like the cartoon character - Homer Simpson - where he looks at his body in the mirror seeing himself with good muscle definition unlike his authentic slothfulness. Self perception is the determining factor between someone who builds and someone who destroys, both emulate the power of self confidence. Some people are more susceptible to mass-manipulation because the rapid-fire decision-making role of an alert mind also requires self-doubt. Much like the well loved "golden rule" we gain commonality by having humility, by having respect for one another and by imagining that we could have the wrong impression of another person or situation. To give others the benefit of doubt just like you would want for yourself. A well-rounded mind has aggressive thoughts frequently but vetoes subsequent fatal actions. I have no answers about the diverse forces of global life colliding violently since it is happening in front of our very eyes, I wish I did.
Summer 2016 is starting to feel more like being in the 1998 fantasy movie "The Truman Show" directed by Peter Weir and starring Jim Carrey where the reality for one un-ironic man is a fabricated movie set. Network TV has story-boarded his life. Isn't that supreme manipulation? A life that is not your own. The TV teams are making a nice chunk of change using the main character as ratings and entertainment proxy, much like a pet. The un-reflected main character sees a small flaw to his perfect world and spontaneously discovers a whole new world beyond his imagination or in movie-land-speak "he finds out the truth." I forget how the movie actually ends... but in 2016 we need a happy ending.
There are many reasons we are in this ponderousness political pickle brine. I am practicing emotional detachment. There is too much punditry to go around from idol worship to selective amnesia to opting-out entirely. Perhaps that is how humans survive, after all we do live in "distraction-glut" intersections. A teacher once said to me "make sure you don't use your shortcomings as a crutch." As a kid I took that to mean "bad news! my shortcomings are showing" but over time it changed into "challenging my perception of self". Removing blinders, expanding our knowledge base, accepting other points of view as valid and participating in democracy practices are the tools we use to provoke social change, it pretty much is the only one we have right now. One thing is certain, the 24/7 News-cycle is committed to their shady distortions, willful manipulations and using the greatest propaganda devise ever invented: if a story is repeated long enough it becomes true. It is hard to know what to believe but since I only believe in art, here's a little story.
I have said it before and I will say it again, WE NEED NEW STORIES, but today I am reminded of an old one. "The Adventures of Pinocchio" by Italian author Carlo Collodi written in 1883. Where a wooden puppet wants to become a true boy but is both gullible and cruel. He finally becomes a true boy after helping someone who was suffering more then himself. The morality tale is long and winding encounters with a talking cricket, a woodpecker, a criminal fox and cat team, an albino blackbird, a fairy with turquoise hair, an owl, a falcon, a gorilla who is a judge in a court of law, a poodle who becomes a stagecoach driver, a serpent, 4 undertaker rabbits, glowworms, a pigeon, a dolphin, a snail, an island called "Busy", a dormouse, a place called Toyland, chicken-stealing weasels, 2 donkeys, a green fisherman, a father and puppet eating dogfish, a ringmaster, the ghost of the talking cricket, a tuna fish as large as a two year-old horse, a ladybug and finally a goat with turquoise hair who is really a fairy in disguise. We all know the tale of Pinocchio as the puppet whose nose grew every time he lied but that is a gross over-simplifying or just direct Disney-fication. The story is a wild journey that becomes more nuanced and fanciful as it unfolds. In today's clickbait culture I am sure the headline would read "Pinocchio Almost Died Before Surviving".