Archive for November, 2008
An exercise in introspection
Saturday, November 22nd, 2008 | Words | 2 Comments
When I was young, I wanted to be an explorer. I’m not sure exactly what I wanted to explore, but give me a break – I was nine. Sixteen years later and I’m not an explorer. And I feel a little emptier because of it.
I believe that most everyone shares this same feeling of remorse and regret for the paths they never explored. I wanted to remind them of a more whimsical point in their pasts. I wanted to help them recall that there was a time when they weren’t worried about restrictions. At some point, we all had a beautiful dream about our ideal life – we just weren’t so sure how to live it.
A couple years ago, I sent an email to about 75 people. Some were close friends, some were acquaintances, and some were people that I had lost contact with. My request was simple: “Tell me about your ideal life.” I told them to forget about restrictions and all the things holding them back. I just wanted to know what they would do if they could do anything.
A few days later, a third of them had responded, all with wildly different answers. This was the start of what I called “an exercise in introspection”.
I waited before responding. I knew what would happen if I waited, and it did happen: people started thinking. Most of us have these preconceived notions of what they want their lives to end up being, but these notions are manufactured. We have these pre-packaged responses ready for when the question gets asked, and we never give it any other thought.
What happened as a result of this exercise was that many people sent me revisions to their original responses. Their dreams were a little clearer, a little more in-depth the second time around. I discarded many of the initial emails.
The best responses I got were from people who struggled with the question. Some of the respondents told me that the question literally enveloped their lives for a solid week: they went to bed thinking about it, and woke up thinking about it. Some people were even angry that I had the gall to pose such an unthinkable query! I had struck a chord that many people forgot was even there.
Take a look at some of the responses:
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Meg
Be a mom; own an independent fashion store on Robson in Vancouver called “Cute As A Button”; become a proponent of the “Complaint-Free World” movement.
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Michael
I want to live on the road playing music… play for gas money and beer and see the world in a van… Later in life I want to move up to a tour bus but have a nice home in California… a beautiful wife and 3 kids…
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Chris
hmm… I’d like to write. Books. Take lengthy sabbaticals to write best-selling works of fact or fiction, blaze my way up the NYT best sellers and be remembered forever.
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Jen
Cake decorator; operate my very own bakery; move to a beach eventually and make enough to pay the bills and live happy, carefree.
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Bill
I love to entertain… getting a laugh or a smile out of someone, especially someone I have absolutely nothing in common with… comedy is boring and way too easy for me… I like the challenge of having to use manipulation with entertainment… Effective use of diction paired with the right art direction can emulate the human power of attraction; inspire envy, confuse logic, and create brand loyalty… I see advertising as the perfect field for my set of skills… Copy-writing is simply word choice and melody…
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Sarah
I have no idea what I want long term in this life… all I know is [I want to be] rich on my own merit… I want to explore… I want to go ATVing through jungles, see the Great Wall of China, scuba in coral reefs… I’ve finally realized I like to work… As for career… probably something in advertising or sales, ‘cuz I like this stuff… even going to Australia for school…
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Initially, I didn’t tell any of these people why I wanted to know about their ideal lives. A few days went by after I had received the bulk of the responses. People began writing me again, asking what I planned on doing with their innermost dreams.
I waited until the questions and the interest died down a little. Some had forgotten about it. Around a week later, I sent out my email.
I wasn’t exactly sure what to say at first, but it all came to me as I typed out each person’s response for everyone else to see. I shared 25 peoples’ dreams with the original 75. With it came the insight that I shared with them. I wrote and wrote and wrote:
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I’ve noticed a pattern in my own life. When I was younger, I wanted to be a lot of things: lawyer, psychologist, archaeologist, actor, comedian, motivational speaker, teacher, author… As I aged, I felt forced into a tinier and progressively more narrow space, until I was seemingly left with only one choice, one direction, one future…
The purpose of this exercise is reminding ourselves about what we love to do. The purpose of this exercise is to remove ourselves from this daily grind we’ve become set into to take a fresh look at how our lives have turned out…
Your ideal life won’t be achieved by new programs with your old vision. Your ideal life will be achieved with a brand new vision…
Question others. Keep this email or print it out. Use it as a guide to compare where these people want to be, and where they are. Bug them; encourage them; annoy them; force them. Whip it out at a 10 year reunion and ask some questions. Strike up a conversation with these people now…
If you have struggled with this exercise;
If you have really deeply considered my question;
If you have become frustrated, angry and skeptical;
Then it was a success.
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The response was exciting. People were interested in what I was doing for a large variety of reasons, too many to get into here. Suffice it to say I considered this exercise in introspection a huge success.
You come into this mix by starting an exercise of your own. These exercises, on their most foundational level, begin on the premise that everything needs to be questioned. Find something that needs to be questioned (you won’t have to look far) and incite others to question it. Email has worked for me so far, but I’m not going to limit myself to it, and nor should you. All I’m really doing is finding a way to convey a message to people.
The important thing is the message. Find a message that’s close to your heart and spread it. To one person, to a dozen, to a thousand – it doesn’t matter. If the message is true and profound, it will spread like wildfire. And remember, you’re not changing the course of history; you’re just affecting people. This isn’t a massive undertaking. It can be done.
Augustus wrote: “The human spirit has two children: anger and courage. Anger at the way things are, and the courage to change them.”
Profile: Phil Belalcazar
Saturday, November 22nd, 2008 | Words | No Comments
He fits the mold of a rocker perfectly: the Ramones t-shirt, the tattered jeans, the ragged sneakers, the black shaggy hair hidden beneath a hat adorned with a few pins, including one that snarls “Fuck Off.” But if one can get past the stereotypes, they find an extremely dedicated musician with a slew of natural talents and a personality split between “wild rocker” and “unassuming guy at the back of the class.” He’s the Clark Kent of Laurier Brantford, the Superman of the rock scene. He’s 22-year old Felipe “Phil” Belalcazar.
His father is a pilot, an occupation that led the Colombia-based family to move often. Once settling in the mid-western United States, the family was quickly uprooted by the tragedies of September 11th. The commercial airline industry was hit particularly hard by those events and as a result, many pilots lost their jobs. The first to be relieved of their duties were immigrant pilots like Phil’s father. The family moved again, this time to London Ontario Canada in the hopes they could settle there and escape the September 11th –influenced policies that affected the airline industry.
The constant moving can be seen as a precursor to Phil’s admitted restlessness and his tendency to latch onto new activities, master them, quickly grow bored with them, and move on. But Phil says that the one thing that has remained a constant in his life is music. Over the years, he has developed a talent for becoming adept at any instrument he picked up. At a young age, Phil learned to play the keyboard by watching and mimicking his uncle. In grade 4, he picked up a trumpet and joined a school marching band. Now he plays guitar, bass and drums in a recently-formed, nameless band for which he has high hopes. Phil goes into this latest musical effort with a strong determination and a fiery passion, identifying himself as a “zero bullshit” leader. His strategy is to “Make a demo, then promo, promo, promo.” And it seems to be working: Phil has overseas and local contacts that are eagerly looking forward to a demo tape from this promising young band.
Despite putting himself in the spotlight, Phil remains quiet and introverted off-stage. And despite a stand-offish “rocker” look, he believes that stereotypes shouldn’t be applied to people like him. “If someone is going to get to know you, they should take the time”, Phil remarks.
There is a lot more to Phil than meets the eye. The laidback, soft-spoken introverted appearance betrays a rocker with countless natural talents and a deep commitment to all things musical.
Do what Michael Moore says and no one will get hurt
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 | Words | No Comments
Ethics and documentary-making
By Scott Blacklock
Michael Moore may be tactless in his delivery, but never accuse him of being without a plan. The brash and controversial filmmaker has long been a point of contention for journalists, Republicans, and corporate America. At the same time, he is labeled as a voice for the liberal interest, a champion for the common man, and a crusader for truth. His latest release, “Slacker Uprising,” may be the best example of the divisiveness that Moore represents. But a larger question looms: just how ethical is Michael Moore’s unique style of filmmaking?
“Slacker Uprising,” a film documenting Moore’s travels across America in 2004 in an effort to incite young people to vote (he succeeded, and record numbers of slacker Americans cast their ballot), is the latest in a long-line of typical Moore-esque films. Ideological, opinionated, polemic — “Uprising” has had a laundry list of offences lobbed at it since its release in late September.
But the heaviest claim laid against Moore is that he abuses his power as a popular filmmaker and unfairly uses “propaganda” in his films. This is nothing new: since his 1989 debut film, “Roger & Me,” Michael Moore has been accused of presenting a heavily redacted version of the truth, while blotting out the light from opposing viewpoints.
When “Farenheit 9/11” was released in the summer of 2004, Dr. Kelton Rhoads, an expert on the psychology behind persuasion, wrote a paper about Moore’s film and identified 9 propaganda tactics used throughout the film.
Many of these techniques are hard at work in “Uprising.” For instance, one would be hard-pressed to recall a single, articulate, intelligent statement or viewpoint against John Kerry (omissions). Instead, the viewer meets a host of inept characters including apparent racists and outspoken Christians, who are identified as Bush supporters (associations). Moore is also very fond of point out the differences between Democrats and Republicans, Kerry supporters and Bush supporters, “us” and “them” (ingroup/outgroup manipulations).
By now, it should be common knowledge that, yes, Michael Moore is presenting edited versions of reality. Yes, he is feeding you propaganda that supports his viewpoint and crushes that of the opposition. Is there anything wrong with that?
Jacques Ellul, a 20th-century philosopher and sociologist, was split on this question. On the one hand, he argued that propaganda integrates people into society. It’s impossible to absorb the overwhelming amount of information from our world, so citizens just need to “get carried along unconsciously on the surface of events.” Propaganda does this. And likewise, Michael Moore does this. His films select a slice of reality and blow it up, encouraging the audience to “feel” rather than “think.”
On the other hand, Ellul argues that the media condemns modern people to a life “successive moments, discontinued and fragmented.” And amidst the chaos of information about their world, people search out ordered and focused information like propaganda to tell them what to believe, how to think and what to feel.
Enter Michael Moore. His films, compelling and inspired as they may be, are the ideological viewpoints of a relatively small group of people. It’s become evident that Moore does indeed have a plan to systematically spread information and ideas that help his cause. He has shown himself to be an abuser of his own authority as a storyteller, as a disseminator of information. Whether you choose to call him a “liar” or a “truth-bender,” a “crusader” or a “villain,” the meaning is clear: Michael Moore is a propagandist who works tirelessly to craft multi-layered films that serve to further an agenda and push his personal doctrine in the face of the audience.
“I’m just a guy with an opinion” loses some of its meaning when you’re shoving that opinion down our throats, Mr. Moore.
Oh my God, Obama, give him a job! Just something to keep him occupied!
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 | Images | No Comments
