The Living Dead

When "The Living Dead" is said, one tends to think of a cheesy zombie horror movie.


You know.


The kind of movie where the slow moving zombies inch closer and closer to the mansion; all the while the trapped survivors try to stay just that: survivors. The lethargic zombies wonder around aimlessly, until the scent of life strikes them, and they attack viciously mumbling something about brains. The survivors beat them off, but some still manage to get whacked. And then the sunrise comes, and the rest of the survivors get away safely.


Well, just for kicks and giggles, this scenario isn't all that far off from what happens in this life/world/existence/whateveridontknowyoudecide. You see, what drives us all inside is something that dates back before historians record, goes beyond the explanation of science and the laws of nature, and defies all sequential thinking which we pride ourselves on. We are driven by


purpose.


For some strange reason our existence is based totally on something which, most of the time, we do not even know the meaning of in the context of our lives. An abstract feeling of design or want of design from ourselves or some other celestial being. We find ourselves groping in the dark (wandering aimlessly, if you will :] ) at an idea which has taken no shape in our own minds.


So in a sense, we're all or have been a zombie at some time in our lives.

But instead of brains, its purpose we're after. And yes, that is the strangest analogy I've ever made.

And when morning comes, the zombies are dead for good and forgotten once more.

And the survivors go on to fulfill their lives.

But I digress.


So if those are the zombies, who are the survivors? Those with brai- I mean, purpose of course. You see, someone who has it figured out, someone who has a purpose, is going in some direction. They tend to have a plan or ambitions and goals (that actually impact their lives). The zombies of the world try to drag the survivors down, persuading the purpose driven folk that there is no point, that all is lost and that everything is floating in a sea of empty, meaningless, nothing.

However, I beg to differ.

It's like trying to solve a problem or trying to fix something. It's never clear before you have it done, but once it is, you think "Man, I'm an idiot! That was so easy!" Purpose makes things become clear. It gives direction and pace in a vast plethera of descisions, choices, and people. It is what creates successful, happy people.


So without purpose, we tend to go one with our lives in whatever fashion it so happens to fall into, trying to return those who are still alive or have become alive back to searching for an ambiguous idea. We are zombies. But with purpose comes great things.



With purpose comes life.


And maybe, just maybe, after the night is gone,



Sunrise.





So here's the challenge, and it's pretty easy.

1) look for purpose

2) Answer these questions in a comment: What does the sunrise symbolize?What about Brains, Zombies, or Survivors?



hahaha think about purpose where it says "they won't stay dead" (look at the poster).

A step in the same direction.

Notice anything funny in this video?

I'd stop laughing if I were you.

This little conforming laugh is actually a prime example of something that happens in everyday life to every age group, every race, and every individual on this planet. We conform, we fit, we take the path of least resistance like the social liquid mold we've taught ourselves to become.




But why?



Why must we become the sheep that, from a very early age, we are taught to stray from? Individuality is a highly prized commodity and especially in America. Why do we have to become the very thing we hate and somehow prize at the same time? What is this force that pulls us to each other to the point that we have to prove ourselves to the rest of the crowd?


I think we're just not paying attention sometimes, and other times we're just weak.


Think about it. Even those of you who are reading this, thinking, "I am an individual and this does not apply to me. I'm not one of those posers." I would beg to differ.


You see, recently, I figured something out doing something I do a lot. Running.


You know, running is a lot like life. Everyone starts, and uses experiences along the way to move to the end with the best result. And you know what else? The hardest thing in the world is to find your own pace. The hardest thing in the world is to actually forget the others, and push your own limits and not another's. Your constantly thinking, "oh no, that guys catching up. I'd better speed it up." which eventually turns into "oh no, I've gone too fast. I've screwed this race up and I'm going to burn out."



You find that when you run someone else's race, you never reach your potential.



Like life. You can't try to live someone else's life. It just doesn't work like that. Your interests and your personality make up who you are. You take a path you really don't want, but have convinced yourself you need to "fit in". By choosing another's path, you choose to deny what makes you an individual. You choose to throw away what's been given to you. A most dishonorable insult.

We're just weak. We see ourselves as weak. We're insecure. We constantly become the harshest critics in our own lives. The result is a constant awareness of our weakness, and a constant desire to be something better. So we idealize the jock, the punk, the business man, the star, the person "everyone" loves. Back to the running analogy, we desire to run another's pace because we believe they are faster.

And sometimes we are just not paying attention. When you don't pay attention, or lay idle in your life, you quickly forget the goals you had and the reason you exist. Everyday begins to look the same, and we fall into a nice, easy, conforming routine.


Think about the last time you felt frightened, out on a limb, sticking your neck out against the crowd just for doing something you wanted to do and actually carrying it through rather than folding.

When did you last feel embarrassed for doing something you found no fault with, but for some reason the crowd convinced you otherwise.

When did you last felt like an outsider?


When did you last do something because someone else would think it was cool?
When was the last time you took a step to someone else's beat?
When did you last forget about everyone else, and ran your race?
When did you last help another without becoming them?
When did you last have to be someone your not to make a friend?







When was the last time you were.....

you?

Red? Are you sure?

"I think.

Therefor I am."

How many times have you heard this simple saying?

One way to look at this statement is that it simply means a conscious body is existing as a being in the world.

But another way to look at it requires a look at the way we perceive everything.




Like the color red.



Yes. The color red. The color red has to do with the previous quote in more ways than you can imagine. The color red has a significance far superior to that of most concepts which come to my mind almost immediately.

Lets begin with a simple statement:

nothing is real.

yea, kind of like the matrix. Nothing is real, and everything is an illusion. How you ask? Simple. Your senses are lying to you. Think about it. You respond to the world in which your stimuli tell you you are in.

For instance: Your walking to bed, brushing your teeth. You feel the smooth bristles against your teeth, and the tingling sensation on your tongue. You stub your toe, and immediately reach down to grab the hurt appendage and hop around. Your nerves told your brain that you 1) hit your toe and 2) it hurt really bad. So you reacted in a manner fitting the perceived pain.

But take for instance when you go to bed. In your dreams, you respond to stimuli differently, but in a fundamentally similar way. People report being able to "feel" things in their dream, such as pain. A phenomenon which occurs when the senses literally lie to the brain to give a false reality its foundations.


What does any of this have to do with the color red or nothing is real?


It's simple.

Lets connect this concept with the next so that the latter will make sense.


Let us pretend that you are an infant, and I am one also. We have different mothers, but our teacher is showing us color flash cards. A flash card comes up, and below a color appears the text "r-e-d". You, seeing the color red, take this for granted and learn that the color you have just seen is called "red". At the same time, I am sitting next to you and also see the card. However, I see an entirely different color. I see the color you perceive as blue. Yet this is the same card you saw at the exact same time. I follow suit and assume that the color I have just seen is the color red, and every time I see that color, I would call it red.




So, every time we ride up to a stop sign, you see red but i see what you would see as blue. Yet we both would tell you that the stop sign is red.

So the point is, that if our perception of reality is based on our senses, which could possibly be different from everyone else, then it could be possible that everyone does not see in the same old color scheme.

In a sense, there is no guarantee that if I put your visual part of the brain in where mine was supposed to be and was somehow able to see, that I would see the same world I have always been used to. Everything could be different. Or maybe it would be the same.




Why would I even say all of this?

I think therefor I am.



The theory above, and your inability to prove me wrong and my inability to prove myself right, perpetuates the idea that we cannot KNOW anything other than:



"I think, therefor I am."



You KNOW alone that you are conscious, but that is all you can prove, because in the end, your senses could have been lying to you all the time.

The ten dimensions

Your basic hierarchy

Wow. So it's been a long time since I've posted anything. And all 2 of my readers must have given up on me by now. But hey, I've been gone for a while and had a busy summer so give me a break will you?

Anyways, I was talking to someone today and it happened that she had a really awesome quote that I've heard somewhere before. It's one of those things where you just don't realize what's been told to you or what kind of wisdom you have because you don't have enough experience. But today, I finally understand.


"Cade, someone once told me:
'The smart people in life talk about ideas,
the average people talk about events,
and the dumb people talk about other people.'"

So I sat there and thought about it for a while, and when I realized what it meant, I reveled in it's simplistic yet deep message. The message being, of course, that dumb people talk about other people, since the trials and misfortunes of the individual are the most trivial and is the cheapest form of talk. Such gossip conveys no wisdom, experience, or any other attribute of positive value. So naturally, events are of slight more importance, and can convey some experience and wisdom, as the past does teach us.


But ideas. Ideas are boundless. Ideas are abstract. They can occur at any time and can be about the present, future, past, or even about concepts which apply to two or all three! I know its a bit ridiculous to be so excited, but i realize this now.


So here's your hierarchy:


1) the thinkers and philosophers who think of what has, will, and what might happen, along with the concepts behind things which happen. They will have more experience, wisdom, and therefor success.

2) the average joe, who talks only of what has or will happen; giving him a limited amount of experience and success.

3) your idiot. The gossips who love the affairs of the person, caring nothing for the events which transpire, just the personalities of anyone who comes in contact. They gain zero experience, zero wisdom, and even drop down to plain foolishness.



While it is important to know people, remember the past, AND think deeply about philosophical ideas, the thinker will be able to access the bottom two levels, but the bottom two cannot climb the ladder without becoming a joe or a thinker, because that's only achieved through experience of thought. Once you have experience of thought, who wants to go back down?




What I guess I'm saying is the reason you think that person is immature is because they concern themselves with people or events. Think about it. That girl who gossips constantly and wonders why she can't keep a stable friend, living for the "excitement" of the game; she really never gets that deep. She's often very shallow. Not to say all gossips are this way.




I think high school is a perfect example, and I can't recall a time when I could be proved wrong.


But I would love to be. It's quite a thing to think on.