If you like the topics discussed in this newsletter, you can buy a copy of my Patchwork Manifesto here.
My investigation draws on ancient teachings to explain why we stand at the edge of radical change.
It’s a challenging read. Consider this tiny manual if you are just starting your journey.
Last we spoke, it was a time in November when the polarities of the world became easier to spot.
We realized that these weren’t really “options” (Pepsi vs Coke, Israel vs Hamas) but really a conditioned game in which a person could pose as an outsider and an authority at the same time.
“Actually, have you considered THIS perspective on the Middle East conflict?”
It was a bit like watching someone attempt to have it both ways — to be both part of the war machine, but also above it, or detached from it in a way, because their “hot take” was supposedly the missing key.
Of course, we know this is the tried and true formula of social media. Overnight, everyone becomes an expert on an age-old religious conflict. Cue the broad brush analysis, cue the conspiracies and esoteric “perspectives.”
We also looked at how this trickles down into the local micro-spheres. It could be a trendy new supplement, like methylene blue. “THEY don’t want you to take it.”
Is this all there really is anymore? Just a chance to wait in line and scream your tribal song?
Surely there has to be something else to our experience in the 2020s besides trying to be king of the hill.
Indeed, all around us there appears to be something else budding. Over recent newsletters, this has been referred to as a sensitivity, or a receptivity — a sensibility of taste.
Not for the aggregation of clout, or the projection of some achieved state of enlightenment, but instead a sensibility that opens your eyes to a world beyond the ping-ponging of “takes” and “hacks.”
At this stage in the game, you have to wonder whether those who choose to be king of the ruins KNOW that they’re just vultures — mere merchants of the decay they seek to denounce, circling the emptiness of modern day logic.
True, this “other” doesn’t necessarily have to be an influencer we see in the news or on our social media feed. It could be an aspect of ourself — a shadow, or a reverse mirror image.
But it plays out all the same: there is a feeling of being stopped in our tracks now, or at least delayed and detoured. This will increase in potency as we go deeper into December.
It’s like getting detoured from the new horizon you had wondered about, onto the Word Salad Express.
This may manifest itself as a feeling of doubt or deep indecision in you. “Wow, those two micro-celebrities on Twitter are teaming up to release an organic cotton t-shirt line…what am I doing with MY life?”
This is playing apples to oranges, though — a comparison game that’s just as bad as equating correlation to causation.
Illusion is very high right now. Things are slick, sleek and inviting. It’s very easy to take something like the war machine, or some influencer post, and think that’s still the world YOU’RE operating in — or worse, to believe that the world being reflected back to you is in any way real, stable or bulletproof from corruption.
At the interpersonal level, we’ll be pushed to question the “headlines” swirling around us. “Is that really want the person meant? What does this situation tell me via what it has OMITTED?” And so on.
Reading between the lines will be crucial to escape the high confusion of the Word Salad Express. Time to stay focused on your ultimate destination: the new.
Bombarded by billboards and the revving engines of tribal cruisers, one could feel left out and wanting to circle the ruins of our culture.
This is the challenge to keep pushing through and questioning the binary choices being handed to you.
Is it really about either choosing to join the bandwagon vs going it alone and being lost in a world without a GPS?
Let’s dive in.
Double Trouble
There’s a thrilling scene in the third Mission Impossible, where Owen Davian (a villain played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is kidnapped, after being forced to ride the Word Salad Express.
Zhen, an Asian woman who’s part of the spy team, plays a crucial role in this scene.
Makeup itself is a type of illusion, and it’s fitting that Zhen uses her compact mirror to take images of Owen, which are then sent to the protagonist, Ethan Hunt.
Ethan is able to manufacture a mask of Owen, also while dressing in a tuxedo like his target. Likewise, he knows what Zhen is about to do next, so he grabs a special bottle — we’ll get to this in a moment.
Zhen “accidentally” bumps into Owen at the party, making him spill red wine on himself. “It’s ok, I always spill wine on my custom made white shirt,” he growls.
In the bathroom, he begins rubbing a hot washcloth on his shirt.
Suddenly, we see a double rise up behind him in the foggy mirror — it’s Ethan in disguise, who quickly punches Owen, sending his target to the floor.
Ethan then holds up a stun gun to Owen’s neck, while shoving a business card in his face. “Read it!” he commands.
It’s a word salad story involving cats and tacks and young pranksters and old women. It makes absolutely no sense and that’s the point: it contains enough vowels and synonyms for the agent recording Owen on the other end, thus allowing the team to reconstruct a replica of Owen’s voice, so that Ethan can use it freely.
Zhen alerts Ethan that Owen’s bodyguard is about to enter the room. Ethan sedates Owen with a dart, then pulls out the special bottle — it’s filled with wine, and he sprays his shirt. Special agent Declan is there to pull a sedated Owen behind the door.
But there’s a catch — the voice patch hasn’t finished processing yet. So the bodyguard is there looking at Owen’s double, asking if he’s ok, but getting no response.
Ethan pretends to cough, wiping his shirt furiously. The concerned bodyguard steps closer, almost turning to see Declan holding an unconscious Owen.
Ethan coughs harder and harder, motioning with his hand for the bodyguard to step back. Suddenly, the voice patch is finished, and Ethan speaks: “I’m fine,” he says, but it crackles and glitches, sounding a bit like a fake voice.
The bodyguard furrows his brow, a bit confused, and leaves.
This little scene encapsulates almost everything you’re likely to encounter in early December.
From the fake wine to the mask to the voice patch, there are layers of deception and doubling where you’ll be forced to parse truth from fiction.
You may notice instances of plagiarism on Twitter, or feel like you’re being a puppet for certain protocol at work. Likewise, you may discern that the news being fed to you is so tailored and perfect, like an ideal algorithm, that you find yourself sucked into the Word Salad Express, easily going along with something that you know is pure nonsense — all the while feeling like your individuality is slipping away.
Sometimes this process can be for a greater good, though. Perhaps you feel yourself going through the motions, and like Owen in the mirror, you recognize that you’re about to be taken over by a more evolved and sophisticated version of yourself.
It will all be slippery, though, like a foggy mirror, leaving you half-wondering if this detour will get you to a new stage of clarity or take you deeper down the rabbit holes that populate the cultural wasteland we currently live in.
How nice it is to hide in a hole and think you are a rebel outsider, when really you’ve just jumped deeper into the decay!
All sorts of discourses and turns of phrase will have to be put under the microscope, all fine print in contracts will need to be revealed, because this is a time when people can think they’re just wiping wine off their shirt, but they’re really being set up to have their identity altered.
It’s so easy to write one more supplement thread on Twitter, to make one more essay about the geopolitical horrors— but is it YOU who is really speaking at that moment? Or is just a very convincing double, one designed to be a scavenger in the wasteland, always ready to offer another reason to stay?
Let’s keep going.
Enticing Nonsense
One clever way to outwit the tricksters (internal or external) at this time is to watch how statements negate themselves.
An initial proposition is made — followed up by a negating double.
Much like the phrase: “I’m a liar, and that’s the truth.”
This will especially affect us at the level of value, aesthetics, commerce and beauty.
Is something that’s presented of high value really that worthy of your esteem? It doesn’t have to be a nice watch, it can be a bit of information presented on a platter.
You may look at a social media post that shows an illustrious, adventuresome life. It’s very seductive, slippery, almost right at your fingertips.
And yet, is the original poster actually living that life? Or are they putting the bulk of their effort in PORTRAYING that life, while using whatever energy is leftover to kick around on old ground?
We talked about masks a moment ago, and it’s really amusing how many of the so-called “experts” on social media can remain anonymous.
Personally, I don’t think there’s anything categorically wrong with internet anonymity. Even I use a pen name.
But if you’re going to live in a “king of the hill” paradigm, suggesting to people that a life of popularity and social riches is just within reach, wouldn’t you want to simply show yourself living that life, beyond posed moments?
This is how you know that their paradigm is nonexistent.
Go ahead, read the post or the thread, or subscribe to the newsletter that promises alchemical secrets that will make you king of the ruins. I’m not one to suggest that you shouldn’t look at something.
But the negation is in the offer. The medium is the message.
If someone is trying to reach your desire and value system through the Word Salad Express, you should already know they’re not messengers from the Promised Land but rather they’re still cruising around on the wasteland, dressing it up to be something that it’s not. “Come on, STAY here with us. . .a little while longer. . .”
People are hustling and industrious now, for sure. But are they papering over what’s already dead on arrival?
Wouldn’t it be better if they looked towards the horizon, and decided to build something new there?
Ah, but that’s the rub.
The old paradigms don’t mesh well with the terrain of the new frontier — it’s too uneven, asymmetrical, patchwork out there.
And so we find ourselves at an interesting crossroads, bargaining with the devil.
Do you let the power of BELIEF coax you into staying on the wasteland a little while longer?. . .
. . .Or do you start making plans for the winter, an intrepid journey which will reveal the decay and the rot that’s already announcing itself in numerous, abundant hints all around you, if you just peeled a layer deeper?
If you like the topics discussed in this newsletter, you can buy a copy of my Patchwork Manifesto here.
My investigation draws on ancient teachings to explain why we stand at the edge of radical change.
It’s a challenging read. Consider this tiny manual if you are just starting your journey.
reading that again today I see many negating doubles in my thoughts while going on my daily crusades. It's funny - to think you know the way, while challenging your self to believe in your own lies. It happens subconsciously, until some other person confronts you and then it becomes obvious: you have been contradicting yourself. Playing with words.
I want to seethe in to a new horizon, but better to shed off hubris and debris of the past.