Independent Thought

Uncovering the Wall Street Protest

So there’s a HUGE protest going on in New York City. Did you know that? It’s in it’s second week, and has gotten incredibly little to no news coverage on American mainstream media. I first learned about it through word of mouth, and even then I had to go to a British news site to learn anything about it. Since then a friend of mine also linked me to a Facebook page that is constantly feeding out information and links to small websites and blogs with bits of current information. I have seen videos of violent arrests and mace attacks on unsuspecting women. I have seen live footage where people pleaded for medical care for the violently arrested victims locked up in jail. Right before I started writing this, I joined a surge of people in the protest network spreading phone numbers for major news networks trying to get hem to cover the story. Since then, articles have been released online by some of the major news outlets. I watched it happen. 

So what is it that all these people are protesting exactly?

It’s clear that the people involved are tired of our economic system, that much is obvious without very much digging. But even on the protest’s ‘official’ website (https://occupywallst.org/), it’s hard to get a bead on what exactly the protestors are trying to make happen. Here’s their mission statement: 

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“Reasonable Doubt”

“Reasonable doubt”. It’s a phrase most are familiar with in regards to the criminal justice system. It started with early British Christians who were wary of taking judgement upon another person- something which they felt was only God’s place to do so. By the 1780’s it became a standard beyond which all guilty convictions must be held- something the American justice system didn’t hesitate to officially adapt. Today, when an American juror is instructed the legal rules of how to decide a criminal case, they are told to apply this standard of being ‘guilty beyond a reasonable doubt’. The rule is there specifically to preserve the court’s “Presumption of innocence”. Basically, it’s what makes everyone innocent until proven guilty. This system was originally meant to to protect innocent people from conviction. This system has failed.

Troy Anthony Davis has been sentenced to death. As much as I would like to, I’m not going to tear into the moral hypocrisy of the death penalty right now. Because right now I think it’s more important that people know his story.

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This is the work in progress for my cover of “Eli the Barrow Boy” by The Decemberists. It’s the first song I’ve ever been able to play and sing at the same time. Soon I hope to have a better one up. 

“Old Man on the Mountain”

Phoenix Godwin

Finished 7-29-2011

Drawn with a mouse on Seashore.

The Reason for Dissent

There have always been problems in our society, and nobody disagrees with that. Over time, these problems have remained relatively the same for a good 80-90 years. Of course, we’ve done great things over that period of time as well. I don’t think that as a species we’ll ever stop doing amazing things unless we are destroyed by nature or ourselves. What makes me (and others like me) stand apart from the decades old stereotype of dissenter is the time period we specifically live in. Consider how complicated everything is right now. Society involves far more complexities now than it ever has before, and a lot of that is because of things that have happened within my lifetime. Cellphone use. Internet. Social Networking. Camera’s in nearly everybody’s hands. Public music sharing. Outsourcing. Importing. Exporting. International relations. All of these things are the way they are now because of developments that have occurred within the last twenty years. It’s significantly complicated things by massively increasing the level of communication and community we have. Suddenly, things all over the world have effects that can travel any distance in nearly an instant. Of course humanity as a whole has been moving in that direction since we first started creating empires back in ancient history. Now we’re here though, and there is a critical flaw in how our society is using it. The flaw stems from the base of most of this nation’s problems over the last century. 

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Today I saw people arrested for dancing. This didn’t happen in a foreign country with limited freedoms- this happened here in America. At Jefferson Memorial, a couple held each other as they swayed gently- only to be ripped apart by police and separately arrested. Onlookers jigged in protest, only to be violently arrested themselves. What is happening to this country? 

Back in April of 2008, Mary Brooke Oberwetter was arrested at the memorial for dancing. She sued for wrongful arrest, and lost. The judge decided that it wasn’t okay to dance at the memorial.

The fact is, this should never have been an issue. The first cop who arrested Mary Oberwetter was being in intolerant, bigoted, and overzealous idiot. She was certainly within her rights to be dancing, and to question that is to undermine the very ideals set forth partly by Thomas Jefferson himself (of whom the memorial was commemorating).

The judgment against her lawsuit was ludicrous and absolutely a violation of rights. The park is a functional public park, and as such any judgment against dancing is a caricature of justice.

The fact that the cops in this video decided to continue supporting the (illegal) ‘anti-dance’ judgment just serves to further embarrass the nation and it’s justice system.

-Phoenix Godwin

5-31-2011

A Contemplative Note About The Universe- and Trees

Ever think about just how ridiculously complex and complicated everything is just to exist? I had a profound moment today where I considered the depth to every conceivable thing, and it was honestly somewhat overwhelming. There is absolutely nothing that is simple, and everything that seems to be only seems that way becasue of other complicated processes making it possible. 

Allow me to introduce yourself: 

This is you.

Inside that oh-so-important skull of yours is the culmination of your entire being.  An incredibly complex system of firing neurons and pattern recognition; A naturally occurring, biological computer. I don’t know how similar an individual’s mind is naturally formed to another’s- but it doesn’t matter. As soon as you become conscious you start to experience everything in an absolutely unique perspective that will never be replicated or even fully understood by others. Of course there’s a similar template to all of them, but only on a basic level- and even then people’s thought processes are still inheirently different from each other’s in a vast variety of ways. But I digress.

Your brain is your every thought, feeling, sight, smell, touch, and sound. Time is completely dependent on your perception of it and the speed of your thoughts at any given moment. Otherwise it’s just a conceptualization of measurement between relative movement of numerous sources (more on that another time).  Scientifically speaking there is nothing about you that would continue should it cease to function. 

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Think of your body as a big mech suit. And your brain is Heero Yuy.

So there you are, doing whatever it is that you do. And you are one of billions of these biological computers being supported by incredibly complex systems that serve functions all across both macro and microscopic scales. One incredibly complex organism that just happened to defeat all other odds just to exist among the other billions that also just barely managed to be brought into existence.

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BILLIONS.

We live on a planet that just happens to have everything we need. A HUGE organized mess of interweaving checks and balances. Mosquitos, ants, beavers, H2O, oxygen, salt, volcanoes, fire, clouds, storms- everything that you can think of has a direct impact on constantly overlapping status-quos, and it always comes about through constant one-in-a-million chance. Let’s take the forest, full of all sorts creatures that keep our balanced ecosystem so nice and ecosystem-y. Of course the most prominent part is the trees.  

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Trees. They’re kind of simple, right?

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Well, I guess that is fairly complicated…

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“A Day And A Tree In The Park”

I took a few pictures and then started making a project on the ground, which my good friend Gretchen kindly photographed for me while in progress. Here are the results of that day.

Physiomonistic Pantheism: Understanding Awareness

I do not believe in “God” as a sentient, omnipotent, or omniscient being- in fact I don’t believe in ‘God’ as a ‘being’ at all. I believe that the Universe (Existence) is infinitely vast and intricate. Through studying the patterns in nature, I am fairly certain that Existence operates on what some call “organized chaos”; the universe is constantly changing and ‘growing’ in chaotic ways, but it follows patterns and systems that allow it to sustain itself. I personally am constantly aware of everything being a part of overall Existence, especially myself as I am the thing that I know best. I am amazed by it and find myself in constant wonder, inquisition, and awe. I think that what most people think of as “God” is just Existence as a whole. In that respect, we are all part of that “God”. It makes sense, really: you exist, so you are part of existence. My personal speculation?

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“Transmortem Existentia”

On my way out of the great black forest.

The trees finally thin.

I wrestle through the tendrils

that try to keep me in.

I see one last beautiful tree

before I finally leave.

The world is quickly strange.

Plants spring from places which they should not.

Size and proportion become everything else

And then it starts. I see within myself

I feel the colors melt and twist, bleeding a beautiful ink

The universe is a lucid party. With every conceivable conception.

Friends melt away

A world where music makes everything stop….

…..to listen.

The good things are always almost gone. 

A boy with a smoking eye 

makes small animals cry

through their jugulars.

A desperate message

unknown by anyone

unnoticed by everyone

secretly a practice in existentialism.

The things I said

“Someday we’ll get there”-

Forever is the key.

But it’s all asymmetrical

Complete loneliness

utter isolation

darkness

and impossible enemies.

But  no one will know for another.

The sea is not recyclable.

An eight headed hydra

is eating the brain power sought by the journeymen.

Unknown to the cosmic goldfish far away.

Then the pieces finally fall into place

I will ride a boat through stormy waves

to the moon.

I will only watch the beauty with all else that is beautiful.

The trees will never catch me again.

I want to walk with Death and his dog. I hope to be personally introduced to the Seven Deadly Sins

I want everyone to see past the white noise.

I want to battle the eagle for the lion.

I want to revisit Unreality

I want to ride the sea horse to the great sunflower in the sky

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“Transmortem Existentia”

Phoenix Godwin

6-3-2010

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“Insomniac’s Lullaby”

This is a song my buddy Jeremie Schudel recorded when he was crashing at my place for a while. He’s a brilliant musician- I hope he keeps it up.