Delightful Confirmation Bias

[theeKultleeder]

I used to get anxious when I came across ideas that I thought were my own and locked up inside my trunk full of notebooks. "Damn," I would think, "that was my idea and now someone else revealed it to the world first." Now, I am overjoyed. It confirms my "private" thoughts as not just my own fantasies, but pieces of emerging consciousness streams or "currents" - parts of the spirit of the age, the zeitgeist.

That's funny, too, you know. Sometimes my work appears derivative when it is anything but. For instance, I never read the Invisibles until I started hanging out here in RI. Now, I'm afraid some people may think I was overly influenced by a comic book, but no, "those were my ideas first!"

There are many contending currents in the astral lightshow that signifies the current emotional/intellectual/ideological battles happening across planet Earth right now. It's like being on the net: where you link up and what data you absorb and who you interact with determines to a very large degree your outlook and therefore, your "choices," your actions.

I don't know much about Exterminating Angel Press, but Lisa Pease over at Real History Blog has pointed us to them. Here is what Exterminating Angel says about themselves:

What We Are About
Exterminating Angel Press: This is what we're about.

We believe in:

THE EVERYDAY OVER THE TRANSCENDENT.

(Reaching for the stars is all very well and good, but you can get a lot more done by taking care of those around you on the ground.)

MUTUALITY OVER HIERARCHY

(We believe that society must be restructured on a basis of Mutuality. We believe Hierarchy is a tool, not a way of life. We believe in situational hierarchy -- and that's it.)

EQUITY OVER POWER

(The present structure of Power Over All needs to be brought completely into the light, and its true impracticality as a way forward revealed. We all believe with all our hearts that we need a new, more practicable structure based on Equity.)

THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH TOGETHER OVER THE SCRAMBLE FOR VICTORY APART

(Competition should be as situational as hierarchy. We think anyone looking objectively at our world today can see it's gotten out of control. Competititon is all very well in its place -- but it has to stay in its place.)

JAM TODAY OVER JAM TOMORROW

(We've had enough of mooning over Jam Tomorrow. We want to go to work cooking up Jam Today.)

What we're talking about:

In short, we're talking about a practical look at what is and isn't working on the planet. What will work? That's what Exterminating Angel Press wants to talk about.

Exterminating Angel Press believes in solving problems, not just naming them -- but if we can't solve them today, we'll just keep naming them till we can.

And

Who We Are


Exterminating Angel Press, founded by editor/publisher Tod Davies, is a loose collective of writers and artists of all kinds -- all sharing the same values of mutuality and equity, all sharing the same passionate belief that these values should replace society's current default settings of dominance and hierarchy. It is a monthly collection of articles -- essays, social analysis, fiction, screenplays, librettos, poetry, recipes...anything and everything that takes as its starting point an inquiry into how to make a better world. EAP believes that the meaning of all human activity -- and all art -- is to meet the world on its own terms: not to fight with it, but to quarrel with it lovingly; not to conquer it, but to learn what it is and how it should be lived with; not to fear it, but to know it and ourselves, who are one of its parts.

Cool!

[brownzeroed]

That's a great site. I check it daily. Tod Davies, it's editor, is the wife of Alex Cox (of Repo Man fame). She co-wrote Sid and Nancy and a fantastic, un-produced "bio-pic" of Luis Bunuel, which can be found HERE (second from the top;PDF)

[Jeff]

I used to get anxious when I came across ideas that I thought were my own and locked up inside my trunk full of notebooks. "Damn," I would think, "that was my idea and now someone else revealed it to the world first." Now, I am overjoyed. It confirms my "private" thoughts as not just my own fantasies, but pieces of emerging consciousness streams or "currents" - parts of the spirit of the age, the zeitgeist.

I find that really interesting, and this thread's a good example of how ideas and interests cluster together, and you often find the same people there. "Exterminating Angel," for instance, is also the title of one of my favourite Bunuel films, and so I started to think of him before I read bz's post. I also have much love for Alex Cox. Something he says sounds like it belongs on the RI board so I'll copy it here. He was offered The Three Amigos to direct but chose to make Straight to Hell instead. Asked if he regrets his choice:

Not at all. Of course, if I'd done THE THREE AMIGOS I would have earned a lot more money. But that money would be spent by now. I would have had to shoot in the United States, and not in my beloved Almeria. I would essentially have been a hired hand for some comedians from Saturday Night Live. It would not have been a good experience, for them or me. The script had these weird political overtones: it promoted the idea that Americans have the right to intervene in a violent way in foreign countries - for all that it was supposed to be a comedy, it was actually propaganda for the Monroe Doctrine. STRAIGHT TO HELL, for better or worse, is my film, and I like it very much.

I get the sense that a lot of people here have chosen their own Straight to Hell over someone else's Three Amigos, and I'm very glad to be in their company.

[blanc]

apologies in advance if this post mysteriously appears twice, I'm struggling with vista-hell
a collective unconscious current is very manifest to those working in the visual arts, word work is hedged round with more ownership issues, the magic of discovery is too important to be squashed by our individualistic craving to make waves or be noticed, I think the subject of whether art belongs to us all or to the individual was touched upon on a thread about a paedophile who produced important teaching material , in the context of does the work exist as something apart from the individual who created it? Perhaps this thought that KL has raised about the process of art (or thought) gives some light on that.

[Uncle $cam]

Straight To Hell (extrait)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ish9wl4Dg_0

Ahh, the soundtrack to Straight to Hell was one of my all time favs...

Hadn't listened to it in years...thanks for reminding me Jeff.

[Hammer of Los]

Thanks for the link TKL. You are a marvellous contributor to this board you know. Oh, except for that time a while ago when you got a bit crabby, do you remember?



Everyone having the same ideas? Well, it sure is all swirling around in the Zeitgeist as you say. Didn't someone once say that originality consists in stealing other's ideas? Besides which, do we have "original" thoughts, or are our minds more like receivers and/or transmitters which pick up thoughts that belong to all and no-one?

Alex Cox eh?

Gosh I remember quite a while ago he introduced a series of classic cult movies called Moviedrome on BBC2, shortly after directing Repo Man to critical acclaim. I never used to miss it. I think it was late '80's/early '90's.

Of course, know we all know dear old Alex is something of a self-confessed conspiracy theorist, so without further ado, here is a link to some of Alex's writing about 911 and 7/7;

The Blog of ALEX COX

[IanEye]

Cabaret Voltaire have an album called "The Conversation".
The album begins and ends with a track called "Exterminating Angel".

[slimmouse]

The Blog of ALEX COX

Thanks for this link HOL. The guy seems to know his onions all right

[Wombaticus Rex]

No matter how "smart" we are, we're all just recombinations of other people. I agree, I used to feel proprietary and protective urges about "my" concepts and ideas, but boy, once I let go of that I can move a lot quicker.

Plus, I never get into arguments anymore because I'm not even attached to my own opinions.

And man, it's all just the same ideas, huh? It's not even like these concepts surface a lot "these days" because I can find examples of pretty much anything stretching back to the Greeks if not sooner. In terms of details, it's an endlessly novel and diverse petri dish, but the core structure doesn't shift much.

[Jeff]

Of course, know we all know dear old Alex is something of a self-confessed conspiracy theorist...

Anyone seen Death and the Compass? (I haven't yet; just asking.)

From Amazon:

Alex Cox (REPO MAN) directed this stylized adaptation of Jorge Luis Borges' labyrinthine detective story about a totalitarian city of the future plagued by a rash of bizarre crimes. Peter Boyle stars as Lonnrot, a decidedly even headed detective prone to philosophizing and Christopher Eccleston is his nemesis, Red Scarlach, whom Lonnrot believes could be behind these ritualistic crimes. Set in a surreal landscape that provokes Lonnrot's philosophical musings and leads him through mystical cabals and conspiracies within conspiracies, DEATH AND THE COMPASS is a remarkable adaptation of Borges' story, and a fascinating, often exhilarating film.

[theeKultleeder]

No matter how "smart" we are, we're all just recombinations of other people. I agree, I used to feel proprietary and protective urges about "my" concepts and ideas, but boy, once I let go of that I can move a lot quicker.

Plus, I never get into arguments anymore because I'm not even attached to my own opinions.

I've had exactly the same thought processes in the last two weeks. Here I am, writing about egos and stuff, and boom, my "self" becomes entangled in the damn words on a computer screen.

The process of personal entanglement seems to be something like this:

1) A Persona is adopted.

2) An Agenda is created.

3) Ally and Enemy networks are formed.

4) Positive and Negative deeds are done and received.

And so on.

But I'm wandering in the half-dream. I'm thinking "I'm not there. There is no me there. What is there to protect?"

It may be nice some day to reap material benefit from all the hours I have spent in studying and writing. I do employ the Creative Commons License on my blogs.

[philipacentaur]

Of course, know we all know dear old Alex is something of a self-confessed conspiracy theorist...

Anyone seen Death and the Compass? (I haven't yet; just asking.)

From Amazon:

Alex Cox (REPO MAN) directed this stylized adaptation of Jorge Luis Borges' labyrinthine detective story about a totalitarian city of the future plagued by a rash of bizarre crimes. Peter Boyle stars as Lonnrot, a decidedly even headed detective prone to philosophizing and Christopher Eccleston is his nemesis, Red Scarlach, whom Lonnrot believes could be behind these ritualistic crimes. Set in a surreal landscape that provokes Lonnrot's philosophical musings and leads him through mystical cabals and conspiracies within conspiracies, DEATH AND THE COMPASS is a remarkable adaptation of Borges' story, and a fascinating, often exhilarating film.

It's coming up in the Netflix queue. Thanks for reminding me to bump it up, along with some other Alex Cox movies in there.

[populistindependent]

The unusual phenomenon of people pursuing highly individualistic spiritual beliefs combined with a vague sense of an amorphous one-ness or mass unity is distinctly symptomatic of a population that is ripe for the worse sort of tyranny. Feelings and intuitions, longings and yearnings, are seen as shared and universal, while principles, ideals, moral standards and objective reality are not. This makes for atomized, alienated and vulnerable individuals who are then easily coalesced and steered as a mob by emotional appeals.

[slimmouse]

The unusual phenomenon of people pursuing highly individualistic spiritual beliefs combined with a vague sense of an amorphous one-ness or mass unity is distinctly symptomatic of a population that is ripe for the worse sort of tyranny. Feelings and intuitions, longings and yearnings, are seen as shared and universal, while principles, ideals, moral standards and objective reality are not. This makes for atomized, alienated and vulnerable individuals who are then easily coalesced and steered as a mob by emotional appeals.

I happen to think the opposite ; Namely that the first thing people would do, were they to realise that we are all essentially one, would be to stop blowing the crap out of each other.

I also believe this is one of the major reasons for the politically motivated creation of 'organised religion', which gives us the guy with the beard in the sky, and the fella with the catsuit and horns, and selling us the impression that these phenomena are somehow seperate entities from us.

[brownzeroed]

Anyone seen Death and the Compass?

Yes. Though I think it's (IMHO) Cox's weakest directorial effort, it's worth a watch for any hardcore Borges fan. Peter Boyle does a great job and the sets (given the time and their budget) are stunning.

Around the same time ( I think a year or two earlier), Lars Von Trier came out with a film called The Element of Crime. The two films compliment each other really well. Cox is spot on w/ Borges' sense of humor, but Trier's effort captures the "Borges mood" the best and is arguably the better film. The cinematography is freaking amazing.