Associative Musings (standard:Editorials, 578 words)
Author: GXD	Added: Dec 08 2009	Views/Reads: 3128/0	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
From fluid dynamics to relative truth,independent cultural initiatives are shaping the future.

Associative Musings 

There is an essential progression in the nonprofit sector approximating
the pyramidal structure of for-profit organizations.  A Cultural Center 
becomes an Institute, which upgrades to an Association by virtual 
cloning (formerly termed "chapters") of community organisations, which 
may be real, local, regional, dispersed, multinational, virtual, any or 
all.  It is like countertrade, a virtual structure that enables the 
exchange of real values.  Not as clumsy as a time bank, nor as 
efficient as a computer.  (Rainbow-tinted abacus beads might do). 

In practice, some forms of artificial intelligence make good use of
"fuzzy logic", a procedure termed in my college days "monte carlo 
procedure" or a "modified martingale" depending on whether you owned 
the roulette wheel or were betting at the table. By applying this 
procedure to the exchange of values, as expressed and interpreted from 
numerous members of a community, it is possible to game/trade 
effectively with no catastrophic losses, and to experience some 
thrilling gains over a considerable period of time.  Of course, when 
the medium of exchange becomes a collectible commodity, this is no 
longer a zero-sum procedure. 

It all equates down to one thing: the relative value of truth. 

A truth is felt, however it is told.  The truth of a cultured voice and
a disciplined body is equal to that of a cultured brain and a 
disciplined temperament.  Each may lack some elements, and appear 
distorted to the perfection-jock -- but they are actually enhanced, new 
sensitivities that arise from greater awareness of compassion.   The 
relativity of truth is like the adaptability of a blind person whose 
hearing becomes more acute.  By shifting one's awareness and attention 
to senses other than sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, one can 
develop the more subtle sensitivities. 

Innovative experimentation has led from Vivaldi to Zappa in the West,
and certainly no less in the East and South.  At a time when there are 
more handguns than human beings distributed over the planet's surface, 
land mines still littering the deserts of Morocco and other undesirable 
residue of an era when survival meant "fight", rather than "flight", 
there is value in occupying the spirits of people with agreeable 
feelings that can soften the life pains that arise from errors of their 
ancestors. 

One offering of independent cultural initiatives is the opportunity for
implementing this with performance, accommodation, atmosphere, music, 
encouragement -- even payment.  The $10.00 (peanuts!) is simply an 
"Award" for a new set of guitar strings....occupying time and injecting 
tiny incentives into the flow of capital, shifting it subtly into 
channels where it will have future value. 

This process stems from fluid dynamics, and applies to both: the flow of
culture through troubadours, storytellers, mimes, puppeteers, stilt 
walkers, singers, poets, dancers and other performers -- and to the 
flow of revenue from financially structured communities to culturally 
sensitive ones.  The acceleration of incoming emotions by offering 
intensely sensitive human exchanges in a multitude of tongues and 
idioms to the local dinner crowd, while hosting new stars rising in the 
music world is too good an opportunity to pass up. Perhaps the work of 
artists and independent cultural initiatives can be as valuable -- in 
and of itself -- as the work of hospitals, healing the wounds people 
inflict on each other for a multitude of reasons.  In the coming 
century, I foresee a much more aggressive approach to enhancing life 
quality for a growing market of the elderly. 

Seattle, 1999    Gerald X. Diamond     All rights reserved 


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