Comments on: Towards Ethical Lifestyle Design

By: Walk with Flowers

Walk with Flowers — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:05:13 +0000

[...] there’s lifestyle design: I don’t even want to open that pandora’s box again, but I think there’s some kind of [...]

By: Cody McKibben

Cody McKibben — Sat, 29 May 2010 06:23:15 +0000

Eric, I think we probably agree a whole lot more than is first apparent on these issues. I’m interested in experimenting with the mind, and experimenting with alternative community building quite a bit, but sometimes we are prevented from talking openly about these things… maybe one day

I don’t mean to imply you guys are calling for violence or anything of that nature, but I would caution against an aggressive stand-off with consumerism or capitalism (I know that makes me sound like a defender of the system) because when these ideologies collide, large mobs of angry people eventually make stupid decisions, and things get messy.

And Duff, I agree with you—I think maybe what I didn’t spell out before is how this whole discussion (thanks to you & Eric) has shown me that you’re probably right that a lot of us in the lifestyle design & marketing communities use “revolutionary” language when we really shouldn’t. Things definitely need to get mixed up, but perhaps it’s a dangerous parallel to draw, especially when the solutions we offer usually are not that revolutionary (as you observe quite well).

Forgive me for dragging this conversation on, but I’ve just been caught up for the second time in 2 years in the middle of violent riots & standoff between angry anti-government protesters and Army soldiers in Bangkok, on my street outside my window. I see powerful people pulling strings from their ivory towers, framing the situation as a “people’s revolt” against tyranny, average folks being brainwashed over months and months of hearing the same propaganda (the marketing) into taking a violent “stand”, but their leaders are blind to the blood running through the streets…

By: Cody McKibben

Cody McKibben — Sat, 29 May 2010 05:54:10 +0000

Good points to keep this discussion grounded. I wasn’t implying you had ever encouraged any of those things, but as a student of history, religious studies, and humanities, and as an observer of the world around me, I have watched “freedom fighters” turn into the tyrants they once opposed time and time again. And, when it comes to revolution, when you get a large crowd of people riled up and angry about something (like “the establishment”), you usually lose all control.

I’m just putting in my support for moving this discussion from what we should push away (i.e., avoiding/abandoning/demonizing capitalism, corporatism) to what we should embrace (like the things you say: voting, interest groups, campaigning for fair lending, real community development & social entrepreneurship projects, etc.). It’s easy to identify what you don’t like—I’m very guilty of this most of the time—but harder to focus on what you do like and adopting a “towards” mentality rather than an “away” one.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 28 May 2010 12:16:11 +0000

It seems that people get hung up on the whole idea that they have to be Tim Ferris. He even says that you should not not be him. It isn’t about being Tim Ferris, it’s about being who you want to be. If that’s traveling around the world, so be it. If it is working to save the whales, then that’s your design.

Lifestyle design is about being who you want to be! We shouldn’t get caught up in trying to be Tim Ferris, or anyone else.

By: Eric Normand

Eric Normand — Fri, 28 May 2010 04:26:57 +0000

I got into yoga because of Robert Anton Wilson. I practiced out of some old books my mom had for a while. I was afraid to go to a class because I felt so pedestrian. I thought I would meet self-created supermen. Then I went to my first class and was kind of disappointed. It was so normal. I thought I was going to find a bunch of freaks who were so far out I wouldn’t understand them or be able to keep up with them. I thought they would look down on my inferior brain. All I found were some women in leotards and guys who liked to stretch.

I see where you’re going, Eric.

I think it would be pretty cool to see a psychedelic lifestyle design cult. Or a viral eBook that’s a Morissonian hypersigil. In fact, who’s to say I haven’t read one already?

What you are suggesting reminds me of Robert Anton Wilson’s H.E.A.D. movement. Brainwashing yourself for fun and profit or something like that.