The Liminalist # 37.5: Culture Cracking (with Gary Heidt)

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Part two of conversation with liminal literary agent Gary Heidt, on morphing taboos, money as control, a de-meritocracy, money and immorality, an aristocratic shell, the exteriorization of the rich, organic robots & transhumanism, the Plutocracy, poison containers, the discomfort of interiority, when the medium and the message become one, seeking subjectivity, art as delivery device for propaganda, abandoning all our heroes, engineered amateurism, inescapable bass notes, the meaning of “punk,” The Sex Pistols and the manufacture of teenage rebellion, Margaret Mead and culture cracking, softening the populace, Dr. Spock and the creation of a creampuff generation, The Butthole Surfers, a spectrum of self-expression and social engineering, what constitutes integrity, patience with the non-arising of objects, a place of inaction, how the world discourages wholeness, encapsulating creating in projects, getting boxed in by the Establishment, dissolving the dichotomy of integrity and success, a willingness to abandon every project, liminalism and working within structures, the deeper subject of every writing, tuning to the signal, bridging the interior with exterior, cultural immersion, how to enjoy culture that’s tainted, CIA & modern art & how cultural context is created, being colonized by culture, consciously submitting to Hollywood programming for relaxation, Scorsese and Lynch the early years, how artists are commodified, how philanthropy drives depravity, a double set of history books, dominating the narrative and directing attention, the three kinds of SRA literature, the Greek fraternity system and the Prussian schooling system imported to the US, a homoerotic core to machismo, Top Gun and homosexual cults in the military, taboos and the power structure, false individuation through taboo-breaking, UN child trafficking, the cognitive dissonance of living in a culture based on everything it claims to be against, the Church of SubGenius, predicting the end times, a big empty black iron prison.

Gary’s sites: garyheidt.bandcamp.com     mammalsofzod.bandcamp.com                             youtube.com/garyheidt

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Songs: “El Mariachi” & “Monkey Said,” by The Freak Fandango Orchestra; “A Little Bit of a Tumbler” and “Come on Home,” by Gary Heidt.

6 thoughts on “The Liminalist # 37.5: Culture Cracking (with Gary Heidt)”

  1. Our sexual drive is a largely unconscious urge, it’s also our most powerful biological and creative imperative and because of this it’s potentially our most destructive weapon. This creative energy can be redirected many ways that require more conscious choices and awareness. It’s a strange paradox that literally creating new life is so primal and relatively easy while creating the culture for that new life to find value is so degraded. Ape hierarchies and the degradation through multitudes. Why is it so easy to hit the low notes relative to the high notes?

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  2. p.s. the lotus flower grows out of the mud. Cliche, I know, but think it through in it’s many iterations and identifications. Anything worthwhile is expressed simply and directly, all around and in us too.

    It’s the heart, not the head, that still directs intention and awareness (feeling). The ankh still provides a simple symbol for a complete circuit.

    The truth is fiction as it’s constructed. “Art is a lie that tells the truth” Picasso

    Intention is much easier to discern as apes. It’s all power dynamics all the time. Machiavellian fuckers abound; it’s me; it’s you; it’s life in this zoo. hahaha

    The wilderness is much more straightforward; eat or be eaten. The group (as humans) prevails, to be alone is (generally) death. We’re adaptable and this adaptability can be used against us too. It’s a proper mind-fuck, and like a powerful magnet society (the group) keeps pulling us back in to buy in. How to individuate oneself and still take part? That’s a subtle game, it requires sacrifice. I haven’t quite worked it out yet (again) but I’m working on it. I won’t let you know if I do work it out though, that’s yours to discover. 🙂 After all, it’s a journey of Self discovery through self. I’m just talking to myself though and so are you. Maybe one day soon I’ll only ever meet myself too. Who knows?

    If everyone was enlightened at the same time does that mean the game would end? It won’t happen so why worry about it? We’re all unique individuals, with unique stories (and unique ways of interpreting them that change), in our own unique space and time (with our own ever changing awareness). With such an infinity of potential expression how could it ever end? Out of the potential that created amoeba humans also sprang. I tend to think that this world may be perfect and maybe it’s my perception that’s flawed. Who knows? Not self importance, this much I get.

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      • The Dao is not the course of the river (ever changing) but the water in the river that becomes the sea that becomes the clouds, that becomes the rain , that becomes you and me and the trees and the insects, and the plants…etc., yada, yada.

        We still have more in common with each other than separates us. Our discernment (mind) works both ways. It’s useful for survival and tragic when we turn it against ourselves. Our mind really only does paradox as it continually plays this off against that. We live in a perceptual state of limits that tells us (our) the truth. Accepting this is the key to acceptance, imho.

        Humans are not powerful. The sun is powerful, the earth is powerful…we’re really good at telling ourselves bullshit stories and believing them though. It’s so much narcissism. The odd individual gets bored (or has an existential crises) and thinks their self and their circumstance through and chooses to identify with ever increasing universal themes rather than what the ape power structure has on offer.

        We’re all on our own in this though…scare the shit out of yourself and blow your mind.

        We seem to have the privilege (nightmare) in this shape of looking back, or into – and relating to all within our fractal perceptual awareness.

        Maybe I’m just crazy, in which case carry on.

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  3. Like any good Halloween special should, listening to this yesterday actually led to nightmares and sleep paralysis last night- although the particular entity that menaced me was one I’ve never seen before- an all-red cloven-hoofed satyr-like creature, dancing around my bed with a scowl- a nice change of pace from the usual shadow people, Grays, the giant floating crying baby’s head, or my personal favorite, the demonic black-eyed woman gnawing at my ankles.

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