The Transcendence Manifesto - Newest Update

The Transcendence Manifesto

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United State of Transcendence
I will wage love, not war
I will fight for what I believe in but I will harm no one
I will think and be peace
I will run wild through the streets celebrating the glory of being alive
I will lend a helping hand
Not only when it is convenient but when it is needed
I will not believe the hype
I will accept my divine right to accept my divine rights
I will glow in the dark and light up the sky
With a passion so bright that enlightens this knight
That I am and will continue to thrive to be even more with each passing day
I will reuse and recycle
Even when it is a pain in the ass
I will do my best to uphold the most noble of goals
Those of freedom beauty truth and love
I will fight the powers that be
I will start my own private revolution

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the Republic of Transcendence
I will respect no establishment unless I agree with its establishment
I will question authority
Especially my own
I will just say no to the new world order
I will promote causes and charities that I believe in
I will stand up for issues that I believe in
And if I get knocked down, I will stand up again
I will run naked through the streets reciting poetry and singing my favorite songs
For the sheer wreckless joy of wild abandonment that comes from being alive
I will eat ravenously but healthily
I will worship humanity
I will give when I can
And then give a little more
I will take only what is mine to take and nothing more
I will share when I can
And then share a little more
I will not feel guilty
I will not feel guilty when I do feel guilty
I will not go quietly into that good night
I will acknowledge and honor the God-like nature of myself and others
I will accept responsibility for everything that happens to me
I will fully expect others to do the same
I will stop giving away my power and the power of others to unseen forces
Imagined by the fearful minds of but a few
I will respect the differences of others around me
Even if it makes me feel uncomfortable at times

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United State of Transcendence
I will laugh often at my TV
Even when it is not turned on
I will mute the commercials
I will shun corporate bullshit
Refuse to suck the corporate cock
And blow the roof off the mutha every chance I get
I will help more people than Mother Theresa or at least die trying
I will not blame others when I create difficulty in my life
I will sing like Rufus
Shake like Elvis
And dance like Prince
I will accept the fact that I am a sexy bastard
I will see the beauty that is all around me
I will commit random acts of kindness
And will equally commit random acts of anarchy to disrupt the status quo
Recognizing that the status quo has never been that great to begin with
I will have lots of sex with beautiful women (or men) (or both)
I will stop pretending that I believe that Columbus discovered America
I will respect and defend women's right to choose
I will respect other people’s sexual preferences
No matter how much it may freak me out
I will give a big fuck you salute to those few among us
Who are still ignorant enough to be homophobic
I will demand the truth from our civil servants
Who mistakenly on occasion think they are politicians
I will demand that they remember and acknowledge that they work for me
I will demand that they remember and acknowledge that they are not "in power"
But instead are no more nor no less than hired hands whose job it is to weild our power
I will hunt down and vote out the liars, even if that means none are left
I will go green stay green and live green
Even when it’s a downright pain in the ass
I will protect and defend the environment
I will not be politically correct
Because I do not believe in politics
I will “just say no” to mindless consumerism and the mass commercialization of everything around me
I will become a celebrity in my own right and stop giving attention to people who give nothing but repackaged products to make themselves more rich
I will take mainstream media with a grain of salt
I will give them even less
I will hunt down alternative sources for news and information
I will expect the best for myself and for everyone around me

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United State of Transcendence
I will fight to the death for what I believe in
Not for what I am told to believe in
I will do my best to rid my mind of and help wipe from the face of the earth
All forms of sexism, racism, chauvinism, looksism, moneyism, and any other isms that are not good for me or those around me
I will live eat sleep and breathe art for its own sake
I will paint my life as I want to see it
I will live the life of my dreams
And help others do the same
I will rebel when I have to
I will cry when I need to
I will laugh when I want to
I will love more and more each day
And then love some more
I will wage war on those who put religious or patriotic dogma above peace or reverence for life
I will pretend that I am God until I wake up one day and realize that I am God
I will not sleep my life away
I will remember to think
I will remember to feel
I will remember to breathe

I pledge allegiance to the United State of Transcendence
I will march on Washington like Dr. Martin Luther King
Wear my hair like Don King
And spit on the ground beneath anyone who claims to be a King
I will sing like Pavarotti in my brand new Masseratti
Make love like Don Juan
And come back like Rocky
I will float like a butterfly and sting like a bee
And have more style than Issey Miyakee
I will not the let the bastards drag me down
I will not do the Macarena
I will not go have a beer
I will laugh when someone says ‘that's just the way it is’
I will climb every mountain
I will whistle while I work
I will rise and shine
I will be here now
For as surely as I will be here later
Blessed be to me
Amen
Nod nod wink wink

©2002 by Fishy. Feel free to copy and distribute freely

Purpose... Part One

One of the things that has intrigued me most about this latest adventure is the mixed bag of feedback and reaction from friends and strangers alike that it has delivered to my doorstep. Some are enthusiastic and thrilled. Some blase' and silent. And some are downright confrontational and negative about the idea of me and the other Americans entering the country of Iran at this time in history. One guesses that reaction is fairly normal and to be expected; not just during these times, but at almost any time throughout recorded human history. The proverbial 'we' has always had a proverbial 'them' as an 'enemy' of some sort. It is one of the last few pitiable symptoms of the human condition.

Of course where and when one is born determines which 'we' they are and relate to and just who exactly the 'enemy' is. It is all rather arbitrary if one dares contemplate it for any length of time. It was The Earl of Rochester, the enviably witty and perceptive Sir John Wilmot, who once commented "Life has no purpose. It is undone by arbitrariness. I do this. I do that. And it matters not whether I do the opposite. But in art every action has its impact and consequence."

His words may be notable when defending the arts; and indeed in a life left unexamined you couldn't blame a person for wandering through life with that attitude. I am Russian. I am American. I am Chilean. I am Canadian. In the end, what does it really matter? But we are getting ahead of ourselves a bit.

Let us stop and ponder for a moment the matter at hand. A delegation of 14 Americans are deliberately heading into a country who's current president has publicly stated that he wants to see the destruction of their own native country AND the nation of Israel. Our own president refuses to communicate at all with the government of this other country except to issue strongly-worded public threats and economic sanctions against this 'other country' to the international media. And on and on it goes. It makes for a great puppet show for the masses and it fills the hearts and minds of millions around the globe with disarming distraction so intriguing that they forget for a moment everything around them except that 'we' are 'we' and 'they' are 'they'.

Americans of course are not welcomed into Iran with open arms exactly. And yet, we know that the people of that great ancient country are no more responsible for their president's words than the people of America or Britain are responsible for the 24,000 Iraqi civilians who were killed in 2007 alone due to the invasion of Iraq by aforesaid countries. 24,000 innocent civilians killed in one year. Is the figure even imaginable to us? I dare say it is not. And yet 14 Americans are still willingly going to pay money to go to this other country of 'thems' knowing full well that they may or may not be fully welcomed. So just what exatly IS the purpose?

When one thinks about it, it is the Greek, British, and Roman Empires we fashion ourselves after here in the States and the majority of the Western World. Not the Islamic Empires. From very young ages in the West we learn of Plato and Socrates and Churchill and Caesar and Constantine and King Henry VIII even. But we don't hear much about the Islamic Empires or the rulers or kings or scientists or poets or much of anything about anything relating to Islamic thought or history.

It is an unfortunate result of whatever defect that one chooses to label it in the thinking and planning of our chosen officials and leaders. In school I, like many, was forced to read Aristotle but had to discover Rumi on my own. I was forced to read Shakespeare but had to discover Khalil Gibran on my own. I had to learn that Baghdad had the greatest library in the world on my own, before the Mongols destroyed it, along with the fact that Muslims at their peak were forerunners of the Italian Renaissance, innovators of modern day hospitals, paper making, textiles, soap, transcribed many of the most important writings of the ancient Greeks, and that their sophisticated bureaucracy is often credited as the basis of modern constitutions.

Of course there is more. There always is. As much as one cares to 'major' in things Christian or American or Western or British or Greek or Roman, there is just as much to study in the way of things Islamic or Babylonian, Arabian, Persian, or even Syrian. Much of it depends on where one is born and the indoctrination they receive as youngsters from those whose hands feed them their food. But don't go admitting simple truths such as these in public. For obvious reasons. People are very emotionally reactive regarding their home-country. Whether justifiably so or not. Some call it patriotism. Some call it jingoism. Some call it nationalism. Some call it terrorism. Some call it treason. I don't call it anything. I just observe that it is so.