the culminating ideas from today's information

1. podcast on free in digital economy
2. lunch with david
a. decline of the american empire. america is a society in which the rich are protected- fannie mae and freddie mac- the shareholders make the profit when the company is doing well, but when they fail, it is the taxpayers that take the burden.
3. lecture and film on gangs and mercenaries and maquilas in honduras
a. rejection of any value placed on aesthetics or theory.
4. podcast on mill's on liberty
a. we cannot conform to society's expectations of us. we have be able to grow to our fullest capacity. we have to allow our opinions to change. we cannot live in fear of what

resulting idea: no fear.
so: keep a journal chronicling instances in which you experience fear or submission.

fear is the leading tactic that allows for control and submission. the prisoner's dilemma and dawkins' the selfish gene illustrate and helped form the idea of an individualistic and inwardly oriented society. corporations depend on personal information so that they can create products that target you and can better manipulate your desires and habits. the more information they have on your habits, the more they can control. now we have increased channels for self expression (me-generation: facebook, myspace, twitter) and this egotistical desire to share you with the world results in you being more exposed and more vulnerable.
the idea of no fear. if we all lived with no fear, would that in turn create a society of fear?- because there are fearless people- and those are the ones you should fear. or should no fear not be expressed in terms of aggression, but in terms of trust? and do we not create trust by making ourselves vulnerable? so by opening ourselves up, we are creating a more communal, trusting, free society. no self-imposed restriction of expression.
or is that a myth that makes us want to expose ourselves, by saying that we have the freedom of self expression, it is after all, the very first amendment, but is freedom to expose yourself any real freedom at all? is it an illusion of freedom created by corporations that want to stay in control of you? then again, corporation are becoming more transparent as well, by having open platforms where any person can have access to their information (or so it seems- it is selective- but maintains the illusion that everyone is open, and allows the consumer to feel like he can express himself ) but they benefit the most from these initiatives.
so living in no fear does not necessarily mean that you are constantly voicing your opinions, it means that your actions are not

so: keep a journal chronicling instances in which you experience fear or submission.

on another note:
isn't it crazy that we live in a society where we CONSTANTLY have to self regulate??!?!?
we are so overloaded with options- in terms of food, in terms of pleasure, in terms of indulgence.
everything is so widely available that we have to self impose restraint where our (natural?) impulse is to consume and take and hoard.
this creates stress and anxiety because we have to always be resisting our urges.
we create these ridiculous regulations because they aren't external and there is no implicit basis for them. such as the cayenne-maple syrup- lemonade fast. where we create the boundaries for ourselves that often are too rigid in response to the boundlessness of options- we take the other extreme. like mary-kate olsen who has too much money and success from such an early age that she creates ridiculous guidlines for herself when ordering a cappuccino.
maybe it is the launching point for obsessive compulsive disorder. trying to find (but really, create for yourself) the underlying order amidst the overflow of an increasingly complex web of society and options and indecision.

so, in the sense that we are still evolving- are the self-restricting individuals the future? it already seems that the individualistic individual is the present, which is a product of society, but who creates society other than individuals?