No reference reflects my thoughts entire, no conspiracy theory represents my thoughts, all references should be seen as an opportunity to think about things differently. Believe nothing and everything, just make a practice of thinking, inside and outside the box, laterally and vertically, think about things you agree and disagree with, think about yourself and the ‘other’. Think and listen.

Senses: To start, think about your senses with ‘Touch the Sound’ a documentary on the percussion artist Evelyn Glennie, a great musician who changed the way for musicians. Her website is evelyn.co.uk but the movie isn’t too hard to find on the internets.

History : ‘Weather Underground’ - Google Video free, documentary on American ‘terrorists’. A group involved in trying to bring awareness to the American people about the violence of the Vietnam War.

Practice some thoughts in conspiracy theory but please remember these are most importantly practices in thinking, not something to run around and believe, just think.

Conspiracy: The much watched ‘Zeitgeist’ at thezeitgeistmovement.com - another google video free movie.

I promote all conspiracy theory thoughts, but I’m very selective in what I choose to believe. Conspiracy theory is where lateral and vertical thinking is fun, but this is where I quote from the movie ‘Dogma’ about the concept of beliefs…

—“Having beliefs isn’t good?”
—“I think it’s better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. Life should be malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limit growth; new ideas can’t generate. Life becomes stagnant.”

Be careful what you believe, but don’t censor what you think.

Education:

-There is a very popular still growing video called ‘Did you Know’ started by teachers in the USA. there are several different version but they all speak to the growing technology, birth rate, and ways to communicate. youtube search ‘Did you know’ and pick any version you like.

-John Taylor Gatto a teacher himself, wrote a book on the discussion of the start of institutionalized education and the current uses and flaws of the system. All of his books are mostly the same thing and you’d probably only need to read a chapter to really get the just of his argument but I thoroughly enjoyed the book ‘Weapons of Mass Instruction’…

-Daniel Quinn has some great thoughts on education in the book ‘My Ishmael’.

Side note: I’ve been seen as a Daniel Quinn ‘follower’ by some people, and it seems to be an attempt to insult my personal beliefs, but Quinn has been a useful tool in developing my thoughts outside of the box, while I don’t see this as actually agreeing with Quinn. His books have been useful for thinking, and the majority of his conclusions I either take farther than he does and exaggerate his thoughts or I actually disagree with him. I view Quinn like any other ideas and do not hold Quinn beliefs, just ideas.

Environmentalism and global homogenization:

Derrick Jensen- google video has a 2hr interview of him that is the book ‘The problems with Civilization’ in a video form. Entertaining and thought provoking if you let it be. I think Jensen really gets at the concept of the damaging effects of lack of identity. A big book, with a very grim outlook on the current civilization tendencies.

Wade Davis - ‘Light at the Edge of the World’ … a nice little view of the dying fringe cultures. Wade Davis is a national geographic’s anthropologist, and wrote an entertaining account of his travels and encounters.

‘Vanishing Voices’ — a text book format, but if you let it, a very entertaining and insightful discussion on dying diversity in not just the world of languages, but biodiversity and all diversity.

Random references.. these aren’t new.

Currently reading an introduction to sociolinguistics by Peter Trudgill