visions of green

aaron mcmanus - green life, real estate, and everything in between

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

trust us...

only you can prevent atom bombs.



the us is planning to bomb iran.

call someone, write a letter, sign a petition to get gw impeached here:

http://www.velvetrevolution.us/content/impeach/impeach_bush.php

Monday, May 22, 2006

the greatest challenge is in knowing the challenge..

I had a great dinner & conversation last night with a wonderful group of people, among them Dr. Laura Marsh. Laura is a fascinating woman - she's been a staff scientist at Los Alamos labs, written countless papers and a science textbook on primates, taught at university level, spent the past 25 years researching in Central and South America in the jungles, and currently lives and owns a comic book store in Santa Fe. All this and she's only 40.

We spoke about many problems, questions, and issues facing the world today, and debated dozens of theoretical solutions. Laura recalled a student who approached her once because he wanted to be an activist; he wanted to promote some type of social change, to make things better, but he didn't know what cause to support. Laura told the story with the same sense of original shock she experienced. She has never suffered for a lack of a cause to promote.

I can understand that kid's perspective. As someone who knows that things are messed up wanting to make a difference, it's tough to know which direction to go. I've heard people say, "just start somewhere!", but that's part of the problem that got us here in the first place.

Humanity doesn't have any more sense of direction than that kid. Collectively, we're running around in 6 billion directions, all working in our own lives. Together we make up this planet, but there's no one in the driver's seat. Sure, there's leaders, there's people in positions of power, but there's no master plan, no road map.

We face a tidal wave of seemingly organized powers - business, finance, politics are all very aligned, in many ways. There are small minor differences, but the end goal is the same - to make money. Money is so easy to quantify, to compare, and to keep score. You know when you're winning by looking at the bottom line.

The road map to making money is easy - it's a business plan. A good one includes stated goals, objectives, organizational structures, key roles, and benchmarks. Benchmarks are specific points where you know that you've reached the next step in the grander scheme. They tell you that you've gotten to the point in the path where it's time to take the next planned course of action.

What are the largest challenges that face our society? Is the lack of community responsible for our individualistic country that has spawned so much greed and corruption in this world? Where does the root of our myriad social woes lead, and how to treat it without pesticides?

There's no business plan for the planet just yet, and especially not one that fits us all into nice tidy slots to explain exactly what our role is to be in this world. There's no instruction manual on life - it's up to us to figure it out.

Friday, May 19, 2006

amazing radio

A lady bought a new Lexus. It cost a bundle. Two days later, she brought
it back, complaining that the radio was not working. "Madam", said the
sales manager, "the audio system in this car is completely automatic.
All you need to do is tell it what you want to listen to, and you will
hear exactly that!" She drives out, somewhat amazed and a little
confused.

She looked at the radio and said "Nelson." The radio responded, "Ricky
or Willie?" Soon, she was speeding down the highway to the sounds of "On
the road again." The lady was astounded. If she wanted Beethoven, that's
what she got. If she wanted Nat King Cole, she got it.

Suddenly, at a traffic light, her light turned green and she pulled out.
Off to her right, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small sports
utility vehicle speeding toward her. She swerved and narrowly missed a
terrible collision. "Asshole", she muttered. And, from the
radio............

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States...."

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Iraqi police kill boy, 14, over gay sex - my response

I've been meaning to get back to you on this... there's a lot of things that I mean to do, and perhaps some day I will learn to take less on... either way, I wanted to say this:

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about war as a form of social darwinism - it seems to me that in some fashion, war is the inevitable result of overpopulation and density, and exists as a corrective measure which aids evolution. it would seem that the vast majority of the casualties that take place are of the lower classes - generally the elite, the clerics, the politicians, the intelligentsia, and whoever else is at the top of the social heap are long gone by the time that the bombs drop. much in the same way we're planning to get out of chicago before the shit hits the fan... many iraqis were out of there before we came in.

mobility is a hugely interesting thing right now to me - our technological achievements have made it possible for us (of course I speak of the human collective rather than the individual; certainly i acknowledge that not everyone is blessed with the finances to hop onto a jet) to go back and forth with such ease, and even to walk/hitchhike/bus across vast distances. we're able to simultaneously inhabit so many cultures and communities through the internet, through cell phones, satellites and the like we can be involved with any community in any place in time or space, even if it's a recreation of druidic customs that haven't been practiced in hundreds of years that one might now consider outdated. we can tap in from across the world, participating in various aspects of involvement in those communities, which sometimes cross national, political, and social boundaries that used to be much more difficult to span.

the gay community is probably one of the best examples of this - how remarkable it is for me to feel such a strong kinship and bond in understanding the fear that this boy must have felt, the terror that must have been created for him to prostitute himself in the first place, and the chaos that overwhelms the lives of people who feel forced into this corner - the ones who can't or don't leave in time.

i can certainly relate this to the argument that religion as it has been practiced on this planet so far has led to the disempowering of the individual. the idea that a church or other entity is needed to act as the conduit for a spiritual connection is inherently flawed. it places responsibility outside of each person, because judgement for the decision to act was made without that individual's consent or agreement - it is issued as an order, a directive, underwritten by a god that has a clear agenda which has placed the "messenger" of the word of god in a position of power. the argument is further compounded by self-evident circumstance presented as evidence - if god didn't want it this way, i wouldn't be the one sitting in the chair with you prostrate before my feet, i am the master and you are the servant, therefore it is preordained, therefore the will of god, therefore anything I say is the word of god because that's what I'm here for.

i wonder sometimes if logic itself is something that humanity needs to transcend. the arguments are circuitous at best, and are constantly divisional. our need to define, to separate, to divide ourselves from god by sorting and separating has led us to great things - if you didn't have the ability to focus on making beautiful things because you had to milk a cow and churn to get butter, for example, you would have made less beautiful things, and that would be not as good. i prefer this way, where we buy butter and have time to focus on what we like to do. in order to evolve to this point, we have gone through great suffering in the industrial age to create the processes to ship the butter to cub foods where i may swipe my little card to ding some digits in exchange for the agitated cow juice in a box.

i feel (hope) that we are in a place where we are learning as a species to transcend this. certainly that's not been the case so far - we have worse wars, suffering, and misery on this planet than we knew was achievable. our information/news/24-hour/500 channel/google society can tell us ad nauseam of all the horror and atrocity being launched against us collectively. it is my belief that no unenlightened being can be at peace when there is suffering in the world. enlightenment, i believe, is removing oneself from the cycles of fear and drama that perpetrate our human society, rooted in the fear of death and a scarcity mentality. enlightenment involves a deeper connection with nature, the universe, and a sense of interconnectedness that removes that fear of death because that deeper connection reinforces the idea that nothing is without purpose in a scheme much larger than any individual. if I die, it is of perhaps no consequence to the universe, but i also have the power to impact the existence of those around me and those who will come in the future.

to wrap this all up: the worldview that has been taught to our society is flawed at its core. in other words, religion is wrong. perhaps it worked in its time... i have no way of knowing. all i know is my own experience, and when i look around at this world, there is too much needless pain and suffering. our institutions, including government, business, and religion, have become so large that they are collapsing in on themselves. from the rubble we will rebuild a system which makes sense, which seeks to help humanity to grow and evolve like a tree, rooted in the earth and reaching for the stars.

or we will die in a nuclear blitz. either way.

xo

aaron

Iraqi police kill boy, 14, over gay sex - eric's comments

http://news.yahoo.com/s/po/iraqipolicekillboy14overgaysex
http://www.planetout.com/news/article.html?2006/04/21/1

my friend eric emailed me among friends:

Wooo Hooo!! We saved iraq and reestablished religious freedom for the people... free to kill gays just like the Christians do… or did… well quite a few still do… or at least silently approve when it does happen. I guess it all depends on where you live and your luck of crossing paths with one of the millions of religious psychos out there.

Go Jesus! Oops I mean… go Mohammed!!! … Go Go Go you hypocritical religions that worship death and kill for the afterlife. Kill Kill Kill… kill for "god" and hate hate hate… hate for your "savior". "Pray for war, pray for battle" as the Pentecostals sing.

Just makes me sick and angry that muslim people (gay) have been trying to find help and peace for decades, applying for amnesty in Christian countries only to be sent back and murdered in the name of "GOD".. and yet let one Christian be threatened and suddenly the world is full of compassion and outrage.

14 year olds killed in Iraq, 16 year olds in Afghanistan, Mathew Shepard in Montana, or the 20 some gay men murdered and missing in Florida. 50 some men in Egypt "suspected" of homosexuality and imprisoned pending death sentences. People shot in London bars, a year old infant chopped up by his father who thought his son "might be gay". Or even David's homophobic relatives at a funeral who snubbed my very existence and value as a human, just because I represent something they religiously hate.

And I am criticized for being rough on Christians as a whole.. what a fucking joke and inaccurate at that. I despise all mono-theistic religions equally, and some pantheist religions too! I hope they kill each other off, with little collateral damage onto us "pagans" and Atheists as possible.

Well enough of this, thanks for letting me blow steam.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

some core concepts leading to some conclusions...

1) real estate has become the largest vehicle for wealth in the world, 2) everyone needs a place to live, 3) the current system of home=$ has contributed to a polarity of wealth that is a part of an out-of-control downward spiral that will ultimately decrease the quality of life for everyone if it is allowed to run to its conclusion, 4) every form of what "runs" our society - government & business - is based on economics, so then my conclusion is 5) the only way to transform the system of real estate is to change the way in which it is purchased.

From that conclusion, I can surmise a couple of things. Sustainable community development is the goal, at the core of the 3 words. Sustainable - getting what we want & need now while adding to or at least not depleting what's left for the future. Community - group who share values/vision that creates a bond of mutual support & well-being. Development - Conscious evolution, our contribution as a species to this planet for good or ill. The combination of the words - sustainable community development - becomes more than just a concept, it is a redefinition of our outlook on life. Rather than strictly unwilling pawns in a sea of victimhood, we become active participants in the shaping of our existence, collectively and individually.

Then back to the process - we have a defined goal. The method of "community development" in how it is practiced today is hugely flawed. Development is a for-profit and speculative endeavor, rather than a planned goal-oriented plot of action agreed upon by the groups that would be most highly impacted. We assume that ultimately the forces that converge - economic, social, governmental, etc - will balance through our capitalistic self-induced illusion that "price" is the ultimate determinate of "value". This is at the root of housing - how much is it worth? What is the value? As realtors, it has been our duty to get the buyer to pay the most amount of money by "creating" the most amount of "value" for the property.

To do this, we tell stories. We speak of what this person here has paid, and why. What the village, the neighborhood, or the city is doing to improve the quality of life of the residents. We bring our clients to restaurants to taste, touch and hear the experience of what the lifestyle that is available in the vicinity has to offer. We share epics of the struggles, we weave tales of the triumphs - all in an effort, for each individual property, to justify the price that we're asking.

Back to community: When the questions are properly framed, it turns out that most people want the same things. When asked "war or peace?"; "feed the world or let it starve?"; "healthcare for all or let them die?"; "shelter or step over them in the gutter?"; we have been taught to ask about the costs. What does it cost to do these things? Can we afford to do it? These questions have been traditionally the openings for more stories to be told - and those stories have been tales of scarcity. We have been told stories that tell us that there's not enough to go around, that war is inevitable, and that suffering is simply a fact of life. What is missing is our own responsibility for those stories. Collectively, we have made the choices for war, for starvation, for death, and to deprive quite a large percentage of the world's population from what we would consider "adequate" shelter. Most of this is because we don't have that shared sense of community responsibility. We feel out of control.

The stories that we create ultimately shape our lives.

We have multiple upcoming crises on the horizon - oil, war, natural disasters - and the consequential "challenges" that they will subsequently create. The stories of gloom and doom that are being spread around are fierce. By telling stories of horror and strife with no room for hope, we curl up and await the inevitable.

I believe that we need to tell some new stories, and quickly. I have seen how much unseen influence the real estate industry has over the way that we relate to "home" - and it's not possible to change that alone. Collectively, I think we as a species are due for some really big surprises on the horizon - and I want to be prepared with some solutions when those things happen. I also want to write this stuff down, and to write some new stories that can be told. We are in need as a people for stories of hope that apply to our lives.

Our real estate system has to transmit the goal of sustainability in each purchase.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

LSD - The Beyond Within

Explores the relationship of LSD to spirituality and the quest for higher knowledge. Really good shit... god bless the internet... http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4703154979022931730

Friday, May 12, 2006

watch george bush get mocked to his face, & more!

steven colbert deserves a medal for this... i've got to find out how he got the chance to do this.... DEFINITELY watch this, so worth it!!! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-869183917758574879

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1921276117304287501 - this is george bush making fun of himself by hiring an impersonator to be his twin on stage... it's really creepy, but quite telling at the same time. you can tell a lot about a person by the jokes they tell.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8260059923762628848 - this is 911 loose change, an AMAZING film... we are living out the most interesting time in history, folks, and you've got the chance to witness it playing out... aren't you glad to be alive?

didn't your mom warn you?

google bomb!

what a delicious idea... http://freealaa.blogspot.com/ is asking for everyone with a blog to link up their site with the word "egypt" so that when searches go there people will find out about the detention of non-violent protestors by the egyptian government... gg g g g g google bomb!!!!!! (sung like the joan jett song)...

in all seriousness... the detention of alaa is definitely something worthy of linking up to, so if you have the ability to create a link on your page, please do so.

thanks!

a

Friday, May 05, 2006

what we're fighting for


it's been so amazing to recapture the sense of wonder and majesty that nature provides. almost everywhere you turn here, there are infinitely beautiful cliffs, bluffs, projections, outcroppings, hoodoos, mountains, valleys, rivers, grasses, trees, flowers... you know, nature.

it's so much easier here, away from the grit, grime, and grossness of the city to remember that this is what we're fighting to preserve - the air, trees, and utter beauty of it all. humans have a place on this planet, and we have a duty to enhance it, not deplete it.

it's fantastic.

new hat



i don't really wear hats in chicago, but somehow i felt i needed one for utah... it's absolutely dorky as hell, and i could really give a shit.

zion national park, utah


is absolutely fricking gorgeous. who knew that the mormons picked such a good spot to hang out?

Monday, May 01, 2006

co-housing project

i would like to see a co-housing project come together comprised of multiple age groups and familial statuses with incorporated educational and well-patient care systems in a green construction mixed-use development with restaurant, retail, manufacturing, and agricultural components that is completely sustainable. I wonder if I could collaborate with the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, KIPP, CNT and the Inspiration Cafe on that? Maybe design & draft a proposal for some city land? That would be a cool project to pull together. Really, really cool, actually. Hmmmmmmmm.

marching



i applaud all those people who took the day off to demonstrate that they can be heard. That they are people, walking to remind other people that they exist. That society is dependent on the interconnectivity of us all, that we all are here for something.

I applaud those people who've marched for peace, for justice, for humanity, for the world, for us all.

I hope for a day where we walk together instead of marching together, but I'm glad we're here together.

Happy May Day.

Aaron

greentopia

i am going to write a story, about people going through their lives - they are "normal" -they work in offices, they eat at chipotle, they go to the movies, they go to bars, they drive cars, they sleep around a bit, occasionally they catch STDs. One day they sense that a general sense of dissatisfaction is in their hearts - all of a sudden, they just really aren't feeling it anymore. They keep going through the motions, they keep on about their lives. It's getting harder and harder each day. They feel themselves coming closer and closer to snapping. They look around, and they see a system that they can't participate with. They see people, endless drones, unaware. They see a system so corrupt it is collapsing in on itself, but no one else sees it, because they're still trapped in their lives. They are all slowly waking up, and looking around.

Changes begin to happen. A lot of them move, quit their jobs. Divorce goes up. New religious leaders are springing up everywhere, and spirituality is being sold on every street corner. War rages on across the world, and the story on the television doesn't mesh with what was said 15 minutes before, never mind 15 months ago. In the midst of all of this, odd patterns begin to emerge. Strange coincidences become more frequent. Sentences get finished more quickly.

One day, people started walking. They're not sure of exactly how it started, but one person emailed another asking if she wouldn't like to take a walk with her, and he said yes... and the next thing they knew, it had caught on. Now every day, regardless of what activity is taking place, everyone stops at 6:59, looks at the clock, and turns the tivo on to pause the television. He puts down the knife, leaving the broccoli partially chopped. She saves her documents - work will continue upon her return. A collective agreement has been reached - a walk outside allows them all to connect. They see each other, smiling is enough for some, others pause to talk.

This walk will save it all, in the story - it allows people to assess each other, and to realize that they're all equal. It's a pretty dumb idea, actually. It's really damned cheesy.

Really, I'm not going to write that story. I have to write what I know, and what I know is about bullshit. I live a life where I walk around yackking all day about systems I don't believe in - I don't believe that I am living a sustainable life, and I want to change it. I am finding a way to merge my values and my life, but it has been a struggle. I have had to let go of a great many vices, and I have a great many to go. It has been a struggle, and I want it to stop. I am going to put out the good vibe, that I will allow my spiritual growth and transcendence to become easy.

Life is only as hard as we make it. I want to tell a story about people who realize that one day. They let go of the relentless pursuit of money. They step out of the rat race. I want that to be me. I've been trying to straddle, I've been yawning across the chasm between this materialistic whorish society and the peace and bliss of nature in all its cyclic eternity. I've got to pick a side, and I'm resisting that. I want to bring peace to the city. I want to connect this city back to nature. I want to write the story of the people making it happen, I want to write about how each building is connected to a dream. I want to write the story of this building coming to be. I want to write about greentopia, where there is a sense of community being actively sought after by people coming out of the rat race. These are people who have money, too - for them this life has been effortless - and they struggle only with the guilt of being able to easily get what they want. Realizing all the time how harsh a reality that has created in their wake is a constant sharp pain in the abdomen, or perhaps directly behind the right shoulder blade a knife is slowly drawn out. A dull one.

from this great pain, life grows. from the darkest soil grows the richest fruit - so it is with stories. the valley must be deep for the crossing to be a challenge - rarely is a warrior made by accomplishing nothing. this is the story that I want to tell.

Somehow, I want the two to merge. I want this life that I've seen - so much pain, so much suffering, so much beauty, all in the midst of each other... I want to create the garden of eden on earth, in this story. I want to show the vision becoming a reality. I want to show how simple small changes really can make the world a whole different place. I want to show it happening for everyone, not just the rich. That's the hard part. Maybe I don't have to write about the economics of it all, but I want it to be feasible. It's centered around the concept of critical mass - and I just have to write the story about what happens when enough people wake up and do something about it. Then, to remind themselves, they walk each night. That would be a good ending, I think. Walking to remember. Hmmm.