Capitalism, My New Hobby: a Post Work Out Ramble

My latest mini-obsession has become business as an art. I don't really think we're going to see Capitalism go anywhere (I sort of buy into Fukuyama's thesis; at least as far as I understand it) so progressive types are going to have to start building companies that can compete and win against the cigar chomping death culture dealers.

Barring a major revolution where we end up a planet full of Democratic Agrarianists connected to each other by the internet, intent on providing equality for all, that is.

I understand and agree with the arguments from people like Derek Jensen that basically say as long as we have Capitalism we will be screwed. I also get the idea that corporations are basically sociopathic entities (like Skynet).

I'm fairly sympathetic to anarcho-primitive ideas, but I'd say they're more or less a fantasy. I mean, don't get me wrong, I fucking love the idea of folks living in the ruins of civilization as some kind of post-apocalyptic tribe.

When you add in ideas about Social & Deep Ecology, combining my favorite things about Dave Foreman and Murray Bookchin's philosophies to some righteous Ted Nugent style bow hunting, leather clothes that'll last you a life time and hot dred-locked warrior women, you basically can sign me up right away.

After I read The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson my professor, Dale Carrico, asked me whether or not I considered it a Utopia or a Dystopia. My 28 year old self immediately replied, "Utopia". I mean, after all, I was doing Crossfit. I was fucking strong. What could possibly go wrong for me in a post-peak oil wasteland?

My teeth. That's what. I had to get two crowns after major cavities did their handy work. No matter what those paleo diet folks say, I'm happy to have shoes and doctors.

I understand and agree with the arguments from people like Derek Jensen that basically say as long as we have Capitalism we will be screwed. I also get the idea that corporations are basically sociopathic entities (like Skynet). That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to change them.

Check this idea out: there's this theory called the Stoned Ape Theory that basically claims that hominids didn't evolve or give a shit about each other until they got a hold of some psychedelic mushrooms. Then they started feeling connected to each other, developed tools, complex social groups and got some traction. If you've ever taken mushrooms, you'll be receptive to this theory (which doesn't mean you have to believe it). If you haven't, go take some mushrooms.

Now think of a corporation as a kind of super organism made up of people. If you have one made out of assholes, you're probably going to end up with an asshole corporation. What if the corporation was made out of people who wanted a more efficient, connected, psychedelic planet?

There aren't too many rad large companies (Patagonia comes to mind). However, there are a ton of cool small to mid sized companies. If we can grow those companies, get them big enough to lobby as strongly as the bad guys. We win.

I work for a pretty big player in the so called Green Capitalism scene (my previous employer was also pretty well known in that circle as well) so I've got a good amount of experience with it. Is it perfect? Fuck no. Could it be better? Fuck yes.

So what I'm up to is embarking on a personal mission. I want to be a very successful businessman. I want to fight people like the Koch Brothers and all the rest of the bastards. I want to crush them, see them driven before me and hear the lamentation of their women.

Here's my plan: I'm going to spend the next two years learning as much as possible using a DIY business school learning plan and I'm going to start my own business using the principles I learn.

This shit is not going to be easy.

Francis Bacon and Tim Ferriss

I've been reading Tim Ferriss' Four Hour Work Week and accompanying blog for the last few weeks along with Francis Bacon's essays (as part of my larger project of reading the entire Harvard Classics Five Foot Bookshelf).

At one point I hit a particularly ponderous few chapters in the Bacon about building gardens for grand estates. At near midnight, 16th century descriptions of the proper height for hedges and statuary works better than any sleeping pill.

The next day I had an epiphany, though. Francis Bacon is all about lifestyle design, which is Tim Ferris' whole deal. Bacon is teaching a lord or rich person the proper way to order his household so that he can maximize the work of becoming more enlightened. The assumption is clearly that you are already fucking rich.

I always really respected authors like Charles Bukowski and Stephen King who accomplished their work while slaving away at full time jobs. Bukowski always talked about how you either can do it or you can't (it being writing) and it will burn a whole in you if you don't. There probably isn't a more soul crushing environment than the Post Office).

That said, an awful lot of the best writing was done by folks who were the heads of households, people who didn't have to worry about the minutiae of everyday life.

Ferriss advocates automating as much of these functions as possible. I've found that even on a modest salary, having others do certain kinds of work frees up quite a bit of valuable time. My wife and I have a house cleaner, I never work on my motorcycle. Paying others to do what you don't do well or don't know what to do is a good idea, provided you can afford it.

Affording it is the trick.

Ramblings on the Rich

Here's an example of the kind of argument people are using when they don't want taxes raised on the rich: if a rich "job creator" works harder than some clown that kicked their feet up and drank Thunderbird and played World of Warcraft all day, they'd probably feel pissed if someone tried to make them pay more taxes.

I agree. If you work hard, you should keep your earnings. If you're lazy, fuck yourself.

But what's missing here is many of these rich job creators don't really work any harder than the people they employ, they were just more willing to take an up front risk and create something out of nothing (or something out of a ton of ingerited wealth). Startign a company takes balls and the number of them that fail prove it's not easy.

Basically when we reward these kinds of people, we're rewarding cocky self assurance and risky behavior. I'm down with both of those things. It's what made that first fish waddle onto land and say "Check this shit out boys!" It's what makes evolution possible (if you don't believe in evolution, you should be barred by law from using it to explain economic theories).

If there's a problem with the current system, I'd say that it's we're too willing too bail out these risk takers and too unwilling to help everyday folks who've just had a run of bad luck. In reality, most of us are not job creators and most of us are not lazy. We're sort of stuck in the middle.

Too big to fail seems to create too small to thrive. The big guys, insured from collapse by the rest of us, make it hard for the little guy to grow.

Ehh.

I really wish Hunter S. Thompson wasn’t dead and Christopher Hitchens wasn’t sick. Pretty much all we’re left with are talking head class warriors who barely qualify as journalists, much less intellectuals. They’re too concerned with defending the poor or defending the rich. I’d like to see more defending of the truth.

Valencia St. Muscle

Let me tell you about Valencia St. Muscle. The carpet is threadbare and stained. The restrooms have the smell of a bus station. Almost all of the equipment is battered and bruised. There are mirrors everywhere, many with cracks. They have those god awful hexagonal shaped plates that shift about when you set them down when deadlifting.

It's rarely busy, but when it is you will find an amazing cross section of mutants. Lifting gloves are the norm. Personal trainers seem to be fond of every kind of program except those that include the basic compound lifts. Grossly out of shape men flex in front of the mirrors, clearly feeling the pump of their tri-cep pulldowns.
I love this place.

It's basically Average Joe's Gym from the movie Dodgeball.


There are three squat racks, and they are almost never occupied by anyone. I have never seen more than 10 people here at a time and they are almost always chained to the cardio equipment.

No one says anything to you or comments about what you're doing. There are no clowns running around doing Mens-Fitness-Magazine-Crossfit-Rip-Off-exercises.

Planet Granite and Mission Cliffs are both filled with douche bag climbers that feel it is their duty to inform you that squatting deep will ruin your knees and that you really should be lifting in Vibrams, one footed while standing on a Bosu ball (not kidding). The crime is that Planet Granite actually has a pretty good set up (with the notable exception of a power rack). Mission Cliffs is a pit.

Looking for Trouble

I scan news sites several times a day, always disappinted when something crazy isn't happening. This is an obsession. I'm waiting to read about the event or cause that will wake me up before I die. The thing that I'll burn the candle for or burn for.

Jesus, I need a hobby.

Francis Bacon

I'm back on track with a healthy diet and some kind of fitness strategy, so it only makes sense I climb back on the brain train(ing).

It's not like I haven't been reading, last night I finished Man's Search for Meaning. I just haven't been plowing through the Harvard Classics.

Last night I read about twenty pages of Francis Bacon. It's possible that in twenty years no one will have read what I read last night. Two of the longer essays I read last night were about how to build a home and a garden.

Essentially Bacon talks about how he would design a great big English Estate. No one alive needs this advice. It really is a dead subject. Sure people are building big homes, but they're either cheesey McMansions or super weird high design.