4Ü #298

Simplexity

18 October 2007

WASSUP- Do the math's - count the cost
INSIGHT OUT - When is enough enough?
OUTSIGHT IN - Simplexity
SEE YA SUNDAY - Affluenza
LAST WORD - Who's being consumed

WASSUP - Do the maths - count the cost

What would get you to take to the streets if you knew that to do so could cost you your life?

How about an average wage of 50 cents per day and a bag of rice at $20; enough to feed your family for a month? Do the maths; it just does not work.

Now watch this and be moved!

Still no word from our friends.

The silence is deafening.

Andrew

INSIGHT OUT - When is enough enough?

Question: Who is happier - the man with 12 children or the one with 12 million dollars?

Answer: The man with 12 children because he wants no more

When is enough enough?

Our want for more is killing us.

The desire for more will never satisfy.

You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.
James 5:5

Do the test www.pbs.org.kcts/affluenza

OUTSIGHT IN - Simplexity

The title caught my eye in the same way as does a beautiful woman crossing the street. A stand out title among all the boring ones in the business section at the bookstore "Simplexity". I resisted the temptation to touch but my curiosity was stirring. At first glance I thought that's fantastic, what a beautiful word. It's the answer to living in a complex world - simplexity, an acceptance of both simplicity and complexity at the same time.

However, look closer and you will discover that things are not what they may seem. Simplexity is the creation of a new virtual / fantastic reality that we are being lulled into living. Simplexity is being driven by the mass media who take the complexity of global events, dumb it down and then spoon feed it to us as simple. But it's not the fault of the media, we on the other side are in such a hurry that we demand simple answers to complexity. We live by sound bits and video clips.

Because of multimedia coverage of all events, they become increasingly symplectic. As I have shown in my book The Media Symplex: At the Edge of Meaning in the Age of Chaos, symplexity is the inescapable merging of the simple and the complex that is driven by the computer mindset being generated by electronic technologies. The entire sensorium, trained by media to adapt to media forms, has become symplectic. All perceptions are adulterated by the values implicit in media translations of reality. The time-lapse filmic opening of a rose forever alters one's sense of floral growth. Such virtual insights make us symplectic. Symplexity is the effect of the process of virtualization on reality.

Mass media simplify experience and thus make reality more complex, and they speed up the rate of cultural change to the point of creating a pervasive panicky angst. In an environment dominated by electric effects, reality always seems to be collapsing around us, creating confusion and unhappiness. Hypercoverage by multimedia news is partly accountable. CNN has become the ringmaster of contemporary emotional life. As part of the simplifying effects of media, symplexity promotes inhibition (desensitizing the receiver), induces us to "live mythically and in depth" (that is, to engage preconsciously in programming), and leaves us too often stumbling about the edge of meaning, where the interlacing network of media paradox reigns. In addition, symplexity exposes us to the management of consciousness by subliminal (preconscious) means, which militates against independent thought and action.

Frank Zingrone, Ph.D.

http://www.psychservices.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/54/3/311

I've just come back from the bookshop. I had to have a look inside that book. Simplexity: The simple rules of a complex world by Jeffrey Kluger 2007

Having read the fist 50 pages, the rules are anything but simple. This is no dumbing down book but one that invites the reader to live in the space between complexity and simplicity.

The price of the book at $39.95 didn't have the power for me to purchase. The value of an idea - priceless.

SEE YA SUNDAY - Affluenza

The western world is in the grip of a consumption binge that is unique in human history. We aspire to the lifestyles of the rich and famous at the cost of family, friends and personal fulfillment. Rates of stress, depression and obesity are up as we wrestle with the emptiness and endless disappointment of the consumer life.
Clive Hamilton

This Sunday we'll look at what the Bible has to say about affluenza as we look at James 5:1-6.

When you read this text you'll find it very hard hitting. It's very much like going to the doctor and being told that your lifestyle is killing you. The good news however, there is a cure!

8.30 & 10.30 - Affluenza

CANVAS this week with Matt and the crew @ 6.30pm

Can't wait ... see ya Sunday

Thanks for this time to chat.

Andrew
St Columba
Where Life and Faith Meet
andrew.norton@stcolumba.org.nz

It's free but don't steal

If this is of help to others, you are welcome to forward it. This e-mail letter is 97% original - 3% cut and paste & 100% fat free. 4U is copyright to Andrew Norton. That means you can't cut and paste it and call it your own (that's stealing). I'm happy for it to be used but please refer to the author.

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LAST WORD - Who's being consumed?

In rich countries today, consumption consists of people spending money they don't have to buy goods they don't need to impress people they don't like.
Anon