Surreal Times Call For Surreal Art - Mark Bryan

"Homeland"

Life is increasingly surreal, and a Daliesque strangeness pervades everything. I don't really mind, and kind of like it that way, although I prefer a more benign situation rather than the predominantly evil one in which we find ourselves today. 

It makes sense, then, that I enjoy surrealist art. 

Art that is surrealist, and that also reflects and comments on the strange and twisted realities that we live with, is even better. That describes the punch in the brain art of Mark Bryan. 

"Ship Of State"

This is the preamble from a 2016 interview with the artist:

"Alongside his political works, Mark also creates imagery which stems from significantly more unconscious origins, and which draw just as heavily, on the melange of 1950’s and ’60’s low budget sci-fi, psychedelic comics and surrealist works he was influenced by throughout his youth.

 

Regardless of which of these two distinct camps his work falls into, there are some things which are absolutely certain; Bryan’s work is unquestionably his own, it is crafted with the utmost sincerity and unequivocally wrapped in an indubitable honesty."

"Pie In The Sky"

Unsurprisingly, Bryan's early influences were artists like Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, and R. Crumb. Early events that influenced his thinking were the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam War, Civil Rights Movement, assassinations of Kennedy and MLK, and "the whole hippie/psychedelic/eastern religion phenomenon". 

He says of the times he grew up in, "We truly believed the world could and should be changed. It was a strange mix of optimism and horror. Those events have stayed with me all these years and continually surface in my paintings."

"The Republic of Amnesia"

"Political art is propaganda and opinion", says Bryan. "We all push for what we believe in and against what we fear. When the circus turns especially ugly, I feel the need and responsibility to make some kind of comment. Sometimes, it’s just too easy. Many political characters are already walking cartoons and almost paint themselves. So how can one resist?"  

That's funny... and true. 

"Trump-O-Matic"

It is a strange and twisted world, a surrealist circus, and that makes for some very interesting art. In this regard, Bryan's is among the most intriguing I have seen.

See more of Mark's art here: artofmarkbryan.com

2 + 2 = 5

Political parties gangs want us to believe that 2+2 = 5. They want us to believe that they are different from each other. But when they win an election succeed in taking over the turf, their policies all look eerily similar. Why?

"It isn’t nations and governments pulling the strings of real power in the world, it’s a class of plutocrats who aren’t ultimately answerable to any government. 

This class of plutocrats uses governments like Israel, the US, the UK, and the KSA to advance its agendas to exploit, loot and plunder the rest of humanity."

- Caitlin Johnstone

So any gang I can vote for supports infinite growth, consumerism, fossil fuel subsidies, perpetual war, Israel's slaughter of peaceful Palestinian protesters, and worst of all, the plutocrats. Why don't I have better choices?

“When a plutocracy is disguised as a democracy, the system is beyond corrupt.” 

- Suzy Kassem

It seems like the takeover is near complete. But not all is lost. We can fight back, and show we care, by living more self-sufficient, simple, and local lifestyles. 

The more we immerse ourselves in our own lives and communities, the less we are financially supporting (and condoning the actions of) the exploiters, looters and plunderers. 

Anything else is pretending what isn't true - that our governments work for the people, and that you can have everything you want without all the grief it causes.

2 + 2 = 4, and a local simplicity is the way on our finite planet. 

What Are You Doing?

“Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?"  - Sun Tzu

There are many problems on our planet that need to be addressed, be they political, environmental, spiritual or otherwise. Most seem gargantuan and intractable. This is leading people to wonder what they could possibly do to help. As it turns out, there is a lot that each of us can do.

However, none of it will be easy. It will be worthwhile, though, and our survival depends on what each of us decides as individuals.

Overall, one of the best things you can do is carefully attend to how you use energy, food, and water. These "Big Three" account for the majority of damage being done to our ecosphere. Think about the level of efficiency with which you use these precious resources. Are there areas you could make improvements?

While it has not been popular for years (I suspect because it bites into potential profits and tax revenue), conservation is still the best way to go. All resources we use should be treated with the respect that these sacred gifts deserve. We honour them by using them wisely.

There are also specific things one can do, too numerous to list. I will start with a few that come to mind. You can probably think of a few of your own.

1. Civic Involvement - join a club, or start one. Get involved, and empowered. Volunteer at a school, or food bank. Help establish a community garden, join Habitat For Humanity, search and rescue, or a beach cleaning. Go to town hall meetings and demand answers from elected officials. Write letters. Make phone calls. Talk to the media about what you are doing.

2. Spend Your Money Strategically - choose to purchase products from companies and people you support, boycott those that do things you don’t like. Have a boycott list handy to view a couple times a year as a reminder. Better yet, withhold your money all together. Choose to stop buying certain things, permanently.

3. Spread The Word - let people know what you are doing, and why. This is how small individual actions and efforts spread and result in a big bang of change.

4. Practice Voluntary Simplicity - a simple lifestyle is a more sustainable lifestyle. It can also be a happier, more content way to go.

5. Never Listen To Naysayers - never let anyone, ever, convince you that individual actions can never make a difference and are only an exercise in futility. Individual choices are where the work gets done. More beneficial choices will lead to better outcomes.

Each of us has the power to do something every moment of every day. We can move toward a better world one decision at a time. The choice is ours to make.

10,000 Year Plan

"Our long term plan is like our short term plan, only longer."

Humanity should think about developing a plan longer than the next election cycle. We don't need 5 year plans, we need 5,000 year plans. Preferably two of them.

A solid 10,000 year plan would go a long way toward figuring out where we want to go with this petri dish known as Earth. I love the idea of thinking ahead 7 generations, but how about extending that to 500? Supposedly we are the smartest creatures on Earth (and the known Universe according to some), so we should be able to get our big brains together and do this thing.

In order to reduce the chance of repeating the thousands of years of blind bumbling that we have been experiencing so far, we should come up with an overall plan for humans (and everything else) on our shared petri-planet home. Surely, considering the importance of my proposal, we can get some consensus towards a set of common goals and outcomes.

Like survival at first, looking at our increasingly grim short term prospects.

Then we can proceed from there and start planning for things like ridding the environment of human-created radiation produced during our misguided experiment with nuclear energy. That alone is a project that will take thousands of years. We should have one of those already, shouldn't we?

Next in The Big Plan we can look out over the next few hundred years. Where do we see ourselves as a species? What do we want to achieve in this time? I for one would like to see something more substantial than the planet's first trillionare.

A lot can happen in one year, let alone a hundred or a thousand. We should have a plan to help direct where we are going. Many of us can imagine a better world, and if we can imagine it, we can achieve it. We can put it in the plan.

As an ex-teacher I know the importance and the challenges of planning. It will take a different way of thinking to extend our imaginations past the next election, or our own brief existence. But we do care about our kids, don't we? And their kids? And theirs? And so on all the way up the line?

We have already had many thousands of years to get this thing right, and it feels like we aren't quite there yet. Let's get The Big Plan started.

How do you see humanity developing over 10,000 years? The glorious possibilities are endless.

The Dissenters

"The dissenter is every human being at those moments of their life when they resign momentarily from the herd and thinks for themselves.”

- Archibald Macleish

Well, America, this should be interesting. Dissent is healthy in a democracy, so we will have to wait and see what happens. Best of luck.

Just in case you are wondering, your neighbours to the north have lots of room for polite political refugees, although you might want to wait before checking us out online. Our immigration website crashed last night.

You could always ask a Vietnam War conscientious objector that has been living here for the past few decades - it's really quite nice. My sister is married to one of these beautiful people. He wouldn't kill for the state, and we welcomed him with open arms. We will welcome you, too.

Or you could stay home, and help make America great again. Either way, it is going to be an interesting next four years.

We Are Destroying Earth

Sure is hard, difficult and uncomfortable to be paying attention these days. You can ignore all the bad news if you wish, but the only way to make it go away permanently is to pay attention, then do something about it.

Thankfully, there are many good people that ARE doing something about it, including many of the readers of this blog and blogs like it. But we need more people. Way more. A critical mass of people that are pissed off and that won't take this crap any more.

The following is from Annarky's Blog, a place I visit daily.

"It is now obvious that the corporate world, is destroying the planet. Ground water is contaminated, rivers are polluted, oceans and seas are poisoned, glaciers are melting, forests are stripped bare. Natural habitats disappear under a carpet of tarmac and industrial constructions, more and more species become extinct. All this is done for profit to benefit the few. If we continue as we are doing, it is only a matter of time before the species responsible for this insane destruction of our planet will join the ever growing list of extinct species. 

Where does the state stand in all this? Take a glance around and it becomes obvious. Where resistance to this killing of the planet grows and gets in the way of corporate profit, the state apparatus, as the corporate world's hit squad, moves in and attempts to crush that resistance to the corporate greed and insanity."

Read more at: http://radicalglasgowblog.blogspot.ca, and thank you for paying attention and taking action. While no one can do everything, everyone can do something.

100% Clean, Renewable Energy Possible Now

We need a 'Renewables First' energy policy, and a commitment to
achieving 100% clean energy production as soon as possible.

"A new study – co-authored by Stanford researcher Mark Z. Jacobson and UC-Davis researcher Mark A. Delucchi – analyzing what is needed to convert the world's energy supplies to clean and sustainable sources says that it can be done with today's technology at costs roughly comparable to conventional energy. 

But converting will be a massive undertaking on the scale of the moon landings. What is needed most is the societal and political will to make it happen."

Read more here.

The Occupy Movement: Making Peaceful Revolution Possible

Last week an Occupy San Francisco encampment was shut down by police. Occupy Denver will be shut down tonight, and in New York it appears that Mayor Bloomberg, after saying protesters could stay as long as they wanted, wants the peaceful occupiers out. The excuse he is using is that the park needs to be "cleaned", but cleaned of what?

Corporations make their wishes known through 'lobbying'. Big Money sends out lobbyists with suitcases full of cash to shower on our politicians when votes go the right way. The lobbyists are welcomed by our 'leaders', who then go on to influence policy that affects the corporate world's greedy plans for market domination.

In stark contrast is when the people make their wishes known. Then it is called "protesting". Citizens become "protesters", or "hippies", or "anarchists". A group of such citizens are a "mob", and they are dangerous regardless of how peaceful they may appear. The police, agents of the state, move in.

"Bad protester - Go Home!"

Lobbyists are given a seat at the table, while citizens exercising their free speech rights are harassed, arrested, jailed, then told to go home and wait for the next election.

In a democracy we have a responsibility to be engaged in our political system at all times. When we see injustice it is our responsibility to speak out and demand change from the individuals we vote to represent us.

If we are not allowed to do this peacefully, then do we really live in a democracy any more?

Corporate media will tell you that the Occupy Movement does not have a coherent message. For those that are actually listening, and are not threatened by the truths within, the message can be heard loud and clear:

"Over the last 30 years, the 1% have created a global economic system - neoliberalism - that attacks our human rights and destroys our environment. Neoliberalism is worldwide - it is the reason you no longer have a job, it is the reason you cannot afford healthcare, education, food, your mortgage. Neoliberalism is your future stolen. 

Neoliberalism is everywhere, gutting labor standards, living wages, social contracts, and environmental protections. It is "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money." It is a system that ravages the global south and creates global financial crisis - crisis in Spain, in Greece, in the United States. It is a system built on greed and thrives on destablizing shocks. It allows the 1% to enrich themselves by impoverishing humanity. 

This has to stop!
We must usher in an era of democratic and economic justice.
We must change, we must evolve. 

On October 15th the world will rise up as one and say, "We have had enough! We are a new beginning, a global fight on on all fronts that will usher in an era of shared prosperity, respect, mutual aid, and dignity."

- From occupywallst.org

Let's make peaceful revolution possible. On October 15th let your elected officials know how you feel about the present state of the world. Do something to express your freedom of speech and celebrate our democratic rights.

• write a letter
• send an email
• make up a sign with a catchy slogan, and picket City Hall, or a bank, or a country club.
• vow to spend as little money as possible on corporate crap
• support local small businesses in your community
• Work hard, have fun, and change the world - it is your right, and your responsibility

The Mean And The Greedy

Meet Michael Martin, former speaker of the British House of Commons, and current poster child for avarice while sucking from the public teat. He has been ousted now, the first speaker to be kicked out since it last happened in 1695. At that time Sir John Trevor was sacked for taking bribes.

Rodney Barker, a professor of government at the London School of Economics, said Mr. Martin's departure shows Parliament is taking reform seriously.

“It won't solve anything at all, but if his successor could appear to be taking charge of things in a way that implements proper procedures, probity, and decent use of public money, that would be the very opposite of Michael Martin's position,” Mr. Barker said. “He has been seen as a supporter of the most greedy and the most mean.”

Is it not time we quit supporting the most greedy and mean among us? Speaking of which, the politicians here in British Columbia are busily following the same agenda. The minimum wage in this province has not increased in a decade, and welfare rolls are up almost 50% over last year. It is in this climate that the BC Liberals voted themselves generous wage and pension increases. The leader of the party, Gordon Campbell, gave himself a whopping 54 per cent wage hike -- a $89,000 raise.

Now the NDP in the BC legislature have decided, after initial opposition, to also take the wage and pension package. If the Green Party had a few seats in the legislature (and they would if we had opted for the Single Transferable Vote system in the referendum), I wonder if they would have taken the increase?

Our current system was made by humans, therefore humans can change it for a model more in line with our times and our current level of evolution. If we were starting out now, can you seriously say that the current system is the one we would choose to build for ourselves? A system in which the richest 2% in the world possess over half of all household wealth? Is this what we would vote for?

Or do the richest 2% somehow "deserve" such wealth? Don't they earn it, fair and square?

"Earned does not mean deserved. Due to the law of conservation of energy, one cannot gain wealth without taking it from somewhere. Due to the misfortune that nothing of value exists on this planet without some form of human claimant, all wealth must come about through exploitation of one human by another. So try to imagine how 2% of the world have come to acquire half of the world’s household wealth…or how they ‘earned’ it. Then try to understand the incredible violence that a word like ‘earned’ suggests." - Devin


Show me a great concentration of wealth and I will show you crime and corruption. That is the nature of our current system. What can you do? Be a rebel. Right now one of the most subversive things a citizen can do is stop buying stuff. Keep your money in a jar in the back yard. Do not support the mean and the greedy. Stop buying their stuff.