Valoric Fire

I am Canadian but grew up in New York City. Currently I live in the proverbial foreclosure captial of Southwest Florida. Economic devestation incarnate is a good description. This diverse and often contrasting cultural & social dynamic, afforded me a "self" educational value that counter balanced my former diet of assembly line, mass produced spoon fed academics that passes for higher education.

High School days...

I lived in Spanish Harlem commuting daily, via the MTA (Mass Transit) to a Catholic high school, opposite the NYC chapter clubhouse of the Hell's Angels outlaw biker gang.  A fitting contrast and a blunt dosage of reality in the surreal concrete jungle.  I have also lived in "Alphabet City" prior to gentrification which paved the way for the post beatnik crowd, hummus crazed yuppies and rise in converted apartments justifying costly rent increases.  Slumlords no more. 

Lower east side....

I remember dodging bricks as a pastime afterschool activity, while cutting through the empty remnants of abandoned buildings.  It was like living in a post apocalyptic John Carpenter movie set.  Snake Plissken I was not. My time as a public school student abrutly ended.  Could it have been the rage in heroin use and the youth gang recruitment in those bygone days........only my parents would know.  Needless to say I survived and got my street smarts BA degree at an early age.

Relocation Numero Uno...

Living off Union Square was great. The village and the much adorned 8th street was a stupendous playground for a young aspiring hard rock musician.  I was In a band, studying music theory in college, classical music privately, rebel without a cause, and wearing black.  There was hell to pay for all those mandatory First Friday masses in Catholic school.  I even played at CBGB's!  I took guitar lessons in the Bowery from a Berklee grad and studied classical guitar on Astor Place.  I was even perfecting Bach's Prelude in D minor for my audtion at Mannes College of Music.  The road in life seemed clear and without distracting obstacles.

"You killed my brother!"...

My home away from home was Chinatown.  I studied traditional Chinese martial arts.  My sifu (master) spoke little english and I was taught in the traditional sense, as opposed to the mass marketed McDojo experience.  We celebrated like family on Chinese New Year with traditional lion dances on Canal street, and a Master's appreciation day filled with delicious almond cookies from The Nice One bakery on Bayard street.  We painted the school when needed and full contact sparring was part of the curriculum.  No insurance forms required or parental hold my hand "poofter" consent. It was old school.

Indoctrination....

I attened NYU in the GSP program.  It was an extension my my previous experiences growing up total New Yawk!  I wanted to attended Tisch Scool of arts.  I remember being accepted to the HS of Art and Design while in grammar school but fate led me to a private Catholic HS instead.  Parents and the stigmatism of being one of those "art" types...you know,... jobless with a BFA (Bachelor's in Fine Arts) destroyed any notion of that alternate reality.

The wonderful world of Computers......

I self studied through several certifications in the Information Technology field as well.  In some respects, almost everyone jumped on the proverbial tech bandwagon.  Currently I am a "paper tiger" holding an A+, Network+, I-Net+, MCSE, MCNE (Master CNE/Novell), CCA (Citrix) and CCNA.

In the end, I attended 6 colleges, changing majors and degrees on numerous occassions.  I graduated with an AA in Liberal Arts, BA in Biological Anthropology and made the Golden Key Honor Society.  I am currently looking at graduate school in the field of International Studies/Relations with a concentration on Political Conflict Resolution and/or Human Rights/Globalization.  I am seriously considering going abroad possibly to the land of windmills, clogs and social freedom....a world of debauchery and vice....The Netherlands.

For now.....

I live in southwest Florida. Home of the befuddled "cracker", F150 and the mini-me Bible belt with an abundance of southern redneck confederacy thrown in for good measure. The contrast from life in NYC is as striking and blunt, as those grammar school bricks being launched upon unsuspecting passerbys below.  However, my journey to the safe confines of home does not provide the same sense of refuge. Life here is not all fun in the sun. 

I AM the LAW...and 13% unemployment....

I joined the police academy but withdrew shortly after orientation.  The lack of oppurtunity in such an economically devestated environment was cause for concern.  I attended a community college, forensics this time...but found the same lack of local opportunities upon completion of one summer semester.  I looked at online degrees and enrolled briefly in the Intelligence/Counterintelligence Master's program at AMU. Maybe a federal agent or "I Spy" was more like it. 

and I have many miles to go before I sleep....

In every instance, I felt the displacement of living among zombified, mass media controlled society whose thoughts and actions were codified by the social/political and religious dogma they currently subscribed. It was the soup dujour tribalism of the day. Maybe it was this southern exposure.

Where was the individual?  The real soveriegn individual whose thoughts, experiences and beliefs were shaped from individual experience as opposed to group dynamics and social conditioning.  What made people subscribe to the group herd mentality so easily? Sports, politics, religion, race, ethnicity, flags, clothing...the symbolism was only a reinforcement for the mental conditioning.

I read voraciously, anything regarding current events, politics, economics, history, religious issues, college debates, philosophical and ethical concerns.  Chomsky, Hitchens, Chalmers Johnson, Malcolm Gladwell, Max Keiser, Webster Tarpley, William Cooper, Tsarion, William Cooper, Sowell and numerous others to find answer to many questions.

Eventually I amassed a tremendous underground collection of often subversive documentaries from mainstream conspiracy research, politics & history, occult fanaticism, serial killer biographies, religious debates, environmental issues, MKUltra, Standford Prison & Milgram Psych experiments. Anything and everything that was purposely avoided by the MSM (Main Stream media)

As I researched and read further, I discovered an underlying truth not expressed in main stream media.  It was never a course offering in the average Liberal Arts curriculum or avenue for discussion amongst casual friends or strangers.  It seemed the indoctrination machine had been alive and well, fashioning our likes, dislikes, conscious and subconscious thoughts, actions and reactions to the world around us.

Where did it come from?

In Propaganda (1928), Bernays argued that the manipulation of public opinion was a necessary part of democractic society.  Flash forward 80 years and we can begin to see the effects of such a policy. People identify with groups, outsiders are ostracized and isolated socially.  Dissent is discouraged in all forms and questioning authority and the status quo becomes uncommon.

I am hoping my Hub becomes a small voice of discourse in a sea of human conformity and apathy.

Here's to non-compliance and avoiding the "Jones"!

Finally I definitely see myself living as a cultured expat, multi-skilled and multi-lingual in the very near future.  In these dire economic and political times, being a sovereign individual who is not a brainwashed automaton who mindlessly obeys the failing status quo is paramount to cerebral survivability.  Time to get out of dodge and the police state that has become the United States of Oligarchy.