Phil Baumann

Paradoxical Omniscience

The Map is not the Territory. But you know this.

But, actually, you don’t - not when the map becomes all that you know. 

What is the Map?

The Map is what is believed, what is said, what is seen. The Map is geolocation, metadata, file names, scripts, images, mashups, ideologies, simulations.

As the Territory is Mapped - when every aspect of it is pictured and copied - the Territory vanishes. Paradoxical Omniscience is what we end up with - a knowledge of everything that doesn’t exist.

We wanted to be like the Gods. 

The Fall is not out of Paradise - it’s off of the Territory into the Map.

This kind of knowledge-seeking wasn’t the sin. It was the punishment.

The Essence of Punk…

The essence of punk is not found in its destroying the Status Quo. Rather, the essence of punk is found in its revealing the oppression of the best parts inherent in the Status Quo and then turning them outward. Punk is permanent revolution.

The Holy Gram

The thing is, you didn’t promote yourself into this world. You grew out of it.

Imagine if you arrived here out of some ingenious social media strategy.

Would you conclude that your life was a failure because the kids stopped retweeting you? Alternatively, would you think you were a success because they couldn’t stop retweeting you? That kind of love has got to be real!

Never mind. Luckily it’s all just a hologram of symbols standing for things you think exist.

You were born naked, unashamed, utterly dependent on creators who broke their hearts for you.

I’m just another person who grew out of this world like you. I just didn’t imagine that I’d write this message to you one day through an interface that doesn’t exist anywhere. (I am the recipient of my own telegram.)

Oh well. Consider this a hand-delivered secret - a wake-up call. A mind trick on your unconscious, re-minding you of who you are and who you are not.

Just where do you think you came from? Where are you going?

Can you tell which parts of your life are hologram and which ones are real?

Like you, I believed a lot of lies, including the ones I weaved to myself - after all, the truth of things hurts too much too often.

This Web is a hologram of beliefs.

We are more faithful than Tertullian!

Only the heretics will rise out of the burnings.

Our Dirty Cycle

Revolution is no longer possible.

Revolution is now a consumable by-product of an ever-consuming tract of symbols, signs, and signals.

Any movement to turn-over a systemic injustice - no matter how forceful - only becomes energy for converting the revolt itself into calories for self-preserving ideologies.

Today, every revolution turns into a t-shirt tumbling in a washing machine.