Music Monday: Beatie Boys Intergalactic

Beastie Boys - Intergalactic 

You have to watch this video. It is completely campy and crazy.

But I think therein lies what I want to talk about. Being creative, being silly, being willing to enjoy something for the sake of enjoying it. Being willing to imagine, push the envelope. This video is a spoof on all the B-movies, which envision aliens and there is a bit of a Godzilla vibe. Imagination. We credit imagination as being childish or for those certain select few, the artists, the poets, the others. Imagination is not grown up (unless we call it innovation and then it is a 50-50 shot, is it grown up imagination or bullshit dressed up.) I say those who think imagination is only for children are those who are trapped and unwilling to push, unwilling to try. There is no age limit on imagination.

For those who know me, I am not a fan of the mindless film or slapstick or anything which resembles MTV's series Jackass, but that does not mean I am serious all the time. There is a time to be serious and there is a time to be lighthearted. What I am not lacking is imagination.

There is also a time to step outside of ourselves and challenge our notions. I have all but tuned out most traditional news outlets, in part because it makes me sad and angry. All this news is filled with hate and violence and there is no love or compassion. There is no willingness on the part of people, to take a deep breath and say, "wow, that is different from how I see it, but let's explore that..." there is no willingness on the part of other people to say, "wow that is how I thought we always did it, but look there are X number of people doing something else successfully, let's explore how that is possible." Let's explore and LEARN.

Instead of hiding behind notions of "that is HOW we have always done it" or "that is how GOD/ALLAH/JEHOVAH has said we must do it" let's consider that Galileo was told repeatedly the world couldn't possibly be round, because everyone knew it wasn't.

 Looks round to me...

What if in the 50s and 60s, those scientists had defaulted to "oh, we could never land on the moon, humans have never been to the moon and that is just how it is suppose be."

(OK I will give you it is hard to tell in the space suits, but my guess is the guys dancing there, they are humans.)

The reality is we have to as people stop letting our prejudices and  fears get in the way of seeing that we are all on this planet together, that there are real problems which must be addressed and when everyone is telling you that "is how we have always done it" it is because that person fears change or they fear the inevitable loss of power. Chains of power are both reassuring and choking.

 

Let's consider what some people more famous than I have said:

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.
George S. Patton

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_imagination2.html#ixzz1PouR1a7v

OR

People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind.
William Butler Yeats

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_imagination2.html#ixzz1PougcRuf

OR

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who dream only at night.
Edgar Allan Poe

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_imagination3.html#ixzz1Pov1iFNR

OR

We imagine that we want to escape our selfish and commonplace existence, but we cling desperately to our chains.
Anne Sullivan Macy

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_imagination3.html#ixzz1PovOMAv2

My challenge to you is to take a minute and examine your beliefs? Are they yours or are they the ones someone else told you, you should have? Are you dreaming only at night. Have you given up on imagination? Are you too serious or important to imagine?

Is Patton right, is someone not thinking???

The answer, I doubt is Intergalactic Plan-a-tery.