Time, space, and maybe why African Americans have such great rhythm...
My brain likes to find ways to explain things differently to the general public. It’s why I’m an artist.
What follows is just an explanation of something that is not a break-through. It's just me thinking.
If you mistakenly find that you believe you are reading something racist, I implore you to read it again. It is rather a possible explanation as to why African Americans may be more in tune than Americans of European descent in the ways of spirituality, rhythm, and time. It is a neutral, leaning towards positive, statement.
I'm not the best writer, so I hope it all comes across properly.
It uses points from http://www.13moon.com 's Mayan prophecy explanation to illustrate my point.
(Because people need data, proof, etc. in order to believe that something is true...)
I was thinking today about stuff I read about time and x,y,z coordinate systems stunting our thinking.
From http://www.13moon.com/:
"The presence of the clock gave birth to the notion that time lies outside our bodies - that it can be tracked by a machine, and that we can sit and watch it "fly" by tick-tock as though it is something linear, containable, and separate from the organic, flowing process of life. The adherence to the clock for our sense of time and timing is noted as the greatest obstacle to allowing the full telepathic abilities of the human to flower."
"Next came the Cartesian Coordinate Rectilinear Grid System (1637) which went on to establish the foundational platform of all modern math and science. Thanks to Rene Descartes (the man infamous for his quote "I think therefore I am,") the ceiling of perception validated only the reality of the 3 dimensions of physical space. The coordinates of X,Y, and Z rendered the fourth dimension obsolete from our worldview.
At that moment, time became reduced from its qualitative essence to that of a quantity. The mind who adopted the lens of the linear grid also adopted the limited perception of time as a 3rd dimensional linear progression of pure duration.
Our societal paradigms have continued to operate with these limitations in place. Thus if something can not be seen, touched, or proven with measurements, it does not, in effect, exist."
I personally think that this is also evidenced in the mass adoption of religion over spirituality, whereas no physical proof is needed for the faithful, but gestures are instead the measurement of an impercievable faith, which meshes with the aforementioned societal paradigms and replaces spirituality, which is not measurable.
I've been thinking about the people that I know who seem to have somewhat avoided this fate in their thinking, and I think of African Americans.
African American slaves were shut out from learning these predominantly Euro-centric systems of measurement for a longer period of time than white Americans. They were forbidden to learn them as slaves, and most likely did not have the same systems in place in Africa, the way that the English, etc. did before coming to America. So, it has most likely not been a part of their culture for as long as is has for Americans of European descent.
It is often said that there is a grain of truth in stereotypes, which is why they seem amusing or ironic.
We've all heard the stereotypes about how black folks are always late.
While this is largely an offensive and demeaning slur, I have experienced an actual difference in the way that many American blacks relate to the passing of time. Time seems to move slower, and more in tune with natural rhythms, rather than the clock.
It has also been my experience that many people of African origin seem to have this inherently. It is not learned, but rather exuded naturally. It is a sort of faith in the universe that they possess. More recently in history, I think that this faith has been superceded on many occasions by a learned faith in Jesus instead, but it seems to not have disappeared entirely among Christian American blacks.
When I think about the fact that slaves were kept from learning the predominant systems of time, reading, writing, and "modern mathematics", I think that this may be the hidden blessing in slavery, if we look at the very long term view of our existence in the universe, rather than the shorter-term crippling effects it has had on black American life.
It kept blacks more in tune with the natural systems, while the rest of the world around them got caught up in inaccurately measuring things and eventually lost the ability to connect with natural rhythms and spirituality. Perhaps this is the basis of another stereotype- "white boys can't dance and have no rhythm".
This loss of connectivity in the dominant population is what I perceive to be the cause of most of today's "broken" or impaired infrastructures.
If you understand the possibilities that time may not be linear, coupled with the idea of vibration as an important effecting force in the universe as evidenced in quantum physics and string theory, and relating to the possibility of dimensions beyond three, then the idea that African Americans, in staying true to their natural tendencies for time and vibration (rhythm and sound), have been living in a way that is more cooperative with the true cycles of our universe, than white Americans who have been studying it for a lifetime using the inaccurate methods that are still widely accepted today.
Feedback encouraged.
What follows is just an explanation of something that is not a break-through. It's just me thinking.
If you mistakenly find that you believe you are reading something racist, I implore you to read it again. It is rather a possible explanation as to why African Americans may be more in tune than Americans of European descent in the ways of spirituality, rhythm, and time. It is a neutral, leaning towards positive, statement.
I'm not the best writer, so I hope it all comes across properly.
It uses points from http://www.13moon.com 's Mayan prophecy explanation to illustrate my point.
(Because people need data, proof, etc. in order to believe that something is true...)
I was thinking today about stuff I read about time and x,y,z coordinate systems stunting our thinking.
From http://www.13moon.com/:
"The presence of the clock gave birth to the notion that time lies outside our bodies - that it can be tracked by a machine, and that we can sit and watch it "fly" by tick-tock as though it is something linear, containable, and separate from the organic, flowing process of life. The adherence to the clock for our sense of time and timing is noted as the greatest obstacle to allowing the full telepathic abilities of the human to flower."
"Next came the Cartesian Coordinate Rectilinear Grid System (1637) which went on to establish the foundational platform of all modern math and science. Thanks to Rene Descartes (the man infamous for his quote "I think therefore I am,") the ceiling of perception validated only the reality of the 3 dimensions of physical space. The coordinates of X,Y, and Z rendered the fourth dimension obsolete from our worldview.
At that moment, time became reduced from its qualitative essence to that of a quantity. The mind who adopted the lens of the linear grid also adopted the limited perception of time as a 3rd dimensional linear progression of pure duration.
Our societal paradigms have continued to operate with these limitations in place. Thus if something can not be seen, touched, or proven with measurements, it does not, in effect, exist."
I personally think that this is also evidenced in the mass adoption of religion over spirituality, whereas no physical proof is needed for the faithful, but gestures are instead the measurement of an impercievable faith, which meshes with the aforementioned societal paradigms and replaces spirituality, which is not measurable.
I've been thinking about the people that I know who seem to have somewhat avoided this fate in their thinking, and I think of African Americans.
African American slaves were shut out from learning these predominantly Euro-centric systems of measurement for a longer period of time than white Americans. They were forbidden to learn them as slaves, and most likely did not have the same systems in place in Africa, the way that the English, etc. did before coming to America. So, it has most likely not been a part of their culture for as long as is has for Americans of European descent.
It is often said that there is a grain of truth in stereotypes, which is why they seem amusing or ironic.
We've all heard the stereotypes about how black folks are always late.
While this is largely an offensive and demeaning slur, I have experienced an actual difference in the way that many American blacks relate to the passing of time. Time seems to move slower, and more in tune with natural rhythms, rather than the clock.
It has also been my experience that many people of African origin seem to have this inherently. It is not learned, but rather exuded naturally. It is a sort of faith in the universe that they possess. More recently in history, I think that this faith has been superceded on many occasions by a learned faith in Jesus instead, but it seems to not have disappeared entirely among Christian American blacks.
When I think about the fact that slaves were kept from learning the predominant systems of time, reading, writing, and "modern mathematics", I think that this may be the hidden blessing in slavery, if we look at the very long term view of our existence in the universe, rather than the shorter-term crippling effects it has had on black American life.
It kept blacks more in tune with the natural systems, while the rest of the world around them got caught up in inaccurately measuring things and eventually lost the ability to connect with natural rhythms and spirituality. Perhaps this is the basis of another stereotype- "white boys can't dance and have no rhythm".
This loss of connectivity in the dominant population is what I perceive to be the cause of most of today's "broken" or impaired infrastructures.
If you understand the possibilities that time may not be linear, coupled with the idea of vibration as an important effecting force in the universe as evidenced in quantum physics and string theory, and relating to the possibility of dimensions beyond three, then the idea that African Americans, in staying true to their natural tendencies for time and vibration (rhythm and sound), have been living in a way that is more cooperative with the true cycles of our universe, than white Americans who have been studying it for a lifetime using the inaccurate methods that are still widely accepted today.
Feedback encouraged.
Labels: Music
posted by Dead Mouse Girl at 3:28 PM
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