) world governments in the guise of helping you. This text, as well as being a fun writing exercise, can perhaps help the reader navigate this ongoing war that resides within you.

“Yeah that’s obvious,” the male nurse responded emphatically. I was glad my criticism of the criminal justice system was deemed valid but still somehow bitter at the response. Maybe that’s just a human thing and it was there that I realized life is all about systems. Not the healthcare system (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9449116/) or even the military-industrial complex (Why 20,000 Tanks are Abandoned in the California Desert) but rather the way of processing reality. To keep it simple and because the consciousness we’re operating with is often an unmanageable orb of complexity, reality should be lived through one of these three mediums.

Life as a game

When life is played as a game, you’re literally doing the governments and secret societies bidding (see jmail link) in an attempt to not live what’s considered a boring and purposeless life. Most can’t cope with this truth so a “can’t we all get along” attitude is thrown out the window and replaced with an incessant one-upmanship process that even makes Bismarck roll in his grave. Playing “The Game” is not necessarily and immediately a nefarious thing but when you see a dedication to this style in inappropriate contexts and the overarching consequences of that reach, it becomes an issue.

Personally, the best example of this is inside the arts world and, more closely, the dance one. Dishonest players, who have never studied game theory or don’t enjoy even asymmetrical games (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory#Different_types_of_games) are rampant in applying this government-fed ( see COVID and its repercussions: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-updates/2023/youth-suicide-rates-increased-during-the-covid-19-pandemic https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9637007/) slop, which is not only boring but a malaise to deal with when attempting to circumnavigate the inevitable lack of emotional self-control displayed by these kinds of people. It gets so bad, that these slop-demons compensate with fake laughs, unabating dialogue, and a mix of sometimes intentional, other times occasional, unnecessary responses that make the Reagan-led mass closing of mental institutions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_Health_Systems_Act_of_1980#Repeal_of_most_of_the_provisions_in_1981) one of the most evil decisions of the 20th century.

This leads to the conclusion that playing life as a game is not for everyone. Especially as most can’t comprehend basic game theory and partake in every situation as a zero-sum outcome. This has had devastating outcomes to communities, families and even individuals because of the total blur of reality that ensues when these types simply cannot understand the time-horizons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_horizon) of this style. One can see this most prominently in black and immigrant communities, where the sense of cohesion is damaged to seemingly a point of no return. Instead of fighting and playing against a worthy “opp” they play against each other resulting in what you and I (living in East Cleveland at the moment) see today: damaged property, unpaved roads, and a feeling that it does not get better; rather most, if not everyone living in these communities, are (as Big L asserts so gallantly) “street-stuck.” (Big L – Street Struck (Official Audio))

I used to be a lot more radical in my ideas on how to deal with this growing issue, but then an epiphany hit as I was just falling into the same unregulated emotional trap in which I had become so readily available to criticize. Indeed, a sort of comprehension fell over me that this was just the result of living in the environment I am so earnestly eager to lambast. Instead, through time and meditation, I’ve come to understand that instead of life as a game, the masses (I am included in this usually derogatory term) should view life as a dream.

Life as a Dream

Processing life as a dream is perhaps the best way for the unintelligible types to get out of the slump that living as the government’s cattle has brought them in. Indeed, since game theory is apparently and evidently far too complex in its machinations to handle, dreaming of life is one of the only correct ways to actually live. Though my words seem harsh, it’s not necessarily a bad way to live as for the first 20 years of my conscious existence this is how I applied my routines, habits, and sort of purpose to life. Especially after getting in tune with Calderon’s work Life is a Dream; it was simplistic, and dare I say, fun to live like this. I then grew up and began applying the next system in the course of a summer but that is a story for a later time.

Sleeping is healthy and manages to reset your brain by dumping all the unnecessary information that was conceived of that day. As such, it’s important to distinguish sleeping and dreaming as not one in the same but rather distinct entities and concepts that, in Reality, have nothing to do with each other. This might be a way to skirt Nas’ infamous line about sleep “I never sleep cause sleep is the cousin of death” (Nas – N.Y. State of Mind (Official Audio)). But it works and staying up is just a sign of profound mental illness, so immediately dispelling the defeatist notion that sleep is somehow a net negative is paramount before proceeding in the sole dream that is your life.

First, to live in a satisfactory manner, one must immediately throw out the natural inclination that you’re living in some other being’s dream. That’s to say, the Hindi P.O.V of living in Vishnu’s (https://iep.utm.edu/advaita-vedanta/#H2) dream is false and dangerous to your personal sovereignty. That’s because the smart and/or psychopathic players from the first view of life will try to take advantage of this and attempt to distort your consciousness by putting false cognitive stimuli directly in your line of sight. These beliefs can avalanche and cause a downward spiral into the assertions discussed above, which then further leads to a mental illness epidemic affecting especially the aforementioned communities. You are in your dream and dreams from sleep only add to your understanding of whatever you set your purpose, mood of the moment, or project to be. Indeed, freedom is an essential foundation to this perspective.

Secondly, life as a dream takes blissful ignorance to the next level. It’s important to prescribe this view of life to everyone else as it further enables a kind of laissez-faire attitude to the world as a whole. Jung’s collective unconsciousness (https://iaap.org/jung-analytical-psychology/short-articles-on-analytical-psychology/the-collective-unconscious-2/) eventually can become the real and tangible collective consciousness as seen with the advent of the internet and popular social media websites. With that, the natural anxiety that comes with doubting the authenticity of the outside evaporates as you slowly recognize the elaborate structure that is the dreams of others and thus the real life of humans.

Finally, I remember working at a downtown hotel, where you had this personalized name-tag that you could add details other than what to call you in marker. Every week, I took the opportunity to write a quote in addition to the simple “Lad.” With this, I had a weeks-long abbreviated version of the famous T.E Lawrence (https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/11340-all-men-dream-but-not-equally-those-who-dream-by) quote: “All dream but not equally.” This was to avoid potential sexism claims with guests and staff alike. Little did I know, this was the reality I was living as this approach to life is egalitarian yet focuses on merit, chance, and all other TIME-taking processes down to an individual level.

As, I’m not you.

The Genius/Artists’ World

Schopenhauer, when talking about what real genius is, while separating it from insanity, conflates poets and masterminds in a kind of sublime manifestation of the real. This is because he sees those able to grasp “the thing in itself,” as the apex in the assumed hierarchy that humans place themselves. Naturally, the mind creates associations and connections to whatever it sees. This often leads to a cacophony of unnecessary stimuli and false beliefs dominating the mind’s eye. Since the poet manages to sublimate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublimation_(psychology)) this through his art, the need for associations dissipates and the thing in itself is able to properly be grappled.

The thing in itself is, unfortunately for most, impossible to grasp in one go. That’s to say, one must be open to new possibilities, different modes of praxis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praxis_(process)), and not attached to the traditional ways of thinking. It took me 10 years to complete this after heavy drug usage and trying a bunch of new things. Since my thinking was already rapid, to fit in, I dumbed myself down by consuming marijuana nearly everyday. It worked at first, and especially in Cleveland, I was able to talk to my coworkers, neighbors, and those I would later consider beneath me (I think of a neighbor & coworker who I gave $300 to and never paid me back) with relative ease. So, after some time and noticing the destructive patterns of behavior induced by weed I decided to stop.

I’m just kidding.

Instead, I continued with the thought to be like Rock Lee from Naruto (https://naruto.fandom.com/wiki/Rock_Lee). Slowly induce artificial mental weights on myself only to one day take them off and be a force to reckon with. While doing this, I worked hard in the hospitality industry, in the catering industry, and finally, my first love, dancing. That wasn’t enough though and I needed to do more especially after I had been assaulted at a hotel. I decided Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was the best option because of its versatile application and significant amount of proof that the little guy could easily win against a bigger opponent. My openness to write all of this is not only to give myself a pass for talking so much smack against multiple groups of people but also to demonstrate how seeing the thing in itself can be attained.

At first, by doing these numerous activities, one notices a simple pattern of behavior everybody possesses: a sort of desperate need to hear themselves talk. No matter where I was, people would always babble about themselves and I would listen. Not because I ultimately cared but because I was high, bored, AND figured it would pay off eventually. After this simple pattern has been discovered one can proceed to learning about what they’re actually doing while comparing it to whatever else you do. How is catering similar to hospitality? Isn’t it considered the same industry anyways? After that simplistic line of questioning, you get more complex in comparing, for example, movement in catering to movement in Jiu-Jitsu or, even easier, movement in types of dancing. This solidifies a difference between these aspects in your life while chalking it all down to the basic human experience of Surviving. Indeed, survival is all I was doing and once the weights came off I was ready to live for the brief reckoning I had set up for myself. But during this time, I was ignorant to the fact that y’all had been indoctrinated into a disgusting and low key evil way of living, although, that innocence also quickly changed.

When writing the first draft of this intricate perspective, as previously mentioned, I was bitter and angry. Indeed, the first draft of this includes a rough rebuke of “energy vampires,” “fake friends” and whoever else, I arrogantly thought, had betrayed me. In brief, it was affected by the common, quite paranoid feelings one would get after spending two months in a multitude of county jails. A revisit of ALL my previous relationships was really the only productive task I could do in-between reading & sleeping. With that, I had realized that many of my friendships were people taking advantage of my good ideas and applying it for themselves(Death Grips – Giving Bad People Good Ideas). This was in addition to whatever previous way they lived life (Mahavishnu Orchestra – You Know You Know (1971)). In brief, the banal way of doing things that was forced by previous generations and gleefully accepted by the lazy, liars, and good for nothings of our society. The ones who complain that no change is happening yet, while doing little work, seem to somehow acquire great wealth (https://monadnock.net/schopenhauer/wisdom-3.html). Moreover, this third outlook of life is for a thin segment of the population, who are not in too deep, who want to change, and who are willing to try. It’s basically Plato’s dream of the Philosopher King (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher_king) broken up on an individual level (without the frankly retarded number, alien & monkey talk) and adapted for the modern information age.

As such, the individuals capable of comprehending and applying this vision are typically what we call intellectuals. That word, albeit, embodied in a person has been perversely applied by the academic and legacy institutions that we used to rely on to provide optionality and an “excellent education,” which makes arising from that world difficult but still possible for these past and future architects. As a mix of the first two systems, it is essential to properly render game theory and dreams into one linear matrix. On the scientific side, this is done by applying the real grasped knowledge, mixing it into dreams (https://www.themarginalian.org/2016/02/08/mendeleev-periodic-table-dream/) and thus advancing the world into a fixed yet evolving superstructure. On the artistic side, advancement is possible through a tangible feeling of universal human emotions, which later can be used for the artists’ endeavor of their liking. I think of great film directors, song writers, and choreographers who use tech only as a means to further shape “the culture.”

As I write this, I’m at a loss for words, which is just a beautiful example of positing all that I have written. Unlike the arrogant and lazy, I do not claim to have all the answers. If I did, not only would I be rich but also I wouldn’t be relying on a hope that you’ve read everything this far. Indeed, my only claim is to my soul and the originality of my thinking.

As you and I get older, I can only dream of applying these words, this guide, and thus my vision of how the world ought to be.

Real Life Examples:

Perspective 1:

“Yeah, he’s a butt.” a beautiful white woman replied to me about this bald guy. She was right and she was wrong as he was an ass but there was something more to his personality flaws. That’s to say, he let his aggressivity take over and used a philosophical method bathed in ignorance, which resulted in a confused little boy inside a grown man’s body. Albeit, she couldn’t say all that in response to my initial lambasting of his character but overtime I deciphered this.

My evidence against him came when he was leading dance choreography for the spooky show we were putting on. Learning the dance when he was out of the room, he came back to yell at me for four minutes straight about how angry and disappointed he’d be if I didn’t know the movements in time. He had missed my practicing and, as dancers do, I had moved on to improve personal choreography for auditions. The feigned anger he displayed was part of a zero-sum game of humiliation to seem in control.

Using a mixture of Nietzschien principles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master%E2%80%93slave_morality), natural ego (https://www.thesap.org.uk/articles-on-jungian-psychology-2/carl-gustav-jung/jungs-model-psyche/), and stupidity (https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/539027-never-argue-with-stupid-people-they-will-drag-you-down) this zero-sum outcome is so different from the potential friendliness stemming from an asymmetrical game (https://deepmind.google/blog/game-theory-insights-into-asymmetric-multi-agent-games/).

I was no threat in that I eventually learned his flawed choreography, would shine, and made his show look good without the need for all that rehearsal drama. But nonetheless, he continued to apply this wannabe dominating persona when I told him to cut me from one of the dances (Fame (2016 Remaster)) as I was just walking and snapping my fingers. It was only later that he removed me, which made it seem like it was his decision all along. Again, this was done to signal a sense of control to the other dancers as he couldn’t really handle the other clashing personalities (French people were in abundance) on a grand scale.

He was playing a game that he had absorbed through his time in academia, dance companies, and the limited social framework of the greater Cleveland area. The real shame comes with the knowledge that he didn’t really know what he was doing and if he had talked to me like an actual human being, he could have made it out of his self-inflicted hell.

He was dating someone who meant a lot to me at the time and since I had read the literature on game theory before I joined the company, I subconsciously resigned to his will. “Yeah I read this and my whole goal in the company was to apply this without becoming a sociopath!” I later texted another beautiful woman when she sent me an NPR article on game theory (https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1253382272). It was an amazing coincidence and further bolstered the second system in this guide…

Categories, stories, & epics.

Guide.

Guide.

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