Arguing on the internet does not make the list

However shit things get -and they will likely get shitter before they get better, which may not be in your lifetime- do not cut yourself off from the experience of joy. Just look at the top regrets of the dying. They regret not spending enough time at family gatherings or hiking in nature. Arguing on the internet doesn't make the list. Gordon White

Another thing that will not make the list is spending more time in the office, however when I drive to work in the morning and am frequently overtaken by daredevil drivers who are desperate to get to work, they drive as if going to see their lover in some illicit rendezvous instead of going to a stupid job that probably has no importance in some office staffed by people that they do not get on with.

How do we arrive at some pathetic attitude to life where 40% of the working population of the UK believe that their job has no importance? Not only that, but the job may not last in the technology consuming period that we are now entering.

When do we actually realise what is important surely it should be something that we teach our children? Children need skills such as carpentry, cookery, fixing things, building things, playing musical instruments, dancing, swimming etc. many of these skills contain some form risk like bush craft skills such as fire lighting and using tools and knives. The emphasis on life should be the pursuit of joy and happiness but the system is created in such a way that the focus is on doing what you are pressured to do and I think that for many it is an iron cage.

The ways this is done is through being told to do things that seem completely laudable but the setting that these things are set is the trick. Much is contextual, the devil is in the detail and the hypnosis is in the context, always be careful how things are said to you and how information is phrased, not the detail, more the context.

Things are set to get rather rocky, many things that we think have gone away like the banking crisis have not, there are serious problems with many currencies and political systems and this will become more evident as time goes on. Technology is exacerbating this not helping it; governments will not be able to keep the lid on it. For us as musicians and artists we need to use these skills to open up new possibilities in the way that we work and use our art, to make us happier and for the joy of people that we interact with whether as pupils or audience members.

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.uk  Three days of playing in a band. Learn the tricks of the trade

Universal Basic Income

This will result in a proliferation of cheap, accessible goods, but it could also have psychological consequences. "I think universal basic income will be necessary, but the much harder challenge is: How will people then have meaning?" he says. "A lot of people derive meaning from their employment. If you're not needed, what is the meaning? Do you feel useless? That is a much harder problem to deal with. How do we ensure the future is a future that we want, that we still like?"

And here we are my friends to the purpose of music and the teaching of the arts, to give meaning to life and it will become more important. The above quote really puts into focus the inability of the education system to adapt to what is coming, not because of the teachers but because of government still trading in ideas that are to do with factory style thinking.

The idea of universal basic income (UBI) sounds a great idea; the problem I see is that the system that got us into this mess is now going to get us out of it?

The problem is about attitudes to wealth and ownership that goes back centuries and the theft of land from people and the environment and giving it to the favoured few. This keeps being revisited, whether it is the enclosures act, the taking of land from native peoples or the standing rock type theft of land use.

I am not sure whether the restrictions on what people can spend their money with UBI on is worth pondering here as it will probably be government designated things which will be cheaper and therefore things like learning a musical instrument independently may be problematic. Anyway it is a way off but not that far off as the effects are already being felt in the banking world of technology takeover. Some thinkers believe that this will be much bigger than the industrial revolution, think about that for a moment, BIGGER than the industrial revolution.

In principle UBI seems a good idea and to start with it might be if people can use the upside to create the time to learn something that adds something to their lives but the fall out of people having to reorient their assessment of meaning and their work will be difficult because that is how we have been programmed through education and social comment for decades if not centuries.

Even the way that we ‘work‘ using music will need to change. I have already made a percentage of my lessons being ‘time swaps’ where no money changes hands just skills. This includes computer and software repair and back up, yoga sessions and roadie-ing. Many art skills and therapy skills work well for this as it really adds value to people if you are swapping your teaching for their skill. Think of what you need doing; gardening, handyman, babysitting, and bookkeeping many aesthetic things that you would like that you might not have the money for; clothing, artwork for the house, interior design, photography, web design and hosting.

The solution for many of the problems that we are faced with is local, small governance, food supply etc. basically unplugging from the globalised grid of commerce as much as possible. This theory is the one driving local currencies and transition towns, use this idea for your teaching and work and give people meaning as well as yourself.

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.uk three days of playing in a band learn the tricks from the ones who know.

Discomfort is the doorway that we have to pass through to enter a new mindscape.

Sometimes I find it very difficult to focus on a series of tasks that need to be taken to achieve a target. For instance I am currently working on an album which is taken a whole year to get the rhythm sections down and the basic structure of the songs to be organised. I am also attempting to update aspects of my website to include a membership section and on top of that I have a couple of very important gigs to organise which are rather different from the normal concerts that I do.

I keep finding myself delaying and obscuring tasks that I should be accomplishing by doing less important things, and although I am a really good list writer and target maker sometimes my mind takes me somewhere else.

I am sure this is something that all of us will find familiar, I see it as a rut that I am in. My particular rut could be considered as my comfort zone, the things that I am familiar are the things that get done first. I have noticed over the years that when I procrastinate it is always on the things I find uncomfortable and doing something can lead me into uncomfortable feelings about change. In NLP terms we need to make the stasis more uncomfortable than change so that we can move toward change. That however is easier said than done as the mind tends to trip you up finding things to do instead of the important things required.

So let me know of how you deal with making change and what works for you and maybe we can share notes.

Vic

www.bluescampuk.co.uk three days of playing in a band with the tricks of the trade