Waking Life Page #7

our path to what we desire.

The comfort will never be comfortable for

those who seek what is not on the market.

A systematic questioning

of the idea of happiness.

We'll cut the vocal chords

of every empowered speaker.

We'll yank the social symbols through the

looking glass. We'll devalue society's currency.

To confront

the familiar.

Society is a fraud

so complete and venal...

that it demands to be destroyed beyond the

power of memory to recall its existence.

Where there's fire,

we will carry gasoline.

Interrupt the continuum

of everyday experience...

and all the normal

expectations that go with it.

To live as if something

actually depended on one's actions.

To rupture the spell of the ideology

of the commodified consumer society...

so that our oppressed desires of a more

authentic nature can come forward.

To demonstrate the contrast between what

life presently is and what it could be.

To immerse ourselves in the oblivion of

actions and know we're making it happen.

There will be an intensity

never before known in everyday life...

to exchange love and hate,

life and death,

terror and redemption,

repulsions and attractions.

An affirmation of freedom

so reckless and unqualified,

that it amounts to a total denial of

every kind of restraint and limitation.

- Hey, old man, what you doing up there?

- I'm not sure.

You need any help

getting down, sir?

No, I don't think so.

Stupid bastard.

No worse than us.

He's all action and no theory.

We're all theory

and no actions.

Why so glum,

Mr. Deborg?

What was missing

was felt irretrievable.

The extreme

uncertainties...

of subsisting

without working...

made excesses necessary...

and breaks definitive.

To quote Stevenson:

"Suicide carried off many.

"Drink and the devil...

took care of the rest. "

- Hey.

- Hey.

You a dreamer?

Yeah.

I haven't seen too many

of you around lately.

Things have been tough

lately for dreamers.

They say dreaming's dead,

that no one does it anymore.

It's not dead.

It's just that it's been forgotten.

Removed from

our language.

Nobody teaches it,

so no one knows it exists.

The dreamer is

banished to obscurity.

I'm trying to change all that,

and I hope you are too.

By dreaming every day.

Dreaming with our hands

and dreaming with our minds.

Our planet is facing the greatest

problems it's ever faced. Ever.

So whatever you do,

don't be bored.

This is absolutely the most exciting time

we could have possibly hoped to be alive.

And things

are just starting.

A thousand years

is but an instant.

There's nothing new, nothing different.

The same pattern over and over.

The same clouds,

the same music,

the same insight felt

an hour or an eternity ago.

There's nothing here

for me now, nothing at all.

Now I remember. This happened

to me before. This is why I left.

You have begun

to find your answers.

Although it will seem difficult,

the rewards will be great.

Exercise your human mind

as thoroughly as possible,

knowing it is

only an exercise.

Build beautiful artifacts,

solve problems,

explore the secrets

of the physical universe.

Savor the input

from all the senses.

Feel the joy and sorrow, the laughter,

the empathy, compassion...

and tote the emotional

memory in your travel bag.

I remember where I came from

and how I became a human.

Why I hung around. And now my final

departure is scheduled.

This way out.

Escaping velocity.

Not just eternity,

but infinity.

- Excuse me.

- Excuse me.

Hey. Could we

do that again?

I know we haven't met, but I don't

want to be an ant. You know?

I mean, it's like

we go through life...

with our antennas

bouncing off one other,

continuously

on ant autopilot,

with nothing really human

required of us.

Stop. Go.

Walk here. Drive there.

All action

basically for survival.

All communication simply to keep

this ant colony buzzing along...

in an efficient,

polite manner.

"Here's your change. " " Paper

or plastic?" " Credit or debit?"

"You want ketchup

with that?"

I don't want a straw.

I want real human moments.

I want to see you.

I want you to see me.

I don't want to give that up.

I don't want to be an ant, you know?

Yeah. Yeah, I know.

I don't want

to be an ant, either.

Yeah, thanks for kind of,

like, jostling me there.

I've been kind of

on zombie autopilot lately.

I don't feel like an ant in my head,

but I guess I probably look like one.

It's kind of like D.H. Lawrence had this

idea of two people meeting on a road...

And instead of just passing

and glancing away,

they decided to accept what he calls

"the confrontation between their souls. "

It's like, um... like freeing

the brave reckless gods within us all.

Then it's like

we have met.

I'm doing this project. I'm hoping

you'll be interested in doing it.

It's a soap opera,

and, so, the characters

are the fantasy lives.

They're the alter egos of

the performers who are in it.

So you pretty much just figure out

something that you've always wanted to do...

or the life you've wanted to lead

or occupation or something like that.

And we write that in, and then we

also have your life intersect...

with other people's in the soap opera

in some typical soap opera fashion.

Then I also want to show it

in a live venue...

and have the actors present

so that once the episode is screened,

then the audience

can direct...

the actors for subsequent

episodes with menus or something.

So it has a lot to do with choices

and honoring people's ability...

to say what it is

that they want to see...

and also consumerism

and art and commodity.

And if you don't like what you got,

then you can send it back...

or you get

what you pay for,

orjust participating,

just really making choices.

- So, you wanna do it?

- Uh, yeah. Yeah, that sounds really cool.

I'd love to be

in it, but, um...

Uh, I kinda gotta ask you

a question first though.

I don't really know

how to say it, but, um...

uh, what's it like to be

a character in a dream?

'Cause, uh, I'm not

awake right now.

And I haven't even worn

a watch since, like, fourth grade.

I think this is

the same watch too.

Um... Uh, yeah.

I don't even know if you're able

to answer that question.

But I'm just trying to get like a sense

of where I am and what's going on.

So, what about you? What's your name?

What's your address?

What are you doing?

I... I... You know,

I can't really remember right now.

I can't really...

I can't really recall that.

But that's

beside the point...

whether or not I can dredge up

this information...

about, you know,

my address or, you know,

my mom's maiden name

or whatnot.

I've got the benefit in this reality,

if you wanna call that,

of a consistent

perspective.

What is your

consistent perspective?

It's mostly just me dealing

with a lot of people...

who are...

exposing me

to information and ideas...

that... seem

vaguely familiar,

but, at the same time,

it's all very alien to me.

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