Joots

"So come. Take me by the hand. We'll leave this troubled land. I know we can."
-- Maurice White, 1976

Somewhere around 1982 I encountered this geek word. I think it was coined by D.R. Hofstadter. It rhymes with puts. It's a verb used like "joots the system".  It basically is the action taken when one begins to 'think outside of the box'. Now looking towards Google, which I tend to do less in order to be close to my own thoughts on any matter, I see that it actually was Hofstadter and it is an acronym for 'jumping out of the system'. 

From those days it became second nature for me to investigate the inconsistencies at the border conditions of all systems. I have since then been automatically drawn to what I called 'the social implications of Goedel's Incompleteness Theorum'. No organization or system of organization of human beings can be complete and consistent. That means all organizational policy will either use lies to accomplish all of their goals or will be truthful but be unable to meet all of their goals, or they will be truthful and meet all of their goals but only by using external resources not bound by the policy of the organization (which would have to be deniable). In retrospect, perhaps it was inevitable that I became a consultant, that unbounded external resource. 

These days I am a bit restless to have more power, and on some days I think about why I wasn't more persistent in being an asshole in my 30s pursuing BMW perfection and riches. The answer is simple. As soon as I became a father, I knew I had to be a father. I am not sure, having not entertained these thoughts very often, if I am more desirous of autonomy or power. In some ways they seem to be one in the same, given that there are not many things I am so insistent my orders provide for society. I might get power and take its benefits for the freedom it gives me not to be bound by work rules. Or I might take autonomy for the same reason. Karma chameleon. I come and go. I guess that's the point. I want freedom to come and go as I please. I think of liberation geographically because my mind is already free.

Yesterday I drove around in circles looking for a parking space for Venice Beach. I'm sure I found the most convenient and expensive in anticipation of an upcoming meeting of the Obscura Society. I bought a t-shrt and CD from the rollerblading guitarist Harry Perry. He has been there since the 70s. We talked for a minute and than he sang me a song. He's not as good as he used to be. I walked out past the ruins of the Venice Pavillion to the Breakwater Station where I was Junior Guard in the summer of 1975. I talked to the lifeguards about the good old days. They tell me that hazing has been banned from all of the JG programs. Venice' chaos is orderly these days. It's not dangerous, it's market driven. The skaters have a skate park. The henna tattoo artists are all licensed. But the junk food is still as bad. I stayed away from it. Somebody left their iPhone on the benches near the paddle tennis courts. I gave it to the man who ran the t-shirt shop next door. In 150 minutes I saw maybe two women whom I might consider actually attractive. This was my place when I was a confused teen, when I used to perform in public as a tumbler - not for the coins like the shirtless athletes now at the boardwalk with their barker's megaphone and script, but like a skateboard kid. I get it. I understand the dynamic of going to Venice Beach to make a spectacle of yourself. I used to wonder why nobody who actually knew how the world worked didn't set up a booth with encyclopedias next to the fortune tellers and other cranks. This place would be far too lonely for truth and reason. You don't teach at a circus.

Every day I watch videos about fast cars. I am currently in the middle of overthinking my immanent purchase of a Porsche. I still haven't decided between a 911 with its classic lines and pedigree, or the Cayman with its mid-engine and sleek profile. What's not in question is my desire to be apart from the crowd, to be moving even while standing still. To imply my impermanence here in this moment in this position in this stance is to show my belonging to a higher echelon. In this material world there are complexities that deliver without question. Mash on the gas and the Porsche goes, not just straight but around the curves and dips in life. Then again, so does my truck. It doesn't need pavement. It doesn't need smoothness. It doesn't need pampering. I am very hesitant to trade one for the other. I want both. Some days I want the speed more. Other days I want the tough more. I always want to drive. The very first record I bought as a teen was a 45 by Earth Wind and Fire. Getaway. 

Everyone has their promised land. In urban dreams, they try to leap tall buildings in a single bound. This is fantasy. People have forgotten how to dream about freedom. They don't see economies. They don't understand the powers they seek. They wish to trade places, every pauper has his imagined prince. The man on Virginia Avenue wants to be on Park Place, completely ignoring the third dimension where god like hands grab green houses and orange bills from the bank. Put on your hoodie, turn up the bass, walk in step to the beat on the sidewalk mean mug but are your shoes made for hiking?

All systems fail. All systems are incomplete or inconsistent. Freedom = (adaptability + vision at the edge cases)^mobility.