DEEP SCRATCH

Author: flyagaric23

  • Conservative Lies And The Sewage Briefing

    Water companies made £2.8 billion of collective profits in 2020 and discharged raw sewage 400,000 times – for more than 3.1 million hours total. Shockingly, these figures are low-end estimates.

    Liberal Democrats, The Sewage Briefing.

    UK Conservatives seem to be caught up in a net of partygate lies like a gaggle of rotten trout, soaked in the stench of disgrace, the sewage party of neglect under the misdirection of Boris “Crime-minister” Johnson. A party that has failed to protect our rivers and waterways, and stood by as water quality regulations and waste disposal regulations are abused, leading to the current country wide outbreak of algal blooms and so loss of plant and species diversity. (See George Manbiot) If you want to see your local environment thrive vote for a Liberal Democrat or Labour representative. Read their proposed actions concerning the Stour, plus those actions already undertaken, and compare with the current gang of scoundrels and their legacy of environmental neglect. HS2, Brexit, PPE Scandals, etc.

    Our rivers and seas are being transformed into open sewers by greedy business and useless governments.

    George Manbiot, This Stinks.

    My rhetorical questions: Where is the evidence of conservation activity to protect our local waterways? Why are we still allowing sewage and farm waste to flow into rivers and waterways? Who is responsible? How do we bring justice and protect and enforce? Where are the alternative plans for waterside developments and ecological centers, new nature reserves and wildlife habitats?

    With increasing frequency, warm weather brings algal blooms. Water that should be crystal clear becomes a green or brown slop of diatoms (microscopic algae).

    George Monbiot, Shitstorm.

    It’s a fact that most cities and towns in the UK, and worldwide, are often named after or were settled next to a river. Stourbridge is one such town, the river Stour is one such river. There before any human settlement, and treated like a handy public waste disposal system, the river stour has paid its dues throughout the industrial revolution, right up to the present day. From washing the dye from carpets in Kidderminster to the Holloware Metal Industry of lye and the Iron Forgeries and Foundries of the Black Country. We all owe the river Stour for assisting with the local industry neatly moving our waste elsewhere.     

    Rising up by the Clent Hills near St Kenelms Chapel and Well, the water is relatively clean and pollution free, yet on its way east across to Haelsown to the Dudley Metropolitan Borough it picks up waste. It weaves through the past heavy industrial area of Cradley Heath, Lye toward Stourbridge, its namesake, and on through Wollaston, Amblecote to Stourton. From my observations, the bulk of pollution comes from the remaining industrial areas, plus whatever the water authorities allow to be added from sewage outlets and pipes that feed into it. I should know, I’ve climbed up a number of them and witnessed first hand the strange liquids, foams and discoloration in the River Stour, mostly from Stambermill before the Viaduct over 20 years.

    I welcome the new volunteer initiatives to clean up the river, and a healthy competition to show-off your local piece of the Stour, and which can lead to cross party support for the initiatives. Everybody benefits from a clean river, not least the fauna and flora that live in and around the river the gradual return of native species wiped out by industry and neglect over the last 200 years is a cause for optimism. But rivers need active defense units, ever vigilant of plots and schemes to undermine their value, or simply ignore them. They are the life blood of any town or city.  

    From my research, the Liberal Democrat Party have by far the best plan of action to transform the river and bring highly needed criticism of the current mismanagement and neglect of the Conservative Party. Read The Sewage Briefing now.
    Besides the long list, as long as the river Stour, of repeated failures of the Tory party, their lack of support and unwillingness to protect the Stour and all waterways in the UK is a single reason enough to send your vote elsewhere, either Liberal Democrat or Labour. Register to vote, use your vote, use your voice. Put pressure on those polluting the river and those who support the continued contamination of the UK water-ways, driven by profit over public interest.  

    The privatised water companies, granted local monopolies on supply, extract vast dividends and salaries while investing as little as possible in pipes, sewage systems, reservoirs and pollution control. Instead of stopping leaks or discouraging overconsumption, they draw down the groundwater that feeds our rivers.

    George Monbiot, Watery Grave.

    The future fight to save the planet and humanity starts at home in your locality. The lasting legacy of environmental work and the re-greening of our towns and cities is a lasting legacy to be truly proud of. Your kids will respect you for it. With some imagination, furthermore our waterways can become functional family attractions, the source of food and a habitat for wildlife: fish, insects and plants. Consider Mills have previously been powered by the river too.

    Why not make the environmental crisis a cross-party issue, and the demonstration of looking after it competitive, with incentives, work opportunities and a myriad of social psychological benefits. 

    –Steve Fly

    We will encourage communities to act for their local river and surrounding habitat, creating a legacy of engaged individuals who will help protect it long into the future. In addition, we will generate awareness of small, everyday changes which we can all make to contribute to improving the condition of the river.”

    Love Your River Stour

  • Follow The River Flow

    working class poor

    billions doe want war

    a few damn rich   

    assassination

    not war on the innocent

    oligarch hunting

    crisis in the mind

    little man fuhrer psycho

    putin charge to war 

    psychological

    blow skull clean off body

    remove warhead  

    crimea look

    war crime in the ukraine

    humanity scream   

    hit and missiles

    hospital school home

    destroy product

    weapons business

    boom sick profiteering

    from god misery     

    sunshine turns gaze

    away from the destruction

    shameless putin rain

    isness is illness

    solipsists get sloppy

    where to quick-stand

    white russian war

    with red and blue on flag

    pale racist tsar 

    drill putin head

    incept fake love memory

    big baby eat

    vladimir bond

    the man with golden visa

    uk love villains      

    chemical romance 

    how much investment

    novichok johnson

    grim kreminals 

    kgb cia q

    cold war freeze

    bury all the bombs

    swords into plowshares 

    new climate army

    follow the river

    ancient waterway out

    flowing to get her

    armed to the teeth

    full up to the rafters

    build-up tension go

    whataboutism

    patriotic conceit

    same blood bath

    fight climate death

    desoverignize nations

    to grow her back

    snow will melt

    we will meet for river drinks

    swimming tears

    shelling ocean floor

    no limit how low can go

    they shell for oil

    hi eurasia

    europe is not us

    don’t involve me

    helpless poeting

    belief in magic power

    psychic war-flare

    I would run away

    spineless self interested

    am i guilty too 

  • The Fuck You Sound #fuckputin

    Remix by Fly Agaric 23, Fly Agaric Studios, Trondheim, Norway. March 6th, 2022.

    #fuckyousound

    https://thefuckyousound.bandcamp.com/track/fuck-you-sound-fly-agaric-23-dub

  • Radio Free Amsterdam Poster 2022

    Art and music can heal and unify people, we can feel this intuitively. Good music makes us well. RFA brings together a potent mixture of good music selectors who mix up the musical medicine to be administered by our medicine man: Big Chief (John Sinclair)

    Music for peace. Music for therapy, for all, criss-crossing boundaries and borders, arriving on-time at the ears and headspace of the people. Tune in, soak up the culture. Relax, take a load off. 

    https://radiofreeamsterdam.org/

    RFA

  • This Artists Response To Eurasianism: Artlandasia.

    Hard questions emerge for us all, since the threat of Putin’s militaristic Eurasianism rears its ugly head on the world stage. I’m compelled to ask myself what I can do and what my worldview is today? What is to be done, today? How can an individual take on the history of the world and make meaningful and useful communications? What defines and distinguishes our values from those of the dictators and fascists, the fundamentalists and genocidal maniacs?  

    Suddenly, we’re refocused on Russian history, Vladimir Putin, NATO and, depending which way to decide to look on a map, the rest of the world. That’s a lot of study and depends in part on the ability to think objectively, putting yourself in other people’s shoes, it also depends on the time you have and the access you have to good information. Be that as it may, this is my part of the war effort, to shout loud: support your independent artists, build a new alternative to the hideous far-right fantasy of Putin and it’s western New Right allies: Artlandasia.  

    Independent artists, to include some independently minded artists who may not be strictly independent proper, are powerful cultural entities and help define what it is about human culture we love and what we view with revulsion. Simply put, there’s plenty of evidence for artist led and artist supported collectives to run a country, such is the broad definition of the artist in 2022. By running a country, I mean both the practical day-to-day operations of the industrial and technological infrastructure already in place, and that good ole’ entertainment demanded by contemporary culture. 

    Besides their extra explicit artistic skills, musicians, for example, may have a good understanding of negotiations, fair-contracts and working together in a team, listening and thinking fast on their feet. This is the kind of mindset and skill set we need to defeat an oligarchic dictatorship, brave skilled individuals able to work in different groups, listen and then harmonize. Indeed, varied experience and credentials and evidence are helpful in determining who plays which roles in this proposed new humanistic society of artists. Leaving Bono aside for a moment, I’d seriously support somebody like Sting as a candidate for president of Artlandasia, if such a public facing leader were required. Who would you suggest?  

    If we include all writers and literature, we Artlandaisians already have the founders of that other, non-Artlandasian space. From Thoth to Plato, from Confucius to John Adams, we the artists can lay claim to their innovation of language, their impact and influence, yet re-directed toward an open-society of self-owning ones, Artlandasians, distinguished from some Unipolar Empire of divine guided mad kings and mad generals. No, we stand united by a literal harmony, our voices make music, we worship synergy, pitch, tone, rhythm, with desire for beauty, truth, meaning, understanding. Inclusion, multicultural synergy, the innovative and progressive forces of world history reunited through art. For example, Jazz and Blues traditions (rhythm, melody, innovation, sincerity), speakeasy traditions (poetry, history, philosophy, literature) hip-hop traditions (turntablism, graffiti, breakdancing and rap) and on and on. Something for everybody, the ability to read the room.

    We acknowledge and celebrate the eastern influence on our western traditions, we pull down our vanity and conceit to meet with the other, excited and hungry to learn and listen and co-create. To explore the wonders of life, language, love, nature, outerspace, inner-space and the human condition. Together, why not all together? Artlandasia is all-around-the-world, and proposes a globalism defined by Buckminster Fuller: around-the-world-connected, around the world trading, around-the-world-sharing. Equally distributed resources and responsibilities. A new global ART alliance. 

    Computer programming and coding is an artform, another fact Artlandasia can exploit to further its cause. be creative with it. Artlandasia encourages open-source universal programming languages such as Python, to be taught and practiced top-to-bottom within the socio-cultural sphere. To borrow a term from Douglas Rushkoff: program or be programmed. Artists have a tendency to be disciplined and many are already prepared to learn a new non-alphabetic language, for instance.

    Many musicians are familiar with the need to adopt and change plans, to update and learn new skills to survive. Both the digitization and exploitation of their artform and marketplace over the last 20 years, plus the global pandemic lockdown has strengthened our grasp of economics, technology and the minds of the people. The general heart of the matter. Global internet and communications infrastructure are our friend, the backbone upon which Artlandasian can fairly function for all-around-the-world technology.

    Artists, not generals, have the means to impact public opinion by way of writing, design, and programming. Artists are the leading edge of the culture war and have empathy, compassion and sympathy essential to a fair and trustable alternative to violence and bullying. Please consider supporting independent artists who you’d like to see more deeply embedded in society and politics, in decision making and representation of your personal and national identity. Fuck war, let’s art.

    –Steve Fly
    03/03/2022
    Trondheim, Norway.

  • How Deep Is Putin Dugin?

    “The ideology driving Putin has a name: Eurasianism. The idea is to kill off, once and for all liberalism which is viewed as “the greatest threat to the ethno-cultural survival of all the earth’s people”. Those are the words of the man behind Putin, his informal but very vocal ideologue, Alexander Dugin.  Eurasianism, the Eurasia Party and the International Eurasian Movement are his brainchildren.

    https://impakter.com/deadly-ideology-putin-eurasianism/

    If you ain’t looked into Dugin yet, I strongly suggest doing so, if you wish to get closer to an understanding of our predicament in 2022. Dugin and his ideas have a direct impact on the invasion of Ukraine and the expansion of Russian space, geopolitically. However, Dugin has a whole heap of other thoughts he is known for, which crisscross many of my own pet interests and on-going study, best described by the tale of the tribe as defined by the late Robert Anton Wilson. (and by myself in my book: Fly On The Tale Of The Tribe)

    Dugin seems to be a formidable intellectual opponent, and as repulsive and dangerous and elitist his ideas are, I strongly feel they need puncturing and addressing seriously, immediately. Not least due to what I view as adjacent ideologies sweeping across Europe, the UK, North America and the rest of the world, here called, the Western New Right. In taking on Dugin, and breaking down some of his arguments, I hope to simultaneously address the diseased heart of Putin’s Russia and its western counterpart traced through the double whammy blow to western unity: Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, through the lens of Steve Bannon in the U.S. and Dominic Cummings in the U.K.

    As a side note, I published a poem 2 years ago titled Bannon Cummings Dugin, loosely focused on this trio of populist deception and confusion. I’m no expert in these areas, I hope to present my suspicions and best guesses, and I also hope acknowledging that can highlight, for starters, the process oriented philosophy and related neurological relativism that I see as a counter strike to dogmatic mystical tsarism. Here’s an example of my beloved Karl Popper, twisted into Dugin’s intricate geopolitical disinformation warfare:  

    Basing himself on Karl Popper, Dugin defines National Bolshevism as a “meta-ideology common to all the enemies of open society.” Indeed, what is most important for him is that right-wing and left-wing totalitarian ideologies are united in their refusal to accord a central role to the individual and to place it above the collectivity, be it social or national.

    Marlene Laruelle, Aleksandr Dugin: A Russian Version of the European Radical Right?

    One distinguishing feature of Dugin from Bannon and Cummings, seems to me to be his explicit reference to esotericism, by way of his quasi-religious Traditionalism (Traditional Conservatism), rooted in an array of esoteric traditions bent to fit his messianic white supremacist fantasy, or new axis of superpowers, distinct from he calls the Atlanticists (to mean the U.S.A. the U.K., and Western Europe, not the lost city of Atlantis, although he’d probably have a thread about it in his labyrinthine imagination).

    Dugin seems to be able to insult and debase religious and spiritual traditions, while at the same time taking bits of them that he likes, and puzzling them together into a Q-anon-like global deep state geopolitical conspiracy. In some sense Dugin is more of a candidate for Q than either Bannon or Watkins, his study and research and practice of occultism plus his geopolitical paranoia, plus his ability to conflate classic left/right ideologies puts him among the roots of the Q-anon movement. Q-anon, like Brexit and European conspiracy mongering has the hallmarks of a Dugin fantasy, resulting in mass demoralization of the west, confusion and paranoia everywhere: trust nobody, they’re all the same, liars. Reports such as the following do not help and only fan the flames of hatred:

    For example, in 2016 the US–based Christian evangelical organization the World Congress of Families held its annual international conference in Tbilisi, uniting ultraconservative, anti-LGBT+ activists from around the world and featuring local speakers including Patriarch Ilia II and the infamous Levan Vasadze. Former US president George W. Bush expressed his support for the gathering in a public letter that was read onstage.

    April Gordan, A New Eurasian Far Right Rising (2020)

    Who can know how much of Dugin’s intellectual poison has reached Putin? Dugin himself would probably say he was against the invasion of Ukraine, just because that’s what the contrarian would say, or just to add to his self-mythologising and popular appeal. Perhaps Putin suddenly took some parts of Dugin’s rhetoric about War and strength and Eurasia, and decided to give it a go and expand his space, show military aggression and flex it’s dogmatic muscles on the world stage? I don’t know. What I do strongly suspect is that by delving deeper into Dugin’s mind you’ll get a panoramic view of the global conflict, and see the sordid array of Arayan idealists, kleptocratic poster boys and oligarchic engineers. If the phrase “know thy enemy” is anything to go by we’ve all got a lot of reading and some dark and dangerous corridors to investigate to get a handle on Dugin and so by osmosis the sudden escalation of Russian expansion under Putin. 

    Dugin openly admits that the main sources of his ideology are non-Russian anti-democratic concepts.

    Andreas Umland, Neo-Eurasianism”, the question of Russian fascism and Russian political discourse.

    Putin aside, and Bannon and Cummings and Watkins and all the others who are seemingly influenced by the work of Dugin, I’d like to look at Dugin alone, and I’d like to pitch his wide range of geopolitical, religious Traditionalist, esoteric, conspiratorial, eschatological and psychological ideas against those of an equally formidable character on the subject matter, our man, Robert Anton Wilson.

    In my estimation, and as I’ve described through dozens of articles, essays, albums and films, few individuals who lived through the 20th/21st century have managed to make sense out of it. Both humanitarian science/technology, physics, mathematics, biology, and arts, conspiracy theory, esotericism and some damn damn good humored jokes. I’m biased, but I view RAW’s collected output as an adequate response to the likes of Dugin and his lineage of dark-side intellectuals. RAW’s experiential knowledge of various occult and/or religious practices and his multi-model agnosticism, demonstrated by his careful written and spoken communications, tackle and take-down a notch much of the fascist, racist, xenophobic and barabaric ideologies at the root of the New Right Eurasianism of Putin/Dugin. 

    “Dugin writes, “there must be placed one fundamental principle–the principle of ‘a common enemy.’ A negation of Atlanticism, a repudiation of the strategic control of the United States, and the rejection of the supremacy of economic, liberal market values–this represents the common civilizational basis, the common impulse which will prepare the way for a strong political and strategic union”

    John B ​​Dunlop,  Aleksandr Dugin’s Foundations of Geopolitics

    Whereas Dugin promotes a pluralism of global disturbance and eschatological end-times, Wilson promotes a pluralism of empathic understanding, solidarity and optimism based on technological advancement coupled with neurological relativity, a minarchy of self-owning one’s, or individualist mutualist syndicalists. Where Dugin uses language and symbols to manipulate his readers to question everything and follow a god-like authority, Wilson uses language and symbols to seduce his readers into questioning everything, thinking for themselves in a secular manner and finding the others. Both writers have an uncanny ability to cause you to think differently about the left/right axis of politics, however one of them is a part of Vladamir Putin’s inner circle and the other isn’t. Perhaps it’s time those shouting about protecting western democracy and defeating the new Russian threat supported independent artists, writers and critics of the Robert Anton Wilson school, grass roots organizations, publishers, media savvy fun loving peaceful warriors who wish to help with their skills, yet are underfunded and largely ignored by mainstream, for profit, news media and learning institutions imho.

    Faith and docility are the bulwarks of Tsarism; any hint of scientific knowledge, rationality or even plain “horse sense” among the serfs are its major worries, and it blocks them every way it can. No Tsar will ever lavish such praise on scientists or other professional skeptics as [Barry] McCaffery lavishes on the faithful and the sheep-herders who lead and fleece them.

    Robert Anton Wilson, TSOG: The Thing That Ate The Constitution. (2000)

    “If you want to fight, you better organize”

    Dr Marshmallow Cubicle, Stop The Cuts.

    Another sharp contrast between the two esotericists is Wilson’s understanding of general semantics and his explicit willingness to encourage readers, whoever they be, to think clearly and use the tools he’s offering up for the betterment of themselves and their community. Dugin appeals to militarists and sociopathic hard-men with his mapping of Aryan Traditions and elitist boasting. Wilson satirizes and mocks such anal-territorial pontifications using both non-fiction and fiction. Then there’s conspiracy theory. Then Q-anon. Then there’s Putin’s shadow. How much from the Dugin school of political conspiracy mongering is manifest right where you are sitting now?
     
    Aleksandr Dugin: A Russian Version of the European Radical Right? by Marlene Laruelle is an excellent place to start if you’re not so familiar with Dugin. My only critique of my sources used here, is the authors do not aim to provide much of a rebuttal and/or suggested reading list to help combat these powerful truths uncovered. Where are the good guys in this fight? RAW accompanied his critical writings on sordid entities with maps, models and new metaphors to help build an alternative to the obstacles and entities invoked by the research, i.e,. multi model agnosticism, neurological relativity, interacting mind-body nervous-system processing, non-simultaneously apprehended plurality.

    Please visit and support www.hilaritas.com

    –Steve The Fly.
    01/03/2022. Trondheim, Norway.

    Gehlen was not only a master spy but a wizard negotiator. Within a week, he was out of his Nazi uniform and into a U.S. Army General’s uniform; the U.S. intelligence services, in return, got the info about the Soviets, including access to Gehlen’s agents in the Soviet government — a group of Mystical Tsarists who had infiltrated both the Red Army and the KGB.

    Robert Anton Wilson, TSOG: The Thing That Ate The Constitution.

    “The early-20th century Eurasianist ideology of a part of the Russian emigration and modern neo-Eurasianism developed by Aleksandr Dugin has been declared the main ideology of the organization.[6] On its website, the movement declared the West and in particular the United States as its main opponent and termed it as the “main evil”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Youth_Union

    The anti-Americanism of the Japanese, “who remember well the nuclear genocide and the disgrace of political occupation,” must be unleashed, as well as the fervent anti- Americanism of fundamentalist Muslim Iranians (234, 241). On a global scale, Dugin declares, “the main ‘scapegoat’ will be precisely the U.S.

    John B ​​Dunlop,  Aleksandr Dugin’s Foundations of Geopolitics.

    “In 2005, Dugin was invited to participate at an inaugural meeting of the British New Right group organised by Troy Southgate, a former British National Front activist and currently a self-confessed New Rightist.

    Anton Shekhovtsov, Aleksandr Dugin’s Neo-Eurasianism: The New Right à la Russe.

    Dugin advances various occultist lines of reasoning in favor of this Hyperborean theory, drawing on the mystique of the alphabets, sounds, numbers, and geometric symbols, references to the Kabbala, alchemy, Hermeticism, Gnosticism, the law of astrological correspondences, parallels with Iranian and Indian culture, etc.

    Marlene Laruelle, Aleksandr Dugin: A Russian Version of the European Radical Right?

    Tsarism represents an intermediate form between European monarchism and Asian despotism, being, possibly, closer to the latter of these two.

    Leon Trotsky, Russia’s Social Development and Tsarism. (Re-quoted from TSOG)

  • CORONA SLAYER – ALBUM RELEASE

    23 tracks, 1hour and 28 minutes. Corona Slayer is a collection of rhymes spoken over a serving of homegrown music. Since early March 2020 this poet donned a new overcoat belonging to Squintin Quarantino, and begun to fashion a lock-down diary. This album is a defocused adventure, a wild trip to slay the newly returned corona king covid with words and sound-dance.

  • The Medium Is The Message: That Rogan Spotify Thing.

    (I wrote this on February 2nd, but left it here as a draft. In just a few days, both Joe Rogan and Russel Brand are trending on social media. The latest is that Donald Trump came out in support of Rogan, and Spotify CEO Daniel Elk doubled down on his support for Rogan’s Podcast. Neil Young has doubled down on his message to delete spotify and support creative artists. Here’s my take on it all.)

    “In our communication age, misinformation is the problem. Ditch the misinformers. Find a good clean place to support with your monthly checks. You have the real power. Use it.”

    —Neil Young.


    In sync with the major trends on social media, over the last week I’ve been tweeting and dropping a few one liners about the latest Joe Rogan Spotify story, but I feel it deserves a longer, edited overview to explain what I think and why. I confess, this scrawl is a personal rant in parts, but it also includes parts that reference terse and well balanced critiques of Spotify and other digital monopolies. Thanks in part to Cory Doctorow for being the clearest authority on the impact of digital media, and previously addressing the Joe Rogan Spotify deal in mid 2020, and to Matt Stoller for same sharpness and sense for constructive critique.       

    Yes, I’ve watched JR podcasts, multiple dozens of them over a protracted period of time since it launched over a decade ago. In particular, I was drawn to those featuring Doug Stanhope (who originally inspired Joe Rogan back in 2003) and Bill Burr, and other comedians, though I often feel deflated after listening to Joe’s shows, compared to the laugh out loud funny originals of Doug and Bill, to my taste buds. I’ve watched the Alex Jones car crash interviews and the Elon Musk smoke out, I watched the Oliver Stone interview, I watched David Choe, Paul Stamets, Lex Fridman, Bernie Sanders, Brian Muraresku, Jordan Peterson (help) and now I come to think of it, yeah, a lot of other dudes, mostly dudes chatting dude stuff: Secret Cults, Hidden Mysteries, DMT Magic, Lost Civilizations, Deep State, Big Tech, Big Pharma, Covid Conspiracies and other cliches. What’s not to laugh at, what’s funny?   

    Yet, personally I’ve never got the swift kick from Rogan’s podcasts that I detected some others around me seemed to be getting. It’s probably me, it has to be me, maybe I’m spoiled? Or is JR just not sharp? Am I expecting too much from popular Podcasters and Youtube celebrities? Same goes for Russel Brand, sadly, a descent into solipsism. I’m expecting much better and feel let down when I listen. It causes me to think, he ain’t processed any Karl Popper but he harps on about George Soros. I sense a third rate comedy, over stretched, too long and over-marketed, too much focus on subscribe and likes, a MAGMA MAFIA method? Furthermore, most but not all of these monopolists defend against criticism with that old chestnut, “I’m not a scientist or a doctor, I just want to talk to interesting people.” Yeah, right. And then there’s media monopoly which damages independent Podcast culture and independent music culture and erodes our trust in science.  

    Again, look, please, dear reader, don’t get me wrong, Spotify helps millions of songs reach billions of ears, music, that sacred beautiful powerful art that I’ve spent half my life studying and playing and promoting. Yes, we all benefit from hearing it. And please, listen to what you like. The deeper issue is not JR’s content, it’s about the business practice and strategy of Spotify and it’s detrimental effect on independent art and creativity. Mega rich and powerful media entities like Spotify sponsor huge events and festivals, but which financially benefit the tiny top tier of bands and performers, another kick in the maracas.   

    I do not receive any payment for my work uploaded to Spotify, I never use it. Most of my artist friends who do, also receive next to zip. It’s a bad deal for the majority, for 99.9% of artists on the platform, and yes, Apple Music, Amazon, Deezer, Tidal, Sony, TimeWarner, Universal aren’t much better. Cory Doctorow writes: “Spotify has been on an extraordinary, acquisition-and exclusivity-driven spending spree, buying 15 companies, and doing deals like this one with Rogan.”


    Support Independent Music Culture

    Add to this the fact I’m a DJ and vinyl lover, self inflicting physical injuries so as to continue occasionally getting the chance to set up and play records in a new way, striving to play a spectrum of music and do justice to the term disc jockey, hands on. I buy records and have done for over 30 years. I’ve spent tens of thousands of Pounds and hours listening, mixing, compiling music, and often zero payment. I don’t want sympathy. I want you to support the others struggling and bring hope in remaining fiercely independent to some lucky few out there now ready to give it everything.     

    In 2022, I’m rewarded for my 25 years service to music, both as a DJ and recording artist, by copyright infringement notices on Youtube (sometimes for my own works) and audio censoring on Twitch, and stipulations about what is and is not a DJ mix, or radio DJ mix, or a remix, depending on what platform and/or territory: Soundcloud / Mixcloud etc. My point is that I paid money for physical records, I’ve supported local record shops, independent labels, artists, small venues and clubs, for three decades across the United States, Holland and the UK. What better record of integrity than a record of playing records with integrity? I’m lucky in many respects, I’ve had breaks and gigs and releases and some very fine co-conspirators, god help the next generations coming up who have to navigate these shark infested digital waters. 

    The question remains, how, HOW do we better evaluate art and artists in 2022? How can we support independent artists to do what they love and keep it local and make it pay and give a glimmer of hope that some fortunate few may make a living off art? Blockchain, I hear you say, Spotify, I hear you chant, surely it’s not social media or bust? It’s either Facebook or no luck, if you want to promote your indie project? The elephants in the room are for-profit digital music monopolies, and variations on media monopolies. Is it hard cash and hard throttling of the competition based on numbers favoured by shareholders, internet spiraling down into a click-bait moneyball analytica con.

    “taking something from the federated, open, competitive web and sticking it inside a walled garden. It’s the App Store strategy, the Facebook strategy, the AOL strategy, the MSN strategy.”

    Cory Doctorow, 2020.

    MAGMA MAFIA

    Yes, I often moan about what goes viral but does not fit my own quality control. It’s tricky to avoid embittered whataboutism, and yes, artists can bring out the best and worst in purists. As the saying goes, a jack of all trades is a jack of no trades. But let’s not forget the good advice from Karl Popper, Marshall McLuhan and Robert Anton Wilson. A pinch of pluralism, multi model-agnosticism enriches the communication and experience of negotiating culture through the lens of art.      

    Besides the great thinkers and legendary artists and musicians, there’s the great unknowns, those millions of musicians and bands and performers who are aching to be seen and noticed, acknowledged. They deserve that break, that chance. Yet, pre and now post (ish) pandemic, artists have faced the colossal five headed beast MAGMA (Meta Amazon Google Microsoft Apple) and the new digital landscape where your latest work can get shared and played around the world a million times before you can afford to pay for a large coffee with the profits, after the skimming and scheming of the MAGMA posse. Cory adds, “Why does Wall Street like this? because acquisition-driven growth is a great way to establish a monopoly in which rents are extracted from suppliers and customers to the benefit of shareholders.”   

    Spotify is reported to be worth around 58 Billion USD. Joe Rogan was paid 100,000,000 by Spotify for a deal. Am I missing the part where Joe Rogan sets up 100 independent record labels, or opens a series of community music studio’s, or radio studio’s, starts indie record labels, supports local art music scenes? With 100,000,000 Joe could really help make a cultural impact on music, specifically, because that’s what Spotify does right, music culture? How ss a podcast like a musical composition, how is it different?

    Specifically, who benefits financially most from the JR Podcast boost? Jordan Peterson? Elon Musk, Alex Jones, Daniel Elk, Jeff Bezos, MAGMA? Is it those who lean into the intellectual dark web, have books and book tours and films and albums? Or the up-coming creatives, future Podcasters and musicians? And what about other super wealthy billionaires, why don’t they support indie music culture and put their money where they’re yacht is? Governments? Aren’t they also supposed to be here, having this conversation about funding and support and helping musicians and labels and venues and festivals burst back into life again, safely, the regenesis of culture? The discussion and action should tackle the root of the problem: paywalls and digital monopolies, and freeing creatives, leveling up with the big guys, and preventing cannibalism.    Why is there so little support for local and independent artists and groups and bands and labels, journalists, writers, why not give them equal air-time with deep-state conspiracies and spurious pseudo-science?  

    When compared with the relatively speaking, waffle, on whatever political hot potato is in the oven that week, independent art and culture and music get very little air-time and that’s a shame. Coincidently, it’s similar to the strategy of Spotify and most other digital beasts, algorithms deciding what song to play next, or what fringe subject to exploit for maximum click bait. Vice media also comes to mind here. And sadly, the listeners don’t seem to mind, in a world where vinyl DJ’s are a thing of the past. It’s a digital matrix multiverse, I suppose, and we’re all trapped here behind a paywall like an imprisoned Tron. 

    Look, watch Joe Rogan and do the dance if you like, I really don’t care. This best critique is not about the specific details of his content, it’s the deal with Spotify and support of digital monopolies, while claiming to stand and speak for freedom and just a bit of a chat. I hope for a deeper conversation about digital monopolies (big tech?) which demonstrably, JR, Russel Brand and Jordan Peterson, my three punching bags, have problems getting to grips with at times, perhaps because they depend on others to do the monopolizing for them: Spotify, Google-Youtube, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Meta. We need to talk about this on a neutral platform, if one exists? Bring back public assembly!

    I’ve Seen The Stylus And The Damage Done. 

    Today, I supported an independent second hand record shop, I purchased physical discs that hold musical information and can be further manipulated with innovative hand movements if so desired. The digital platform monopolies and their main promoters don’t understand this or care. As Bruce Sterling summarized: whatever happens to musicians will happen to us all eventually.  Support your local record store, library, band, artist, label. Boycott the main offenders, if you really want to fight, put your attention where your mouth is.   

    The repeated, demonstrable lack of a clear ability to communicate scientifically about science is not entertainment. If saying, “I’m not a scientist” gives you a license to not at least attempt to communicate like a scientist (climbing toward an operationalist language that defines the instruments used to take measurements,) that’s a shame. See: Neurological relativity. I’m going off course again.

    JR’s coverage and selection of guests during the Sars 2 CoronaVirus pandemic, speaking about the Virus and the Vaccine and the Lab Leak turned me even further away from him, and changed my slight revulsion of the bald wrestling MC into something else, darker and even less funny and seemingly pandering to what’s best described as the Intellectual dark web, as floppy of a term that maybe. I thought JR’s video about Covid and Ivermectin and throwing the kitchen sink cocktail was irresponsible at best, outright dangerous at worst, but it sure got some traction and mileage on the old social media, just like Trump’s equally irresponsible proclamations.

    I fear that we’ve come to a dark-side digital meritocracy without the need for any helping hidden hand, no need for a nefarious secret cabal to insist we display our social tokens (like and subscribe?), instead of being led by a totalitarian dictator, the faithful and vulnerable follow happily singing of “Freedom” behind the likes of JR, RB and JP, believing they truly care about us, our independent voices and our creative community more than they care for book sales and tours, and paywall payouts. 

    Break The Monopolies. 

    Support local artists and with luck they with help you speak and communicate and gain agency in your society by means of cultural transformation, towards a new better place where every town and city can have it’s independent journalists and podcasters and media platforms, where we can all embrace these digital simulations beamed at our senses 24/7 for what they actually are: media monopoly games for a shrinking few MAGMA players. 

    Naturally I’m also wrong, hopefully less than 51% of the time. I’m not saying these podcasts or books or videos should be censored, but I am saying that a market monopoly on the means to communication, when combined with hazardous health advice, is an explosive recipe. Popular figures have a growing responsibility to study science, logic, reason and suspend their judgment and check their prejudice, in a post Q-anon world. With increased size and popularity comes added responsibility, climate awareness, mental health awareness and MAGMA monopoly awareness.      

    I support Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Nils Lofgren, and others that challenge the media monopoly of Spotify. I’m not onside with some third rate edgy material that might get banned on some other platform because it’s toxic or harmful. I’m siding with beautiful music and a lifetime’s dedication to the artform, that’s where my heart is at. Plus, to me, the crazy horse sense of removing music based on their revulsion to edgy toxic misinformation, so effectively boycotting their label and/or platform, shows a degree of integrity lacking across entertainment media in 2022. 

    Platform/Label, what’s the difference besides the pay? I concede that Neil and Joni are rich and famous enough to get away with such a boycott, but they did it, and I can’t see clearly how they benefit from this, which suggests to me they’re sincere. JR is not sincere from where I’m sitting. He should have me on his show, I’d love to serve up a roast, he can invite Jordan Peterson and Russel Brand too. Let’s go. As long as I can have my band with me to demonstrate what we say and how we say it, how we play it. I’ve no need to delete Spotify, I’ve never used it and always stood for independent homegrown culture.    


    “It was Marx who said one capitalist will kill many other capitalists, that the system begins to consume itself.

    Michael Parenti, Democracy Now, 2009.


    –Steven Pratt
    DJ / Drummer / Writer
    #DeepScratch
    #SquintinQuarantino  #SteveFly

    02/02/22 (edited 04/02/22)

  • A Synergetic Approach To Coronavirus Treatments


    Here’s my comment to a video by Dr. John Campbell I strongly recommend.

    My 5c. Thanks John and Rob. Great to hear praise for synergistic approach: whole systems behaviour opposed to over-focus on isolated parts, plus reflecting the hippocratic oath to primarily protect the patient. Amen to that. This reminds me of the complexities of the entourage effect, the whole is more than…the sum of its parts. Synergy may also help us grok the unintuitive details about T-cells that can protect, and/or T-cells that suppress, and/or T-cells that facilitate the immune system response…depending. It seems to me, if I understand correctly, that the Omicron mutation (in step with natural evolution of corona viruses and previous pandemics) now stays in the mucosal area (throat, nose, mouth) and so is less likely to travel deeper into lower airways and cause severe disease. Good news. Future intelligent strategies may include early treatment (drugs) to keep virus in the mucosal zone, plus consider longer periods between vaccines. Robust research (independent of manufacturers) on both mRNA vs. classical (Adenovirus vaccines) is required, and effects of unregulated amounts of antigen. Finally, these findings need to be communicated and implemented in public body health programs.  

    John Campbell, Youtube Channel.

  • All Steve Fly Agaric Recordings At Discogs 1999-2017

    Recordings and releases featuring Steven Pratt a.k.a Steve Fly Agaric 23.

    Fly Agaric 23 – The Fibonacci Project Presents (Not On Label – none)10″, Single
    New Flesh For Old – Equilibrium (Big Dada Recordings – bdcd013)
    21 For Sale from €2.00    		CD, Album1999
    Various – Waywords And Meansigns – First Edition (Not On Label – none)17xFile, MP3, Album2015
    Various – Waywords And Meansigns – Opendoor Edition (Not On Label – none)145xFile, MP3, Album2017
    Garaj Mahal – Mondo Garaj (Harmonized Records – HAR-010)
    6 For Sale from €3.44    		CD, Album2003
    Garaj Mahal – Blueberry Cave (Harmonized Records – HAR-023)
    8 For Sale from €3.99    		CD, Album2005
    The Gregory James Band – Come To Me (Rogue Records – 1080-4)
    4 For Sale from €3.26    		CD, Album2003
    John Sinclair (2) – Mohawk (Iron Man Records (2) – IMB6022)
    10 For Sale from €3.00    		CD, Album2013
    John Sinclair (2) – Beatnik Youth (Iron Man Records (2) – IMB6032)
    3 For Sale from €11.92    		2xCD, Album2017
    Various – Death To Fanatics (Iron Man Records Compilation CD 1999-2014) (Iron Man Records (2) – IMB6023)
    3 For Sale from €2.97    		CD, Comp2014
    John Sinclair & His International Blues Scholars* – Let’s Go Get’em (No Cover Records – none)CD2011
    John Sinclair (2) – Beatnik Youth (Track Record – none)CD, Album2012
    John Sinclair (2) – Viperism (Big Chief Records – none)CD, Album, Comp2012
    John Sinclair (2) – Conspiracy Theory (Big Chief Records – none)CD, Comp2012
    Garaj Mahal – Live in Northern California (Not On Label – none)CD, Album2001
    Various – Teaming With Talent (Harmonized Records – none)CD, Promo2004
    Robert Anton Wilson – Maybe Logic: The Lives And Ideas Of Robert Anton Wilson (deepleaf productions – none)DVD-V2003

    https://www.discogs.com/lists/Steve-Fly-Agaric-Recordings/921478