WEBVTT 00:00:15.819 --> 00:00:19.531 So you are here and I am here, spending our time as we must. 00:00:19.531 --> 00:00:20.431 [Sound of heartbeats, in the background.] 00:00:20.446 --> 00:00:23.836 I am trying not to spend this time as I spend most of my time, 00:00:23.836 --> 00:00:25.257 trying to get you to like me. 00:00:25.257 --> 00:00:26.074 [Laughter.] 00:00:26.074 --> 00:00:28.322 Trying to control your thoughts, to use my voodoo NOTE Paragraph 00:00:28.322 --> 00:00:31.552 at the speed of light, the speed of sound, at the speed of thought. 00:00:31.552 --> 00:00:34.888 It is an ancient pattern of time usage for me 00:00:34.888 --> 00:00:39.052 and I am trying to move deeper, hoping to be helpful. 00:00:40.791 --> 00:00:43.473 This pattern of time usage paints over an ancient wound 00:00:43.473 --> 00:00:45.138 and paints it with bright colours. 00:00:45.138 --> 00:00:46.658 It's a sleight of hand, a distraction, 00:00:46.658 --> 00:00:50.407 so to attempt to change the pattern, let me expose the wound. 00:00:52.022 --> 00:00:53.922 I do know that it is old. 00:00:53.922 --> 00:00:56.157 I do know that it is a hole in my being. 00:00:56.157 --> 00:00:58.131 I do know it is tender. 00:00:58.131 --> 00:01:01.883 I do believe that it is unknowable, or at least, inarticulable. 00:01:03.160 --> 00:01:04.888 I do believe you have a wound, too. 00:01:05.088 --> 00:01:07.254 I do believe it is both specific to you 00:01:07.254 --> 00:01:09.788 and common to everyone. 00:01:10.342 --> 00:01:13.301 I do believe it is the thing about you that must be hidden and protected. 00:01:13.824 --> 00:01:17.673 It is the thing that is tap-danced over, five shows a day. 00:01:17.673 --> 00:01:20.653 It is the thing that won't be interesting to other people if revealed. 00:01:20.653 --> 00:01:23.157 It is the thing that makes you weak and pathetic. 00:01:23.326 --> 00:01:29.176 It is the thing that truly, truly, truly makes loving you impossible. 00:01:32.637 --> 00:01:35.626 It is your secret, even from yourself, 00:01:35.642 --> 00:01:39.639 but it is the thing that wants to live. 00:01:41.777 --> 00:01:44.598 It is the thing from which your art, your painting, your dance, 00:01:44.598 --> 00:01:52.252 your composition, your philosophical treatise, your screenplay, is born. 00:01:57.367 --> 00:02:00.006 People all over the world spend countless hours 00:02:00.006 --> 00:02:02.438 of their lives every week being fed entertainment 00:02:02.438 --> 00:02:06.368 in the forms of movies, TV shows, newspapers, YouTube videos, the internet 00:02:06.368 --> 00:02:10.664 and it's ludicrous to believe this stuff doesn't alter our brains. 00:02:11.049 --> 00:02:14.773 And it's also equally ludicrous to believe that, at the very least, 00:02:14.773 --> 00:02:20.944 this mass distraction and manipulation is not convenient for the people who are in charge. 00:02:20.944 --> 00:02:22.619 People are starving. 00:02:22.619 --> 00:02:25.890 They may not know it, because they are being fed mass-produced garbage. 00:02:25.890 --> 00:02:27.887 The packaging is colourful and it's loud, 00:02:28.549 --> 00:02:32.269 but it's being produced in the same factories that make Pop Tarts and iPads, 00:02:32.577 --> 00:02:37.169 by people sitting around thinking, "What can we do to get people to buy more of these?" 00:02:37.461 --> 00:02:41.550 And they're very good at their jobs, but that's what it is you're getting, 00:02:41.550 --> 00:02:43.436 because that's what they're making. 00:02:43.436 --> 00:02:45.106 They're selling you something. 00:02:45.106 --> 00:02:47.551 And the world is built on this, now. 00:02:47.551 --> 00:02:50.390 Politics and government are built on this. 00:02:50.390 --> 00:02:52.236 Corporations are built on this. 00:02:52.236 --> 00:02:54.205 Interpersonal relationships are built on this. 00:02:54.205 --> 00:03:00.083 And we're starving, all of us, and we're killing each other, and we're hating each other, 00:03:01.129 --> 00:03:03.466 and we're calling each other liars and evil, 00:03:03.466 --> 00:03:06.037 because it's all become marketing and we want to win, 00:03:06.037 --> 00:03:10.890 because we're lonely and empty and scared and we're led to believe winning will change all that. 00:03:11.121 --> 00:03:15.709 [Sounds of fight announcer, crowd, from television] 00:03:16.893 --> 00:03:18.881 The world is very scary now. 00:03:19.850 --> 00:03:24.053 It always has been, but something grotesque and specific to our time is blanketing us. 00:03:24.653 --> 00:03:27.181 We need to see that it is not reality. 00:03:27.181 --> 00:03:28.471 It is a choice we are making, 00:03:28.471 --> 00:03:32.285 or allowing other people to make for us. 00:03:37.543 --> 00:03:39.709 Don't allow yourself to be tricked into thinking 00:03:39.709 --> 00:03:42.887 that the way things are is the way the world must work. 00:03:43.302 --> 00:03:45.348 [Heartbeats begin again.] 00:03:45.518 --> 00:03:51.133 What I'd like to express is the notion that by being honest, thoughtful, and aware of the existence of other living beings, 00:03:51.133 --> 00:03:54.636 a change can begin to happen in how we think of ourselves and the world, 00:03:54.636 --> 00:03:56.432 and ourselves in the world. 00:03:56.432 --> 00:03:59.914 We are not the passive audience for this big, messed up power play. 00:04:00.129 --> 00:04:01.363 We don't have to be. 00:04:01.763 --> 00:04:03.146 We can say who we are. 00:04:03.146 --> 00:04:05.265 We can assert our right to existence. 00:04:05.265 --> 00:04:06.924 We can say to the bullies and con men, 00:04:06.924 --> 00:04:10.221 the people who try to shame us and embarrass us, flatter us, 00:04:10.344 --> 00:04:14.781 to the people who have no compunction about lying to us to get our money and our allegience, 00:04:14.919 --> 00:04:18.380 that we are thinking, really thinking, about who we are 00:04:18.380 --> 00:04:25.809 and we will express ourselves and with this, other people won't feel so alone. 00:04:27.632 --> 00:04:31.441 I want to tell you that I have a hope that there is another way to be in this world 00:04:31.441 --> 00:04:33.940 and that I believe with courage and vulnerability and honesty, 00:04:33.940 --> 00:04:39.630 that the stuff we put into the world can serve a better purpose. 00:04:41.145 --> 00:04:43.020 What I have to offer is me. 00:04:43.066 --> 00:04:45.815 What you have to offer is you. 00:04:45.815 --> 00:04:48.513 [Crowd sounds, cheering.]