It's ONTOlarious...

Did you ever wonder why some people are just naturally more popular than others? Go back to elementary school for a moment. Who was popular? Is wasn't the really smart kid, right? That was usually a ticket to Nerdville. Initially, the group thinking about popularity was to sort for the strongest male and the prettiest female. Why that matters to a pack of 7 year old kids doesn't matter. Tall is better than short. More is better than less. Power is assigned on that scale within the group. That same primitive pattern is ingrained in the social strata so deeply that we are prone to choosing our leaders based more on how they appear, than what they say.

Why? ONTOlarity...What's that?

ONTOlarity: raw leadership that is assumed based on the external projection of an internal sense of authority, IOW - because I said so!

Who leads you? Can you name the ONTO's that have given you what you perceive to be bad advice, lousy directions, and downright hurtful and unsolicited criticism sometimes? OK, now drop the emotional side of it. Weren't they deadly accurate? When we're in a confused state, clarity seems ONTO to us, IOW, it seems like an oppressive force in our lives. But when we are the deliverer of wisdom, that clarity is like the wind in our sails and we can't understand why everyone is resistant to us. That's why the degree we can harness ONTOlarity is not up to us. The people who are ONTO's know this already. They view leadership as a verb, not a title.

ONTObility - refined leadership that is acquired based on a communal need to transfer authority, IOW - I can, so you can, so we can.

Seth Godin has both. He works it backwards a lot. Most ONTO's are content to get to the point where they can say 'I can' and that's the end of it. If an ONTO can't do something, they have a tough time letting anyone else do it, unless of course that something is done for them. LOL. Seth's books and blogs are only credible to the masses because he had the ONTOlarity (internal clarity) to act on his ideas with enough intent that even when he seemed outrageous and edgy, people still listened to him. ONTO's are able to be content with being popular with themselves. They see others who disagree they same we do when we experience that clarity they internalized during development, when life was about being strong or pretty.

Notice this. Was Seth the strongest, prettiest, or most influential in 2nd grade?
What ever happened to those punk asses anyway?

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PHYLO Shiny People

This week we're taking on the 'light-sided' bias of PHYLO nation. You know the drill. Any/all negative emotion is outlawed and pathologized. Criticism can be considered violent communication, so keep your opinion to yourself. And if you're hurting? Well your the cause of that since every last thought you have is the origin of every experience you have so you must not be thinking positively enough or spending enough time in the 'now' or feeding your power animals or something!!! This is everywhere.

We are a nation addicted to anti-depressive meds and anti-depression messages. That why we can pop more pills than any country on Earth and simultaneously make "The Secret" the #1 book, DVD and internet phenomenon. This is PHYLO 101. And since they have the numbers in 'Somaland', that is the prevailing sentiment in the culture. We get outraged by who gets kicked off Idol, but not the Iraq war.

We obsess about celebritie's lives and never get to know our neighbors. We embrace Kabbalah when Madonna endorses it, and then freak out when religion and politics collide. It's reached the point where we need to re-examine what it means to be a citizen of the world, the United States, and the town we live in. The PHYLO glue that holds us all together is losing it's grip. We're actually lowering the standards for all kinds of behavior and then lashing out and making examples of people like Imus and Opie & Anthony, while we consume more violent movies, TV and music. Are you depressed yet?

Riff on This! and we'll talk about WED here...
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Time: WED 8-9pm EDT
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EXO DeFacto

It was 1979 (that's Nineteen Seventy-Frickin' Nine) when Buggles wafted across the screen on MTV announcing for all the see and hear that 'Video Killed The Radio Star'. Well it wasn't that fast, but by

the time we got to Live Aid in 1985, the idea of 'music television' had replaced 'music radio' as the primary medium to market rising and established recording artists to the masses. As the technology moved from the TV to the PC, we saw the rise of first CD's and mp3's and then Napster, iTunes and the iPod. Now that cycle is spinning so fast from ringtones to satellite radio that places like Tower Records are no more. We went from Pete Townshend smashing his guitar in the 60's, to him screaming that he wanted his MTV in the 80's, to tinnitus patient Pete Townsend touring for Boomer crowd twenty summers later because while the technology changed, the songs remained the same.

Now it seems that YouTube is doing the same thing to TV. The recent news that network TV viewing was down 2.5 million people this Spring -- and the theories range as to why that has happened.

The one that hasn't changed is that what is popular in this culture - or given popularity - carries an image, one that can be very dehumanizing and destructive to a generation of overweight, stim-dependant, technology adled teenagers. As this EXO video demonstrates, the sad hollowness of the Doll Face mentality has become the 'mask' many of us judge beauty through in society. One of the ironies of the EXO domain is that while they aspire for a Utopian structure, they remain suspicious of the very species they seek to advance. It's that implicit distrust that the PHYLO faced TV viewer in the video wrestles with as it tries to re-establish an intimate position to bond with the Doll Face image on the TV. That approach-avoid dynamic is a classic psychological tactic EXO's employ when 'de facts' enter into 'da fiction' of their own life story. Have we gone full circle here and can we now openly say that TV's image of cultural beauty has failed us collectively or are we busy TiVo-ing it all?

IOW, to go back to Pete Townsend, have we smashed the mirror (neurons)?

Riff on This! and we'll talk about WED here...

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Time: WED 8-9pm EDT

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ECO Subversives

Here we have ECO at large Mark Dice, AKA John Conner, trolling the campus at the SDSU Job Fair. Watch how he reacts to the spectrum of PHYLO'd responses to the very simple question of what year the 9/11 attacks happened. Place close attention to the language he uses when interacting with the military recruiters and personnel. It's a clinic on how ECO's operate. If Mark/John wanted to get his opinion on the ignorance and apathy of 9/11 out there, there are 100's of less divisive ways to do it. But the ECO is not happy until emotions are triggered and, usually, they are embroiled in the controversy. So if you want to spot on ECO expressing their take on a topic, don't look in the op ed section. Watch for the latest car chase, Borat DVD, or viral video like this one. And if you're laughing or shocked by what they say or do...

Riff on This! and we'll talk about WED here...

Host Channel: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nakedsoma

Dial In Number: (646) 478-4847
Show Time: WED 8-9pm EDT
Show Blog: http://www.nakedsoma.blogspot.com/

Here some 'post-show' ECO-spotting links - feel free to comment, we may join you!

Videos

Racy Divorce Billboard Gets Stripped

First Person Kansas Couple: "What Next?"

First Person: Woman Survives Shark Attack

Articles

Activists want chimp declared a person

Jury Convicts Affectionate Plane Passenger

show bad! I thought both of them had the charges dropped...not so, just the girl.

Man told he was dying, spends fortune, lives

Listen back here to our May 9, 2007 show

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hostpage.aspx?show_id=23846