The Yes Men: It Takes a Lie to Tell The Truth

Do we love the Yes Men? Oh, yes, we do!

"Ascended masters of media hoaxing, sociopolitical pranking, and Tactical Embarrassment."

Seldom has social criticism had such teeth, while having so much fun. Mike and Andy have been dropping into corporate board meetings, conservative think tank dinners and international press events for the better part of 10 years. And now they have a new film out to tell about it. "The Yes Men Fix the World." (Trailer) Especially adorable are the inflatable "Halliburton Surviva-Ball" pillbug suits. Brilliant!

You can feel the prickle of stage-fright on the back of your neck as they infiltrate these media events and commandeer the microphone for some deadpan truth-telling. The way they poke little holes into the audience's normal perceptual routine is deeply subversive. I guarantee that spending any time with these guys will make you want to invent some naughty truth-revealing schemes of your own. And I hope you will!

Here is their official website.

Wikipedia has a great synopsis of who they are and what they do, calling them "a group of culture jamming activists who practice what they call 'identity correction' by pretending to be powerful people and spokespersons for prominent organizations. From their offices in Milwaukee, they create and maintain fake websites similar to ones they want to spoof, and then they accept invitations received on their websites to appear at conferences, symposia, and TV shows. They express the idea that corporations and governmental organizations often act in dehumanizing ways toward the public. Elaborate props are sometimes part of the ruse."

Here is a link to a collection of video clips of their audacious stunts.

From the promo for their book, in which they teach you how to do what they do:

Not only do the Yes Men punk powerful corporations and make films about it, they also write books (or, a book)! This book is the companion book to The Yes Men (2004), the United Artists documentary that followed Andy and Mike as they impersonated the World Trade Organization on TV and at business conferences around the world. Delighted to speak as the organization they oppose, Andy and Mike tried out every shock tactic they could think of for their unwitting audiences. Weirdly, the experts never noticed the joke and seemed to agree with every terrible idea they came up with. The book is richly illustrated in full color throughout, featuring photographs of Mike and Andy getting deeper and deeper into their assumed identities. Also liberally dispensed are many of the hilarious e-mail exchanges between the Yes Men and various officials and individuals around the world who have asked their advice on issues of world trade.

So don't forget, kids: If life is getting you down, break out the mischief and get a few friends to help you!

Words of Encouragement

Thoughts that come from our favorite luminaries can help to lighten the load we all bear, because we know that other people, some great souls, have shared our feelings and challenges, too.


“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world, and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." - E.B. White


Not only is it your right to be happy, but your innate state of being. Do you know that too? - Beca Lewis at Perception U


Pleasure is the key to your deepest intelligence, your deepest integrity and your most profound sense of yourself. – Mama Gena


Don't ever give up on life. Life can be so beautiful, especially after you've spent a lot of time with it. Because then, life becomes like a lover you have been close to for so many years. You know him so well, and yet every day he gives you a surprise. - Yoko Ono (shared by Heather Duke)


"All this creation is part of God's manifestation, even the pain and the suffering of this world. But so is your desire to end it, so GO with that desire!" - Ram Dass (from FB site for Conscious Shift Revolution).


"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished.
Yet that will be the beginning."
- Louis L'Amour


Why is this blog called "Jewels of Happiness?" When I was younger, I seemed to have a pretty much endless reservoir of optimism. The myriad disappointments I encountered in young adulthood just bounced off of me. Depression was just a toy I played with. It was melancholia, really, and no big deal. I sought out the rougher parts of town, the really gritty experiences, the hardest work I could find. It seemed that no matter what happened, nothing sordid or discouraging could take away my basic shine.

But things aren't quite so easy these days. Life hasn't gotten any harder (it's always been really challenging) but it seems that lately I don't have the capacity to bounce back quite like I used to. You could say that I take the ugliness of life a lot harder than I did before. It's all become too real; it's not funny anymore.

Since I am finding that I am continually up against a cold, hard wall of existential Nothingness, when I come across a thought that makes me feel that I can go on, or one that helps to re-frame what's going on with this crazy life we all share, I can really feel the relief that it brings.

Like a jewel. I decided that if I can keep finding these jewels and stringing them together, this might be a decent practice for feeling my way through 2010. So I started this blog and encourage you to chime in whenever it suits you.

In the spirit of "no fluff, no filler," I included a few quotes which I found very helpful. Maybe you have one that really sticks with you, and you would like to share. What keeps you going?

The Last Lecture: Randy Pausch

Professor Randy Pausch put a new spin on Carnegie Mellon's "Last Lecture Series," which posited, "if you were about to die, what is the most important thing you would want to tell your students?" by giving an inspirational talk in the last months of his battle with pancreatic cancer. "Damn, I finally nailed the venue!" he joked.

"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" was the title of this lecture. Pausch was a pioneer in the field of entertainment technology, and co-created a program called Alice, which teaches computer programming to kids, with fun.

"I don't know how to not have fun. I'm dying and I'm having fun."

The full video of this talk is 1 hour 20 minutes, is quite bittersweet and has valuable recurring themes, such as: “Brick walls are there for a reason: to let us know how badly we want things.” and "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."

An excellent 4 minute film about Pausch's "Last Lecture" project and personal philosophy is here.

His decision to make the most of his dying experience gives an amazing inspiration. "You have to decide if you're a Tigger, or an Eeyore. I think it's pretty clear where I come down in this debate."

Keeping Track of the Miracles

A certain friend of mine, trying to cheer me up from my Funk of Doom this weekend, brought me a Coffee Bean/Tea Leaf mug emblazoned with the homily:
"Life is a Series of Thousands of Tiny Miracles."*

I was touched by the impromptu gift, but still wondered, "Yeah, yeah, but where am I gonna find the few grand my dentist wants me to pay, to keep my teeth from falling out?"

"I don't know," she replied. "Mine are messed up too, have been for a year, and I can't afford to fix them either. I'm hoping to stem the tide someday."

OK, so neither of us know how we're gonna save our teeth. But she has a habit that is very creative - she writes down every time that something really unexpectedly good happens to her.

Keeping track of miracles in this sort of situation is definitely worth making the time for.

Besides, the mug is right - we are surrounded by incredibly unlikely circumstances, by which we navigate our daily lives: The meeting of sperm and egg. The flight of the bumblebee. Water, for goodness sake. The firing of synapses. The internal combustion engine. Nonverbal communication. Love, sex and romance. Freeway driving. "I'm a fan of electricity," my daughter concurs, looking up from her animated computer game.

Far more proactive than simply counting one's blessings, logging the miracles that happen is a way of celebrating the life-giving power of good will, of bringing in astonishment to bridge the corrosive sameness of daily life.

And, if the "Law of Attraction" people are right, it's a good way to create more of the same.

So I dare you. In a little notebook or your journal, take a moment to consider what happened recently that was incredibly unusual and positive. And if something really superb happened, write in and tell everyone about it.

*(attributed to Mike Greenberg)

Countries That Prioritize Happiness and Peace

Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times, wrote in a recent essay: The Happiest People:

"Hmmm. You think it’s a coincidence? Costa Rica is one of the very few countries to have abolished its army, and it’s also arguably the happiest nation on earth."

He quotes the World Database of Happiness, which calls itself "an ongoing register of scientific research on the subjective enjoyment of life."

In the article, Kristof discusses how the countries of the world ranked in regards to self-reported contentment in several key areas.

Prioritizing human and environmental well-being is not a common benchmark of successful development, but it should be.

Another country that has demonstrably prioritized happiness is Bhutan, with its "Gross National Happiness" Indicator.

A BBC special from a few years back describes this outlook.

One spokesperson termed it as "a development philosophy that puts people at the center...where we look at not just the material needs but the spiritual needs of people." In the 25+ years that their current king has held office, forested terrain has increased, and he also made a decision to share power equally with their Parliament. "To us, GNH means that the ultimate goal of development should be happiness. Not purely economic development, but carefully balanced with spiritual health, the environment and generally the quality of life."

Unfortunately Bhutan has also been widely accused of expelling thousands of Nepali-speaking residents and others through forced displacement and ethnic cleansing. But the unique determination to consider the political, social and spiritual well-being of the citizens is commendable.

Here is a short contemplative film about Bhutan

This from Wikipedia:

A second-generation GNH concept, treating happiness as a socioeconomic development metric, was proposed in 2006 by Med Yones, the President of International Institute of Management. The metric measures socioeconomic development by tracking 7 development area including the nation's mental and emotional health.[3] GNH value is proposed to be an index function of the total average per capita of the following measures:

1. Economic Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of economic metrics such as consumer debt, average income to consumer price index ratio and income distribution
2. Environmental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of environmental metrics such as pollution, noise and traffic
3. Physical Wellness: Indicated via statistical measurement of physical health metrics such as severe illnesses
4. Mental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of mental health metrics such as usage of antidepressants and rise or decline of psychotherapy patients
5. Workplace Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of labor metrics such as jobless claims, job change, workplace complaints and lawsuits
6. Social Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of social metrics such as discrimination, safety, divorce rates, complaints of domestic conflicts and family lawsuits, public lawsuits, crime rates
7. Political Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of political metrics such as the quality of local democracy, individual freedom, and foreign conflicts.

International attention to the nature of development can be seen: "Rethinking Development: Local Pathways to Global Wellbeing", the Second International Conference on Gross National Happiness was held in Antigonish, Nova Scotia June 20–24, 2005, co-hosted by Genuine Progress Index Atlantic (proceedings online); the Coady International Institute; Shambhala; the Centre for Bhutan Studies; the Province of Nova Scotia; the Gorsebrook Research Institute at Saint Mary's University; and the University of New Brunswick.

Do you know more about countries or even companies which are prioritizing the human and natural element over profits? Write in and tell about it!

Ho'Oponopono: The Subtle Threads Connecting Us

This is an excerpt from Joe Vitale's writings about Dr. Hew Len
Thanks to Nancy Markell for sending this in!

Two years ago, I heard about a therapist in Hawaii who cured a complete ward of criminally insane patients--without ever seeing any of them. The psychologist would study an inmate's chart and then look within himself to see how he created that person's illness. As he improved himself, the patient improved.

When I first heard this story, I thought it was an urban legend. How could anyone heal anyone else by healing himself? How could even the best self-improvement master cure the criminally insane? It didn't make any sense. It wasn't logical, so I dismissed the story.

However, I heard it again a year later. I heard that the therapist had used a Hawaiian healing process called ho'oponopono. I had never heard of it, yet I couldn't let it leave my mind. If the story was at all true, I had to know more.

I had always understood "total responsibility" to mean that I am responsible for what I think and do. Beyond that, it's out of my hands. I think that most people think of total responsibility that way. We're responsible for what we do, not what anyone else does--but that's wrong.

The Hawaiian therapist who healed those mentally ill people would teach me an advanced new perspective about total responsibility. His name is Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len. We probably spent an hour talking on our first phone call. I asked him to tell me the complete story of his work as a therapist.

He explained that he worked at Hawaii State Hospital for four years. That ward where they kept the criminally insane was dangerous. Psychologists quit on a monthly basis. The staff called in sick a lot or simply quit. People would walk through that ward with their backs against the wall, afraid of being attacked by patients.

It was not a pleasant place to live, work, or visit.

Dr. Len told me that he never saw patients. He agreed to have an office and to review their files. While he looked at those files, he would work on himself. As he worked on himself, patients began to heal.

"After a few months, patients that had to be shackled were being allowed to walk freely," he told me. "Others who had to be heavily medicated were getting off their medications. And those who had no chance of ever being released were being freed."

I was in awe. "Not only that," he went on, "but the staff began to enjoy coming to work. "Absenteeism and turnover disappeared. We ended up with more staff than we needed because patients were being released, and all the staff was showing up to work. Today, that ward is closed."

This is where I had to ask the million dollar question: 'What were you doing within yourself that caused those people to change?'

"I was simply healing the part of me that created them," he said. I didn't understand. Dr. Len explained that total responsibility for your life means that everything in your life- simply because it is in your life--is your responsibility. In a literal sense the entire world is your creation.

Whew. This is tough to swallow. Being responsible for what I say or do is one thing. Being responsible for what everyone in my life says or does is quite another. Yet, the truth is this: if you take complete responsibility for your life, then everything you see, hear, taste, touch, or in any way experience is your responsibility because it is in your life. This means that terrorist activity, the president, the economy or anything you experience and don't like--is up for you to heal. They don't exist, in a manner of speaking, except as projections from inside you. The problem isn't with them, it's with you, and to change them, you have to change you.

I know this is tough to grasp, let alone accept or actually live. Blame is far easier than total responsibility, but as I spoke with Dr.Len, I began to realize that healing for him and in ho'oponopono means loving yourself.

If you want to improve your life, you have to heal your life. If you want to cure anyone, even a mentally ill criminal you do it by healing you.

I asked Dr. Len how he went about healing himself. What was he doing, exactly, when he looked at those patients' files?

"I just kept saying, 'I'm sorry' and 'I love you' over and over again," he explained.

That's it?
That's it.

Turns out that loving yourself is the greatest way to improve yourself, and as you improve yourself, you improve your world.

Let me give you a quick example of how this works: one day, someone sent me an email that upset me. In the past I would have handled it by working on my emotional hot buttons or by trying to reason with the person who sent the nasty message. This time, I decided to try Dr. Len's method. I kept silently saying,'I'm sorry' and 'I love you.' I didn't say it to anyone in particular I was simply evoking the spirit of love to heal within me what was creating the outer circumstance.

Within an hour I got an e-mail from the same person. He apologized for his previous message. Keep in mind that I didn't take any outward action to get that apology. I didn't even write him back. Yet, by saying 'I love you,' I somehow healed within me what was creating him.

I later attended a ho'oponopono workshop run by Dr. Len. He's now 70 years old, considered a grandfatherly shaman, and is somewhat reclusive. He praised my book, The Attractor Factor. He told me that as I improve myself, my book's vibration will raise, and everyone will feel it when they read it. In short, as I improve, my readers will improve.

"What about the books that are already sold and out there?" I asked.
"They aren't out there," he explained, once again blowing my mind with his mystic wisdom. "They are still in you."

In short, there is no 'out there.' It would take a whole book to explain this advanced technique with the depth it deserves. Suffice It to say that whenever you want to improve anything in your life, there's only one place to look: inside you. When you look, do it with love.

If something is bothering me, I just think of the issue and repeat the mantra - 'Thank you, I forgive you, I'm sorry, I love you' over and over again

"I Love You"
"I'm Sorry"
"Please Forgive Me"
"Thank You"

Clowning and Caring - Patch Adams

The fact that Patch Adams exists makes me very, very happy! He's a doctor, a poetry aficionado, a social visionary and monkeywrencher, a global humanitarian and... a clown. What you might call a Real Human Being, he shows me that there are an infinite number of ways to be effective in life, by being oneself and working outside (or even within) one's comfort zone.

Oh, and he's raising money for a hospital.

Here's a bio, from his website: www.patchadams.org

What he's up to TODAY:

CLOWNING AND CARING in ECUADOR

January 2-8, 2010

Gesundheit! Institute and the School for Designing a Society invite you to participate in CLOWNING AND CARING, an educational clown tour in Ecuador. The tour will combine daily clowning with daily workshops in imagination and inquiry into the locale of our clowning.

Ecuador, on the equator in northwestern South America, is one of the seventeen megadiverse countries, hosting a great variety of endemic species of flora and fauna. Its 2009 constitution is the first in the world to ensure Rights of Nature (ecosystem rights). The capital city of Quito (where we'll be) has been named a World Heritage Site for having the best maintained and least changed historic city center in Latin America.

In addition to clowning and care in clinical settings, there will be daily practical workshops in clown technique, love strategy and reflection on where we are. Patch Adams will be leading this trip.

Themes

Day 1, afternoon: The Red Badge of Courage: the Clown and the Nose The politics of 'help': exactly who am I 'helping' when I clown? 'Them'? 'Me'? 'It?' Charity versus bi-directional care. Clowning as anti-hierarchical intervention, clowning as invitation to social chaos, as a trick to bring love close, as warming up public spaces.

Day 1, evening: The Art of Making small things BIG, so as to make BIG THINGS small Clowning as a way of making small things (small actions of kindness, simple props, "fictional" premises) BIG in order to make BIG things (overwhelming grief, pain) small. Clowning as a way to invert a disproportionate relationship between joy and suffering.

Day 2: What is YOUR love STRATEGY? A 3-hour workshop with Patch Adams: how love is thoughtful action, not only emotional expression. Discussion on how to design strategies for showing and engendering 'love'. Hands on exercises.

Day 3: WHERE AM I? Eyes on Ecuador, I: Where are we? What is it? Who are 'we' in it? How to 'look a system' when visiting another country briefly? Discussion of the economic, historical, ecological, cultural, compositional life of Ecuador.

Day 4: W(here I am!!!)HERE AM I? Eyes on Ecuador, II: discussion of domains of personal, communal, public. New questions for old answers, new answers for old questions.

Day 5: Synthesis of our week's experience Talk back sessions in small and large groups: Have I changed? Has it? What's my next step?

Instructors/Facilitators

Patch Adams—entered medical school in 1967 to use medicine as a vehicle for social change; promotes and practices living a life of public joy as a revolutionary act; fount of ideas for avoiding burn-out in long-term social justice and health. Enthusiator.
Susan Parenti—composer, playwright, pianist, accordionist, poet, virtuoso speaker; critical observer & dramatizer of language's troubled relation to thought; composing not only pieces but also contexts where pieces might function: house theater, scripted rehearsal, timed discussion. Adept at making her personal curiosity social.
Mark Enslin—composer, actor, bassoonist, guitarist, oud player, apprentice tabla player, listener, teaching composition facing the power of the respondent, assignment as an art form.
Melanie Meltzer—clown and scholar, mover and steadier, catalyst.
Jacob Barton—composer, inventor of instruments and of means, aspiring metaclown, language hacker

Further playful readings on clowning:
Re-Designing the Character of the Care-Actor by Susan Parenti
Metaclown by Jacob Barton