(You will need to read yesterday's entry for today's to make sense; here's part 1 and here's part 2. By the way, would you like to hear the Objectivist joke I wrote several years ago? Q: How many Objectivists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A: Uh, one, duh!)

Okay, so yesterday I was discussing the subject of utopian societies, and had gotten to the topic of hypothetical utopias versus ones that are actually constructed in the real world. And specifically I was discussing the example of Walden II, BF Skinner's postwar novel/manifesto hybrid concerning Behaviorism, and Los Horcones, an actual Behaviorist community in northern Mexico that has been continually operating for thirty years now. And before I get any more into this, I guess I should start by sharing one of the more important lessons I've learned now about international travel, because it helps explain how I feel about the whole subject of actual utopian societies. The lesson is this - that the reason you will never fully understand the complexities of a culture until you actually visit it yourself, is because that's where all the people are who don't travel internationally themselves. There is great fun to be had with international travelers, to be sure, those hardy folk who manage to put together the time, money, willpower and inclination to go travel halfway around the world, and then once there actually get in the trenches (so to speak) and try to learn what life is like for the locals there. But let's face it - most people in a given society aren't like this, and so spend most of their time at home, which is why you'll never really appreciate the complexities of a culture until you go visit there yourself and meet all of them, and understand the rich tapestry of thought that is going on there.

And I guess this is how I feel about such radical leftist projects like communal societies, community gardens, public television, arts centers, etc - that that they would all be so fascinating and worthwhile if you could get a large cross-sample of the general population involved, and develop a complex personality for the project that reflects society at large. The problem, though, is that in reality most of the people involved are the very radical leftists who came up with the project in the first place - which then produces this narrow personality for the project, and a narrow way of doing things, a narrow amount of fresh thought and opinion. This is certainly what grew to be my major critique of the poetry-slam community, in the last years I was involved with it; a lack of fresh voices and opinions about where the community should go, and those few that did exist always getting quashed by the radical leftists in charge.

And so I imagine it is at Los Horcones as well, based on what I've read there at their website. Which is a shame, I think, because a communtarian society like that really would be the theoretically perfect place for an artist like me to live; my job, after all, would be to write, and to put together spoken-word shows and other entertainment for the community, and I imagine a little manual labor as well, with all of my living expenses being taken care of for me in return, and with the community giving me a, whatever, $3,000 chunk once a year from the communal treasury, for making that year's international trip. God, that would be such a great situation for me, I dare not even think about it coming true; and in theory, that's the kind of wonderful thing a communitarian society could provide all of us who lived in one.

But there are problems at Los Horcones, obviously; thirty years later and they still only have eight families living there full-time, versus the 500 to 1000 they thought they would have by now. And like I said, after reading what's there I'm of the opinion that this is probably because of most of the families being radical leftists, and there emerging a narrow opinion on how to best properly run things there. Take the page at their website, for example, where they tackle some of the common misconceptions about the community, and just look at all the ridiculous things they have to address: that they're not a cult; that you don't have to participate in orgies to be a member; that children aren't literally taken away from their parents; that no one is forced to stay there against their will; that the members are not escapists, and that things actually do get accomplished there. If they're going to such lengths to address such topics, obviously someone out there has actually made such accusations against them; and while I'm sure that none of these are literally true, there's a good chance I think that some real incidents led to these misunderstandings.

Like, I could see maybe one couple there being really into sexual swinging, for example, who happen to be this loud leftist couple who are always into everybody's business and always being really persistent, which could've led a visitor to think that the entire community is like that. And boy, it's true that the Personocracy form of government they use sounds really screwy - that every decision has to be unanimously agreed upon by every member of the community to pass. I could easily see a bunch of these leftist intellectuals getting into a big argument over a bunch of little tiny decisions, and not getting anything done for just weeks and weeks on end. A place like Los Horcones is a very tempting idea for me, and there's of course a little part of me that always thinks about actually moving to such a location and living there full-time; but I just couldn't do it, I think, with it mostly being a small group of radical leftists participating, just like it's hard for me to fully support public television or community gardens, just like I ended up quitting the poetry-slam community.

But all of this also brings up another possibility, one that's more intriguing - of this arts center I'm trying to open right now doubling as a sort of 'Skinner box' of its own, although much looser and more informal than anything a Behaviorist might tackle. I mean, I definitely have certain opinions about the arts industry, that I'm hoping will make the center a big success precisely because so few other centers share my opinions. I firmly believe, for example, that it's possible to create a space where the most mainstream of the general public and the most challenging of artists can both come together; that you can convince the general public that the arts are important in their lives, while convincing artists that the general public is good for their lives; that you can do all this while charging a fair price to the general public, paying a fair fee to the artists, and having enough left over to pay our bills and make a small profit. And I believe that this is done mostly by building a very honest, open and supportive community at the center, versus the two-faced ones so many other artistic organizations have; to base opportunities on simple merit instead of political connections, to truly encourage collaboration and downplay competition, to support all different forms of artistic output for the unique assets they each have, and in general to always express opinions in positive or constructive terms, versus the sometimes very cruel or pessimistic way that is encouraged in other organizations if you want to get ahead there.

With me having these opinions, then, and me being in charge of the center, it will be possible for the first time to create a total environment from the ground up that is based on these opinions. And of course I expect Chicago artists to attend more events than just mine, and to be a part of different scenes; but at least while they're at the center I can say that this is the way things work around here, that this is what you have to do to get ahead, and that hopefully you'll see the benefits and implement them yourself at the other events you attend. And like the general Behaviorist principles theorize, I believe that the best way to implement this is for me and my staff to simply act this way ourselves, and to get everyone else to change their behavior by example and positive reinforcement (or rewards, that is, like increased opportunities to perform and publish).

So not a strict Behaviorist experiment, because it lacks precise scientific controls, but an experiment nonetheless, to see if I can't get more of the artistic community here to think and behave the same way I feel an artistic community should act. And since I'm a pragmatist and a political moderate, I'm not looking for any earth-shaking radical change for this to be a success, but merely some incremental changes and just a general change in attitude. So, who knows? And I would've never come up with this idea without first borrowing Excalibur from a friend of mine last week, so who can really guess what random things in our lives are going to inspire which random thoughts? And, um, that's it!

And some short notes, as long as I'm here...

--Okay, so I've decided to see if I can't get new entries up each day next week, and back into the routine of updating again for awhile. So here's the schedule as it exists:

Monday: A few thoughts on recently running into an old friend, who I used to have a big crush on.

Tuesday and Wednesday: Concerning the difference between simply gathering information and sorting/analzying/distributing that information, and where people often get confused. (This two-parter will get into such topics as the Shoah Project, Google Print, citizen journalism, iTunes' adoption of podcasts, the Associated Press' adoption of RSS and more - I'm just not sure of the order yet.)

Thursday: Concerning the new 826 Chicago school for writing (started by the same people who own McSweeney's) and why I'm so worried about volunteering there.

And Friday: That nutjob Ray Kurzweil, and why I love him so much.

--Just a small random thought the other day, while listening to music through iTunes: in just the 26 years that I myself have now been listening to and collecting music, we as a society have gone through five different popular formats for storing such music - 8-track tapes (which, yes, I used to use when first starting to listen to music), vinyl albums, magnetic cassettes, CDs and now MP3s. And that doesn't even count the formats that never really caught on in a big way - MiniDiscs, recording music digitally on VCR tapes, reel-to-reel magnetic tape (which is what my dad used while I was growing up), old-style LaserDiscs and the like. Not much of a point here - I just find it amazing that I myself have gone through five major technological advancements when it comes to this subject, to say nothing of history overall.

--Oh, I keep forgetting to mention this, but I finally found a great resource for finding Creative Commons music (that is, songs released under a Creative Commons license, so that you can use them legally in your own podcast, provided that you don't charge money for it). There's a special music section at Podshow.com, as a matter of fact, just full of thousands of usable songs, fully documented and sortable by all kinds of criteria. Anyway, so I'm planning on going through the site thoroughly this Thanksgiving, while I'm in St. Louis using my parents' desktop and broadband connection, so that hopefully in 2006 I'll have plenty of raw resources for starting to put together more professional-sounding clips of my old spoken-word stuff. We'll see, anyway.

--I caught Interview with the Vampire again the other day on television, and was struck with the following thought: When people in Hollywood suddenly realize they're in a trainwreck of a movie, halfway through a production, how do they handle such a situation? I mean, there's got to be a certain point during the making of Interview when at least a couple of crew or cast members suddenly realized, "You know, this is going to be one hell of a bad movie, just something destined to be made fun of by stoned undergraduates until the end of time." But since you've already accepted all this money to be on this crew or cast, and you're halfway through production anyway, do you just bite the bullet and accept that you'll forever be associated with such a major derailment? Do you fire your agent? Do you simply vow to make future choices based on other criteria than what you used for this trainwreck? Hey, Jessica Stover, why don't you interview some of your acting buddies out there in LA and give us the skinny? Us Midwesterners want to know!

--And let's see if I can squeeze two more little notices into the space I have left:

1) Jimi Sweet, the guy who has graciously hosted this site for free since the late '90s, is switching his entire system over soon to some new Xserves; so, my site is going to be down for a certain amount of time soon. I'll let you know as soon as I know.

2) There's a new website out (at least new for me), Bikewinter.org, that gives lots of advice about bicycling in cold and nasty weather, and has an winter-biking events calendar for Chicago (as well as Madison and Milwaukee). So, go check it out if you're planning like me to bicycle this winter.

Bye!