In a postmodern world where technology has created an amalgam intellect, where individuals are simultaneously anonymous and celebrity, where the engineered, yet unwritten social contract demands, more than ever before, we react to the spectacle of hyperreality as part of the day to day mechanics of what it means to live your life, to reveal your Authentic Self requires you Anti-Social Engineer the Hypermanipulated Self.
The first five essays of Hindsite 2020 are about Philosophy, Paradigm management, the promise of the 21st Century Enlightenment and Hyperexistentialism.
This is the second essay in the Hindsite 2020 collection. It is about the bell curved nature of the Universe and what that means.
The first five essays of Hindsite 2020 are about Philosophy, Paradigm management, the promise of the 21st Century Enlightenment and Hyperexistentialism.
It seems to me that
there are a lot of people in Canada confused about the Trans Mountain
Pipeline Expansion project. Some folks, (particularly in British
Columbia) don't want the pipeline built at all, because its product
is oil, something they would rather do without, or because that oil
produces an environmental risk, (which it does, in any form.) Some
folks (particularly in Alberta) want the pipeline built because its
construction and existence means continued employment in the area,
continued revenues created from the product itself. Then there is a
third group of people made up of folks (from all over Canada,
including the west) that either do or don't want the pipeline built,
but regardless of their thoughts or feelings on the matter, believe
that the project is “on again, off again” depending on the
decisions of politicians or their parties. From these folks we get
things like social media commentaries, protests, advertisements in
media and entertainment, even the Conservative Party has made “Build
the Pipeline” the major component of their platform in the 2019 election.
The Pipeline Project
is not, in any way, being hindered by anything, nor has it ever been.
The pipeline project is an expansion of what is already there. The
new pipeline is going to run right beside the old pipeline, that has
been there since 1953. The foundation for this work, the ground
preparation, the laying of rock, the purchasing of that rock, has
already happened. Tens of millions of dollars have already been
spent on the laying of this foundation. The foundation has already
begun being put in place. The pipeline is happening, it's being built
currently, as you read these words. Our prime minister has not
stopped any part of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project,
neither have the provincial governments, environmental groups, Native
groups, no one, ever, anywhere. (The current downturn of work in the Alberta oil fields has nothing to do with the TMPE.)
So why do we have
expensive campaigns to sway the minds of the public, one way or the
other? Why do we have a political party whose entire platform is
centred around a fictional problem? Why do we have this tension in
western Canada over an economical concern that doesn't exist? Why do
we have to think about all these made up intentions? I think the
answers lie in usual arenas of social engineering, we think these
things because if we're thinking about them, we're not thinking about
other things. It's a purposeful distraction. If the pipeline equals jobs for a
generation, then that is what we need to bother ourselves with,
money. I think this entirely the reason for any pro TMPE campaign.
The anti-TMPE campaign is entirely about concern for the environment.
So, in the collective eye of Canadian society, on one side of the
argument is a redneck oil worker and on the other side is a
tree-hugging hippy. If we're thinking about jobs, we're thinking short term and more importantly, not long term. In the long term, there is only bad news, so let's ignore that...
The environmental
concerns around the production and use of petroleum products are
real. No one is contesting the detrimental effects of burning fossil
fuels, (at least, no one who should be listened to. To be
anti-science is to be anti-fact and therefore pro-fiction.) However,
folks who advocate for the continued use of petroleum products do so
from within the comforts of establishment. There simply is no
alternative to fossil fuel. We have no solar arrays, wind farms, tide
generators, etc. For the pro-oil side, the onus is on the
environmentalists to come up with alternatives, or shut up.
(Literally, this is entirely their meme exemplified.) We also have no
alternatives for the byproducts of oil production, most notably
plastics. “Do you want to stop having all the plastic things you
have now?” ask oil proponents, already knowing the answer.
Our required
transition from dirty energy to clean and from finite resources to
renewable will happen anyway, because it must. This is not the point
of this essay. I'm not here to argue for or against the production or
use of oil. I have no solution. I just want the argument about the
Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion to end, because it doesn't really
exist in the first place. You can have your opinions about whether or
not the expansion, or the use of oil in general, should continue or
not. You can have your opinions about safety, health, politics and
the economy. What you can't say is “the pipeline is being held
up/stopped/hindered or held in question.” The gravel has been
purchased. Here is the map of where the pipe is going, right beside
the existing pipe, for the most part. Stop being duped into having an
argument that doesn't exist by marketeers.
Brian Cameron Taylor, born in April of
1972, to an American mother and Canadian father, has always been a
creative person. Both his parents were audiophiles, sang and shared
through music. Brian's dad also played guitar, wrote songs and poems.
Brian first picked up a guitar and took lessons at age eight, but
aside from the occasional short story, didn't really begin expressing
himself in any way until his teen years. Brian wrote more short
stories, screenplays, songs, made music in several bands, made films
with his friends on 1980s video cameras, editing the films with two
VCRs. Snippets of these films still exist, but you're not getting
links to them... Recordings and video of songs exist, ditto...
After Brian graduated high school he
married, had a family. At the beginning of the 90s Brian wrote and
shot an indie feature Killer 13, still
on video, still with his friends and now-coworkers of a Dominos
Pizza. Killer 13 is a
sci-fi horror film about aliens (that look human) who conspire to
release poisons that will rid the Earth of humans, (presumably not
the human looking aliens.) That film has been converted to digital
and is on Brian's hard drive. (Don't hold your breath.) Also
in the nineties Brian co-wrote a novel Cartoon Bomb with
another friend. Although this manuscript was sent to a few choice
publishers, it was refused by all. Cartoon Bomb is
a novel written in a cartoon universe, where anything is possible. It
is about two separate groups of people, both whimsical and cliched,
both exploited and driven to war. It was purposely created guaranteed
to offend everyone. The editor of the book, a brilliant and sensible
woman, wrote in her notes “This is where, as a subjective reader, I
would tear your book to shreds.” Brian remembers his mothers'
review of the first sex scene (of many) in the book as a single word,
“hilarious.” Brian has recently heard that there is an effort
underway to resurrect Cartoon Bomb in
some format or other. Stay tuned, I guess...???
Despite
a movie, a book and recording fourteen original songs with two
different bands, somehow, in the 90s, Brian failed to ensure that his
wife would not grow weary of his horseshit and move three thousand
miles away with his kids. This led to a disillusionment of Brian's
dreams and aspirations. Brian replaced his family with sex, drugs and
alcohol. That didn't help make him healthier or happier, but it did
lead to his first professionally recorded demo, under the moniker
thief produced by
Henry Piovesan, in Vernon BC. There aren't links to the original
recordings, but there are links to rerecordings of the songs and many
more original songs here
In
the first year of the new century Brian started to get his life back
together. He continued working with local musicians but also recorded
his own songs, (featured at above link.) Brian's writing began
appearing on forums and websites in the form of social criticism,
political commentary with a hint of activism. Since the 90s, this
writing appeared anonymously, Brian had only released his music, no
writing or films online.
Then, on the morning of September 11th
2001, something happened on television that changed Brian's outlook
on life and provided a target at which to direct his energies. The
internet provided a nearly endless stream of information, education
and entertainment. Brian studied history, sociology, psychology and
especially philosophy, earning what he would later call an unofficial
Liberal Arts degree with a major in Conspiracy.
In
2002 a friend and former bandmate contacted Brian about starting a
new band and a new band was formed, but writing, rehearsing and
constant personnel changes led to few performances and fewer
recordings. From 2004, you can hear the drummer recorded on Brian's
track Expect to be Saved Any Day at
the above soundclick link. It was also in this year that Brian
released his solo tracks at that same link. In 2005 he released four
new thief songs now
featuring the vocals of his wife Dawn. In fact, the end of Expect
to be Saved Any Day features
Dawn and Brians' two sons at the end. 2004 also cemented the final
line up of what would become a band called Hub. Hub was a powerpop
three piece that melted faces all over the Okanagan from 2005-2007,
but it takes a lot of energy to melt said faces and that energy ran
out. Hub, however, was really good and probably the pinnacle of
Brian's songwriting and performance. You can listen to Hub here You can also watch this poorly shot (cell phone) film featuring more material and behind the scenes footage.
In
2006, in response to a new New Age movement afoot where spiritual
gurus and academic atheists alike where selling books and appearing
on television to help folks decipher their “Authentic Self” Brian
began researching and writing about the Self, what that meant and how
it came to mean that. In 2008 Brian googled “the smartest readers
on the internet” and found a site called Scientific
Blogging. He began contributing
his essays and they were well received by intelligent folk, one of
his essays Conservatism is Unnatural was
even featured at a separate website Big Think. The
following link is to his original Blog Assignees'Prerogativeand Brian's first
published writing under his real name.
In
2009 Brian started his own blog anti-socialengineering.com for all
his writings, not just the more philosophical. This blog would become
https://www.hypermanipulation.com
There are now over 100 essays there. (Although, by 2018 Brian had
basically stopped writing political essays out of necessity and
courtesy. Complaining about the King, how Brian sums up his entire
published work, has become somewhat overbearing, falling upon ignorant ears.) Brian also began writing publicly at several other websites,
most notably Above Top Secret, a conspiracy forum.
In
the last half of the opening decade of the 21st
century, Brian also returned to film making, as technology had gotten
to the point where digital editing programs were commonplace and even
cell phones were starting to take decent video. The first digital
films Brian created were Hub related music videos that were released
and then taken back down. (Because they weren't good enough to be "commercial releases".)
However, 2009 saw the release of Brians first ever released film:G20 Pittsburgh Protests (best and worst of). This
film is an edit of protester footage and news footage. It is 45
minutes long.
ASE the HMS was
a collection of essays that came together into a thesis promising to
define the scientifically determined authentic self. The book itself
remains available everywhere in the world in various formats, and
Brian's blog continued to release essays from it, which have been
read thousands of times and continue to be cited in academia, to this
day. There simply isn't a more accurate depiction of the self
available. Brian also created a “commercial” for the book.
Brian
edited his first concert film, built out of cel phone footage
downloaded from youtube of Muse's concert in Vancouver. It's pretty
grainy and pixelated, but it's edited well. It's 1 hour 43 minutes
long, watch it here
In
2010 Brian began collecting gear to make films more seriously, seeing
how others were making indie films and releasing them online. He
started En Queue Film, an all-volunteer film production company. By
2011, EQF had released its first “test film” Battle at Beaver Creek which was a teaser for the planned full length feature of the same
name. Pleased with the results of this film, Brian decided to move
forward with the production of the full-length feature, which was a
massive undertaking that broke all the rules of first-time film
making. It had multiple locations, special effects, stunts, over 100
cast members. Brian wrote the script, based on his own short story
and began looking for people and places to start working with. This
took over a year, culminating in three locations and a list of 150
volunteers, (a lot of them painters, because Brian worked in a paint
store.)
While pre-production of Battle at Beaver Creekcontinued
into the spring of 2012, Brian wrote and shot the
Bite. A
horrifying little film with a twist on the zombie genre.
You can also watch the making of video, (and all our videos) on our
youtube channel here https://www.youtube.com/enqueuefilm
which was also created at the same time.
The
filming of Battle at Beaver Creek
started in
the summer of 2011, then 2012 and then again in the summer of 2013.
There were a few scenes filmed inside, which happened over the course
of winter months in between the summer exteriors. There are several
“making of” videos about this and other productions from the time
on our youtube channel.
Between November of 2013 and February of 2014
Brian wrote, shot and completed Garf
Garf, which
is the story of a friendly alien who conjures hamburgers. It is
Brian's most philosophically complex film while simultaneously being
his most accessible. Garf Garf was
created to be understood by anyone, of any age, speaking any
language. It remains the film Brian is most proud of.
Brian
continued to make concert films out of youtube footage, of Nine Inch
Nails, of U2. The quality gets better as does the technology. Friends
get to see these films. He made films of friends, for friends. He
still does.
Battle at Beaver Creekwas
released on various sites in December 2014. Since then the film has
gained the largest returns from being available on Amazon Prime in
the US, Uk Japan and Germany. It also has yet to return even half of
what it cost.
On
Halloween night 2015 Brian released TheDream is Readyat
Horrorfest in Kelowna BC.
It won second best picture and best cinematography for Kora
Vanderlip, who also worked on Battle at
Beaver Creek. The Dream is Ready is
a sci-fi horror teaser for a larger project, a proposed feature
entitled Last Human Being. The
short and the proposed feature are based upon the novella Brian
wrote
of the same name, published in April of 2015 here.
The book is written in the present tense and simply describes the
scenes, spelling out the action as if in a film. The story is about a
powerful psychic named Cole, who is unwittingly conspiring to end a
mental war with a mysterious consciousness, which takes place within
a drug-induced dream. The Dream is
Ready continues
to get views and generate interest in the larger project, but like
Brian's two other complete scripts, LastHuman Beingremains
only ink on paper.
The other two complete project proposals were also
written between 2013-2015, the Smell of
Sun on Skin is
Brian's sexy, modern re-working of Albert Camus existential classic
The Stranger. Real Country Darkis
the story of the lives of four unrelated men who die together in the
Canadian wilderness, which is based on real events. Brian believes he
could make Last Human Being and
Real Country Dark for
a one million dollar investment. The
Smell of Sun on Skin requires
two million and a known actor as leading man.
From
2015 to 2018 Brian filmed artist Destanne Norris for the documentary
Beneath the Painted Surfacewhich
was completed December 2018.
In
2018 met a young local filmmaker named Bowen O'Brien and the two
decided to make a film together. Adulthoodis the story
of a group of kids growing up in a world where reaching adulthood
means certain undeath. It won Best Story and Best Film at Horrorfest
in Kelowna. It will likely be released online in the fall of 2019.
In
2018 and 2019, Brian pulled back on the amount of work he created.
Back problems and subsequent immobility required this hiatus, but
marketing Beneath the Painted Surface
also
requires the bulk of Brian's time. However, more writing, more films
and even more music are likely in Brian's future. Stay tuned.
