[MD] New Age++

[Ant McWatt]

Gav pointed out January 8th & 7th 2006:

i was at the woodford folk festival last week, for a week.
it was amazing as usual: 135000 people and no aggro at
all. and all in 38 degree heat! the vibe is higher,
more peaceful. that is literally it: the vibe. i left
there for the middle of brisbane for a new years party
and ran smack into the ‘scene’: a totally different
vibe: insecurity, vanity, pretension etc. so weird
after being in a totally relaxed atmos. i think this
is sorta the same thing: the vibe of uni is still so
uptight…

the new age is a shift to ‘conscious dreaming’. a bit
like bill hick’s idea that mankind’s collective
unconscious isn’t meant to remain unconscious (‘counts
of the netherworld’ idea has huge promise i
reckon....any takers?....i always wanted to get round
in a dressing gown).

Ant McWatt comments:

For the less “enlightened”…  Bill Hicks was due to make a TV series for 
Channel 4 titled “Counts of the Netherworld” in May 1993.  The budget and 
storyboard had been approved and a pilot was filmed (it was shown at the 
various Tenth Anniversary Tribute Night events for Hicks around the world on 
February 26th 2004).  The series was to feature Hicks and Kansas City 
comedian Fallon Woodland interviewing “guests we like. People whose work we 
respect.”  Considering Hicks’ tastes, it would have made for some unusual 
visitors.

It has been said that Bill Hicks was a stand-up comedian like Muhammad Ali 
was a boxer or Ferrari were racing car builders.  Hicks was good at what he 
did.  Not just because his jokes and observations were good (which they 
were) but because he told the truth. Something he felt many performers often 
avoided.  As he asked: “Aren’t we supposed to be agents of evolution?”

That comes back to Gav’s mention of the “unconscious becoming conscious” as 
understood by Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now” i.e. the evolutionary shift 
from egotistical small-mindedness towards enlightenment as described by the 
Buddha, or “the ‘heaven on earth’ that jc was on about a while back.”  The 
central message of Tolle, Buddha and Jesus may still be largely 
misunderstood and/or overlooked though the Woodford Folk Festival that Gav 
visited last week shows that the general culture in the West doesn’t have to 
be so retarded.

I'm not sure I would like to portray this shift of consciousness as "New 
Age" (the term has too many dubious connotations for me) though - however 
you term it - I hope your Australian uni experience doesn’t prove too 
negative Gav and that you manage to keep both your sanity and dreams!

Best wishes,

Ant.


Bill Hicks on George Bush & Co.: “I ascribe to Mark Twain’s theory that the 
last person who should be President is the one who wants it the most.  The 
one who should be picked is the one who should be dragged, kicking and 
screaming into the White House.”

At Hick’s final show in January 1994: “This is the material, by the way, 
that has kept me virtually anonymous in America for the past 15 years… ‘Why 
doesn’t he just hit fruit with a hammer?’  Folks, I could have done that, 
walked around being a millionaire and franchising myself but no, I had to 
have this weird thing about trying to illuminate the collective unconscious 
and help humanity. [What a] Fucking moron.”

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