i posted this blog and started a bit of discussion on the topic last friday. lots of discussion followed. comments are still trickling in. would love to hear your opinions! (on the blog or here or both)

people.tribe.net/wtsn/blog...c29022886f

i wrote this in response to a post by a most observant and thoughtful friend, Stephen ("Dr. Trix"), addressing an unfortunate trend seen by many in "the scene" (i.e. dance music community) in the bay area: an increasingly separatist class structure emerging out of a once united and mutually respectful community. but my thoughts here have dug a bit deeper than originally expected and touched upon a pretty personal nerve. as something i care about rather strongly, i'm writing to share with my circle of friends. i would care very much to hear your thoughts, regardless of whether you agree with me...

my thanks goes out to stephen for inspiring me to explicate my thoughts and for broaching the subject of his post to start with. you can read that original post here: people.tribe.net/trix/blog...4bb0008beb

...

there is fortunately a somewhat effective antidote to escaping the social elitism that you describe, stephen. it's something which will do wonders to clear up more than just this societal level symptom and something which i think is available to us all if we want it.

here are some goals you've hit upon in this post which i believe that most of us have in our lives:
*a sense of appreciation from others.
*a sense of respect from others.
*freedom from being judged negatively.
*freedom from judging.

and, at least in my mind, this is the greatest obstacle to acheiving all of these goals simultaneously: in order to be appreciated and respected, we feel pressure to conform to what we perceive as a collectively valued appearance and behaviour. within our culture(s) and -- in my experience -- most culture, that behavior includes judgement. you judge as an act of participating in a protocol, because those who demand your respect judge you and others. you also judge because by emphasizing someones faults tips the respect game in your favor. judge them (and gain third parties' concurrences) before they can judge you.

so in order to achieve the first two points above we are basically pushed toward violating the the second two. according to my observations, the first two goals will win out most of the time. we continue to seek respect and appreciation by the means presented to us, at the expense of participating in the judgement game.

an important question emerges: is there a way to avoid receiving and giving judgement while still eliciting respect/appreciation?

i think there is: cultivate independence. that is in the sense of "the freedom from being conditioned by your environment". this is a matter of deprioritizing the 3rd goal ("freedom from being judged") in favor of one which is worded quite similarly: "psychological freedom from being judged". this moves the power of the action from externally directed (by someone who is potentially judging you) to internal.

of course this is so much easier to say than to do. the habits which keep us locked into being conditioned by our environment are substantial. and self-reinforced by years of repetition. i know well from personal experience.

but if we are able to cultivate the will power and awareness within us to make this transition of priorities, half the battle is won. independence feels good. and, as it turns out, is also sexy. a sense of independence is a catalyst for increased self esteem. self esteem leads to confidence and that attractive glow we all seek.

this is also a self-reinforcing mode of being and i believe there's probably a tipping point at which it becomes more natural to feel independent and largely refrain from judgement than to default toward the norm.

i'd like to write more on this when i have more time. i see this as an extremely significant topic with many intricately related and subtle phenomena (society and mind are complex!). accordingly, cultivation of independence has become one of my most important projects over the last couple of years. before this gets to long however, i will close with just one proactive observation: the single best thing i've found to cultivate independence is a dedicated and regular practice of mindfulness meditation. meditation breeds awareness and peels away susceptibility to conditioning. i would recommend it to anyone...