theaudaciousones

[theaudaciousones]

Eliminate all unnecessary choice then you can focus on making the choices that matter

ALJ

[theaudaciousones]

1.

Everything has a first step, a first think, a first day, a first glance, a first breath. 

It’s been a while but this is day one for me.

When was your last first?

[theaudaciousones]

[theaudaciousones]

[theaudaciousones]

[theaudaciousones]

Never look back only ever to the side

[theaudaciousones]

[theaudaciousones]

Let me think about the people who I care about the most, and how when they fail or disappoint me I still love them, I still give them chances, and I still see the best of them. Let me extend that generosity to myself.

Ze Frank 

[theaudaciousones]

The anonymous face.

[theaudaciousones]

RESISTANCE TO AUTHORITY

The youth understood by children for their reckless behavior, explained by adults as raging hormones, but known through experience as the frenetic freedom from no legit responsibility to anyone but themselves. Freewill is something that God gave us. Freedom is something we give our selves. It is therefore selfhood created by freedom that creates youth culture. Now it may not be your typical beauty but we’re not saying it’s trying to be.

Monterrey, Mexico - portrait photographer Stefan Ruiz the "Cholombiano" street culture of sticky sideburns and stoner cumbia jams.

[theaudaciousones]

We Are The Now.

This is the limitless era: where women have the vote;  blacks are equal to white; research, knowledge and technology shows no boundaries. When a voracious appetite for life is enough to make a difference. We welcome back Barack Obama to lead the Americans on the journey to living the dream, with the economic move forward because back is not a option as China will not wait to become the global power and hold the United States of America in its hands. 

This is the coming of a new movement as it is no longer sufficient to learn how to apply old concepts to the future or discover which ideas past fit the current economy best. But question how we can create a better system to fit the world we live in today. It is the youths’ transcendent of old economics that will outline the new. The Marxism's’ must accept contradiction that the journey to a “fair” society will not be fair in itself. The Keynesian’s amongst us must tread carefully as to not fall down a hole of filthily lucre. The Neoclassical’s must prepare as we see the dawning of the Meme Wars. Economic concepts must evolve so the economy can survive in the long term. This is what makes economics a fashion. It moves with the people, it changes with the times, it is unpredictable and not everyone has the same opinion. In the end even as beautifully different, diverse, unique humans we all live the paradox that the goal is eudaimonia. This is our onerous duty to life and therefore each other, we must protect what is truly precious now. We are the now, we are always the now.

[theaudaciousones]

Spring Sky.

[theaudaciousones]

The Mexican Fisherman.

An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. 

The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."  The American then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"  The Mexican said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs."  The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"  The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."  The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York where you will run your ever-expanding enterprise."  The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"  To which the American replied, "15 to 20 years."  "But what then?" asked the Mexican.  The American laughed and said that's the best part. "When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."  "Millions?...Then what?"  The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

Author Unknown

[theaudaciousones]

I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.

-William Blake

[theaudaciousones]

Fighting Abstraction.

Money makes the world go round, or so our lecturer would have us believe as we learn that money serve as a medium of exchange, as a store of value, and as a unit of account. Money as a man-made idea relies just as much on dogma as religion and other ideological thoughts. He is our imaginary friend, not actually existing, a concept of measurement that has been created like time or length. The sad reality is when we are very old wishing to maximize our love utility that we realise our friend is not the company we once thought he was and mammonism maybe was not the path we should have taken. While coming to terms with the idea that prosperity could be measured by money was all a lie. The bitter irony of a depression is the wealth from the earth is still there; there is no less energy; there is no less raw materials; there is only a slump in money. But in a boom, that is when the earth pays her dept, as we increase production with the cost of pollution. So this drive to beat nature into subordination is having alarming results. One day, when it is too late, we will realise the dangers of messing about with things that we do not understand all in the belief that due to evolution we as man are the head with nature as the submissive. 

The compelling beauty of mathematics comes from the idea that it works with undeniable truths. The simplification of an equation can be done by canceling out constants on either side, leaving no room for argument or debate. Economics is putting postulated thoughts into models. Here we have the constant of rational conforming humans with the assumption that socially manufactured incentives such as money, time, growth are what we wish to maximize and what motivate us in the form of bonuses, deadlines and GDP. It feels that we have the lost the meaning of “self” becoming an x on either side of the equation and should just go ahead and cancel ourselves out. Anything else left in a mathematical equation still has substance; they in society are the non-joiners the ones that did not conform. We can sit there and vilipend them for being disheveled, as the economy does not like them for not having bought the largest house or fanciest car but they are the truly audacious ones. It is the most unsettled of communities that feel the need to conform because evolution has taught us that we have the highest chance of survival if we stick together. We are funnelled through the education system and admittedly I have found myself right in the middle of the flock, with the haunting sense of being exactly what I have been told to be and doing exactly what I have been told to do. But if we were all more imaginative we would create, instead of waiting for jobs to open up create the opportunity for ourselves then maybe we wouldn’t be as scared as after all we only have the abstraction of money to lose.

[theaudaciousones]

Who.

[theaudaciousones]

A Moral Man.

Look at your life, hold back the nostalgia and think about what you want. Learn about the left and right wings, the authoritarians and libertarians and decide which political ideas are best for you. So vote then hold your breath, as we hope the Prime Minister is virtuous enough to keep his promises. Politics and Economics walk hand in hand though a nation filled with the stochastic variable known as the people and decide to believe that we act rationally. Consciously they choose an economic system to be a capitalist one with private individuals and corporations dominating the wealth of the country. In a nation where young children wish to grow up and be famous; teenagers have one of the best educations; graduates seek well-paid jobs; adults find themselves unable to retire and the old desperately hold on to their health as they live off an insufficient state pensions. Priorities change with age yet we find ourselves on the road to “the pursuit of happiness”, or the 21st century motorway to the pursuit of maximizing utility. There is no hiding the fact that the economic system of the western world is a capitalist one. In the language of economics “utility” refers to happiness gained from goods and services. This idea of paying for happiness is echoed throughout the western world as there is no such thing as too much money. We do not measure success by happiness and we do not limit growth as to what is best for the environment or others but what will maximize self-profit. It must therefore be a necessary condition for a moral man to lead the nation, as if not we fall down a slippery slope shortly meeting corruption. Where young children are kept inside; teenagers are more easily exposed to drugs; young adults can find more money in embezzlement than an honest career and the old are left wondering how this kleptocracy occurred. This is why morality is key, and in this democracy we must find it in ourselves not only to vote for the noble man with honest policies but have confidence that they will be transeunt. Then be brave and take a step forward or rather back to realize that this “utility” must and can be found inherently.