View: The Likeness of God is to Create……The Eternal EP by BDI | Slope of Hope

The Likeness of God is to Create……The Eternal EP by BDI | Slope of Hope

Well, Slope-a-Dopes, it is with a very heavy heart (no pun intended) that I am compelled to announce my departure.  I’m afraid I have concluded that it will be for the best that I make a graceful exit at this time.  As most of you are aware (being the open book emotionally freaked out Frenchman that I am), I have several rather serious health concerns to contend with right now, that are essentially beyond my own control, and will require me to focus my compromised energies elsewhere moving forward.  Not to mention that my long time girlfriend and immediate family have requested and deserve my full undivided attention, as we attempt to best navigate the complex U.S. healthcare system during the potentially complicated weeks and months ahead.  Not to get overly technical here, but I have contracted a relatively advanced form of Cardiac Sarcoidosis and typically the prognosis for these cases is not good.  So I’m afraid it’s au revoir for now my distinguished Dopes.

Before leaving you, I wish to share the following.  I have found my time here with all of you on Tim Knight’s remarkable Slope of Hope blog to be extraordinary.  Just so you understand, much like the exhilarating Boom / Doom methodology you have been privileged to witness, BDI throughout most of his untamed, unhinged and unrestrained life on this planet has frequently exposed himself to the very same extreme ups & downs that come with the BDI shuffle, several times over. Sometimes flying so very stunningly high among the fascinating hi brow crowds, while other times ending up crashed and burned feeling most dejected with my own low down style.  However, whatever happened, it was always strictly on my own terms, which may not be the easiest nor wisest way to proceed through life, but definitely an approach that makes you feel most alive.  And, your friend BDI, for some unbalanced reason, must always feel acutely alive, otherwise, he just seems to wistfully fade away and die.  It’s not like I’m some super skilled major league thrill seeking junkie that requires his daily adrenalin daily.  But rather, were it in business or for pleasure, I was more like an average guy that for some inexplicable reason, required the agony of defeat or the thrill of victory hanging in the balance over my thick head in order to keep myself from falling asleep on the job or settling into a permanent state of melancholic stupor.

One country was not enough, one girl was not enough, one business was not enough, one Dewars was never enough, one professional yacht race was not enough, one car sponsorship was not enough, one DWI was not enough, one language was not enough, one college was not enough (yes BDI was accepted to Brown, Colgate, Georgetown, and wait listed at Princeton), one toke was never enough, one boat was not enough, one line was never enough, one night in jail was not enough, one BOOM wasn’t enough, one DOOM wasn’t enough, even one EP was not enough for Christ’s sake!  Well, you get the picture, BDI fucks up a lot. When he’s on he’s on, when he’s not he’s not, but boy does he flame out in style!  For better or for worse, I have simply inhaled my way through life, and it seems to have rudely exhaled me at times. To put it even more bluntly, if that’s possible.  I’m the go to guy who often unwittingly leads the charge, and either gets all the glory, or, more often than not, ends up dead in a ditch somewhere on the side of the road.  I’m afraid it’s just my nature, BDI was obviously programmed by a bored God who wanted to see fireworks all the time.  Truthfully, I believe my particular special gift is the seemingly boundless capacity to forget all about my previous mistakes and failures, providing me with the complete freedom to summarily repeat them all over again and again. Gift or curse?  You decide…………

“It’s alright Ma I’m only bleeding”…………Bob Dylan

Having admitted all of that, I must say that I have found nearly all of you here on the Slope to be not only exceptionally interesting, but unusually talented, refreshingly reflective, and above all, kind and considerate souls (with the possible exception of GrudgeMonkey).  As I often profess, well, to myself anyways.  The most important qualities to be valued in any individual are Originality and Kindness, bar none, all the rest are secondary as far as BDI is concerned.  And, all of you here on da Slope most assuredly have those distinct qualities in spades, this is particularly true of our ever so gracious, bright and amiable host sir Knight.

Despite all the Idiot Savant’s foolish shenanigans and highly suspect methodologies, he will always remember his time here as one of the most enjoyable, enriching, and soulful experiences of his life, and trust me, you are running up against some pretty wildly serious stuff.  So for that, I want to thank you all for making my life that much more entertaining and stimulating, particularly during a pensive time in my own history, in which I find much of the modern day civilization that surrounds us to be an utterly tedious drag, clearly having lost a good measure of its sublime subtle sheen, well, for me anyways.

I would also like to categorically state that the exceptional opportunity to be part of Mr. Tim Knight’s glorious platform, as well as the privilege of playing to his most discerning audience, has undoubtedly helped this fried French frog find his written English voice.  As a foreign kid who scored 720 on his math SAT but only 460 on his verbal score (yes, I got into Brown via the TOEFL English as a foreign language exam.), you have permitted me to repeatedly flex the atrophied left side of my brain, and certainly have had a hand in making the Macro Monster come alive, becoming the macro tour de force that he is today. Moreover, I sincerely thank you for baring with me and giving me the time of day, even those who judiciously ignored the Macro Maniac’s musings.

All of which brings me to my parting mega shot from the Macro Shop. The astonishingly mesmerizing supernatural image pictured above and to your immediate right, is of the Temple of Poseidon in Greece, off the cliffs of Sounion, facing the Mediterranean sea.  My friends, If that sight does not take you outside of yourself and onto something else, I’m not sure anything will. Trust me on this, as I’ve actually  been there myself, it is frigging spectacular.

The Likeness of God is to Create not Consume.  Ingenuity and innovation are hallmarks of our human creativity. Curiously, those marvelous characteristics unique to mankind, which have delivered the most astoundingly advanced technological productivity gains ever conceived, are now fast displacing a multitude of relatively menial jobs previously attended to by human beings, who having been anchored to unsatisfying and unfulfilling laborious routines, were less able to enjoy the free time and space certainly required to become more creative enlightened beings themselves.

Surely, the simple answer to our current macro economic dilemma, namely low growth with vanishing jobs, is to once again call upon our God given human ingenuity and innovation, so as to quite simply redesign and rearrange the furniture in our grand house more adeptly.  If we so choose, we can freely create more, we can joyously labor less, and we no longer must be slaves to the degradation of excess consumption.  See how that works?  (stole that pesky line from MS).

A word of caution, getting there will not be plain sailing and rather tempestuous I’m afraid.  Change will be vigorously opposed and resolutely resisted, particularly by those who have attained much power, privilege and affluence, as they have been conditioned to measure and value their own success, sense of significance and acquired tenure in the presently established order of society. They will understandably do all in their power to defend and cling onto an organized societal system and set of values, where they have clear vested interests and which has seemingly served them so well, no matter how obviously clear it is that the world around them is increasingly becoming unglued before our very eyes. The desperation of the QE monetary policy dependency itself, is but a misguided manifestation of the dangerous hubris and arrogance that puts forth and fiercely holds on to an obtuse refusal to acknowledge and accept the reality of the inevitable change in the winds that is now howling so vociferously upon us.

Purposely degrading this Nation’s hard earned reserve currency status, which was so honorably passed on to us by previous generations who built this great country from the ground up with their virtuous and industrious blood, sweat and tears, only to then implement a disgraceful monetary policy that deliberately steals from future unborn generations in order to facilitate living standards beyond our means, so as to sustain an unearned, undeserved and unprincipled culture of grotesque illegitimate debt financed over-consumption, can only be characterized as a deplorable unconscionable abomination of Biblical proportion.

We physically finite mortals just so happen to inhabit a physically limited globe also made up of finite resources, inevitably, the days of unlimited growth and excess mass consumption must be expeditiously put behind us. To artificially sustain this decadent overindulgence via unsustainable debt financing is absurdly short sighted lunacy which borders on sheer insanity. Either we adapt or we die, same as it ever was.  This free choice which has been divinely granted to us is entirely ours to make.  Get your heads out of your collective asses!  Let’s get to it, before it’s too late.

In the ever so cool “Slop of Hope after dark”  tradition.  Let me close by spinning two terrific tunes for you.  One is a Bob Dylan simple yet completely riveting masterpiece, the other is a Neil Young seething and admonishing opus, brilliantly played by Warren Haynes with The Dave Mathews Band in New York City’s very own Central Park, and yes, BDI was there that night.

I chose the Dylan song not because of my potentially grave health situation, but rather, because we should always be ”Knocking on Heaven’s Door”.  Not so much in an organized religious worshiping nirvana in the sky sort of way, but rather, in an honest, intrinsically self evident and inherently truthful self searching path way, which much to my complete dismay, I find so terribly and utterly lacking in our world today.  By the way, I couldn’t help but notice the bright halo around Bob’s head in the photograph to our right.  Could it be a signal to us, that by being so prolifically creative he was “right on target so direct”,  to quote one of his many emotive songs.

As for Neil Young’s chilling opus, the sorrowful “Cortez the Killer”, I chose it for its eerie and ominous warning to the supposedly civilized Western World, that just maybe we should reconsider some of our self righteous “values”, and that quite possibly we have entirely lost our way.   For, in the end, perhaps it was the noble native Americans who may have had it more right then wrong as it turns out.

If it’s not too much to ask of you my Slope of Hope brothers and sisters, please do your friend BDI one last favor (that means you too Iggy).  I implore you to all listen very closely to these two 20th century modern musical masters whose magnificent works have been gratuitously embedded below.  These uncompromising artists have both laid down intensely meaningful and crucially essential words, in a most mesmerizing soulful attempt to enlighten. And, keep in mind my dear friends, they are two of the most Creative human beings among us.  As a special bonus, I threw in a moment in time where these masters shared the stage together, combining their artistic prowess in a crescendo of creativity!

I leave you with this simple suggestion.  Above all, do your utmost to be Creative and to be Kind in this life.  It’s not so much about the money itself, but it’s surely all about the divine gift of creativity in it of itself. Ask yourselves, what makes you happiest deep inside, Creating or Consuming?

Be the likeness of God………..Create!………..Andalusia!

p.s.   As of this eternally final EP, The Macro Sweat Shop is officially closed for business.  I have to run now, as I have some pressing matters to tend to, and several important letters which must be promptly mailed off to the Federal Reserve, better yet, I will use Federal Express and let the FED themselves monetize the bill, after all they’re both Federal organization that work for us, right?

All the best,

Your friend always, Evil Plan and the BDI shuffle

Blow me, you were lucky to have even known of me!

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Booboo, Degrowth Defined →Booboo, Degrowth Defined →
Roy Underhill is a favorite of mine. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TsRkTRbuIk 3/28/14
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