Ignorance Is Bliss - it really really is

When I was young I had an itch and the only way I could scratch it was putting myself outside my comfort zone. I sussed out pretty early on that if I wanted a panoramic view on the world around me then I had to put myself in situations that allowed me to witness it from as many different vantage points as possible. I got the hell out of where I lived quite young, cut off all connection to the people I grew up with and pretty much put myself in as many uncomfortable situations as I could.

I was lucky because my drums were my guide and I simply followed the music, I didn't want to be a big fish in a small pond. I know many love this idea, they stay where they were born all their lives because it's a safe and unthreatening existence. Obviously there's nothing wrong with this at all, people like to stay near their extended family and friends. But for some, living an existence like this allows them to become lords of their environment and experts in one dimensional thinking. I stated in a previous blog that the mind has to be fed, the more excepting and open it is the wider your perception of the world around you. It's from this point where you start to feel the manipulation in the information you're being subjected to - it's a mind virus.

There's A Universe Inside Us

When I started drumming I was 6 years old and I always listened to music, I can remember falling asleep listening to those 80's hits compilations on my walkman. I got a buzz from music right from the get-go so I knew it would play a major role in my life at some point. I understood that it was important to open my mind up to old and new bands and different musical genres. I worked on the basis that my mind would soak everything up and then, subconsciously, it would come out in a different form. If I wasn't going to open my mind to a vast array of music then I would remain ignorant to a far bigger picture. 

I didn't mimic or copy what I was hearing, it was a foundation to understand song structure and to feel different kinds of emotions depending on what I was listening to at the time. To feel safe I could've decided I was going to be a punk rocker and never move out that bracket. Punk drumming is one dimensional so you could feel like the master of your art with very little effort. But to progress and evolve I decided I wasn't going to over analyse what I was and wasn't going to be. To cement this thought in my mind I never looked to other drummers for inspiration, I simply listened to the world around me. 

There's rhythm in everything, the heart that beats inside our chest, the clock on the wall, the way the traffic lights change, the sound of an aluminium drink can scuffing across the pavement when the wind blows. Cars and trains with the clicking in their engines and the pace of the wheels on the train tracks. The inspiration was endless, and from this, drum parts and ideas could be siphoned and made into something real. To not approach it in this way just didn't feel right to me, I wasn't ignorant to the fact that music and art in all its forms should be "an extension of". It needs to be fresh, your own original hand print, stitched deeply to who you are as a person.

Approaching things this way can lead to a lot of conflict because there's so many people out there who want to unpick that stitch. They want to tell you what is right and what is wrong with your approach and what they see as acceptable and not acceptable. It's these types of entities that usually have tiny closed minds, but, they think they're the experts because 1. Their universe is the size of a match box which in turn makes them feel like masters of their own birdcage 2. They're ignorant pricks who think the money they blew on an education that they could've learnt from a book that costs $2 from a corner store, gives them the superior intellect to never be wrong. Because they're never wrong then they don't have to expand their minds because they know it all. 

Once these voices have a platform to preach, then they get validated for their ignorant outlook and so the cycle continues. What Does This Produce? it produces ignorance on a global scale, ignorance isn't open to new ideas or trying to take onboard something different. It needs to keep the conversation closed and entwined with the 'obvious'. Me personally, I don't like the obvious, it just doesn't interest me at all, give me the unobvious everyday of the week. Now let us remember that it's not right to tell people how they should think or go about living their lives, people have the freedom to walk their own path. BUT the problems occur when the ignorant mind tries to impose their microscopic outlook on others ...... and then proceed to shout about it really really .... really loud.

What Has All This Got To Do With Metal Detecting?

I'm not going to answer that question I'm going to keep this blog open ended so you can come to your own conclusions.