Gagafesto, "Sex and Saving the World", gagablog 14

Saving the world with sex may seem silly to some, but I am both serious and silly about it. When so many other human needs are still unfulfilled for so many, when so many are hungry or need a safe place to live, to focus on sex may seem frivolous, but to me it is essential for a few reasons. One is that sex is part of everything in the most basic sense - so much of our experience relates to it. Sleep is another human need we do not talk about as much and we are often fairly deprived of it. Why is this, and what effect does it have on us, on the world? Answering this suggests the other reason I think sex is an essential focus - because I see that the reason for injustice and unnecessary danger in the world is a function of an unnatural manipulation of sex.
I would like to present a mystical understanding of sex that includes all "making two into one" - part of the intense magic of sex is the way it exemplifies this basic mystical reality that relates to everything, so it is very useful for analogies. In this way, though I advocate a mystical understanding of sex I also encourage the "non-mystical" aspects of it, both for their own value and because they still are mystical even if they aren't considered that way, and can be considered that way easily as metaphors.
I don't think there is a conspiracy to keep people from getting enough sleep, other than in the sense of the forces in the world that want people to work more, to get the most labor out of people. I do have a sense of work ethic, it is in my blood, and I both "believe" in hard work in my blood and reject it in my heart. I know I have taken this too far, because I have not carried my love of art to fruition enough in really crafting my dreams - and I love Gaga for inspiring me to fix this and do creative work. But it is the creative work I truly value. Yes, I value physical labor as well, both when I do it and especially the labor of billions of people on the planet. But at the same time, I resent that the "forces of production" could allow laborers more recreation, and that the reasons people work so hard when they don't really have to is to prop up an imbalanced system. Ya'll have heard all these sorts of economic and political arguments before, I'm just talking about why we don't get enough sleep. And how our lack of sleep, personally and as a society, is the result of a negative power driving society, a sort of vampire of civilization. I'll call it the Wampire because it reminds me of war, both Bush presidents really but the whole "W" thing, and is really whiny, "wa wa wa". The Wampire is not against people sleeping, I guess, just has that effect by driving the masses to work so hard.
The Wampire is against sex in this same basic way, just trying to keep people doing more "productive" things most of the time, but is also "against" sex in many other ways that point to how powerful a force sex is in our society. I can hear the objection that if I'm complaining about an American Wampire how can I say it is against sex when America is so sex-obsessed and I would say that the reason is the difference between repression/tittilation and expression/satisfaction. The power of sex is being used to achieve other ends, from shopping to nationalism and war. I can also hear, have heard, a complaint against Gaga that seems to try and blame her for the sexualization of modern youth. As far as young girls wearing inappropriately sexy clothes, this was going on for a decade or more before Gaga and seemed to me to be an ugly side of the fashion industry, but Gaga actually has the influence of opposing this phenomenon much more that contributing to it, both with her messages of self-respect and awareness and intentional expression, and how that is manifested in Good Fashion - which is the opposite of sweatpants with words on the butt. American society was built so much on repressing sexuality and the result is this fractured community starved for contact with each other. We accept the idea that sex is rare and that we must go to great lengths to have sex, from going to the store and purchasing the Axe body spray that will make sex inevitable and instantaneous (if you do it yourself to their fantasy commercials) to going to war. I think sex has always been one of our greatest motivators, I just think it is tragic the way American society represses and diverts this energy. And I do think it is at the core of other issues, from exploitation of women to racism and basically all forms of violence.
Love is the opposite of these hateful things, surely. Sex is one expression of love, and I am focusing more on sex now because it is the crux of the dilemma, but of course it is Love, that encompasses sex and so much more, that is really important. And I believe Love does encompass all healthy sexual expression, and that we should recognize this and treat sex with love and respect in all its forms. This includes a respect for people who are asexual as well, and for people who are too young to have sex or are still learning or transitioning in their sexuality, at any age. Because one of the essential lessons about sex, for the people having sex, is that it can bring us together as much as we respect and are aware of each other and try to fully appreciate one another. It is wonderful to teach us to value the differences between people and the magic of coming together. And I say we should respect all aspects of it, including the stages of learning about it and missing it. If we approach these phases with love and respect, with a true appreciation for longing or fantasy, etc, as forms of the wonderful, sexual side of love, if we were used to talking more openly about these and all forms of sex and love, I think people would be less likely to be hasty or despondent.
Some people aren't that interested in sex and I hope what I am saying can be understood as applying to art and all creativity as well, but I focus on sex because I am preoccupied with it, in my own person but also because I recognize a negative preoccupation with it in America and I want to come to terms with this. I feel I have come to accept my own sexuality to some degree and I am hurt to see the negative influence in America from those who are struggling with sexuality. The most glaring example of this currently in America is homophobia. There's too much to say about it and it is all sad, but I can't help but point out that the same people, the Republicans, who oppose gay rights are also the ones who perpetuate war and poverty and racism and oppose the arts. And so often it comes out that the reason these people oppress others is that they can't accept themselves. Until they realize they are the victims of a bad mentality (and hopefully they realize it then, and will all realize this soon) they make victims of others. So I am not trying to blame them, I am blaming the mentality, that I really can invision as a huge evil crusty old Wampire.
I think we are ready to outgrow this mentality. I do believe that a new attitude about sex will be instrumental in doing this, an attitude based on total respect. I believe there is a spiritual root to both homophobia and racism. I think it is based on a spiritual understanding that most people have in a very foundational sense, beneath their other religious views. I think many people have some deep-seated assumption that they will be reincarnated as one of their descendents. I am suggesting this even though it seems counter to the idea of heaven - and ironically that those who believe in the most concrete afterlife version of heaven that would seem to contradict this idea so much are also the ones who, subconsciously, feel this reincarnation principle the  strongest - and both are wrong because they lead to this false conclusion that leads to racism and homophobia. People may consciously say that they don't want "those" kind of people in their family, gays or people of another race, but I feel at the core of this is this idea that we will be reincarnated in our family line and the idea that one does not want to be one of "those people" in the future. In the case of being gay, I think people fear it for this same idea of a lack of an heir. Even a preference for a male child is an aspect of this in our patrilineal society, establishing an imbalance that pervades society. And it is based on the idea that a daughter is not going to carry the family name, could not eventually have a grandson you could be reincarnated as and have the same last name - see? It is a ridiculous concern, to type it out, but I really believe we subconsciously believe this, and I think that one easy proof of how wrong this idea is can be found in the fruits it bears of racism, sexism, and homophobia. Another proof is how seeing the opposite dissolves those forces - if we assumed we reincarnated randomly, or even into the exact same "those kind of people" we wronged in our current life, we would not have these attitudes. If we just knew, for instance, that we would change genders a lot in different lives we would try and be more understanding of the other gender in this life. This same principle even applies on a level that can be even more subtle than racism but just as damaging, when parents diapprove of thier children's chosen lover for any prejudiced reason - because what does it have to do with them, ultimately, other than in the potential for triggering this false fear of being reincarnated as related to them. Ironically, the most concrete and exclusive visions of an afterlife heaven are also foundational to, or expressions of, this same mistaken belief. The Country Club idea of heaven is held by people who are often the most racist and homophobic, which suggests to me that they really cling to the linear reincarnation idea despite their conscious insistence on a heaven where they would stop and relax forever. It may be a fear of coming back as people they vilify that makes them so insitent on it and on its exclusivity. The most conservative churches don't allow women to be the guides to this heaven and therefore exclude them in ways, that is how wrong and off base they are. They try to get people to become like them with the promise of an exclusive heaven, essentially because they are insecure about who they are and feel it is only valid if it rubs off on someone else, and are therefore being rude to others by not respecting who they already are. There is nothing wrong with wanting people to better themselves and helping them, but thinking you know best for someone else is wrong which is why leading by example should be used when we feel that way. Again, you can see how wrong this idea of Country Club heaven is by how it affects people, but also by inverting it and seeing what the difference would be. What if there is a heaven and it just isn't exclusive, everybody is invited. First, all those people who were trying to shame everybody in life, won't their faces be red? And on the other hand, if we were acting like we knew this were true, that we would see everybody in heaven, we would realize that all people have a rightful place and purpose - we can all say "I'm on the right track baby I was born this way" as Gaga taught us.
Now, I personally like both the ideas of reincarnation and heaven, but not the restricted versions I just described, but instead the looser unrestricted versions, even wilder and more extravagant than that, a version where both are true. And I think the fruit or manifestations of my version is love and acceptance and appreciation and respect, and the fruit of the restricted is hate and rejection, poison, etc. And I like the idea of focusing on heaven here on earth, or the idea that they guy you are aguing with might happen to be your great-great-great-grandmother. When I say "saving the world", I really think it can be done with this change of attitude, from a restricted to a limitless spirituality, which I think will have an analogy, and maybe require the correlating shift, in a shift from restricted to limitless sexuality. And the key is utmost respect, so don't think I am condoning depraved sex - but the fact is there is a limitless potential for sex, and the power of sex, that is untapped or diverted in people and is therefore prone to cause problems personally and divert justice socially. I think we can sexually save the world because liberating sex and using it for its true purpose, to bring us together and make us creative and powerful, not only robs the Wampire of his sustenance and kills him, opposing the forces of conservativism, but it directly empowers us and makes the creative divine in us flourish, in all sexual forms and phases, including and sometimes especially the lack of it. But truly, mostly in the wonderfully enriching experience of great sex. And I know many people have had sex that was not all that great, and while I would have to address that later I'll summarize by saying "the people who leave you not feeling all that great or empowered are lame" but refine that by pointing out that they are victims of that Wampire mentality tht treats sex as a dirty thing used to enrich one's dirty pride. Each one of us can and needs to be cured of dirty pride that is based in trying to feel superior or only focusing on oneself. Pride is a good thing when it comes from the things we do that help other people. The dirty Wampire pride that wants to do something "dirty" then feels bad for it and has to do it again, hurting someone else, to run from the guilt, or someone who tells other they can do "dirty" things and feels righteous pride that they are above that "filth" themselves, that kind of pride just hurts more and more people because it comes from the hurt of this rift between sex and spirituality. There are innumerable ways the society can improve with more respctful understanding of people and our varied sexuality and seeing it all as part of the same wonderful thing. The same can be said of culture and religion, the things that seem to divide us but understood another way, with repect for their purpose, are actually what bring us together. Differences should be honored for the very fact that they make us "two" so that we can experience the bliss of discovering our oneness.
What does all this have to do with Gaga? Well, she in the same way that she seems to manifest the ideal spiritual form, to me, she is also the ideal physical form - and moreso because, being a creative genius she "backs up" her divine beauty with such a strong and expressive divine spirit - what I always hope for in a really beautiful girl. And what makes all people really beautiful, in a way. I won't say I am disappointed that really beautiful girls are not all geniuses but I am sad that more people in general aren't geniuses. And I guess growing up I always wanted the really pretty girls to be really smart, because I thought I was myself and wanted them to be a good match for me. And everyone is a genius, in their own way, It is just that to me, Gaga is a genius in my way, the way I like, a creative genius. Which to me makes good on the promise of being incredibly beautiful and sexy and is integrated in this sense. Everyone is a Goddess in their own right, or God, and one's lover can be seen as the best manifestation of the divine for each individual, but Gaga can be a symbol of this for the masses, including the people who have no one to love and in this way is like a mystical bride for the world. I see Gaga as the Goddess in the same sense of integrating perfectly beautiful spirit and body and she is one I can talk about because she is someone everyone knows, but also because I think this is central to her message. And it is a divine and liberating message, to celebrate our spirits and our bodies and not think that one is at the expense of the other, to embrace that we were "Born this Way." And one way she does this - again, not that everyone should do this but she does it for everyone herself because we need it so badly - is by being so openly and expressively sexual and encouraging others to be true to themselves as well in the most basic sense.

While I truly believe reversing a unnatural mentality about sex and the restricted spirituality that goes with it can save the world by curing social ills and allowing us to move forward into a new golden age, the whole idea of "saving the world" seems to have a much more immediate and seemingly unrelated meaning in consideration of the recent disaster in Japan and the threat of further nuclear disaster. I hope I can be understood mystically to relate this and other world events to Gaga and I intend no disrespect. I do want to say that actual, not only purely "magical", forces are required for so much - its a huge understatement. Like I said, I appreciate the efforts of people's physical labors, I just wish they did not have to work so hard, and maybe that some jobs would be eliminated, so that miners for instance could become miner-robot makers and repairment, or even better when new science makes mining unneccessary they can do completely different things. I think that so much dangerous or boring work could be removed from the human sphere to technology if production owners invested enough into it, sacrificing their own lavishness. And some dangerous jobs could be eliminated entirely with enough research and focus on alternatives.
The reason I am bringing "work ethic" up again is that no ones work ethic can match that of the people who are risking their lives to stabalize the nuclear plants in Japan right now. I want to recognize this openly because it cracks my heart open to think of how these people are so bravely sacrificing for others. Its just a message that we can all do something more, if they have done this. And I really think one ting we can do, in honor of these people and to ensure that no one else is ever put in that predicament, is for everyone, everywhere, to insist we persue alternative energy as soon as possible with all available resources. We have to stop all other social and political obstacles, put everything behind us and give up greed for wealth and power and just go full force into collectively developing new energy. No more oil wars (or others) or meltdowns - we should go for all renewable resources, solar, wind, hydro, and biomass. And in complete emergency mode, with reduced power consumption and a race to replace nuclear facilities with others that are safe, until they are all shut down. I think if we can commit to this, somehow, as some countries seem to be thankfully moving toward, we will have "learned our lesson" and may be able to mystically avoid a more serious development in Japan in the next few days, and may be granted a reprieve from further seismic activity long enough to replace the most vulnerable nuclear plants, then all of them, before anything like this happens again. I know people will say this sort of talk sounds crazy, but face it, you believe it too: yes, there was a terrible natural disaster but it is made so much worse by our nuclear folly. We must correct this, and there is no good "reason" why such terrible tragedies such as natural disasters occur, but there is a reason and the result of our ways that it is so much more dangerous with a nuclear threat and we need to learn the lesson that is being presented and change our ways. And if that is something we just have to do, then can't this be lesson enough for us so we don't have to have anything worse happen to set us on a whole new course, we will go ahead and get on it? I have talked throughout this gagablog about how things are mystically connected and that I think what may seem like a "small" thing over here can relate to a "big" thing over there. That is true in this sense, too, and again I relate it to Gaga. At the most basic level, hers is a message of compassion and taking care of, appreciating, all people, all things. And I think we all feel love for each other, and especially in such times of devestation we really "fee" it - but we do need reminders of what loving one another really means, fully, sometimes. Like the people working to shut down the damaged nuclear reactors, Or all the millions of people praying for them, doing spells and wishing and hoping for the best and supporting them. Its terrible when we have these sorts of reminders, though the love we then experience is beautiful - but we don't have to buy into the idea that love is so rare. We can have reminders to love even in the good times, all the time. And if we start to feel the love as strongly as it actually is between us, and clear away the obstacles, we can do anything.
I'm not trying to be a pompous bastard by saying this, and I'm not trying to trivialize or be crazy about things. I know that in  a very real sense the only thing that can prevent more nuclear disaster is the people working on it, and the sacrifice they make of accepting sickness or worse is inspiring and humbling. Maybe it is like other "magical" thought and is a desire to have wished-for influence where little or no influence exists, but I like to think that the massive outpouring of sympathy, and also of fear and love, anxiety and activism, can have a positive effect - on the world at large and even on that situation right now in Japan. I'm certainly not trying to jinx anything, but I really want to speak hopefully. It is such a scary scenario, it seems like it will "take a miracle" and I am hopeful that all of the good intention around the world can contribute to an inspired solution amongst the people working on the nuclear plant, or a magical result of some favorable conditions with weather or whatever can possibly help. I want to type this in hopes of some magical effect, and dont want to act arrogant except to say that I do believe we can have this kind of effect and should try it, hoping that putting that message out there, even if no one actually reads all the way down to this part, that somehow it will coincide with a solution - because it is so dire and seems like it could go either way each day, but since the outcome could be as good as possible if it happens for the best as soon as possible, please let it happen today that they find a way to make that plant safe as soon as possible. And can we put an end to these dangerous work situations, and for where they are still necessary work as hard as we can to make robots to do the most dangerous work?
I think Gaga has a message to people to care for each other and not limit ourselves to compassion only for those we know - and we all feel this in our hearts, anyway, of course, and yet we still need reminders of. it. Gaga has a message that helps, in general, but I want to mention how she is acting specifically as well to help humanitarian disater relief. I heard that she donated 5 million dollars to relief effort in Japan, which is not only a great thing to do in itself but inspiring to people as an example of what you can do to help people with the potential riches of following your dream and an example to other rich people of something good they can do with their money. She also is selling bracelets to let all the proceeds to go to disaster relief in Japan. The bracelets say "we pray for Japan" I think in japanese and english. I think this is great as well both for encouraging everyone to help in whatever way they can and that it will really raise a lot of money and that number will be even more encouraging, the power of coming together, and using fame for good. It will raise a lot of money which is needed, but even more importantly it will raise awareness, about this tragedy and need for help in Japan but also about everyone's ability to contribute and do some good and our collective ability to make things happen and even do what seems impossible or miraculous. We should become convinced that we can do these things, that this is the power of Love, and we should be focused on it all the time and already moving past the things that make disasters even worse, and certainly move past the disasters of our own making due to hatred and greed. Gaga is my constant reminder of power and love and sex and creativity, all the things I think are divine. I want to mention that she attended a Earth Day benefit and has made comments showing ecological sensitivity as an example that these things are cool and necessary. I think that one of the things we need to replace nuclear with is biomass, specifically burning cannabis/hemp/"pot" because it is fast growing, burns really hot and cleans the soil and air of toxins as it grows. It is another "key", along with sex, that has been oppressed due to its easily available and abundant power, and Gaga is a human form of the Weed Goddess as well to me, both for exemplifying what I associate with the weed creative genius and using it proudly herself when she composes music etc. She is a champion of weed, to me, like sex, for speaking openly about it while others won't. She speaks against violence and in favor of people being true to their sexuality and for the benefits of weed. I will talk more about the herbal aspects soon, but I also want to focus on more of the message in Born this Way - and all her other songs as well and there are more coming out so soon, wehn the album comes out, so I better get busy.
And I better get some sleep, the other thing we all need that can make all the difference, can allow us to actually relax and enjoy life if we get enough, and as much as we can do it can bring abundant dreams leading to amazing fantasy or wonderous new realities. Sweet dreams, Gaga Love to all and may we wake up to a world that is safer and more free and full of love than before, and move from now on toward love and togetherness.