First Draft of Reality...

I just finished the first draft of my film about my time in Afghanistan. It's still very rough and nowhere near release quality, but the fact that I have a complete film is very comforting. I have no idea who will end up seeing the final film, and where it will take me. I can only hope that my intent not be lost in the process.

In the meantime it's a very good reminder that you are rarely judged for the things you begin, but you're always remembered for the things you complete. Nobody cares what you think or feel about much of anything; they care what you do. My thoughts and feelings about Afghanistan are pretty much irrelevant, but this film has meaning. I am DOING something. I am CREATING meaning from events. The actions that happen everywhere have meaning, but translating that into film is doing something ABOUT the meaning that I see. Any way you cut it, it's honest, and it felt good to make... here's hoping the industry gets it.

If MLK was a General.

The term war is defined as a conflict carried out by force of arms. To have a war it is necessary to display divisions between people. Our country, their country- classic war. Rich and poor- class war. Black and white- race war. In all the history of war the most sweeping victories have come at the hands of warriors that use non-violence, and symbolic action. The widely agreed master of war, Sun Tzu, reinforces this idea in "The Art of War", illustrating how the best battle is the one never fought. Today we remember Martin Luther King Jr's victories in the war for race equality. His use of non-violence was utterly effective, in not just in removing racial laws, but posthumously creating laws to protect our people from discrimination in as many forms as we find it to exist. Today we pause to be grateful to the sacrifices made by MLK and those he lead to equality, but it is difficult to ignore so many more injustices in our world today. while we can't ignore the presence of luck, it's hard to attribute our success to anything but our positive relationships.

One year ago today I was a Marine in Afghanistan setting up the southernmost outpost in the whole country. Three months past my end of active service, I was not enthusiastic about this first tour to this part of the world, but I saw something that I could no longer call "war". Today's combat is surrounded with cameras and media scrutiny. The light of truth has been shining brighter and brighter on the horrors of mans inhumanity to man. Abu Ghrab and Guantanamo - although terrifying- have taught the world what horrors our great country is still capable of. Walking through the fields of our longest "war" I saw anything but inhumanity. We provided medical care. We played with children. We drank tea and laughed with the men. We found bombs, and arrested the culprits ONLY with adequate evidence- no detainees were abused under our care. As a result, every member of my company came home alive. In an area where every other company around us suffered multiple casualties and fatalities, we lost no one... We had no casualties.

On this day I call to any peace loving Americans to believe it is possible for our military to act with the moral righteousness MLK preached of. Encourage pride in absorbing their enemies violence in the name of a warriors ultimate goal: peace. Let yourself hope that through the mutual suffering of troops and Jihadistst, the people of Afghanistan will see that our country's heart lies not in harming them or exploiting them, but in improving their lives, and that through education we can all see that there is no division between our people. Where no division exists- there is no war.

Playing Games Without Enemies.

Playing games has a function in every living thing that plays. Cats learn how to kill the birds they leave on your doorstep by pouncing on toys. Dogs learn to physically defend themselves and their family by play fighting with other dogs. Humans are no exception to this rule. Sports serve to teach us teamwork- like puppies ganging up on each other we teach our children to work together in teams. All of humanities greatest achievements involved immense amounts people all working together for years to accomplish a goal. I'm talking about building pyramids, sending men to the moon, and yes even war. War might be mans greatest smudge on history, but in war's aftermath both "teams" (countries) tend to bond internally over the mutual suffering caused. It's the same reason why men punch each other in the face, and then become best friends.

I've talked a lot about technology's effect on society, and how, only now, technology is uniting humanity. But, technology can be a frightening beast. It speeds along, changing at an exponential rate. It both threatens to leave us in its wake, and demands more intrusion into the way we live. It can be a frustrating, fast moving, constantly changing to try to keep up. Also, technology has had the unfortunate habit of diverging… by this I mean that technology becomes more complex and diverse. Think about blueray, DVD, VHS and beta-max... or that cathode ray tube television you still have gathering dust. This has caused society to approach new ideas slowly and with caution.

However, Consider just the past year in technology. Facebook has done so incredibly well that Hollywood made a movie about it. A piece of web software changed every ones lives so much that some people made an entire movie about how the world birthed said website. The smart phone has become a new standard. With smart phones technology is converging. People are more comfortable consuming newer technology faster, and the smart phone is the magic tool that lets them keep up. It's a digital Swiss army knife for the modern age that can fit in your pocket. With these magic bricks of technology you can talk, work, and yep- PLAY… with anyone in the world.

Okay, so- technology has converged into smart phones and social media, so what? What are we converging to, right? Think about how things like Facebook and Twitter have changed the way we interact with each other. Restaurants tweet the daily specials instantly to only the people that care enough to subscribe- no wasted advertising. My dad had to go on dates, sometimes with total strangers that he couldn't stalk on Facebook before hand, but my generation has Facebook where I can poke the girl I like from anywhere that gets 3g coverage. If she likes me she can respond, and if I'm not so lucky then she can ignore me without consequence. The effect of this is relevant in Facebook's success. Facebook is about bringing people together and that is THE reason it is successful. Bringing people together has become the goal that steers a previously destructive business model up toward economic harmony. Where the money flows the business will grow, and growing it is.

What does this imply about the gaming industry? Video games used to be for geeks in their mothers basement. They used to not only separate us, but encourage us to stay separate- World of Warcraft is demonized by those outside the community for it's "life replacement" effect on players. In reality WoW was only introducing people to a safe community where they were accepted (or at least paid attention to by other people <- @ trolls). Facebook games like Farmville are about cooperating with your real life friends in a game, and mobsters is about one upping your buddies. The successful games create communities. The better the community member feels about being in that community- the more people join that community. Business knows this as the "viral effect" or the "positive spiral".

So what happens if we take all these ingredients and pour them together? Take a piece of technology, like an iPhone, that allows you to interact with anyone plugged into the web. Create a game on this ultra accessible platform that rewards players for working as a TEAM and build a community. Unlike WoW- players can be rewarded for being in new locations, or being with new people, or trying new things. Industry would have a vested financial interest in advertising- try the new dinner get 10% off and 50xp. Put on your new sneakers to run 3 miles and get 500xp and a badge. Check in on top of Everest and get a super mega rare cool badge! The game can now reinforce the traits in people that allow us to accomplish all great things- the reward of doing going to our world. Now our play can encourage us to be good to each other, and be good to ourselves.

What if all this playing together taught us to work together even better? We've been blowing each other up pretty good these last several thousand years, and now that's kind of out-dated http://bit.ly/gxslLw ... So what if games could be the practice we need for everyone to get really good at this working together thing? People seem to be able to do anything we unite to do, so what if we started getting experience points for solving all the crap that we dont like about our world? Wouldn't we all just be playing a game with no enemies?

watch this:

http://kotaku.com/5479125/points-for-toothbrushing-the-gaming-speech-everyone-is-talking-about

This is a link to the beta of my website for the mobile game I've been developing since my return from Afghanistan:

www.zombieapocalypsemobile.com

The Girls Gone Wild Effect and Why Porn Means Peace

Most adults have seen a Girls Gone Wild commercial at some point in time. The first time I saw it I wondered, “how why would a pretty girl like that want to show her boobs to some guy with a video camera inside an RV outside of a club?” The only conclusion I could come to that made sense was this: pretty girls can never be sure of the motivations of those around them, however they, like everyone else, have the strong need for positive human connection. The best way that these young girls have learned to get male attention is with their bodies, and this essentially becomes almost an advertising short cut. Pretty girls dress nicely to facilitate finding the “special someone”. Showing ones boobs on camera is more attention grabbing, and has a much larger audience. Like a bird displaying it’s feather and call- I guarantee you more men have seen these women through these videos than will ever meet them face to face.

Reality television has come to fill a similar niche in society, but there are deeper implications to the recently rise in reality programming. “I want to have my own reality show,” has quickly become a trend of the times. Reality shows are being rolled out at an alarming rate, but what does this say about what’s going on in the world? Some would argue that now we all think we’re so important that we should be on TV, which would be arrogant and entitled of the general public. However, I believe that this is a strong sign of showing how desperately people want to be able to form these positive connections with other people. Families are allowing cameras into their houses to share their lives with the world. That doesn’t wreak of depravity- it wreaks of an unparalleled openness. This is a massive indicator that society is ready to start trusting one another.

Porn is the most extreme case of this. The amount of porn being made and its acceptance in society has dramatically risen over the past several years. Before, sex was a very taboo subject, but now it’s not uncommon to see vibrator commercials or sex pill commercials. Sex tapes are a way to become famous in and of themselves. Porn even has its own annual awards show. Again, I don’t believe this to be a sign of depravity- like the roman empire, but we aren’t condemned to failure. This surge of naked people is just another indication of people being ready to open up to one another. These people happen to have chosen sex and cameras as a way to show the world that they’re ready to let us in to their lives.

We’ve all been ready to trust each other. We all want to be able to trust each other. We’re stopping ourselves only out of distrust for each other, and so the cycle continues. The only thing missing is the awareness that our capacity to care for one another is our best asset as a species.

The World Needs Some Hope...

We’ve destroyed our own faith in humanity, and we continue to batter it into the ground. We stand together like a bunch of gunslingers, but nobody wants to lower their muzzle first. We've forgotten life isn’t a gun fight. We are not separated by steel and lead but connected by copper and fiber. We look across the world and see lines and divisions, groups and separations. We still cling to the idea that we must belong to a group and oppose another in order to be. We define ourselves by conflict not realizing that in conflict we are connecting to an opponent, to a team, to other people. Loving your opponent and accepting the conflict is called being honorable. Our hero's normally fight with honor and compassion, but we trudge along as if it were impossible. We all want to think and be this way, but the first step is trusting the world. Lower your muzzle and the world will lower theirs.

Last night I was arriving at my friends house late into the morning. On a dark street a man crossed from the other side and began walking in front of me. Being a marine- I listen intently and look behind myself. Sure enough I had caught his partner slipping up behind me. I engaged with them before they could start whatever they had planned- introduced myself. a block later we began to part ways and I wished them well. I found myself turning around and going back to ask them if they were alright, being out so late and all. The first thing out of his mouth was that they were hurting for money. I gave him the $40 or so that was in my pocket, looked him in the eye and wished him well... then went to my friends couch to pass out. That's my drop in the bucket for today... next time I'm going to sit down and talk to them. This is how we fix everything one step at a time.

now tweeting @ItsJustAnIdea

I figured out the meaning of life

On an unusually warm summer night I find myself walking down the streets of San Francisco with a group of friends. I am recently returned from Afghanistan on my second tour with the Marines, and the city scene is a stark contrast to the places I’ve recently been. In my head, as we walk, I realize the overwhelming plesantness of my situation. The weather is a perfect summer night. The restaurants are teeming with activity that spills out of the open doors and windows then down on the street. Our pace is slowed by a person in an electric wheelchair, but there’s no reason for this to frustrate us. It’s like she’s there as the universes way of forcing us to slow down and appreciate our surroundings. Several blocks down, an ambulance drives through the intersection, seirens wailing. A man passes us going the other direction wearing what can only be described as a onesie, dreadlocks, elton john glasses, and a man purse. I suddenly feel connected to all of it all at once. How great of a place do we live in that we have medics just waiting to help us? How great that you can be born handicapped, but still have the freedom in your life to enjoy the night walk with us? How great that people can dress how they want and live how they want?

Despite the crap that the news showers us with every day insisting that the world is in immediate danger of ending at any given moment- that our neighbors are dangerous and violent. They feed the danger that fuels fear. It’s like the night is proof that the world isnt quite the shitbox everyone keeps saying it is. And if that’s true, then maybe we aren’t such horrible lifeforms after all.

For a while I can see in everyones face, the proof that they love. It’s not always apparent immediately. Some people have forgotten that it’s there, but for this moment- I feel like I can see through all of their convoluted personal bullshit down to somewhere where we all wish every stranger well because they are a human being, and that’s the only reason anyone needs.

The illusion of hosility falls away and I suddenly realize the illusion of conflict. It’s as if we’ve all been fooled into believing our horrible behavior was a normal part of the world. We have believed that the world could be filled, like a giant bowl, with all the bad things that happen, but I have seen that there is no bottom to the container of the world.

The left thinks that the government is an evil body, and the right thinks the terrorists are out to destroy our way of life. But even the most evil men believed they were improving things in the world. Their violence was itself an act of love for humanity. All religeons were founded on ideals of love for fellow man, yet both Christian and Muslim look to pasages for words of hate. We lock our doors, and shut our windows in fear of the outside world when the only thing that is out there is eachother, and deep down none of us have anything to fear from eachother. The evidence is staggering- %100 of internet users want to get in contact with other human beings.

Imagine the change to society if the drug addict felt loved every day by every one. Imagine the change if sexual deviants werent looked down on for talking about their feelings. What if thievs weren’t too proud to ask, and you were selfless enough to give? What if that was just how everyone thought about everyone else? Disputes between countries would be settled with the grace and dignity of the most amicable divorce. What if Israel and Palestine all together at the same time started living together?

We hide behind the excuse that it’s just not possible. One person would start the chain, and like dominos the hate would tumble along. In this time, for the first time ever, there are massive collaborations on global scale. We are all literally connected by wires and networks that we can see, and not just the mystical magic we used to point at. Now all that has to happen is we all do this together. If we can agree and act under this one idea, then we can evolve to a new level of humanity.

That’s the meaning of life… That’s what everyone has been trying to say this whole time… that one little stupid thing: love everyone. Now that we have that mystery cracked we can move on.