Planet Be

Introduction

spoilers within This post is more akin to a story pitch and would not be a suitable introduction for the book as currently conceived. Please skip if you wish to experience the project in its intended form going forward.

For the record

The author hereby submits the entirety [1] of what was until now my personal blog into the novel Planet B [2]:

https://dotart.blog/rmiddleton/

Edited to Add This story is becoming very much extra experimental. The posts that precede this one were moved. Experimental is how my life/society works. [1] (Also see Notes in following post.)

※ [1] For now. My mind remains active until I die! Change for the better is integral to enjoying life. ↑ [2] Yes I am aware that I spell it sometimes B and sometimes Be and sometimes B(e). I like confusion for now. And yes I am trying out the feeling of calling this project, “a novel.” The name it goes by in my mind is, “my story.” Maybe sometimes I'll call it a novel, a book, a saga, a story, a rough draft, a movie, a blog... Who knows all the forms it could take. For now it is a record. This blog format permits me to add photo, video, and audio, as well as links. ↑

A

For this year's Pride Month I aspire to share something gay every day

I began this entry on my personal blog.[1]

Body Positivity I enjoy being naked in my house. I live alone but I do believe if I lived with others I would appreciate a clothing optional home. I believe I would appreciate a clothing optional world — optional means each person decides what they wear. I believe some locations would want to require clothing, for safety reasons not shame-based reasons.

It is my “extreme” position that humanity must love all humans. That includes every human's body. (And mind!) There is more to biology than sexuality. There is no reason to have to wear clothes except for comfort. (Safer = More Comfortable, when all variables are considered).

And what of the risk of a rise in violent sexual attacks? Pledging to Respect Consent is central to the the social compact. Jury determines, beyond reasonable doubt, the veracity of accusations for this and all crimes against the social compact. Professionals in the justice process guide the case for and against the accused. Accused would be detained until trial in cases of repeat offense or sufficiently dangerous accusation. Filing an accusation that fails to convict puts the accuser on trial for breaking the Compact. This high bar is considered a deterrent to malicious accusation. Like all portions of the Compact the details of the Justice System are subject to revision by majority vote. Elections occur at regular intervals as close or as far apart as is deemed best for society. [2]

※ [1] While in draft form I copied the entry into this space, merging my own life blog with my current story blog (for now). My ideas relating to Human Is Some, How To Be, and Planet B are coherent with my personal beliefs. I have been considering the main A character in Planet B to be a self insert. Despite the fact that it sounds potentially painful and I believe public opinion takes a negative view on self inserts, I am willing to try it. I'll see how it goes. This is an experimental creative project. [2] Current daily decision making within the justice system is in the hands of legislators and executive employees. (Of course I considered inventing a judicial branch role, then realized that my system does away with judges I believe. I replace them with bailiffs, or whatever title is decided. This professional (executive) employee maintains the fairness of the system that runs as voted by the peoples' representatives. The peoples' representatives who are elected at regular intervals, for now. (Yes I am deciding to use poeple + s-apostrophe not people + apostrophe-s.)) By Compact those executive employees agree to carry out decisions of the legislature as determined by the chief executive. The chief executive may be called president if that's what folks prefer, but I believe chief executive to be the clearest title. I do not recommend CEO. Oooooh. Maybe I do! Maybe that's a fun twist:

Adapting Familiar Corporate Structures What if my movement for good co-opts corporate language while also making humanist policies that reform current harmful corporate ways. Just a brainstorm right now, but the capitalism lingo is often straightforward. Boards. Board Chairs. Chief Executives. Quarterly Reports. Why would we discard every existing structure? We would not. We would reform when possible. Retain experts. Divert all energies towards beneficial projects. Ensure comfortable standards of living and health care for all. (I made myself expressly include health care — as if it were not already part of living! — because I'm from the ludicrously self-harming United States!!!!) Beneficial projects are encouraged by elected expert oversight boards that enforce regulations passed by larger elected bodies. A necessary commercial regulation is transparency so that citizens and expert bodies may keep informed of all workings of all corporations (that are themselves a freely assembled group of people). Other regulations pertain to safety standards. Safety standards include the physical and mental health of all who work in every corporation. (Again I can't believe I have to argue that safety includes health!) Corporations are not formed by rich people looking to get richer. Corporations spring naturally from a free market of ideas. Free speech, free association, and in no time humans are thinking up group endeavors. A huge number of group endeavors require no pre-approval. More freedom than most people experience today. Within a social compact that vows to eliminate all harm. Harm that can be prevented is prevented. Acts of intentional harm break the social Compact. Accusations are processed in the manner described above.

Taking a break

Queerness ≤ Diverse [1]

In yesterday's #GayEveryDay [2] post I began by talking about my love for being naked and detoured to the imaginary happier planet I'm creating.

I may not have said why I label yesterday's musings gay. Those same opinions can be held by someone not gay. (Why use the ugly s-word? [4]) And there are definitely many gays who do not share my feelings that the gay ideal = happy, naked, #solarpunk world. [5] An important quality of my gayness is increasing love. If not for my gayness I may not have been forced to change. I had to expand the circle of those I considered deserving of love in order to choose to love myself. Without that growth I would not exist.

Gayness unleashed a journey of greater and greater acceptance. [6] For that I am thoroughly grateful. I love myself as I am. I work on that alongside working to love others as they are. It all started with being gay. It has led me to greater acceptance of human bodies. [7]

※

[1] I identify with gayness. Not every queer identifies with that banner. When I wish to be more inclusive I use queer or LGBTQ. Wishing to be inclusive is a personal principle. Respecting all others is a value deeply tied to my gayness. ≤ usage: the equal sign is a borrowing from the language of planet B. The equal is not exclusive. The thought process to arrive at the headline for example goes like this: Queerness includes diversity. If one identifies as queer one embraces diversity. [More at Note 2] Diversity includes many things beyond queerness. So I chose ≤ instead of =. [More at Note 5] [2] I identify with gayness. Not every queer fits under that banner. When I wish to be more inclusive I use queer or LGBTQ. Wishing to be inclusive is a personal principle. Respecting all others is a value deeply tied to my gayness. In the case of my hashtag #GayEveryDay two core principles came into conflict and I chose rhyming over inclusivity. Acts of exclusion are frequently pleasurable for the perpetrators, making improvement harder. (This footnote sounds serious. And it is. It's also attempted humor. When a gay man embraces 'gay' as his label it need not be offensive to anyone. Every beautiful soul I know loves it when a gay man acts gay. Do say, 'gay'. But a gay man who believes that 'gay' is the mandatory umbrella term for the whole community risks creating division. He may be the one who is excluded if he repeatedly offends evolving community standards. [3] The worst case scenario is when anyone who identifies as gay intends to exclude. That person has already self-excluded from the community. That person does not meet their obligations to be part of the Gay Compact, the Queer Compact, and/nor 🙃 the LGBTQ+ Compact. Yes every sub-community has a compact. [3] My uncle. Not exactly but yes exactly. [4] joking! [5] = usage, further tips: My writing now borrows from the alien language I am creating. = is all forms of to be. [This part easily may have to be moved or removed. The man on Planet A has not been until now writing about other planets. Up until now I considered A to be blogging his human-is-some world view. If I'm using the framing of writing a story as a way to develop humanissome principles, would not A? It seems like a decision will have to be made that separates this blogging project from the story as I had known it; or that this part of the blog will be removed and possibly used as character building for C (if that works).] There may be confusion about reciprocity wben using the verb to be and when using =. I am Rob so Rob is me. I = Rob. Rob = me. But the entirety of diversity is more than all queerness. In the sentence at [5] it is again unclear if the = is comprehensive, transitive, reciprocal. (Surely one of those words makes sense.) In this case clarification is not necessary or desired. There is no reason to ponder potentially using ≥ or ≤ instead of = because the usage is trivial. Similarly I believe that my use of #GayEveryDay is also trivial and not worth frustration. Most everything that I am writing is trivial. That's safe to say. Then why do it? Why do my current projects, specifically the ways that I'm doing them? Because I am enjoying it completely. Even these words now. [6] I did not wish to spoil that lovely ending with muck. The muck goes down here. In this case muck refers to negative opinions of oneself and others. I still fight to overcome many and I hear them constantly expressed by others. Spending time with others can sometimes be a bad vibes contagion event. I can never know what others feel. Not fully. Not even if they try their best to tell me. I can get close but never know. I am choosing to write characters. That enables me to cheat. I can say that I know what they are thinking — something I cannot do in good conscience among real people. I can make up versions of me and work out what they believe. I can choose to model additional characters after real people or clusters of traits that I know from my experiences with real people and art. Then I get to explore how all my characters get along. This writing project benefits my character growth. Mine. And my characters'. [7] Demoted from above, needs further development: I cringe hearing others cringe when they see humans that spark no sexual attraction

Learning how to be True belief in autonomy necessitates altering my conception of reality. I am noticing that I spend too much time wondering what others think. Any amount of time and energy on matters beyond my control reduces my success in what I actually can control. Speculating ourselves into others' heads is a fun break from the hard work of improving what we can control. I think the ratio on that has been flipped my whole life. Thinking about what others are thinking occupies the bulk of all human thought, I think. I really do think that is true. Think about it.

Since, from what I can see, the majority of all humans are devoting the majority of their mental processing to wondering what's going on in every other human's mind, human progress is

Humans who devote

slowing human progress.

Fortunately the way out is simple. Difficult but simple. Stop thinking as others. Only think as me. Respect all others without needing to “understand” them. It is I who must understand my limitations. I will never see as another sees. The mind of another is a mystery to me. Hell, the mind of ME is a mystery to me! Attempting to understand and improve myself is worthwhile. I can never understand nor forcibly improve anyone. That is not worth any time. And I think I've spent the majority of my life doing that.

The solution I see is to be fully in myself. And to relate to others. Up until recently I fear that I've been living IN others and trying to relate to myself. [1] There's been a fear to be fully in myself, fear of ~egotism. Or is it egoism? Someone please help.~ losing control over my ego. Two fascinating questions to ask about this fear: What do I fear will happen if I embraced unlimited self esteem? What, truly, do I fear will happen? Will I become a mass murderer, or just generally piss off everyone who encounters me? Those are two extremes and does fear of my own ego come from within me or has it been instilled? To what purpose? Knowingly or Unknowingly?

Those of us who restrain our egos, do we imagine that the worst villains in history had excessive egos? I would say that they do not have healthy, thriving egos at all. I can never know inside the minds of another, and can only speculate. A healthy ego is loving myself and feeling confident in myself. When I have those feelings I NEED LESS from others.

Scenario: I am happier in myself. I enjoy time with myself. I work on many projects. But I also am human. The strength of humanity is society. All things in my life are made possible by others. I maintain connection with others for comfort, for inspiration, for support. If you notice in the sentence above I state why I maintain relationships with others, what I get out of it. I resisted a strong writerly urge to express what I give into the friendship. That invites speculation into what others feel. Honestly I can only express what I get out of emotional connections with others. I cannot know how others feel. Sometimes in my life I have wondered “what others see in me.” I have put myself down as a bad friend, bad brother, bad son, bad nephew, bad uncle, bad boyfriend, bad lover. All such thinking is futile effort. Every single one of those insults to my ego are based on suppositions — on trying to place myself into the mind of another. I'm 52. I am still doing this. Every negative attack we make on ourselves takes us outside ourselves. We can be ourselves. Live inside oneself. I think if I practice being fully in myself I will see good rewards. I will interact with others as me, not as however I think someone else thinks I should behave. Always be within me. Again and again and again I think this sounds like promoting dangerous levels of ego. Haha. What a funny sentence to write when I no longer believe high egos are negative. That's the struggle going on in me. Waves of self attacks and self improvement. Love builds healthy ego. It's only lately, maybe, that my healthy ego level has risen above 50.1%.
If or rather when I get “negative vibes” from someone, I am having a negative emotional response and I do not know the source. If I believe that outside forces control my emotions then I will ascribe my bad feelings to a person or situation. Anything we think is “weird” is always going to be the stuff we know least about. I'm saying that this behavior effectively equals a refusal to understand one's emotions. When I get a negative feeling I do not have to assign it to causes outside my control.

I feel this. I have this feeling. It is in me. With practice I can understand the reasons why I feel this. In essence it will be something I do not control. All bad feelings are an opportunity to practice centering myself in what I do control. I can do a lot. I can even decide what to feel and how to feel. I have limitations. I do not operate at 100% efficiency. I strive to improve always.

my current ego thinks writing like the above paragraph is genius that's the highest i let my ego get, it feels dangerous and i do not like it so what is the danger? Am I going to act in such a way that alienates me from others? I see no point in relationships with others without bringing myself. This thinking leads to me placing myself more than 50.1% into the minds of others. that's a fruitless waste of existence

sometimes i have had these rare experiences of feeling happy and complete during interactions with others. being fully in myself enables me to relate better. interactions are not scripted. what does not happen is conflict. being fully in myself means paying attention. i think that what we call ego is self pity. someone who is over-valuing themselves knows that they are doing it. they know that they are doing it to compensate for their true feelings of under-valuing themselves. They are looking for affirmation from outside. They believe that over-inflating their good qualities will lead to the affirmation they seek. All the above are acts of self pity. Those who society labels as having over-inflated egos are the most insecure. Security in oneself is a state from within, requiring less than 49.9% support from forces beyond our control. Remember, loved ones are beyond our control. Even children are beyond our control. Autonomy.

and when I feel good ego of more than 50.1% what happens when negative emotions strike? What can I do about this? Is there anything I did that created this negative emotion? What can I do differently next time? How strong are these negative emotions? Are they linked to deeply engrained behaviors? How much effort will it require to overcome it? Ok! Every time I experience this particular negative emotion from now on I will recognize it with a smile, and say: I know you. We've sat together before. I still don't agree with you that this is something worth feeling bad about, so I'm working to push you down below the threshold. I think I will function better if I experience this emotion cycle less than 49.9% of the time. But it will still occur. When it does I reaffirm my commitment to not acting on this emotion. I believe that being inside oneself to this extent is beneficial. I believe that working to reduce negative emotions reduces negative emotions. And yes the theme of tonight's writing is my spontaneous supposition that all negative emotions are the result of trying to think as someone else. ~~Be in others, relate to the self.~~ Be in the self, relate to others.

Came back to add that this post does not mention gayness yet does it? And I did pledge to celebrate gayness every day:

Being centered in the self is GAY. Feeling good is GAY.

※ [1] Even though I cringe as I use this very self-helpy construction. Speaking of self help, I write How To Be: A Self-Help Memoir.

B

On Building a Respectful Communications System All interpersonal communications are to be separated into push and pull delivery.

Push Immediate notification, per User settings. Ineligible for first-time communications. Cold calling is impossible. All first-time communications are routed to Pull delivery.

Pull Senders may designate as Urgent a new request to initiate communication. Misuse of the Urgent label is determined by Recipients. When a Recipient indicates that a message labeled Urgent is not Urgent, the Sender is notified. That Sender is no longer able to designate messages Urgent to that Recipient. All further messages from that Sender to that Recipient will go into NonUrgent. The Recipient may also decide not to receive any messages from a particular Sender. Recipients may choose to inform or not inform Senders of how their messages are being routed.

Certification All Users of the Communication Exchange (CommEx) are Certified. The System records all data relating to message transmission except the contents of messages. Abusive Senders may lose their Sending Privileges. These actions happen automatically (with degrees of advance notice). It is never up to any single user to discipline any other single user. That is why we are building a system. There are professional communications workers who will perform human checks on the system, when requested and authorized to do so.

Abuse of CommEx [1] It is believed that abuse will go down as its success goes down. We strive to build a system that offers no incentive for abuse. Financial incentives will fade as our society reduces all financial motivations for behavior. Emotional motives for abusive communication will likely never be fully eliminated. Users of the network who receive such messages may report them in such a way that directs increased community care and attention to the Senders. [2]

More on Pull Messages' Labels It will probably always be true that more information exists than any one person can consider in a lifetime. It will thus most likely remain the case that we receive more messages than we can attend to. Labels help keep the system running smoothly. Labels are subject to revision. Currently considered Labels include: Official, Urgent, Personal, Social, Commercial, and General.

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[1] You know what I don't like this name, CommEx. I'll reconsider it. All this material is rough rough draft, you know.
[2] Based on many stories our brains may be prompted to view such a statement as a sinister threat. We will “direct increased community care and attention” to you! We have far too much experience dreaming of dystopias. We will link to the related section in the Social Compact when it becomes available. As we all know this project is our group effort and always subject to revision.

Taking a break