SCENIUS
I was introduced on the internet recently to a man I felt in minutes was an old and quite dear friend, Brian Enos. Known by many as a musical genius, Brian has written over 5000 pieces of music and much of it used in films as background. He has always done what he wanted to do which is far from doing nothing. Very busy human being. Very productive. In the course of his work and word spreading of his genius he has been invited to speak at art school to its students often. He has done so but is seldom invited back for he begins his talk with “I am here to persuade you not to get a job”. The teachers are made nervous as they believe their “job” is to steer students into a job. To earn a living is the goal. It is the need to earn a living that Brian sees as the obstacle to having the kind of society he would like very much to live in. I agree whole heartedly.
What does it mean?
Brian noticed in the art world one often hears the term “genius” and the presumption behind it that these individuals are the “great ones” responsible for the advances of mankind. He disagrees. Brian Enos and J whooper Swan have seen that in reality the advances that are accredited to an individual are really generated by a particularly energetic community the individual is immersed within at the right time. Brian termed the phenomenon “scenius”. It’s the scene, man. An important example would be Greenwich Village New York 1950’s and 60’s and Bob Dylan’s incredible burst of amazing songs.
Listen to Dylan himself talk of the experience. “It just happened.” Friends around him speak of how Bob was just a very ordinary musician struggling in the folk music scene with the same songs and delivery as many others and not very interesting then suddenly he is a real interesting performer who seizes the attention of many and the rest is history…still unfolding by the way. Dylan talks of the experience at the time of just scribbling down songs while sitting on a subway or talking with friends at a restaurant or walking down the street…anywhere…just jotting down songs he picked up from listening to people around him. He was writing and then singing what others really wanted to say but could not. Scenius.
The concept of individual “geniuses” is a product of the pyramid design for governing a system followed by societies all over. A very great loss is the result. Scenius. For one thing, the pyramid form of organizing anything means the best people are the few at “THE TOP”. Which is a false concept corrupt from the outset. That is not how life works. Every human being is a unique set of gifts and talents and carries a deep passion to express them. We are losing most of that energy and have been doing so for tens of thousands of years.
J Whooper Swan had a unique opportunity in the late 1980’s to associate himself among a group of people in Austin Texas amid an explosive need to change and do so now! Whooper had no credentials for what was to happen to him. Except one thing not on a usual resume. Whooper was an alcoholic who had had no drink for about 4 years. He had met and hung out with a group of drunks who had recovered from the affliction and something “rubbed off” in the nature of a brand new point of view and Whooper was inexplicably told by his supervisor to make up a job for himself for participation in the group. It was as if a door he never guessed could exist opened for only him. Have you heard of an authority figure instructing an underling to just make up a reason for being among us? It happened. It must have been like that for Dylan too. It happened.
It bubbled up from the community around us. This is apparent to Whooper. The way to be of service to the others was given me day to day and that bunch flourished for several years like no other! The message to everybody was identical…we no longer have managers here, including the Speaker (Whooper) …all of us are servants and helpers to the whole community. People responded to it with intense devotion. That is who we are. I do not believe it, I know it. This fact feeds itself!
