(Yes, this is also the website of musician Babu Menos.)
Blog
The More, the Lesser.
Since Babu Menos in its literal translation means something along the lines of ‘Mr Less,’ this website now finally follows suit. Because, yes: less is more indeed.
The site is stripped of any bells and whistles. No video or audio, no images besides the one on the Man page, no JavaScript; just plain old HTML5 and CSS3.
External calls do not exist, all files reside on this very server. The only large files are the fonts which add up to 3½ MiB in size. The reason is that in order to properly simulate a typewriter with all its irregularities and its unevenness, the font files contain several versions of every character. Read more about it on the developer’s website: copypaste.wtf/TT2020.
Greetings!
Upon your arrival on planet Earth, dear alien beings from a far-away solar system, you will find humans staring at small screens which they hold in their hands as if they were glued to them. They will probably even watch you leaving your enormous aircraft on said screens, rather than actually look at you. Don’t mind them, it’s all perfectly normal; as normal as the devastating burning and flooding and extinction of millions of species. That’s humans for you.
Bhinnêka Tunggal Ika
The headline is the official motto of Indonesia. The phrase originates from an Old Javanese poem and means ‘Unity in Diversity’. It’s even part of the country’s constitution, and it is also the only wayhumanity willsurvive.
No tl;dr.
Are you, dear reader, impatient? Are you under the impression that you don’t have time to read through all the many words on this website? Do you find yourself thinking, Cut to the chase? Well, tough luck. Both Babu Menos and I, the person behind the persona Babu Menos don’t much care for shortcuts.
The Ubiquitous Goo.
Over the course of the past two, three weeks I worked on several interesting projects — all of which at some point involved Google Docs. I politely declined using it, and people found ways of working around it; sending me the files in question, uploading them to my own Nextcloud server, or extracting text to an e-mail. And while I’m grateful for their understanding, I’d rather they wouldn’t use it either.
Art//Ist.
First off, artists need a right to anonymity. While some are thriving in the limelight, others need the shelter of obscurity to remain able to work. Fame — even the moderate kind — can be distracting, exhausting even, it can change personalities and indeed destroy lives.
Not that Babu Menos appears to be in any danger of becoming world-famous presently, but I deeply felt for Italian author Elena Ferrante when in 2016 the reporter Claudio Gatti published an article in an attempt to reveal the ‘true identity’ of the writer (who had said at several occasions that she would no longer be able to write if the person behind the pseudonym ever were to be disclosed).
And then ... there is the flip side.
Joanne Karen Rowling, Kanye West — questionable people, great artists? Well, ... no. Just questionable people, quite obviously, and successful artists, which rarely means the same as great. Erik Satie’s Trois Gymnopédies, Miles Davis’ So What (from Kind of Blue), Prince, Wendy, and Lisa’s Sometimes It Snows in April (from Parade) — great art. Don’t mind the people, even if Mr Davis and Mr Nelson supposedly were not necessarily nice persons. Key word: supposedly. Do we really know enough to condemn either? Well, I, the person behind the persona Babu Menos, don’t. But even if I did, would that make said pieces lesser art? Really?
In conclusion, if an artist decides to remain anonymous (or pseudonymous), please, leave them be. If an artist is a serious case of a posterior opening of the digestive tract, that does not necessarily mean their art is bad and needs to be banned. But if an artist openly expresses and normalises discriminating and harrassing other (human) beings in acting TERF, misogynist, sexist, racist, fascist, what have you — then it’s certainly appropriate, if not necessary, to call them out for it and, in some cases, reject their art.
Who, Me?
I have not been posting on Mastodon, nor blogging, in quite a while.
The person behind the persona Babu Menos is, for months already, in the process of getting back full circle to the question, Who am I?
I am questioning a life-long conviction that I were musician first, due to the fact that none of my musical releases have ever gained any significant traction. That is a sad realisation, as you, dear reader, can probably imagine. I am still not sure what to make of it.
Additional and unrelated questions are coming up.
For instance, while I, the person behind the persona Babu Menos am male and not (yet) diagnosed with autism, this bit from a book I’m currently reading1 I can relate so, so very much to:
Autistic women have an almost childlike sense of injustice [...] Honesty is powerful but it’s not something that comes easy to allistic2 people because they’re so driven to fit in with others that they prize collective values over truth.
Yeah ... that’s me, no doubt. Again, I am not female and not diagnosed. But an #ActuallyAutistic friend of mine keeps insisting that I’m on the spectrum, and the odd online self-test keeps telling me the same.
Combining the almost childlike sense of injustice and the utter disbelief how people can be so driven to fit in with others that they prize collective values over truth ultimately leads to an undeniable case of misanthropy.
I have alienated and antagonised people in the past by being blunt and even offending. I remember vividly, when Edward Snowden first blew the whistle and I took it upon me to inform everyone about ways to harden their security, when they didn’t care I could get really emotional. The whole I have nothing to hide thing was a sign of total ignorance to me. Of course you do!, I kept — and keep — thinking, and sometimes saying. (Edward Snowden: Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.)
Since then, I know that most people do not like to be told the truth at all.
They rather shoot the messenger than admit how they might have been wrong.
Same thing happened a couple years ago re: COVID-19. People wanted to go back to an imaginary ‘normal’ so desperately that they decided they didn’t want the virus to be a threat anymore, thus forcing the life of a recluse upon those who are vulnerable — and upon those who know that consecutive infections actually make a person vulnerable.
Still to this day I find this behaviour both extremely abhorrent and stupid, sorry not sorry.
The psychiatrist Anna Lembke proposes to be radically honest as one part of fighting addiction3. One reason for that is that it promotes awareness of our actions, which in turn means nothing less than: not being honest makes people less aware of what they’re doing.
It seems that ignorance is bliss has a meaning much less ironical than I’ve always thought.
The deeper you dig, the more obvious it gets: All problems on this planet are ultimately caused by greed.
Greed, on the other hand, is a result of not being satisfied and complacent with what is.
Being fully aware of the Here & Now and fully alive in this moment is what makes us satisfied and complacent with what is.
Now, here comes a dilemma: Not being satisfied and complacent with what is also drives change for the better.
Does being a Buddhist mean not being able to stand up for change?
Well, of course not.
Being fully aware of the present moment includes awareness of what is wrong with this moment. It is very well possible to, at the same time, fully accept the moment as a given so as to not stress out over it and also realise the flaws, dangers, and damages the moment carries which need correction.
But with acceptance comes the clarity of mind that is a prerequisite for addressing the deficit. More often than not, anger and fear lead to hasty, irrational reactions that don’t help any solution to what’s wrong.
Only a calm mind will be able to carry out measures in a sustainable and effective way.
Take a deep breath, or three. Then act.
Google? Seriously?!
Young people, netizens almost from birth, whose lives are mostly digital, who know about the web and its lurking dangers, temptations, and downsides: Why are they still supporting all the bad actors? So many still have a Gmail address, post documents online with Google Docs, share files with Google Drive, use YouTube (a Google subsidiary). They text and call using WhatsApp, they use Facetime and Zoom, those who work use Microsoft Teams, almost all of them are on Instagram and TikTok.
It’s all the more puzzling when it comes to activists, who really, really shouldn’t be using any of the commercial platforms, ever.
So, here’s an idea:
Why not support all the brilliant secure and open source platforms out there?
A list, by no means complete or even comprehensive:
Tuta (secure, encrypted web mail, servers in Germany)
ProtonMail (secure, encrypted web mail, servers in Switzerland)
Nextcloud (alternative to Google Docs, Google Drive, Zoom, and much more)
I know, I know. People will not do that. Because people don’t like change, and people are lazy (or at the very least, value convenience over concern and consciousness).
1 No, ‘X’ is not a name.
Not Smart at All
Modern phones are made in hell, with the sole purpose to steal your attention and suck up your focus. They are an actual danger to your mental health. Babu Menos urges you to not use them.
Anyway, that’s why this web page ist not optimised for anything. It might look good on your iPhone 4, or 7 (or XS, or 15 Pro Max) or on your HTC, Motorola, or Samsung phone. Or not. Babu Menos doesn’t care.
Not at all.
Should you care to learn more, read this Guardian article about Anna Lembke in which she is quoted thus: Although we have endless founts of fun at our fingertips, the data shows we’re less and less happy, she says.
Note: in the two years after the second buyout, not much of what’s been feared has actually happened (besides the terrible treatment of staff, of course). Hence it’s not entirely black and white with this one. I still left because the events in 2022 and 2023 broke my trust in Bandcamp irrevocably.
