It is early morning on September 4th. I have been up for about 48 hours praying that I would get tired and get some sleep and not cross the dreaded line of 72 hours awake with minimal rest. Hoping that I could distract myself and pass the time. I decided to start working on drafts for the "Kuznetsov Project." My original plans for the project were extremely ambitious for a solo writer and designer with no budget. It probably would have been 2-3 more months before I had a sample to show for it. I do not remember what compelled me to change my focus, but something did. Suppose I mentally reconstruct my thought process during that day. In that case, I assume it was something like this: Ideas and concepts of "Jujutsu Kaisen" by Gege Akutami combined with my "Kuznetsov Defense" project. Sure, It would have been fun to make this fun little janky poster of the inverted spear of heaven or whatever it would have ended up being. Still, it just felt "stupid," and a lot of the work I've sat down to do recently has just felt "stupid" and, more importantly, unfulfilling.

Because of this, I started to question this entire "thing" I call "Perky's Mag." Recently, I read this fascinating book by Debbie Millman, Titled "How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer," with interviews from some of the most successful graphic designers worldwide. But it was one particular interview I thought back to. It was Peter Saville's interview, precisely his opinions on Pop culture design. He refers to it as " All the same thing; it's all entirely intuitive. That's why you get young people to design it. They do a cover that they like and quid pro quo; their peer group likes it. That's it." At first, when I read this, I shrugged it off as an oversimplification of the topic and said that he can't generalize pop culture design like this because it's too expansive, but that's just it. It's not as expansive when you think about it. It needs to be understood and enjoyed by everyone. No one is honestly doing anything new or at least different because, at the end of the day, it needs to "sell" to the masses. Pop culture art is about making money, and differing philosophies/opinions drive people away. In many instances, we see this happening in pop culture for simpler reasons than that. For example, humans who stray too far from the Western view of normal (normal in many cases can be interchanged for acceptable) in their physical appearance and then are often torn apart by the wolves of pop culture.

Peter Saville continues later in the interview to say, "Pop art is entry-level art for the uneducated and the uncultured." In all honesty, he is right. You can't have challenging ideas; just the notion of something being slightly different makes it unpopular because it takes the consumer out of their comfort zone and forces them to question what they think they already know. Everything I've done with "Perkys mag" up until this point has been entirely intuitive and made for my peers and focused on Pop culture. I've ignored many ideas that I would have thoroughly enjoyed pursuing just because I felt like they wouldn't bring me enough traction. Mostly, I reasoned that I didn't have enough traction to consider deviating a little bit. But you can't have traction without consistency, and I can't be consistent if I constantly feel unfulfilled while doing it. I had to ask myself why I spend hours and hours combing over philosophical and theological texts but don't incorporate them into my work. I tell myself spirituality and philosophy mean something to me and are a part of me, which they are, don't get me wrong, but then I turn around and ignore it all for an ultimate goal of what? Materialistic things that I could honestly care less about? Respect and acceptance in a world that no matter how much money or power you obtain, as "Jay-Z" says in his song "The Story of O.J.," I am "still nigga". By ignoring this (you could say I was ignoring one's dharma), everything I have ever done and said, everything I will ever do, and anything I will ever say, will be a muddled mess of hypocrisy and virtue signaling. Such a life is pure divine comedy, and every single one of us "Americans" commits this sin every day.

In the "Bhagavad Gita," One of the most well-known Hindu scriptures, Sri Krishna says to Arjuna, "This despair and weakness in a time of crisis are mean and unworthy of you, Arjuna. How have you fallen into a state so far from the path to liberation". Let us apply this to our existence in America as everyday citizens (I urge you, dear reader, to do the same with your own life). We as a country are distracted by virtue signaling and moved by white saviorism when nothing ever gets done. Sure, some ordinary people send our monthly $ 50 and post our little Instagram story, but we are fools thinking it absolves us of guilt. While simultaneously, we stay silent when it comes to discussing these issues in real life. We wonder how we got here as a country. But at the same time, we hear our family members/co-workers/friends talk about politics and these issues and stay silent because we value our relationships over these policies that concern other human beings' bodies and human lives. It is the average citizen's fault that chooses to keep their mouth closed when it's people in our everyday lives who are voting these terrible people into these positions of power. The only way we can ever make change is by choosing to chase intellectual and spiritual knowledge and share it with others, have complex discussions, and be willing to open our ears to consider other human beings.

To chase intellectual and spiritual knowledge is the call of action for all human beings that is weaved in our souls. These are the only weapons that will ever defeat ignorance and hate. Humanity, especially the United States, is ridden by a disease of a lack of intelligence. I believe the downfall of widely practiced spirituality/belief in perennial philosophy started this decline of actual intelligence in humanity. The rise of science should never have halted humanity's chase for spiritual knowledge; instead, these go hand in hand. We should use the undeniable truth that we can extract from science to increase our understanding of the spiritual and philosophical. True intelligence is the perfect balance between spiritual knowledge(under this falls philosophical/religious/moral knowledge) and knowledge of the sciences(Knowledge of how the world works). All of these are wielded together as true intelligence. These so-called scientific intellectuals and people who "value human life" have more understanding and compassion for aggressive dog breeds than they have for their fellow humans. It is easier for a lot of you to consider the environment as a factor in how a pitbull acts than in a complex human being. Any true person who believes themselves intelligent knows generalization, especially of human beings, is the most significant sign of someone being unintelligent.

In this great chase for knowledge, as humans, we are either our greatest ally or our greatest enemy, but simultaneously, you can be humanity's greatest enemy or humanity's greatest ally. The individual influences the fate of the entire species, while the species also influences the fate of the individual. On this path to truth, we can doom the human race, but the human race can doom any of us. That's the beauty but also the divine irony in the application of non-dualism.

How can we become anything great as a species at this point in time when we have extensive knowledge of the sciences but lack any moral intelligence? How can we halt the progress of climate change or become a space-fairing species while still participating in useless brother wars?

And with that, Perky's Mag brings to you Part 1