The Cerebrum Studio: Jarret Bato

The Cerebrum Studio presents...Mister Jarret Bato.

Jarrett: Lets do that interview, man.
Me: Alright, let's go.
Jarrett: Fuck it.
Me: Hahaha.
Jarrett: What would you like to know?
Me: What you on right now? What's on the dome?
Jarrett: Man, I'm on life right now. And the fact that just now I've realized I'm actually livin'.
Me: What was the difference from back then?
Jarrett: While I was growing up, I kinda lost touch with myself, getting too ahead of myself in terms of goals, aspirations, dreams, and generally, things that I want and things I think would make me happy. You could say this year is when I forced myself to be born again. I forced myself to just take my memory aside and actually know that “Hey, I'm here right now, and that's fuckin’ tight.” You could say that the memories I've had were kind of limiting me, building up in a way that was making me lose picture of what I really want to see. Kind of like a math problem where you work and work and work, and you get to the end, and fuck, you don't even see what you just did. Like "How did I get here?" Or "Why am I doing this?" But yeah, this entire conversation is a relic of that past. It's the self that I have inside of my head.
Me: How do you go from being limited to being liberated?
Jarrett: I feel it’s a matter of living in the present. Because of perception, there is actually a ton of ways to live. I've decided to live in the present, which means to live on my own terms, and make decisions with my own mind. Usually that means making judgments based on past experiences, and don't get me wrong, some of those past experiences are perfectly valid to use. Like for instance, I shouldn't put my penis to an open flame. ‘Cause that would hurt.
Me: Hahahaha word!
Jarrett: Hahaha. Yea, but in any case, that's just living, in general. Those decisions are based on lifetimes built on families and traditions and personal health. But in terms of decisions that I make for life, I would want to build memories that I could be certain I could refer to with utmost confidence that I myself made that decision. I dunno if I'm being clear. But me making a decision that I start to live right now means me making a conscious decision myself. And then if I do that long enough, I can actually say that I'm an independent person. I hope I'm making sense.
Me: Yeah I think so, as opposed to you making decisions by referring to the past, which may or may not apply, and still subject to past prejudices and biases.
Jarrett: YES, cool. So I've dug deep in terms of what I am doing. And it's tight, ‘cause when I finally got to the bottom, the basis of my human being, I found that “Hey, I am a unique being.” And that brings in a lot of implications in terms of what I'm studying. But again, I regard anything I study as history.
Me: What kind of implications are we talkin' about here? and what have you been reading by the way?
Jarrett: So yea, I've been reading into more social theory of modern times, and by this, I'm talking modern times. I think I finally understand what eras are. And yeah, in terms of eras of art, history, and the like, I believe that we are still in the modern era as opposed to people thinking we are in the postmodern era. ‘Cause I was reading a lot into the history of philosophy, and education, and progress in general. I think that the modern era starts with the act of recursion, a direction back to yourself, which means, to me at least, writing, art, mass communication, and psychology. The things that make us modern is that we were and are inward peoples.
Me: You mean we write and think about ourselves?
Jarrett: Yeah, as soon as we started to become civilized and more and more things became less of a worry, we started to become fascinated with ourselves. I feel it started out on the idea of equality and because yes, we are human beings and we are all essentially alike. But as soon as we started to look in the mirror, decipher the meaning of a book written supposedly by a person just like us, or have a reaction to a certain piece of art, we found out that “Hey, our interpretations are kinda different.” But people started asserting meaning and language to them, making universals, making meaning, making philosophy essentially, rules. That's when things get muddled up. I mean, why is it that philosophy changes?
Me: That's a good question. But let me interject. Do you think this fascination with ourselves is good for society or detrimental to society?
Jarrett: I don't really know. I think its just the times. I mean summing it down, globally, the human species is now working to satisfy a hunger that's bigger than themselves, when it used to be just working to survive. I mean, cancer is a disease that's random, so random that it’s actually natural. Nature is random. And we're trying to put an order to that. I'm not saying that's bad, it's all part of trying to see what's next, right? I myself have an insatiable appetite for knowledge, so if I was at the real forefront of the human race, I say we fuckin’ go for it. But some, like in that one quote in "Science of Sleep", don't want to be remembered. Every time I think this way, its really easy to resolve patterns when it's down in black and white. But that brings me to my point: living in the present means living uniquely. So that means learning what's already been done, and actually having an opinion about it. I believe that I'm a unique person, and the fact that I have work through the English language, organize my thoughts into words and sentences, and finally command my fingers to type these keys in coordination in hopes that you reading this can understand, to me, implies that you are unique as well. We all live in our heads. We used to coordinate our actions to survive. But now, given the world we are all born into, we have to study the environment and act accordingly. We don't live to survive anymore. I feel everyday is a conquest. I'm trying to find something sincerely new.
Me: Couldn't a person argue that an outlook like this could leave a person feeling empty at the end of the day?
Jarrett: Empty in the sense that there is so much to fill yourself up with. I think it implies possibility, possibility beyond imagination, beyond the logic inside our heads, as far as we can push it, I see it as something to do.
Me: I know you said you're living in the present, but could you make a prediction of where we'll be at in the future? Either economically, psychologically, or anything.
Jarrett: Yea um, I took to heart what your other friend proposed in terms of chaos. I took it as a sample of intellectual culture. So there’s modern and postmodern, which I think is cynicism. I think we all are in a really good position for another "renaissance." This time a global one instead of a localized one that Europeans decided to historicize and colonize people with. The whole world is beginning to be aware of itself, but it sucks because I really do feel that is just my perception. But fuck it, imma make a wager. I think the world is going to enter the realm of "choices" rather than "decisions." By that I mean, fuck, how do I describe this? Yeah, I dunno. It's hard to imagine. Instead of getting answers, you get more questions.
Me: You mentioned global renaissance and a post modern cynicism. Does that mean you think we're all gonna experience a change at the same time and also be suspicious of others? Am I understanding that correctly?
Jarrett: People name those times when they've already passed and have felt that they are actually different now. And it’s weird because now they're in an argument towards whether or not "now" is post-modern or still modern. Or if post-modern is actually next in line. So "at the same time is relative." I wanna find that crowd where that "time" is. I bet their having a shit-ton of fun right now. So yea, I don't know if I get what you're thinking right now
Me: It's cool, man. We're nearing the end of the interview. Is there any words that you'd like to share with the people?
Jarrett: Um shit. Let's all go to space. It's the next frontier. And don't put your genitals to an open flame.
Me: Hahahahaha
Jarrett: FUCK IT. Hope that was good for ya, Cas.
Me: Alright thanks man for your time. Appreciate it.
Jarrett: It's all good.