I don't mean the name of this blog, Free Planet, which is a functional (if contentious) name I adapted from Alex Jones's Prison Planet to more positively describe the real root of the homeworld upon which we've been taught we have to pay to live on.
But what really is a name? Your name? My name?
Many of you know me as Free Planet, or Planet, depending on which online discussion venues you frequent. But that's not my real name, it's an internet name. But I have a family name, Philbin. My public first name is Mike. But that's not my real full name. On government documents, I'm known as Michael P Philbin. My real Catholic name, for example, is Michael Paul (by baptism) Peter (by confirmation) Philbin. But that's not necessarily the name I've always had, in my teens I adopted the name of my then step-father and was known for those years as Michael Howell.
But what about my writing names, and I have had several.
My first novel RED HEDZ in 1989 was published under the pseudonym Michael Paul Peter, a camply catholic choice on my part. But I have written under several other writing names, mostly derived through a combination of pretension and numerology; Jane Louxis (look sees), Vierland Brecke (a combination of the name Clive Barker and End) and, of course Hertzan Chimera (based on an invented atomic particle).
But these are just random names like the American Indian penchant for such, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Black Hawk, Red Cloud. Okay, the American Indians may have CHOSEN names based on NATURE and that's all very indicative of their love of maturity and responsibility but they were just 'throw togethers' that didn't really say that much about their contribution to the world in which they lived. And what's my point?
Let's explore Contribution Based Naming and see if we can find a point:
In the post FREELOADER PLANET, you may remember, I examined 'your contribution to the party, man'. So let's take that as our basis for continuing this thread, "What is your major contribution to Free Planet and how can that be reflected in your chosen name?"
Is it bringing up other people's adopted children? Then we shall name you Brings Up Others. Is it making the best pastries and tarts? Then we shall name you Make Good Sweets. Or rather YOU will name you. After all, this is your (free) planet, and functional contributory naming is YOUR LEGACY, the way you'll be remembered by your Children's Children.
But what's wrong with your 'normal name', Mike Philbin?
Well, nothing, except that a name not only reflects where it came from Ann of Cleaves, Catherine of Arragon, Joan of Arc but it is a MECHANISM by which the Authorities know who you are and where you're at. It's a heraldic convention so that those who run the party know you attended, something to show the host you were there. This way the host i.e. the country can MAKE AN ACCOUNT of you in their Corporate Insurance Claims to the Global Banking Network. What, seriously, you didn't know this is why you are given a NAME? Yeah, it's just a crude or historical version of a TRACKING DEVICE, it says nothing about you or your contribution to Free Planet, it's just like a nounal ANKLE TAG. Yeah, like you're some sort of Common Criminal - which of course, potentially, within the Capitalist, PROFIT-based, Consumerist system, you most definitely are.
Why do you think there are all these taxes?
Everyone needs regulating, everyone needs controlling, focussing, guiding through their corporate lives, through schooling, into University, into the office, the Intelligence Services, the Diplomatic Services, into Politics. But then there are Corporate Espionage 'names' that mask your identity and there are subsidiaries of Corporate Companies like B.P. and Raytheon that hide the trail of commercial machination. Mike Philbin is just some 'tacitly-agreed short-had tag' I put on my 'creations' so that the relevant authorities know who to charge income tax upon so that THE EMPIRE can be funded by my contribution, the bridge perpetually repainted, let's say.
So, what's in a name?
Well, taking into account language, or Diversity Flavour; a rose is always a rose, a rock a rock, the sun the sun. These are tacitly-agreed upon short-hand tags that help us describe the world around us. Without them we'd have to use other descriptive phrases to describe the above objects; smells nice, hurts head, burns skin, respectively. But you see how subjective interpretation covers the natural odour of the object being described? Someone's (smells nice) rose might describe someone else's Sunday Breakfast Before Getting Up, if one has a lovely partner who does that for you.
Hence, my FREE PLANET call of CHOSEN NAME that reflects your contribution to the cause of Creativity, Passion and Kinship; such as Plays Flute Beautifully. "But Mike, flute is a very popular instrument and there'll be many people with the same name, in that case," retorts Mr John Smith of England or or Mr Ali of Saudi Arabia or Mr Gupta of India or...
Awakens Sheople, Traces Corporate Deceit, Undoes Brain Washing, Best Damned Plumber all these are justifiable Free Planet names.
Which one would you choose, at your MATURITY FESTIVAL?
