As early as third grade, I was aware of being groomed. Not by my parents (directly, anyway, bless their hearts,) but by our society and culture. There was a certain recognition of perceived attributes which, combined with my gender and pigmentation, served to indicate that the world could be my oyster. (One of the few valuable things I learned in college was that there is no such thing as "race"; the gene pool being nothing but a more and more exotically mixed DNA cocktail. Racism? -- along with all the other "isms/phobias" of that ilk, which are nothing but self-hatred directed outwards, and, in addition, a vital tool to maintain the status quo/ruling class. -- certainly! But not race. Thus, "pigmentation".) So, innately; inherently?; no, intuitively, I was having none (or little) of the advantages of entitlement. Noble? I'd like to think so. Pragmatic? Absolutely. Some kind of small attempt to become part of something like a solution, or, at least, something which could be construed as more healthy than not. (That the oppressed have, at almost every opportunity, elected to adopt the mind set -- values and strategies -- endemic of the "pasty-faced male", rather than transcend the oppressor, is as sadly predictable as it is ironic. From another angle: when all is said and done, the only difference between rich people and poor people is the money.) In tandem with turning my back on my "birthright", and fueled by my growing and extreme distrust for the fodder shoved down our throats by every institutional representative of the status quo, I developed a marked interest in attempting to head elsewhere; specifically concerning the myriad of variables having to do with music/sound, but, in a broader context, examining the very nature of cognition. (Robert Musil's discussion of "der andere zustand" -- the other condition -- in THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES comes as close as the written word can to this, this elsewhere which so motivates me.)