Alternative Lifetimes

If I could have chosen when and where I was born, it would have been in one of five (or four of five, if it could have been gotten away with) chrono-geographic locations. Actually, I'm not going to list the birth years but, instead, the years that I would like to have been 18 years of age in. 1) London, 1818, in about the middle of the Romantic period of the arts. 2) London, 1850, in the full flowering of the Industrial Revolution, when change, innovation and exploration were at a peak and your local chemist had all manner of nifty substances for sale OTC. 3) Paris, Left Bank, 1927, among the artists of the Lost Generation. 4) San Francisco, 1948, as part of the Beat Generation. 5) Toronto, 1965, just 10 years prior to my "real" year, in order to take the fullest advantage of the "hippie era."

Now, I'm not saying that coming of age in the first half of the 70's was unfortunate, just that there have been other eras in which the possibilities for intellectual stimulation, as well as a wider range of planes of pleasure, were more abundant.

End The Debate Already!!

Ok! Enough already! Stop the crap! We don't have to stop global warming in order to save the planet, we want to save OURSELVES. Earth did just fine when the only life was plankton, and it'll keep revolving with or without us until the sun explodes. Earth isn't in danger, WE ARE!!

Your Host of Ghosts

Ghosts of Darkness, 

Ghosts of Light, 

Ghosts that hunt you 

Day and night. 

Ghosts of the mind,

Ghosts of the heart,

Ghosts eager and hungry 

To shred your soul apart.

On DNA

(A DNA documentary: https://youtu.be/whVhdj2Yn0Q )

This whole topic is as sensitive as an open wound and there are things that we are not allowed to say, even if they are simply facts. For example, a person with Down's Syndrome is a mutant. They have one more chromosome than a standard human and this deviation is a mutation. The stating of that fact is morally neutral, it is not a judgment but it's just the way it is. Somehow the word "mutant" has gotten a pejorative connotation in society, a connotation that the meaning of the word does not have. What if a mutation causes some sort of improvement over the standard model? Well, then we just call it evolution, accept it and move on. DNA does change over time and that's what evolution IS. Why don't we act rationally and deal unemotionally with genetic changes, with mutations, whatever direction they may take? Because, while individuals can be rational and dispassionate, societies seldom, if ever, are.

The Log In Your Eye Is Trump

Trump has been a godsend to the publishing industry. Yes, Trumpism is tearing America to pieces and, yes, it will negatively impact the rest of the world but, that's hardly the most deadly foe we face. America has to deal with Trump but the world has to deal with global warming, which is a much graver threat. 

However that's not the impression one would get if you looked at the window display in any given bookstore. Books about a failed President outnumber books about our collective suicide, as we continue to murder Earth's biosphere, by my guesstimate, 100 to 1.

That disparity is much deadlier than Trump could ever hoped to have been, short of initiating a nuclear war. 

So, stop looking at the glitter that is being dangled in front of your eyes and look past it to see our real enemy: ourselves.

The Span of a Man

Think not upon  Selbstmord for we're all mortal and born to die, by and by, and centuries hence we'll be forgot as 'neath the earth we lie.

The Statue of Libertines

The US doesn't have its own gulags but they are practicing. So far they have Gitmo and the highest percentage of their population behind bars of any country in the world. And if you go for just the numbers, I believe that the US has more people jailed than Russia and China combined.

"The land of the free." Not in this dimension. Here, if you have no food and get caught stealing a slice of pizza to stay alive, you're sent to prison for 20 years, while the Lady of Liberty sucks Trump's dick.

Cacophony of Thought

I hope that you are feeling well and with--what is in your hand bag? It's slowly beginning to warm up.…

Do let's get it into the back yard, it's getting pretty hot but I can't think about it now. I want it as far from the house as--Christ! It's REALLY hot now; I'm going to need bandages--how far are...THERE IT IS!! I CAN make it! Damn! I'm going to see if the medicine cabinet or the bedrooms have anything useful. I bloody well hope so 'cause my hands are STILL getting even hotter! What the fuck is in that.…jar? And why does the smallest one wear a hat while the other ones don't. And it's the hat that's it's lid. I presume that only one of those needs a hat. Now, let's see if we can imagine some food and drink for ourselves. Get a little yang in us and that rain forest won't bother us none.

Better get everyone in here and make a circle of power. Do you know why there's so little magick in the world? Distraction and camouflage, that's the disguise. And now, before we get our kits and our "prizes" under cover, I vote for taking five! Fuck it! Take ten! Sighs.…

All the while, IT watched but it knew not what IT saw: a small band of privateers assaying the profit potential of the planet. Very soon, IT began to feel a maddening itching sensation which continued to grow in intensity until IT broke into the Plane of Missing Dimensions which, within itself, contains the Non-Time Zone, referred to by some adept traditions as Limbo (though its residents prefer the more technical name, to avoid confusion but it is unfortunate that "Limbo" IS the greatest distributor of confusion and entropy in That Which Is). Now it can be stated that IT exists but some use the gentler description, saying that IT "has been through some changes" while fewer still continue to use the good old "well IT just has a lot on ITS plate right now." But, frankly, craving began to grow inside of IT and brought back memories of elder days, of the bodies intrepid but a very small troop as IT's prize, trying to decide whether to snatch its prize all in one berserk raid or to stretch out the tastes by taking them one by one.

It slept well that night. 

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That long balloon is a little part of a story that doesn't exist. Yes, it was extemporised right here, no plan or plot. It was improvised out of the blue (cheesy phrase but what the hell?) "I've done it! I've done it! Finally, your sweater is finished!!" 

(As I have it on good report that that is an appropriate phrase to utter at times such as these.) If you get messages about requests for more, just fiddle-faddle; talk them into circles until they cut comms out of despair. You are the ultimate bureaucrat!  I'm sure that you will quickly dispatch those gleaming hairless snoop containers that they wear upon their shoulders.… Now, perhaps a mug of plankton cocktail would improve my mood. Let's see. Ah! There comes one. "RUNNER!!!"

Epiphany

There is a generation growing right now that will not understand the question: "Will that be smoking or non-smoking?"

How I Will Give Up Sleep

I will evolve into a transhuman. They do not sleep but they can dream whenever they wish. They can even dreamover! Imagine being able to switch what you call your "real" life for the actual life that you keep inside your mind. True freedom, living according to your own rules and not by those created by the Persuaders. Obviously almost no one can naturally peel back the shields and look upon base reality but a few, the schizoids (not to be confused with the schizophrenics, who are but misunderstood humans) can reflexively see the Structure and therefore everything built from and upon it, like the base reality. Base reality is necessary for what is called the "real" world upon which so, so many entities depend. Without the Structure, without a form to exist within, there could be no entities, human or (inside of their actual world) transhuman.

And so begins the Book of the Structure.

All Vikings Volunteer

Technicians and merchants 

Meet in seedy bars perchance 

Gold only emboldens the bold

Mammalian scars but name 

The bar where confidants 

Can be bought 

The cards are spread 

Twenty-one at the head 

What I thought would be read 

So follow me do

My glint equipped crew

Ready to take the first 

Hull whose watch has dipped 

Deep down in the warmth 

Of Our Lady of the Rum

It's always rare blame that

Can be draped o'er 

The over-taxed sailor 

On the Abrahamic God

 God is a mental case best left ignored. On the one hand He threatens people with eternities of unimaginable torment for the slightest of infractions, as anyone who has read the Bible with some degree of attention would know. Yet on the other hand He maintains that He loves all people. One would be advised to take care before swearing allegiance to an obvious schizophrenic.

Twilight Rhyme

Coming soon, the midnight hour, when from ghouls and ghosts we do cower. Hide your fright of the night, 'neath sheets that shield from the eyes of sprites.…

About January 6th, 2021 <sigh>

I keep bringing up the Reichstag fire metaphor on various media but that takes patience because it is very clear that few know the history of anything that's farther away than their own backyard.

I suppose that the tale of how Hitler used the false flag fire to blame those he held as "others" and then used those "others" to propel him further up the pyramid of power: that whole sordid story has to be driven into the minds of the current population. If the Jan. 6th riot had not been so badly planned, Trump might have gotten his very visible and suspect "others" against whom to ignite a campaign of revenge. 

But 45 dropped the ball. It was a mob of his own who took the fall and, so, he didn't get his ideal scapegoats. Fortunately. It may have been said before in different words: Trump couldn't run a government but, neither could he ruin one.

Society and Suicide

As a multi-method, multiple suicide attempt survivor, I would like to tell you two things (not about assistance since that's been covered), the second of which may sound counterintuitive.

1) Depression does not necessarily lead to a suicide attempt but it can make life more miserable than I can describe in a few words.

2) One does not have to be in a depressed state in order to commit suicide. A person can logically talk themselves into it, most often as the only possible solution to a problem, whether this is objectively true or false. This means that there may be no advance warning to others. As the Lou Reed lyric goes, "suicides don't need notes."

2b) This all suggests that you should be even closer to those who you are close to you and, as a society, we need to increase the level of interpersonal communication and communal care of individuals. If you don't know even the names of your neighbours, that alone demonstrates a deficiency in our society. On a world with seven billion inhabitants there should be no strangers.

Haiku #374

Once I walked this earth 

Then meeting with some heating 

Now but dust's my worth 

Haiku #373

My zone is my home 

I mark its borders daily 

Its owner's a beast 

Biblical History Mystery

Don't forget that the first gospel to be written down, Mark, wasn't scribed until about 50 years after Jesus supposedly died. You would also be wise to recall that Jesus was a Jew and that it was the converted, Grecian-educated Paul who changed the focus from God to his proclaimed son, Jesus, and in so doing gave birth to Christianity (the Cliff Notes version).

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There's more than one mixup in the New Testament (not to mention the contradictions) one of which is that King Herod of Judea died before Jesus was allegedly born.

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I can't believe how supposedly educated priests, ministers, presbyters, whatever, can claim with a straight face that there is evidence for the resurrection of Jesus and of His taking the Heavenly Elevator. First they have to prove that an historical Jesus was born, grew up and did some pretty funky stuff. Then, after He died, He came alive again, did more stuff and then disappeared into the sky (which was so amazing that nobody at the time thought that it was significant enough to bother writing down). After the ascension you have the tricky task of proving that Jesus had STOPPED existing (in a material sense). In fact all of the events of the life and very existence of Jesus were so amazing that it took from about 50-200 years for the four canonical gospels to be written. That is like dropping the A-bomb on Hiroshima and it didn't show up in a newspaper until this morning. And that time gap only gets us to after the first gospel ("Mark") was set down.

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Theology is rarely theological.

                                               ¥

(A Rant…)

Herod the Great's father may indeed have been a king for he was certainly an aristocrat, but not in Judea. The Biblical Herod could not have had anything to do with Jesus as Herod died in the spring of 4 BCE. But the Bible is a compendium of mythology shaped to serve a particular path of theology and not a history text. It's rife with multiple different accounts of the same event, self-contradictions, historical errors and, most misleadingly, it's been censored and abridged to suit the goals of the Church hierarchy over past generations. The piles of scripture that the early Church elders burned were vastly greater than the arbitrary pittance that they authorised and deemed fitting for their needs. To add insult to injury, they also burned all of the books that they could gather and so destroyed the recorded knowledge of mankind irregardless of whether the books addressed religion, mathematics, botany, astronomy, etc etc. We have Christianity to thank for the Dark Ages in Europe and the Arabs for preserving as much of the ancient knowledge as they did, knowledge that eventually triggered the Renaissance.

(A YouTuber speaks of Destiny & Creation and I:)

There is no Destiny for destiny or fate or anything you wish to call it, has no use or need for free will. An afterlife is something that you have chosen to believe in without any proof whatsoever. But that is the very definition of faith: belief in the absence of proof. Since in the Christian religion salvation is a matter of faith, proof is anathema to salvation. This is why God will not provide concrete, existential, proof of His existence. Should God do that, manifest Himself in the reality of our world, everyone on Earth would KNOW that God exists. In the face of knowledge belief becomes irrelevant, for knowledge transcends mere belief. And with the exit of belief from the stage, faith becomes unnecessary and that is just another way of saying that faith is irrelevant. These are dominoes. With faith neutered the entire Plan of Salvation would be revealed like the small man with the big voice who had been hidden by the curtain. God would have to create a new game to play.

                      (And they blah blah blah)

 Have you ever been introduced to the concept of critical thinking? Or do you spend your vacations in a creationist theme park in Florida admiring the dioramas of Adam and Eve sitting in their saddles atop dinosaurs, just riding around taking in the scenery? And that quotation from Romans? "…what can be known about God.…" It's a phrase with grammar, syntax and no content. So, what CAN be known about God? The only answer provided is that the undefined "what" can be clearly seen by those who have already been indoctrinated by their cult as to what to see when there is nothing to see. What to hear when there is no sound. To internalise what their leaders teach them and to attribute those "teachings" to the central deity of just another mystery cult in a part of the world that was rife with them. The basic tenets of this new cult had been part of and central to religions all over the eastern half (more or less) of the Mediterranean for thousands of years, right down to details such as a lowly birth accompanied by signs and portents, performing miracles, coming to a judgment, execution, resurrection after the passage of three days, finally joining the great powers that exist outside of time in some spiritual plane until the Cosmic Egg Timer rings in the end of the age. From Egypt, across the crescent, the Seleucids and then north and west through Greece, to the Balkans and the north shore of the sea. Everywhere, gods of different names, variations in rituals but the same patterns in the core beliefs and origin stories. A large part of our world allows for freedom of religion, so believe whatever turns your crank or soothes your soul. Just don't fall into your own navel and imagine that you are practicing a religion that is unique or the first in anything. The ministers and rabbi under whose tutelage I studied were both very learned and devout practitioners and leaders within their own faiths. They had the most open minds towards this potentially divisive topic and never suffered from cognitive dissonance when current archaeology or forensic linguistics generated differences between science and holy books. The holy books were originally written by humans, were copied by hand from the time of the Pharaohs to the time of Gutenberg (roughly). Education is a truly liberating experience.

At the tolling of the bell of our day, while I find both theology and psychopathy intriguing, neither troubles me as I am a solipsist and I find it strangely comforting to know that when I die so does everything else.

The Will to Kill

Here we march

From front to rear

Our crashing boots

Disguise our fear

Bayonets honed hours ago 

Flash and shimmer 

With death's glow

Soon through flesh and 

Fat and guts they'll go 

Biden's European Debut

Biden: "In other words we must maintain and expand the reach of democracy by force." That is a translation of the core of Biden's speech. It is noteworthy that the first people the President spoke to were the soldiers who man but one base in the world spanning American military empire. They may well have to depend on that empire considering China is leading a multinational effort to expand the global infrastructure network in order to facilitate trade. The US is not involved and that may come back to bite them in a big way in the future. One American talking point that's an obvious lie is the narcissistic claim that the USA is the "best" country in the world. About the only field that the US does excel in is in their capacity to shape the world into their desired form through war or the threat of it. They never let an opportunity to advertise their military slip through their fist. They also hold the record for "interventions," the usual result of which topples a democratically elected socialist government and replaces it with an extremely right-wing authoritarian dictator. The only reason that the US joined in the battle against the Nazis in WWII was their fear that the Nazis might build an empire larger than the one that America hoped to build for themselves.

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"Biden's speech" is the first one he gave when he landed in Germany for some meetings including (concluding, actually) one with Putin. Let's hope Biden doesn't start WWIII. It would not be a bad idea at all if American presidents learned and practiced playing chess before they meet with their Russian counterparts.

The Water Wars

Canada has never been a pro-nuclear weapons country but it's been too long since long term planning has been done. If we do not get a strong and effective grip on climate change, Canada should put safeguards in place against US invasion intended to gain control of the supplies of fresh water.

The USA is blind to its own environmental crimes. For generations they have been emptying a massive and critical South-Western aquifer in large part to maintain golf courses growing in a desert. The standard answer to "why" (do this) is "because we can." All's fair in love, war and greed. Just imagine spraying a desert continuously for decades to keep unnatural lawns growing where they should not exist and then bleating out "why me?" when you complain that the faucets of LA are dry. Self awareness is not an American strength. Science has been warning about the draining of that great aquifer for a long time. It took over 100,000 years to create and yet humans have managed to bring its end into view in (very) approximately 100 years.

Back to Canada and the coming Water Wars. That Canada could not prevent a US invasion is obvious. The only way to prepare for an attempt to divert Canadian fresh water supplies southwards (where they would still be watering golf courses in oceans of sand) would be to make the water undesirable. Nuclear weapons, big ones, should be placed at intervals throughout the Great Lakes and sunk into the glaciers that provide meltwater from north of Vancouver and down through the interior of BC. If the US armed forces come for the water of The Great White North, at the push of a button, there will be no water left that would be worth the name.

Ain't the future, or at least speculating about the future, fun? I'm sure that all kinds of plans already exist on shelves in deep locked rooms. This one (which I name "H2-No") is merely one more and it doesn't even call for any technology that doesn't already exist. Simple yet effective.

Real (Israeli) Estate

When you speak about Israeli internal and foreign policy, you don't have to look very deeply to see that the Israelis learned a lot from their WWII oppressors in Europe, the Nazi Party. Israel treats the Palestinians as Jews were treated by the Nazis, though not to the same extent. Yet. And for every injustice that Israel commits against a Palestinian, behind them stands their "silent partner," the USA, keeping Israel flush with funds and the materiel of war. The first step towards peace in the Middle East is closing the tap on the bottomless well of US instruments of death that Israel has been satiating itself on for far too long.

The British were in large part responsible for creating Israel in ancient and partly mythic land in the Middle East when the most logical and reasonable location for Israel would have been on land carved out of Germany. That would have been justice for the Jews and it would also have been a wiser solution for the problems poorly resolved by the Treaty of Versailles. Israel would have been built on fertile soil taken from those who would have murdered them all and, the Middle East would never have been turned into a bomb with a very short fuse.

(Addendum)

Israel should not exist, at least not in the Middle East. After WWII, Israel should have been carved out of Germany. Today Israel should be treated like South Africa while the sanctions were in place to try to end apartheid. And make no mistake, Israel treats the Palestinians like the South Africans treated their black population. The US should stop arming the Israelis and enabling their crimes against humanity. Germany was (arguably) an atheist nation under the Nazis. Israel is a state run by Jewish Nazis. And every time the USA has a Republican administration they are in the same condition. Do the Democrats behave any differently? Time has blurred the line between the two parties making the topic suitable for very juicy debate. Something that cannot be argued is that the Palestinians got buggered in 1949 when Israel was shoehorned into the Middle East onto land they had a mythical connection to, destabilising the entire region. They may just as well have established Israel in Atlantis.

New World Christianity

The US isn't a loony bin it's a loony zoo. One of the major developments in our conception of government was the separation of Church and State and that is how most of the Western world operates. But not America. Watch their news, their rituals and especially their Presidential inaugurations. You still see that hand on/swear by the Bible thing. Becoming President while being a Catholic is still very newsworthy. Politicians at any level reveal in interviews that when they had a major decision to make, they first spent time in intense prayer (no doubt while shedding tears of blood). That doesn't even make THEOLOGICAL sense! If the Universe runs according to the plan of an invisible old man in the sky, future events are already set. What do you think your prayer will accomplish? Do you expect to CHANGE GOD'S MIND?? Puh-Leeeze! Still, praying politicians get their airtime, especially if they're Protestant Evangelicals. It wasn't a ship full of Hindus who landed at Plymouth Rock seeking freedom to worship as they would. It was a ship full of adherents to one particular sect of Protestant Christians. There were piles of these sects who often only differed on the interpretation of one sacrament. Their time was one of the greatest expressions of Christian anal-retentiveness since the 3rd century. No wonder that their concept of democracy was as bent as it came to be.

Haiku #372

Dreams of flowers fall 

Rocks kneel in supplication 

Earth moans Her judgement 

Haiku #371

My fist crushed the bulb 

Consequences do abound 

Are these phones blood proof?

Anachronism

In our nuclear age 

I'm powered by steam;

I will not fly, I 

Will not dream. 

I'd still burn wood 

If only I could 

But I have been told 

My smoke makes the 

Little ones choke,

That they'd rather toke 

When they take 

To those skies where

They know I won't go.…

In this nuclear age

I'm no longer a cleric, but 

Rather more a queer relic, 

Vaguely recalled 

By the so-called well

Schooled, 

But by the vast masses

More honestly 

Considered a fool. 

Still, mayhap it's good 

That I no longer burn 

Wood, for where could 

My chimney's smoke go?

Where'd blow the 

Breeze and who'd care?

Since the nuclear 

Fallout killed off the trees 

And poisoned the 

Remains of the air.…

Modern Life

Stroll any road, 

Pause by a flower bed, 

Where e’re you go 

You’ve a target  

On your head.

This world is cold and 

Evil’s bold;

Each turn you take 

May well be 

The last  

You’ll make.…

Our Lady Heroin…

In the day night dark 

Of my time of troubles 

Through shattered sight

By candlelight 

No man am I but a fly 

My faceted eye meets

Her Novocain gaze

Glazed with care just 

Beyond a  

Bubble of blood 

For an epoch or an age

I have preyed for this 

An eternal instant's bliss

My Lady's sepulchral kiss

Sucks away my pain 

All my dark, after 

The spark and spoon

Illume my room with 

Love 

I see no addiction here

Only her benediction 

Clear

Her fluids combine

With mine, slip and 

Slide along my

Spine to 

Banish 

Time 

Time 

Time 

T i m e

T  i  m  e

Haiku #370

As I sleep I wake 

Dream my lifespan to double 

Every thought's real 

Parabellum

Come, the time's now ripe

For raiding, rape and slaving,

So now let's boldly march

Off to find a battlefield 

Where we can wield our 

Sword, our axe and shield.

Off to bring slaughter to 

One or all our ancient foes.

Well honed swords with souls 

Smite swift cuts and blows,

Quench Earth's eternal thirst 

With freely flowing blood 

From limbs, guts, and gore.

Bodies stack up more and more, 

Some set aside for sacrifice 

To the gods that gift us wars! 

Entrails flung in holy flames: 

That's what foes are for. 

And 'round the black, greasy, smoke 

Dance wild witches widdershins, 

Willing, oil slicked, worshippers, 

Lust displayed from feet to head.

Burn we now all of the dead,

Toss their dust; to Hel they're wed.

Rejoice aloud this glorious day! 

That ne'er shall it fade away 

From the mind of any man 

In our well fed pagan land…

Haiku #369

Light's stripes, black and white 

Zebras scream upon the floor 

Nightfall brings respite 

Haiku #368

You’ll be skinned by night

Once live disguise for our crimes 

History’ll glide by…

Emotional Fitness

Most of us are not as emotionally resilient as we believe that we are, and the only true test of the strength of your ego is a test to destruction. You can’t know how much pressure is your limit until you have passed it. That is information that no sane person needs. Emotional beings have hidden emotional self-destruct buttons and some need more pressure than others. Some need but a light touch. For example, you can be undone by a memory.…

Taking The Long View

On a nice clear day if you are up in the CN Tower (if that’s still its name), you can see the southern shore of Lake Ontario. But for a number of years now the land that you see is the United States of American’t.

The Measure of Pain

Have you ever considered this: you can only beat someone to within an inch of their life in the United States of America, because the rest of the Earth uses the metric system.

Haiku #367

I covet an urn

A golden Eldorado 

Hit Heaven in style 

My Eldritch Witch

My will-o’-the-wisp, 

Lithe as the night 

I seek her in….

I wander in these

Weird warped woods.

I dare dank marshes.

I’ve come to play,

To volunteer,

For the rôle of bait.

For seeming ages I’ve 

Been hunting 

The eldritch witch 

Who rules my dreams.

Luck I’ve lacked and

Every day I lose 

Her elusive tracks. 

My will is worn, there’s 

Little left except one 

Ember faintly glowing.

There’s no comfort here 

Yet I’m driven on,

Foot by foot by foot.

Heart and soul,

Both maintained

By the flame within

That has yet to die.

My one dream 

Won’t be denied:

Fealty shall I swear 

To my elven queen,

Often glimpsed but 

Never seen.

Oh! How to be 

Some delicacy,

Some fragile treat,

Or liquor rare, angel sweet,

Robust enough to make

My shy potentate

Lick her glist’ning lips 

And, smiling, salivate.

If I can but such glory

Entice, draw her near,

My earnest hope that 

She accepts my offered 

Love and martial skills, 

Blest if in her service 

I am killed. My

Small mortal sacrifice,

Freely given, 

Without a price,

So that thenceforth 

I’ll evermore be 

Part of the magick

That lives in her weft,

Shades her heart 

Within her warp.…

To Specialise or Not?

I believe that the worst legacy that can be attributed to the 20th century is specialisation, a process by which a person’s education is continuously narrowed in scope as they climb the cursus honorum of their chosen field of study. Generally speaking, this produces a person who is highly knowledgeable in one field but has only a familiarity with other subjects.

In stark contrast to this approach to education is the 19th century’s production of what we can call “generalists.” While the student could still emphasise a particular subject, this was not done to the detriment of one’s exposure to, or study of, other subjects. The idea of the Renaissance man was still alive and well, though the nomenclature may have changed. Consider the specialist’s brain as being represented by a bowl of peanuts. Whether you pick out one or a handful, you will only ever get peanuts. Now picture the generalists brain as a bowl of mixed nuts and fruits. Whether you pull out one or a handful, every time you do it you will get a different mix. Now replace every type of nut and fruit with a different branch of knowledge. Having a working knowledge of numerous different fields within one brain makes possible something that is not a trait of a specialist’s brain: cross-fertilisation. When you have a working knowledge of a number of different fields of study, cross-fertilisation can take an idea from, let’s say history, and apply it to predictive sociology. Or, perhaps a notion from musical theory can bring a new perspective on the study of the patterns of high altitude wind currents.

It is so much more difficult for a specialist to achieve a truly novel breakthrough than it is for a generalist, who has a head full of seemingly unconnected facts but, just as increasing the number of connections between neurones leads to a more active brain, the interactions between unconnected fields of knowledge can cause connections to be made, integrated and either applied or used as a ladder or route to something never even conceived of before. 

Given the choice I would choose generalisation over specialisation any day that the chance presented itself. 

Co$t Of The Capitol Coup (Attempt)

Trump appears to be reaching for the kind of power enjoyed by his friend Vladimir Putin. If Donny Boy does not end up sentenced to prison for a term commensurate with his crimes, the US will be internationally viewed as being little better than the countries it loudly criticises. America has lost all pretence of standing on the moral high ground thanks to the actions of a mob of its own citizens, their leaders and their coaches, on this January the 6th, and by the simultaneous too-little-too-late response of its government. Without rapid, drastic, remedial action, this stain on America’s reputation will become as permanent as a birthmark.

(In related news.…)

The impact of a leader’s (in this case a President’s) words increase in inverse proportion to the level of education of their audience. So, is it at all surprising that out of the American government’s massive budget, education gets but thirty pieces of silver? The more ignorant (meaning “lacking in information,” not “stupid”) the populace, that much easier it is to steer them.

(Some days later…)

So, Trumpty Dumpty has now been impeached off of his wall twice. If he is not finally convicted in the Senate and in a Federal criminal trial, sentenced and put in an orange jumpsuit (which would match his bronzer), what will The Trump Disaster amount to? A bad reputation for him in history books? He’s guaranteed that already. No, it would all become meaningless. Unless, of course, he is forever barred from holding public office ever again. That alone would be some small measure of justice which, though prudent, would be insufficient on its own. It would be fun to bar him from ever HAVING an office again but that’s just a daydream with a grin.

(Footnote)

About Trump’s speech after his second impeachment: too little, too late and totally duplicitous. Just as the Nazi’s SS was declared to be an illegal organisation, in the cause of justice, at the Nuremberg trials, so should the GOP be treated, also in the cause of justice.

Vexed to Death

I wish that the advance of electronics had stopped at the push button phone. The whole world seems to be a home propane bbq. Still in pieces in the box. There’s an instruction manual in Mandarin and your knees weaken in the absolute conviction that the number of nuts will not match the number of bolts, of which three critical pieces will be Imperial but the rest are metric. You begin to slyly eye the propane tank you had so hopefully bought the day before and begin to wonder if you could take it with you to the bathroom, shove some wet towels under the door, and then open the gas valve and lie down. The Heavenly bbq’s will surely be eternal orgies of bliss.

God knows that you deserve it.…