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.…