Thanks Baby Jesus

One thing that people often forget about the story behind Christmas is that Mary and Joseph could not have been of more humble origins. In the Christian tradition, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, was born so impoverished that the only place available for Him to be born was in a barn. So it followed that He was born to poor teenage parents out of wedlock, lived a life of purpose and compassion, only to be betrayed then tortured to death. If there is any message to this story it is that God sent His son to live a life as wrought with pain and suffering as any human has had to endure, and it didn't break his love of humanity. As with all the greats in human history, as soon as they have died, every self-righteous power whore attempts to invoke their name to justify their own ends; and thus do we have people like GW calling himself a Christian. During the stirring rendition of Silent Night at the Christ Mass I attended this evening it came into my mind that perhaps the reason that Christianity has proven so popular is the universal appeal of redemption. Every day mankind moves closer and closer to the precipice from whence we may never return, yet we still yearn for the possibility that something greater than ourselves will save us. If we can take the story of Jesus just as it is presented to us in the Bible, it would not be inconsistent to view it as a lesson from God telling us all that even the seemingly helpless hold immeasurable potential to save us from our own wickedness. So the moral of the story is: we need to have faith in ourselves to deliver us from evil, just as Christ did some 2000 years ago.

This Week

The mind of mankind

"We live at a time when man believes himself fabulously capable of creation, but he does not know what to create." -José Ortega y Gasset
Is there any point to this hurricane of activity that is modern man? Some would argue that there is, others that there should be, and some still that there never has been nor never will be. I myself for one am completely undecided. I've done a lot of looking into the matter, and there is just too much passion and brilliance applied to the subject to ever come up with a definitive answer. What do we see when we look back in the social evolution as described in human history? In a word- conflict. Humans seem to know of no other way to develop and progress without coming into conflict with others. It has always been will, faith and passion that have driven us like a herd of cattle to our current impasse. Here we stand with all options open to us, every possibility a path, our tomorrows limited only by our capacity for imagination. Yet we still see the primordial engine of conflict driving humanity like some sadistic shepard. The wealthiest most powerful group of people on Earth is necessarily the most aggressive. Thus is it no surprise that even a country founded on the soundest of humanist principals has now become a force that the whole world must either follow or fear. It is the nature of human development for us to crash together like atoms, only to then find some new balance. I think suicide is nothing more than finding oneself in a situation were a lack of conflict externally leads to you waging war against yourself (this would be supported by the fact that mellow Sweden has the higest suicide rate). Every time I hear someone respond to an issue (newspeak for conflict) with 'I don't care, don't know or are too busy' it feels like having my faith in humanity bitch slapped. How is it even possible to delude yourself into thinking that a neutral possession is even possible? We stand in the dust of millions, with their war cries echoing in our ears, evidence of their struggles and achievements everywhere; yet we find the nerve to be disinterested! Were it not for the masses of the Global South, that are still beyond the reach of false learning, I would think that there was no hope. It is an immense comfort to me that some people still have a relationship to the earth, still value community over commodities, and still posses passion worthy of existence. I don't begrudge the Northern Peoples for their attempt at making the world suit their own needs, such was the way things played out and we must accept that if we ever seek to move beyond it. One thing that their new mode of conflict precipitated was to change the world from a series of small regional conflicts into one gigantic battle royal for the fate of mankind. Despite the 500 years of murder, rape and theft that defined it, we seem to have finally reached a plateau of understanding where we must admit that we are all in this together. The fates of us all have now become one, no need to argue about it, already done. Our fundamental need for conflict has propelled us into an era that has removed many of the cultural distinctions that was the basis for the enmity of the past. Scramble as the petty leftover leaders from the last century might, they have unleashed forces they can't possibly control, but can destroy. It all boils down to whether or not we have learned anything from what has and is taking place amongst us homo sapiens. Can we reconcile our capacity for creation with a proclivity for conflict, or have our tools become to terrible to control?
"Even if the whole world were to fall to pieces, the unity of the psyche would never be shattered. And the wider and more numerous the fissures on the surface, the more the unity is strengthened in the depths." -Carl Gustav Jung

Frenchsmell

So once more the streets of Paris have become a war zone in the never ending battle between entrenched authority and the fierce rushing of the mob. The things these old streets must have seen, so much passion and purpose breaking on those rues like waves upon cliffs. This report claims that the primarily Muslim rioters are actually using weapons and scenes of guerrilla warfare are once more being seen in the birthplace of modern revolution. Roughly 40 years earlier a generation of students and workers closed ranks and brought the mighty establishment of the French Republic to its knees. They had some rallying cries that I think still ring true today:
Dans une société qui a aboli toute aventure, la seule aventure qui reste est celle d'abolir la société.
In a society that has abolished all adventures, the only adventure left is to abolish society.
Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié ne font que se creuser un tombeau. Those who make revolutions by halves do but dig themselves a grave.

So here we sit in the belly of the beast watching the legions of jackals feast. Casual cruelty and apathetic abuse are the ethos of our epoch. The liberals endorse and the conservatives conquer, all the while our souls weep for the atrocities of our minds. The modern age made us think we were a sage, when in fact we are nothing but pretentious killers. This curse of the herd cannot be overcome by the word. Mighty as logos be, it alone will not set us free. We have become alienated from the earth, from eachother, and from ourselves. If we wish to find time to prevent humanity from falling into the abyss, then it is time to raise the fist. Not in opposition to others, but solidarity with all our sisters and brothers. If we are divided, they are delighted. If we are one, then their time is done.

No Shit

Turns out one of the names on that last list, Ian Smith, died today. As much as he was an intransigent imperialist dedicated to keeping white minority rule in Rhodesia (modern day Zimbabwe), he was also one tough man. He served as a fighter pilot in WWII- getting half his face paralyzed crashing on takeoff and being shot down over occupied Europe and making it all the way back to Allied lines. For 15 years (1965-1980) Smith and the Rhodesian Front defied UN sanctions, fought an intense counterinsurgency known as the Bush War. Eventually Smith was pressured into allowing fair elections, which his former nemesis Robert Mugabe won. For the 27 years after he negotiated the end to white minority rule, Smith never left or sold his farm in Zimbabwe. He also never shied away from criticizing Mugabe's regime, perhaps being the only person in the country to be allowed to publicly do so. In 2000, while abroad, Smith called Mugabe "mentally deranged". The latter vowed that if Smith every returned he would be arrested and prosecuted for genocide. Ian Smith returned as planed, was greeted politely at the airport and then drove home without incident. Well, anyway, dude is now dead and another dictator rules the land; at least he is the same race as the people he brutalizes- that makes it better right?

Pakistan

Recently a fellow historian did a study to see what the average shelf life was for US backed dictators. Turns out the average is about 10 years until they are deposed, go renegade, or just get so violent and out of control we take them out. Well, looks like the 6th most populous nation on earth is now in the midst of an all out battle for control of the state. On one side the massive, nuclear armed, Pakistani Military, led by General Pervez Musharraf. The other is composed of radical elements that span many ethnicities and regions, but can safely be called Islamist in nature- these forces include Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Hizbul Mujahideen, and the Taliban. Then there are the various tribes that are essentially hostile to the central government, such as the Balochis, Pashtuns and others. Then there is the political/civilian side, led by such people as former PM Benzair Bhutto and the former Supreme Court Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, the former supported by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the latter by almost the entire legal community in conjunction with various middle to upper class citizens. One way or another, it looks like our Dick Tater is going to be ousted or have to kill a lot of people. Here is a list of some of our former friends-

Abacha, General Sani	Nigeria
Amin, Idi	Uganda
Banzer, Colonel Hugo	Bolivia
Batista, Fulgencio	Cuba
Bolkiah, Sir Hassanal	Brunei
Botha, P.W.	South Africa
Branco, General Humberto	Brazil
Cedras, Raoul	Haiti
Cerezo, Vinicio	Guatemala
Chiang Kai-Shek	Taiwan
Cordova, Roberto Suazo	Honduras
Christiani, Alfredo	El Salvador
Diem, Ngo Dihn	Vietnam
Doe, General Samuel	Liberia
Duvalier, Francois	Haiti
Duvalier, Jean Claude	Haiti
Fahd bin'Abdul-'Aziz, King	Saudi Arabia
Franco, General Francisco	Spain
Hitler, Adolf	Germany
Hassan II	Morocco
Marcos, Ferdinand	Philippines
Martinez, General Maximiliano Hernandez	El Salvador
Mobutu Sese Seko	Zaire
Montt, General Efrain Rios	Guatemala
Noriega, General Manuel	Panama
Ozal, Turgut	Turkey
Pahlevi, Shah Mohammed Reza	Iran
Papadopoulos, George	Greece
Park Chung Hee	South Korea
Pinochet, General Augusto	Chile
Pol Pot	Cambodia
Rabuka, General Sitiveni	Fiji
Montt, General Efrain Rios	Guatemala
Salassie, Halie	Ethiopia
Salazar, Antonio de Oliveira	Portugal
Somoza, Anastasio Jr.	Nicaragua
Somoza, Anastasio, Sr.	Nicaragua
Smith, Ian	Rhodesia
Stroessner, Alfredo	Paraguay
Suharto, General	Indonesia
Trujillo, Rafael Leonidas	Dominican Republic
Videla, General Jorge Rafael	Argentina
Zia Ul-Haq, Mohammed	Pakistan

Nietzsche

"Some are born posthumously."
"The very word "Christianity" is a misunderstanding — in truth, there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross."
"Against boredom even gods struggle in vain."
"Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent."
"Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule."
"The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others."
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."
"To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity."
"Morality is herd instinct in the individual."

Random Observations

It is a wild ride, this flurry of thoughts and experiences that I experience subjectively as life. The more I let myself get carried along by the current the more I understand the perpetually unfolding phenomenon we call history. In the grand scheme of things, human history is basically a short story about how some primates when ape shit and have been struggling to find themselves ever since. Occasionally a few will poke their heads out of the demented debates and endless conflict to find the serenity that can come if you just 'let it be'. Sounds simple enough, but nothing could be further from the truth. A thoroughly esoteric strain in mankind makes us simultaneously some of the most hive minded and yet independent of all creatures. This dichotomy seems to be played out in each successive day of this life. Part of me wants to "tear this motherfucker up and put it back together" and the other half just wants it all to be over soon. Confucius once said that: "When the state follows the Way, speak boldly and act boldly. When the state has lost the Way, speak softly and act boldly". So here I sit, speaking softly via the internet and awaiting the time when fearless people step up as one to act boldly.

Fire to Fallbrook

My former home in San Diego county looks as though it might burn up. Luckily I got out of that cultural cesspool and am now chillin' in wet, sparsely populated Northern California. Anyway, these are some bitchin' pictures of the purifying fire in action
Bet they wish they had saved some of that water to fight the fires instead of rapaciously using it for golf courses and lawns... Sometimes the natural world comes with its awesome force and all we can do is cower like the misguided mammals that we are.

Poem Written in Geography Class

Just carbon floating majestically through space
just trying to be in harmony with our place
over 6,000 years of sanguinary glory
we're all part of that amazing story
but now we humans begin to change
no more down home on the range
got this proclivity for economic activity
so people all moving to the city
millions of primates in close proximity
no surprise we feel like we're in captivity
or the fact that Capitalism and crimes
has been crowned King of these times
Only one planet, so only one true vision
ti's the end of the arbitrary division
that was always the rich mans mission
and so does the might battle rage
over what shall reign in the next stage
like the days of old, people bought and people sold
but with all the monkeys in the jungle of concrete
seems impossible to ever control the street
what once was just another creature
has now become the dominating feature
Not a matter of right nor wrong
or wine, women and song
but if we'll ever stop to calm down
and once more share the ground
the small spark is now a raging fire
Is it a forge, or just a funeral pyre?

Dick Retorts

Vice President Dick Cheney issued a pointed warning to Iran on Sunday, calling the government in Tehran “a growing obstacle to peace in the Middle East” and promising “serious consequences” if the government there does not abandon its nuclear program. Mr. Cheney reserved his harshest language for Iran. Calling it “the world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism,” he said, “our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its most aggressive ambitions.” source

Dispatch from the front

AFP
Sunday October 21, 2007

Iran warned on Saturday it would fire off 11,000 rockets at enemy bases within the space of a minute if the United States launched military action against the Islamic republic.

"In the first minute of an invasion by the enemy, 11,000 rockets and cannons would be fired at enemy bases," said a brigadier general in the elite Revolutionary Guards, Mahmoud Chaharbaghi.

"This volume and speed of firing would continue," added Chaharbaghi, who is commander of artillery and missiles of the Guards' ground forces, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

Bewußtsein

"Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeosis epoch from all earlier ones."
So here sits a young man trying to put words to the flurry of thoughts, feelings and actions that make up my little trip through the world. Regardless of the 'everlasting uncertainty' I still maintain that the planet is spinning in synchronization with the rest of the matter in the universe, and thus is everything as it should be. The intricate web of people that makes up the society all around me seems to follow similar natural laws, every bit as complicated as astrophysics, but just as flawless. Who are we to pick at the food we are served, complaining about this or that minuscule aspect of existence as if it constituted more than a minor irritation. So much of human suffering comes from expectations that one wonders why anyone has such arrogance, or more importantly, why do we never seem to learn the folly of our ways? I'm beginning to think that all truly free individuals will always have to fight tooth and nail to escape the gravitational pull of other minds. So no matter how much you ever push back at this ingrained ignorance, you will always just get pulled that much harder into the madness you oppose. You could be born into 2,700 BC Sumeria, Japan of the 1580's or Southern California last year; regardless of local, the drive to conform in body and mind is omnipresent in human social structures. Which gets me back to my particular experience. I am more than eager to learn from the rest, probably more enthusiastic than most, but I also want to be able to say my piece, add my ideas. Therein lay the rub. Like most things in my country, education is a commodity. A money making machine thats purpose is purely economic and cares little for the cattle that is herded through those hallowed halls of higher learning. I for one get a feeling of impending doom every time I am told by a fellow student about how they are going to major in such and such then go on to make lots of money. Why do people care so much about status, wealth and appearances?
Nicht das Bewußtsein bestimmt das Leben, sondern das Leben bestimmt das Bewußtsein.
"It is in fact not the consciousness dominating life but the very life dominating consciousness."

My Horoscope

Leo (Jul 23 - Aug 22)

It's hard for others to get a clear idea about your intentions now, for your feelings may be slightly different from your actions. It's not likely to bother you, though, for your powers of rationalization are strong. Don't use logic to explain yourself, for the rest of the world may not see things the same way that you do.

Assholes abound

I have been accused of being a pessimistic, dramatic, and even downright negative. Say what you will though, all that seems to have been the result of all the history of human development is that more and more assholes dominate all aspects of human life. The Burmese Government has recently had to deal with all the Buddhist monks in that country deciding to protest, in the hope it will make the military Junta that runs things relinquish their grip on power. Well, long story short these officers have decided that killing people for trying to peacefully make themselves heard is the way to go. The really depressing part about this is that no matter where you look the cold calculating hand of the few are ringing as much out of the world as they can before the whole shit house goes up in flames. I think people who degrade themselves by abusing others probably already suffer greatly, if not physically then psychologically and spiritually. It seems like the more they fuck shit up, the more they grow in their desire to do so. Like all the fat cats just keep upping the ante and no one wants to be the first one to fold. Well, once again I'm going to resort to great Greeks to tell it like is:
"Hope is a waking dream" -Aristotle
"No human thing is of serious importance" -Plato

Dreamers

I am now a resident of a very peculiar and unique corner of California. Jules de Gaultier once commented that- "Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality". If such is true, then the Humboldt Bay Area is waging an all out blitz against the ghastly state of human existence. The economy has been pretty much shit ever since the huge logging mills shut down, although a few are still in operation. Arcata is wholly dependent upon the University for keeping it from becoming a hobo-hippie commune. Luckily there is one cash crop up here that has to account for at least half, if not more, of the income for this area. You would think that cultivating an illegal black market crop would in some way lead its growers to get into some sort of full blown confrontation with the Federal Forces that swoop down each harvest season to wreck havoc. That just isn't how things function in America though. As long as the potential for personal economic survival exists it appears that people in developed countries will always prefer arbitrary laws, corrupt international policy and the omnipresent threat of incarceration to that of anything honestly resembling a responsible role in their political systems. The sad fact is that it's impossible to criticize the system that sustains ones whole existence. You might as well start talking shit about the Milky Way, saying that there are thousands of vastly preferable galaxies you would rather live in. The bottom line is that humans don't just pull societies out of thin air, they are the accumulation of centuries of struggle, culture, ideals and geography. Revolutions always fail because they try to make a dramatic break with the past and jump headfirst into a hypothetical future that can always be undermined by cruel reality. Having done some traveling and being somewhat aware of the demographic makeup of the world, I readily admit that Humboldt is nothing but a provincial backwater of the Colossus that is the US Economy. And no matter how much the residents of this land wish to deny it, all the dreaming and hoping does little besides ensuring that no effective action will ever be taken. The fact that the aforementioned cash crop is consumed in large quantities locally makes coherent thought for a large number of residents difficult at best.

#43

When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost... All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
- H.L. Mencken /Baltimore Sun (July 26, 1920)
A lot of people have been talking about how dumb Bush is for about 8 years now. At the APEC meeting in Australia this week he referred to it as an OPEC meeting and thanked the 'Austrian' PM for hosting. This is but one of countless verbal train wrecks that GW has been father to. The point I'd like to make is that by being an apparent dipshit, that makes him more thoroughly American than any of his predecessors. And since each successive generation of Americans seems to be getting dumber at an exponential rate, the situation is unlikely to improve. If nothing else it proves that the system we have here in the USA isn't actually run by figure heads.

Loco-motion

Fishies swim at the bottom of the sea
lucky for them they don't have to see
all the absurd shit we call great
the money that is used as bait
we swim in a sea of stupidity
propagating only insane vanity
sometimes I really wish
I'd been born a fish

craziness

You hear a lot of hysterics coming out of people about the trials and tribulations of their little lives. Normally I just nod and pretend to be concerned. Well, today I've finally found the graphic that will put all the panicked people in their place, or completely send them over the edge- either way. Here you go

An Inconsistent Truth

Slow days in a fast world
filled with many dreams
nothing is what is seems

somewhat separate and the same
you are the glory and shame
all things are embodied in you
but you are also nothing too

worry not about the things that happen around or to you- this too shall pass
endure the present, remember the past and treasure the future
the world owes you nothing, it was here first

A Perfect Circle - Imagine

yup

answers are for assholes

Masticating the manic minds of millions is no easy task, but its the one I set down for myself, so in this madness I gladly bask. As I progress in my study of this globe and species to which I belong it's becoming abundantly clear my indulgence in learning produces envy in others and lunacy within. The solutions to our rampaging sadistic species does not lie with books or in the four walled prisons we have built to hide from nature. Why play these obsessive games with our precious days when the brilliant sun and resplendent earth so emphatically point the way? Many people walk through life weighed down by centuries of cultural baggage that does nothing more than slow our journey and comfort the cries of 'are we there yet?'. What I propose is that every step we take further down the road of materialism and so called progress the less human we are. I hear the echoes of ages past resounding with blood drenched glory and insatiable passion. These days appear far different when compared with them. Today it all appears to cruelly calculated and carefully crafted that our society resembles a machine more than a group of human beings. People are programmed, processed, then placed, placated and then they pass. All this comes from but one place- the dreams we dream. Captains of Industry dreamt up forests of buildings, rivers of cars, herds of workers, and now here we are living that dream. If an individual dreams it is usually called art or insanity, but when groups dream, it is called power. The most powerful force to fight the mind numbing indulgence of our age is something we do every night when we sleep. If only the exploited masses and mislead middleman could be made to understand that all they need do is conceive of a path, then walk down it. So here we sit, a convict with the key to the cell, but not the courage to use it. However, I do feel a slight change in the wind. Perhaps the endless years of greed will soon give way to a whole new approach to life based on understanding and alturism. I hope that such is the case, but without dreamers, and lots of them, such things will never come to pass.

Can't lose what you never had

“Man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find someone quickly to whom he can hand over that great gift of freedom with which the ill-fated creature is born.” -Fyodor Dostoevsky
Freedom is one word that in this country has been effectively hollowed out, filled with stuffing, embalmed and then put upon a shelf as though it were a trophy. The modern American is bred to be selfishly subservient and myopically materialistic, freedom doesn't factor into it at all. Some people seem to think of freedom as a fad started during the Age of Enlightenment that went out of fashion and was replaced by the monolithic might of the modern State. Perhaps that is exactly how it went down and when freedom wasn't en vogue anymore we simply kept the word because it had a good ring to it and it was already in our national anthem. In the new world we are all too codependent to be literally free, but we have a piece of paper called the Bill of Rights that makes us hypothetically free. To be perfectly honest, I have no fucking clue what the word freedom means to the English speaking world. I'm sure in the olden days freedom meant not having some other ethnic group dominate you and your people. Then in the not so olden days it was a metaphysical concept that said you were only free if you live in a representative democracy in which you possess certain inalienable rights. But today it seems to have assumed the characteristics of a mantra with a mystical meaning that questioning is treacherous. I tend to agree with the statement that freedom, if it isn't universal, is just privilege extended. Deep down on some subconscious plain I suspect this is what they all mean by freedom. We dominate other regions and are given certain privileges in return for our support of said domination. This would be supported by the fact that our global campaign to root out opposition and test loyalties is called Operation Enduring Freedom. I'm probably wasting my time trying to make any sense of the average Americans mindset. In my personal opinion freedom is a fundamentally spiritual thing that allows people to no longer be tethered by fear and necessity to what we know in our hearts to be wrong. A nation cannot be free just because they say they are, and that is essentially what we are doing.

New World Order

"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it." - H.L. Mencken

Amid all the dramatic flourishes of international diplomacy a new spectre is gathering power to itself like some shadowy black hole. Trying to apply names to this new world order is like trying to name every raindrop in a downpour. The bourgeoisie is in the process of completely subverting all power from ordinary people, primarily embodied in the State. All the most powerful organizations and corporations in the world today frequently have more sovereign powers than the nations in which they operate. The Council On Foreign Relations writes US policy and then has the US Government implement it. The International Monetary Fund systematically ensures that no developing nation will ever have the financial capacity to do anything other than remain in crushing debt (the World Bank helps out in this task). The three groups I just referenced have more power than any other force on earth, and they serve only one master- the wealthy. They are the three most salient members of the NWO, but supported by a bureaucracy of such mammoth proportions that it boggles the mind. As wars are waged and antagonisms agitated in the old fashion, they only serve the proponents of one world government. Conflicts these days are only between the sophisticated western armies and the rag tag indomitables that would rather die than live in the world that is being forged. Even pollution has played right into their hands, allowing them to find a 'moral' way to impede the economic development of poorer nations desperately trying to claw their way to the top of the capitalist pyramid. A global carbon taxing system is such a thinly veiled NWO ploy that even environmentalists can see through it. The end game appears to be a world in which no person, no place and no culture is outside the all pervasive power of the market, and the market is naturally lorded over by the monetarily endowed. It brings sadness to my heart to see the blind patriotism of my fellow Americans being harnessed to make them the foot soldiers and facilitators of the New World Order. The true brilliance of this behind the scenes power grab is that they don't use brute force and aren't motivated by short term goals- these guys are big picture people. So big picture in fact, that most people can't even wrap their head around the concept, and thus dismiss it as absurd. They have in a very orderly fashion got the whole world hooked on money and education, the free market has done the rest. The omnipresent market has made the word 'politics' a euphemism for 'economics'. I suspect that by the time the world figures out what is going on it will already be far too late to do anything. Our NWO overlords are already binding, with mortal cords, the masses to their economic policies through artificial agriculture requiring massive amounts of pesticides, fertilizers and GMO seeds. Not to mention the fact that if trade ever broke down, or any nation attempted to limit the economic free for all, starvation and chaos would inevitably follow. Leading the elite to point ecstatically at the consequences of deviance and the benefits of obedience. Within ten years it seems unavoidable that the masses of the earth will have to chose between being the chattel of the rich, or finding a viable alternative for global governance. My only fear is that most people won't even acknowledge the choice because they are too busy licking the whip to hear its crack or taste their own blood.

US Foreign Policy 1991-Today

The past 16 loops around the sun have been very eventful ones in terms of political change. Sadly most Americans have little or no concept of how this change has affected our place in the eyes of the planet's populace. The mindset of the majority is cemented in an ideology that sees us as a benign and just force in a wicked world that we must set right. Somehow Americans missed the fact that Clinton deployed more troops overseas than any president since FDR. They didn't realize that we have a military presence in over 100 countries. The masses also missed the fact that with our unprecedented military superiority and economic might we could end every single war before it started; not to mention the majority of disease and famine. They also seem to not understand that using our army, navy and air force in the current political climate can't be disguised as anything but opportunistic aggression. Sure, at home we can play it off as 'peace-keeping' or enforcing UN resolutions, but no one buys this shit that isn't programmed to believe lies, or benefits from doing so. The fact of the last 16 years is that as soon as the balance of power tipped in our favor we immediately began ensuring that the US could run the world as we see fit. All the petty little shit they cover in the media is a complete smokescreen intended to confuse the smart and infuse the stupid with hatred. Example- 1999: we attack Serbia in support of the KLA, a Muslim extremist group seeking to secede. 2001: we attack Afghanistan to free the country from Muslim extremists. Or how about our favorite rally word, Democracy- 2002: the CIA supports an attempt to overthrow the Democratic government of Venezuela. 2004: Iraq is invaded so we can depose a dictator and set up a Democracy. It makes me want to scream until my lungs bleed that no amount of evidence, persuasion, reason or logic will make these fuckwits admit the omnipresent truth that we are ruling the majority of the planet so we can consume as many goods as is feasible. If ignorance is strength then that explains our present power, because this land is the most benighted mental environment one can imagine. An entire nation of self-obsessed savages that will believe any lie, stomach any atrocity and sacrifice anything just so long as we can buy, consume and breed without being bothered by the details of how it is all accomplished. A lot of people blame the government for what has gone down in these tumultuous 16 years, but that is simplistic scapegoating of the most pathetic kind. Until America owns up to the fact that we instigated and sustained this not a damn thing will change. So what if the government lies to the people, they clearly want to be lied to. Over 2000 years ago another person saw the same drama unfolding and said 'The more they drink, they more they thirst'. Today I see my countrymen drinking so deeply that I fear the only solution is to let them drown.

40 years of mistakes

As you probably guessed, Blue is Democrat and Red is Republican, the Green is Independent. I just thought this graphic was so telling that I had to post it. In a very colorful way it demonstrates why two party rule has always split opinion just enough to keep the balance of power. If one side ever gained total supremacy their authoritarian nature might become more visible to the myopic drones we call voters.

Idiosyncratic Ideas

I find it utterly hilarious how people act like Plenipotentiaries for God, and keep a straight face in the process. I don't care if you're Muslim, Catholic, Evangelical Christian or Hindu, saying you know what God wants and are empowered with the ability to negotiate deals on his behalf is something you should be locked up for. It seems to me that anyone with a brain would understand that God isn't stupid, and consequently would never delegate power to these degenerate opportunists with fancy clothing from centuries past. Another thing that blows my mind is that we are very likely going to fish the oceans to the last fish, slaughter all the great herds of both land and air, and turn the all fertile land into a farm in the next couple decades. I'd advocate population control, but this would require people acknowledging a one world government, or using their brains before they use their genitals, which is far less likely than the former. Humanity's three companions- plague, famine and war- are proving unable to keep pace with the people proliferation, so a remedy must be found to alleviate hunger. The only easy and ready made alternative I see is cannibalism. It would be a panacea for so many problems on this planet that I think the time has come to drop the cultural stigma and get cooking. A strange thing for a vegetarian of many years to advocate to be sure, but it seems the only possible way to avert turning the whole planet into a human hive. Seeing as how genocide and starvation are the inevitable consequences of overpopulation, cannibalism is a rather humane alternative. Just as you can donate your organs if you die, why not those meaty thighs or succulent ribs? We are going to see more Rwandas and Bosnias if something isn't done, mark my words. I've always thought it a great injustice to see fat people amongst the poor emaciated masses, this will forever solve that. All I'm saying is that with mankind's seemingly infinite capacity for the grotesque and cruel we might as well try to make such behavior practical and environment friendly. The only people to ever officially escape being conquered in the New World were the Amazonian Head Hunting tribes. Living deep within the impenetrable jungle they kept their population from adversely affecting their surroundings by requiring everyone who wished to be called a man to first go get the head of another man from a different tribe. If you wanted to get a wife, you had to take anothers place, and thus was their population stable and their culture durable. Of course when the Brazilian Government finally outlawed the practice and starting putting them on reservations it has been a shit slide into oblivion for the these once proud warriors whose jungle is quickly fading into memory. It seems clear that the primary obstacle impeding the progress and development of the human experiment is an uncontrollable fear of the unknown. We are creating new problems every day, but seem to think new solutions aren't equally important. Sort of in the same vein as those impostures who speak in God's name claiming that He wants us to be subservient narrow minded dimwits instead of living up to our full potential.

The Good Book

As my years wear on me I find myself less and less able to feign interest in the vast majority of man made entertainment. Politics seem a pathedic parody of all that once was life, and most social environments seem decadent or fraudulent. The more I come to terms with my perception of the world the more I leave behind the mindset of my contemporaries, and the better qualified to take it all in without letting the glory and the gastly disturb the calm waters of my consciousness. The only real thing I've ever found any solice in is a good book. Anything well written was transcribed for the ages, perpetually immune to the passage of time and fluctuations of humanities temperment. What I would call a great book is a volume that cracks the shell of your personality to show you a world you would have never known otherwise. Endless vistas and pertinent lessons await those who would learn from the experience of those few humans who had the vision and vocabulary to turn but one small existence into a window into the mind of mankind. Countless personal problems have I overcome with nothing but a stirring story from another age. It is easy to lose ones head these days. We are inundated with so much fantasy and so many lies that sitting by oneself to scour the pages of the past for guidance has become something of an atavistic practice, usually left to the recluses of academia to comfort their lazy lives. The more i see people turn away from books to 'the neon god we made' the more I realize that it must be so. Modern people have very little in common with those who passed before, and less so with each passing day. We have entered a brave new world in which all cultural, religious and political sanctuaries are being razed to the ground in order to make way for the passions of the present. Without ever having to admit it so, we have opted for mass produced people programmed for 13 merciless years in favor of the insolent individuals that once walked this earth. I sometimes sit and wonder if i'm the last of a dying breed, or part of something new, which has yet to take full shape and thus be acknowledged. Whatever the case may be, I find immeasurable consolation in the charm, wit and brilliance of those torch bearers that kept the flame lit for so many centuries. Though their bodies be turned to dust and their names all but forgotten, their contribution is still greatly appreciated by me. No matter how alone this life may make me feel, a reasuring word in the worthiness of human life is only a page away.

Hurlin' Hate

"A revolution is a struggle between the past and the future." -Fidel Castro

As the northern portion of the planet receives its yearly dosage of warmth in the lovely occurrence called summer, love and happiness are in the air... No wait... that is actually Molotov cocktails, tear gas, stones and anger. Guess that means it is time for another G8 summit, and consequently, another round of anti-reality protests. I'm happy to say that this time around the people in the streets seem determined to really hurt some riot police, who are in turn going to hurt some lefties; this is the natural order of things. The Group of 8 is an organization that represents 65% of the worlds economy and began to coalesce during the oil crises of 1974 when the industrialized world realized they had to start networking to make the new Imperialism function smoothly. It is an informal forum in which policy and research are discussed at a charming location with fabulous catering attended by each of the 8 heads of state (sort of like a slumber party for the rulers of earth). For the past several years it has also become a gathering place for those members of the wealthy world who like to criticize the hand that feeds them. Now I can totally empathize with the sentiment that 500 years of Imperialism doesn't mean that the West should persist in this behavior, but throwing shit at riot cops is pointless. I can also understand the impotent frustration that leads to such behavior, and am not trying to be condescending. Having said that, these people are acting like spoiled children throwing a temper tantrum because they don't agree with how their parents are raising them. Unless they turn into a contagion of upheaval against organized society (which does happen sometimes) protests are usually a short-cut to trying to effect the change they so vehemently demand. I'm sure that getting the shit beat out of you by armored authority figures must be one hell of a rush, but a better world will never come of it. From a historical point of view I find it all very interesting. A hundred years ago these protesters would have been greeted with a hail of gunfire, which would have galvanized the survivors and led to some hardcore subversive activity. These days however the powers that be realize that by just letting the unarmed riot cops duke it out with the whiny children of the European Left they are in essence insuring that the protesters are wasting their time. If Europe has learned anything from its revolutionary history it is that being highly organized in conjunction with being prepared to kill and be killed is the only viable path for a small group of radicals to achieve their aims. The Sans-culottes and Bolsheviks are the two most proven paths for revolutionaries, in terms of upsetting the status quo through direct action at least. Since I'm relatively inexperienced personally with such things I refer to one of the most successful of revolutionaries, Leon Trotsky- "Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other". The protesters at least have the sense to throw their tizzy fits on the doorstep of the head bureaucrats. Now all they have to do is get past their adolescent intellectualism and start coming up with some realistic alternatives. The demented logic of demanding that the people that are personally responsible for the current situation are going to do an about face and produce the solutions is beyond idiotic.

War Corporatism: The New Fascism

Propaganda is a two way street in the 21st century...

Born in the USA

"Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt."

If only that line had been inserted into the national anthem, so that blind obedience and monoculture chauvinism couldn't be called American traits. Alas, such was not the way the cookie crumbled. The fact that Americans have become the Alpha humans says more about the nature of mankind than most are willing to admit. Freedom, liberty and justice are words that mean absolutely nothing nowadays. They are vague concepts that we are programmed to believe in, but not to grasp. The real tripod on which the might American Empire rests upon is Greed, Fear and Ignorance. These three factors are the backbone of our power. The greed makes the war machine useful, the fear makes it necessary and the ignorance makes it just. Say what you will, this is a very solid foundation for global dominance. The US learned a lot from the 20th Century. Primarily that in the game of geopolitics you are either dominated or dominate, rule or ruled, kill or are killed. Failing to accept these facts as the basis for our behavior on the world stage is a perfect example of the other great strength of the American people- collective amnesia. Every generation has virtually no grasp of what came before it, nor any desire to even remember what happened when they were young. Whatever becomes of this wild odyssey we call a nation, it will teach humanity a thing or two about itself. Lessons that probably need to be learned if we are ever going to make our presence in the Galaxy anything but coincidental and brief. A very wise American named HL Mencken had this to say about how things work politically in this country- " Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule—and both commonly succeed, and are right... The United States has never developed an aristocracy really disinterested or an intelligentsia really intelligent. Its history is simply a record of vacillations between two gangs of frauds."

Urbanization Part III (alienation)

"The amount of noise which anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity." -Arthur Schopenhauer
Approximately 80% of US citizens live in what has been defined as an urban area. Furthermore, 95,707,078 Americans live in one of fourteen metropolitan centers. Before I delve into my own perspective, let us accept that all that is nature ends at the entrance to any city. Humans had lived in nature for more time than we can easily quantify, suffice it to say it was many thousands of years. If you take a creature out its natural habitat it will be confused and disoriented. If you take a elephant from India and put it in the Andes, things just aren't going to work out. People are a slightly different animals in this respect. Before the headlong sprint to urbanization had begun, we had spread to just about everywhere on this entire planet (excepting the two poles). We can adapt better than the rest, in no small part because we are capable of eating a very wide variety of things. There is one very important difference between this ability to adapt and the new environments we have built in the cities however, and that is that urbanites have no interaction with where their food comes from. To them food comes from stores which you access through an imaginary device called money. This may seem to be a trivial fact, but I contend it is not. People learn two things from procuring their own food- One is you reap what you sow, and the other is you are utterly dependent on the earth for your survival. Sure, on an intellectual level they will all admit these facts, this doesn't mean that they fully grasp it though. The tragic truth is that people who live in urban areas are by virtue of their environment alienated, confused and vulnerable. One thing that has been proven time and time again is that when people are in such a state of mind as this they are easily manipulated. No matter how much they may be opposed to the power structure they live under, their complete dependency on it for food and electricity means any criticism is hypocritical. The old saying 'all roads lead to Rome' is an excellent description of how cities operate. They suck all nourishment from the surrounding countryside to satiate the demand for food, building materials and entertainment. The bigger the city, the more land needed to support it. Warfare, Bubonic Plague, Cholera and Influenza had for centuries been the only check on urban growth. These hindrances have been largely removed lately, thus are we seeing the population of cities skyrocketing with careless abandon. The primary premise of Marx's observation was that the urban worker, or proletariat, was alienated from his work, he didn't grasp himself as an integral part of the larger social machine. Which as a result made him easily exploited by the moneyed classes. What he apparently failed to grasp was that as long as people are forced to live in the fundamentally chaotic and inexplicable city they will never be able to fully justify or enjoy their existence. Thus is the foundation for any urbanized utopia completely untenable. Communism tried very hard to create a classless society, but that is just not how any city has ever functioned for any length of time. Hierarchy and urbanization have a symbiotic relationship that for very logical reasons will never be severed. The result of this is that class conflict is little more than a dog chasing it's own tail, then marveling at the pain when it finally catches and bites it. I've seen many people in my life denounce all the other people in their area, as if they were the lone sane person in a huge mental asylum. Someone once commented that "No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible", such indeed seems to be the mindset of the urbanized homo sapien. It is a perfect simile because people, like snowflakes, are individually appealing, but collectively become a cascading chaos that consumes all in its path. Because they are living in a limbo which no one can comprehend or excuse, they turn with one body and mind to the demagogues and politicians, in the desperate hope that someone has an answer to the question they are all afraid to ask- why are we living like this? Such is my perspective and I make no apologies for it. I have met many a fine individual that lives behind the concrete curtain, and do not have anything but compassion for all of them, individually. Collectively though, they are nothing more than a bacteria growing on the face of an otherwise sanitary globe. I can't believe that they are in essence bad for what they are doing, merely lost in the wilderness of man made edifices that force them to accept lies that make it possible for them to survive. Many of the things that people cling most passionately to (patriotism, religion etc.) are at their core idiotic notions made to placate the masses and fill the hole created by removing them from the land. Cheap substitutes for the one thing that can never be imported to a city, a meaningful and worthwhile life of harmony. Once more I refer to one of the greats, Voltaire, to make my point- "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities". I make these points not to criticize anyone or to be some arrogant misanthrope, but to take a stab at the cause of the malady that is making our whole planet sick. If you doubt the disease I suggest you take a visit to the Favelas of Sao Paolo, the shantytowns of Lagos or the endless slums of Mumbai. You will find there millions who every day come face to face with the brutality and injustice of this system.

The Swan Song

A unique soliloquy in the vastness of space
that is how I'd describe the human race

singing our song with passion unparalleled

even though we really aren't so compelled

some strange instinct makes us perform

the world is the rose, and we're the thorn

we earth people are capable of quite a lot

but comprehending it all we are not

Guilty as sin

"Both capitalism and Marxism promised to point out the path for the creation of just structures, and they declared that these, once established, would function by themselves. And this ideological promise has proven false.” This is what the Pope said this past weekend in Brazil. He went on to say that the result of these failed systems is- “giving rise to a worrying degradation of personal dignity through drugs, alcohol and deceptive illusions of happiness.” I'm no Papist, but I got to hand it to the Pope for deciding to discuss the proverbial 800 pound gorilla in the room. Takes some guts to stand in front of a throng of thousands of people, tell them that all governments are fundamentally flawed and are consequently hurting God's children. The truly fantastic thing about him saying this is that with his Papal Infallibility some billion people on earth are obligated to believe his words. My first reaction to this speech was- 'Holy shit! 1,114,966,000 people now know for a fact that the whole world is going to Hell in a handbag!' After several seconds of euphoria/plotting/scheming I regrettably remembered that ever since 107 AD, when St. Ignatius of Antioch first coined the term Catholic, they have been training people to feel guilty. So much so that the revelation that the entire world order is nothing but a demonic dystopian disaster is just another thing to feel guilty about. "So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt." Thus was the 265th Pontiff of Rome just spouting more pointless rhetoric to a world that soaks it up like a sponge. I can't fathom the logic of letting evil persist while you content yourself by pouring out libations to God of self-reproach and penitence for all of mankind. I do not mean to demean any faith, for it all comes down to perspective. So if someone sees the Virgin Mary in a tortilla in Mexico, well then by God they see it. But I must say this- The Catholic Church may very well be the longest running tragedy in human history. Imagine a very organized group that encompasses 1/6 of the worlds people, has the stated goal of saving all humanity, and is filthy rich. Now try and imagine anything that they couldn't accomplish if they tried. I tend to go East for my wisdom, and here is what one of the wisest had to say about guilt-

There is no calamity greater than lavish desires.

There is no greater guilt than discontentment.

And there is no greater disaster than greed.
Lao-tzu

One must wonder what it would be like if their were 1,114,966,000 Taoists insted

Satellites Delight the Not So Bright

"Power without perception is spiritually useless, and thus of no true value."
-Fist of the Northstar

As I was gazing at the evening sky tonight no less than a half dozen satellites caught my eye. Graceful and swift they follow their predetermined orbits, sending and receiving massive amounts of human gibberish for the benefit of those here on earth that can afford to enjoy such luxuries. I wonder what Konstantin Tsiolkovsky would think if he could see where his brilliance has led us. One positive thing is that it sort of makes earth look like the nucleus of an atom, instead of just being a lonely marble in space, which on some level is sort of cool. I for one tend to side with Thoreau's observation that having something worthwhile to say is a natural prerequisite to having the means to say it. This amazing technology is used primarily for entertainment and military purposes, not to communicate messages of any intrinsic value. It also enables people the world over to have strange devices stuck in their ears all day so they can talk to what I presume are other people, but could just as easily be soliloquies of how insane human behavior has really gotten. Why do people love technology that makes what is far seem near and what is near seem insignificant? All the technology that I've seen developed and utilized in my time here seems to have the end result of just making people more detached from reality, more ready to believe absurdities, and in all ways measurable, just plain stupid. Just to be fair I freely acknowledge that this could very well be a necessary step that will end in us reaching critical mass in terms of communication and that humanity will become utterly harmonious when we get several billion people all speaking the same language who are empowered to text message and send out e-mails affordability, but the opposite seems far more likely to me. The opposite being that we are just engaging in another full fledged effort to somehow insulate ourselves from the dubiousness of our whole enterprise- Pyramids of Giza right down to the present. I still can't help but think that satellites are rather aesthetically pleasing from down here on earth. They seem to personify that desire for order, form and function that mankind seems to yearn for beneath the armor of our clumsy civilization. Perhaps having the ability to say anything will lead towards something significant being said and heard. Sort of a cart before the horse scenario, I know, but I'd rather see it that way than think of us as some criminally insane species hell bent on petulance and power.

random verse

Wonderful days they all have been
not a one I wouldn't gladly live again
if your life is any different than that
take a moment and try to look back
why was it anything less than perfection?
answer will invariably be your perception
there wasn't a day when the sun didn't rise
nor a one that didn't hold at least one surprise
what better gig is there than this life on earth?
we should all be grateful our mothers gave birth
for what would we all be floating in the void ocean?
surely it couldn't be as fun as all this crazy emotion

Urbanization Part II (Conformity)

"The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior." -Thoreau
“Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag and begin to slit throats.”-HL Mencken
So the year is 2007 and half the worlds population has gone behind the concrete curtain. "So it goes". I've noticed that within' these cities status is somehow derived from how much one consumes. People kill, lie, deceive, cheat and do all manner of horrific things in the pursuit of whatever they feel will secure them some modicum of happiness. I'm a little fuzzy on why exactly owning a lot of things and spending lots of money makes you anything but decadent profligate, but it seems to be the name of the game. The crazy part of it is that such an overwhelming majority of the city buys into this that you get conformity on a staggering level. Because everyone is on the money-go-round it's sort of like a universal language. Thus can a city like San Francisco speak many languages but still function like a well built clock. From the outside it resembles a beehive or anthill more than anything else. Thousands upon thousands of creatures scurrying about doing a thousand different things, all amazingly without any overt orders. Of course, conformity always has consent as its prime mover. All those who really can't take it or refuse to buy in move out or are incarcerated in even more packed miniature cities called prisons. All manner of desperate deviants have evolved from the casually consenting majority, but they are fighting an uphill battle that simply can't be won. What's their plan? Convince, coerce, convert, cajole and coax the entire hive to their way of thought thereby accomplishing a total change in how the thing works? It seems to me something like fighting the war to end all wars. . No small wonder then that the warm embrace of conformity is a comfort to billions living in the cities across the landmasses of Earth's crust. You can't deny that they are part of something big, certainly the biggest thing we humans have done in memory at least. I hate to start and end with a quote, but the following one says it better than I know how- "In our own time we have seen domination spread over the social landscape to a point where it is beyond all human control. Compared to this stupendous mobilization of materials, of wealth, of human intellect, of human labor for the single goal of domination, all other recent human achievements pale to almost trivial significance. Our art, science, medicine, literature, music and "charitable" acts seem like mere droppings from a table on which gory feasts on the spoils of conquest have engaged the attention of a system whose appetite for rule is utterly unrestrained." -Bookchin

Haters gotta hate

When one looks at international relations today it is something like observing a Shaolin Monk of Bruce Lee's stature coming down from the mountain monastery to interact with the global 'villagers'. Granted, a few others know martial arts, such as Russia, China, England etc. This doesn't however change the fact that we are by far the baddest dude in the dojo. We hear countries like North Korea and Iran talkin' some pretty serious trash, one would almost think they wanted to fight. Fact of the matter is though that no one wants to fight us. Occasionally one sees our raw might demonstrated in a massively epic ass whopping, followed by an occupation that can be likened to a debilitated karate move that leaves the recipient prostrate; capable of flailing and injuring themselves, but rendered relatively harmless against the attacker (say uncle!). Now I'm no 'might makes right' sort of thinker here, and the ends never justify the means, but we gotta accept the fact, for better or worse, we are at the pinnacle of world military power. All our nearest competitors just trade like mad with us, try to steal the secrets of our weapons and dream of the day they can actually hold their own in the field against our invincible legions. This is how the hand has been dealt, we might as well concede that we have been dealt a Royal Flush. The thing about having a hand like that is, you know everyone else if bluffing. Since we are essentially the Martial Arts masters of planet Earth, we have a great responsibility. Methinks we must behave like the head Abbot at the Shaolin Temple- with prudence, compassion and authority. Now there is always going to be some haters, it is just how human emotions seemed to be wired, and we're going to have to deal with this. The Iranians have their antagonism down to an art, hell, they make mosaics of tile in English denouncing us. But you'll notice it says 'down with USA' not 'we're going to take down USA'... they may be boisterous, but they aren't delusional. They know they can't actually hang with Bruce Lee in a Shaolin Showdown.

Urbanization part I

One thing that I don't feel is given enough discussion these days is the phenomenon of urbanization. Living in cities is far from something new, we have evidence of it going on for thousands of years, but its present scale is utterly unprecedented. At the beginning of the 20th century 13% of the world lived in cities, now it is estimated to be 50% and is perpetually growing. This shift towards a city based human population might very well be the most fundamental change in human history. It affects just about every aspect of life that can be imagined and is consequently something I think a lot about. One of the primary reasons I enjoy writing is that it makes you define and explore your thoughts in a way that you probably wouldn't otherwise. As I start out on this first instalment of what will no doubt be a relatively long exploration of this revolutionary transition in mankind's behavioral pattern, I'm a decidedly rural person. I grew up in the woods and now live in pastureland bordering the sea. Cities generally seem to me like savage attempts to make lives short soulless struggles in which the individual is obliterated by the sheer volume of almost identical lifeforms writhing all about them. Concrete, cars, cacophony and confusion replaces the world we once knew. Anyone who has ever flown must admit that it is a pretty insane situation when viewed in its entirety. Every single resource that can be moved by man is poured into these insatiable hives, and all that comes out is an ever larger population and mountains of unnecessary crap to fuel the consumer capitalism behemoth. For all the noise and drama that cities contain, they seem to mine eyes nothing but intensive people farms. Why mass manufacturing humans in small spaces came into fashion is a well documented story. Here is the short version: Industrialization requires a large urbanized working class in close proximity to the factories. So at least the origin of this trend is clearly discernible, but what about its result? The cities in California where I live have extremely little industry, and yet millions of people live in them anyway. I'm of the opinion that far more of this worlds problems than is readily admitted originates from these new fangled population packed people containers. Such is my perspective at the beginning of my investigation, we shall see if it is the same when I reach the conclusion.

Thin Line Between Entertainment and War

Panem et circenses (bread and circuses)- The war gives us the former, the entertainment the latter. You might think one would need more than that to rule a nation of 300 million, but you'd be wrong. At one point it was very clear when a war was on. It was an all out, no holds barred, struggle for supremacy in which a draw was impossible. The rival armies would even have the decency to pick a good spot for the slaughter, meet up, and then just go for it; winner takes all. Entertainment too was a far more straightforward affair. You would go to a theater, watch a show, the curtain would fall and then it was over. You would get up, chat a bit about what you saw, perhaps think on it, then you go home to bed. Well, sadly these two once clearly defined and immensely popular activities have fallen from superb simplicity and into an abyss of ambiguity. America hasn't declared war since 1941, yet we have military forces in over a 100 countries. We don't even have a Secretary of War anymore, just one of Defence. What our government calls 'Wars' are really just aimless campaigns, the purpose of which seems to be perpetually changed for the public. I've no doubt that the powers that be would prefer a real war, but since no one wants to have a war with us, they must content themselves with just occupying regions for economic ends. They seem almost insincere when compared with other wars throughout history. To a historian like me it seems as though we are trying to perform Shakespeare with bad actors and a rewritten script. Which brings me to my second point on this pointless rant- Entertainment. This once brilliant outlet for mans imagination has also suffered greatly, and been diminished into a all day fiasco. Instead of the once a week to the theater, orchestra, poetry reading etc. we now have a media web surrounding and permeating our whole lives. Maybe movies haven't been getting worse, perhaps we just can't enjoy them because it's all we see, one repetitive day after the next. TV even goes so far to make entertainment out of reality, aptly called Reality TV. This officially shows that entertainment has taken over the entire culture, because it can all now fit neatly inside their programing scheme. The same could be said for war. You watch any news coverage of the so called 'war' in Iraq and it's just another show, or perhaps even a sporting event. Although our overseas conflicts have gotten farcical to the point of absurdity, the domestic war is very much real. If you are capable of tearing your eyes away from the media you see soaring prison populations, ethnic tensions, the police in all its various forms, and economic factors are all contributing to make life inside America anything but peaceful. The rich live in walled communities with outrageous security because they are so terrified, need I say anymore? This would all seem unusual if this was just one wild nation dancing to a tune no one else hears, but by God, the rest are starting to do the American Shuffle too! This thin line between entertainment and war is quickly becoming the foundation for every government on the entire planet. Democracy is a hollow word when it is seen as just another entertaining thing they show on TV and talk about on the internet. So is freedom for that matter. How free is anyone who will panic without enemies or get bored for a lack of colorful screens to stare at? Luckily I'm a student of history, and thus am never forced to face these strange occurrences without the ages to offer me gems that both comfort and disturb. Two thousand years ago Juvenal said this, it could have been written yesterday and still be valid:
"... Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man,
the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time
handed out military command, high civil office, legions - everything, now
restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things:
bread and circuses "

Which way is home?

As we rumble along this wild adventure called humanity the road seems ever more uncertain the further we go. Sort of like one of those country roads that starts out paved, then goes to gravel, then dirt, till finally you are just driving on something your not even sure is a road anymore, but is too narrow to turn around on. Such seems to be our predicament. One result of this is that a trend towards assumption seems to be taking deep root the more lost we get. This is a time honored tradition for mankind, but the levels it is reaching in my lifetime are getting to dizzying new heights. To me this indicates a sort of unconscious reaction to the mounting evidence that we are: A) transient compositions of subatomic particles laking any definite form B) behaving more like bacteria than mammals C) have no idea what we are doing or why we are doing it. Reactionary rhetoric is bound to occur when people find themselves confused and/or scared, such is the nature of modern man. The only real problem with this is that instead of just comforting ourselves with our words and shenanigans we have now made a destructive habit of changing our surroundings to conform with them. I'm not big on pointing fingers at people or groups of people, and thus will not blame anyone for this monstrosity. Now this is a really nice planet, and I hate to see it be needlessly destroyed because humans have issues, but it's a big universe so I'm not all that horribly upset. After all, we are all just leasing our carbon and if we as a species choose to just shit on everything around us, then the sooner we will be returning it. Having said that I can't help but want mankind to start enjoying our place without this frivolously fanatic fantasy that we so ironically call progress. When it is all boiled down, most human behavior can be categorized as entertainment. We prefer to think of it as something else, but we are really just doing our damnedest to distract ourselves from the minuteness of our place and that we can't do a damn thing about it but fuck with each other in a last ditch effort to avoid facing the reality that surrounds our little globe on all sides. The poor assume they deserve more and the rich assume they should keep what they have; that's a classic drama that always gets good reviews. Here's a more time specific example- America feels her position of authority is threatened by others, others feel threatened by America's position of authority. Let us get even more personal- I want this to happen and that not to happen in my life; probably the most popular skit of all time. Now don't get me wrong, all this is entertaining as hell, but at some point the curtain must fall on this show. If I'm around I'll give it all a standing ovation, but refrain from requesting an encore. Humans used to just wander around earth enjoying the twin pleasures of our omnivore status all day and our ability to contemplate the cosmic mystery at night. Since then we have tilled a lot of soil, built a lot of cities and fought a lot of wars, but found a better existence we have not. I would just like to see a shift from presumption towards honesty- let's admit we don't know shit.

Inter caecos regnat strabo

"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." -Karl Marx
That quote might very well be the most succinct reason why I feel that the study of history is the most important of all academic pursuits. One great historian named Jacob Burckhardt prophesied on the dawn of the 20th century that it would be the age of the 'terrible simplifiers'. His prediction of demagogic rule by leaders of profoundly pedantic persuasions was proven to be absolutely accurate. Many people like to think that we have learned from the horrid lessons of the 20th century, but such doesn't appear to be the case to mine eyes. President Bush is nothing if not a 'terrible simplifier'. Pretty much anyone who claims you can declare war on a noun is nothing but a shameless opportunist of the worst sort. The thing about such people is that their power lay in their ability 'to mobilise the collective subconscious' as Sebastian Haffner put it. His power isn't purely institutional, although that is a large part of it. It would seem that the 40 some odd years of scare propaganda from the cold war has now become systemic; fear is now as American as apple pie. All the war protests in the world won't accomplish anything but giving the government an all to easy opportunity to single out trouble makers and raise the spectre of social chaos that always helps to legitimize any authority. Despite some promising developments the 'terrible simplifiers' seem to be as popular as ever- Ahmadinejad, Bush, Chavez etc. They all play the same game. One that was a tragedy in the age of Hitler, but now just a pathetic farce that shows just how completely hopeless democracy can be when people are primarily concerned with themselves. The Age of the Individual seems to have institutionalized 'terrible simplifiers' into our world, to which i can only quote Erasmus' immortal words- "Amongst the blind, the squinting rule".