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".

Sic transit gloria mundi

it's the destiny of things big and small

first to slowly rise then forever fall

a feature long observed by man

but bigger than he is this plan

these my friends are the rules

want it different? join the fools

build up castles made of sand

will not change the dealt hand

occasionally we are want to yearn

for something more than our turn

this consuming constructed craving

will only lead towards aimless raving

it shouldn't be the way of this occasion

despite our desperate contemplation

if you gaze into the heavenly mirror

you'll see that we've nothing to fear

if you can fathom our deep place

you'll only see immortal grace

the void is our only true home

thus are we first here, then gone

Don't trip on the trip

The wheel of time is spinning so fast
how much longer can it really last?
stranded in a candidly quiet galaxy
kind of makes me happy to be me
for otherwise I might be unhappy
people can complain and go insane
I'm happy to be here all the same
this is really the only show in town
so try and not bring others down
this is a great epic space sojourn
and we all play our parts in turn
it isn't even like we can really fail
in the end we all can only prevail

Our Age

As I gaze upon the complete complexity and amorphous ambiguity of the modern world I can't help but ponder what others will call this phase when it is all said and done. For no matter how weird it gets, it is all just a phase, or perhaps a wild tangent, in the evolution of humanity. Perhaps a silly thing to spend my time contemplating, but it just will not leave my brain alone. Thus I try to exorcise the thought unto my blog and into other minds. Now an age can last a very long time, like the Bronze Age (a little over 2,000 years) or a mere decade like the Jazz Age. Historians, like most academics, are shameless hacks that feed off of each others imagination like a tribe of starving cannibals. Not being critical, I hope to some day make contributions to that frenzied orgy of thought. I'm just commenting that for every real thinker, there are about a thousand intellectual leeches. Anyway, a new age certainly began with the fall of Soviet Russia in 1991 and it goes on still to this day. This Age is notable for several rather interesting developments. One is that for the first time since The Age of Discovery a single nation has militarily, culturally and politically dominated the entire planet, with only paltry and pathetic opposition thus far. However, calling it the Age of America would miss the point I feel. For as I see it, America is only the champion, not the creator, of what drives this present epoch. The real foundation of this era resides in the preeminence of something that is commonly called Capitalism. Unfortunately this term has been so completely abused, misused and confused that it really is just an hollow word, and consequently won't do for a name of our age. But what is the basis of this thing called money that rules everything around me? It seems pretty plain that it is the glorification of the individual that it incarnates. That you are #1 and need only look out for your own interests. This is a radical departure from the religious piety and chauvinistic patriotism of previous Ages. Sure, people where opportunists then too, but they at least tried to cloak their intentions. This last week a study was released that stated that the world now has 946 billionaires. This would seem savagely selfish considering that a billion people live on less than a dollar a day, but that isn't the prevalent paradigm of this Age. Sure, most of the world doesn't like it, but then again most of the world is poor and affraid, so the show goes on unabated. Communities and countries are being dissolved a bit more with each passing day as traditional society crumbles amid the chaos of the present. Ruling individuals is fare easier than dominating distinct groups of people (eg Chechens, Basques, Communists, African-Americans, Pashtuns, and just about anybody else with a sense of communal destiny). In recent years we have seen groups struggle for survival as the rest of the world hops on board the global economic movement, in which ones own ambitions must take precedence over all else. I'm not saying that this is the sum total of our Age, merely the trend that seems to dominate all other features of human society in this fascinating chapter in the book of Man- The Age of the Individual

Protests

Protesting is one of the more interesting things that modern society has brought to us. Rebellion, tyrannicide, revolution, secession- these things have been around for ages, but this whole organized public complaining is rather nouveau. As I was reading the news today three rather interesting examples caught my eye. The picture above is from St. Petersburg where a Chess Grandmaster who is running for president lead an anti-Putin demonstration that ended with people getting arrested and one bad ass old lady kicking a steel riot shield (how priceless is that pic?). The other was some Danish kids demonstrating in a way that is part protest and part vandalism. A youth house that some 400 kids had been squatting in for years was recently cleared by authorities with the result of making them burn and throw things at law enforcement. This is generally called a riot, which seems to be what a protest evolves into when the people are serious about getting attention, or perhaps just letting off steam. Yet another example was seen in Zimbabwe, where protesting isn't really allowed on account of Robert Mugabe not finding it amusing. Now these people actually have something to protest- drought, food shortages, economic chaos, skyrocketing HIV/AIDS rates, and a full blown Dictatorship. All three of these protests were overcome by the tried and true technique of taking hostages, or as governments prefer to call it, arrests. In each case several hundred were arrested and then things chilled out. I guess that is the definition of a protest- complaining right up until the authorities crack down, at which time you either continue and make it a riot, or disperse and make it a waste of time.

Cowardice

Of all the worlds we could have made, this is the one we did. That isn't meant to be cynical, merely concisely honest. As a historian I know how we got here, but as a person I must ask why. At present, the only answer that comes to mind is cowardice. People will do just about anything if they are afraid. It can make one compromise every moral, break every vow, betray anyone and do things you sincerely thought yourself incapable of. Fear is the way in which all authority is established, expanded and maintained. By authority I mean the phenomenon in which one person or group gives orders and another follows them. Each revolution was the result of people caring more about a cause than their own safety. Consequently they were able to overthrow a regime; lamentably only to establish new ones. All the great things man has ever done was the result of overcoming that craven weakness that dims the soul and displaces the heart. Mankind is really only separated from the animal kingdom in that we scare and then do things completely out of harmony with the rest of the planet. One common way in which people deal with it is to inspire fear in others in an attempt to cloak their own, both from others and themselves. Apathy is another common defensive measure people use to counter being scared. It is said that the shrugging of ones shoulders is a behavioral trait that dates back to the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution. Everyday people would gather round the guillotine to watch the executions and would instinctively cringe when the blade fell. After 20,000 heads had rolled the novelty had worn off, but not the innate twinge at seeing something as awful as another person being decapitated. I see this trait alive today when people are confronted with evil. They prefer to follow in the Parisians footsteps and shrug, as opposed to doing something about it. So much simpler to be complicit as opposed to explicit. How much easier to chase after money rather than ones dreams. I deeply believe that all humans are born with hearts of resplendent valor that can only be tamed through many years of organized effort on the part of others. A wise leader once stated 'we have nothing to fear but fear itself'. Humanity must take that statement to heart if we hope for our lot to improve.

The Market

The DOW took a rather abrupt dive today, one that made stockholders around the world shudder. If Voltaire were alive today, I've no doubt that he would readily adapt his famous quote to say 'If the market didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent it'. In all fairness the level of commitment and uniform faith that the world is starting to have in this phantasmagoria is unprecedented. Hard to believe we once walked on the very same earth with the same bodies completely unencumbered with such an omnipresent concept as the market to dictate the nature of reality to us. From back alleys in Haiti to Wallstreet and on into the streets of Mumbai, the market is King. No government can last long against the onslaught of economic calamity. Indeed the EU is proving that even well established nations are little match for the forces of financial expediency. Money flows from one corner of the earth to the next like lava, destroying and reshaping all in its wake. Esoteric numbers, graphs and statistics wielded by a discordant crew of crazies we call economists does little to make anything resembling sense out of this madness. At this phase in the game it does no good to point out that the Emperor is wearing no clothes. Sure the people at the bottom are always ready to listen to any radical that dares make promises, but this leads to nothing more than class skirmishes that can lead to concessions, but never victory. The union of the worlds workers was not done through socialism or international communism; it was the market that bound them all together. When I was young I decried Capitalism as the mother of all evils, the well of death and sure sign of the impending Apocalypse. Now I can't help but marvel as nations fade away, race becomes insignificant, religions are discarded as trash and the scramble for money approaches all encompassing proportions. The idealists dreamed of a brotherhood of man- liberte, equalite, fraternite. What we ended up with is a world where liberty is obsolete, equality is an economic impossibility and fraternity is a joke that politicians never tire of telling (eg 'my fellow Americans'). I type all of this without any trace of regret at the path that mankind has chosen to sprint down with the passionate panic that so defines our species. Idealist intellectuals have this habit of painting human beings as helpless little peons in need of guidance and tutelage. I choose to take a different opinion of homo sapiens. People work together out of some innate instinct to network. Only language, religion and race has ever proved really effective at pitting otherwise identical groups of people against one another. All three of these are being eroded daily by the mighty market. We all wanna get rich- the market makes us rich- we all must adhere faithfully to the market. Of course this is all the western side of the deal. Not sure if factory workers in Dhaka really have all that much faith in the market, but they probably acknowledge that international financiers in far off skyscrapers control their lives. We as people have this amazing ability of collectively agreeing upon things which don't exist anywhere except in our minds, and the market is just another manifestation of this talent.