Fragment, on Origens.

I grew up in near East Texas, north of Houston, where the Piney Woods mix and mingle with the more deciduous Central Texas Post Oak Savannah, to the West. Bounded by the San Jacinto, on the east, and the Brazos, to the West.

Our neighborhood, was composed of both types of forest…was somewhat isolated, and had a Railroad as it’s off-center Axis…running north-south.

I remember when I was 5, venturing, for the first time, out of the yard…up a dog-trail, into the Woods.

These Woods would later be the Center of the World…on the slopes of what we called the Hill. A crossroads of two Stagecoach Tracks was situated there…over the years, many artifacts were accidentally discovered…skillets, wagon hubs, and the like. To think that this very oak tree sheltered soldiers and settlers…At the hill, nigh the fence across the road(which was adjacent a big field), ancient bricks were scattered…remains of a sawmill, owned by the man who had cleared this country, and from whom my Grandad had purchased our 10 acres. That man’s house, or the ruins of it, were down the Hill to the west, towards the Tracks, stuck into the belt of almost Jungle that paralleled the Railroad. Remains of kitchen items, lilies from someone’s kitchen garden, now-wild roses…it was an eerie place, especially at night.

In later years, this was the Shortcut to the Tracks…

The Long Way, was by the black top road…which led away north, ere turning west to the Railroad, the Highway(149) and the World, at large. The road skirted the dense Pine Forest, the Presley place…and behind that was Nanduhirion(too much Tolkien), dense Woods, crossed by logging roads, and containing hidden pools, the site of much Reveling in later years…

From that first venture into the Woods, at 5, my World steadily, if slowly, expanded. Folks set limits, which were exceeded, as our audacity grew…before long, we were all over, running through the trails we had cut, in camouflage,(red dawn/Rambo) sneaking up on Train Men, hiding from passing cars(we usually weren’t where we were supposed to be)…eventually Riding Trains…wandering far and wide.

Until I was around 13, I was alone…save for my younger brother…Justin didn’t move in, till then. Brother had buddies his age, while I was apart.

We had great Campouts, at the Hill…the first fort was there…and the first Fire Pit…ashes can still be found, there, at the Center of the World.

Exploding cans of ranch style beans, inadvertently kicked into the fire…trails of burning gasoline in the road, to freak out the paper guy, at 4am…caches of tools, porn mags and explosives…liberated from the Trains and assorted equipment left at the Tracks…

My first drink, New Years Eve, when we were 15…me an ML snuck into Rickett’s Barn, at the hill…after watching their drunken revel for several hours…all staggered home, leaving the barn, and the keg, open. Almost passed out on the tracks that night…which probably should have foretold the disasters to come…awoke to the sweeping headlight of an oncoming Train, horn blowing, rushing up to us…I woke ML, and we escaped…throwing rocks at the wheels, watching the sparks…

I can still taste that first beer…PBR.

All of this is hazy…seen as if through mist…due, I suspise, to the Wreck, and the intervening Wild Years…my 20’s.

I get real nostalgic, overcome with forgotten things, when I return there.The pine trees that were a mere 10 feet tall on the misty September morning when Pop died, are now 50 feet high…the “Stairs”, “Hole in the Wall”,and other fortifications are still discernable, in the Jungle-like growth…staging areas to wait for the Engine to pass, on the sidetrack, so we could board the Trains…by moonlight, and early morning, rain or shine…ride for a while, then jump and roll, on the sand pile, still extant, beside a certain part of the Tracks….then run back and board it again. Talking, at the Crossing, to Trainmen, waiting for a passing freight…on their way to Teague, and on up into the heartland of America, then back, to Houston, the Ship Channel, and the starving people of the World. Wanderlust…engendered by the tales they told, as well as our own explorations…a Wanderlust that has never left me, even now, in my Cripplehood….Further!

We used to communicate, over distance, by “Howling”…just what it sound like…I remember a late summer morning, before the roof of the first Fort was completed, Howling for Justin…a coolness in the air, approaching Fall…the sharpness of the distant stand of Pines…crispness of the air…

And the morning Pop died, we had to meet the bus at Justin’s…there were deer, in the mist, among the small trees in the field…

And the early morning 3am when me and ML, nodding around the fire, at the Hill, heard the coyotes and owls, echoing through the Pines, up from the Creek Bottom…and another, wilder sound…Bigfoot…otherworldly screech/howl…silencing the others…moonlit fog in the pine boughs…

I procured old USGS maps from Gagoo, and, together with stories of my parent’s Wild Years in those same Woods, we set out, beyond the Neighborhood..into the Great Woods, the Creek Bottom (Lake Creek), and the Bog…a deep depression where my Dad had lost a deer, decades before…impenetrable Thickets…a Bald Hill, deep in the Woods, that my Mom spoke of, that I, however, only found once, at sunset…and got lost on the way out…a bic lighter for seeing, and surrounded by Eyes…I made my way out, and home.

Later, (I believe it was Justin) and I crossed Lake Creek, on one of our Wanders…got lost, and spent the night, with a fire, and ten thousand eyes…heard the train in the morning, giving us a direction Home.

When I was 15, an oil rig went up, at the back side of Nanduhirion…me and Justin investigated, by moonlight…his dog kept running from our hide, along the ponds, into the bright lights from the rig…the workmen never knew that they were watched…

Trainmen, too, rarely knew of our presence. Justin overheard them once, talking about the long red headed wild man, in the woods…that was me, of course…my first Mythical Incarnation, as it were…

There were six foot Rattlesnakes, Eastern Diamondbacks, in those woods…I grew up along side them…in retrospect, it’s a minor miracle that either they, or the Trains, didn’t get us…

By the time I was 15, mind filled with Books, the Wanderlust was becoming very Powerful…I’d stand at the Hill and feel the Universe, out there…a Universe of Experience, People, Places…The fuzzy Boundaries of our Neighborhood were closing in…

I began to Leave, at 16…when Mom ran me off for Rebellion….I finally, for real, left, several years later, when the heat was hot, the cops were after me, and there was no question as to whether my two hometowns any longer wanted me around…

Pons Asinorum

From my Library window,

, I can see the developing Mesquite Beans…trees are full, this year…

It’ll be a good crop.

I am confident that we are the only folks around here that will take advantage of it.

The Trucks still run, after all…three times a week, to what passes as a supermarket.

Soon, now that the Garden is done, for now…I’ll set to work on the Grey Water.

How many thousands of gallons wasted, sent down the drain to be mixed, irretrievably, with the Black?

A simple diversion, of the kitchen sink, and the bathtub..and the Garden is taken care of.

It’s all illegal, of course.

I won’t even ask the city…

I have the intention of running this cast off water through a Biofilter…a kind of built Wetland, of stones and gravel and sand and cattails(an almost perfect food,btw) and papyrus…then off to the Garden.

The Conventional “Wisdom”, that set of assumptions, that Entities like the city operates under, is no longer applicable.

We, here in arid Central Texas, cannot afford the wanton waste we are accustomed to.

As Ive said, great herds of cattle pass through this tiny outpost every week…yet, when one goes to the supermarket, the beef comes from hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away…lamb, when available, originates in Australia! This, after driving past 1000 sheep!

When I first arrived at the idea of Peak Oil, it was considered “Fringe”, “Conspiracy Theory”. In the almost 10 years since then, it has become less and less so…It’s in all the magazines that matter, Natgeo, Economist, Time…but it’s not on TV…so it must not exist.

35 years ago, during the Oil Shocks of the 70’s, we faced a crossroads.

The idea of PO was well known at the upper levels, of course(since the 50’s, at least)…but the Oil Shocks threatened to wake everybody up. Jimmy Carter came on TV, in a sweater, and said that we’d have to get used to a lower standard of living, start reworking our Civilisation to use ever less oil and gas…Solar Panels on the White House.

The Movers and Shakers of the world had other ideas…Reagan, Morning in America(when it was really late afternoon), a return to big cars, conspicuous consumption…just about everything needed to make the situation exponentially Worse.

Asinus ad Lyram, indeed!

I’ve been thinking, for years, about building a Gas Digester…a compost pile/latrine that takes Waste, and turns it into Methane (“Natural Gas”) and safe, nonpathogenic Fertilizer. I have a 55 gallon tank for a prototype…this is likely illegal, in the city, as well

I’m not even gonna ask.

Better to beg for forgiveness…

Even all this ain’t gonna save us…it’s just whittling.

There are 4000 folks within 30 miles of me…and there ain’t a one of them thinking about these things…

Or, if a few are, they are paralyzed…the Problem seems insurmountable.

Any solution would require enormous expenditure, short and medium term…and yield results only after the Conventional “Wisdom” , BAU, has Failed.

That scenario grows closer by the day.

Part of me, when observing the current shenanigans in DC, is breathless…it’s finally collapsing.

I’ve thought this before, of course…the PTB always seem to find a way to keep the rickety Machine lurching forwards…At some point, however, the Baling Wire and Bandaids will no longer be enough. The sand of reality, in the gearbox of Civilisation, will have it’s effect…and things will no longer work.

I have always said,”the sooner the better”…in spite of the pain and suffering that will ensue, even a Die Off.

Better to get the Burning Times over with, while there’s still a functioning Biosphere.

I maintain that the longer the Machine holds together, the worse it will be, when it finally Fails. The Machine’s intolerance of Alternative Means of Survival ensures that we all go down with the ship.

Alternatives must be pursued in relative secrecy, and relative solitude.

…as in the above City Policies….and the stories that come from all over, about folks being made into criminals for such silliness as growing a Garden, in their front yard.

Barba tenus sapientes! “Wise, as far as the Beard!”…as a Habitual, if Feral, Philosopher, these musings always lead me to uncomfortable places…

Are we, as a species, that stupid?

Sadly, it appears that we are.

Still…a Fool’s Hope, is still Hope.

Teabagging the Global Debt Machine

How ironic, that the architects of the imminent Doom of the global debt based economic system, are the creations of it’s greatest beneficiaries. The current crisis, artificially imposed on the national agenda, is, at root, a crisis of Faith.

The System relies on Faith…..Faith that that green piece of paper, with arcane symbols printed on it, is actually Worth Something…Faith that it has Value.

I’ve advocated a tearing down of the entire edifice of the Machine for a long time…the Machine is too large, complex and composed of “fixes” piled upon “fixes” to ever be “reformed” sufficiently…to be made Ethical, etc. I’ve said that it must, instead, be destroyed, so that we can begin again…and hopefully, this time, construct something that is both Ethical, as well as Sustainable.

This Creature of the corporate Machine, the so-called Tea Party Movement, is on the verge of doing just that.

I do not think that this was it’s intended function…there must be quite a bit of Freaking Out, in the boardrooms and Think Tanks, at this moment….perhaps akin to Einstein, and colleagues, watching news reels of Hiroshima…”What have we done?”

The Fast-Crash, versus Slow Crash Arguments we had at Latoc are about to become Moot. This is the economic iteration of the Protestant Reformation…95 Theses, nailed to the Door…The long, slow decline…the slope we were coasting down …at the end of which was likely a sudden drop…has been replaced by a hard right turn, right off the adjoining cliff…

I’d like to be a fly on the wall…rather, several hundred flies on as many walls…

Obama can, of course, use the machinery of the Imperial Presidency (thanks, George…) to Unilaterally “raise the debt ceiling”…it’s kind of arbitrary, any way…

Similarly, the Fed, and Bernanke, could Cancel the Debt “we owe to ourselves”…thus averting the “crisis”…

Or, the Tea People in the House could cave…

But, does it really matter, at this point?

The proverbial cat is out of the bag….and it appears to be lifeless.

Money is fiction.

All this current Kabuki is doing is stripping away the collective Hallucination that Money ever had any “Value” in the first place.

Should be an interesting time to be alive.

However, a warning is in order….the Forces of Darkness, those who support the Machine…from Economists to Modern day Prophets to would be Dictators are waiting in the wings for just such a crisis.

Folks of a of a more Liberal Orientation should be, as well…with a New Paradigm in hand.

Christ Militant

Saw this…http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/item/17841-he-who-casts-the-first-stone …regarding the group Repent Amarillo. This group has, on it’s web site, a “spiritual warfare map” of the city, wherein they identify locations “in need of spiritual cleansing”…casting out of demons, and the like.

My usual caveats apply…I will defend, to the death, these folks Right to believe in whatever Crazy they like..but, the First Amendment doesn’t cover Militant Assholeishness, when it harms folks…or makes them into targets. (http://www.blog.repentamarillo.com/map/)

This is part of a growing, and worrisome trend in America, today. The rise of the Religious Right, as they are called, has been an ongoing curiosity since the late 70’s. They have been a political sin qua non of Republican office-seekers since Reagan, at least. And they have hidden behind the First Amendment every time they’ve been challenged….”Oh! You’re persecuting us because we’re Christians!”.

Sigh.

In recent years, they have insinuated themselves into all branches of Government…and began stealthily remaking our institutions to better suit their Worldview. Most egregious, to my mind, is the recent actions of the “Texas Taliban”…the Board of Education, rewriting History…and mandating that their version of history be taught in Public Schools. Taliban members, by their own statements, have had no shame in letting us know exactly what they were trying to accomplish: a forced institution of Theocratic Ideals. (see :Cynthia Dunbar, Don McElroy, David Barton, the list is long. (http://www.rightwingwatch.org/ has a good list))

They are under the impression that the USA is a Christian Nation…and they cherry-pick the statements of the Founding Fathers to support that view. It’s all nonsense, of course…but folks seem to have a tendency to believe Nonsense when it supports their prejudices.

The USA was founded as a Secular Nation. Sorry, but that’s the Fact. It is a product of Liberalism…the Enlightenment…sorry, but that, too, is a Fact.

Most of the Founders were Deists (a watch implies a watchmaker…who winds it up, and has no further involvement)….Fact.

In the world they intend, there is no room for Non-Christians…or Queers, or Uppity Women, or anything resembling Free Thought….all that will get ya stoned to death , if these folks get their way (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominionism) (http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/david-barton-advocates-seven-mountains-dominionism) (http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm)

Most of the “mainstream” Religious Right Leaders don’t like to talk about this stuff , in public…but they’ve been outed many times…and the more extreme ideas have been moving more and more onto center stage.

Gov. Rick Perry’s upcoming “Response” prayer rally, in Houston’s Reliant Center, this August should put any confusion about this to rest.( http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fact-sheet-gov-rick-perry%E2%80%99s-extremist-allies)

On the one hand, this is a cynical pandering to the extremist vote, by a slick likely Presidential Contender.

On the other, it’s a wake up call to all those Americans who do not share these folks view of what America is all about.

If anyone reads this, I’ll likely be called “AntiChristian”, or something…a member of the Liberal Conspiracy to sacrifice God-Fearing, Real Americans to Satan….sigh. The rhetoric is not new, by any means.

My question, to these Crusaders: If/when you “win” your Culture War, and “take back the country for Jesus”, what do you intend to do with folks like me? Are there pitchforks and torches in my future? A good, old fashioned Stoning? An Auto de Fe?

Your rhetoric leads me to expect such things, if you ever do “win”.

I, once again, am an American…a seventh generation Texan…I trace my lineage back to the brother of one David Crockett…sons of Pioneers , etc.

Whether you like it or not, it’s my country, too.

I support your Right to exist, and to say what you want(with certain caveats(“fire” in a theater, etc)), believe what you like…hang out with who you like…all the Rights of an American. Am I not to be afforded the same consideration?

Is there no room, in your “America” for anyone who is different from you?

My concerns about this movement have, in the past, been met with incredulity…Pshaw!

Turns out I was not far from the mark.

If unchallenged, these folks will make America a Hell-on Earth.

I’ll not go quietly.

Roundup roadblock.

Sheriff makes me nervous…perhaps he’s brusque and bristling with everyone…but I got some heavy and suspicious vibes from him. I was informed that my inspection sticker is six months expired…lol. I’ve never been one to give much mind to such things, but perhaps this might include me in another Profile…

I am certainly Absentminded.

He seemed threatened, somehow…like I, or something else, might bite him.

That’s when to Fear Cops.

I tried, in my ineffectual, feral way to be polite, engaging…he started with suspicion/paranoia…the Vibe was unmistakable.

I guess it was himself, the Sheriff…it’s been a long time since I’ve seen him…I haven’t had truck with LEO’s in quite a while…I wave to Louis, that’s about it.

I like it that way, as me and Cops have never really gotten along…since the Mippy/Shauna Affair…and my resultant Persecution. I simply don’t Trust them, in general(as unfair as generalizations, generally are).

My Spidey Sense always bristles…and I feel my Otherness.

I endeavor to avoid Imperial Entanglements, of all stripes.

It shouldn’t be this way.

On the one hand, They, in effect, declared War on Me…Drug War, GWOT, and the AntiLiberal/AntiHippie Campaigns that have entertained us for the last century…Criminalising Dissent, even Perceived Difference …any Deviation from some ill defined Norm is suspect.

On the other, They work for me, as much as anyone else. I am a Taxpayer…and more importantly, an American Citizen. While it is not (currently) Overt Oppression, it is Oppression, all the same…this Vibe I feel whenever I’m eye to eye with a LEO. I have endeavored to engage Cops before, with little success. Lil Joe and Paul and Dale and Bill were notable exceptions. Louis is at least trustworthy…and not prone to Ideology. I can expect a fair shake and by-the-book with him. The rest, in my experience, are victims, as it were, of the Us/Them Mentality one reads about in some (mostly Liberal) circles.

A lot of that comes from Fear…I understand and sympathise…but their subsequent attitude and behaviour makes it worse.

I realize that I am sensitive to this stuff, due to my early history….see “Outlaw”…but others have noticed the “special treatment” I seem to get from my Employees.

Sigh.

On Juries and the First Amendment

The notion that the jury might acquit defendants "in the

teeth of both law and factsn7 has been deeply rooted in Anglo-

American law. Thematically, the foundational jury nullification

cases have been political cases involving the prosecution of

crimes of conscience against the government or the prevailing

social order.* Because of the preponderance of cases in the

literature, the jury nullification debate has been characterized

, by an analysis peculiar to these cases, that is, the dynamic of

a legally guilty defendant being acquitted because of… the jury's

rejection of an unpopular law or an oppressive government or

the jury's embrace of the position of conscience held by the

accused ” (Dorfman, David N., "Fictions, Fault, and Forgiveness: Jury Nullification in a New Context" (1995). Pace Law Faculty Publications.

Paper 532.

http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/lawfaculty/532)

To the point…” the jury's

rejection of an unpopular law or an oppressive government or

the jury's embrace of the position of conscience held by the

accused.” (ibid)

When one is called to Jury Duty, the Judge and Prosecutor and Defense Counsel put you through something called Voir Dire…”In the United States, it now generally refers to the process by which prospective jurors are questioned about their backgrounds and potential biases before being chosen to sit on a jury.”(from the Wiki article,’voir dire’)

In my experience, the Prosector runs this show, while the Defense Counsel plays second fiddle….and the Judge reads, or is otherwise occupied.

The purpose of this exercise is, ostensibly, to weed out those who are “not suitable”…a very subjective judgment.

There has been, for many years now, a concerted effort by Jurists and Prosecutors to push down the Memory Hole a time honored concept….Jury Nullification.

Jurors, and potential Jurors, are “Instructed” as to their Duties…by the closest Authority Figure , the Judge or his delegate. These Instructions are often in such arcane and technical language, that the average Juror cannot fully understand them.(wiki;”jury instructions”)

That aside, increasingly…and over many years…Jurors have been instructed that their Duty lies solely in the finding of Fact..

Any mention of “Nullification” is the surest way for a potential Juror to be excused…and if such sentiments are well concealed by said Juror, so that he becomes a member of the Petit Jury, Nullification (or it’s advocacy) often ends in Contempt charges. Judges and Prosecutors really dislike the idea of Nullification.

So, what is Nullification?

From the Wikipedia article:” Jury nullification is a de facto and traditional power of juries. Judges rarely inform juries of their nullification power. The power of jury nullification derives from an inherent quality of most modern common law systems—a general unwillingness to inquire into jurors' motivations during or after deliberations. A jury's ability to nullify the law is further supported by two common law precedents: the prohibition on punishing jury members for their verdict, and the prohibition (in some countries) on retrying defendants after an acquittal (see related topics res judicata and double jeopardy).”

I’ll go further than this…Nullification is the Power of the Jury to Judge the Law, itself.

“

Jefferson was an advocate of this approach, believing that Juries represented the last line of defense, against Tyranny….of Government, run amok. In America of the early 21^st Century, such a check on Government overreach is much needed. Post 9-11, the Surveillance State has grown by mighty leaps…often without one arm knowing what the other is doing. The War on Terror, in my opinion, merely expanded the Overreach that was begun by the “War on Drugs”…which, in turn, flowed from the Anti-Communist Hysteria that continually reared it’s head during the 20^th Century. The effect of all these “Wars” has been a gradual, de facto, Repeal of much of the Bill of Rights….especially the Fourth, and I’ll argue, the First Amendments.

This gets to the very heart of what I’m on about, this morning…It is my First Amendment Right to Freedom of Conscience to which the anti Nullification Movement does Injury.

If I am to try a case involving, say…a person accused of violating a Blue Law, against the sale of alcohol at 11 am, Sunday morning…my Conscience dictates that the Law, itself, is Unjust….and, thus, unenforceable. Similarly, if the Accused is before me for Smoking a Cigarette in a public park, when there is an Ordinance against such behaviour…my Conscience is very clear…the Law, itself is Wrong.

Is my Conscience to be left at the Courthouse door?

The opposition to Nullification would have it so…and maintain that , in fact, a Jury is merely an arm of the Government….poorly paid Lackeys, who must do as they’re told, by Authority Figures.

On the contrary…I maintain that Authority is not given the Judge, the Prosecutor, nor anyone else, to Compel me to ignore the Dictates of my Conscience. Behind the First Amendment Guarantees of Freedom of Speech, Religion, Assembly, the Press, and Redress lies the freedom to Form one’s own Thoughts…to devise one’s own system of Ethics and Morality, and to then Live by them.

In this Age of Giant Government, and distant, if not Deaf, “Representatives”, there is little that the common man can do to check the advance of Tyranny. Nullification, of the Law, itself, by the Jury…and, necessarily, in the particular Case, before it…is an Important, if largely forgotten, Right and Duty.

I encourage my Countrymen to Think about these things, and to remember them when they are called to serve in such a capacity.

Carpe Libertatem,

ECUMENE

First, let me get the caveats and disclaimers out of the way…I am wholly against anything resembling the practice, known in Protestantism as “Witnessing”, or more generally, as “Proselytizing”. I find the forcing of one’s beliefs and prejudices on another to be abhorrent, and not conducive to civil society, nor progress, in general.

That said, as a lifelong student of Comparative Mythology, I have identified a number of interesting places to visit (all within 100 miles of me) that relate to this study.

There is a large Hindu Temple, just outside of Austin ….

A Greek Orthodox Church, right downtown, …a Zen Buddhist Retreat…and , of course, the Fire and Brimstone Street Preachers are always a Hoot.

In San Antonio, there is a Large Synogogue … also the Missions…and I’ve heard tell of a Trappist Monestary, as well as a Cistercian, hereabouts…

Things I’ll hafta look for; something Islam, something Unitarian, something Quaker…perhaps some examples of Mysticism, from the various quarters, ie. Kabbalah, Sufi (especially the Rumi Variety),….I have fond memories of a loud, Jumpin’ African-American Baptist Church…actually several…in East Texas…in the one I lived next door to, the Preacher played Bass..organ, choir…the place really Rocked!

I’ve read all the Holy Books…at least cursorily. It would be interesting to visit these places, see how it’s applied…art music, etc…

I’d probably feel better getting advance permission from these folks, before just showing up…for one, I’d rather not be “Witnessed”…I ain’t gonna be converted…

For another, I reckon it would be just polite to advise these folks of my intentions…and my non-threatening nature.

As I’ve said, I’m happy as a lark with my own, private, non-dogmatic approach to/ dealings with…the Divine…I’m just curious , and interested in, the various approaches to the apprehension of Reality.

ΠΑΘΕΙ ΜΑΘΟΣ

There are Figures on the ceiling,

If one knows how to look;

British in retreat, red tails flapping,

Teepees, beside a creek…

All in the peeling plaster, and water stained drywall.

Cone of Vision,

Field of view,

Extending out of two near windows,

As well as the two that I can see, through other rooms.

Trees and Birds, and that Chick with the nice ass,

Sashaying down the street,

Three times a day…

One takes diversion where one finds it.

Imprisoned.

Arthritic chains….

Modern Myth

Secular MythMaking

Applied Mythology.

Twist our Minds

Unrecognizable.

Dark Secular Magicians…plotting.

The Long Game.

Whereby the Creatures become more Real

Than the Creators…forgotten,

The Act of Creation.

Money, as Fetish…Holy Cracker, laced with Mind-Poison.

We eat it up, beg for more..

Prostrate before the Magicians..

Darkness.

Sour Wine of Belief,

Contrary to our interests.

We drink

Drown in the Magicians’ proffered cup.

Forgetful…

Of our Power.

Hallucinations of the Ordinary,

As Millionaire.

Grovel at their feet,

Those Dark Magicians…

Our Time will come…

Surely, our time will come.

Kill our Allies…

Forsake our friends.

Sidle up to the Magicians’ feet…

Kiss the Ring.

Commodified Soul.

Everything must go!

On Conformism and Hegemony

.

My Mom turned me on to Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself", when I was around 4th grade
(Uncle Walt)...I was getting in trouble at school for habitually wearing a baseball
cap....for some reason this was a "Serious Offense"...( I now know that it had to do with
the ridicule and teasing I suffered as a result of my ears(Fly away))
I had already been deep into Tolkien, and Homer, Bullfinch and even Asimov...but this
was something new...and Profound.
A celebration of the Individual, and exegesis on what it means to be a Free Human
Being...a True American.
How very different from everything else, that had come before!
Here was at least one person who was saying, eloquently, that it was not only our
Sacred Right to be Different...it was Our Duty....that it was quintessentially American to
be a Strange Duck.
Quoting Leaves of Grass, and especially Thoreau's Civil Disobedience (which followed
soon after Uncle Walt) had almost no effect on the Principal...indeed, he visably bristled
at such sentiments. It began to dawn on me that school was all about something else
besides Learning....it was, primarily it turns out, all about Conformity...molding Young
Minds into docile followers of Authority.
Something, Native to Me, Rebelled at this....at this early time, Inarticulate and Murky.
Over the next 5-6 years, my reading and research and experiences confirmed this
Rebellion.Jefferson, Einstein, Da Vinci ,Joseph Campbell, the Beats...all extolled the
Virtues of being One's Own Person....of following One's Own Mind and Reasoning.
Reading about the 60's and 70's...the Music, and Zeitgeist...all confirmed my growing
suspicion, that Conformism and Deferment to Authority, were not the Essence of Being
Human...especially an American Human.
I didn't realise it till much later, but this flew in the face of Reagan's Morning in
America...The Conservative Revolution...the Pendulum swinging to the Right, and
sticking there...
I became Contrary...in perpetual Resistance to Authority and Conformism. The more
the Powers that Be (school administration,etc) pushed, attempted to hammer me into
the approved mold, the more I Rebelled. Later, it was Cops...and Bosses.
Who were these people to Dictate how I should be?!
And how utterly different from the Ideals and, indeed, Morality that I derived from my
independent study. What would Jefferson do...if faced with a quasigovernmental
Authority who insisted that I cut my hair?
The answer is obvious to whomever reads what that man wrote...he would Rebel,
eloquently.
Around this time, I determined that what we had been taught about "drugs" was largely
False...and I was beginning to realise that much else that we were expected to believe,
implicitly and without reflection, was almost Total Bullshit.
It flew in the face of what the Founders and many of our culture's most esteemed writers
and philosophers had actually said and believed and advocated.
What a realisation!
All is Bullshit!
Our "Civilisation" is built on a foundation of Lies and Hypiocrisy and Double Standards!
I am only now, 25 years later, able to articulate my reaction to this phenomenon.
I have been using the phrase "Cultural Hegemony" for a couple of years, now. I recently
learned that an Italian Marxist (Gramsci) coined it. The usual thing is for folks to
assume that this means that I am a Marxist, and believe everything Gramsci believed.

This is due to the very Cultural Hegemony that I'm talking about!
We are "supposed" to accept the Conventional "Wisdom"...without reflection. Any
deviation is to be labeled...in this case, as Marxist, Socialist, Communist...indeed,
Unamerican. The Manichean, Black/White Dichotomy, operative here, lumps us into
opposing camps, whether it makes any sense, or not. There is, even, an Orwellian
Doublethink at work...it's not necessary that it "Make Sense" or stand up to Scrutiny...we
are not supposed to Want to Scrutinise it! It is implied, in the Rhetoric and Actions of the
PTB that such scrutiny is inherently Bad...Unamerican. No Nuance will be tolerated...all
is Black and White...if one sees and acknowledges Grey, one is dangerous. Further, the
very existence of a PTB is held to be so fantastic , that any talk of such things will be
seen as evidence of mental illness! Speak of the "Establishment", or the Dominant
Culture, and aspersions are cast...reflexively..."Commie" "Hippie", etc...all synonyms for
"Bad"..."unamerican"...
How far from Jefferson's Ideal we have come!
We have gotten farther from it, every year, since...
Pluralism, not Hegemony...Individualism, not Conformity...is what is needed...indeed, it
is more important, now, in this age of Economic and Environmental "Disruption", and
the Resource Depletion that accompanies them, than ever.
The Monism, the Enforced Conformism, of the Machine must be resisted, if the human
Race, let alone the American Republic, is to survive. New ways of doing things must be
tried, even if (especially if) they fail. The Old Ways have brought us to ruin....and the
Machine (or PTB, or "Establishment" Culture), while resisting any meaningful change,
will nevertheless be forced to change...by Economics, and by Nature, Herself.
By resisting change, the Machine is only making things worse.
There is a Mindless Reflexiveness at work , here.
As I've alluded to, I consider the Machine, our "Civilisation" as a sort of Organism. This
Organism doesn't want to be Challenged...there is a lot of evidence that it's
Foundational Assumptions cannot withstand Scrutiny...hence, TINA (There Is No
Alternative)(see; Maggie Thatcher)...
We are all but forbidden , certainly discouraged, from contemplating
Alternatives...(see;Cuba, and the History of the CIA)...there is a Great , Troubling Fear,
that any Contemplation of Alternative Modes of Living in the World, will cause Rational
Folks to abandon the Paradigm. And there is good reason for this Fear. The Paradigm,
it becomes clearer, is Counterproductive and Unsustainable.
What becomes of those Individuals and Institutions, that are the Machine, when they
are opened to Scrutiny...and are found to be Wanting? The Machine Paradigm enjoys a
sort of Secular Religious status...as contradictory as that sounds.
Consider the long clash between Religion and Science...the same thing is operative,
here. We have our various Inquisitions...our Secular Christ Militant...our Secular
Crusades...From AntiCommie Hysteria to the War on Drugs to the War on Terror to the
War on Sexuality...TeaPeople as Defenders of the Faith...Glenn Beck, or Ronald
Reagan, as Pope Innocent....Corporate "Capitalism" and Cultural Hegemony as the
One True Faith!
....and those who are courageous enough to Think, "Outside the Box", as the Heritics,

Infidel("choice-makers", "Faithless"(!))...

rant

alone and friendless is how I feel.

wife's gone a lot, coaching, etc...I'm stuck at home, no money, no place to go, noone to

talk to.alone with my mind, and the pain.
Boys come home, and by that time of day, I'm exhausted...and generally in incredible

pain...
so they are bored...days like today, when i would normally drink beer, i must refrain,

because my jitney service is needed at regular intervals throughout the day, from 7am

to 7pm, or thereabouts.i dont have enough pain meds to get through a month...but i am

afraid to mention it, for fear of that being labeled' drug seeking behaviour'.
tomorrow, saturday, she'll be gone all day, as well...and i'll hafta contrive to entertain

the kids...again, with no money, and very little energy....and too much pain, i'm sure.
no one to talk to.
i saw wife, alone (or for the most part) for all of 5 minutes,yesterday.
then it's bedtime, alone, for me...and solitude.
I awake at 4am...in solitude.
househusband's lament...except there's not an accepted analog.
latoc is gone...and in place of it's raucous erudition is facebook...a latoc for dummies, for

the incurious narcissists, so prevalent, today.(there are gems, and they know who they

are)
and the everpresent trolls seem to think they are needed whenever someone who calls

himself liberal deigns to raise his head....pummeling them with reiteration.
i am bored.
my own mind as my only company.
i listen to internet radio...all things liberal...i write the occasional letter...and generate

some meager response from a handful of other reclusive homebodies.
the Machine has won, however....
.the great multitude of my countrymen, by all indications, are uncomprehending

boobs...a gaggle of angry geese...superstitious goats, who's understanding of the world

can be summed up in soundbites and slogans...
cotton minded herds of blue-dog-d or r ...mostly r, around here....especially the odious

tea people kind of r ...waving flags triumphantly, dutifully repeating the

soundbites...devoid of understanding, or nuance.

and, for 10 years, the vision of the approaching Darkness becomes ever clearer..
no one wants to hear about this, of course...
although,the same kind of vision has seeped into the local yokels from the right, ...it is

the endtimes...or a product of liberalism/socialism/etc
a secular end of the world, due to Human mismanagement of the planet, including the

human resources...is never considered.
such hyperpartisan, superstitious nonsense would be laughable if, like all good lies, it

didn't have at it's core, a kernel of very ugly truth.


it can only get worse.
those of my neighbors who are the natural democratic/liberal base...ie; in the Barrio,

have been threatened into silence..by a sheriff , for one, but it didn't begin

with him.
intimidation doesn't have to be as overt as during his 25 year reign ...he did

his job so well...hispanics silence themselves.dead body in the river, etc.all manner of whispered tales.
worse, it seems to have become habit....few talk politics...what there is is selfserving

lulac/la raza agitation for personal gain....fomenting division/rivalry.
everyone else is, seemingly, apolitical.

there is no forum for non-right wing nutjobs.
democrats hide, keep their heads down...hold their tongue...lest there be any

repercussions. jobs are few, after all.and the threat of violence is always there, if never

overt...except when i, myself, was almost strangled for speaking my mind ...when

asked, no less...(george bush2 is a war criminal, and needs to be delivered in chains,

post haste, to the hague)
the insane right dominates...their teachers blithely spout partisan and right wing

religious rhetoric to school children...the president of these united states is censored,

while the right wing representative for this area is given a captive audience of

schoolkids....fox news is on tv in classrooms...highschool civics students are taught to

boo whenever bill clinton is mentioned...on and on....
when called on this, the school administration fails to see the problem...i guess i didn't

spell it out clearly enough...sigh.
what remains of the left, around here, is too polite to raise a stink when there is some

outrage...don't wanna upset folks...the right, the vast majority, doesn't notice the outrage

from the left...their outrages and nonsense and racism and exclusion of all but

themselves, well...it's just obvious that that's the way it is., and should be....why would

anyone be upset?...kids spraypainting nigger on a school bus...vanishes ftrom public

view...is not even mentioned in our 'news' paper. upon the election of a mulatto to the

white house, kids in highschool freely say that damn nigger...no one calls them on

it...even the few dems who work within earshot...they at least see the wrongness, and

are silent. the majority, apparently, sees things like this as just reality...secret muslim,

wall between church and state as myth,right wing ascendant,joe mccarthy cleansed

and beatified...why question?!
when asked, during the run up to the stolen '04 election, to man the dem booth for

roundup...i asked'should i bring a pillow?(ie the dems have a history of just laying

down, going to sleep.)later, at the parade, the same former sherriff, mentioned

above...and his hangers on...jeered and threatened the lone democratic float...
everyone looked the other way....wouldn't want to upset the applecart....

I long for the Salon!
I wanna drink absinthe with fellow travelers!
smoke pot with folks who are after something other than another kind of fucked up!
and know that pot doesn't equal pcp/heroin/etc...sigh.
rage against the stupidity and bullshit that surrounds us all!
traditionally, that is where true revolutions begin....it's why i started my little cafe....not

knowing of the giant lurch to the right that would follow 911...(i was told that my chef hat

looked an awful lot like a turban, and that perhaps i should reconsider wearing it in the

window, watching traffic...for my own safety)
now ,as always,we have zavalla's as the defacto townhall....poisonous food...and

everyone stops, turns around and stares, slackjawed...when an obvious outlander

comes in the door.
the epitome of small town smallmindedness...adults of the corn.
i resolved to never darken that door...might near 14 years ago....after the paper guy

bought a lunch that began with fermented salsa and stale chips.(i couldn't trust even the

coffee...so unsanitary was that place...coons in the sweetrolls!!!, because the back door

wouldn't close properly, and noone cared, least of all the boss, who exited by the

backdoor when the inspector came in the front!))(...by a quirk in the relevant law,

making an inspection impossible!..."he's on vacation")
I can hardly listen to music from the 60's and 70's because of the grief over what might

have been...the dirty fucking hippies were right, after all...mcgovern, and all he

represented, boiled into a soundbite featuring drugs and charlie manson...as if that

sums up a generation ,.....who have since drunk the koolaid.
the secret sequestered magicians of the right have certainly played a masterful game,

since before reagan.
mindfuck, writ large.
the left is as fault, too...probably more so....for giving up, assimilating....

for letting the worst among us ascend.


where are the babyboomers?
it seems that all that guff about establishment was just bullshit...


fucking hypocrites.

Aurevoir

I wrote that last (Epitaph) around 1986.
First poem that I liked.
I've since lost all my material from that time...so this is from memory.
Back thrn, everyone thought it was a suicide note(!)...but it was ,on the one hand, merely prophetic....and on the other, attempting to convey a deep need for a change of scenery...of circumstances...which wouldn't be fulfilled till much later.
When I woke up in Hermann, after that wreck, one of the first things that came to mind was the last part...about afterlife...and my Grandma, who happened to be sitting there(RIP), was worried....
Gagoo (what I called her...ergo, what everyone called her)...she was Conservative...but very Pragmatic, in a very Stoic sort of way. Being married to Pop (my Grandad) did that...as well as growing up in the Depression.
I have always, almost habitually, maintained an Alias...a Nom de Guerr....
at that time, I was still Joe D'moe.
Before, and much younger, I was Turin Architamon (!?).
The former served me well...kept the Cops confused...
I have been Amfortas, the Hippie,for ten years...
I derived this from a character in Parzifal whom I identified with.
Amfortas was the Grail King, the Fisher King...Wounded in the Thigh, a euphamism for Castration, loss of Potency.As a result of this Wound, the Kingdom, Monsalvaat, fell to Ruin...the Wasteland.Kept alive by the Grail, in wich the Spear of Destiny would be dipped, and applied to the Wound, he was nevertheless in Great Pain...
What would Heal Amfortas' Wound was the arrival of the Holy Fool, Parsifal...who would, innocently , ask the Holy Qustion..."Uncle, What ails thee?"...and the second qusestion,asked of the Grail,itself; "How do I serve thee?"
This would heal the King, and thereby, heal the Land...the Wasteland would bloom.

In real life, my Wife is playing the part of Parsifal....to my great Relief, and Happiness.
###########
I am going Dark.
It is pointless to argue, any more....
The country is split...the Factions cannot Compromise, as they live in Parallel Universes...
I grow weary of either preaching to the choir, or arguing with stumps...there is no dialog with the latter....
...and there is no "Middle"....save for the Apathetic Apolitical Mundanes....and these are even more tiresome.
My efforts will be Local...and mostly without fanfare.
Garden, Poultry,etc....perhaps I'll write a book,that no one will read or understand.
Major construction is finished around here...minor nibbling, like more insulation, and paint.
I shall go, at last, into the Monastery...and close the door....
And await the Fall of Empire.
There is nothing more to do, out here.

Adieu.

Epitaph, from Memory(original in... like, 1986)

...Think I may be fading out of Existance, soon.
Soaked up by tree Roots and field Mice...
Paint me like the sky, Momma...
...cause I'm ready to jump.
To soar.
And then maybe I'll fall, like rain.
And live quietly forever in deep woods and green fields,
and hollow logs,
and speak only with birds and turtles.
Or, maybe, disappear
Naked and Glorious,
with my Tangled Mop,
into a blue grotto on the west coast,
and haunt people on the Beach...
Then again, I might Exit, tomorrow...
A flaming ball of steel and hair and denim,
screaming into my afterlife of woods
and dirt.

Feb.23,2011

Winter is tiresome...even Painful.
This Winter was no less....and even more,
being unusually cold .
A constant battle, with pipes and wood,
and fires and high-dollar propane, ice,
snowsleet,
.. and temperatures below 20 for days; windchill,-10.
...and all this in too much clothing.
And Pain.
Suddenly, it's Warm...70-80...
Like waking from Hibernation...
but without feeling rested.
*******
(Geese are mating...avian Saturnalia in the kiddy-pool...
(there is always a cheering section, with Geese))
******
My list is long.
Manure is required...
the Anticipation of Green, after Winter's Browns.
I forsee Problems with the Food Supply.....
Ergo, the Garden must be Large.
...and I must find time for the Forge.
Collected the scattered pieces of me....I Remember, again.
And I am almost breathless, with Potential...
Slowly Thawing.

Time's Up.

Dig This:

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/no-jobs-no-hope-no-future-27-signs-that-americas-poverty-class-is-rapidly-be

coming-larger-than-americas-middle-class


What are the practical options that can be applied to mitigate this situation?
Since my disability, we have been a One Income Bunch.I am a Cripple....and have found myself contributing in many unorthodox, nonmonetary ways.
Wife is in Public Ed, as well as various and sundry part time adventures.
This is Texas, and they've suddenly discovered a gigantic Hole in the State Budget.
In Texas, the fill for such a Hole is usually to be found in the Poor, and in anything "Public"....which usually includes

Schools.
What are we gonna do if the one, major job goes the way of the buffalo?

I shall herein set out what I have been doing, and what I plan to do....as well as certain , Normative, Hypothetical things I would Like to see....to meet this challenge....


First, what we Are Doing.

I cook...mostly from Scratch...
I keep much raw material in Bulk Storage.
My Pantry, that used to be the Garage is larger than my Bedroom.
I keep chickens, geese and ducks...I rarely buy eggs...and we're almost to the point in Infrastructure where we can be at
least somewhat "Meat Independent"....
I also endeavor to keep a large Garden....this is a work in progress,necessarily...we've only been here a year and a
half. By next year, we can foresee being almost Food Independent...less things like Flour and Sugar.
I can...everything I that fits in a Mason Jar.

I am a Master N***er Rigger ( I know, I know)....I inherited from my Pop an abilty to "Walk by, and Get It Done"...often
with found materials. I have learned, through the years, how to Rig things in many fields...electric, gas, etc. We have
become very good at being Poor.
I try to have Triple Redundancy...but I will gladly settle for Double Redundancy.
As an example, we get City Water...real cheap (which I expect to change, at some point).
There are 3 existing wells on the property, as well. I have "capped" 2 of them, and the third has a Hand Pump ready to
go (waiting on a part). I also have 300 gallons of rainwater storage capacity (a 1" rain) and the gutters to fill it from the roof over one room.
I heat with wood and propane....(the cost of the latter is a good enough reason to get up off one's butt to try new things.)
By necessity (No Jack) we must do for ourselves.

What I intend to do:

I'd like to install more gutters, and more storage for rain....
Ideally, we could get the empty lot next door. The birds need more pasture, and I'd like to have enough room to keep a Burro...(transportation...I wanna build a wagon)
I also reckon I need a Commercial Kitchen, as i have all the equipment....
Not only would this afford me more room, and wider capability in our own things...I could, conceivably, sell some of
what I make. The Market is not there, right now....but I expect it to be at some not too distant time.(see the link)
An attached Abattoir, and a Smokehouse....perhaps a Drying Room...
Also, there is room for more perennial food plants, like fruit trees, and a proper herb garden.(it;s scattered and
haphazard, now.)I have had in my head, for a long time, a Gas Digester. An Outhouse, of sorts, would hafta be constructed to feed
it...remember Shit= Methane="Natural Gas"....an almost universally wasted Resource.
A working Digester would lead me to consider a Generator....I haven't figured out how to run a fridge/freezer without the City.
Solar is still ridiculously expensive...and , as I'm in Town, now, Wind has regulatory entanglements.
If the power went away, today...we could get by, pretty well....but it would be damned uncomfortable.I call it a plus, that we could do it a lot easier than anyone I know.

What I'd like to see...

A Local Economy.....not the current Facsimile, of jewelry, saddles, Bed/Breakfast,Hunting, and Furniture....all that is dependent on Outside Markets...that can't be counted on to continue.
I'm talking about Important Things....like Toilet Paper, Food, Light/Heat...1000 Cattle come through this town in any given week....and not an ounce of that meat stays here.
I have learned, at least Theoretically, how do do most of the things a little Town actually Needs.(like toilet paper!)
Very few see the remotest need for such silliness...
BAU.
It is my contention that these types of things need to be put in place Now....even though there is no Profit in them....when there is profit, it will be too late.
By then, the Emergency will be in full swing.
For me, this is the most difficult thing...

Scattered Thoughts on the Dialectic of Enlightenment,Horkheimer/Adorno

Enlightenment becomes Myth...it contains the Seeds of it's own

destruction.
Enlightenment is Totalitarian.
Could this be due to Hubris, to a lack of Humility?....the

Enlightenment gave rise to Certainty, that at long last, Man had

overcome Fear...of Death, of the unknown...And that in that

Self-Satisfaction,Man, as Master of Fate,lay the reassertion of Mythos.
Specifically, the Myth that Man has Overcome.
The falsehood of this Belief is apparent in the Feeling engendered by

the Pale Blue Dot.
We saw our insignificance in the vastness of the cosmos, and recoiled

in Fear...which we had thought to be vanquished.
The preenlightenment world of demons and gods gave way to a new form of

Duality, Subject/Object....as well as a new Hubris...that we can Know,

for Certain.
The Enlightenment kicked the Gods out of Heaven,and in their place,

erected new Gods...a Mythology of Knowledge, Universalism...then

Positivism.But we keep finding new Unknowns...the Universe is

exceedingly Large, both Within and Without...and the ever expanding

bubble of our collective Knowledge cannot contain it.
The Enlightenment took over the function of Myth that seeks to Explain,

to banish Uncertainty, and thereby, Fear.
Pointedly, even Enlightened people Die, eventually.
Turns out we are not Gods...and , in this sense, never can be.
The Turning Away from this unpleasant Truth, the denial of it's

importance, and the lack of a means of Accepting our ultimate Fate, is

what doomed the Enlightenment to become Myth.
We demystified the World, and left no room in our conceptualisation for

Uncertainty.
The thought occurs to me, in the middle of the first essay, that what

was left out of the Enlightenment Project was ,really, apprehended,

long ago.
Socratic Perplexity.
I know that I do not know.
Wonder, Awe, was excised.
Instead of observing the stars,for their own sake, we sought to

Understand....and when we ran up against the limits of our Knowledge

(ever expanding as it may be) we recoiled.
Perhaps the Species was not yet ready for Enlightenment...as much as it

pains me to admit.
So we invent Totalitarianism...Fascism...we pretend at Certainty, so

that we may ignore our Uncertainty, and the Fear of Death, the Unknown,

that seems hardwired into us.
What Hubris.
############

We have applied the Enlightenment to what used to be the domain of Religion...after killing God, we sought to replace Him with Reason, Universalised.
The problem we face, in my estimation, is: How do we Accept the essential Meaningless of Existence, without falling into Decadence and Nihilism?
If the only Objective Meaning to the Universe, and our very Existence, is the Meaning we impart...how do we learn to accept this...?
How do we not panic, react with terrific Violence, in the face of Meaninglessness?
I have said before that my own experience with the Mystical, the Ineffable, led me to appreciate that there is, indeed, a "Thing behind Things"....what most would call God...but that that Thing doesn't care one whit about us....it is entirely Indifferent.
The task is to reconcile, to our individual satisfaction, these Terrible Truths.
Ecclesiastes is my favorite book in the bible, for this very reason..."All is Vanity...and vexation of Spirit..."
Instead of recognising and accepting the Meaninglessness,and being OK with applying our own Meaning...we assert our presumed Specialness...despite the Irrationality of such an endeavor.
Universalism is the enlightenment's fatal flaw.
We cannot all be Philosophers...yet we all feel the need, as per the Enlightenment's Promise, to be Special.
Hence the ads on late night TV dealing with weight loss, tooth whitening..profits from one's home...all without sacrifice or reflection...
We attempt to give Meaning to a Meaningless Existence, by applying more Triviality.
When this, necessarily, does not satisfy, we turn away the Mind.
Hence, the Willful Ignorance so prevalent in our "Enlightened", Post Historical Age.
We, despite our pretensions, are Beasts...rolling and fucking in the mud.
Do we, therefore, abandon Enlightenment?
On the contrary, as in Habermas, I reckon we need precisely More Enlightenment....and most importantly, we must learn to get over ourselves.
Every generation has figured itself to be the Last, the Point to which all of Creation was directed.
Progress, as Myth.
The humility that I prescribe was present in the Pre-Indoeuropean Gylanic Culture.
(as near as we can tell)
One can find it, quite readily, in the Worldview of many Native American groups...
They didn't feel a need to Master Nature...which, when one gets down to it, is the unstated Purpose of Enlightenment...conquering Fear,the Unknown, the Capricity of the Not-Man.
When Decartes separated Subject from Observer, he was simply restating the Augustinian Duality that had gone before...which was, in it's turn, a restatement of the Common Wisdom of previous cultures.
Duality, Dichotomy, Man as somehow Separate from Nature, is the legacy of the Kurgans....and is, at root, a rebellion against Death.

An open letter to Judson Phillips:

Dude,
Just because you say shit doesn't make it true.

(from:http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/421479/a_peek_at_the_tea_party%27s_priorities/#paragraph5)
Judson Phillips:"Liberal hero and man voted most likely to be an ACLU board member, Joseph Stalin...."

;"There are only two parties and the socialists have absolute control over the other party."

"In this past election, the left made a concerted effort at voter fraud. This fraud effected elections."


"In socialist states like California or corrupt, I mean Democrat controlled states, like Illinois, it will be very tough. If we are going to win, we must. If we do not eliminate liberal voter fraud, our votes won’t matter because they will not be counted."

"The left knows it cannot win free and fair elections. They can only win by cheating."

I mean, WTF?
I have been trying to understand the Right since 9-11.
Recently, I attempted to get it "from the horse's mouth"....I "joined" your little website,Tea Party Nation.
What prompted this move, which was done without subterfuge, was an article regarding the banning of the teaching of Culture in Arizona schools...something to do with Mexican Culture.
I didn't get what the hubbub was about, so I joined up and asked.
The first few respondents were understanding...they didn't bite my head off. This was a welcome surprise.
One woman, however, lashed out at me, saying that hatred of Americans flowing North from Mexico was a good enough reason to ban any attempt at fostering cross-cultural understanding....and getting the history of the US' annexation of the South West completely wrong.
(ie: that Mexico sold it all to us, because, it was implied, they were evil(?)....Mexico did sell it , but only after we invaded them and encircled their capital.)She then went on to state that Jesus is the Only Path to Wisdom...and that if ya don't like it, your doomed to Hell....
Soon after correcting, gently, this woman's error, I found myself Banned!
It seems that you guys can't handle a little opposition, a little Dissent, in your one sided, Black and White World.
And you are just one of many...
The Becks, and Bachmans and Palins of the world have embraced a surreal characiture of Reality....and no amount of evidence will convince you of your error.
This would be fine, if it wasn't so dangerous.
After all, it is your Right to believe BullShit...a Right I will defend, vigorously.
But you have taken perhaps a third of the country with you on your freakout....convinced them that Liberals love Stalin (!?), that we want to do all the things that your boy, Bush2 wanted to do(Camps, anyone?), and that it is "Liberal" policies that have driven the Economy off the cliff.
When reality breaks through your defenses, it is ignored...or, worse, held up as evidence of the veracity of your version of the "Truth"....
This makes it impossible to talk to you....or even be in the same room....the threat of Violence is always there.
(I have tasted this Violence, when my views didn't agree with "Conservative" Principles, and when those "principles" couldn't be defended,the answer was to attempt to strangle the offending "Socialist/Commie/Traitor".)
Lets take the statements from your missive that really stood out, for me:
1;"Liberal hero and man voted most likely to be an ACLU board member, Joseph Stalin...."
Where, pray tell, do you get this? How do you justify such a statement?Do you have any examples?
2
;"There are only two parties and the socialists have absolute control over the other party."
Please define "Socialist", and show how the Democratic Party is "controlled" by Socialists....You folks throw around these words...but I don't really think you know what they mean...they are more like dog-whistles for your fearful supporters. Prove me wrong...
3"In this past election, the left made a concerted effort at voter fraud. This fraud effected elections."
Evidence? This looks like classic Projection to me.
You don't remember the 2000 election? Or the one from '04?
Your side was caught red handed, and it was only through Political Intimidation (attorney scandal) that you were able to get away with it.
Ken Blackwell? Katherine Harris? surely you remember....
4"In socialist states like California or corrupt, I mean Democrat controlled states, like Illinois, it will be very tough. If we are going to win, we must. If we do not eliminate liberal voter fraud, our votes won’t matter because they will not be counted."
Again...evidence?

5"The left knows it cannot win free and fair elections. They can only win by cheating."
Really.
A member of the rabid right is gonna level that charge?
Remember the White Shirt Mobs?
Remember, just this last election, in Houston, and elsewhere, the Intimidation of voters....the head stomping?
Remember, in 2000, the supreme Court stepping in?
(and that whole fiasco being blamed on Gore?when it was Bush who brought suit.......)

Really, dude...if there is any one group who can't win an argument, without resorting to Ad Hominem, Misrepresentation of Facts,Fearmongering, and...if all else fails...Violence, it is the Right.
If you take offense at what I have to say....refute it.
I welcome such engagement.

Random Musings on Habermas' "Discourse on Modernity"

The answer lies in Neitzche and Bataille.
If the Problem of Modernity is really the Failure of Reason to supplant, or even consider, the Unifying Functions of Religion, then, as in Neitzche,et al, a New Mythos is needed...which is yet another concept that I've been dancing around for years.
Mythos (the New One) is the Tanist of Reason...as in the Old European Dionysian Cycle of the Year. Graves informs me, here....the Old King is killed by the New....in the service of the Goddess,...in order to rejuvenate Life...bring back the Sun.
In this System, the Goddess stands for Reason....an almost Platonic concept....both Trancendant and Cthonic.
The King, and his Tanist, stand for the Ephemeral....for that Material whereby Reason Acts upon the World.
What the Enlightenment forgot to do was include an Other, opposed to Reason...and I'm not speaking, here, of a dogmatic repitition of forms, a "going through the motions", but what is behind Religion in the first place....Huxley's Divine Ground of Being..."wherefrom words turn back, together with the Mind, not having attained"...
This is what's missing in the Project of the Enlightenment....and I reckon that it can be incorporated by including the Socratic "I don't Know" in our apprehension of Reality.
Reason's Ascendance these past 400+ years has led to Hubris, Certainty...which is inimical to further Knowledge, as i've said.
This can be seen in the Ossification of Beaurocracy, of the Fencing of Law...alll based on the Application of Reason to the Problems of Life.It gives Substance to the Neoconservative Critique of Enlightenment, that reason leads to Totalitarianism.
Enlightenment Eating Itself.
As in Rosenstock-Huessy's critique of Cartesian Application of Dualism to fields where it, arguably, does not belong....the transcendant quality of Reason insisted upon by the Enlightenment has fallen short...it doesn't seem capable of fulfilling it's purported Promises....namely by fully replacing Religion...Meaning.
A Tanist, an Other, is required....to take up that slack.
In the Enlightenment's destruction of Religion, it fails to take account of the Ineffable, the Transcendant...of the "Thing Behind Things" that Mystics ,at least, approach.
This explains the repeated Regressions (popularly known as " Revivals") of Religiosity...the backing away...which leads, it seems, to Nihilism....and eventually Fascism....
A negation of the entire Enlightenment Project...we see it all around us, today, with the resurgance of Fundamentalism/"Conservatism"/Palingenisis....the Gegenauflarung of the Neoconservatives.
Reason, it seems, cannot answer all of the questions....there is a Limit to our Knowledge...Granted, that Limit has been expanding since the beginning...But we are not, as yet, Gods.
The Enlightenment Project reached too soon for Godhood.
Perhaps this is why Reason is considered Cold, Impersonal...of the Void....indeed, perhaps this Fear of Knowledge (Tea People)is the necessary Reaction to that Cold Indifference.
The New Mythos, the Dionysian Chaos, as opposed to the Apollonian Order, must embrace that Void, where our Knowledge hasn't yet penetrated.
The Post Modern attempts at going into that Void, and the hubris of thinking that we've conquered it, are both illusory.
The post Modern "Project" (which is really an "antiproject") just feeds our Impotence.
Think Peggy Lee....
So we get ever more extreme "Art"....Jesus in Piss...Shock as Novelty....all the Idea-Cell Division, the Fragmentation....the proliferation of Porn.(Bukkake?Public Bondage? How many categories are there now?)...of Music..(."Death Metal"?, Really?)....
This is the attempt to Fill that Void, the very Idea of whose Existance is, necessarily, Taboo.
The much criticized HyperMaterialism...the "Consumer Culture" and "Debt Based Economics"....this is all of a Piece.
Reason killed Religion....Marduk slew Tiaimat...and put Cold in place of that Heat.
To be sure, despite what the Fundies of all stripes hope and believe, there is no Unringing of the Enlightenment Bell.
Both have to be incorporated in the New.
The Problem, since Neitzche, is finding a way of accomplishing this, without Killing the Enlightenment, in it's turn...and , at the same time, attempting to Go Back...to some Mythical Golden Age...Palingenisis.
Like the sentiment, familiar to all Musicians and Artists..."It's all been done before."...,Philosophy has been at an Impasse.
Our Milvan Bridge....except this bridge goes in all directions....and we don't know where to go.(Abbey Road)
Instead of an insistance of Returning to the Old Forms, which has entailed the forceful Authoritarian Centralisation of Everything, including Religion....instead of Homogenisation,perhaps we require Heterogenisation...like Leto's Scattering in the Dune books....a Federalism of Ideation. Monotheism's Legacy, handed, whithout much thought,to the Enlightenment, is Universalism...Catholicism. One Size Fits All-ism.
I agree with Habermas.
We need More Enlightenment.

Heartless

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-health-resources/health-reform-and-texas/lawmakers-discussing-dropping-health-care-program/
The "Conservatives" in Texas figger that "opting out" of Medicaid will save Texas some Jack.
What they are really concerned about is the Bottom Line of Big business.
Here's what I sent Harvy Hilderbran..."my" State Rep. in the Texas House:
Mr. Hilderbran,
I just saw this: http://www.texastribune.org/texas-health-resources/health-reform-and-texas/lawmakers-discussing-dropping-health-care-program/

And feel the need to weigh in.
While I agree that Reform of the present system is necessary, prudence would dictate that we not chuck the Baby, with the Bathwater.
The current Bunch of "Conservatives" would have us believe that the "Free Market" will always provide the Best Outcome...and that Government Regulation of any Business is always, of Necessity, "Bad".
This is hardly a foregone conclusion....and leaves out any consideration of the Common Good, as understood Objectively.
Having studied the Ideology of the Right for these many years, I will predict, with some confidence, that ending Medicaid in Texas in favor of some State-Based System, will e an Unmitigated Disaster for Poor Folks in Texas.
Some areas of Life should Not be Commodified.
Health is one of those areas.
The folks that are "considering" this are the same Free Market "Conservatives" who gave us the disaster of HMO's, a Neo Lassaiz Fair ,Unregulated Wall Street Casino "Capitalism", and a large portion of our current Economic Malaise.
Milton Friedman should be Desanctified, Post Haste!
As a Free Individual, I love the Idea of Taking Care of myself...without the Help of anyone, especially the Government.
However, in the Real World, this is not always possible.
I've written to you before, regarding my difficulties with the Disability System....sadly, nothing has improved...my best hope for access to Health Care was a Public Option.
Since that wasn't an option, due to the Bottom Line First Mentality of Corporate America, I have no choice...except maybe Cuba.
The System, even with the half-hearted "reforms" of the President, is inhuman and uncaring, and not befitting an Enlightened Civilisation.
When this Debate comes before you, I urge you to remember the Poor and the Downtrodden, who are so often forgotten in the pursuit of Power and Profit.
Also, I would ask you to remember this, which I will quote in Full:
The Oath of Maimonides
The eternal providence has appointed me to watch over the life and health of Thy creatures. May the love for my art actuate me at all time; may neither avarice nor miserliness, nor thirst for glory or for a great reputation engage my mind; for the enemies of truth and philanthropy could easily deceive me and make me forgetful of my lofty aim of doing good to Thy children.
May I never see in the patient anything but a fellow creature in pain.
Grant me the strength, time and opportunity always to correct what I have acquired, always to extend its domain; for knowledge is immense and the spirit of man can extend indefinitely to enrich itself daily with new requirements.
Today he can discover his errors of yesterday and tomorrow he can obtain a new light on what he thinks himself sure of today. Oh, God, Thou has appointed me to watch over the life and death of Thy creatures; here am I ready for my vocation and now I turn unto my calling.
Thank you.