The Net of Indra

I have always found it near impossible to narrow my interest to anything close to a specific field or pursuit. I have been a lover of science, for instance….a scientiaphile?...for as long as I can remember…Why, then, did I not become a Scientist? To become a Scientist in late 20^th Century America, one must choose a “Field”, which would not be so bad….But,then, one must narrow down one’s focus to something within that Field…then narrow down further, to some aspect of the specific. From early on, I noticed connections and patterns…across Fields. There were no Fences. When I started looking at College, all I found was Specificity…Specialisation.

Consider….describe the Chair you’re sitting in.

Then stand back. Describe the Chair, and the Room around it, and their Interconnections. Now, go across the street.

Across the Country.

To the Moon.

Further back one goes, in Perspective, the more data there is, regarding that Specific Thing one is looking at, attempting to Understand. To Truly Understand one’s Chair, one must Understand the Universe in which it sits.

Of course no one has such a God’s Eye View…but, due to this fact, which is scary, Science has gone all the way in the other direction…to Specificity.

Cartesian Dualism, and all that. (Subject/Object(Observed/Observer))

Reckon this looks like a form of Extremism.

I feel a deep, abiding need for a more Whole-istic, Comprehensive View.

This was pretty much ignored in the Scientific World, as far as I knew then. In reality, but unknown to me, this Generalism was , indeed, quietly growing. There was no “Degree Plan” for this, however. Colleges, at least the State colleges I looked at, would teach you how to Specialise, with Generalisation , if any, relegated to a chapter or two, here and there.

Luckily, I was really into Philosophy….where there is at least Room for such ideas.

No one, as I’ve elaborated elsewhere, was keen on me Majoring in Philosophy.(even though I had been studying Philosophy since I was 8-10)

It has, in fact, taken 20 years of Self Directed Study to even articulate this concept.

And now, Generalisation in Science is just now hitting the “Mainstream”.

In Geopolitics, too…relatively few Thinkers broke out of even such kind of broad subdivisions as “Economics”, “Political Philosophy”, and whatnot. Zbignew, Kissenger, and the like, come to mind. C.Wright Mills.

History, too…I prefer Toynbee, Barzun and even Durant. I’m not interested in Minutae…on this date, the Archduke was slain in Sarajevo. I want the context. People are slain every day, after all. Context is what makes this particular death interesting.

It’s hard to do, sometimes….pull back far enough to have a comprehensive understanding, yet still maintain sufficient Granularity, that it makes sense.

It’s like the difference between Dune, or LOTR…and Clarke’s 9 billion names of god…the latter is good, in it’s own right…but it doesn’t hold a candle to the breadth and depth of the former two.

This is why I like Jung, rather than Freud, or Skinner or Piaget, etc.

Jung developed a comprehensive system…a Framework…on which he could then hang various Specifics, and then stand across the street, regarding the Whole.

As I grew older, the more I found this focus on the Specific to be lacking…

When I was “encouraged” to take on RTF…there it was, this lack.

Context. How do we, budding Broadcasters, hope to fit in to the Whole?

There was nothing about the “Industry”, and where it was going….nothing about how what we were training for would soon be Obsolete.

Lack of Whole-ism, Context, the General…is really a big problem in the world, today.

A glance at Climate Science is instructive. To understand it, one has to plug in Economics, Politics, Geology, Space Science, Chemistry, Biology,….on and on. Ya hafta be a Generalist to understand something so complex. Looking at a thunderstorm will not suffice.

Or Biotech…the Corporate Lab(I forget who) that was about to release a GM Organism that would have sterilized the world…until a grad student said…”Whoa…slow down…think”. The Bug would have been awesome at making Ethanol from Biomass…and that’s as far as the thinking went. No one, but for this single Grad Student, considered the possible unintended consequences…if this Bug had been set loose. With nothing to stop it, it could have turned whole continent’s worth of topsoil into Alcohol.

I think that whole scenario (which really happened) is Scary as Hell…and it is due, for the most part, to a focus on the Specific….and an almost Total Disregard of the General.

I approach the Spiritual in the same way…indeed, I find it difficult, and sort of counterintuitive, to separate Spirituality(at least as I see it…experience it) from the Empirical Universe of the Observed. Cartesian Duality is very useful in looking at the Specific…but when one ventures across the street, to the Moon, and turns around…One is still a Part of what one Beholds. As above, so below.

One of my favorite things to think about is Indra’s Net….this is a perspective on the Universe, wherein all of Reality is conceived of as a vast, limitless spider’s web, and where every Node, where two or more strands meet, is a Diamond….and all of those Diamonds are Reflecting each other. In this context, plug in the information that (in the Hippie Trope) “we are Stardust…”…all matter was generated in stars, that exploded millions, billions of years ago, sending more complex elements out , into Universe…some of which constitutes my body. The water in the Llano River was generated from simpler stuff in a star, somewhere, sometime…and was delivered hence by Comets.

The Science that discounts such considerations as Mysticism, is correct, of course….but when that Scientific, Cartesian Mind, then discounts such considerations as irrelevant…I reckon that as Dogmatic. This is part of what Rosenstock-Huessy was on about…that Cartesian Dualism tends towards Dogmatism…again, that Universalism that the Enlightenment inherited from Pre-Enlightenment Darkness.

It may have been a necessary phase, this universalism…but perhaps it has outlived it’s usefulness. Perhaps we are at a stage where it is necessary to Broaden our conceptions…

RH specifically(lol) picked on the application of Cartesianism to Psychology…how can one separate oneself, as an Observer, in such a situation as the Psychoanalyst, Observing the Patient? There is a back and forth, a Dialog…between the two…necessarily…and to discount that relationship, beyond the learning of psychological concepts and techniques, is ,I suspect, counterintuitive.Subjects observing Subjects.

The same sort of thing is operable in so called Quantum Physics…Uncertainty, the dead cat…the Observer Created Universe.

It’s closer to Rumi, than to Einstein.

There is no Spoon…

I find great satisfaction is such musings…especially at the River…and especially on a weekday, when the highway is quiet…and the only sounds are those of Nature…

Park the canoe(with NCC-1701, in orange, on the bow,lol) next to a cliff, made of billion year old rock…covered with myriad types of lichen, and ferns in the cracks, the water lapping at the base…cast off exoskeletons of dragonflies, still clinging to the crust of dead dried algae.All this, and more to my right…and to my left, an expansive view of the Texas Hill Country…

…and I think about how much We still do not know…and the Bubble of Our Awareness(as a Species), in five dimensions, expanding in all directions, as We gain further Understanding.(the 3 dimensions of space, plus time, and then the fifth, inner and outer. )

There is still much to learn.

The Flat Earth.

(This is a LTE, in response to this:

http://www.masoncountynews.com/news/article/50290)

Individuals who enjoy a weekly megaphone should be sure that they don't needlessly spread demonstrably false information...unless that is their intention.

Climate Science is Complex. There's a lot of Variables to consider, many of which Science doesn't completely understand. Knowledge is Provisional, and Science is the never ending pursuit of better understanding. We will never Know.

However, Science has proved to be a remarkable tool in furthering our understanding of the Universe. It comes as a shock to some folks that a Scientific "Theory" is as close to "Fact" as Science can come. What most folks seem to think "Theory" means is more akin to "Hypothesis", literally "Placing Under"...a Supposition....a Foundation from which to Enquire.

A "Theory" is not an educated guess. It is the Temporary End Result of Testing one's Hypothesis. Much of this Testing in the area of Climatology, is done with computer Modeling....where the Inputs are the observed Climate Record...some of which is pieced together from Ice Cores and Tree Rings, and even Sedimentation...Strata at the bottom of lakes, and the like. Data from Buoys and Satellites and Balloons...about currents of wind and water, over time...are plugged in...

Some of the most powerful computers on Earth are pressed into service to "build" these Models....

And it works, rather well....and has passed the further Test of Falsifiability, as well as Prediction. (what the Models were predicting 20 years ago, has come to pass) The Overwhelming Consensus, among Climate Scientists, as well as the Scientific Community, as a whole, is that Global Warming is a Real Phenomenon...that it's Getting Worse...and that Human Activity, for the last Century, or so, is Responsible. We have entered the Anthropocene.

Denialists like to point to the so-called "Climate Gate" fiasco....which a cursory look at the Record indicates was created out of Whole Cloth by a few Right Wing Bloggers, then picked up by Fox. The original emails in question were taken out of context, by Nonscientists. Tempest in the Teapot, indeed.

Another favourite riposte is what, on the surface, looks like contradictory Data."How can there be Global Warming if it's Snowing?" or, "How can they be warning of an Ice Age, if the Planet's Warming?". The former is mistaking Weather for Climate.

The latter is a simple failure to appreciate the Complexity of Climate.

The warnings about an Ice Age, are referring to the effects of a whole lot of Fresh Water(which floats), from melting Ice Caps, entering the North Atlantic, and "shutting down" the Atlantic Conveyor....of which the Gulf Stream is a part. This would, indeed, cause dramatically Colder Temperatures in Europe(London is the same latitude as Nova Scotia), and the North East of North America...and then the "Positive Feedback Loops" could kick in, and the party really gets going.

The point is, I guess, that we need better Science Instruction in Schools. This wouldn't be such an issue if we all were on the same page, regarding things like "What's a Theory?"....Too, there is an enormous apparatus churning out those Tempests I referred to....and this Wurlitzer is funded by Interests who would like to keep things as they are...for Short Term fun and Profit. Mud in the Water.

The Problems we, as a Species, face are Huge...but they don't fit well on a bumper sticker. That does not make them any less serious.

Thanks, '

Inquisition;

(Weed as a Civil Rights Issue.)

I've bitched about the treatment, overt, and not, I've received in my life, due to my insistence on keeping my hair long. One might wonder why this is such an issue for me...and I've covered this, I hope..( http://amfortasthehippie.blogspot.com/2010/09/hair-crusade.html)

There is another side to all this, however. Why is long hair on men so threatening, in this country? After all, we pretend to pride ourselves on tolerating Self Expression....there is a long, proud history of bucking trends, of being one's own man, and the like. And, I must note, women have, for a long time, enjoyed the freedom to choose their hairstyle...short, or long. To my knowledge, short haired women have never been singled out for extra scrutiny by Law Enforcement....

What gives?

Observe:( http://edu.glogster.com/media/4/27/4/68/27046854.jpg)

Since the sixties, long haired men have been associated, indelibly, with dope smoking hippies. If you are a long haired man, hippie, or no, you now what I am speaking of. In our "Culture", if you are a man, with long hair, you are automatically Suspect....You Must be Hiding something...up to something nefarious.

(advising me to "just cut it" is analogous to insisting that we all wear uniforms...think about it.)

It's the association, in the minds of LEO's, and many "Normal People", of long hair with Weed, that is at issue.

Which brings me to my Beef, today.

Since the loosening of restrictions in California, more than a decade ago, much neglected research has finally been done into the dangers and benefits of Weed. It will come as no surprise to those who have Inhaled that the research bears out what we have known all along...Weed is pretty harmless...and beneficial. Many states have finally given the go ahead for Medical Use of Weed, for a variety of ailments...but the Recreational Use of Pot is still Taboo, for some reason.

Every day, there is a constant stream of folks....good, upstanding Citizens...into the stores to procure Beer, Wine and Liquor. They are not buying this for their health....and so such subterfuge is required of them...by Law Enforcement, or by Society.

They are looking to relax...and to Catch a Buzz. Many are quite open of their intention to Get Drunk.

How much alcohol was consumed yesterday...Superbowl Sunday?

And consumed openly, and without any stigma being preemptively attached? The inevitable fights, accidents and even deaths, as a direct result of this consumption, are mourned in passing, and tacitly forgiven...overlooked.

For Potheads, and even for casual users of Marijuana(the majority), it is an entirely different experience.

We must procure our choice of Relaxant in often seedy, often dangerous circumstances. Not only is the supply given over into the hands of, necessarily, the Criminal Element...we also have to worry about Law Enforcement.

One Joint can get you a prison sentence, in some circumstances.

And, because of the Inquisitorial Nature of the Drug War, the person you Share that Joint with may be an informant, or even a Cop. Many people who get caught with a joint are given a choice...go to Jail, or Inform on your Friends.

History Rhymes.

How many Dictatorial Regimes, down through the Centuries, relied on just this tactic to impose their rule?

The Catholic Church had it's Inquisition...which did the same thing...given, with more ruthlessness and violence...but, still...

I realise that all of this is loosening, somewhat, in more Enlightened parts of the country...ie; Texas is a pretty Backwards place,lol...but such Enlightenment, and forbearance by LEO's, is inconsistent, to be charitable.

It is well known, by Potheads, that there is something like a Pot Culture....Passing the Joint, for instance...and a shared need to avoid detection....a shared quality of being a Persecuted Minority in an Intolerant Nation.

This Culture, of Sharing, and Commiseration and inherent Solidarity, is routinely shattered by the Crusade against the Noble Weed. Law Enforcement spies on the Citizenry....the aforementioned subversion of Trust among Pot Smokers...the employment of Dogs, and Illegal Searches, and an array of technology more befitting the Battlefield...

...and all of this supported, and justified, by a Mythology...consistently disproven by Science and by Anecdote...that Pot is a Great Evil...an Existential Threat to America.

The recent flourishing of Research into all aspects of Marijuana doesn't make a dent in the Mythology....and does nothing to sway the True Believers...especially those who run the Inquisition. It is like an Article of Faith, among the cops I've known(and, near as I can tell, this is widespread), that Pot is as dangerous as Heroin or Coke...that it makes the user jump out of windows, and go on Murderous Rampages....and that it, inexorably, leads one to become addicted to the rest of the Schedule 1 Pharmacopia.(Gateway)

Fear of all of this Nonsense is triggered, in LEO's, by the sight of a long haired man driving down the highway....or sitting in a cafe...walking down the street.

How is this any different than the Original Inquisition?

They aren't burning Potheads at the Stake...but they are certainly ruining lives...and burning through Billions of Dollars of Taxpayer Money to do so. This is to say almost nothing of the rampant and shameful corruption of LEO's by a Criminal Element that would not even exist, were it not for this Inquisition and Crusade.

This was all started as a tool to persecute Minorities....and to protect certain Industrialists(paper, dupont) from Competition. It also served to give a purpose to the now purposeless apparatus of the Failed Alcohol Prohibition. Then, in the late 60's, early 70's, Nixon used it as a tool to Persecute all those Hippies on the White House Lawn...and , now...all of these reasons are still applicable. Added to them are the Protection from Competition of Big Pharma....and the continued relevance of the Giant Anti Drug Industry, including the Cops. There's a lot of Jack to be made in keeping "Drugs"(Pot, especially) Illegal, Forever.

This is Not a good reason to continue.

I'll not dwell on the Race aspects of the Drug War, as that is covered adequately elsewhere....my Beef, as a white dude with long hair, is what i have experienced.

There is a Law on the books in Texas, since '07, giving every Jurisdiction a choice of how to treat minor Pot "Offences"...with the specific option to treat them as a traffic ticket,...no jail, just a fine...like for not wearing a seatbelt. To my knowledge, this has only been applied in Travis County (Austin)...and there, only sporadically. In this era of anaemic governmental budgets, I long to lobby the Sherriff to make use of this Law...save some money by ceasing the local part of the Crusade against Weed...I long to Speak Out, locally, in advocacy of Ending the stupid, Failed War on Drugs.....But I have no illusions. Such actions would only serve to paint a Target on my already hirsute head. ...And thus is my Freedom of Speech unwittingly curtailed.

Even if you do not enjoy Pot...even if you never intend to...every American should oppose the continuance of this. The Science, alone, begs for at least a frank discussion....

The furtherance of the Mythology-Based Crusade and Inquisition against a subset of the American People is Wrong. It is counterproductive(as in, it is a Failure, by it's own Criteria)...and it is inherently Unamerican.

How much Proof do we need?

Lobby!

(http://billmoyers.com/episode/on-winner-take-all-politics/)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying_in_the_United_States)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtier)

The first Wiki, up there, includes in the broadest definition of "Lobbying"....me.

...Since I regularly bother "My" Representatives and other Gooberment Creatures.

This is certainly flattering, but...somehow...I feel less than effective. I have long thought of running something of a Poli/Sci experiment...where I would "lobby" a set of Congresscritters...before....and After making a large-ish "Contribution"....just to see if there would be any change in behaviour. Would that I had the extra cash...I think it would be , at the very least, entertaining

The narrower, more familiar definition is, sadly, out of my league. "Gucci Gulch" and K Street, and wherever else these lizards lay, are filled with folks with Serious Bank...as well as what are tastefully referred to as "Connections". I was saddened that wiki didn't have that word as a link...for more information. What are "connections". exactly...and what are they worth, versus the piles of cash?

I am guessing, regardless, that I do not possess such "Connections". The Whores and Weasels that I usually irritate are specimens that I wouldn't vote for in a hundred years...and I refuse to keep my correspondents in the Dark on that score. Ergo, sycophancy is out. I am not connected to either money or Power...or the mob...or anyone, really. So Extortion is also out.(like there aint no extortion happening...)

It appears that I am stuck filling up the Congressional EMail Server...and when I'm really angry, the Capitol Switchboard(202-225-3121).

Use it , or Lose it. In theory, these folks are Your Employees...join me in giving them a piece of Our minds.

De Nile.

Oh, Look! More proof of the veracity(as in non"conspiracy theory",lol) of Peak Oil.

(http://en.zaman.com.tr/en/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=4965#.TyoM6n8N4lY.facebook)

Add this to the growing list...National Geographic, Scientific American, Forbes, the Economist, the Atlantic.....

And yet..."My" Congress Critter, Conaway...at least his minions who deign to reply to such as me...think it's a bunch of hokum. (and that Corporations are "just People"...so why am I surprised?)

Drill , Baby, Drill!

...and when the last tree falls, Jesus will come.(an actual quote, from some Rethuglican, insanely put in charge of forestry issues..dont remember who...)

Of course, Mr Conaway has deep ties to Oil and Gas...he got his leg up in politics by being an accountant for the Bush Crime Family...Harken Oil...the Midland Mafia, et alia...

Sigh. I thought Incest was a bad thing....I guess that if it's merely figuratively incestuous, it's as American as Apple Pie.(hold the Carbaryl)

While Conaway seems like a nice enough guy, personally...I have much misgivings about his adherence to the Right Wing Gospel.

His support for an audit of the DOD is great...and I have said so...but the kneejerk reactionism of almost the entire rest of his voting record does not fill me with hope.

Last election, the Texas Democrats could only find a Right Wing Nutjob to run against Conaway... a nominal "Democrat" who was, in many ways, worse than the Incumbent. (the use of "State's Rights" and other unibrow code words,kinda gave him away,lol."grain alcohol and rainwater..." Ha!)

Conaway's district (21?) is one of the Hammer's gerrymandered Monstrosities...stretching from West Texas Oil Country all the way over here...to Mason...to what used to be in the district with Austin. Like many of the other Delay Creations, this is silly and counterintuitive....unless the goal is permanent Rethuglican Majority.

Anyhoo...I've sent Mr Conaway a link to an advocate of Methane Digesters...Poop=>"Natgas"...

I don't expect any acknowledgment, since e widepread replacement of septic tanks and sewer systems with such energy producing tech would negate the Hydraulic Despotism currently enjoyed by our Corporate Masters in the Energy Sector. Can't have the little people taking such matters into their own hands.

Regression

I've been re-reading, as I've said, Reine Eisler's "Chalice and Blade"....this, as well as Joseph Campbell and Gimbutas, were foundational to my outlook. I am a somewhat accidental Feminist. So deeply have these things sunk into my psyche, that even the word "Feminist" seems limiting...inadequate...with connotations of being simply the other side of a coin, rather than a comprehensive, whole-istic world view.

Eisler, and the others, make a compelling case....and I find it instructive that so much effort has been marshaled to discredit and belittle these ideas.

In the same way that Western Historians, until very recently, ignored much evidence suggesting that the pre-Columbian population of the "New World" was many millions....in other words, that the effects of European disease went before the actual Europeans, giving the impression of a relatively uninhabited place, ripe for the taking....in the same way, any suggestion or proposal that threatens the Mythos of Man the Warrior/Hunter, of Primitive Man the Brute, of an alternative way to structure a society, is simply disregarded....attacked as "Utopian", "Pseudohistory"....

Liberalism ( look it up...I'm not talking about the Faux Definition...) leans towards Feminine Values...what Eisler calls Gylanic....Partnership, as opposed to Dominator....Cooperative, versus Uber-Competitive.

"Conservatism" is the Reaction to this.(see: http://www.alternet.org/story/153919/the_truth_about_the_conservative_mind%3A_why_reactionaries_from_edmund_burke_to_sarah_palin_have_fought_real_liberty_/?page=entire)

For almost 40 years, those who have historically held Power have been fighting a war for the Mind....it's been a shadow war...fought with Memes, and Slogans and Framing. It relies on Fear....whether of the Other, the Brown People Du Jour, or of loss of status, and function...

Why, for instance, can we not have an Equal Rights Amendment? Who does it threaten, the idea of Women having equal pay, equal rights to property, and the like?

Why, after 911, was the obvious...what our country had done abroad to engender so much Hatred...off limits?

The Drug War...which is, for the most part, a War on Weed....why do we continue it? Is it because Weed encourages Thought, and Peace and Sharing?(refute,)...

Labor Unions....why are they so vilified? Is it due to their challenge to Hierarchical, Authoritarianism?

Again and again, there are patterns that connect...Hippies...Quakers...Liberals...Environmentalists...all those who advocate a more Peaceful, Rational and Egalitarian World....these are the Enemies of the Man...the Dominators.

I note that Kucinich has had a very difficult time promoting the creation of a "Department of Peace"....why? Why is Peace and cooperation so threatening to the (largely) Men who Rule us?

One of my main beefs with Christianity is it's focus, since the 3rd or 4th century, on War and Hatred and Destruction....and on a My Way or the Stake Mentality.....rather than on the Ideals and Utterances of it's purported Founder.

Are we really doomed?

Can enough of us not make a conscious Choice (Heresy...look it up)...to change this Dynamic? Are the war monger's feelings so fragile and important? Let alone the "Troops"....my God!...is calling the recent Imperial Wars "Wrongheadded" and Stupid...such an affront to those who were fooled into fighting them? Must we tiptoe through the minefield of PTSD, and say nothing of how Evil our invasion of Iraq was?

In growing up with a disabled Vietnam Vet...I learned rather quickly that one must not criticize that war...no matter how, Objectively, Stupid it was. His Psychological Equilibrium, such as it was, relied on sustaining the Belief that our actions in Indochina were good and just...that he lost his legs for Freedom and the American Way....

This continues, on a National, Societal Scale.

We are Cowards.

Untill a critical mass of Us find the Courage and Fortitude to speak out against all the War and Hate and Domination and Uber-Competitive Psychotic behaviour...nothing will change.....except for the worse.

Science is only used when it enhances and supports the male-centric Authoritarian Dominator System...otherwise , it is disregarded. Same with Religion...Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild? No...can't have that... God is Pro War(Fallwell)...Jesus with a Sword...(and Women as Property!) Turn the other cheek...in order to distract your enemy, lol.

I note that "Democracy" is well and good, when the supposed "Will of the People" gives us Violent Imbeciles for leaders....it is suspect, if not "un-American", if it brings Reason, Intelligence or a Black Dude into the White House.

Locate your spine, my Fellow Americans...that wrinkled mass at the top of it is your Brain.

Please, begin to use them both.

Corps(e)

There's a "new" way of doing things, economically. So called "State Capitalism (see the current issue of the Economist). This is where the Authoritarian State takes over, or forms, a Corporation. Like China owning it's phone company, or Saudi Arabia buying controlling shares in an Omani Gas Drilling Company. This is the Legacy of State Communism...and, like that arguable perversion of a Good Idea, relies on Force, Coercion and Authoritarianism. I don't reckon that anyone reading this would desire to live under such a system...it has all those traits that the Propagandists of the Cold War railed on about the USSR. One could say that the East has a long acquaintance with Authoritarianism....

In the West, we have acquaintance with a different kind of Authoritarianism...and our Corps reflect this. It is Myth that USA is a Purely Capitalist Country(world without end...)

here, our Government didn't purchase, or found, the Corps...the Corps, instead, ate the Government.

We both operate under certain fictions...in the West, that everyone is Free, and all the rest of the Liberal Democratic Canon....in the East, that everyone knows their place, and that the Heirarchy is equivalent to the Cosmic Machine.

Both of these, East and West,State owned Capitalism, and Capitalist Owned State, seem to be pointing in the same direction....an end to Liberal Democracy, and an end to Individual Freedom....Both are inherently Authoritarian...

All us little people are to be merely cogs in the wheel.

As I've said, and alluded to, repeatedly...I prefer a loose fundamentalist resurgence of Adam Smith's Capitalism....tempered with Marx's Socialism.

The thing that jumped out at me, with Smith...was the need to distribute the Means of Production as widely as possible. Democratise Everything. Instead of Petrobras, or Exxon...a million little oil companies(we need a new word?)connected up to a state supported infrastructure of distribution, refining and whatnot. (Oil is a bad example, per the reality of PO).

The naysayers fear that "We" will somehow "Lose", if we went this route....that "We" couldn't compete with Exxon or Petrobras....I figure that that sentiment is predicated on certain assumptions that need not be as important as the current Paradigm makes them. The world will soon begin Shrinking....with the end of cheap oil.....instead of Global Concerns, Local will become more and more important.

Perhaps the Corporation has reached the limit of it's usefulness.

I think of the success of the Internet....a million nodes...interconnected...headless, and therefore unkillable. Distributed Network. You know the story. Robust,.

Why not apply the same Model to what we call "Business"....which is the identification of Needs/Wants, and the attempt to satisfy them.

For 30+ years, the mantra has been that Capitalism is the End of History...that this is proved by the collapse of the USSR(state commie...not really Marxist,btw)...and that the Free Market(supposedly the thing we're aiming for(!?)) will triumph....and that there is no alternative(TINA).

Brewing and fermenting in far off China, where the Masters of Capitalism sent all our Plant(?), is this alternative..."State Capitalism".

.............I can hear the new ideological, existential struggle, already....

Democracy, as usual, is given no consideration...at best, only lip service...like a tshirt.

Perhaps Adam Smith, Marx and Thoreau(!!!) should be taught in high schools...ha! it says a lot that this is utterly unlikely.

(http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6491/)

(http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6470/)

(http://www.alternet.org/story/153933/7_signs_the_corporatocracy_is_losing_its_legitimacy--and_7_tools_to_help_shut_it_down/?page=entire)

(http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/this-changes-everything-how-the-99-woke-up)

Dionysian Psychosis. Bar the Door.

On a Normal Day, I am Apollo…in the Neitzschean sense…(see:Birth of Tragedy). Reason dominates…cool, calm collective…unruffled. Clinical detachment.

Sometimes, though, Dionysius comes…and I am just the opposite.

A “Therapist” told me several years ago that I suffer from “Bipolar NOS”(not otherwise specified,lol)….and that my descent into Drunken Psychosis is my “Manic Phase”.

There are, apparently, Triggers that induce this state….and the Trick is to determine just what these Triggers are. No small task.

I have, from earliest times…although I was unaware of it…been quite shy. In hindsight, I chalk this up to being a Freakish Genius, among the Mundane. I was never like the other kids…and was unskilled at and bewildered by Social Norms and Constructs…

I clung to my Anomalousness… it was, and is, my defining feature.

Too, it turns out that I was/am what Jung referred to as “Innately Sensitive”…my sense organs function “Too Well”…which may sound great, but is really quite uncomfortable, especially in Crowds.

These two “qualities” set me apart…social situations were, in the main, horrible experiences. Our “Culture” is not very tolerant of Strangeness…and I have always been Strange…and, with the Vibe Antenna,I Grokked the reactions of others to my Strangeness.(how accurate this Antenna is, is unknown.)

Round and round.

Alcohol was the cure, it seemed…although, at the beginning, the side effects were a little bit worrisome. (These side effects have grown worse, over time…to say the least.)

I found myself drinking, before anything having to do with social interaction…and then, it was normal…kids drink, after all. But I was, unknowingly, drinking to cure something….social anxiety.

Later, after the Cop Crusade, the betrayal by Her, and all that came with it…drink numbed the (psychological) Pain.

I knew, from the time I was 19, that I had a “Problem”…and even sought treatment…but I was Anomalous in this, as in almost everything else. AA, and all the other systems and ways of Treating alcoholism, are geared, designed, to treat the Average Drunk …and I was anything but average. I could go for long spells without a drink…I generally didn’t “take a nip” in the morning…etc. I was a binge drinker. And, counterintuitively, I knew what I was doing…

I didn’t accidentally drink, like many of the folks I met at AA…I deliberately set out to drink…to get to the Sweet Spot(see Streetcar Named Desire)…where my control ended was after the Sweet Spot had been reached. This is where things got entirely out of hand, and I found myself to be very crafty in finding more drink.

Another anomalous effect that alcohol seems to have on me, is the stimulant quality. This is well known in the research…it acts as a stimulant on almost everybody…but in most folks, this effect diminishes…and it’s true nature takes over…folks generally pass out, at some point. I do not…

Wanna keep me up for 3 days? Keep the beer flowing.

For a long time, I’d drink after work, due to my legs…and this was mostly fine…

Alcohol is a remarkable analgesic.

These Reasons for procuring alcohol, and indulging, were very real…not excuses…the Pain relief, especially. I was, for a long time, quite unaware of the Social Anxiety…the nascent Agoraphobia…that I was, inadvertently “Treating”.

That didn’t occur to me till much later.

911, the birth of my Son, and the collapse of my Café…as well as the broad societal movement towards fascism…all of this contributed to my withdrawal from the world. Panic Attacks….and less intense Anxiety Attacks…I was bewildered by this. The Rightward turn of the country was particularly acute out here, in rural Texas. My inherent Anomalousness was more glaring than ever…and made ever worse by the drive to Understand what all was happening. The more I learned, it seemed, about the world…the more anomalous I became.

In decent times, Americans have a penchant for denial, and a general Fear of the Other…the different. In hard, confusing times, this Penchant grows worse.

And here is me….Anomaly, personified.

The long term feeling (not unwarranted) that I do not Belong…was confirmed at every turn. I withdrew.

By this time, my legs, etc had deteriorated to the extent that I could no longer work…and this increased my Isolation…self-reinforcing loops. Not only was it Physically Painful(and scary) to go among the Mundanes(I walk funny, and fall down)…it was often Psychologically Painful(and terrifying).(I cannot fathom “small talk”, and no one seems to understand what I think about.)

Now, life is all about avoiding Triggers…I cannot go to basketball games, for instance. I abhor long trips, especially back “Home”…too much memory and associations. ….Dionysius comes to attempt to relieve the pressure…

It usually fails.

After a Dionysian Drunken Revel, I often won’t leave the house(the depressive phase).

I wallow in self loathing…and drown in a well of self pity…and wonder what Dionysius did, while Apollo was away.

All of this is made more intolerable by the Far Place I find myself stuck in…like a moth in a web. If the country , as a whole, is intolerant(in varying degrees) to Anomalousness…a Podunk Texas Town is even worse. For 10 years, the folks around here have been instructed by Fox to Fear the Other.(there is no other “news”, is there?)

I know myself to be Other….and when I lift the basket from my Shining Mind, it is apparently apparent to them that I am Other.lol.

Ergo, I am a Hermit.

And try really hard to suppress the Dionysian Urge for Release.

I have been only moderately successful in this endeavor.

Apollo’s mouth is shut…knowing that Lofty Sentiments, Erudition, and even Logic, itself, are largely unwelcome in my part of 21^st Century Amerika…

Dionysius’ mouth is open…and all the pent up Rage, and Loneliness and Mike the Martian-hood…as well as the limiting effects of my Crippleness…burst forth, whether they are wanted , or not.

Something Hidden

Several years ago, my Dad gave me a canoe.

He figgered he was getting a little long in the tooth for such exertion, and had other watercraft, anyway.

I live between two relatively pristine rivers…the Llano, and the San Saba…that appear to be made for such things. Around the same time, also thanks to Dad, I got really into Fly Fishing….for which our Rivers are also made.

This was a year or two before my legs finally went, although, at the time, I still worked, and could as yet get around pretty good. I was aware of the approaching Disability, though…and I think that this awareness played a large part in my drive for Exploration…I became something of a Fanatic for the Rivers…especially the Llano.

There is a stretch, about 10 miles, of the Llano…between White’s Crossing, and the 87 Bridge…that I came to know rather well. Massive cliffs of billion year old rock…deep pools, interrupted by rapids (Class I, and one or two Class II)…Green water in the pools, clear as air, in winter…Rock Garden at the lower end of My Stretch…Caves!...Overhangs…both with evidence of Smoke on the ceilings…I once found a Folsom Point, just lying there in a little pool.

There was never anyone else on the river, at the beginning…now, one can often be interrupted by a flotilla of kayaks…city people from a fly fishing club… staring at the naked hippie Fly Fisherman waist deep in Ladder Hole(essentially Wearing The River…lol).

I know My Stretch like the back of my hand….and even have the distinction of having performed the only Comprehensive Biological Survey(unpublished, alas) of that part of this River…at least that I can find.From Copepods to Crayfish to Minnows to Kingfishers to Ospreys…I kind of glossed over the Flora…I had intended to do a separate Survey of that.

I camped! Sometimes with my Older Son, and his buddies…but mostly alone. I have tried to make a point of camping over Spring Break…often when it’s still quite cold…and on Father’s Day…but as my Bones deteriorate, I find that I must bring more and more crap with me…this year, a damned mattress!(sucks getting Old and Broken)(This is designated my “Camping Mattress”) No more simple bedrolls, and sleeping on the ground…

Too, I fear the days of Exploration are over…at least by myself. I fear getting stuck…my hip could break…and there’s no cell service in the River.

A depressing development.

The feeling of floating down, straining to see around the next bend…

(“Something lost, Go and Find it…”)

I had intended to get a kayak(my canoe is sort of heavy), and go upriver to find the source…and to float the whole length of the River…and I have dreamed of a large Expedition…from Mason, all the way to Matagorda.Llano merges with the Colorado, in Kingsland…What a trip that would be!(about 2 months worth) Epic.

If I could film it…or even just take many pictures…it would have been a good coffee table book.

400+ miles, from White’s Crossing to the Mouth of the Colorado.

Oh , well…

I must be contented with what I Can do…it’s a month and a half till Spring Break…and I’m making lists of what I’ll need to stay at the Lion Tree, at Soldier’s Crossing, for 3 days, without inordinate Pain…

What used to be Jeremiah Johnson meets the African Queen...is now more like the Snows of Kilimanjaro.

Piojo.

Sitting naked by the fire, hair full of olio olive…to smother the theoretical little bastards.

My kindergartener brought them, along with his homework.

Fruitbasket turnover…wash all the bedding…now I’m on mine…

Pillows take such a long time….and they always feel wet, even when they’re not.

I’m amazed that there is still a social stigma to this…but not really surprised.

There are so many Zelda Fitzgerald wannabe’s…who must look down their noses at everyone, in order to maintain the fiction of self worth.

My hair is too long and thick, and flecked with grey, and white(and perhaps dandruff?) to determine the actual presence of arthropods….and I fear a reaction of some sort from pouring permethrin onto my scalp….so it’s old fashioned, Mediterranean Folk Remedies.

Wiki says that the safest, most effective countermeasure is working Vaseline into one’s hair, and letting it sit there for a day….

Visions of Robert Burns, in Church…

The DNA studies of Head and Body Lice, are very interesting…they were the same thing…the same critter, ere we began wearing clothes. Now, they are still essentially the same organism, but do not comingle…and only deign to mate under laboratory conditions.

Hemingway said,”The world is a fine place….and worth fighting for.”….and I agree.

Such Wonders.