Alien

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/31/living_in_america_will_drive_you_insane_literally_partner/

Quiet desperation only obtains for so long.
Turns out that my ongoing rebellion and innate anti-authoritarianism is now the norm.
I was just ahead of the curve, I guess.
It's too bad that we are tacitly, if not overtly, required to throw out all Marxist ideas...because he, and especially his philosophical offspring in the Frankfurt School, had a rather deep understanding of Alienation, Ennui, Angst and Social Disintegration.
I remember the Mythos, peddled by everyone from teachers and preachers to mom and dad and grandparents...that if you took pride in your work, if you strove for excellence, the Ladder would appear before you.
Bootstraps, and all of that.
I remember being convinced that my first love, Philosophy, was not a good choice for a major...that I should instead apply myself to something “sensible”, like “Radio/TV/Film”.
Aside from the bureaucratic tangles and interlocking petty fiefdoms that “Higher Education” had become, even then(circa 1989), there was an all but unspoken truth that the jobs that we were being prepared for were rapidly becoming obsolete, even non-existent.
My experience with Higher Ed. Used to be regarded as an anomaly.
No more.
I've felt for a long time that we are a civilisation in terminal decline...not because of gays and black people and libruls, but because of Exhaustion.
Financialisation of the economy, “Outsourcing”, the “New” Service and “Knowledge” Economy that never quite materialised....
What it all amounts to is a breaking of the Social Contract.
Back when I was still loose in the world, I avoided Corporate Kitchens. I still ended up taking the bait, on occasion...only to have my better judgment confirmed: Soulless, Hopeless, Broken Promises...a Cog in a great machine...stamping out one's Individuality, Creativity, Agency.
Ass Kissing and Tattling as means of advancement.
Privately owned, Mom and Pop Kitchens were a lot better in this regard...until a certain level of success was obtained.
Then, there was that same fear of tall weeds...that same conformism...and that same broken Social Contract.
My last several jobs were exemplars of this.
Forever fighting over one's paycheck, attempting to not get screwed over on the schedule...and watching the ass-kissers and tattlers rise and conquer.
And yet, I was ridiculed and pooh-poohed for being less than enthusiastic about working for assholes and psychopaths, and working with amoral backstabbers, for peanuts.
What's the frelling Point!?
A casual glide through the comments reveals the usual prescriptions of a return to Jesus, and much lowered expectations...as if all of this Alienation and Disillusionment is all in our heads...that eating shit in order to make below a living wage...and having to fight so you don't get screwed out of that...is somehow acceptable.
When I think about these things, I feel almost blessed to be a Cripple.
I don't have to do that anymore.
Instead of belittling me for that opinion...instead of shaming and pissing on all of those 20-30 something folks out there who will never get out from under their college debt...instead of kicking the PHD flipping burgers who just can't get all excited about going to work...instead of, in a nutshell, hating the victims of this phenomenon...perhaps we should be asking why they feel this way, and what can be done about it.
I do not, of course, expect that to happen.
Everything is broken...including our political discourse, and the government that used to be ours, however imperfectly.
This is what Collapse looks like.




See:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_School
http://crs.sagepub.com/content/38/4/565.abstract

Ugly

This:


And this:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/christian-protesters-shout-down-muslim-kids-singing-national-anthem-at-texas-rally-islam-is-a-lie/comments/#disqus


Godwin's Law be damned.
When I see shit like this, I think about Germany, 1929.
I think about “Deus Volt!”, which launched the First Crusade.
We are not, and have never been, a “Christian Nation”.
Frothing nutters, projecting their hatred onto their fellow Texans who happen to be embodying some of the best things about Jesus...meek and mild, and turning the other cheek.
Liberals are at a disadvantage, because of our tolerance.
I will defend the frothers' rights to believe in their hateful craziness, and to shout it, up to a point.
Such tolerance will not be reciprocated.
Therein lies the rub.
Karl Popper famously said that we should not tolerate intolerance, because the most hateful forms of intolerance leads inexorably to the end of his cherished Open Society.
There are limits to everything, including each and every one of Our Inalienable Rights.
These so-called- “Christians” have overstepped those bounds.
They should be condemned for such behaviour.

“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” Matthew,6:5-6
“I like your Christ.
I do not like your Christians...they are so unlike your Christ.”-Gandhi.

Sis.

Heard the news
that you had gone.
Sister to the very first love of my life.
Humble beginning, to humble end.
Hamburger helper,
Dr Pepper,
liquid paper,
and Marlborough Reds.
Porch light always on for wayward souls like me.
A waiting couch, and too early Reba.
Singing in the kitchen.
Life built a hard shell of selfishness
that hid a gooey middle of compassion
worthy of a Buddha.
Taking in strays,
when you could least afford it.
Brash and volatile,
in compensation for overwhelming hardship.
Complex in your simplicity,
your life a constant struggle.
Perhaps your secret pain is finally ended.

American Way

(unearthed during a wholesale file cleaning)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glen-browder/obama-legacy_b_2654287.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glen-browder/sooner-rather-than-later-_b_2839940.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glen-browder/america-is-drifting-mindl_b_2881138.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glen-browder/alternative-scenarios-for_b_2875298.html

FTA,PT4:”I also have a challenge for the Ameican people: Recommit to a new civic course accommodating change in our socity and systemic environment. Essentially, we all should participate, as responsible citizens, in that national dialogue; we also need to embrace change but resist radical alteration of the historic democratic experiment.
My suggested course for both the president and the people also means foregoing partisan advantage, as much as is humanly possible, in favor of practical democratic progress. Too often, for example, conservatives tend to cling stubbornly to cherished but outdated remnants of the past; and, alternatively, liberals tend to ignore valuable lessons of history. Such tendencies are acceptable when neither side prevails completely in our limited, representative system of governance. However, if one or the other assumes sufficient dominance and pursues wayward tendencies, within an extremely distempered environment, the outcome could threaten the substantive ideals and representative procedures of our historic experiment.”


This is a Transformative Time, in American, and World History...and including both of those(American and World)...including that Context is Important.
I am confronted Daily, by erstwhile Liberals(who often do not know it), who unwittingly Parrot Conservative Talking Points:”Obama is a Failure”,”He's Worse than Bush”,etc...and who aver that it's all over...and that We should give up on Democracy, and the Republic...since they're “All the Same”.
A sort of Galt's Gulch mentality, often shorn of it's Randian precursor of Selfishness as the Highest Good.

This Exhaustion is the direct result of two things, both part and parcel of the 35 year Project of what I term the Violent Parasitical Elite(VPE):1. The Wholesale Purchase of the Apparatus of American Governance, and 2. the accompanying Mindfuck, directed at the American People....the overwhelming Barrage of Confusion and Helplessness, the Confusion of Tongues and the Corruption of Language,Cognitive Dissonance, and Revisionist History.
All of this in the context of Racial Pandering, and the encouragement to Blame
our Neighbors and Fellow Prisoners for the Actions of our Ruling Class(whom they have convinced us, do not even exist.(“Classless Society” is part of the Mindfuck.))

While we're beating each other about the face over whether or not, variously, Black People, Brown People, Queers, Women, Non-Xians, etc are Citizens...or even People...the VPE have run off with the Country.
We have been sold into slavery, and our chains are made of Mythology and an Inability to Think.


A Comment:
FT Comments:”Thomas Pain
365 Fans
05:10 PM on 03/30/2013
Glen Browder's heart is in the right place, but call for a renewal America inspired by "the sacred fire of liberty," "a new birth of freedom," and a "dream of equality," is far to vague and amiguous to take us anywhere.

What we need is some very specific proposals.

First, I propose putting a sign at the front of every classroom in every school grades 1-12 that says:

______________________________________________________

I WILL TREAT OTHERS THE WAY I WANT THEM TO TREAT ME
______________________________________________________

Yes, the Golden Rule, restated as an affirmation, for this is the essence of the law, and of love, friendshp, civility, civic cooperation, and civilization.

Second, every student in high school must take a course in Political Philosophy, in which he, or she, will read and discuss "The Rights of Man," "The Age of Reason," "The American Crisis," and "Common Sense," by Thomas Paine (with an "e"), the most influential philospher of the American Revolution; the "Meditations" of Marcus Arelius, Emperor of Rome; "The Quotable Founding Fathers" edited by Buckner F. Melton, and "The True Believer" by Eric Hoffer.

Fourth, also in every classrom, a poster with these words of Abraham Lincoln from his first annual message to Congress on December 3, 1861:

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, Capital. Capital is only the fruit of Labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to Capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." “

Consider, that in Texas, the new Social Studies Curriculum is...instead of being concerned with History, Context, and Truth....is all about Indoctrinating our Youth into believing many of the VPE's Favorite Mythologies...Christian Nation, “Capitalism” as 1. What we've been doing, and 2. the perfect expression of Liberty....the American Experience as Nothing but the Good and Positive...meaning,”My Country Right or Wrong”, and the Uncritical,”We're Number One!”.
What Mr Browder doesn't mention is all of this, as Context.
He is pointing to the Effects of the Mindfuck, without mentioning the Mindfuck.
It's the Ontological Crisis I've been hollering about all this time.




Another Comment:”
Peter Goguen
3 Fans
01:44 PM on 03/30/2013
Despite the widespread belief that the present government is mired in partisan politics, I would assert that quite the opposite is true. We are embroiled in a national dialogue about fairness and justice, with more voices being heard than ever before, and this is a good thing. The issues over taxation,health care, gay marriage, and voting rights are being fervently discussed and argued at multiple levels of varying detail in every political news cycle of the day. As these arguments proceed they will eventually distill some form of consensus, enlighten the electorate and lead to a better America. Patience is all that is needed - good things are happening in America “


This is what I would like to Believe...and there is an argument to be made that there is Great Transformation happening, under the surface...after all, how would we expect to know...when the VPE have a Tentacle thrown across the Media(Hydraulic Despotism)?
When our Information about the World is Filtered through the wholly owned Corporate Media, is it any wonder that We are confused?

I am, of course, way out beyond mere Party and Politics...Review my Ramblings...Left and Right, Conservative and Liberal...none of this means much , any more...
Better: Dominator/Cooperator, or Authoritarian/Egalitarian.
I side with Democrats, because the LEAN towards Cooperator/Egalitarian...not because they EMBODY them. We let the Perfect be the Enemy of the Acceptable Improvement.

With that in mind, Protest Does, indeed Work...despite what my Naysaying Buddies would have us believe, on our way to Throwing in the Towel.
Racists use Euphemism and Code Words, instead of openly declaring their Racism=Progress.
Even Republicans are set to give up on Gay Marriage...shamed into silence for fear of losing elections=Progress.
Occupy, ere it was Cast into Outer Media Darkness...and Tea, ere it was Bought...agreeing on the Fundamental Problem of Super Rich Folks, and the Corps(e) they Hide Behind, essentially Buying Our Governments.=Progress.
There is reason for a little Hope....







Another Comment,Exemplifying the Confusion of Tongues:”Bart DePalma
Bart DePalma
563 Fans
11:27 AM on 03/30/2013
"Can our nation -- a people of growing cultural diversity, with increasingly divergent values, and dissentient governance inclinations, in a constrained systemic environment -- continue to sustain our collective pursuit of freedom, equality, and justice through the traditional framework of limited, representative government?"

Talk about your compound questions! Let's break this down...

The traditional framework of constitutionally limited, representative government is based on the proposal that the purpose of government is to protect the liberties of the people and accomplishes this purpose by limiting the power of government to infringe on liberty. The only proper law ("collective pursuit") is one that prevents the citizenry from harming one another.

This permits divergent cultures to live with one another peacefully.

The fundamental challenge to the existence of constitutionally limited, representative government is progressivism and socialism - the "dissentient governance inclinations" referred to in the question.

Progressivism and socialism are based upon the proposition of unlimited government power exercised by an unelected bureaucracy of "experts" directing the economy and society. This is the anti-thesis of and cannot coexist with constitutionally limited, representative government.

Under our current progressive and socialist government, the bureaucracy and courts rather than our elected Congress enact the vast majority of law.

Our caesarist President quite openly declines to enforce laws of which he disapproves and rules by executive order or bureaucratic decree where ever he can. How Professor Browder can even conceive of Mr. Obama as a transformative president advancing democracy is a complete mystery to me.”


Here is the Exemplar of the Confusion of Tongues....
To me, it is Obvious...the code Words,”Progressive”, allied with “Socialist”...mixed with the others,”Constitutionally Limited,Representative Government”....
Again, I am confronted Every Day, with such rhetoric...mostly by erstwhile Liberals...who do not Know that they are Liberals(after all, don't they eat babies?)
Who cannot Define Terms, save from Inside the Mindfuck....”Socialism/Progressivism/Liberalism”= Soviet Russia.(or even Nazi Germany!!)...always neglected in such statements is the Effects, even the Reality, of Corporate Domination of every area of Life.
I stand firmly with Mr Browder...We, the People, must Engage in Dialog....except that no one seems to recall what “Dialog” is.
In order to begin a Dialog, “Both Sides”(but especially what is known as “the Right”!) must accept the other as American, Too.
Our Diversity is often the root of our ineffectiveness.
Fear of the Other is fomented....by those who would have us fighting our Neighbor, rather than attacking the actual Enemies of Freedom.
We, the People, must overcome this Distraction...this Manufactured Division...if We are to ever even begin to, as we heard so often from TEA,”Take Our Country Back”..

Again, We have been riding the car, driven by maniacs, bumping along in the Right Hand Ditch...any correctional swerve to the left is regarded as going all the way, into the Left Hand Ditch...the Perfectly Serviceable Road remains Empty.

On Hope

“The world gets better. It also gets worse. The time it will take you to address this is exactly equal to your lifetime, and if you're lucky you don't know how long that is. The future is dark. Like night. There are probabilities and likelihoods, but there are no guarantees. “-Rebecca Solnit(1)

A usual day begins around here, with me: up at some silly hour, well before dawn. I make coffee, and...since I do not wish to impose my too-early-ness upon anyone...light the candle beside my bed.
I listen to the coffee machine sputter and spit and smoke cigarettes and look at the little flame...Tuvok the Vulcan would say,”the flame, disciplined”...and I think of Gandalf:”I am the servant of the Secret Fire...” and of Cormac McCarthy,”Carry the Fire...”...
and I reflect on the injustice and craziness and hatred and despair that seems so all encompassing, at times...like the darkness of my house, in those lonely hours before dawn....
But I have my Candle.
“This little light of mine...”
...all these long years of reflection and of learning and of speaking out...and where are we?
What's the point of it all?
I look out the window, at the quiet street, in this tiny quiet town, and feel the feelings of those who look out on other streets in other towns and cities and villages and megalopolises...streets not so quiet...
Not so peaceful.
It's hard to be optimistic...optimism has an inverse relationship to what one knows about the world.
But we are, each of us, a part of that world, and each have a small part in it's ongoing Creation.
...and that realisation is what keeps me going.
Small stones dislodge more small stones, which in their turn dislodge marginally larger stones...ripples expand outwards, and have an effect in the waterlogged grasses and reeds at the edges of the pond. The frogs therein know that something is afoot.
The edges are where all of the important stuff happens...as in the Protohominids at the edges of the shrinking Pleistocene forest, looking out at the growing Savannah...and making the decision to leave the shade....
That made all of the difference, it turns out.


"History written by Power taught us that we had lost.... We did not believe what Power taught us. We skipped class when they taught conformity and idiocy. We failed modernity. We are united by the imagination, by creativity, by tomorrow. In the past we not only met defeat but also found a desire for justice and the dream of being better. We left skepticism hanging from the hook of big capital and discovered that we could believe, that it was worth believing, that we should believe -- in ourselves. Health to you, and don't forget that flowers, like hope, are harvested." -Zapatista Subcommandante Marcos(1)

Hope, according to the Greeks, was all that was left in Pandora's Jar, when the lid was, almost too late, replaced.
They counted this as a very good thing.
I look around, and at first(and second and third) glance, see little reason for Hope.
I expect the worst...a Global Dark Age, unprecedented in it's scope and depth.
Holocene giving way to Anthropocene, the Age of Energy Abundance giving way to Scarcity on an almost unimaginable scale....Terror, writ large...Fear and Un-Understanding...Ignorance Ascendant.
In America, a Hobbesian Civil War of all against all, with our unknown Ruling Class, whom we still cannot bring ourselves to acknowledge, sitting in their Enclaves, waiting to emerge and “save” us all from ourselves, once the violence and rage has exhausted itself.
But then I look at my little fire, disciplined...glowing feebly in the darkness of my pre-dawn house...
And I think of Frodo Baggins, and of Luke Skywalker and Duncan Idaho and Neo and all of the other unlikely Heroes in our modern Mythos, and their unlikely victories against the Dark that forever lurks... waiting...
What such unlikely Heroes have in common, besides their universal initial unwillingness, is the first step onto the Path.
The Courage to take that step...not because of a lack of Fear, but in spite of it.
That first step, that small stone, that tiny flame in the dark...that is what all of the great changes that have gone before us were made of.
So, go on...Create your Universe...do your small part...Carry the Fire.
It's all we've ever had, and it is all that is, ultimately, needed.
The Essence of Magic is in learning to Focus one's Intention....Maximus the Gladiator/General says, “what we do here, today, echoes in Eternity...”
Our Intentions...Our Will...Our Compassion and Rage and Hope...Ripple outward.
That is how the World is remade.




(1)http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/677/rebecca_solnit_acts_of_hope
(2)http://www.alternet.org/economy/so-many-people-are-badly-traumatized-life-america-its-time-we-admit-it?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark

meandering

The courage to define oneself.
I may have been drunk at the river, but I came out of there with more trash than I brought.
Treelover? Yer damn skippy!
Lungs of the world. That's what a true conservative believes.
For Gay Rights? Yup, and proud to say.Equal Rights means Equal Rights.
You want to deny Gay People their Equal Rights because a few narrow minded folks might get upset?
I'm upset that a few narrowminded folks get to decide who is worthy of Equal Rights.
Everybody's Worthy of Equal Rights...which includes the Bigot's Right to an opinion.
That's conservative, too.
Pro-Dope?
Absolutely!
How is it conservative to let the government decide what choice of inebriant/relaxant is best for me? On my own property?
And while bothering no one?
Wanna restrict the vote? Make it hard to vote?
That ain't conservative, either.
Before you make such radical changes, you need a lot better evidence.
It's radical(in a bad way) to take people's Right to Vote.
Living Wage? Yes, for sure!
Folks who make more than enough to live on are good for business.
Folks who don't make enough to live on are Bad for business.
Pay folks more than Poverty Wages, and watch business grow.
Henry Ford knew this, why don't we?
If you don't like “welfare”, hire somebody at a Living Wage.
Wanna call yourself a “Job Creator”?
Prove it.
I don't want to be Rich...I want Enough.
Greed is not good...in fact, it's bad.
A Greedy person is not a role model. The one who has enough to share is to be emulated.
Courage means defending Freedom, even when we're scared.
I'll not remove my shoes...or my hat.
I am not afraid of terrorists...or of the Government.
I'm afraid of Ignorance.
The Things that I do not Know are an opportunity, not something to be feared.
Dont like me fishing naked? It's a big river...go further up stream.
Don't like my cigarette smoke? I do not care for your car exhaust, or your perfume.
I'd like to have the Freedom to take the train.

On the Truth, Rather Than the Lie

(What is a “Liberal”?)


All you need do
is ask....

We want to take the Best of what is Humankind,
and build a Civilisation out of it.
It is not, however, in Our Nature to Presume to Decide what is “Best”, and to then Unilaterally Universalise it. There can be no Liberal Dictators...
That is Anathema;
Dictatorship goes Against Our Nature.

Our Nature, instead, requires Discussion and Thought,
and Compromise.
….and, ultimately, Consensus.
Must We always make Decisions based on the purview of only one Facet of a Multifaceted Humanity?
Is there to be no Contact between the Mind, the Heart and the Soul?
Forever the Conflict between Our Intellect, Emotions and that which is Transcendent within Us?
We Believe and Intuit and Reason that All of Humanity has the Right to a hand in the Defining and Constructing of this thing called Humanity.
Civilisation...Society... Is, and Must be, a Joint, Cooperative, Interdisciplinary Project.
We believe in the Polis, in Democracy, in the Res Publica.(the “Thing of the People”)
Broad and Deep and Rich and Fecund.
We Accept and Acclaim a Thriving and often Riotous Humanity,
Clamoring and Whistling and Singing out,
Talking and Arguing, Agreeing and Disagreeing,
But in Absolute Agreement about only One Thing:
Our Collective and Individual and Inalienable Right to Exist.
All of Us.
Every One.
And We want to Agree on the De Minimis...the Bare Minimum of what that Means...
This Right to Exist...which means that We want to Talk about it.
We propose the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a Fine Place to begin this Discussion.
Such Documents are Designed to be Added to...never Subtracted from.
We believe that there is not one Humanity, but Billions.
We believe that Each of those billions have the Same Rights.
Which necessarily includes the Right to be a part of the never ending Discussion as to just what those Rights Are and Mean.
We believe that these De Minimis Rights are subject only to the Consensus of Humankind, insofar as they be added to....never diminished.
We believe in Erring on the side of Caution...constantly bearing in Mind Our propensity to Err otherwise.
And Constantly Remembering that We are not Infallible.
That We are not Perfect.
That Perfect is a Process, never Fulfilled...constantly Under Construction.
We believe that “My Right, my Sphere of Autonomy”, ends at that Place where it Intersects with “Your Right, your Sphere of Autonomy.”...and that in Between the two, Exists a Shared Humanity.
First Use of Force is the Second Highest Crime.(the First being Denying Anyone the Right to Exist.)
Force being Defined as Coercion, in spite of or contrary to, Our Common, but Individual, Bubbles of Autonomy, that We Each carry around with Ourselves...
And in spite of or contrary to, the Needs and Wants that We All Share.
Let Us, Together, Define those Needs and Wants.
Let Us have Compassion.
Let Us Work Together.
Let Us, through Dialog,through Trialog, Quadrilog, and so forth... See the world through Each Others' Eyes.
Let Us at last take into Mind Our Common Humanity.
And Let Us have the Courage to Become what We-- All of Us,Together—are...One and Alone and Many and Together...a Myriad, Sharing a Common Denominator…
Let Us make the Defining Characteristic of “HUMAN” be “Robust in Our Diversity.

“All of Us, Together and Alone.”



Let Us Dare
To Construct a World that encompasses Us All...that has Room for Us All...
a Right for Us All...
All the World is a Cousin to Me;
If not a Brother, or a Sister.
We are each, Each Others' Ancestors.
Let Us endeavor to Behave as if We were All Related to one another.
One Big Human Family.
May We...Can We...at least Agree on that?
All of Us?
Every One?

….and That,
Is what it means to be “a Liberal”.

Emergence

(crawling out the hole in the top)

Awright...so it wasn't exactly “warm”, today...
but the sun was out, and it got into the high 50's,
with North West winds at 5-10 mph.
I went out to the monastery and piddled around,
doing this and that.
I think the ladder is what did me in, finally.
It is so incredibly easy to damage myself.
Out of the 5 hours I spent out there, perhaps half that time was spent puttering—the rest, just sitting there, reading.
Lots of little things knocked off my rather extensive mental list...jammed the Ravi Shankar, and got into what for me is a groove: “work” for 20 minutes, sit down for 15.
Cripplehood teaches one Patience.
If I sit down for any longer, I'll start to seize up...like the Tin Man...and become furniture; so I must goad myself to continue.
Eventually...maybe 6 hours of this, maybe three(depending on weather and other factors), and I'll notice the Pain leaking past the drugs.
If I'm really in to what I'm doing, I sometimes don't notice the first stabs.
But it always ends with me staggering about, packing up the laptop and my lunch dishes, and crawling on home.
That was at around 3 pm.
Limped through the monastery Laundry Cycle and rekindled the fire, and I've been right fucking here, ever since.
I'm tempted to attempt a hot hot bath, but I know from experience that it will(counter-intuitively) make me feel worse, when all's said and done.
It'll feel great for as long as I'm submerged...but when I get out, and venture into this impossible to heat little house, the shivering will bring agony.
I'm clockwatching...another hour and a half til I can take another norco.
That indicates what is called “pseudoaddiction”...which is not addiction, at all, but rather a product of undermedication. Doctors often mistake it for the real thing...patient always complaining that it ain't enough.
This, in it's turn, is a product of our idiotic war on drugs..hypersuspicion and simplistic assumptions...all of which leads to a lack of trust.
(Yay, Amurca!)
I am lucky in this regard:
I have a good, 15 year long relationship with my Doctor.
Problem is that Texas requires paper prescriptions...and only a month's worth at a time.
So manana, I make the trek to Fredericksburg...70 miles, round trip.
That's gonna hurt, too.
At least the gloom has past, and the frigidity.
.................
...all of the foregoing with Rand Paul nattering in the background:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/14/1357706/-VIDEO-Rand-Paul-Over-half-the-people-receiving-disability-benefits-are-gaming-the-system?detail=email#

Those fuckers just won't quit!!
Forward!! Into Dark Age!!
Neofeudalism is the American Way!!
….and folks out here, and elsewhere, swallow it whole...never
realising that they are targets, as well.

Oubliette

Now, after the bells and tinsel are finally packed away again,
after the festivities and enforced joyousness have mercifully ended,
after the peeping hunters have gone back to their east Texas holes,
We are settled in for the long frigid dark,of the first two months of the New Year;
The last, more bitter half of Winter.
The Skunk has returned to under our house...I have no idea how she gets under there...
Seems like a new hole, every year.
Same with the Porcupine that prefers Wintering on the floor under the bath-tub..
One can tell by the sound the quills make as she shuffles around...scraping the iron underside of the tub.
By February, there will be Babies...”Kits”,perhaps?
Mewling and scratching.
TV Football is almost at an end(rejoice!)...but the local sporting endeavors are just getting up to speed...
I am largely exempt, due to cripplehood, and being unable to tolerate the benches
and bleachers, to say nothing of the crowds.
It is for that same reason that I only darken the theater's door for Star Wars and Tolkien...
I am Patient.
I can wait for the DVD.
The sports means that I am left alone
a lot.
More than usual.
I have driven away many acquaintances...by my occasional drunkenness,
or by my perennial erudite obscurity.
Perhaps both—Dionysius and Apollo are Strangers, here.
The handful of people I would actually prefer to hang around with are all...
to a man...
Womyn.
...and married to Neandethals.(what's that all about?)
Platonic, Pseudoplatonic, relationships with crazy Hippies are verboten.
And just forget about the possibility of fuck-buddies,lol.

It's too cold out side...and my Monastery takes hours to warm up...
and I hurt too much, this time of year, anyway.
So I am terminally Bored.

Three days more of frozen darkness, and then a warm spell...
Will I explode inebriated into the hills?
Will I work too much, too soon, and spend the remaining days of this coming unseasonable warmth
curled up in agony?
Habit indicates :
Both.

On Terrorism(French Edition)

What has stricken me, from the evening of 9-11-2001, to this day, is the tacit prohibition on considering the perspectives of the perpetrators.
We are expected to only consider it from our own( somewhat elitist and exclusive) perspective: they “hate us for our freedoms”, even as those Freedoms are whittled away out of Fear of Terrorism(“fear-ism”).
Their violence is always presented as Irrational, Barbaric, and Unwarranted.
Conversely, we are encouraged to think of our own, retaliatory Violence as Good and Just...and always perfectly Rational.
We are not to question the Official Story.
We are never to look into the perceptions and motivations of those Others.
I found out about this Prohibition the hard way.
That afternoon and evening...and for the following weeks...I, as is my habit, speculated aloud about possible alternative explanations and chains of Causation.
“Look at the History,” I said....
“Look at the West's meddling in the entire Arab World, for centuries...”
One can think of all of this as a considered response to Our own aggression and
avarice and double-dealing with the inhabitants of those regions.
From Churchill throwing darts at the map, to Sykes-Picot, to the Crusades, to the imposition and then propping up of various dictators and strongmen...from the House of Saud to Saddam to the Shah to Mubarak.
Our employees have waged a long campaign of violent, often Imperial, meddling....and the results, for the People on the ground in those places, have been economic and social stagnation.
From that perspective, from the perspective of those who have grown up in such chaotic environs---and confronted by wealthy Imperial strength—is it any wonder that those folks would eventually strike back at what they perceive as their Oppressors?
But we are all but forbidden from such contemplation.
To even consider that the Terrists may have a Grievance...and a legitimate one, at that...is considered as bordering on Treason.
This manipulated narrowing of Thought means that the same People, and “People”(the Paper Kind) ,who are behind the Oppression and Aggression against the entire Third World.--including the Arab/Muslim parts-- can also direct their Oppression and Aggression inwards...corralling and delimiting the Thoughtscapes of their own People, so as to curtail any opposition...and any formation of alternatives to their Paradigm.
TINA, again.
Hydraulic Despotism, applied to the Psycho-Social milieu.
It is instructive, that the first words to come from the public face of the various “intelligence” agencies after the bloodletting in France, are all about the “Need” to give up more of our Freedoms in service of “Fighting the Terrorists”.
Our Privacy, Our Freedom of Thought and Communication, are to be Sacrificed on the altar of FEAR.
That this end so closely coincides with the purported agenda of the Terrists, themselves, is yet another thing from which we are to avert our eyes.
That We allow our own governments to, essentially, accomplish what those governments tell us, in all sincerity, are the “Goals” of the Terrists, is the most hellish of ironies.

to Critter Mike, on shameless duplicity and general evil-doing.

Man,
you guys don't waste any time, at all.
I just read this:(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-zombeck/gop-begins-assault-on-eld_b_6436640.html)....and dug into many other sources.
I had thought that you lot couldn't surprise me any more, with your duplicitous mendacity, your cruel indifference and even hostility to those less fortunate.
Congratulations! You and your Ilk in the Goptea have lowered the bar, yet again.
Since the last election...which was not a "landslide" on your part(I can count, and do sums)...I had considered retiring from my letter-writing and from my attempts to call attention to you and your buddies' assholery.
Instead, I find myself with even more resolve.
I'm watching.
My word processor is warmed up.
My address book is updated.
Y'all just keep up the attacks on the poor, the weak and the aged.
At some point, Rushbo and Faux will no longer work for you to keep your base so blind to the effects of your rabidly hypocritical hatred of the American People (the flesh and blood kind...not the paper variety).
Vincit Omnia Veritas.
...and I will do my best to help the Truth get out.

thanks for the kindling.
Josef.
Liberal.

Thoughts and meditations while burrowed in for the new years' Canadian invasion.

I fucking hate winter.

This year, Thanksgiving brought my extended family a flu outbreak...complete with putting my mother(72) in an ambulance twice(the first time, I thought she was kicking the bucket), and me spending a lot of time camped out (uncomfortably)in her guest bedroom, in order to nurse and watch her.
Then the cold began....and the 24th anniversary of my life changing wreck, and my usual over-sensitivity to jingle bells and cinnamon smells and mannerless hunters stopping on my dirt road to ogle at the hippie in clown pants, carrying a hammer on his own property(if I did the same in their deep east texas cowboy-chic suburban warren, they'd surely call the law, if not shoot me)...and it's colder than a Teabilly pericardial sac, and as wet and nasty and all I wanna do is run off to Belize or somewhere and lay naked in the sun(which I am certain still exists, despite appearances).
The flu, though...that set things off on a deleterious track.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/01/when-you-get-the-flu-this-winter-you-can-blame-anti-vaxxers.html

It seems that, once again, the Faux Newt surreality has leaked into the world the rest of us inhabit...otherwise reasonable folks don't “believe” in the science around vaccines.
Those cracks in the Right Wingers' reality bubble are at the root of a whole lot of things that seem intractable.
To whit:

http://www.salon.com/2014/12/29/no_civilization_would_tolerate_what_america_has_done_partner/

Maybe this guy reads me...or maybe I'm somehow tapped into the Noosphere...but I've been hollering about all of that for years: our inability and unwillingness to look Reality in the face-- instead preferring to believe real hard in our various Mythos and ever so comfortable in our numerous unexamined Assumptions, Frames and Memes.
Ah...the Warm Herd....

More tea colored crap oozes from the cracks:
http://www.salon.com/2015/01/01/beyond_the_foreign_policy_lies_our_compliant_media_and_the_truth_about_american_exceptionalism/#comments

Again...Where's everybody been?
Lol.
Reagan's Amurca has been an unamerican shithole for a long time.
(yes, it goes back at least to Truman, who was “a democrat”...sigh)...and the further down that fork in the road we go, the more the ghosts of the John Birch Society infect the mind of America.
I've made the attempt at working on the part of the Mighty Tome, for months, about the all but unacknowledged but widespread anti-Hippie discrimination, hostility, and outright Eliminationism...and what that says about Us, and how we've been bamboozled, lo these past 40 years, but I have been so fucking depressed. The Ferguson, et alia hatefest has not relented(comments sections, throughout the web).
The Torture Report made little difference.
The Republican Party has been shameless in their Triumphalism(and they still appear to be ignorant assholes)...and the Democratic Party is still eyeless and ball-free.
I've been on Deep Space 9 and Battlestar Galactica for 2 months as a result.

These three excellent articles are my return to paying attention.
I'm glad that I ain't the only one who has looked at the roots of things.
It sure feels that way, sometimes.

Cops and Empire

As above, so below.
What the US Government does abroad, the Criminal “justice system” does at home.
The one alienates, frustrates and angers People in far flung backwards countries; the other alienates, frustrates and angers People in (some) American Neighborhoods.
And then when those People, here and there, have had enough, and strike out in anger...we are shocked.
In both cases, the highest Sin in America, is putting one's own privileged white ass in the other guy's shoes. After 9-11, it was a sure way to get beat up, at worst...screamed at, at least...to ask,” why do they hate us so?--what could We have done to so piss those folks off?”
Now, after Ferguson, We are vilified for attempting to get our loud and hostile countrymen to walk a mile in Black, Brown and Poor Folks shoes in regards to the Cops.
The “Terrists” we are supposedly fighting over there, somehow deserve it....as do the People killed and maimed and beaten by Law Enforcement; No matter the Evidence...or lack thereof.
To question these Holy Assumptions...to examine them...is a bridge too far for our frothing brethren, so insane in their denial, and so fragile in their fearfulness.
Because it takes courage to call out one's own country for bad...even evil...behaviour, done in Our own name.
It takes courage to call out one's employees when they do wrong...especially when those employees are habituated to getting away with everything, and shameless in their counter recriminations.(“how dare they protest!”--”how dare they release a report!”)
It takes courage to look at one's own country and acknowledge it's...our...shortcomings and failures and fuck-ups.
It takes very little courage to scream at those who have the stones to be so honest.
Last I looked, less than 30% of Us who could vote...did.
...and the Right Wing's terrified terrorists “won”.
They think they have a “mandate”...and are behaving as if they do on TV:
Justifying the most heinous acts by Our employees, both abroad and at home.
Screaming, as they are wont to do, that “we are awesome”...when the evidence, quivering and shit-stained on the floor, is that we are, instead, the Evil Empire, now.
I reject, categorically, the worldview that rests on “my country right or wrong” and “love it or leave it”.
That is a dishonest worldview, founded on fear, and fit only for cowardly men.
At the moment, and so far, there is little evidence that “We are better than that”.
But We could be.

Torture

“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just;
that his justice cannot sleep forever.”-Thomas Jefferson.



Punitive Rectal Rehydration.


In other, less euphemistic, words: Our employees connected a hose to a faucet, stuck the other end up some poor bastard's ass, and turned on the water.
As punishment.

Our employees.

In Our name.

Currently, the Great Wurlitzer of Hatred and Hysteria is churning out Apologia and Misdirection...blaming Obama(!?) for releasing the Senate Report that describes such activities in such gruesome detail.
How dare Obama and the Democrats release a report!
How dare they expose our perfidy and our barbarism!
The gall of those people!!
Living in the past, they are.
They should quit blaming Bush for everything!
…........

Punitive Rectal Rehydration.

Causing a detainee to stand naked, chained to the ceiling of a chilled concrete room, for days.
At least once, until death by hypothermia.

Setting attack dogs upon bound and naked and feces-smeared prisoners.

Applying electric currents to the genitals of detainees.
….............
There's the War Criminal Cheney, wringing his claws over the damage this report will do to our standing in the world; like a Molester getting all angry at the neighbor for turning him in.
There's even Lil George, himself....emerging from hiding to insist that the Torture Corps are the best people to have on our side. Those Torturers are “good people”...really.
There's Nicole Wallace, telling us that such things were what the American People wanted at the time...so very fearful were we.
There's the various babblers and screamers of Fox News, yelling stridently that “We're Awesome!”...as nations who Torture people are always regarded.

….............
I'll stop “blaming Bush” when he and his Administration and all of his now-forgetful Supporters take Responsibility for these things.
These War Crimes.
When the Good Americans, who screamed at me for naming George Bush II a War Criminal for such actions,take Responsibility .
When they who physically attacked me for being vocally Against Torture being done in My Name admit their error.
…................
Any other nation who engaged in such despicable behaviour would be universally and rightly condemned as a pariah.
But when the American Right does that same thing, they are to be excused?
Is this that much vaunted “Christian Morality”?
I note that every single person on Fox News right this minute endeavoring to justify Torture considers themselves a “Good Christian”...as well as an “American Patriot”.
Is this the standard to which we should aspire?
What would the outrage look like if it had been Obama or Clinton who had initiated, then covered up, these heinous crimes?
And right there is where all of the Justification...all of the Apologia...falls flat.
A Democratic Administration would be hung in effigy for these crimes....and rightly so.
Why do those same standards not apply to Bush and Cheney and their Ilk?



I am proud to say that I did not support Torture.
Too many, from the Former President on down to folks in this very town, did.
You should be ashamed of yourselves.
To this day, you fail to take responsibility for such Horrors.
You have lost the right to criticize the perceived Immorality of anyone.
Bush and Cheney and the whole bloody bunch have forever lost credibility...at least in more civilised places.
Places that actually Prosecute War Criminals.
America, it seems, is not one of those places.
Here, shining the Light on Evil in our midst is seen as a Liberal Plot to ruin the country.
Here, insisting that those of Our employees who have done wrong be brought to Justice is seen as evidence of traitorous intent.
Here, War Crimes done in service of Lies are to be excused...so long as those War Criminals have an ® after their name.
I pray that there is a God, and that His Justice may be swift.
Ours certainly is not.

Myriads of Mavericks

On Steering the Herd.( Cobbled from old and new because they fit together))


Words, and their Meaning. (2012)
One hears an awful lot about Freedom, these days.
It is invoked as the reason for the Wars, as the reason folks run for Office, as the Goal of Life.
The word is thrown about by politicians, and would be politicians, as if the Meaning is so well known as to need no Definition...it is a Given..."Everyone" Knows what Freedom means.
I differ in this Sentiment, as in so many others.
I say that Important Words must be Defined.
Often.
This would entail much Debate, by just about everyone who will be affected by the Defining of such Words.
I think it is instructive that this is not the case.
No one, it seems, feels the need to Define anything, especially Important Words.
I posit that this has led, almost of necessity, to such Words becoming, if not Meaningless,then often meaning the Polar Opposite of what they once were....and what We think they still are.
A few Anecdotes...
My 8 year old Son is at the weekly (in Season) Ritual Battle with a Rival Town (Football game).
He's cattin' around",Socialising with his friends, especially Girls.
A Cop, the Grandfather of one of his friends, playfully handcuffs them, in turn....itself, a stealth form of Indoctrination, but not the most pernicious. That Honor goes to a little later, when a younger kid is caught, by this Cop, buying candy at the Concession,(concession to what?),an then going among the crowd, selling the candy at profit...Adam Smith, or Marx, would say that this boy is 1)showing initiative, 2) in effect, selling his Labor (waiting in line, delivery)....in other Words, being a Good Capitalist. However, this activity is, apparently, Forbidden.
It's not in any of the rules I've seen...and i doubt that it's Codified, at all.
But this Intervention, by the cop, is seen as uninterestingly commonplace, hardly worthy of comment.
My Son includes it as an aside, and only at my prompting does he elaborate.
What Message is this sending?
I don't, for one minute, think that this is an Intentional Message..the cop didn't learn it in Cop Class, didn't receive instructions from his Boss...it flows without comment or thought...just as Natural as Rain.
What I immediately Thought, was that this small act was a very Profound Statement on the Reality of our Modern World. The fact that it was unintentional, and unrecognised, makes it an even more Profound Statement.
In America, in the Early 21st Century, Capitalism is a Secular Religion...seen as the Highest Form of Social Organisation, and as an almost Divine Gift to Mankind...the State that all of Humanity is Reaching for.
The Mythology is Powerful...every man a King...Work Hard, Get Rich....Upward Mobility as an Article of Faith.
American Dream.
There are many examples of this being the case for certain Individuals...very many, in fact.
But what is the Economic Norm?
Most of us work for someone else...be that "Person" an actual Flesh and Blood Human, or the Bodiless, Paper Kind.
Furthermore, with the decline of Manufacturing, the preceding Monopolisation/Cetralisation of the Means...and the later "Off Shoring" of that Means, and the Jobs that went with it...we, in America, normally work in "Service"...be it waiting tables, or selling something made elsewhere.
The Core Service, no matter the Product being Sold, is making folks "Feel" Special...most of whom are anything but...rather ,quintessential examples of Mediocre and Homogeneous. The man at the table,B3, shaking his glass at the Waitress...insisting on a whole lemon with his tea...is made to Feel Special by her attention...(in these instances, she is rewarded with a pittance...which also Speaks Volumes)...he is made to Feel like a King.
This has become the most important "Product" that the vast majority of us sell...be it in a Cell Phone Store, a Wallmart, or on the Trading Floor.
It is a Simulacrum of the Dream...for none of us really have the Power that the Mythology implies is our Birthright.
Rather than Every Man a King, we are Cogs in the Machine of Capitalism.
The Cop's unintentional Lesson teaches this Implicitly.
This Child, with his Initiative, is breaking the Unspoken Rules....which run contrary to the Mythos.
Only those with Sanction, the Concession Stand,may use Initiative.
The rest of us must work for them.
Is this what is being "Conceded" at the Concession?
Probably not Intentionally...I don't know what the provenance of that word, used this way, is.
In this little tale, this Anecdote, that's what I derive.
Another...
The Austin News had 4 lead stories, the other night.
Both "sides" of the (Official, but Unspoken) Political Divide were represented.
What we call "Liberal" was represented by the story of a woman whose Property was "Annexed" by the City...which led to her being Forced to sell her Horses...it being a Violation of the city's Zoning Ordinances to keep Horses.
Busybody, Coercive Government...Lording it over the Individual...with One-Size-Fits-All Rule-Making...and an official "Concession" to the Individual, in the form of an expensive, Byzantine Process of Protest...whereby this woman could, albeit arduously, Contest the application of the Rules to her.
The other 3 stories were about the War on Drugs...which, in Reality and Effect, is a War on Marijuana. This is the "Conservative" portion of the newscast.
Big, Intrusive Government...Imposing Morality and Conformity on the Individual...with One-Size-Fits-All Rule-Making...and an official "Concession" to the Individual, in the form of an expensive, Byzantine Process of Protest...whereby one could, albeit arduously, Contest the application of the Rules to her/him.
One story detailed the Mandatory Drug Testing in School, in order for an Individual to participate in Extracurricular Activities...the "Out" was that no one is Forced to partake, to get Tested...but if an Individual Refuses, they are Forbidden from Participating.(it is better to follow the Rules)
Another, the necessity, according to the Chief of Police, of purchasing a number of Vans, equipped with technology that "sees" through walls, surveills houses from the street, without Warrant, in order to root out Drug Use.(We are Watching).
The last story was regarding a man who was arrested("stopped") for Possession of "Drugs"...which means, usually, Marijuana.
He was caught by a Liar...an "Undercover" Cop, presenting himself as a "Drug Dealer".("Drug Dealers", like the boy in the first story, are the Quintessential Capitalists)
(We will Find You...You Cannot Hide...and you Cannot Trust Anyone.)
These parenthetical Meanings are unacknowledged in the News Cast...
The Sanctioned Intoxicant/Relaxant, in America for most of the 20th Century, and the first decade of the 21st, is Alcohol...
What I derive from this is as follows.
Alcohol is conducive to Violence,Unreason, and a strange mixture of Passivity and Aggression.
It is a Lizard-Brain Drug...making Men into Swine.
Pot is a Front Brain Drug, making Men into Mystics.
The Implication is that we can have only so many Mystics, Front Brained Creatures...
Too many, and the System ceases to work.
The Mythology surrounding Marijuana confirms this.
The Horse Woman's experience is related in that Conformity to Arbitrary Norms is not Optional.
Horses are not allowed in the city, men are not "supposed" to have long hair, unless they're Drug Fiends...
And one must be Sanctioned,... Baptised, as it were...in order to Participate...whether it be in Band, or in Property Ownership,in Capitalism, or in the Management of one's Consciousness.
All of this runs Counter to the Mythological "Reality" we think we live in.
We Believe one thing, and Do another.
The Disconnect is unrecognised.
In this Culture, then, what is "Freedom"?
The Freedom to Conform? To do as you're told?
The Freedom to Follow the Rules...with the Threat of Force and Coercion, often Unspoken/Unthought-About, if one strays from the Path of Righteousness?
"Freedom" as Antipode to Freedom.
...to our reflexive "Understanding" of what "Freedom" means.
The Assumption,... Unexamined, as usual...is that We are a Free People...
So Free that the World is Envious of Us.
Defending this Freedom is the Purpose of the Wars...which leads, incidentally, to further Limits on Behaviour and Speech, as in the whole Matrix of "Support the Troops" Rhetoric...and “Watch what you say”.
To Challenge it is Verboten.
I submit that we have been Sold a Lie...
My , Considered, Definition of Freedom is Codified in Reciprocity...as in the Wiccan Rede, my favorite, most concise example..."An Harming None, Do as Thou Will"...
Given, to Live by this requires much Thought and Consideration...of the Consequences of Our Actions, more than anything.
In it's turn, this Consideration requires a certain Habit of Thought.
It doesn't work all that well without it...
More crumbs of Anecdotal Evidence are to be found in the Marijuana Culture, as opposed to the (more or less official) Alcohol Culture.
Potheads, when relatively Unmolested, are known for their Habits of Sharing...be it Munchies or Weed...Avoiding Unnecessary Conflict...and an Egalitarian Do as Thou Wilt...
Drinkers, on the other hand, are known for Belligerence...and for the guarding of one's drink,girl,etc.
The one is about Us; the other, Me.
Of course, this is not Universal...and there are many Variables that influence the Zeitgeist of a given situation...for instance, when Potheads are oppressed,actively sought out, they tend to become more like Drinkers. They guard their Stash, even from friends...
Conversely, Drinkers, when certain Variables are just so, are Amicable, Sharing, and Tolerant..
I realise that these are Generalisations...and that they come to me, at best, second hand,(one, filtered through the Mind of an eight-year-old)
...but Generalisations have their uses...and I believe that these, particular Generalisations, are ,on the whole, Accurate....from my own Experience.
That given, one is led to ask: why would a civilisation discourage the one, and encourage the other?
Again, I doubt that a "Decision" was made....the Smoky-Room Meme...it simply, Is....a Function of Our Culture, Unexamined, Unarticulated, and Unspoken...but Operative, nevertheless.
The Answer to this Dilemma, it occurs to me, is stated, Implicitly, above...Front-Brain/Lizard-Brain.
Sharing/Guarding. Cooperation/Competition.Aformity/Conformity.
As in the first Anecdotes, our Civilisation requires the latter of all these Syllogisms.
If the Former were allowed to run rampant, Civilisation would Change...and Change runs contrary to Status Quo.
These Musings of mine, on such Commonplaces, might seem Farfetched...Insane, even...which, ultimately Proves the Point.
Examples of this confront us every day...usually Unnoticed, Unremarked...
They are the Jungian Things-Behind-Things...
The Archetypal Soup to our Bits of Celery and Potato.
….....................................
Arguing with Geese. Episode # 10,123 (a Parable)(2014)


I went out to the Library/Monastery, today, bright and early.
We were all out there yesterday, unloading a trailer full of sand for the floor of the shop(fireproof, and the better to see the snakes on).
So I was a little worse for wear this morning.
I set up the ancient kiddie pool in what used to be the garden, between my place and Mom's, then went and opened gates on the way to where the Geese are, now...out behind Mom's, where the goats used to live.
Herded those ninnies all the way around the front, over the little dike, and to the Pool.
They stood there, looking at the water coming from the faucet, and muttered amongst themselves.
Then they wandered around the old garden...all in a knot...nibbling at grass seedheads, and muttering...keeping one eye out of 40 on me, at all times.
Having neglected to place chairs strategically around the route, I pushed them further...all the way into my old yard, under the big Oak.
Set up a sprinkler(one of their favorite things), and backed down the drive, towards Mom's...then back along the road, out of sight, and into the Library that way, stealthily.
I got into reading...checking on them every ten minutes or so.
They stood in a knot, muttering, for an hour.
Staring at the sprinkler.
Panting in the heat.
Then they, as one, waddled on over to Mom's.
I repeated the entire procedure.
Back and forth, in the 100-200 yards between Monastery and Mom's.
Staring at the pool, staring at the sprinkler...and thirsty.
As I've said, Geese will look at a newly opened gate for a month, ere they'll venture through it.
What I'm doing is re-writing their code...or at least attempting to.
As usual in such dealings with Geese, I can't help but think about the vast majority of ordinary rural Texans, as I have known them.
I'll repeat this Goose-Herding activity for a week, or a month...however long it takes for it to become “Normal”.
Put my place on the Goose-Map of their world, that they carry in their tiny brains.
Eventually, they'll just come over here. It will be on the Agenda for the day.
So long as I keep the pool filled, this jaunt to the Monastery will be “What Geese Do”.

…....................................................November, 2014
Automata.
We don't Think about what we're doing...or why we're doing it...nearly enough.
There's some evidence that this feature is operative throughout the Human Species...Bottom to Top...just, as I've said, those higher up the Pile enjoy access to better Information...a broader view...and the Leisure Time to sit and Think about such things.
But even they, the “Rulers” are subject to this Automata, just to a lesser degree.
Assumptions, Unexamined.
In order for there to be any chance of conjuring the Great Work --of Reclaiming Our Civilisation from thems that stole it--we'll have to Retrain the Herd.
In the old Cattle Drives, the drovers kept their eye out for the Maverick...the old Bull who took no guff and went his own way...while the Herd would follow.
Control that one, and you control the Herd.
Most of Our Mavericks have been so coopted.
Pressed into service of the Machine.
Since the late 70's this has been so.
Note that there hasn't been a big time assassination of a Lefty Public Figure...that everyone was Certain WAS an Assassination(Paul Wellstone doesn't count, here)...since the 70's.
The Object Lesson was well taught...and well-learned, it seems.
Of course, there are indications that this state of affairs is changing...Occupy...Bernie Sanders...Liz Warren..Alan Grayson...Bill McKibben...the list is growing.
It is to be hoped that the advent of Viral Media...of 'Everyone as Journalist'...that this has made “Falling out of an Airplane”...or Getting “Eaten by Sharks”...or “Suicide by shooting oneself three times in the back of the head”...more trouble than it's worth.
I hope so.
We need Mavericks...Real Mavericks, unafraid to get out in Front...more than ever before.
That's how you steer the Bewildered Herd.
But we require Millions of them.
..................

I often harp on How the Right Wing accomplished their Counter Revolution...by, first, sending out Bulk Mailings of little Questionnaires. Those who were frightened, and therefore Motivated, enough...answered...and were put on the List of Potential Targets.(Remember, Fear is the number one Motivator of the Right...then and now).
These Potential Targets then received closer attention...first through the mail(postage paid)...then by phone(call banks and volunteers(ever increasing))...then, if they fit the Criteria(which had been established at the beginning)...they would get a knock at the door.
Upon answering the door, one would find 2-3 Nice Young Men,,,well dressed, well spoken, clean cut(now, they use women, too)...
And Eager! Brimming with Evangelical Fervor...ready to Spread the Gospel of Conservatism.
These Criteria-Fitting Targets would be Scared Shitless by the Tale Told by the Nice Young Men...not least by Confirmation of what they already Expected.
There was little Surprise Disclosure of New Scary Information.
Just a Comforting, Reassuring, “We think like you. You are not alone. You're Right...””
If they fit a more narrowing , exclusive Criteria, they might be encouraged to Volunteer(licking stamps, cold calling, maintenance of the already faithful.)
Or, if passing the last test, Encouraged to run for School Board...for County Commissioner...City Council.
Through all of this Process, the Message...the Narrative Framework (Hammered Out Beforehand)...was Flogged, Preached, Confided, Whispered and Shouted...
Reinforced.

If any of this looks somewhat familiar, that's because it comes, one could argue, from Saul of Taursus.
It is the political analog of Christian Witnessing...of Evangelizing...Preaching on Streetcorners and in Livingrooms and Kitchens.
Itinerant Preachers, holding Revivals in Tents, in School Auditoriums..
Front Porches.
Back Porches.
...and of course, at Church.

It is all about the Message, and it's Transmission into as many Minds as possible.

They melded Faith with Politics....and even with Economics.
A generic, Lowest Common Denominator version of Christianity, anodyne but with a powerful Subtext,...coupled with a Simplistic understanding of the “Correct” Ideology/Philosophy, Economics and Civics.

This Framework was infectious as hell.
It worked especially well when things were bad, out there in the country...but not too bad.
Just Right.


…................................................................
What about Us?
What's Our Narrative?
We have disowned ourselves from our past.
We were made to be ashamed of the Excess of the 60's...and of the 30's...
Never daring to think that, well, what did we expect, with a sudden release, after maybe even Millennia of Repression?
Explosions happen for reasons...and we can learn from them.
But we didn't learn from them except for the superficial parts that we were allowed to keep around...a defanged environmentalism, a laugh and point back to the land, a now regarded as perverted sexual revolution...We use their Memes ...their Words and Phrases.

Our Narrative currently consists of bits of the Language from those past struggles.
...shorn of Enthusiasm, Disconnected from an Overarching Theme, and almost exclusively in Market Language, Conservative Language:...Social Security, and other such Big Things...Hippies as part of the Fashion and Music Industries...Antiwar, Antiracist,Pro-People Fervor kept on stumps in the yard as quaint relics...the ideal of a Brotherhood/Sisterhood/Family of Humans, sharing a planet in all of our Diversity, placed deep into the closet.
All of this distilled into a Simplistic Caricature...a Cartoon of “The Left”.
(Theirs was a Cartoon, too...Justice League, GI Joe...)

We dropped our Narrative.
And let some folks of our number replace it with “Centrism”...”Third Way”...
Conceding to nearly the whole of the Criticism, fired from the Right. Running away from our Words, and the Ideas they represented.
The most Inspired among Us, we have pushed out...segregated...scattered...
Vegans don't talk to Coop Economists don't talk to Save the Whales don't talk to Human Rights Watch don't talk to Doctors without Borders. Burning Man and the Evolvers and Ravers...all on their little hills.
And all of them are trying to talk to the Democratic Party, separately, who takes their money and their votes, and leaves them exhausted and bedraggled in the morning-- without a goodbye or a working phone number.
It is often said in certain circles that, like all Movements, the 60's and the Hippies and the Radicals of 40 and a hundred years ago, contained within them their own death.
That they were Too Radical...and were, thus, a Failure...to be remembered only as a warning.
I, on the contrary, think that We should take the Good that came out of those Ages of Experimentation...and Improve upon it.
We haven't really had that conversation, in enough places.
We seem to be afraid to talk about it, having internalised the wall to wall caricature:
“Union Thugs” “Dirty Hippie” “Feminazi””Baby Killer””Gay Agenda””Tree Huggers””Marching in Lockstep”(!?)
”Big Government Liberal”
“Stalin”
“Unamerican”
It's near Taboo in almost every Southern place that I've been...Texas to Florida....to have a conversation about those times,about what they Meant, without the perfunctory Denials and Condemnations.
We should have that conversation, any way.
We should Own the Good that came out of those past Struggles.
We...in the broadest sense...must write our Narrative.
For 2014-- For now.
...and stop letting our Foes do it for us.
A Message...Simple... containing fluffy seeds of Bigger, Broader things, that blossom in the Minds where they blow.
They have their Dog Whistles...their Mothership, disseminating Marching Orders--
we need a Conch Shell...a Shofarr...a Tarzan Yell...an Orgasmic Moan.
A Dandelion.

The Right, from the late 70's onward, built and maintained their Movement with the Worst parts of Human Nature...Fear and Loathing, Jealousy and Greed.
Powerful, yet somehow Weak,Enemies and Scary Monsters.

We should build ours on the Best Parts.
Compassion and Reason, Tempering one another.
Diversity and Connection.
Pluralism...Mindfulness...
and the Courage to Experiment.
Talk about them incessantly, Argue about them... because nailing them down is for later.
I'm not talking about Policy...about Planks in the Platform...
I'm talking about Thinking and Talking into Existence the Nebula from which such stars are formed.
About Radical Inclusion...about welcoming all manner of Ideas into the Compost Pile of our Discourse together...and seeing what springs forth.
I'm talking about Philosophy.
We all should be.
Can't have a Movement without it.

Take the Handmaid's Tale,

Take the Handmaid's Tale,

http://houseofpublicdiscourse.blogspot.com/2014/04/what-would-christian-reconstructionism.html

and add in Bladerunner:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/10/18/vote-all-you-want-the-secret-government-won-change/jVSkXrENQlu8vNcBfMn9sL/story.html

and I think that's an accurate representation of where auto-pilot will get us.
Plus, maybe, Aeon Flux.
….....................................
Or:
http://www.newphilosopher.com/articles/prosperity-paradox/
Essentially, Star Trek...with some of the features of Idiocracy.

which world do you want to work towards?

The Stupid and Narrowminded , whipped silly by the Greedy,have been in charge of things for far too long.
Enough!
Education has always been the Left's...the Cooperators'...number one weapon against the Into the Cave! Crowd.
Enough with the Postmodern Ennui...Alienation...all that jazz...
Let us Assert ourselves.
Let us stop being intimidated by the Worst Among Us.
We'll make a Better World.
Period.
All of their fantastical prescriptions have been tried, and found wanting.
Our Prescriptions...the one's we've been able to implement...have worked.
Not perfectly, but nearer to the Ideal, than the alternative.(New Deal, Great Society, etc)
It is way past time to stand the fuck up.
Look them in the eye, and glare.
They'll either punch you in the face, or sit down and shut up.
The current strategy of Polite Retreat is unacceptable.
I wanna see a “Fuck You!” Wing of the Democratic Party.
My flag has a Middle Finger on it.

Audeamus!

Tell Me

What is this “socialism” you speak of?
Is it “Obamacare”?....that market based paean to Big Insurance?
Is it your Medicare? Social Security?
The Interstate Highway System?
What is that “capitalism” you speak of?
You mean that thing we do that virtually insures that actual Small Farmers go into perdition?
That Walmart is the only place in much of Rural America to buy toilet paper?
That thing we do that insures that the Big Casino that you all put in charge of the Global Economy gets to externalise it's Fuck-Ups into the Commons? Onto all of us Little Fish?
That “Capitalism”?
Tell me about “Deregulation” ….of the Very Big...and the Hyper-Regulation of the Very Small and even the Medium...How the layering of Laws and Rules onto Everyone except the Aristocracy that “doesn't exist” is a Perfect Expression of Freedom....
Tell me how Honeywell is a “small business”.
How Con-Agra is a “Small Family Farmer”....and the Salt of the Earth....
Tell me how the largest fictional and Supra-National entities on Earth are “just people”...but how Unions are not.
Remind me of how defunding/eradicating Pensions and other Benefits are not Broken Promises...and should be excused as necessary for the maintenance of that Third Lakeside Mansion...
Tell me how Rules for Businesses...especially the Very Large Kind...are somehow a Bad Thing...because Corporate Moguls are Moral and Just...and always do the Right Thing.
How Avarice is the Foundation of a Moral and Just Society...and how a Dude named Jesus said as much....how Deontological Constraints are inimical to True Freedom...and that the Ends Justifying the Means always...Always...leads to the Best Outcome for all involved.
Tell me , again, about the “New Economy” that is waiting in the wings to replace the Manufacturing that just had to leave for the Third World...
Tell me how “Free Trade Agreements” are in Everybody's Best Interest....how the Environment is an Ashtray...and how Perpetual, Exponential Growth is a rational thing to expect on a Finite Planet.
Remind me, again, that the sprinkle I feel on the top of my head isn't Urine from the Corner Office Balcony...that it is instead the Sweet Rain of Economic Prosperity, that the Good God, Market, has sent to fall gently upon us all....

On Stupidity

(http://www.alternet.org/media/science-fox-news-why-its-viewers-are-most-misinformed?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark)
(http://www.alternet.org/media/why-conservatives-opt-propaganda-over-reality?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark)

I instruct my boys thusly:
“The first step on the path to Wisdom is “I don't Know””...and “Ignorance is curable with effort...but Stupid is always a Terminal Condition.”
The stories linked above are further proof that a large portion of the folks we share the country with can no longer be considered Ignorant, and therefore Curable. Instead, they are Stupid.
Stupid, and well trained in the usage of a set of rhetorical habits that further confuse and poison the “Debate”, and therefore, the Commons.
How many times has a Right Winger hollered at me to “Do some research”?
Or to “Broaden where I get my information”...the implication being that I, as a self described Liberal, must get my information only from “Left Wing Propaganda”?
Of course, these hollerers never...not once...offer up suggestions to accomplish this end...which is telling, I think.
Never have they told me to watch Fox...or to listen to Rush...or read World Net Daily.
Never.
Not once.
Indeed, when I take this crazy trait into account..per-emptively...in my online arguing, in other words, when I deliberately refrain from linking to Wiki, or Msnbc or Alternet, because I know full well what my interlocutors will reflexively say...when I instead link to the Wall Street Journal, or to Forbes...even to Fox “News”(on the rare occasion that they accidentally get things right)...I am lambasted for those Sources, as well.
You just can't “win” an argument with these people...because they're Stupid...
And not just Stupid, but fucking Proud of their Stupidity.
They wear Stupidity like a uniform, believing(I think) that it is Knowledge.
They wave Stupidity around like a Flag.
...and the hardest thing is that when you present evidence, all but irrefutable to anyone else, that contradicts their Belief in their Stupidity....then YOU are the Stupid one!
You see, Liberals are the ones who “Drink the Koolaide”...just as “Liberals are the Source of Violence in this country”(really,lol)...and “Liberals want to put “Real Americans “ in camps, for seeking “Truth””...and on and on.
It makes me want to become even more of a Hermit than I already am...but it's my fucking country, too...dammit!
It's the place where my kids will grow up.
It's where I live.
….so I feel deeply that I have a Responsibility to counter all of the Stupid and Dangerous Bullshit that is thrown around and believed as “Fact” by so many of my countrymen.
I fear that we, in the “Reality Based Community” have already lost.
That we are already in a New Dark Age of...not Ignorance, that would leave an opening for Hope...but of Stupidity, malicious and evil....regarding itself as Truth and Goodness.
Falsehood, masquerading as the Real World.
I've lamented this for more than a decade, now...but it just gets worse.
Instead of naming our current time as the Anthropocene Epoch, I think it's more reasonable to name it the Age of Stupid.
The poem that's been in my mind since just after 911 is much more apt to our current predicament than I would like:

“”The Triumph of Dulness
from The Dunciad

In vain, in vain,---the all-composing hour
Resistless falls: the Muse obeys the power.
She comes! she comes! the sable throne behold
Of Night primeval, and of Chaos old!
Before her, Fancy's gilded clouds decay,
And all its varying rainbows die away.
Wit shoots in vain its momentary fires,
The meteor drops, and in a flash expires.
As one by one, at dread Medea's strain,
The sickening stars fade off the ethereal plain;
As Argus' eyes by Hermes' wand oppressed,
Closed one by one to everlasting rest;
Thus at her felt approach, and secret might,
Art after Art goes out, and all is night.
See sulking Truth to her old cavern fled,
Mountains of casuistry heaped o'er her head!
Philosophy, that leaned on Heaven before,
Shrinks to her second cause, and is no more.
Physic of Metaphysic begs defense,
And Metaphysic calls for aid on Sense!
See Mystery to Mathematics fly!
In vain! they gaze, turn giddy, rave, and die.
Religion blushing veils her sacred fires,
And unawares Morality expires.
Nor public flame, nor private, dares to shine;
Nor human spark is left, nor glimpse divine!
Lo! thy dread empire, Chaos is restored;
Light dies before thy uncreating word:
Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall;
And universal darkness buries all. “”
-Alexander Pope, the Dunciad.

I tremble for the Future.

Dearest Skippy,

Tony,(perkins)

I just watched you get creamed by Mr Olson on Faux.
Mr Olson, and that other guy, handled the rest of your protestations with dispatch.
But this little snippet:
(from http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/fox-news-host-grills-tony-perkins-whats-the-damage-to-you-if-your-neighbors-are-gay-married/)

“Perkins insisted that his children would be “taught values and morals against what I teach as a parent at home.” “

That is for me to tackle.
So your kids might learn something about this big ol' crowded world that you don't like?
My wife and I are continually re-teaching American and World History, after our boys get home from school.
We are forced to do this, as my parents were, because people like you, and the folks you run with, keep hollering every time any real history sneaks in.
Like how we're a Secular Nation, by design.
Like how Thomas Jefferson was a Deist.(I have all of his writings, including the Jefferson Bible, on the shelf)
The story of the Progressive Movement, the Free Thinkers, the Labor Movement, the Beats and Hippies, Civil Rights, Gay Rights, Womyn's Rights...and the Whole History of Religion in the USA, and what came before.
Good, Bad and Disgusting.
We have to teach the Rest of the Story, because timid little power hungry shits like you, scream bloody murder whenever folks like us insist that our Whole Story be taught.
So cry me a river, Skippy.
You share this world with millions of other People...most of whom don't believe in the same tired old mythology that you do.
Get over it.

Thank you,
Amfortas the Hippie

Privatised Health and Pandemic Stupidity

“There's no such thing as Society.”-Margaret Thatcher.
“Government IS the Problem.”-St. Ronald

The scariest disease on the planet arrives in Texas.
It is met with a near-failure of our Public Health System.
Nurses' computer systems can't talk to Doctors' computer systems.
A Nurse apparently doesn't know that Liberia is in West Africa, where Ebola lives.
Training for such an eventuality is haphazard, at best.
It took nine days for the Public Health System to finally get around to hiring a company to go to Patient Zero's apartment, and remove the soiled bedding and whatnot, and for the man's family to also be removed from that apartment, and into a more secure environment, a house in a “gated community”, apparently owned by the County Judge's buddies.
The CDC is scrambling to get up to speed, after “some people” saw fit to “pay” for exploding Tax Cuts by Cutting the budget of that Agency.
...and we're very busy closing Planned Parenthood clinics, attempting to outlaw Contraception....cutting taxes on very wealthy people...and continuing to Deregulate and Defund everything that still resembles the Commons.
For almost 40 years, a certain strain of Ideology has infected our nation....an Ideology that maintains it's Utopian Fantasy, that the Great God of the Market(World without end...) will solve all of our problems, if we just “get the Government off of our backs”.
The CDC, the NIH, Public Hospitals and other agencies and systems have been defunded-- their budgets cut to the bone—because those who worship “Free Market” are averse to anything Public.
Everyone is an Island, according to this hyper-selfish, Randian worldview.
Patient Zero is...”On his own”...
It's bad enough that, on a normal school day, folks have to send their virus shedding children to school, due to lack of affordable childcare...as well as being unable to take a day off to care for them, lest they lose a day's pay, or even their job.
That's what Market(Holy, Holy) requires of us...never mind the preventable spread of communicable disease.
A handful of ignorant and fearful folks are afraid of Vaccines...and old, nearly defeated diseases come roaring back...Measles, Pertussis...
Speaking of School...thanks to “Governor” Rick and the gang, cleaning staff has been cut severely...how clean are those doorknobs...water fountains?
Nurse's Aids and other essential support staff are some of the lowest paid folks in the country, and entirely lacking even the most basic Worker Rights and Protections.
Anything “Public” is seen with extreme suspicion, if not outright hostility, and the usual logical fallacies are brought to bear to oppose them.
Indeed, tune in next week for what I'm sure will be a fine example of Ad Hominem, Misdirection and the Appearance of Substantive Argument...all the while ignoring the Meat of what I'm on about.
The Ebola outbreak currently raging in West Africa is an excellent example of why Public Health is essential. A Robust Public Health System is what has eradicated Small Pox, Polio, Measles, Dysentery, Typhoid...on and on, for the last Century or more.
It wasn't Pfizer...and it sure as hell wasn't Goldman Sachs.
Public Health is what stands in the way of things like Ebola, or even the Flu.
The essential Primary Research and Development, and often the later “Ordinary” R&D, of many pharmaceuticals and especially Vaccines,comes right out of Taxpayer Funded Systems, and are then handed over to giant multinationals, who patent and profit from them with little or no acknowledgment of the Public on which they rely.
From Public Sewer Systems, to Public Water Supplies...even to Public Schools...Some endeavors are simply Not conducive to “Privatisation”.
A look at Kansas, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and , yes, Texas, should be enough to dispel the Mythology consistently peddled by some people, lo these past 40 years. The Results of the Experiment are in, and it sure looks like Dysfunction, to me.
All of that Dysfunction is the result of Choices, made by True Believers in the Great God Market. Those True Believers are currently attempting to cast blame on “Liberals” for every problem arising from their own Mythos ...as if Actual Liberals have had any power at all in my lifetime...unless perhaps one counts Richard Nixon....
It is not only quite Stupid, it is Dangerous, this surreal fantasy world.
So, no...in answer to a question asked of me a month or more ago...this is Barely Civilisation...rather, Civilisation is the thinnest of Patinas. The Maintenance thereof requires work, and funding, and commitment....as well as judicious application of Reason.
Our simplistic, bumpersticker “leaders” in Austin and DC have been found wanting, taking a sand blaster to that Patina of Civilisation, instead of reinforcing it with a few more coats.
To be clear, I don't expect Ebola to become that big of a problem in the USA...even in such “Third World-ish” parts of it like the Valley, or Alabama.
I worry a lot more about the Flu, and the random Gut Bug, and about the families who don't have the luxury of a stay-at-home parent, and must send their sick kids to school to mingle.
Given the constant irresponsible Fear mongering of Fox, et alia, and some of our congressional employees, we worry overmuch about the Wrong Things, and are hampered in any reasonable efforts to tackle the Right Things by an outdated Mythology of Hyperindividualism, and the continuing Destruction of the Commons.
Greg Abbott, and folks like him, share a poisonous Ideology that is much more of a threat to our collective Health than things like Ebola are ever likely to be.



Ego sum, Intrepidus,

On Alt Energy

On Alt Energy

Riff on this, specifically:(http://www.vox.com/2014/9/29/6849723/solar-power-net-metering-utilities-fight-states)

Boo Fucking Hoo.
The Giant Utilities' Business Model is no longer viable...and they want the Government to step in and protect them from competition.
After all these years of “Free Market!!!”, and “Deregulate!!!!”...and an insistence that TINA, There Is No Alternative, to gigantic Hydraulic Empires, Centralized Power Plants, with their attendant spiderweb of wires strung across the land....after all of that, now, when a viable alternative presents itself,...now they want “Uncle Sugar” to step in and protect them from the Little Guys.
To stomp down the Individual and Neighborhood level Power Generation with which they cannot compete...
Folks at the American Society of Engineers have been saying for years that the Grid is in terrible shape...that it would cost Billions to Upgrade and Fix.
That Grid, when working perfectly, is prone to ice and tree damage, damage due to Bubba running his truck into a pole, and malfunctions due to the long term failure to maintain all of the myriad parts and pieces that constitutes the thing...let alone the fact that around 40% of the power generated at those gigantic pollution mills(Power Plants), is “Lost in Transmission”...it simply radiates into the surrounding air.
The Grid must be rebuilt...that is a Fact.
But we are not Obligated to Rebuild it in it's existing, 20th Century form.
Rather, we should rebuild it the way the Original World Wide Web was constructed.
Decentralised, Interconnected, and therefore Robust.
There's a better way, if We can get the current beneficiaries of the current paradigm to turn loose, and to get out of the way.

Arguing with Geese. Episode # 10,123

I went out to the Library/Monastery, today, bright and early.
We were all out there yesterday, unloading a trailer full of sand for the floor of the shop(fireproof, and the better to see the snakes on).
So I was a little worse for wear this morning.
I set up the ancient kiddie pool in what used to be the garden, between my place and Mom's, then went and opened gates on the way to where the Geese are, now...out behind Mom's, where the goats used to live.
Herded those ninnies all the way around the front, over the little dike, and to the Pool.
They stood there, looking at the water coming from the faucet, and muttered amongst themselves.
Then they wandered around the old garden...all in a knot...nibbling at grass seedheads, and muttering...keeping one eye out of 40 on me, at all times.
Having neglected to place chairs strategically around the route, I pushed them further...all the way into my old yard, under the big Oak.
Set up a sprinkler(one of their favorite things), and backed down the drive, towards Mom's...then back along the road, out of sight, and into the Library that way, stealthily.
I got into reading...checking on them every ten minutes or so.
They stood in a knot, muttering, for an hour.
Staring at the sprinkler.
Panting in the heat.
Then they, as one, waddled on over to Mom's.
I repeated the entire procedure.
Back and forth, in the 100-200 yards between Monastery and Mom's.
Staring at the pool, staring at the sprinkler...and thirsty.
As I've said, Geese will look at a newly opened gate for a month, ere they'll venture through it.
What I'm doing is re-writing their code...or at least attempting to.
As usual in such dealings with Geese, I can't help but think about the vast majority of ordinary rural Texans, as I have known them.
I'll repeat this Goose-Herding activity for a week, or a month...however long it takes for it to become “Normal”.
Put my place on the Goose-Map of their world, that they carry in their tiny brains.
Eventually, they'll just come over here. It will be on the Agenda for the day.
So long as I keep the pool filled, this jaunt to the Monastery will be “What Geese Do”.

listserves make me livid

I get all these fucking emails from Tea People....
....................

to me


Right now, conservatives have the opportunity of a lifetime.

Just six seats separate us from control of the Senate. And since that’s decided in November, most Americans are deciding their votes right now.

Josef, this is the most important time to spend on messaging and outreach efforts.

Democrats are on track to outspend us by millions in every state.

Donate right now to help voter outreach efforts like making calls, knocking on doors, sending emails, and hosting events.

This is the hard work that comes with supporting candidates on a grassroots level. Unlike our opponents, we don’t have funds from Hollywood celebrities to rely upon. We have something better: the support of people like you and your neighbors, regular Americans who believe in the conservative message.

Please support a Republican Senate majority.

Thanks,

Senator Tim Scott

//////////////////////////////////
Tim,
(shakes head) Tim, Tim, Tim...
I DO NOT Support y'all.
I'm only on your frelling list because some of my employees are Goptea Creatures(Conaway, Cruz and Cornyn).
I holler at them, a lot...and they put me on these fucking lists.
I get mail, too...which is good in winter for kindling.
You all will never, ever, get any money out of me.
Your policies suck(pissing on us is mean), your philosophy is full of holes(and some oozy brown substance), and y'all are repeatedly caught out in lies, duplicity and outright hypocrisy.
I support space colonization specifically to give people like you something to do...someplace else.
Barring that, please locate the rock you all came out from under, and crawl back under it.
We have a country to repair.
Thanks,

Dope

As I've touched on, by the time my Mom was in College, at Sam, I was well versed in Mythology, and even had a rudimentary introduction to Neitszche under my belt(one would think that I'd learn how to spell Uncle Friedrich's name, after so many years,lol).
By that time, I had also been immersed in Deluxe Encyclopedia Britannica's exhaustive expositions on Counterculture, Mystery Religion, Social Deviance, and the like.
I had read, and re-read, Campbell's dense and erudite Masks of God, vol. 4, “Creative Mythology”, which has determined a large portion of my reading list for the rest of my life.
So there I was, wandering around a college campus in June—a college that had as one of it's focii “Criminal Justice”, and thus had a rather large collection of everything then known regarding psychoactive substances.
Campbell sent me.
I learned all about Marijuana, the Psychedelics, Cocaine, Amphetemine, the various Opiates, PCP, and the numerous Pharmaceutical concoctions.
The former 2 are what intrigued me the most.
Their association with “Mind Expansion” and the “Ineffable”--with “Direct Access” to...Something...variously, the “Thing Behind the World”, “The Roots of Things”, “The Divine Ground of Being”...
I focused on these because of my interest in Mystery Religions, Philosophy and Roots.
So many years later, when I had occasion to sample my first Joint, I knew that it was, 1. Safer than Beer, and 2. worth whatever risk involved.
Wulf and the Cephalopod had picked me up in Wulf's Blue Chevy Van...I got the hammock, swinging in the back.
We went to a buddy of theirs house on the outskirts...a buddy whose parents were “Cool”, in the parlance of the time.
There were probably a dozen or so other dudes in that buddy's Gameroom, and 2 fat Hoglegs were rolled, and began making their way around the room.
Pink Floyd's “Wish You Were Here” was on a turntable, offset lighting with many candles, and a limited supply of beer...from which I abstained.
The first “Hit” made me cough.
I was encouraged to take another, deeper, Hit...which made me cough like I had never coughed before, and I was HIGH.
Viewing the room and it's contents as if through a gauzy veil, Time slowed to a crawl, the Music(at this point, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,2”) was palpable...a Physical Presence in the room, more real than the laughing, more experienced users...The Taste, not only in my mouth...but in my Nose...for the first time, Smell was so intimately connected with Taste...
Here was what I had been reading about for so many years.
I was given “The Roach”...and the next day, alone, (a Sunday), I walked into the woods, between the Water Tower and the Football Stadium, and smoked it in my Dad's ancient Briar Pipe.
Sat there, under a Tree.
After that, I always preferred(Still Do) to partake of such things in Natural Settings(per Leary, at the Sam Houston Library).
Two years later, after I was long done with High School, when Pokey and Roqufort and I were living in the little apartment, I was given a Hit of LSD.
I took it, and went home, fearful of what Pokey would say...and ended up with what I would later understand to be a “Bad Trip”, afraid that she would somehow know, and disapprove.
Some months later, after finally discussing the matter with both of them, we procured three Hits, and took them at the apartment.
Waiting...anticipating...finally getting Bored...we piled in my Little Red Truck and went for a Cruise.
At the Railroad Crossing in the tiny adjacent town, we stopped for a train to pass.
That's when it hit.
The passing railcars melded into each other, and we were flushed....it was time to make our way home.
This was accomplished with giggles, in spite of the apprehension...very careful driving...hyper-aware of everything.
We went skinny dipping in the Pool(it was after midnight), and Pokey and I repaired to our room, and had the best sex ever.
After these two experiences with Acid, I began to treat it, almost almost accidentally, as a sort of Sacrament.
It was serious business...whereas Pot was the “Lesser Mystery”...meant for Relaxation and Sociality.
This “Greater Mystery” was better when approached with Respect and after suitable Preparation.
Set and Setting.

In contrast, all of the Stoners were after Escape...Forgetting...Unthought.
They were seeking Release from the less than Optimal circumstances of their lives; from crazy parents to abusive uncles to broken homes and economic dysfunction.
I was after Enlightenment...and the Acid Parties I'd put on, later, were meant to accomplish just that.
Much later, during my Wild Years, I went way over the line...far from the Reservation...in this Quest.
Tequila, LSD, Pot and Psilocybin...those years on the Road were an exercise in Beyond.
Like Kesey's “Further”.(I didn't read Wolfe's “electric koolaide acid test” or any Kesey, till much, much later...but when I did, I knew exactly what they were talking about.)
After the Wild Years, at Miami Apartments at Sam, the Shroomcicle Summer was a continuation of the Experiment...a three month long Shroomfest participated in by a disparate collection of cultures and races and life-experiences:
Redneck Prison Guards, Rich College Kids, a Tribe of Black Folks, Palestinians, and Future FBI Agents(!!)...all swirling around the Complex, centered on the Pool and on my place.
I had expected to continue all of this once I arrived in Austin...but, aside from a few isolated Psychonautic Excursions, as extreme and intense as any, this period was done.
By the time of the Trailer Park, I was overcome with not only disappointment at the sad, yuppified state of Austin, but with the felt encirclement of being surrounded by too many people.
Add in the Uphill Nature of attempting to “Make a Living”, and I wanted nothing more than to retreat to some Wilderness area.
The PTSD from the Cop Persecution was asserting itself, and the all encompassing Otherness...Alien-Hood...that I had always felt, was growing unbearable.
It is only now, 20 years later, that I feel Strong enough to “Go There”, again.
The problem, of course, is where to procure Psilocybe Cubensis.
Wasson, Hoffman and Ruck's remarkable book, which I haven't read since that Summer at Sam Houston, when I was 13, just came in the mail.
30th Anniversary Printing.
It's been out of print and impossible to find for all these years.
“Road to Eleusis” is essential reading, for an understanding of Myth and Religion, in my own opinion.
I have sort of confirmed their assertions, in my own experiences.
What I have never found in any Church, I found in Psychedelia...and even in the Lingering Long Term “Attitude” that such substances can impart to one so inclined.
The River, the big, sprawling and ancient Oak, the Hilltop...
These are the True Churches, for me...and this is directly attributable to Learning How... taught, with Subtle Forcefulness, by various Psychoactive Alkaloids.