The Flim Flam Enablers
Psst, Psst. Hey, you there. Yes, you. You are the one, aren’t you? One the many anonymously hiding right there behind all of your righteous indignation about Government running amuck, CEOs lavishly rewarding themselves with millions and millions, society with no morals and no sense of right and wrong, everything going to hell in a hand basket, your IRA, savings and retirement stash fading to chump change. Yes, I thought it was you. Well to be honest, it’s also me too. We are all part of the vast American majority that stands shoulder to shoulder in our infamy; we are the Great American Flim Flam Enablers. The good ole Politicians, Grift’ers, Money Managers, Corporation Moguls, Stock Brokers, you know, the Flim Flammers who rely on us enablers to keep the Flim Flamming vocation alive and functioning well. Come on now, be honest, you know what I’m talking about here, don’t you? I mean you’re not really averse to getting something for nothing, are you? You know, supporting taxing the hell out the “rich” so that you can get a break on your health care and stuff like that. Oh, by the way, now that I broached the subject of taxes, let’s talk about how taxes really work, OK? Now don’t forget, Taxes are power, i.e., more taxes equals more power and less taxes equals less power. So, if you want more power, how do you do it? Well let’s look at how they did it in Indiana. They latched on to the idea of imposing a “sin tax” on cigarettes as a win-win situation because increasing taxes on cigarettes would reduce consumption and improve the general health and the increased revenue from the “sin tax” would be used to establish a program to provide health care for underprivileged children. Now who could be against something like that? Bear in mind now, the Flim Flammers don’t do bad things by advocating bad things, like taxing cigarettes to get more money to increase their power, oh no, they always wrap their Flim Flamming around something glorious, like providing health care for needy children. So, let’s think this through to the logical end. A big tax increase is imposed on cigarettes and the result is indeed a reduction of cigarette consumption. Let’s say they impose a really large tax (like the American tea tax that shifted tea consumption to coffee consumption during the revolution) and cigarette consumption went to effective zero. What happens to the underprivileged child health care program? Do you really think the program will be stopped because of the loss of cigarette tax revenue? Not hardly. You will be taxed to continue the program because who could be for stopping the health care program for underprivileged children. Brothers and Sisters, we have been Flim Flammed into a situation where there is no good solution and we did it to ourselves because we voted for a new tax that increased the power over us and we did it willingly because we thought we could get something for nothing by taxing the despicable cigarettes and their addicted multitudes to pay for child health care that we really didn’t want to pay for ourselves. In short, we enabled the Flim Flammers. But I digress. A word about Flim Flammers might be in order about now. Most people think Flim Flammers use deception and trickery (see above cigarette tax discussion) to affect a dishonest gain from unsuspecting and sometimes cognitive challenged people. The truth is, Flim Flammer use their deception and trickery to target dishonest people (that would be us All-American electorate) because dishonest people are amenable to the suggestion that cheating other people for gain is acceptable (we cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you). This dishonest attribute makes us easy prey, because it’s not too difficult for a cleaver person (Politician) to orchestrate situations that will appear to the dishonest that they are getting something for nothing. When we listen to, believe and vote for Politicians who tell everyone that they are going to reduce taxes and increase benefits for all, well now, we are enabling the power hungry Flim Flammers because we actually believe their tripe that we are going to get something for nothing. How can we continuously be so stupid? It one thing for the Slugs of society to work the system to get all they can get from the productive citizens because they are simple thieves, but it is quite another thing when good, basically honest and hard working people succumb to the notion that it is alright to get something for nothing. Somehow greed has been turned into a virtue by the Flim Flammers because why else would we think that getting 20 and 30% interest on our money while everyone else is getting 1.2% is because we are so cleaver and not because we are stupid enough to actually buy into a Ponzi scheme with our hard earned money. When the current economic situation cascades into an awful depression as I have predicted, don’t go blaming the Flim Flammers because, Brothers and Sisters, we are the very ones that enabled the Flim Flammers to bring ruin upon our heads, not anyone else.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Getting Riled Up While Parked In a Lazyboy
Getting Riled Up While Parked In a Lazyboy
Getting older is such a drag, and I really do mean drag, i.e., So many reasons not to do something; Looking longingly at a Playboy pin-up; Wondering if there will be enough money to bury your wrinkled old ass; The humiliation of young people shooting you the bird during your driving experience. I could fill a few pages with this kind of draggy stuff, but you get the picture. I am also apprehensive about writing this piece in the first place because when and if a young person ever reads this, they might become frightened that this is how they will end up one day (if they are lucky, that is). After reading this piece, they (young people) might even be inclined to uphold the Bob Dylan advisement to “never trust anyone over 30”. Oh, by the way, Robert Allen Zimmerman, Bob Dylan, will be 68 on 24 May, and it’s hard to believe old “All of the Tired Horses” Bob would ever say; Never trust anyone over 70. No, he wouldn’t say that, would he? However, I would hazard a guess that even good old “Blowing in the Wind” Bob has come to realize that old age is a moving target, i.e., as you get older the notion of old is an age more advanced than yours, and getting a young person to trust you is not part of the aging agenda anyway. The agenda of old age is to remain upright and on the sunny side of the grass for as long as possible and staying the hell out of the way while doing it. But I digress. I was just thinking, while staying the hell out of the way, how it seems to me that nowadays people seemed inclined to be angry a lot. They seem to be angry at every thing. Things big and small, important and trivial, personal and impersonal, etc., you name it and chances are there is an angry person out there ready to cause a ruckus about it. I’ll swear that a lot of people examine every word spoken to them to see if there is some reason they should be insulted, disrespected, or just plain ticked-off and they are always eager to be angry and confrontational about it. Because I am getting older, I tried to think back to earlier times in order to determine if people were as angry then as they seem to be now. I can’t really recall people ever being as angry as now even if my “Tired old Horses” brain can’t recall reality as good as it used to. God only knows that people in days gone by certainly had much more cause to be angry than people nowadays because life was rather rough then and not nearly as good and convenient as modern living is now. Perhaps I should clarify that last remark. When I say things are much better in the modern world, I meant from a physical perspective of just staying alive and getting enough to eat while hoping you didn’t wear out your body with physical labor, you know, stuff like that. I guess a case could be made that living is more stressful now than in the older and simpler times because we have nuclear war hanging over our heads, terrorism, investments and IRAs, endless gadgets to get and maintain, cars to constantly feed, HD Television and on and on. Living during modern stressful times could certainly make a case for being angry in general because things that cause stress in today’s world seem to be beyond anyone’s personal control. Older things, like staying alive, getting enough to eat and the like, were more physical things and were mainly in one’s personal control. Perhaps it’s the not being in control of our own lives that is causing people to be angry all of the time. That very well could be true, but I think there is something else just as fundamental that is causing all of the anger. Believe it or not, I think we are too connected nowadays. E-mail, texting, 24-hour news, cell phones in our pockets, political correctness, credit cards, goggle and on and on. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing all of the time. For example, do I really need to know that the Tutsi are hacking to death every Hutu they can find in Africa, or is it Hutus killing Tutsi? I remember when I lived in on the north shore of Hawaii many years ago we had no TV, one FM radio station and did not receive a newspaper. We walked on the beach, read books and were not angry with anyone mainly because we didn’t know what other people were doing most of the time. Here is something else to think about. Remember when we used to write letters to communicate with people? It took a lot of time to compose a thoughtful letter. Enough time in fact that when one reread the letter before posting, one would have time to remove any unintended offensive rhetoric before it could do harm and cause a person to be angry. Now we can bang away with “quick fingers” on e-mail or a text message and the communication can be in the recipient’s domain before regret can have its say and save the day. I try not to be angry today but Lawyers, Flim Flam politicians, Hedge funds, Bailouts, religious fanatics of every stripe would make any thoughtful person angry and knowing every possible detail about these and endless other crappy things causes me to be as angry as everyone else. Being old also causes me to notice things like this “everybody is always angry” thing and small wonder young folks like to steer a course around old fuddy-duddies mouthing off about such esoteric things. Well excuse me as I recline back in my Lazyboy, get my “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” brain back into gear, and receive my nightly anger fix by clicking onto Lou Dobbs Tonight.
Getting older is such a drag, and I really do mean drag, i.e., So many reasons not to do something; Looking longingly at a Playboy pin-up; Wondering if there will be enough money to bury your wrinkled old ass; The humiliation of young people shooting you the bird during your driving experience. I could fill a few pages with this kind of draggy stuff, but you get the picture. I am also apprehensive about writing this piece in the first place because when and if a young person ever reads this, they might become frightened that this is how they will end up one day (if they are lucky, that is). After reading this piece, they (young people) might even be inclined to uphold the Bob Dylan advisement to “never trust anyone over 30”. Oh, by the way, Robert Allen Zimmerman, Bob Dylan, will be 68 on 24 May, and it’s hard to believe old “All of the Tired Horses” Bob would ever say; Never trust anyone over 70. No, he wouldn’t say that, would he? However, I would hazard a guess that even good old “Blowing in the Wind” Bob has come to realize that old age is a moving target, i.e., as you get older the notion of old is an age more advanced than yours, and getting a young person to trust you is not part of the aging agenda anyway. The agenda of old age is to remain upright and on the sunny side of the grass for as long as possible and staying the hell out of the way while doing it. But I digress. I was just thinking, while staying the hell out of the way, how it seems to me that nowadays people seemed inclined to be angry a lot. They seem to be angry at every thing. Things big and small, important and trivial, personal and impersonal, etc., you name it and chances are there is an angry person out there ready to cause a ruckus about it. I’ll swear that a lot of people examine every word spoken to them to see if there is some reason they should be insulted, disrespected, or just plain ticked-off and they are always eager to be angry and confrontational about it. Because I am getting older, I tried to think back to earlier times in order to determine if people were as angry then as they seem to be now. I can’t really recall people ever being as angry as now even if my “Tired old Horses” brain can’t recall reality as good as it used to. God only knows that people in days gone by certainly had much more cause to be angry than people nowadays because life was rather rough then and not nearly as good and convenient as modern living is now. Perhaps I should clarify that last remark. When I say things are much better in the modern world, I meant from a physical perspective of just staying alive and getting enough to eat while hoping you didn’t wear out your body with physical labor, you know, stuff like that. I guess a case could be made that living is more stressful now than in the older and simpler times because we have nuclear war hanging over our heads, terrorism, investments and IRAs, endless gadgets to get and maintain, cars to constantly feed, HD Television and on and on. Living during modern stressful times could certainly make a case for being angry in general because things that cause stress in today’s world seem to be beyond anyone’s personal control. Older things, like staying alive, getting enough to eat and the like, were more physical things and were mainly in one’s personal control. Perhaps it’s the not being in control of our own lives that is causing people to be angry all of the time. That very well could be true, but I think there is something else just as fundamental that is causing all of the anger. Believe it or not, I think we are too connected nowadays. E-mail, texting, 24-hour news, cell phones in our pockets, political correctness, credit cards, goggle and on and on. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing all of the time. For example, do I really need to know that the Tutsi are hacking to death every Hutu they can find in Africa, or is it Hutus killing Tutsi? I remember when I lived in on the north shore of Hawaii many years ago we had no TV, one FM radio station and did not receive a newspaper. We walked on the beach, read books and were not angry with anyone mainly because we didn’t know what other people were doing most of the time. Here is something else to think about. Remember when we used to write letters to communicate with people? It took a lot of time to compose a thoughtful letter. Enough time in fact that when one reread the letter before posting, one would have time to remove any unintended offensive rhetoric before it could do harm and cause a person to be angry. Now we can bang away with “quick fingers” on e-mail or a text message and the communication can be in the recipient’s domain before regret can have its say and save the day. I try not to be angry today but Lawyers, Flim Flam politicians, Hedge funds, Bailouts, religious fanatics of every stripe would make any thoughtful person angry and knowing every possible detail about these and endless other crappy things causes me to be as angry as everyone else. Being old also causes me to notice things like this “everybody is always angry” thing and small wonder young folks like to steer a course around old fuddy-duddies mouthing off about such esoteric things. Well excuse me as I recline back in my Lazyboy, get my “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” brain back into gear, and receive my nightly anger fix by clicking onto Lou Dobbs Tonight.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
President Barack Hussein Obama
(BHO)
PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
Without any reservations at all, I am hopeful that Pres BHO will be successful as President and lead our country with a consensus of the all of the people. I also hope that now that the Dems, lefties and ideologues in the mainstream media have had their satisfying orgy of demonizing Pres Bush, the personal destruction of our leaders will become a thing of the past. I also have hope that I will win the lottery any day now, but what the hell; we shouldn’t lose hope just because the odds for success are so formidable. But wait, you know what, I think that Pres BHO will probably be a success because I believe the man has shown definite signs of being a gamer and a winner and not just another political ideologue. If you are one of those who have read my book, “Flim Flam”, I am hopeful that you became aware that the inspiration for the book was Pres Bill Clinton and the basic point of the book was that Pres Bill Clinton was also a Gamer, and not just another political ideologue. And if Clinton or any other big time Gamer decides to play in a game, they are winners, because Gamers won’t play in a game they can’t win. That’s what I mean by being a winner. You will recall that Pres Clinton had his Triangulation method of co-opting all of the positions of an issue into his position thereby making his triangulated position the one that would achieve the most support from the greatest number of people. This is how a winner does it because he is not so much interested in or married to any particular position on an issue (a strategy for losing), he is only interested in using the issue to demonstrate that he alone always has the solution to an issue that most people agree with, i.e., this is how you play so you cannot lose. You will also note that Clinton augmented his Triangulation method of consensus building with continuous polling of carefully selected people to ensure his triangulated position being taken was being met with approval from a cross-section of the political spectrum. Again, this is how a (political) winner does it. Now if you carefully consider the political career of BHO to date, you will note many similarities in the successful Modus Operandi of Bill Clinton and MR. BHO. For example, during BHO’s time in the Illinois Legislature, there were an extraordinary number of contentious issues that BHO abstained from voting on. A lack of backbone you say? Not hardly. Mr. BHO was not yet into a position where he could triangulate a position and take credit for it, so he did the next best thing. He abstained from voting and therefore he never had to be on the losing side of a contentious issue or create a possible harmful legacy, this is how a winner operates. Also there are those who say that BHO is in reality a Socialist at heart because so many of the causes and programs he has supported during his political formative years seem to support a socialist agenda notwithstanding how comfortable he appears to be with socialist rhetoric. Lets think about this. If one considers the political arena that HBO grew up in, south side of Chicago, this is what a political person would do and sound like if they were expecting to be popular and enjoy success with the local electorate and political hierarchy. In other words, BHO did what he had to do, and took the necessary positions to be successful in his inaugural career and it is not at all likely that these sophomore positions represent an ideological framework that will support his Presidency. It instead, looks more like a potential winner doing “on the job training” to me. As proof of what I just said, consider that there are a growing number of positions that had to taken during the primary and general elections that are now being triangulated and morphed into a more popular (winning) position for the general electorate. Winners do this, political ideologues don’t. Also, think back during the primary and general elections and you will recall that a number of people were dismayed by the soaring rhetoric and generalizations that substituted for positions and presented nothing of any substance for opponents to grab hold of. Winners know you only take potential positions under duress, and charm and grace created an adoring public that shielded Mr. BHO against potential duress. And the winner soldiers on. One other thing you might want to consider. There were a number of people who were saying that Mr. BHO was following the philosophy of Vito Corleone that holds that you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Well that might be how old Vito did it but that not how political winners do it. Think about it. Mr. BHO gathered up the students and practitioners of the Clinton triangulation formula for political success and these people require no OJT, “On the Job Training”, they already know what the game is and they are comfortable with it. Well Brothers and Sisters, I think we have a winner here and you know what, that may not be a bad thing at all. What I mean here is that thinking back to the Clinton Presidency, notwithstanding the blue dress thing and other peccadilloes, most objective people will agree that it was a very successful presidency. And you know why? A gamer and winner may as close as one can get as an ideal leader who will do the will of the people because he wants to be a winner and not force a potential losing agenda upon the people. Sounds like practical Democracy to me.
PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
Without any reservations at all, I am hopeful that Pres BHO will be successful as President and lead our country with a consensus of the all of the people. I also hope that now that the Dems, lefties and ideologues in the mainstream media have had their satisfying orgy of demonizing Pres Bush, the personal destruction of our leaders will become a thing of the past. I also have hope that I will win the lottery any day now, but what the hell; we shouldn’t lose hope just because the odds for success are so formidable. But wait, you know what, I think that Pres BHO will probably be a success because I believe the man has shown definite signs of being a gamer and a winner and not just another political ideologue. If you are one of those who have read my book, “Flim Flam”, I am hopeful that you became aware that the inspiration for the book was Pres Bill Clinton and the basic point of the book was that Pres Bill Clinton was also a Gamer, and not just another political ideologue. And if Clinton or any other big time Gamer decides to play in a game, they are winners, because Gamers won’t play in a game they can’t win. That’s what I mean by being a winner. You will recall that Pres Clinton had his Triangulation method of co-opting all of the positions of an issue into his position thereby making his triangulated position the one that would achieve the most support from the greatest number of people. This is how a winner does it because he is not so much interested in or married to any particular position on an issue (a strategy for losing), he is only interested in using the issue to demonstrate that he alone always has the solution to an issue that most people agree with, i.e., this is how you play so you cannot lose. You will also note that Clinton augmented his Triangulation method of consensus building with continuous polling of carefully selected people to ensure his triangulated position being taken was being met with approval from a cross-section of the political spectrum. Again, this is how a (political) winner does it. Now if you carefully consider the political career of BHO to date, you will note many similarities in the successful Modus Operandi of Bill Clinton and MR. BHO. For example, during BHO’s time in the Illinois Legislature, there were an extraordinary number of contentious issues that BHO abstained from voting on. A lack of backbone you say? Not hardly. Mr. BHO was not yet into a position where he could triangulate a position and take credit for it, so he did the next best thing. He abstained from voting and therefore he never had to be on the losing side of a contentious issue or create a possible harmful legacy, this is how a winner operates. Also there are those who say that BHO is in reality a Socialist at heart because so many of the causes and programs he has supported during his political formative years seem to support a socialist agenda notwithstanding how comfortable he appears to be with socialist rhetoric. Lets think about this. If one considers the political arena that HBO grew up in, south side of Chicago, this is what a political person would do and sound like if they were expecting to be popular and enjoy success with the local electorate and political hierarchy. In other words, BHO did what he had to do, and took the necessary positions to be successful in his inaugural career and it is not at all likely that these sophomore positions represent an ideological framework that will support his Presidency. It instead, looks more like a potential winner doing “on the job training” to me. As proof of what I just said, consider that there are a growing number of positions that had to taken during the primary and general elections that are now being triangulated and morphed into a more popular (winning) position for the general electorate. Winners do this, political ideologues don’t. Also, think back during the primary and general elections and you will recall that a number of people were dismayed by the soaring rhetoric and generalizations that substituted for positions and presented nothing of any substance for opponents to grab hold of. Winners know you only take potential positions under duress, and charm and grace created an adoring public that shielded Mr. BHO against potential duress. And the winner soldiers on. One other thing you might want to consider. There were a number of people who were saying that Mr. BHO was following the philosophy of Vito Corleone that holds that you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Well that might be how old Vito did it but that not how political winners do it. Think about it. Mr. BHO gathered up the students and practitioners of the Clinton triangulation formula for political success and these people require no OJT, “On the Job Training”, they already know what the game is and they are comfortable with it. Well Brothers and Sisters, I think we have a winner here and you know what, that may not be a bad thing at all. What I mean here is that thinking back to the Clinton Presidency, notwithstanding the blue dress thing and other peccadilloes, most objective people will agree that it was a very successful presidency. And you know why? A gamer and winner may as close as one can get as an ideal leader who will do the will of the people because he wants to be a winner and not force a potential losing agenda upon the people. Sounds like practical Democracy to me.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Peace
PEACE
Peace, She is a shadow,
A Phantom cast from every Man’s longing.
Deliciously dancing just beyond reach,
A dichotomy that cannot soothe the weary soul.
As you can see from the above verse, I believe that Peace is unobtainable, i.e., if indeed Peace is a shadow of every man’s longing, then if one were to obtain Peace, there would be no more longing for Peace that produces the shadow that is peace. Therefore, the longing for Peace and obtaining Peace are mutually exclusive making it (Peace) a dichotomy. I hope I didn’t lose you in explaining the verse, but hopefully a further explanation of why I believe that Peace is indeed a shadow will be helpful and then perhaps the verse can be accepted as the truth in the matter. First, most all agree that Peace is in reality, the absence of strife. The absence of strife, best described as being a human condition where mindless bliss would prevail, is a situation where only mindless life could enjoy. Because mankind has been blessed with a cognitive mind that is always on the job, bliss is more of a fanciful notion rather than human reality. Therefore, I believe that strife is as much a part of human life and living as eating, drinking, thinking and breathing, so living without strife, is another mutually exclusive situation. The reason that I believe strife is a part of life is due to the nature that life has been designed, or has developed, if you prefer. Most agree that we all have a survival instinct hard wired into our life’s architecture and that instinct drives us to compete with other life for the planet’s resources to ensure survival of ourselves as well as our families. That competition for the planets resources, in its most basic form, is that if life is to endure on this planet, life must feed upon life to do so. You may think that this is an unpleasant situation, but it does not change the fact, and the reality is, humans sit atop the food chain. If any of the readers of this piece has been brave enough to read my book, The Grace of Being, you will know that I went into a very long and boring logical explanation why life is required to feed upon life. Nevertheless, regardless if you believe it or not, or understand the reason for it, life must feed upon life in order to survive and endure. I always marvel at the naiveté that vegetarians display when they explain they are vegetarians because they are abhorred at the thought of feeding upon once living flesh while they instead feed upon plant life and the embryos of plant life (seeds like wheat, oats, etc.) that is endowed with the exact same life giving DNA as animal life. Make no mistake about it, DNA is that which defines all life on this beautiful blue planet, and plant DNA is as much alive as animal life (which includes humans). But I digress. Competing for resources is a very stressful and the resulting competition promotes strife in all of its forms and this situation makes peace a dichotomy. I further believe that in addition to the survival instinct there is also a dominance instinct that drives us to be competitive amongst those of our own kind (humans) in order to satisfy the “survival of the fittest” demands of evolution. The continuous competition that our instincts demand will ensure that strife will be our companion as long as we enjoy the gift of life and there can be no such thing as peace, indeed, only death (the absence of life) brings peace. This should be a very sobering realization that we all personally and collectively keep striving for something that is unobtainable. However, this situation, if true, should not be cause for despair. The human race has developed into a social society that has made use of our cognitive abilities to institute rules, laws and behavior conventions to manage strife by fostering benevolent civil competition as a substitute for unbridled competition that our instincts demands. History has proved that a law-based society that requires benevolent civil competition as a nondestructive means to advance and endure, is a workable situation that is as close to peace as can be managed even though it still creates manageable strife. Surely you can immediately see that when our laws, social and behavior conventions fail, and our most basic instincts are allowed to gain control, unbridled competition will foster the greatest competition of all. War. And if our advanced technology is use to gain advantage in a great war, then the destruction of us all will be our reward, and at long last, Peace.
Peace, She is a shadow,
A Phantom cast from every Man’s longing.
Deliciously dancing just beyond reach,
A dichotomy that cannot soothe the weary soul.
As you can see from the above verse, I believe that Peace is unobtainable, i.e., if indeed Peace is a shadow of every man’s longing, then if one were to obtain Peace, there would be no more longing for Peace that produces the shadow that is peace. Therefore, the longing for Peace and obtaining Peace are mutually exclusive making it (Peace) a dichotomy. I hope I didn’t lose you in explaining the verse, but hopefully a further explanation of why I believe that Peace is indeed a shadow will be helpful and then perhaps the verse can be accepted as the truth in the matter. First, most all agree that Peace is in reality, the absence of strife. The absence of strife, best described as being a human condition where mindless bliss would prevail, is a situation where only mindless life could enjoy. Because mankind has been blessed with a cognitive mind that is always on the job, bliss is more of a fanciful notion rather than human reality. Therefore, I believe that strife is as much a part of human life and living as eating, drinking, thinking and breathing, so living without strife, is another mutually exclusive situation. The reason that I believe strife is a part of life is due to the nature that life has been designed, or has developed, if you prefer. Most agree that we all have a survival instinct hard wired into our life’s architecture and that instinct drives us to compete with other life for the planet’s resources to ensure survival of ourselves as well as our families. That competition for the planets resources, in its most basic form, is that if life is to endure on this planet, life must feed upon life to do so. You may think that this is an unpleasant situation, but it does not change the fact, and the reality is, humans sit atop the food chain. If any of the readers of this piece has been brave enough to read my book, The Grace of Being, you will know that I went into a very long and boring logical explanation why life is required to feed upon life. Nevertheless, regardless if you believe it or not, or understand the reason for it, life must feed upon life in order to survive and endure. I always marvel at the naiveté that vegetarians display when they explain they are vegetarians because they are abhorred at the thought of feeding upon once living flesh while they instead feed upon plant life and the embryos of plant life (seeds like wheat, oats, etc.) that is endowed with the exact same life giving DNA as animal life. Make no mistake about it, DNA is that which defines all life on this beautiful blue planet, and plant DNA is as much alive as animal life (which includes humans). But I digress. Competing for resources is a very stressful and the resulting competition promotes strife in all of its forms and this situation makes peace a dichotomy. I further believe that in addition to the survival instinct there is also a dominance instinct that drives us to be competitive amongst those of our own kind (humans) in order to satisfy the “survival of the fittest” demands of evolution. The continuous competition that our instincts demand will ensure that strife will be our companion as long as we enjoy the gift of life and there can be no such thing as peace, indeed, only death (the absence of life) brings peace. This should be a very sobering realization that we all personally and collectively keep striving for something that is unobtainable. However, this situation, if true, should not be cause for despair. The human race has developed into a social society that has made use of our cognitive abilities to institute rules, laws and behavior conventions to manage strife by fostering benevolent civil competition as a substitute for unbridled competition that our instincts demands. History has proved that a law-based society that requires benevolent civil competition as a nondestructive means to advance and endure, is a workable situation that is as close to peace as can be managed even though it still creates manageable strife. Surely you can immediately see that when our laws, social and behavior conventions fail, and our most basic instincts are allowed to gain control, unbridled competition will foster the greatest competition of all. War. And if our advanced technology is use to gain advantage in a great war, then the destruction of us all will be our reward, and at long last, Peace.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
War
WAR
From my book, The Grace of Being.
“First there was the fist and the tooth,
Then there was the stick and the stone,
Then there was the club and the ax,
Then there was the arrow and the sword,
Then there was the bullet and the bomb,
Then there was the chemical agent and the biological agent,
Then there was the mystery and energy of the universe let loose.
All of these things that increasing knowledge has wrought only brings conflict and strife at increasingly greater levels, and portents ruin, not glory.”
You will be hearing a lot about December 21, 2012 in the coming days. That’s the precise day your world will end and is well past the day you got married. December 12th, 2012 is the day the Mayan Calendar ends its Long Count at 13.0.0.0.0 and coincides with the Earth’s winter solstice on that date. Also at that precise date and time, the sun will pass the center and galactic equator of our Milky Way Galaxy and this event is considered by many to signal the: End of Days. The End of Days, if it comes, will be brought about by a great war, cosmic cataclysm, planet earth ruin, or any other infinite number of catastrophes that might happen be it manmade or act of nature. There are many prophesies out there about the End of Days occurring approximately in the same 2012 time period, depending upon interpretation, but for my money, a great war will be the most likely cause of man’s demise and the Mayans never predicted or knew about weapons of mass destruction that can cause a final war (God, what a detached and dreadful phase, “Weapons of Mass Destruction”). For example, look at this remarkable prophecy by the Hopi Indian, White Feather of the Bear Clan:
“The fourth world shall end soon, and the Fifth World will begin. This the elders everywhere know. The signs over the many years have been fulfilled, and so few are left.
This is the first sign: We are told of the coming of the white-skinned men, like Pahana, but not living like Pahana men who took the land that was not theirs (note: Pahana means “Lost White Brother” and is the Hopi messiah) and men who struck their enemies with thunder.
This is the second sign: Our lands will see the coming of spinning wheels filled with voices. In his youth, my father saw this prophecy come true with his eyes---the white man bringing their families in wagons across the prairies.
This is the third sign: A strange beast like a buffalo but with great long horns, will overrun the land in large numbers. These White feather saw with his eyes—the coming of white men’s cattle.
This is the fourth sign: The land will be crossed by snakes of iron.
This is the fifth sign: The land will be criss-crossed by a giant spider’s web.
This is the sixth sign: The land will be crossed with rivers of stone that make pictures in the sun.
This is the seventh sign: You will hear of the sea turning black, and many living things dying because of it.
This is the eight sign: You will see many youth, who wear their hair long like my people, come and join the tribal nations, to learn their ways and wisdom.
This is the ninth and last sign: You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star (note: the Hopi Blue Star of Kachina is the star Sirius). Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.
These are the Signs that a great destruction is coming. The world shall rock to and fro. The white man will battle against other people in other lands – with those who possessed the first light of wisdom. There will be many columns of smoke and fire such as White Feather has seen the white man make in the deserts not far from here. Only those which come will cause disease and a great dying.”
I really don’t know if there are such things as prophecies, however, I do believe war will be the likely cause of man’s demise, if that is our fate, because I am agreement with Carl Sagan’s hypothesis that the reason that there is not abundant life being observed throughout the universe is because life always develops to a point where it discovers technology and 99.99% of the time, technology is used to destroy the very life that discovered it due to great struggles and wars. So, at any point in time, there is little alien life to observe because what life had been before has already vanished because they destroyed themselves. This theory does not provide an optimistic outlook for the fate of mankind that already knows war and has the technology to make war ever more destructive. There is little doubt man’s technology has advanced to the point where we are capable of destroying ourselves many times over and man’s history shows a willingness to engage in war to either resolve problems or gain mastery over others. Perhaps war is inevitable because of how life is designed, i.e., for life to survive, it has a dominance and survival instinct that is hard wired into our beings and these instincts makes it impossible to resist our destructive inclinations, even while we destroy that which we all hold dear (life). We all engage in war on a personal level every day due to these driving instincts. We battle each other for a better job, for a better life, for more power, for sex, for money and on and on. So when we engage in bigger and bigger impersonal wars, it’s a road we all have traveled many times on a personal level and provides for a sense of propriety. There are those who have subscribed to the notion that war is glorious and is the engine that drives man’s advancement. Well, that might have been true when sticks, stones, arrows and swords were technology’s offerings, but with today’s and tomorrow’s weapons of mass destructions, no alien life will even be around to stop by and wonder at our ruin and demise (instead of glorious advancement).
From my book, The Grace of Being.
“First there was the fist and the tooth,
Then there was the stick and the stone,
Then there was the club and the ax,
Then there was the arrow and the sword,
Then there was the bullet and the bomb,
Then there was the chemical agent and the biological agent,
Then there was the mystery and energy of the universe let loose.
All of these things that increasing knowledge has wrought only brings conflict and strife at increasingly greater levels, and portents ruin, not glory.”
You will be hearing a lot about December 21, 2012 in the coming days. That’s the precise day your world will end and is well past the day you got married. December 12th, 2012 is the day the Mayan Calendar ends its Long Count at 13.0.0.0.0 and coincides with the Earth’s winter solstice on that date. Also at that precise date and time, the sun will pass the center and galactic equator of our Milky Way Galaxy and this event is considered by many to signal the: End of Days. The End of Days, if it comes, will be brought about by a great war, cosmic cataclysm, planet earth ruin, or any other infinite number of catastrophes that might happen be it manmade or act of nature. There are many prophesies out there about the End of Days occurring approximately in the same 2012 time period, depending upon interpretation, but for my money, a great war will be the most likely cause of man’s demise and the Mayans never predicted or knew about weapons of mass destruction that can cause a final war (God, what a detached and dreadful phase, “Weapons of Mass Destruction”). For example, look at this remarkable prophecy by the Hopi Indian, White Feather of the Bear Clan:
“The fourth world shall end soon, and the Fifth World will begin. This the elders everywhere know. The signs over the many years have been fulfilled, and so few are left.
This is the first sign: We are told of the coming of the white-skinned men, like Pahana, but not living like Pahana men who took the land that was not theirs (note: Pahana means “Lost White Brother” and is the Hopi messiah) and men who struck their enemies with thunder.
This is the second sign: Our lands will see the coming of spinning wheels filled with voices. In his youth, my father saw this prophecy come true with his eyes---the white man bringing their families in wagons across the prairies.
This is the third sign: A strange beast like a buffalo but with great long horns, will overrun the land in large numbers. These White feather saw with his eyes—the coming of white men’s cattle.
This is the fourth sign: The land will be crossed by snakes of iron.
This is the fifth sign: The land will be criss-crossed by a giant spider’s web.
This is the sixth sign: The land will be crossed with rivers of stone that make pictures in the sun.
This is the seventh sign: You will hear of the sea turning black, and many living things dying because of it.
This is the eight sign: You will see many youth, who wear their hair long like my people, come and join the tribal nations, to learn their ways and wisdom.
This is the ninth and last sign: You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star (note: the Hopi Blue Star of Kachina is the star Sirius). Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.
These are the Signs that a great destruction is coming. The world shall rock to and fro. The white man will battle against other people in other lands – with those who possessed the first light of wisdom. There will be many columns of smoke and fire such as White Feather has seen the white man make in the deserts not far from here. Only those which come will cause disease and a great dying.”
I really don’t know if there are such things as prophecies, however, I do believe war will be the likely cause of man’s demise, if that is our fate, because I am agreement with Carl Sagan’s hypothesis that the reason that there is not abundant life being observed throughout the universe is because life always develops to a point where it discovers technology and 99.99% of the time, technology is used to destroy the very life that discovered it due to great struggles and wars. So, at any point in time, there is little alien life to observe because what life had been before has already vanished because they destroyed themselves. This theory does not provide an optimistic outlook for the fate of mankind that already knows war and has the technology to make war ever more destructive. There is little doubt man’s technology has advanced to the point where we are capable of destroying ourselves many times over and man’s history shows a willingness to engage in war to either resolve problems or gain mastery over others. Perhaps war is inevitable because of how life is designed, i.e., for life to survive, it has a dominance and survival instinct that is hard wired into our beings and these instincts makes it impossible to resist our destructive inclinations, even while we destroy that which we all hold dear (life). We all engage in war on a personal level every day due to these driving instincts. We battle each other for a better job, for a better life, for more power, for sex, for money and on and on. So when we engage in bigger and bigger impersonal wars, it’s a road we all have traveled many times on a personal level and provides for a sense of propriety. There are those who have subscribed to the notion that war is glorious and is the engine that drives man’s advancement. Well, that might have been true when sticks, stones, arrows and swords were technology’s offerings, but with today’s and tomorrow’s weapons of mass destructions, no alien life will even be around to stop by and wonder at our ruin and demise (instead of glorious advancement).
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