Even in America we were hearing so much about Susan Doyle that I went to Youtube and searched her up. Yes, she was good, but after so much buildup, I was expecting something of a Full Archangel and was disappointed to get only an angel. Really, on the Ten Scale, everybody was talking as though she were perhaps about a 9.8, and the actual performance was only like a 9.2. She knew how to sing, and she enjoyed it, but her actual ‘pipes’ weren’t really so perfect. Or maybe they actually are. In such walk-on auditions, people don’t have the opportunity to really warm up. I know for myself that it takes 15 minutes before I am sure of my ‘feel’ and it really takes a bit more than a half an hour before I can count on being somewhat inspired. It is probably the same for Voice as for anything else.
The really wonderful thing about Susan Doyle is what it bespoke of the audience and the English Public who received her so enthusiastically. It seems that people may be ready for some real music again. So ready for real music that they extended Susan perhaps more credit than she deserved. But that might be some indication of how tired people are of Rap and all that other crap. If it will help in anyway to bring us back real music again, even I will agree that Susan Doyle is the most perfect singer of all time. Jesus, I hope so.
Remember, about a decade ago… I have spoken of this movie before… “Hear My Song”, an English Movie. It threw to the forefront several very good baritones, singing popular songs and sentimental ballads. The movie really depended on people not turning away or being embarrassed to listen to what may have been seen as old fashioned, dated, passé. And the movie wasn’t a total failure… just the good vibes of that movie lead to a series of other English Feel Good movies. But I suspect that the young people stayed away in droves, feeling too superior to give yesterday’s music much of a chance. But maybe “Hear My Song” would have taken off better today. I think it would be the kind of movie Susan Doyle and her fans would enjoy. Maybe they need to put the picture into re-release.
Oh, and today I went to see the movie “The Soloist”. It’s a movie about a journalist who knows nothing about music who writes about a musician. It’s a movie made by film people who also know nothing about music. You think that journalists or movie makers would at least bother to look into their subject matter a bit. Instead they rely only upon their uninformed assumptions and baseless opinions … and if ignorance is good enough for themselves, then it is good enough for their audience.
For instance, the writer was surprised that the musician went from cello to violin without any training. Duh! Both the cello and the violin are 4 string fretless instruments with bows. The difference is only that one is bigger. Indeed, violins come in about 5 sizes, and they all play the same way. Beyond getting used to the different feel, there is nothing to learn at all in going back and forth between them all. I would think even a retard… oh, I mean even extremely special people could figure that out! Well, since they look so similar! But I suppose a writer would think formulaically that we all would be impressed with a musician who picks up an instrument without a single lesson. I think that is what they refer to as shameless manipulation.
Anyway, they probably hired a few consultants because movie didn’t get everything wrong. For instance, the violin family of instruments, with the curved bridge and the straight bow, well, only one or two strings can be played at a time… well, more if one strums down hard and fairly high up the neck, forcing a third string into the alignment. But the violins mostly play melody lines, and harmonies are done by orchestrating entire string sections together. So the movie included the orchestration in the background to give context to the melody line that The Soloist was playing. That was good.
But there was really vapid section of the movie which tried to present some idea of what Mental Ideation of Music might look like in the mind’s eye of some musical genius. They showed pulsating blotches of color. Honestly, how is one supposed to arrive at the ordered and precise and yet beautiful arrangement of music through shapeless blobs and random colors. That is not Ideation at all. Now, that is my criticism, but I must admit that I would have trouble presenting any better representation of Ideation. You see, ideation is not just a kind of visual thing, but it is also a shadow of the kinetic… mixing sight and sense of movement – feeling it in one’s mind’s eye as much as seeing it. The colors are not vivid, unless one is doing some particularly strong hallucinogens. But one thing the ideations are is exact. If one has a good understanding of the music… knows what one is listening to, then the ideations will be an exact representation. Good ideation provides for good improvisation, that is, if a musician has a good feel for the ongoing pattern of the music, then he can easily jump in and supplement the pattern without clashing with it. The ideation is ornamented without being changed in its essentials. So, really, the movie producers only had to present any kind of really exact imaginary representation of the music… even just presenting the musical notations in dynamic flashes… follow the bouncing balls of an entire orchestra… would have been better than the blobby pulsing arbitrary colors. They wanted to present the visualizations of a musical genius, but instead we got what a doper probably sees just before passing out in his own colorful vomit. Honestly, I can’t imagine why they did not edit that blobby crap out. The producers daughter must have come up with the idea or something like that. How many bad movie scenes are Production Holy Cows which can’t be touched for one reason or another?
Oh, here is another problem with Music and Hollywood. Why has Hollywood been lately seeming to do its best to correlate any particular genius with music with some kind of mental dysfunctionality. “Autumn Rush” was also about some musical nut-case, wasn’t it? Then there was the parade of movies about musical drunks, and musical drug addicts. Can’t we see a movie about a talented, successful, sane and socially well adjusted musician ( yes, I know, we would have to find one first!). Oh! I think they did… “Music and Lyrics” with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. It was a charming movie about music and musicians, and hardly a hint of any dysfunctionality at all. But, being about Popular Music, I suppose they intended for the audience to be dismissive of the whole thing… to just laugh at it… after all, it was just a comedy.
I suppose it leads us to wonder why it is so important for the American Media to project in almost a solid front that Fine Music is out of reach of the Normal, the Sane and the Healthy. Maybe they wish to discourage children from taking music lessons, although one can hardly imagine that the rate could fall any lower. The Public is being conditioned to suppose that sane and healthy children can hardly dare to hope to develop any talent, since they aren’t properly delusional or adequately troubled. And if they can’t play music, maybe the American Media People think the kids will buy more music, and if they know nothing much about music, then appealing to high levels of taste and discernment won’t be a problem for the Music Producers. Music Producers have never had it easier than they do today as far as worrying about overcoming the barriers of high taste and educated sensibilities. After all, Rap Music is the rejection of all that, isn’t it? Indeed, I can’t possibly be the only one to notice that music has gotten more and more primitive, simplistic and, well, cheap, over the last hundred years or so. It went from Orchestras and Opera, to Stage Bands and Vaudeville, to Big Bands, that weren’t really quite so big, to Swing Bands that were paired down even more. Then Rock and Roll came along which fired everybody, sent all the musicians packing, saving only a few guitars and a drum. Then even that got too much for Music Producers to want to pay for, and now every kid who can cuss in rhyme, to a depersonalized synthesized track operated by a mere technician, can be a Modern Music Rap Star. I guess the Music Producers pick which ever kid will work the cheapest. They charge the same for the product, the same as they used to charge for Music, but it costs nearly nothing to make… no chairs to set up… no acoustics to worry about… no drawing up sheet music for horn and string sections. No phone calls have to be made. Nobody gets hired. All the same money is made selling rhyming cuss words. They couldn’t get away with that kind of crap if good music ever became Normal again.
Oh, but that brings us back to the Susan Doyle phenomena. Isn’t she exactly the perfect blend of Good Music and Normalcy? And the Public loves her! Wow! The Public is finally coming around to defy their Media Conditioning, to feel their own true feelings. I wonder how the Media will fight it. I suppose they will try to get Susan Doyle to perform rap music…that Britain won’t really have any talent at all unless she can string together rhyming sequences of profanity just like all the rest of the Big Talent that is allotted to us in this modern day and age. It is a good thing that we all love this brave new world or it would all be rather sad, wouldn’t it?
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Kicked Out of Hinduism
Dear Angela,
I had an occasion for a good deal of dreaming this last evening. You see, the Cable had been cut off. At first I thought it was a general outage, but when I called it in I was taken aback when the Service Technician told me he was unaware of any outages in my area. Ah oh! So I went outside to look at the wiring box. Wiring boxes in Guam are open to the world and it is usually easy enough to check on the condition of one’s own cable, provided on knows where to look. But since everything is open to sun and the weather, marking tags can get blown off or bleached out. Anyway, now it seems that suddenly they decided to become modern and put a metal door and lock on the Wire Box. Walking back to my apartment this nice gentleman who probably sits outside all day long informed me that the Cable Truck had been there earlier and he had gotten the distinct impression that they were untangling a bunch of illegal splices and splitters. The horrifying suspicion came upon me that these minimum wage imbeciles had disconnected my cable during all of their enthusiasm. I called the Cable People back with this insight and they confirmed it… that it was likely that that is exactly what might have happened, but that it was perhaps too late to call back any trucks when Friday evening was already somewhat advanced. So I went to sleep… it couldn’t have been later than 7 o’clock. And I slept until about 8 the next morning… remembering a few dreams.
There was one dream in which I was participating in a Bus Tour of Hinduism (let us pretend that that makes any sense). Now, remember that I have been something of an outside expert on Hinduism, having been initiated into several forms of Yoga, studied the philosophies even in the Universities, and having lived under the disciplines of several Gurus. Indeed, I have forgotten the meanings of more Sanskrit words than most people will ever learn. Anyway, a subject came up with which the Tour Guide was only thinly familiar and when I began to speak up to elucidate it in more detail and color, the Tour Guide slowly and discretely waved her finger in a negative way, to quiet me, while pointing with her other hand to a ring on my left thumb. Apparently this Left Thumb Ring was my Hindu Membership Status Ring, and the thin slot that was supposed to contain a small metal stamped seal of authentication, well, it had been chiseled out. I was no longer ‘approved and certified’.
Well, I did not have to think about it long. I simply took the ring off and threw it away, making it do a loud ‘clunk’ in the nearest trash can. If Hinduism did not want me, then I did not want it. Good riddance!
The dream did not fixate there, however. It turns out that there were some really nice ladies on the bus. One tall thin lady with an intelligent and benevolent energy was interested in me, but for a moment I was distracted by this one little high energy blond girl who was somewhat remarkable for having some odd facial hair (only in a dream can a girl be both attractive and have odd facial hair, but the hair was long and straight like hair from the head). Anyway, I realized that the intelligent and kind lady was more my type. Since I was no longer a welcome member of Hinduism, I made a gift of, well, this strange little statue that was apparently some favorite thing – it was some representation of some funny looking little sacred animal, more like a South American lama or alpaca than any Indian animal that I know about. Anyway, not without some slight misgivings, I gave this little sacred idol to the nice lady. Although it was the weirdest little thing as to its form, when just looking at it, somehow I knew that substantially there was something to it, in its essence there was some spirituality or magic, and that the lady would be lucky to have it.
Later in the dream I realized that I was again back in College, but that I was well advanced… a junior or senior. I was on a walk, going for a visit to that nice lady, who, like myself, had regenerated into a College Student. At first I wondered that I had spent so long without any interest in the fairer sex, but then remembered my actual college days where that had not been the case at all. Now, in comment, I wonder whether it is really typical to mix up Dream Reality with Actual Reality? Probably. Anyway, I arrived to her room, and there was some other company present. While I mingled, my lady left with a friend of hers, another young lady. I saw her as she left and she looked back at me with an inquisitive look. Was she wondering whether I would wait for her return, or was she wondering whether I would follow. Of course I didn’t follow her. I wasn’t invited. Even in dreams one has to behave like a responsible gentleman. Oh, that reminds me. I had been conditioning myself, while awake, to remember in my dreams not to look for lost things, or go after things that are gone… that I should simply move on. Never backtrack in dreams! So it seems that my resolution has come to fruition and I am acting just as planned! When the object of my fancy left the party, I hung around for maybe five entire seconds before leaving to pursue whatever would happen next. If I would see that nice lady again, it would have to be in another dream.
Now, what did such a dream mean? Regarding Hinduism, well, I have noticed that I have been subtly distancing myself from it lately. I have begun to speak of Philosophical Hinduism as opposed to Religious Hinduism which anymore has become synonymous with the Chaste System and racial bigotry, and the apartheid traditions of Untouchability. Yes, outsiders might suppose that all Indians are racially of the same stock, but the truth is that the Brahmin Class is, or used to be White – the Aryans… the same Aryans that Hitler used to boost so much about. Indeed, the Racism is deeply embedded even in the oldest Hindu Religious Epics. For instance, in the Ramayana we learn that the Tribes of Aryan Invaders were confronted upon their inroads into Southern India by a Civilization of what they referred to as “Monkeys”. Walking, talking ‘monkeys’ that were wearing cloths, living in buildings, paying taxes, holding Court, that is, behaving exactly like People, only they were being called ‘monkeys’. Indian art draws them as real monkeys, with fur and tails, but honestly we should simply just admit that this Civilization of “Monkeys” were the actual People of Southern India, and that the appellation of ‘Monkey’ was not a well thought out zoological designation at all but a denigrating value judgment, a racist epithet! That’s Hinduism at its core.
Hinduism as it comes down to us wishes us to believe that the Aryan Barbarians brought Hinduism with them. That would be odd considering that these same Aryans had invaded other areas of the World without bringing anything close to that same culture or religion with them.
Geology tells us that there had been a Civilization in India prior to what the Aryans would later put claim to, as Hinduism. There was what we now refer to as the Indus Valley Civilization, which we know of from the diggings at the ancient City of Harappa. They think this Civilization even had ties to the ancient Sumerian Civilization. Perhaps even Egypt. Anyway, from what they have found at Herappa, it is likely that the Aryan Brahmins did not bring Religion to India, but that they found it there when they arrived.
We need to remember what the great Historian Arnold Toynbee used to say, that Culture rushes into a vacuum – that while Barbarians may be the conquerors, that does not necessarily make them the Leaders of Culture and Influence. Often the Cultural Influence of even a decayed Civilization will win out in the end. In most cases Barbarians are glad to forget their old ragtag ways, and even their old ragtag languages, and take on the customs and languages of their more cultured and knowledgeable slaves.
So I suspect the Aryans took on the Religion of the Indus Valley Civilization. However, the Aryans did retain the bedrock of their Aryan Language, Sanskrit, which is the root language of many of the European Languages. The Aryans apparently considered it a priority to preserve some separation from the Native People of India, the people they considered “Monkeys”. Obviously they discouraged intermarriage. The Chastes that they established could not mix. Their Racism was thoroughly institutionalized early on.
The Brahmins of Hinduism were opportunistic above all and became adapt at absorbing and calling their own any religious innovation that came along which could serve their purposes. Originally not much more than witchcraft spells and incantations (i.e. the Rig Vedas) Hinduism would later incorporate Western Stoicism, probably from Alexander and the Greeks, as well as Buddhism (which also probably owes most of its content to Western Stoicism… an cosmopolitan and educated Buddha probably would have been able to read all of his own teachings as taken from the original Greek).
Later on the Hindus also absorbed a great deal of Moral Ethical Sufism, influences from Persia and Zoroastrianism (another domain that had experienced Aryan Invasion, but had gone in a different Religious direction). Hinduism became a wealthy collection of a great many philosophical and religious points of view and perspectives. Yes, there were a great many internal contradictions, and while people took these concerns seriously, no one school ever arrived at any so solid position of political power that they could enforce Orthodoxy and Unity of Belief. Some would say this was a virtue of Hinduism; however, we have only to recall that the same Hindu disunity allowed for a mostly successful Muslim Invasion of India, and then the predations of the Mongols. Chronic disagreement is only a mixed virtue.
So Hinduism, while it was inclusive of many ideas, was rather committed to none. Now, with the rise of Nationalistic and Conservative Right Wing Hinduism, much of the Philosophy has been forgotten. Where India had been very welcoming to the West in the sixties and seventies of the last Century, now more and more Hinduism is closing its ranks and making the Westerner feel unwelcome, even untouchable.
Apparently the influence is even being felt within the Collective Consciousness, where Western Dreamers such as myself are getting the message that the Hindu Mind is turning itself away from affiliation with the greater part of the Human Race. Where Love would be inclusive and welcoming, Hinduism would rather exclude and go into its own Brave New World alone. How often is Pride a euphemism for Hate?
While I can regret such a huge rupture within the branches of the Human Family, and while I am saddened that I am being turned away by a people I was willing to a large extent to adopt as my own, I must admit to myself that I have no practical choice then but to heed the dream and distance myself from Hinduism… even ‘Philosophical’ Hinduism. As I said earlier about being a Gentleman – one cannot go where one is not invited.
Now, about the women of my dream…What on earth do women signify in a Dream? In my younger days an answer would be more easily arrived at, but these days there is really no sex in my dreams. Women are only a social connection, and so I suppose they represent some kind of affinity, or maybe even an Identity – a mirror image of myself – myself only inverted.
In the case of my recent dream mentioned above, I gave the lady something that I valued highly but which, really, I realized I had no further use for. Now, in retrospect, I can suspect that by giving the Thing to this lady with whom I so much wished to be close, that I was in effect using her in order to retain some connection with the Thing. To truly give the Thing away, I would have had to walk away from the Lady to whom I gave it. That seems to be what happened. She went away with another lady, that is, another influence. The lady will never return as she was, but maybe she will return in some expanded way, richer from these other influences.
Now, I can remember that this friend of hers seemed decided upon getting her away from me. When my lady friend had looked back, there was a hand on her arm pulling her along, guiding her away. Her friend also looked back at me, with her cold hard eyes warning me away.
Perhaps there is an aspect of some character development within myself that needs to grow in isolation. It will need to come back to me mature and fully formed. My character as it now stands would overpower any new budding tendencies. If a new aspect of character is to seriously make a difference, then it will have to arrive fully formed and able to stand up to the Old Me.
Oh! The Little Animal Thing is a kind of Seed, a nucleus for some Character Development. From the moment the Lady received the Little Animal Thing she was destined to grow and transform. I had already been transformed by the Thing, when it had been mine, but it would effect this lady differently from how it had effected me. She really did need to get away from me, just so she would know that the effective Influences were coming out of Herself and the Thing, and not coming from me. Even if my Influence was the Very Same, she needed to know that she could trust in the same Influence coming from Within herself.
But her growth would be different, simply owing to different accidents, different conditions, a different crystal matrix forming a crystal substantially the same but of a different shape. My personality is perhaps ineradicably colored by all of my crowded and complex history in the real world, but this lady in my dream is gone off to develop – hopefully in the Higher and Purer Planes of the Dream World.
I had an occasion for a good deal of dreaming this last evening. You see, the Cable had been cut off. At first I thought it was a general outage, but when I called it in I was taken aback when the Service Technician told me he was unaware of any outages in my area. Ah oh! So I went outside to look at the wiring box. Wiring boxes in Guam are open to the world and it is usually easy enough to check on the condition of one’s own cable, provided on knows where to look. But since everything is open to sun and the weather, marking tags can get blown off or bleached out. Anyway, now it seems that suddenly they decided to become modern and put a metal door and lock on the Wire Box. Walking back to my apartment this nice gentleman who probably sits outside all day long informed me that the Cable Truck had been there earlier and he had gotten the distinct impression that they were untangling a bunch of illegal splices and splitters. The horrifying suspicion came upon me that these minimum wage imbeciles had disconnected my cable during all of their enthusiasm. I called the Cable People back with this insight and they confirmed it… that it was likely that that is exactly what might have happened, but that it was perhaps too late to call back any trucks when Friday evening was already somewhat advanced. So I went to sleep… it couldn’t have been later than 7 o’clock. And I slept until about 8 the next morning… remembering a few dreams.
There was one dream in which I was participating in a Bus Tour of Hinduism (let us pretend that that makes any sense). Now, remember that I have been something of an outside expert on Hinduism, having been initiated into several forms of Yoga, studied the philosophies even in the Universities, and having lived under the disciplines of several Gurus. Indeed, I have forgotten the meanings of more Sanskrit words than most people will ever learn. Anyway, a subject came up with which the Tour Guide was only thinly familiar and when I began to speak up to elucidate it in more detail and color, the Tour Guide slowly and discretely waved her finger in a negative way, to quiet me, while pointing with her other hand to a ring on my left thumb. Apparently this Left Thumb Ring was my Hindu Membership Status Ring, and the thin slot that was supposed to contain a small metal stamped seal of authentication, well, it had been chiseled out. I was no longer ‘approved and certified’.
Well, I did not have to think about it long. I simply took the ring off and threw it away, making it do a loud ‘clunk’ in the nearest trash can. If Hinduism did not want me, then I did not want it. Good riddance!
The dream did not fixate there, however. It turns out that there were some really nice ladies on the bus. One tall thin lady with an intelligent and benevolent energy was interested in me, but for a moment I was distracted by this one little high energy blond girl who was somewhat remarkable for having some odd facial hair (only in a dream can a girl be both attractive and have odd facial hair, but the hair was long and straight like hair from the head). Anyway, I realized that the intelligent and kind lady was more my type. Since I was no longer a welcome member of Hinduism, I made a gift of, well, this strange little statue that was apparently some favorite thing – it was some representation of some funny looking little sacred animal, more like a South American lama or alpaca than any Indian animal that I know about. Anyway, not without some slight misgivings, I gave this little sacred idol to the nice lady. Although it was the weirdest little thing as to its form, when just looking at it, somehow I knew that substantially there was something to it, in its essence there was some spirituality or magic, and that the lady would be lucky to have it.
Later in the dream I realized that I was again back in College, but that I was well advanced… a junior or senior. I was on a walk, going for a visit to that nice lady, who, like myself, had regenerated into a College Student. At first I wondered that I had spent so long without any interest in the fairer sex, but then remembered my actual college days where that had not been the case at all. Now, in comment, I wonder whether it is really typical to mix up Dream Reality with Actual Reality? Probably. Anyway, I arrived to her room, and there was some other company present. While I mingled, my lady left with a friend of hers, another young lady. I saw her as she left and she looked back at me with an inquisitive look. Was she wondering whether I would wait for her return, or was she wondering whether I would follow. Of course I didn’t follow her. I wasn’t invited. Even in dreams one has to behave like a responsible gentleman. Oh, that reminds me. I had been conditioning myself, while awake, to remember in my dreams not to look for lost things, or go after things that are gone… that I should simply move on. Never backtrack in dreams! So it seems that my resolution has come to fruition and I am acting just as planned! When the object of my fancy left the party, I hung around for maybe five entire seconds before leaving to pursue whatever would happen next. If I would see that nice lady again, it would have to be in another dream.
Now, what did such a dream mean? Regarding Hinduism, well, I have noticed that I have been subtly distancing myself from it lately. I have begun to speak of Philosophical Hinduism as opposed to Religious Hinduism which anymore has become synonymous with the Chaste System and racial bigotry, and the apartheid traditions of Untouchability. Yes, outsiders might suppose that all Indians are racially of the same stock, but the truth is that the Brahmin Class is, or used to be White – the Aryans… the same Aryans that Hitler used to boost so much about. Indeed, the Racism is deeply embedded even in the oldest Hindu Religious Epics. For instance, in the Ramayana we learn that the Tribes of Aryan Invaders were confronted upon their inroads into Southern India by a Civilization of what they referred to as “Monkeys”. Walking, talking ‘monkeys’ that were wearing cloths, living in buildings, paying taxes, holding Court, that is, behaving exactly like People, only they were being called ‘monkeys’. Indian art draws them as real monkeys, with fur and tails, but honestly we should simply just admit that this Civilization of “Monkeys” were the actual People of Southern India, and that the appellation of ‘Monkey’ was not a well thought out zoological designation at all but a denigrating value judgment, a racist epithet! That’s Hinduism at its core.
Hinduism as it comes down to us wishes us to believe that the Aryan Barbarians brought Hinduism with them. That would be odd considering that these same Aryans had invaded other areas of the World without bringing anything close to that same culture or religion with them.
Geology tells us that there had been a Civilization in India prior to what the Aryans would later put claim to, as Hinduism. There was what we now refer to as the Indus Valley Civilization, which we know of from the diggings at the ancient City of Harappa. They think this Civilization even had ties to the ancient Sumerian Civilization. Perhaps even Egypt. Anyway, from what they have found at Herappa, it is likely that the Aryan Brahmins did not bring Religion to India, but that they found it there when they arrived.
We need to remember what the great Historian Arnold Toynbee used to say, that Culture rushes into a vacuum – that while Barbarians may be the conquerors, that does not necessarily make them the Leaders of Culture and Influence. Often the Cultural Influence of even a decayed Civilization will win out in the end. In most cases Barbarians are glad to forget their old ragtag ways, and even their old ragtag languages, and take on the customs and languages of their more cultured and knowledgeable slaves.
So I suspect the Aryans took on the Religion of the Indus Valley Civilization. However, the Aryans did retain the bedrock of their Aryan Language, Sanskrit, which is the root language of many of the European Languages. The Aryans apparently considered it a priority to preserve some separation from the Native People of India, the people they considered “Monkeys”. Obviously they discouraged intermarriage. The Chastes that they established could not mix. Their Racism was thoroughly institutionalized early on.
The Brahmins of Hinduism were opportunistic above all and became adapt at absorbing and calling their own any religious innovation that came along which could serve their purposes. Originally not much more than witchcraft spells and incantations (i.e. the Rig Vedas) Hinduism would later incorporate Western Stoicism, probably from Alexander and the Greeks, as well as Buddhism (which also probably owes most of its content to Western Stoicism… an cosmopolitan and educated Buddha probably would have been able to read all of his own teachings as taken from the original Greek).
Later on the Hindus also absorbed a great deal of Moral Ethical Sufism, influences from Persia and Zoroastrianism (another domain that had experienced Aryan Invasion, but had gone in a different Religious direction). Hinduism became a wealthy collection of a great many philosophical and religious points of view and perspectives. Yes, there were a great many internal contradictions, and while people took these concerns seriously, no one school ever arrived at any so solid position of political power that they could enforce Orthodoxy and Unity of Belief. Some would say this was a virtue of Hinduism; however, we have only to recall that the same Hindu disunity allowed for a mostly successful Muslim Invasion of India, and then the predations of the Mongols. Chronic disagreement is only a mixed virtue.
So Hinduism, while it was inclusive of many ideas, was rather committed to none. Now, with the rise of Nationalistic and Conservative Right Wing Hinduism, much of the Philosophy has been forgotten. Where India had been very welcoming to the West in the sixties and seventies of the last Century, now more and more Hinduism is closing its ranks and making the Westerner feel unwelcome, even untouchable.
Apparently the influence is even being felt within the Collective Consciousness, where Western Dreamers such as myself are getting the message that the Hindu Mind is turning itself away from affiliation with the greater part of the Human Race. Where Love would be inclusive and welcoming, Hinduism would rather exclude and go into its own Brave New World alone. How often is Pride a euphemism for Hate?
While I can regret such a huge rupture within the branches of the Human Family, and while I am saddened that I am being turned away by a people I was willing to a large extent to adopt as my own, I must admit to myself that I have no practical choice then but to heed the dream and distance myself from Hinduism… even ‘Philosophical’ Hinduism. As I said earlier about being a Gentleman – one cannot go where one is not invited.
Now, about the women of my dream…What on earth do women signify in a Dream? In my younger days an answer would be more easily arrived at, but these days there is really no sex in my dreams. Women are only a social connection, and so I suppose they represent some kind of affinity, or maybe even an Identity – a mirror image of myself – myself only inverted.
In the case of my recent dream mentioned above, I gave the lady something that I valued highly but which, really, I realized I had no further use for. Now, in retrospect, I can suspect that by giving the Thing to this lady with whom I so much wished to be close, that I was in effect using her in order to retain some connection with the Thing. To truly give the Thing away, I would have had to walk away from the Lady to whom I gave it. That seems to be what happened. She went away with another lady, that is, another influence. The lady will never return as she was, but maybe she will return in some expanded way, richer from these other influences.
Now, I can remember that this friend of hers seemed decided upon getting her away from me. When my lady friend had looked back, there was a hand on her arm pulling her along, guiding her away. Her friend also looked back at me, with her cold hard eyes warning me away.
Perhaps there is an aspect of some character development within myself that needs to grow in isolation. It will need to come back to me mature and fully formed. My character as it now stands would overpower any new budding tendencies. If a new aspect of character is to seriously make a difference, then it will have to arrive fully formed and able to stand up to the Old Me.
Oh! The Little Animal Thing is a kind of Seed, a nucleus for some Character Development. From the moment the Lady received the Little Animal Thing she was destined to grow and transform. I had already been transformed by the Thing, when it had been mine, but it would effect this lady differently from how it had effected me. She really did need to get away from me, just so she would know that the effective Influences were coming out of Herself and the Thing, and not coming from me. Even if my Influence was the Very Same, she needed to know that she could trust in the same Influence coming from Within herself.
But her growth would be different, simply owing to different accidents, different conditions, a different crystal matrix forming a crystal substantially the same but of a different shape. My personality is perhaps ineradicably colored by all of my crowded and complex history in the real world, but this lady in my dream is gone off to develop – hopefully in the Higher and Purer Planes of the Dream World.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Morality and Evolution
I was searching around the Web specifically looking for instances of exaggerated moral epiphanies arising out of pathological mental states and conditions. What I was thinking was that if Morality is self generated out of the minds of men, then it would be most noticeable when it is of exaggerated and insane proportions. I was really hoping to find some often repeated Moral Delusion, that is, some eruption of the Collective Consciousness out of which always the same Moral Content would spill (it would amount to the virtual Holy Grail of Collective Consciousness Theory). What I found, however, was that most reputable scholarly papers are password protected and available only on subscription. Nowadays, only the bullshit is free online. So much for the much celebrated Information Age. That didn’t last long, did it? Well, and of the bullshit, I found more than a few essays which were making the argument that Morality is now an innate factor, hardwired into our Humanity, owing to the workings of Evolution. The argument is that we are all Moral Beings, now, because Morality has had a strong correlation in Humanity’s collective survival.
I had to shake my head. You see, knowing a great deal about Archeology, Anthropology and History, well, one can speak of the evolution of some particular group dynamics, but these, in many cases can hardly be spoken of as instances of some Golden and Shining Morality. Of particular instance is that of Group Loyalty and Identification with the Group. The way this works in actual practice is that when Resources in a Territory become scarce, the Group that has the best cohesion through group loyalty and group self-identification is the group that survives because they are the ones who can most remorselessly kill off their competitors. But this is not Morality at all, is it? What we have here is the Barbarian Code, where the only Virtue that they find necessary is Loyalty to the Group. It is just this same Factor that now intensifies all of our Wars and makes Organized Crime proliferate as well as precipitating all the problems we have with Gangs and Gang violence.
Yes, we also hear of the survival benefit of altruism and cooperation, and, yes, I agree that there is such a thing, indeed, that the relatively few and relatively recent Civilizations could not have formed up without just such a Moral Innovation. But the problem in speaking of this in terms of Evolution is that many of the Ethnic Bloodlines that encompass our Humanity today have had very little actual intimate mix with any Civilization Blood at all. This puts me in mind of the NAZI boost only a few generations ago, that the German people were not part of some weak decadent Civilization at all, but had racing through their veins the blood of History’s worst, or in their terms, most successful maraudering Barbarians, the Aryans (when, if truth be told, actually the Mongols might have had more success on that score, that is, of being the Worst of the Worst). Here the Germans were basically correct, at least in regards to the point that Europe has had no long history of Civilization, or not enough to have solidly fixed some Moral Impulse by means of Evolution.
Indeed, another thing we should keep in mind is that, so far, every Civilization has failed. Oh, yes, and while our Species has been long evolving over millions of years, there has not been any evidence of a Civilization before only about 10,000 years ago. Of course, I admit that a lot can happen in a short time with Evolution. For instance, taking into account the most recent Ice Age, ending only about 13,000 years ago, which must have depopulated what we now think of as the Blond Countries, we can conclude that the Evolution of Blood Hair and Blue Eyes is therefore of the most recent event… so recent that we can almost count the individual generations. But then, for any comparison to be valid, we must wonder whether High Moral Social Systems are any more complex then a gene that controls a recessive pigment trait.
Also, we should find that it is of no little importance that Civilizations have been chronic failures. What does it do for us that there may be ten or even twenty Generations of Civilization that reinforce a Civilized Morality, but that when such a Civilization collapses, suddenly there is again a tremendous Survival Benefit favoring Small Group Loyalties and Group Against Group Warfare and Violence? If Selfishness always seems to win in the end, then how can we speak of an Evolving Morality?
So there doesn’t appear to me to be any Evolutionary Morality. Or perhaps they are defining Morality too narrowly. Maybe they are only arguing for why Human Mothers do not devour their young, so often anymore.
All the very comprehensive Moral Systems and Moral Cultures have been the product of Received Transmission, learning and teaching, customs and traditions. Indeed, if people would only study History they would find instance after instance of some very High Moral Cultures. But then these are ordinarily followed by a few generations of skeptics (honored for their intellectual innovations), then cynics (honored for breaking away from the dusty old Past) and then, well, rapid decline and decadence (High Culture replaced by Popular Art) followed by economic and social collapse and inundation by foreign barbarian invasion. You see, Civilization cannot exist outside the strictures of some rather high moral imperatives.
What are these High Moral Strictures? Well, at the most basic level, “Thou Shall Not Eat the Seed Grain”. Civilization’s first concern is to protect its ability to produce and then store a protected Surplus of Food Stuffs. Those who gather the food must relinquish it to those who store it, and those who store it must be able to return it when the land becomes barren. And at every Time of Planting sufficient amounts of Seed Grain must come out of storage and it must be viable. Any Selfish instance of Barbarism caught up in this Civilized Mechanism would cause it to fail – greedy producers, greedy distributors, hoarding. Civilization is fragile. Notice our recent Meltdown on Wall Street which quickly reverberated down to rock every Market in the World. It is clearly an instance where Barbarian Selfishness bubbled up causing Civilized Institutions to fail wholesale and completely. And even now on the sidelines we hear more than a small minority of Barbarians chanting that no rescue is necessary, that the Strong will Survive (that is, without saying so in so many words, “the Strong” being the very people who stole all the money in the first place), and that as far as they are concerned, there is no problem. They will be fine. And as for the people who won’t be fine, well, they don’t matter anyway – not to this elite core of Barbarians who now run our Western Societies.
Of course they are wrong about how “fine” it will be for them. What History shows us is that Collapses of Civilization are far more total than anyone ever expects at the time. The Rich always think they can weather whatever the storms that they create in order Concentrate all Wealth to themselves and totally disenfranchise the Poor, but it always goes way beyond their original intent. For instance, as an example, the Rich now think that they are safe with their gated communities and private security guards. But these things are all part and parcel of a still Functioning Civilization, where people go to work and get paid on Friday. When Civilization really collapses, and currencies become valueless, making Brute Force the Most Valued Commodity, then the Guards and Police would be the first to turn, would they not? Your own Guard is the first to come through the Gate. So far in History, the Rich People have never seemed to be able to think that far ahead.
In this great historical oscillation between Civilization and Barbarian Collapse, one can only wonder which Side evolution seems to be favoring. I think it would be better, in our short term anyway, over the millions of years it would take Evolution to come up with its own firm answer, for us to concentrate on defining a Moral System and establishing an effective and all encompassing Social Instruction. What I have noticed from History is that Civilizations fail from within, and usually because the most affluent and elite Peoples within a Civilization begin acting selfishly themselves, that is, those with the most to lose are the first to begin hammering away at their very own safeguards and protections. They have a lot, but only want more, and seem to be willing to risk everything, and everyone, to get it. They feel favored by Fate or Destiny and can’t imagine that they should fail. It all begins in Skepticism and then Cynicism, and, again, all of that starting in the very highest Social Classes. There is a chronic misunderstanding that Revolutions come from the impoverished Classes, but these Lower Classes are typically the most stable, being the very last to break, but just in time to receive the Blame from a too superficial look at History.
The Challenge for Civilization is to arrive at a Moral Social Consensus and then understand that the Poor Classes will adapt to it just fine, but that a Special Watch must necessarily be put upon the Rich and Powerful Classes, always ready to stomp out even the first trembling vibration of skepticism. If you still need an example, let’s say that should we ever again hear that Government and Economic Regulations only get in the way of our General Prosperity, then we can get some notion of what the first dangerous crack in a great Bulwark looks like.
Oh, no, I am not for entirely clamping down against every instance of Free Thought. We must keep innovating, we must keep adapting. Life does not hold still. But in coming up with a Moral Structure we need to arrive at certain Moral Guidelines even regards to the direction of our Thinking. Ideas whose only appeal is in Selfishness must be regarded as inherently Evil. A Line must be drawn between Civilization and Barbarism, and no Barbarian idea should be permitted to stand. Selfishness must be Exiled.
I had to shake my head. You see, knowing a great deal about Archeology, Anthropology and History, well, one can speak of the evolution of some particular group dynamics, but these, in many cases can hardly be spoken of as instances of some Golden and Shining Morality. Of particular instance is that of Group Loyalty and Identification with the Group. The way this works in actual practice is that when Resources in a Territory become scarce, the Group that has the best cohesion through group loyalty and group self-identification is the group that survives because they are the ones who can most remorselessly kill off their competitors. But this is not Morality at all, is it? What we have here is the Barbarian Code, where the only Virtue that they find necessary is Loyalty to the Group. It is just this same Factor that now intensifies all of our Wars and makes Organized Crime proliferate as well as precipitating all the problems we have with Gangs and Gang violence.
Yes, we also hear of the survival benefit of altruism and cooperation, and, yes, I agree that there is such a thing, indeed, that the relatively few and relatively recent Civilizations could not have formed up without just such a Moral Innovation. But the problem in speaking of this in terms of Evolution is that many of the Ethnic Bloodlines that encompass our Humanity today have had very little actual intimate mix with any Civilization Blood at all. This puts me in mind of the NAZI boost only a few generations ago, that the German people were not part of some weak decadent Civilization at all, but had racing through their veins the blood of History’s worst, or in their terms, most successful maraudering Barbarians, the Aryans (when, if truth be told, actually the Mongols might have had more success on that score, that is, of being the Worst of the Worst). Here the Germans were basically correct, at least in regards to the point that Europe has had no long history of Civilization, or not enough to have solidly fixed some Moral Impulse by means of Evolution.
Indeed, another thing we should keep in mind is that, so far, every Civilization has failed. Oh, yes, and while our Species has been long evolving over millions of years, there has not been any evidence of a Civilization before only about 10,000 years ago. Of course, I admit that a lot can happen in a short time with Evolution. For instance, taking into account the most recent Ice Age, ending only about 13,000 years ago, which must have depopulated what we now think of as the Blond Countries, we can conclude that the Evolution of Blood Hair and Blue Eyes is therefore of the most recent event… so recent that we can almost count the individual generations. But then, for any comparison to be valid, we must wonder whether High Moral Social Systems are any more complex then a gene that controls a recessive pigment trait.
Also, we should find that it is of no little importance that Civilizations have been chronic failures. What does it do for us that there may be ten or even twenty Generations of Civilization that reinforce a Civilized Morality, but that when such a Civilization collapses, suddenly there is again a tremendous Survival Benefit favoring Small Group Loyalties and Group Against Group Warfare and Violence? If Selfishness always seems to win in the end, then how can we speak of an Evolving Morality?
So there doesn’t appear to me to be any Evolutionary Morality. Or perhaps they are defining Morality too narrowly. Maybe they are only arguing for why Human Mothers do not devour their young, so often anymore.
All the very comprehensive Moral Systems and Moral Cultures have been the product of Received Transmission, learning and teaching, customs and traditions. Indeed, if people would only study History they would find instance after instance of some very High Moral Cultures. But then these are ordinarily followed by a few generations of skeptics (honored for their intellectual innovations), then cynics (honored for breaking away from the dusty old Past) and then, well, rapid decline and decadence (High Culture replaced by Popular Art) followed by economic and social collapse and inundation by foreign barbarian invasion. You see, Civilization cannot exist outside the strictures of some rather high moral imperatives.
What are these High Moral Strictures? Well, at the most basic level, “Thou Shall Not Eat the Seed Grain”. Civilization’s first concern is to protect its ability to produce and then store a protected Surplus of Food Stuffs. Those who gather the food must relinquish it to those who store it, and those who store it must be able to return it when the land becomes barren. And at every Time of Planting sufficient amounts of Seed Grain must come out of storage and it must be viable. Any Selfish instance of Barbarism caught up in this Civilized Mechanism would cause it to fail – greedy producers, greedy distributors, hoarding. Civilization is fragile. Notice our recent Meltdown on Wall Street which quickly reverberated down to rock every Market in the World. It is clearly an instance where Barbarian Selfishness bubbled up causing Civilized Institutions to fail wholesale and completely. And even now on the sidelines we hear more than a small minority of Barbarians chanting that no rescue is necessary, that the Strong will Survive (that is, without saying so in so many words, “the Strong” being the very people who stole all the money in the first place), and that as far as they are concerned, there is no problem. They will be fine. And as for the people who won’t be fine, well, they don’t matter anyway – not to this elite core of Barbarians who now run our Western Societies.
Of course they are wrong about how “fine” it will be for them. What History shows us is that Collapses of Civilization are far more total than anyone ever expects at the time. The Rich always think they can weather whatever the storms that they create in order Concentrate all Wealth to themselves and totally disenfranchise the Poor, but it always goes way beyond their original intent. For instance, as an example, the Rich now think that they are safe with their gated communities and private security guards. But these things are all part and parcel of a still Functioning Civilization, where people go to work and get paid on Friday. When Civilization really collapses, and currencies become valueless, making Brute Force the Most Valued Commodity, then the Guards and Police would be the first to turn, would they not? Your own Guard is the first to come through the Gate. So far in History, the Rich People have never seemed to be able to think that far ahead.
In this great historical oscillation between Civilization and Barbarian Collapse, one can only wonder which Side evolution seems to be favoring. I think it would be better, in our short term anyway, over the millions of years it would take Evolution to come up with its own firm answer, for us to concentrate on defining a Moral System and establishing an effective and all encompassing Social Instruction. What I have noticed from History is that Civilizations fail from within, and usually because the most affluent and elite Peoples within a Civilization begin acting selfishly themselves, that is, those with the most to lose are the first to begin hammering away at their very own safeguards and protections. They have a lot, but only want more, and seem to be willing to risk everything, and everyone, to get it. They feel favored by Fate or Destiny and can’t imagine that they should fail. It all begins in Skepticism and then Cynicism, and, again, all of that starting in the very highest Social Classes. There is a chronic misunderstanding that Revolutions come from the impoverished Classes, but these Lower Classes are typically the most stable, being the very last to break, but just in time to receive the Blame from a too superficial look at History.
The Challenge for Civilization is to arrive at a Moral Social Consensus and then understand that the Poor Classes will adapt to it just fine, but that a Special Watch must necessarily be put upon the Rich and Powerful Classes, always ready to stomp out even the first trembling vibration of skepticism. If you still need an example, let’s say that should we ever again hear that Government and Economic Regulations only get in the way of our General Prosperity, then we can get some notion of what the first dangerous crack in a great Bulwark looks like.
Oh, no, I am not for entirely clamping down against every instance of Free Thought. We must keep innovating, we must keep adapting. Life does not hold still. But in coming up with a Moral Structure we need to arrive at certain Moral Guidelines even regards to the direction of our Thinking. Ideas whose only appeal is in Selfishness must be regarded as inherently Evil. A Line must be drawn between Civilization and Barbarism, and no Barbarian idea should be permitted to stand. Selfishness must be Exiled.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
What is a Lobbyist
For as much as I have spoken of Lobbyists, always negatively, it was only recently that I acquired more insight into their Trade, if you can call it that.
I went to a local Senator and was discussing with his receptionist the reason why I wished to see the Senator, to make licensing procedures easier for such and such and this and that. What she told me was almost like a Satori Experience regarding the Realization of how Modern Politics works. It turns out that I didn’t want to see the senator after all, according to her, a rather glib woman, but that I wanted to make an appointment with a certain Political Consulting Form (what Lobbyists call themselves). They would put together a study to see who would benefit from such a change in licensing procedures, and then they would quantify it in regards to how much money could be made by certain people, and then efforts would be made to bring together and organize these various people, showing them the benefits of pushing forward a change in the law, and getting them to commit a small fraction of their increased future earnings in order to advance such a change in the law. Everyone concerned would be briefed regarding the present state of Election Contribution Laws and would be shown where all the gaping loopholes are, so that contributions could get to the Right People. They would even help me plan Parties and Benefits!
And the Lobbyists would deal with both Parties. Oh, one thinks that everything is decided by Party Politics… that one Party is for something and the other party against it, and it comes down to a vote, all in conformance to whether a particular thing is seen in principle as either being Right Wing or Left Wing. Well, almost, but not quite. The Lobbyists do not just pay the One Party that would be in Favor of an Idea. Of course they arrange Contributions for the Sponsoring Party. But they also arrange Contributions for powerful members of the Other Party so that they will just let things be. Yes, sometimes other Lobbyists jump in and interfere, to try to make big fights out of things, and if it looks like more money can be drummed up on both sides by stirring up a big partisan frenzy it is even welcomed by both sides – who doesn’t like more money coming in, win or lose? But little pieces of Business Legislation are usually just allowed to go through as long as everyone gets a little bit of the grease along the way.
I was not naïve enough to ask if anything is ever done only because it is the right thing to do.
Of course, all cynicism aside, as described above, such a process might even be seen as being a somewhat efficient means of arriving at business and profit friendly legislative initiatives… everyone that will stand to make money from some political scheme puts in a bit beforehand to enact the necessary laws or regulations. Seems fair enough. The problem is that such a mechanism ONLY works in regards to Money Ventures. If the Lobbyists can’t figure out how to turn a Buck with some Idea, it is left to rot.
It reminds me of Our Blessed Messiah Obama… how by some coincidence he sides with All of the Health Care Insurance Companies, to give them what amounts to a Legal Monopoly to distribute what will become compulsory Health Care Benefits. Of course it will be hugely expensive for the individuals who will be forced to pay out these compulsory premiums and for the tax payers who will have to subsidize a lot of it, but it is these expenses which form the Profits which grease the Lobbyists who somehow magically get all of their client politicians elected. The Reasonable Thing would be to have an inexpensive One Payer System, but the problem there is that no Lobbyist saw a single penny of Self Interest in it.
Oh, and by some other equally amazing coincidence, Our Lord and Savior Obama just so happens to believe that the one way to rescue the Banks is to pay out billions of Dollars to the very same people who stole all the money in the first place. Is there any reason to look at the old Campaign Finance Records there?
So, anyway, there is the basic problem with Government by Lobbyist… that if the Devil isn’t in it, it doesn’t get done. The sad truth is that not only is the System corrupt, but it has gone so far that Corruption has become necessary for the system. There is no longer any Legislation that isn’t crooked somehow. Otherwise the Lobbyists would not have wasted their time with it.
The only Change we will ever see in it is change for a dollar.
I went to a local Senator and was discussing with his receptionist the reason why I wished to see the Senator, to make licensing procedures easier for such and such and this and that. What she told me was almost like a Satori Experience regarding the Realization of how Modern Politics works. It turns out that I didn’t want to see the senator after all, according to her, a rather glib woman, but that I wanted to make an appointment with a certain Political Consulting Form (what Lobbyists call themselves). They would put together a study to see who would benefit from such a change in licensing procedures, and then they would quantify it in regards to how much money could be made by certain people, and then efforts would be made to bring together and organize these various people, showing them the benefits of pushing forward a change in the law, and getting them to commit a small fraction of their increased future earnings in order to advance such a change in the law. Everyone concerned would be briefed regarding the present state of Election Contribution Laws and would be shown where all the gaping loopholes are, so that contributions could get to the Right People. They would even help me plan Parties and Benefits!
And the Lobbyists would deal with both Parties. Oh, one thinks that everything is decided by Party Politics… that one Party is for something and the other party against it, and it comes down to a vote, all in conformance to whether a particular thing is seen in principle as either being Right Wing or Left Wing. Well, almost, but not quite. The Lobbyists do not just pay the One Party that would be in Favor of an Idea. Of course they arrange Contributions for the Sponsoring Party. But they also arrange Contributions for powerful members of the Other Party so that they will just let things be. Yes, sometimes other Lobbyists jump in and interfere, to try to make big fights out of things, and if it looks like more money can be drummed up on both sides by stirring up a big partisan frenzy it is even welcomed by both sides – who doesn’t like more money coming in, win or lose? But little pieces of Business Legislation are usually just allowed to go through as long as everyone gets a little bit of the grease along the way.
I was not naïve enough to ask if anything is ever done only because it is the right thing to do.
Of course, all cynicism aside, as described above, such a process might even be seen as being a somewhat efficient means of arriving at business and profit friendly legislative initiatives… everyone that will stand to make money from some political scheme puts in a bit beforehand to enact the necessary laws or regulations. Seems fair enough. The problem is that such a mechanism ONLY works in regards to Money Ventures. If the Lobbyists can’t figure out how to turn a Buck with some Idea, it is left to rot.
It reminds me of Our Blessed Messiah Obama… how by some coincidence he sides with All of the Health Care Insurance Companies, to give them what amounts to a Legal Monopoly to distribute what will become compulsory Health Care Benefits. Of course it will be hugely expensive for the individuals who will be forced to pay out these compulsory premiums and for the tax payers who will have to subsidize a lot of it, but it is these expenses which form the Profits which grease the Lobbyists who somehow magically get all of their client politicians elected. The Reasonable Thing would be to have an inexpensive One Payer System, but the problem there is that no Lobbyist saw a single penny of Self Interest in it.
Oh, and by some other equally amazing coincidence, Our Lord and Savior Obama just so happens to believe that the one way to rescue the Banks is to pay out billions of Dollars to the very same people who stole all the money in the first place. Is there any reason to look at the old Campaign Finance Records there?
So, anyway, there is the basic problem with Government by Lobbyist… that if the Devil isn’t in it, it doesn’t get done. The sad truth is that not only is the System corrupt, but it has gone so far that Corruption has become necessary for the system. There is no longer any Legislation that isn’t crooked somehow. Otherwise the Lobbyists would not have wasted their time with it.
The only Change we will ever see in it is change for a dollar.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
War: the Refusal to Make Peace
Not much has changed from Bush to Obama. America has not even stopped to take a fresh breath but remains chanting the constant cadence that all of their enemies insist upon marching toward war and cannot be trusted.
All the little Countries that America has turned into Enemies insist that they are only gathering their forces together in order to defend themselves, and that if America did not persist in acting as an Aggressor it would have nothing to worry about.
If this were true, then all America would need to do would be to issue assurances that it would never resort to Foreign Invasion, Regime Change, or any too deliberate or sizable funding of dissident and rebel forces. America would only have to commit to minding its own business. Then little countries who are only afraid of American Aggression could afford to relax, and not build up armies and Weapon’s Potentials.
But America persists. They use the Diplomat Phrases “keeping every option on the Table” to mean that they will never renounce War, Aggression, Invasion – the whole Might Makes Right School of International Anarchy. One can sort of see America’s point of view – with its Economy in shambles and the Dollar on verge of collapse, it’s Largest Most Powerful Army in the World is its last and only trump card. America flexes its muscles because nothing else is left to it. One is reminded of the last days of the Soviet Union – economically impoverished, politically discredited, but they still had plenty of bombs and tanks. Well, how did that all work out?
After having seen the relatively recent American History of the United States invading Korea, invading Vietnam, invading Latin America wherever the least opportunity allowed, and then invading Iraq against the Will of the Entire World, then why would we be the least surprised that the Iranians or the Koreans would think it necessary to prepare for their National Defense? Considering that America has a solid history of Aggression, particularly against Nations that it has openly declared to be its Enemies (America never sneak attacks anybody, but precedes every Aggression with a huge Publicity and Propaganda Campaign… some better than others), it would be more surprising if such Nations did not take these Threats seriously. Yet America insists on construing mobilizations for Defense as a Threats to World Peace. What does that mean but that the World can only enjoy Peace as long as it quietly submits to American World Conquest? Peace through abject surrender. I suppose the Nazis would have argued the same thing, if the argument did not sound overly silly to them. Well, just because the Biggest Lies sound the most ridiculous does not mean that most idiots don’t still swallow them whole.
Well, the whole “Resistance is Futile” argument is only as effective as its demonstrable Truth, that any resistance would be immediately and mercilessly crushed to nothing. But America, even at its height has not been able to show such capacity. Countries have indeed been able to put forward effective defenses against American Aggression.
Oh, Peace Through Surrender reminds me of the much lauded Iraqi Troop Surge. Looking back, the most successful tactic was for the American’s to go to the Sunni Insurgency and surrender to them, promising to withdraw troops from Sunni Strongholds, and even promising to deliver arms, ammunition and payoffs of millions of dollars. Everybody knew of these details, but nobody called it and American Surrender. It was a successful Peace Deal. But what exactly did the Sunnis give up, except that they promised to stop spanking the Americans on the Battlefield? And the American General that put together this Surrender, is considered some kind of Military Genius – a National Hero. Well, then, why not simply stretch this same strategy to cover all of America’s Military and Political Difficulties – surrender to everyone and payoff everyone. Why is America pretending it still has the will to fight, when its most successful tactic in years has been to Surrender… oh, and then to so skillfully manipulate the Media into presenting it as some huge Victory! Oh, by the way, all those gains gotten by the Surrender to the Sunnis is about to unwind, as the American’s are reneging whole-sale on continued payoffs and arms supplies to their former enemies. The Brave General has moved on to Afghanistan and we can suppose he is too busy negotiating his next big Surrender then to keep to the details of his last.
This brings to mind American Trustworthiness. Korean, Iran, Iraq have been endlessly accused of violating agreements. Yet if one combs the newspapers thoroughly enough, one finds that in most every instance where some Country pulls out of an Agreement with America it is because they complain that America has not held up its end of the bargain. This is NEVER mentioned by the American Administration or the State Department. Indeed, it seems as though America reneges on its agreements simply to provoke these countries into announcing a withdraw from their previous agreements – to cast them as untrustworthy. It is a safe enough strategy as it seems obvious that the Administration and the State Department have complete confidence on how the News will be reported. Again, nothing has changed since Obama became Messiah.
American Trustworthiness has also been irreparably damaged by the Bush Presidency. Prior to Bush, Americans had always insisted that Partisan Politics stopped at the waters edge, and that American Foreign Policy was unified, and prior Treaties sacred, now and forever. Well, Bush spent his entire 8 years incognizant of any prior Treaty and behaved as though he had an entirely free hand in regards to everything. Most significantly, China policy was completely tossed out and China treated as though it were an Enemy. Indeed, how often is it in the News that America is surrounding China with spy planes and spy boots. And this is how we treat a Nation that hold most the American Debt and from whom America expects to borrow so much more. One often wonders why American Policies are so senseless… even contra productive? Almost equally damaging was America’s betrayal of agreements that had been made with Russia. It had been agreed that if Russia relinquished the Soviet Union and pursued only peaceful economic development, then America would not take advantage by expanding NATO into the territories of the Ex Soviet Union. Not only Bush ignored that, but now Obama is oblivious…. Maybe writing too many books to have time to read any, or pretending not to know about prior State Department Protocols. Oh, does anybody remember Serbia and Kosovo from back during the Clinton Years. Russia was holding fast to Serbian Rights in Kosovo. Finally a Deal was reached – if Serbia was assured that Kosovo would remain part of Serbia, allowed only to have some autonomous state’s rights, then the Russians would withdraw their Armored Divisions. It was reported in the news! But America goes ahead and recognizes Kosovo Independence! Not a single News Agency reports on this boldfaced betrayal of what had been a solemnly sworn Treaty. Now how is Russia NOT to retaliate to all of this?
This brings us to the point of this Essay, after all, and that is that I suppose there is a great deal of Special Interest, Lobbyist Money and Influence, goes toward provoking Military Tensions. Weapons Systems are very expensive, which means that a lot of people get rich when the Government awards a great many Contracts.
Really, I suppose nothing can ever change. Why? Well, however a Society IS, whatever the Equilibrium amounts to, everything arranges so that a certain powerful clique of people eventually come to harness the most salient opportunities for money making and profit. In a Society where the Politicians and Governments are for Sale, putting themselves up for bids and bribery every two, four and six years, then these aforementioned powerful economic interests can simply pay to have themselves perpetuated.
Since ‘Defense’ Spending is one of America’s last thriving economic sectors, one can hardly expect its influence on America’s Foreign Policy to lessen even the slightest smidge. Militarism has already fully subsumed Israeli Politics, and as Defense Spending increases in Europe, so will its hold on Policy (as I suppose in regards to Europe as America, that Democracy behaves the same way – that Campaign Contributions dictate all, which is the long way of saying that everything is equally corrupt, as long as Politicians must be thankful to Moneyed Interests in getting themselves elected).
You know, when they first envisioned Democracy, they were careful to implement side by side with all of the other democratic institutions strict laws against Bribery. When was it forgotten that Bribery is a crime? Instead a thousand regulations were adopted whereby Bribery could be made Legal, which Created the Being called Lobbyist – a person who has studied the law to such an extent that he can funnel money, legally, from Special Interests to Politicians, without ever wandering from the Loopholes. But that only makes it Legal Bribery, and doesn’t that make it worst? Certainly the Founders of Democracy, in both America and Europe never supposed it could all still maintain for the Public Benefit once it was allowed to go corrupt to the bone, to the point of Legalizing Bribery.
Anyway, while the War Mongers are apparently hand-picking our Politicians and dictating our Foreign Policies, we will be doomed to these senseless wars.
All the little Countries that America has turned into Enemies insist that they are only gathering their forces together in order to defend themselves, and that if America did not persist in acting as an Aggressor it would have nothing to worry about.
If this were true, then all America would need to do would be to issue assurances that it would never resort to Foreign Invasion, Regime Change, or any too deliberate or sizable funding of dissident and rebel forces. America would only have to commit to minding its own business. Then little countries who are only afraid of American Aggression could afford to relax, and not build up armies and Weapon’s Potentials.
But America persists. They use the Diplomat Phrases “keeping every option on the Table” to mean that they will never renounce War, Aggression, Invasion – the whole Might Makes Right School of International Anarchy. One can sort of see America’s point of view – with its Economy in shambles and the Dollar on verge of collapse, it’s Largest Most Powerful Army in the World is its last and only trump card. America flexes its muscles because nothing else is left to it. One is reminded of the last days of the Soviet Union – economically impoverished, politically discredited, but they still had plenty of bombs and tanks. Well, how did that all work out?
After having seen the relatively recent American History of the United States invading Korea, invading Vietnam, invading Latin America wherever the least opportunity allowed, and then invading Iraq against the Will of the Entire World, then why would we be the least surprised that the Iranians or the Koreans would think it necessary to prepare for their National Defense? Considering that America has a solid history of Aggression, particularly against Nations that it has openly declared to be its Enemies (America never sneak attacks anybody, but precedes every Aggression with a huge Publicity and Propaganda Campaign… some better than others), it would be more surprising if such Nations did not take these Threats seriously. Yet America insists on construing mobilizations for Defense as a Threats to World Peace. What does that mean but that the World can only enjoy Peace as long as it quietly submits to American World Conquest? Peace through abject surrender. I suppose the Nazis would have argued the same thing, if the argument did not sound overly silly to them. Well, just because the Biggest Lies sound the most ridiculous does not mean that most idiots don’t still swallow them whole.
Well, the whole “Resistance is Futile” argument is only as effective as its demonstrable Truth, that any resistance would be immediately and mercilessly crushed to nothing. But America, even at its height has not been able to show such capacity. Countries have indeed been able to put forward effective defenses against American Aggression.
Oh, Peace Through Surrender reminds me of the much lauded Iraqi Troop Surge. Looking back, the most successful tactic was for the American’s to go to the Sunni Insurgency and surrender to them, promising to withdraw troops from Sunni Strongholds, and even promising to deliver arms, ammunition and payoffs of millions of dollars. Everybody knew of these details, but nobody called it and American Surrender. It was a successful Peace Deal. But what exactly did the Sunnis give up, except that they promised to stop spanking the Americans on the Battlefield? And the American General that put together this Surrender, is considered some kind of Military Genius – a National Hero. Well, then, why not simply stretch this same strategy to cover all of America’s Military and Political Difficulties – surrender to everyone and payoff everyone. Why is America pretending it still has the will to fight, when its most successful tactic in years has been to Surrender… oh, and then to so skillfully manipulate the Media into presenting it as some huge Victory! Oh, by the way, all those gains gotten by the Surrender to the Sunnis is about to unwind, as the American’s are reneging whole-sale on continued payoffs and arms supplies to their former enemies. The Brave General has moved on to Afghanistan and we can suppose he is too busy negotiating his next big Surrender then to keep to the details of his last.
This brings to mind American Trustworthiness. Korean, Iran, Iraq have been endlessly accused of violating agreements. Yet if one combs the newspapers thoroughly enough, one finds that in most every instance where some Country pulls out of an Agreement with America it is because they complain that America has not held up its end of the bargain. This is NEVER mentioned by the American Administration or the State Department. Indeed, it seems as though America reneges on its agreements simply to provoke these countries into announcing a withdraw from their previous agreements – to cast them as untrustworthy. It is a safe enough strategy as it seems obvious that the Administration and the State Department have complete confidence on how the News will be reported. Again, nothing has changed since Obama became Messiah.
American Trustworthiness has also been irreparably damaged by the Bush Presidency. Prior to Bush, Americans had always insisted that Partisan Politics stopped at the waters edge, and that American Foreign Policy was unified, and prior Treaties sacred, now and forever. Well, Bush spent his entire 8 years incognizant of any prior Treaty and behaved as though he had an entirely free hand in regards to everything. Most significantly, China policy was completely tossed out and China treated as though it were an Enemy. Indeed, how often is it in the News that America is surrounding China with spy planes and spy boots. And this is how we treat a Nation that hold most the American Debt and from whom America expects to borrow so much more. One often wonders why American Policies are so senseless… even contra productive? Almost equally damaging was America’s betrayal of agreements that had been made with Russia. It had been agreed that if Russia relinquished the Soviet Union and pursued only peaceful economic development, then America would not take advantage by expanding NATO into the territories of the Ex Soviet Union. Not only Bush ignored that, but now Obama is oblivious…. Maybe writing too many books to have time to read any, or pretending not to know about prior State Department Protocols. Oh, does anybody remember Serbia and Kosovo from back during the Clinton Years. Russia was holding fast to Serbian Rights in Kosovo. Finally a Deal was reached – if Serbia was assured that Kosovo would remain part of Serbia, allowed only to have some autonomous state’s rights, then the Russians would withdraw their Armored Divisions. It was reported in the news! But America goes ahead and recognizes Kosovo Independence! Not a single News Agency reports on this boldfaced betrayal of what had been a solemnly sworn Treaty. Now how is Russia NOT to retaliate to all of this?
This brings us to the point of this Essay, after all, and that is that I suppose there is a great deal of Special Interest, Lobbyist Money and Influence, goes toward provoking Military Tensions. Weapons Systems are very expensive, which means that a lot of people get rich when the Government awards a great many Contracts.
Really, I suppose nothing can ever change. Why? Well, however a Society IS, whatever the Equilibrium amounts to, everything arranges so that a certain powerful clique of people eventually come to harness the most salient opportunities for money making and profit. In a Society where the Politicians and Governments are for Sale, putting themselves up for bids and bribery every two, four and six years, then these aforementioned powerful economic interests can simply pay to have themselves perpetuated.
Since ‘Defense’ Spending is one of America’s last thriving economic sectors, one can hardly expect its influence on America’s Foreign Policy to lessen even the slightest smidge. Militarism has already fully subsumed Israeli Politics, and as Defense Spending increases in Europe, so will its hold on Policy (as I suppose in regards to Europe as America, that Democracy behaves the same way – that Campaign Contributions dictate all, which is the long way of saying that everything is equally corrupt, as long as Politicians must be thankful to Moneyed Interests in getting themselves elected).
You know, when they first envisioned Democracy, they were careful to implement side by side with all of the other democratic institutions strict laws against Bribery. When was it forgotten that Bribery is a crime? Instead a thousand regulations were adopted whereby Bribery could be made Legal, which Created the Being called Lobbyist – a person who has studied the law to such an extent that he can funnel money, legally, from Special Interests to Politicians, without ever wandering from the Loopholes. But that only makes it Legal Bribery, and doesn’t that make it worst? Certainly the Founders of Democracy, in both America and Europe never supposed it could all still maintain for the Public Benefit once it was allowed to go corrupt to the bone, to the point of Legalizing Bribery.
Anyway, while the War Mongers are apparently hand-picking our Politicians and dictating our Foreign Policies, we will be doomed to these senseless wars.
America or Mexico: Which the Failed State
There has been a great deal of anxiety expressed in the media regarding the possibility that Mexico is or will soon become a “failed State”, all while tacitly assuming that America is entirely fine. I guess it just depends upon what one considers a “Failed State” to be. You know, there are several ways of looking at it. You know, at least Mexico is fighting. Mexico actually fighting Organized Crime may rather be seen, if not as a positive sign of health, at least as a sign that it is still has a few kicks of life left in it. America, on the other hand, is not fighting Crime in the least, and seems to be entirely surrendered to Organized Crime. Yes, arrests are still made, but such arrests that still take place may simply be made according to the dictates of the Top Tiers of Organized Crime, orders to thin out unwanted competition or unruly subordinates. Yes, it all sounds like Conspiracy Theory, but one does need to wonder why the Mexican Mafia thinks it needs to fight the Government while the American Mafia finds it so easy to coexist in almost complete peace and tranquility. American Law Enforcement and American Organized Crime simply cannot be so cozy together while publicly maintaining to be each other’s worst enemies.
There are several reasons why I suppose the American Government is in collaboration with Organized Crime. First, it would be so easy to simply shut down Organized Crime by regulating currency transactions, that is, by requiring every legal transaction to be recorded and by bar-coding the cash involved and tracking the exact movements and flows of cash money. Such a policy would be relatively easy to implement and it would make money laundering impossible. People would have to account for how they acquired their currency. Criminals can’t do that. Why doesn’t America go in for Currency Regulation and Electronic Transactions Protocol? Well, I would suppose because Organized Crime gives such enthusiastic support to the Political Lobbyist Committees. All that untraced Cash Money has to find a Home somewhere, and I can only guess that much of it gets tucked away at the Nation’s Capital. Oh, it goes without saying that the State Capitols would be corrupt. The State Governments have always been redundant, and only exist to provide slop troughs for the Local Political Pigs. By doubling Government, as America has done with its overlapping jurisdictions of the Big State Little State System, one doubles the opportunities for corruption and exploitation, and therefore makes twice as many of those vultures happy.
Secondly, America could shut down the largest parts of Organized Crime – Drugs and Prostitution – by simple legalization. Yes, yes, yes, every pure hearted Spiritual Seeker abhors Drugs and Prostitution, but we must ask ourselves whether what we are worried about would be any worse than what we have already. In the case of Drugs, if they should ever become legalized, the trashy street drugs we now have with us would soon be replaced by high grade pharmaceutical drugs – designed to have cleaner ‘highs’ and far fewer adverse side-effects. Nobody would continue smoking pot or shooting heroin if better Euphorics were on the market, that wouldn’t ruin one’s memory, slur one’s speech, or shut down one’s digestive track thereby leaving one almost permanently constipated. Legalizing Drugs would give us drugs that we could live with – and be happy to live with.
Legalizing Prostitution. Well, maybe a few Centuries ago we could speak of the affront to feminine virtue. But in a Modern World where the women seem to be in a race with each other to see who is first to toss their virtue aside, then it seems rather stuffy of the rest of us to demand that what they can freely give away can’t form the basis of a contractual agreement for pay. If Men are allowed to sell their manual labor – what they seem to be good at, then why should not women be allowed to sell their physical consolations – what they seem to be good at? And just as with Drugs, legalization would clean up and greatly improve the Industry.
Yes, wives would have to greatly improve their behaviors in order to compete with the Perfections of well trained and affordable Franchise Prostitutes – guaranteed to please and never failing to be polite and companionable. And such competition might be rather healthy, as modern wives seem to be able to find no other reason to diminish their bitter nagging and contentiousness, their willingness to call the police on their own husbands and their constant threat to disgrace their families with divorce, which they so very often actually resort to. Indeed, as it stands now, a Man has got to be an idiot to submit to Marriage, as the institution is now laid forth. Marriage is a hundred Liabilities with not a single lasting advantage. Society needs Legalized Prostitution simply so we can effectively renegotiate the Marriage Contract, giving Women a reason to adopt a better attitude toward their Husbands, and to give men a reasonable alternative to marital enslavement.
Again, if Legalization is such a Good Idea, why isn’t it done. Again, I submit that the Grease the Lubricates the Democratic Process is Untraceable Cash, and Cash resulting from illegal transactions is by its very definition ‘untraceable’. While Visa, Mastercard, or even American Express is good for legal transactions, no one ever has to be told to use unmarked bills for drugs, prostitutes and sizeable Political Contributions. It is a Conspiracy that everyone is in on.
There are several reasons why I suppose the American Government is in collaboration with Organized Crime. First, it would be so easy to simply shut down Organized Crime by regulating currency transactions, that is, by requiring every legal transaction to be recorded and by bar-coding the cash involved and tracking the exact movements and flows of cash money. Such a policy would be relatively easy to implement and it would make money laundering impossible. People would have to account for how they acquired their currency. Criminals can’t do that. Why doesn’t America go in for Currency Regulation and Electronic Transactions Protocol? Well, I would suppose because Organized Crime gives such enthusiastic support to the Political Lobbyist Committees. All that untraced Cash Money has to find a Home somewhere, and I can only guess that much of it gets tucked away at the Nation’s Capital. Oh, it goes without saying that the State Capitols would be corrupt. The State Governments have always been redundant, and only exist to provide slop troughs for the Local Political Pigs. By doubling Government, as America has done with its overlapping jurisdictions of the Big State Little State System, one doubles the opportunities for corruption and exploitation, and therefore makes twice as many of those vultures happy.
Secondly, America could shut down the largest parts of Organized Crime – Drugs and Prostitution – by simple legalization. Yes, yes, yes, every pure hearted Spiritual Seeker abhors Drugs and Prostitution, but we must ask ourselves whether what we are worried about would be any worse than what we have already. In the case of Drugs, if they should ever become legalized, the trashy street drugs we now have with us would soon be replaced by high grade pharmaceutical drugs – designed to have cleaner ‘highs’ and far fewer adverse side-effects. Nobody would continue smoking pot or shooting heroin if better Euphorics were on the market, that wouldn’t ruin one’s memory, slur one’s speech, or shut down one’s digestive track thereby leaving one almost permanently constipated. Legalizing Drugs would give us drugs that we could live with – and be happy to live with.
Legalizing Prostitution. Well, maybe a few Centuries ago we could speak of the affront to feminine virtue. But in a Modern World where the women seem to be in a race with each other to see who is first to toss their virtue aside, then it seems rather stuffy of the rest of us to demand that what they can freely give away can’t form the basis of a contractual agreement for pay. If Men are allowed to sell their manual labor – what they seem to be good at, then why should not women be allowed to sell their physical consolations – what they seem to be good at? And just as with Drugs, legalization would clean up and greatly improve the Industry.
Yes, wives would have to greatly improve their behaviors in order to compete with the Perfections of well trained and affordable Franchise Prostitutes – guaranteed to please and never failing to be polite and companionable. And such competition might be rather healthy, as modern wives seem to be able to find no other reason to diminish their bitter nagging and contentiousness, their willingness to call the police on their own husbands and their constant threat to disgrace their families with divorce, which they so very often actually resort to. Indeed, as it stands now, a Man has got to be an idiot to submit to Marriage, as the institution is now laid forth. Marriage is a hundred Liabilities with not a single lasting advantage. Society needs Legalized Prostitution simply so we can effectively renegotiate the Marriage Contract, giving Women a reason to adopt a better attitude toward their Husbands, and to give men a reasonable alternative to marital enslavement.
Again, if Legalization is such a Good Idea, why isn’t it done. Again, I submit that the Grease the Lubricates the Democratic Process is Untraceable Cash, and Cash resulting from illegal transactions is by its very definition ‘untraceable’. While Visa, Mastercard, or even American Express is good for legal transactions, no one ever has to be told to use unmarked bills for drugs, prostitutes and sizeable Political Contributions. It is a Conspiracy that everyone is in on.
Colonics vs. Enemas
Note from the Future: I found I was washing a lot of very necessary minerals from my digestive track (probably Calcium most of all), which was giving me extremely low blood pressure and Night Cramps in my legs. So don't overdo those High Colonics and try to minimize the amount of water used in your enemas. Aim at only evacuating the lower colon. For the higher colon and the small intestines -- let them do their job of absorbing nutrients and minerals.
I had recently written about the benefits of enemas, but it occurred to me that I should also have examined the utility of colonics, and that I should have presented some kind of comparison between the two kinds of therapy, which have rather obvious similarities.
So I did some research, not as far as actually going out to arrange a course of colonic hydrotherapy treatment, and that is perhaps the greatest difference between enemas and colonics, that colonics are for the most part administered professionally.
I’ve searched up colonic equipment online, and found all the offerings to be very elaborate. These machines filter the water, heat the water while monitoring the heat and having safeguards against the water either becoming too warm or too cold, and pressure is regulated and monitored in the same way, to forestall any possibility that there might ever be a problem.
The way it is described, a colonic involves water being hosed in via a nozzle that seems almost smallish. The water is allowed to settle in order to soften or loosen hardened digestional debris, and then the water is drawn out. Some sites say that the procedure is repeated until the water runs relatively clear. Oh, the system is closed, and the water is viewed through a transparent hose. All return waters are run into a sealed tank. No unpleasant odors are allowed to obtrude.
Yes, the nozzles seem rather narrow. I suppose there is the concern that a large nozzle would scare away many of the clientele – any implement that seems too imposingly phallic would not only be emotionally offensive, but could also present concerns for comfort and even safety. But even with these valid considerations, one still wonders what good a little tiny nozzle can do if its job is to pass both incoming fluids and outgoing materials. While water and thin solutions can run through, it can hardly be imagined that any large amount of solids can make such a narrow transit. The descriptions of Colonic Therapy do mention that the patient is allowed afterwards to go to the toilet and evacuate what solids and fluids remain after the colonic apparatus is removed. So the little nozzle really is not intended to allow the passing of any significant solids. Just like with the enema, eventually one is left on the pot.
What I have noticed in these descriptions of colonics is that there is not really anything that can’t be done at home in the form of an enema. Yes, most enemas are described as using relatively little water, but one can use as much water as one likes. Yes, colonics machines control temperature, control pressure, and even filter the water. Here we need to remember that colonics are administered by Third Parties who, since they do not feel in their own bodies what is going on, need to be able to carefully quantify everything that is happening to their clients. But self administered enemas have none of these problems to worry over, as one would feel if the water was too hot, or would feel if the pressure had gone outside the bounds of careful comfort. Also, the failsafe machines used in the Colonics Industry help them to defend against charges of negligence. Really, with a trained individual standing by, with a machine that self guards against any mishap, the only way some predatory vulture living from lawsuit to lawsuit could make any hey with the Colonics Industry would be to actually poop himself and slip and fall down in it, breaking his leg, before walking out the door.
I would like to say that enemas must always be safe because nobody would ever do anything to harm themselves, as long before anything popped they would feel discomfort and pain, and so back off anything that they started to do wrong. But there is no accounting for some people. Some people have tremendous amounts of Will Power, which they often use to overrule the wisdoms and warnings of their own body’s safety signals. For instance, a person may get it into his head to pump a precise and exact amount of water into himself, disregarding all discomfort in a single-minded concentration to achieve what is really just an arbitrary or obsessive goal. People can hurt themselves, left to their own devices. For such people, Colonic Therapy, as it is administered by trained professionals using very safe equipment, would be definitely the way to go. But if one is not over-endowed with Will Power, strong enough to be Self Defeating, and has a good personal history of being moderate about most things, then enemas should not do any significant harm. Again, as in my first essay, one must discuss all of this with one’s Doctor (and, yes, we will pretend, in America, that we have doctors).
Anyway, once I had read up on Colonics, I somewhat varied my enema procedure. But first allow a short description of my usual procedure for those who had forgotten or not read my first essay. What I would usually do is insert 8 to 10 bottles of water, each bottle being 7.5 ounces, keeping in mind that the bottles cannot be entirely squeezed out and so I suppose each bottle probably only represents about 6 ounces. I guess that 8 or 10 bottles, as administered amounts to about 50 to 60 ounces – around a quart and a half or a liter and a half. One can really feel it as one fills up. After the water has been inserted the literature recommends getting down on the floor and assuming positions which place the abdomen below the water level, so to speak, to allow the water to run deep into the upper colon. I add a few jumping exercises, to help shake things up. The time for evacuation soon comes, and I would not recommend going too far afoot from the bathroom. When one begins evacuating, there is at first a burst of relatively clear water followed soon by digestional materials. Then a period of waiting begins. There are periods of water evacuation and then material evacuation. I usually use a small bucket of water to pre-flush the toilet, to bring its water level down to the bottom, so from there it is easy to judge when about the right amount of water has been evacuated from my bowels. Almost always the last bit of evacuation is loose stool, which usually comes before 20 minutes has gone by. Really, the routine is nearly always the same. But if I ever become impatient, I simply begin cleaning up and going about my ordinary business, and any leftovers announce themselves in the usual way and I go back to the bathroom for a minute. I’ve never had a problem after more than a half an hour. Once cleaned out and settled, then one is good to go.
But after reading up on Colonics, I decided to see what would happen if I were to repeat afterwards with more water. The first difference I noticed was that it seemed to take more water for a second run – a bit more than 2 liters where about 1.5 was about as much as comfort would allow on the first fill up. This is rather reasonably to be expected, since much digestional material would be evacuated on the first go leaving the bowels with much more empty space. Now, I was expecting that the water would run relatively clear, the second time, and it did, for a while, but what occurred and was unexpected was that there was a good deal of additional materials involved. Really, with so much from the first time, who would have guessed anything else was left inside. I suppose it can be explained by supposing that the second fill-up of water was reaching the next turn or twist of colon.
Regarding any second run, with an enema procedure, what I have found is that the second set of evacuations goes a bit slower than the first. Although one is assured of eliminating more material with a second run, I would wonder about the utility of taking all that extra time. Oh, there may be some concerns that one is washing out all of one’s food, but the fact is that I go two days between enemas, and so there is always at least a day’s supply of food being left undisturbed. I suppose if one has plenty of time then the cleaner the better. But, honestly, enemas using one fill-up have been so successful for me, that I can make no seriously compelling argument to take more than twice the time simply to be incrementally cleaner. There might be the possibility that one can be clean enough with just one go at a time.
To reiterate from my first essay, enemas are very useful in that they eliminate the straining that very often leads to hemorrhoids, while also putting one in danger of stroke or heart failure – bowel straining perhaps being an older person’s most intense exertion. Now, since these further experimental endeavors have ensued, I have found that it seems that one can stretch the enema, so to speak, into achieving the benefits usually attributed to Colonic Hydrotherapy, that is of significantly cleaning the lower intestine and keeping it clean.
I had recently written about the benefits of enemas, but it occurred to me that I should also have examined the utility of colonics, and that I should have presented some kind of comparison between the two kinds of therapy, which have rather obvious similarities.
So I did some research, not as far as actually going out to arrange a course of colonic hydrotherapy treatment, and that is perhaps the greatest difference between enemas and colonics, that colonics are for the most part administered professionally.
I’ve searched up colonic equipment online, and found all the offerings to be very elaborate. These machines filter the water, heat the water while monitoring the heat and having safeguards against the water either becoming too warm or too cold, and pressure is regulated and monitored in the same way, to forestall any possibility that there might ever be a problem.
The way it is described, a colonic involves water being hosed in via a nozzle that seems almost smallish. The water is allowed to settle in order to soften or loosen hardened digestional debris, and then the water is drawn out. Some sites say that the procedure is repeated until the water runs relatively clear. Oh, the system is closed, and the water is viewed through a transparent hose. All return waters are run into a sealed tank. No unpleasant odors are allowed to obtrude.
Yes, the nozzles seem rather narrow. I suppose there is the concern that a large nozzle would scare away many of the clientele – any implement that seems too imposingly phallic would not only be emotionally offensive, but could also present concerns for comfort and even safety. But even with these valid considerations, one still wonders what good a little tiny nozzle can do if its job is to pass both incoming fluids and outgoing materials. While water and thin solutions can run through, it can hardly be imagined that any large amount of solids can make such a narrow transit. The descriptions of Colonic Therapy do mention that the patient is allowed afterwards to go to the toilet and evacuate what solids and fluids remain after the colonic apparatus is removed. So the little nozzle really is not intended to allow the passing of any significant solids. Just like with the enema, eventually one is left on the pot.
What I have noticed in these descriptions of colonics is that there is not really anything that can’t be done at home in the form of an enema. Yes, most enemas are described as using relatively little water, but one can use as much water as one likes. Yes, colonics machines control temperature, control pressure, and even filter the water. Here we need to remember that colonics are administered by Third Parties who, since they do not feel in their own bodies what is going on, need to be able to carefully quantify everything that is happening to their clients. But self administered enemas have none of these problems to worry over, as one would feel if the water was too hot, or would feel if the pressure had gone outside the bounds of careful comfort. Also, the failsafe machines used in the Colonics Industry help them to defend against charges of negligence. Really, with a trained individual standing by, with a machine that self guards against any mishap, the only way some predatory vulture living from lawsuit to lawsuit could make any hey with the Colonics Industry would be to actually poop himself and slip and fall down in it, breaking his leg, before walking out the door.
I would like to say that enemas must always be safe because nobody would ever do anything to harm themselves, as long before anything popped they would feel discomfort and pain, and so back off anything that they started to do wrong. But there is no accounting for some people. Some people have tremendous amounts of Will Power, which they often use to overrule the wisdoms and warnings of their own body’s safety signals. For instance, a person may get it into his head to pump a precise and exact amount of water into himself, disregarding all discomfort in a single-minded concentration to achieve what is really just an arbitrary or obsessive goal. People can hurt themselves, left to their own devices. For such people, Colonic Therapy, as it is administered by trained professionals using very safe equipment, would be definitely the way to go. But if one is not over-endowed with Will Power, strong enough to be Self Defeating, and has a good personal history of being moderate about most things, then enemas should not do any significant harm. Again, as in my first essay, one must discuss all of this with one’s Doctor (and, yes, we will pretend, in America, that we have doctors).
Anyway, once I had read up on Colonics, I somewhat varied my enema procedure. But first allow a short description of my usual procedure for those who had forgotten or not read my first essay. What I would usually do is insert 8 to 10 bottles of water, each bottle being 7.5 ounces, keeping in mind that the bottles cannot be entirely squeezed out and so I suppose each bottle probably only represents about 6 ounces. I guess that 8 or 10 bottles, as administered amounts to about 50 to 60 ounces – around a quart and a half or a liter and a half. One can really feel it as one fills up. After the water has been inserted the literature recommends getting down on the floor and assuming positions which place the abdomen below the water level, so to speak, to allow the water to run deep into the upper colon. I add a few jumping exercises, to help shake things up. The time for evacuation soon comes, and I would not recommend going too far afoot from the bathroom. When one begins evacuating, there is at first a burst of relatively clear water followed soon by digestional materials. Then a period of waiting begins. There are periods of water evacuation and then material evacuation. I usually use a small bucket of water to pre-flush the toilet, to bring its water level down to the bottom, so from there it is easy to judge when about the right amount of water has been evacuated from my bowels. Almost always the last bit of evacuation is loose stool, which usually comes before 20 minutes has gone by. Really, the routine is nearly always the same. But if I ever become impatient, I simply begin cleaning up and going about my ordinary business, and any leftovers announce themselves in the usual way and I go back to the bathroom for a minute. I’ve never had a problem after more than a half an hour. Once cleaned out and settled, then one is good to go.
But after reading up on Colonics, I decided to see what would happen if I were to repeat afterwards with more water. The first difference I noticed was that it seemed to take more water for a second run – a bit more than 2 liters where about 1.5 was about as much as comfort would allow on the first fill up. This is rather reasonably to be expected, since much digestional material would be evacuated on the first go leaving the bowels with much more empty space. Now, I was expecting that the water would run relatively clear, the second time, and it did, for a while, but what occurred and was unexpected was that there was a good deal of additional materials involved. Really, with so much from the first time, who would have guessed anything else was left inside. I suppose it can be explained by supposing that the second fill-up of water was reaching the next turn or twist of colon.
Regarding any second run, with an enema procedure, what I have found is that the second set of evacuations goes a bit slower than the first. Although one is assured of eliminating more material with a second run, I would wonder about the utility of taking all that extra time. Oh, there may be some concerns that one is washing out all of one’s food, but the fact is that I go two days between enemas, and so there is always at least a day’s supply of food being left undisturbed. I suppose if one has plenty of time then the cleaner the better. But, honestly, enemas using one fill-up have been so successful for me, that I can make no seriously compelling argument to take more than twice the time simply to be incrementally cleaner. There might be the possibility that one can be clean enough with just one go at a time.
To reiterate from my first essay, enemas are very useful in that they eliminate the straining that very often leads to hemorrhoids, while also putting one in danger of stroke or heart failure – bowel straining perhaps being an older person’s most intense exertion. Now, since these further experimental endeavors have ensued, I have found that it seems that one can stretch the enema, so to speak, into achieving the benefits usually attributed to Colonic Hydrotherapy, that is of significantly cleaning the lower intestine and keeping it clean.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)