The Big Coming Spiritual Evolutionary Leap

I recently started going online to see if there was any consensus on What the Coming Big Evolutionary Jump will be.  Everyone agrees that Something is Coming, but everyone is vague about What it is.  Most of the New Agers are just spouting the usual Vague New Age Stuff  -- mostly about Wish Fulfillment – How they will Get Love just  by Wishing for it… How they will Get Money by just by Wishing for it.  Most New Age Stuff, after you peel away the Surface Fluff, really isn’t about Spirituality at all.   Even when the New Agers get into Meditation, it is all about achieving some form of Sensual Bliss.   And so when they Speak of a Next Big Thing – do they just mean that their Pleasure Seeking Greed Impulses will finally find Satisfaction?   Well, doesn’t That sound kind of like the Same Old Age We have been Living in?... just with more Happy Endings.   But Not Everybody can have More than Everybody Else, and that is what they All seem to want.  Not Everybody can be at the Top of this New Age Food Chain.   

Other more exactly Spiritual People propose that we will Lose our Egos.  Hmmmm, ordinarily I would not object to this projection, but, then I came across an interesting  set of videos regarding Kundalini by this one Young Woman, Soulful Toz , and in one of the Videos she detailed a period of time After the Initial Stretch of Peace and Bliss and Knowing  that resulted from  Her Big Kundalini Opening Enlightenment Experience, when, after a few Rapturous Months, at first she became depressed, and THEN for several Months SHE LOST HER EGO, and it wasn’t pretty!   You see, without an Active Ego Structure, there is No Desire to Do Anything.  So she sat like a lump staring out into space without even bothering to care about what she was looking at.  Her mind was a complete blank.  She became malnourished because she had no desire to eat.  She developed a Serious Hygiene Problem because she didn’t care to wash or bath or brush her teeth.  It was like she became Consciously Comatose, or Autistic.  Thank God, after a month or two her Mind began to Reorganize an Ego Structure.   So I wonder about people who want to get rid of their Egos.   It just goes to show that you Really Do Need to “be careful what you wish for, because you might get it”.   After seeing what Soulful Toz had to say I remembered what various Hindu Sages had said about the same thing.  Their Conclusion was that if the Ego does entirely disappear, then the Yogin usually dies in about 3  to 7 weeks.   So, Soulful Toz dodged a Bullet – apparently Friends and Family force fed her enough so that she didn’t just wither away and die.  

So, Where does that Lead us?  After seeing No Coherent Idea on What Would be Different with the New Regime,  I was forced to review what I Knew about Spirituality from my own Experience.  What I remembered were two Very Powerful Dreams I had decades ago.  In the First Dream this God or Arch-Angel in this Great Fiery Tree spoke to me.  You see, in the first part of that dream I happened across the Gravesite of Erasmus and it had been vandalized with spray paint saying “Erasmus will not live beyond the Grave”, and so I went “Harrumph, Everybody lives beyond the Grave” (yes, I was very young then, and that was what I thought).  Well Suddenly a large Tree that was atop this nearby knoll Exploded Into Dazzling Flames and this Voice of God (or a very powerful Angel) spoke saying “No, not everyone will live beyond the Grave, but Erasmus will”.    Oh, I need to mention something.  When the Tree first Exploded into Flames and Began to Speak, well, I my legs INSTANTLY collapsed underneath me and I landed on my knees (down on hard rock, but there was no pain, which surprised me even as it happened), and Tears shot forth from my Eyes, and I can’t recall that I was even Emotional (and That also impressed me as it was happening… “What am I crying About?” I asked myself).  Apparently it just seemed that in the Presence of This God or Angel, nobody could Stand, and everybody would cry.    Well, after the Angel had said that Erasmus would live beyond the grave, I got curious to know If I was also Struck Dumb, but I was able to say rather calmly and clearly  “What about me?  Will I live beyond the Grave? ”   Well, apparently the Angel isn’t used to being spoken too.  Apparently most people ARE Struck Dumb.  But, I need to mention that it seems like my Forte, my Strength in Dreams is that I am the Talker.  You see, In Dreams where I am a Member of a Group, and each member of the Group has a certain Task or Area of Expertise, well, I am always the One who Talks when Talking becomes Important.    Mostly whenever some Trouble Occurs and it Possible to Talk Our Way Out of It, I am the One who does the talking.  I’ve Talked Our way out of Jails, and I’ve Talked people into lowering their Guns, as well as just being a kind of ordinary Spokesperson.    But, my point here is that if Anybody’s Tongue would not Freeze up, it would be mine.   So me Talking back to God is probably not that remarkable.   But, back to this Very Important Dream, after my Question regarding the Fate of my Immortal Soul, there was a Pause, a Silence, and I began to get Edgy about a possibly Negative Answer.   But the Angel didn’t leave me hanging for long and said “Yes, you too will live beyond the Grave.  BUT REMEMBER ONE THING – THAT BIRTH IS BUT AN ILLUSION AND CHRIST IS THE LIFE IN ALL THINGS.”   Notice, that the Angel did not say “Death” is an Illusion, but Birth.  This Means that the Entire Basis for our Individuality is an Illusion and that None of Us have any Real Independent Life.  As far as Life is Concerned there is only One Consciousness in the Universe and that is the Cosmic Christ Consciousness.  

The Second Dream that came to mind was very vivid.  It was like a Lucid Dream before I knew about Lucid Dreams (before anybody knew about Lucid Dreaming, which was first mentioned by Dr. Ann Faraday in her 1972 book “Dream Power”, still in print) , as everything was vibrant and shimmering – the Sign of a Big Dream.   I was out in a kind of Southwest Desert Expanse, where there were grasses here and there, and scrubby bushes and a few trees here and there.  Suddenly up comes this Young Man.  He was very thin, and dark, and had just a few scraggly hairs where a Man would have a beard.  He came up close to me, so close that it made me feel a bit uncomfortable.   And he Smiled.  His Face just Bloomed and Radiated with It!  And his Eyes were mesmerizing and full of this Joy and Love – I had never seen anything like it in my Life.   Apparently the Young Man noticed my discomfort (THAT struck me Dumb!)  and so he nodded goodbye and turned and strolled off.  When he was about 30 feet away THAT VOICE came out of the Sky saying “And He went out into the Wilderness and Became One” and then the Young Man developed this Silver Blue Aura and as he kept walking I noticed that the Grass at his Feet also began to develop a Silver Blue Aura, and then the Bushes, and then the Trees off into the Distance.  Everything that was ALIVE suddenly had the Same Aura He Had.  That was when it hit me -- “Oh My God”, I thought, “THAT is the Christ who is the Life in All Things”. 

So, after thinking about those Two Important Dream my Feeling is that the Next Big Evolutionary Spiritual Jump will be toward a Collective Consciousness.  All the New Age Concerns about Ego Gratification are on the wrong track.  And the Spiritualists who wish to eradicate the Ego are also on the Wrong Track.  What Will Happen is that Our Minds will come in Contact with that Collective Consciousness and simply be Subsumed – Our Personas will be replaced by some Appropriate Collective Persona.   Just think about it, that after you Experience the Consciousness of All Living Things, you really can’t expect to Shake it Off and return to your same old trivial personal agenda.  Once you Experience the Cosmic Christ Consciousness you will inevitably have Bigger Fish to Fry.  

Of course one cannot be sure about the Details.  Will Everybody be ‘Swallowed Up’ all at once?  Perhaps not.   But there will be SOME Men and Women who will become Nexus Points for the Christ Consciousness, and they will All have the Same Consciousness and will Work in Coordination.   Each one will Be One with the Life around them.  This is reminiscent of one of the Powers that some Shamans were purported  to have… well, not exactly – they would say that Shamans would turn into Birds or Wolves, but actually what was happening is that they simply were able to Use the Consciousness of existing Birds and Wolves (here I Picture that Young Man in my Dream as he went out into the Wilderness, seeing and smelling what every Coyote and Ground Squirrel saw and smelled and having a Bird’s Eye View from every Bird the Flitted by) .   Such Enlightened Ones will be able to Know what everyone around them is experiencing  -- everyone’s Consciousness will be an Open Book to them.   

I have a feeling that this Enlightenment will be as Contagious as a Fire, and will quickly spread.  Indeed,  in thinking about my Dream of the Young Man who Became the Life in All Things, it occurred to me that I should have ran after Him and caught up and through some unspoken eagerness got Him to Share his Consciousness of All things with Me.  Of course, that would have Wiped out my Sense of Individuality and I would have become a Nexus in the Collective Consciousness, and I would have taken the Evolutionary Jump some 30 or 40 Years ago.   Well, what Old Man is there that doesn’t have a Long List of Missed Opportunities?   7/24/17

Syrian Government Did Not Use Chemical Weapons

 

A simple look at the Situation and any knowledgeable person could see that The Syrian Government did not have a Strategic or even a Tactical Motive for having perpetrated the small isolated Chemical attacks being attributed to them; not now, or not a few years ago with that one ‘Attack’ that ‘crossed’ President Obama’s “Line”.  Chemical Weapons are considered a “Poor Country’s Nukes”, and so we could guess that they would be used in the same kinds of extremely desperate situations – to break a Strategic Impasse by either clearing ground for a Major Offensive or to break a Major Offensive being carried out by the Enemy.   But in these Chemical Attacks being attributed to the Syrian Government, we only hear of Civilian Casualties.  We need to wonder why the Syrian Government would risk incurring almost certain International Rebuke by “Crossing the Line” into Chemical Warfare just to kill a few babies on TV?  Any deliberately planned Chemical Attack would involve a full deployment of Chemical Weapons across every Front – if the World is going to Hate you Anyway, you might as well get Something Significant for All your Trouble, don’t you think?  So, for the Idea of a Government launched Chemical Attack to be in any degree plausible, we should at least have seen several Division-Size Rebel Regiments and a number of Rebel Headquarters targeted and that there should have been tens of thousands of Rebel Causalities reported.  But in these Attacks attributed to the Government, we find that almost no Rebels got hurt at all, except maybe a few stragglers who wondered in where they were not supposed to go.  

 

So let’s add it all up.  Just a few militarily insignificant Civilians and Children are Targeted.  Only a few weapons are utilized, and in this last “Attack” it is said that all the Casualties resulted from just one single “Weapon”, or I should say just one “Cloud of Gas”.  A few years ago such an attack occurred just after President Obama implied that he would come in Heavy in Support of the Rebels if there was Such an Attack perpetrated by the Government.  This time there was a New President, who has the mind of an Adolescent Child – a Child with Attention Deficit Disorder, who had every intention before the “Attack” of effectively allying with the Syrian Government and with Russia to Fight the more significant threat of ISIS.    Now doesn’t it all sound to you as though these Attacks are being Staged by the Rebels, who in their years of Rebellion must have certainly managed to capture or purchase a handful of Chemical Weapons, or perhaps were In Charge of these Very Same Weapons before Turning Rebel and that they ‘snuck’ a few of them out just as they were ‘Turning Coat’.   We can see No Convincing and Proportional Motive for the Government in these Attacks, but for the Rebels they would have Everything to Gain.  We know from all the News that the Rebels were losing bad.   The Rebels must have known they needed a Big Game Changer and that they needed it Quick.  When we think about it empathetically, can we not suppose that the Rebels who have already seen hundreds of thousands die, would not be tempted to kill just a few more themselves in order to secure for Their Side of the Fighting the Most Powerful Nation on Earth – the Last Great Superpower!  They might even consider those Dead Babies on TV to be Great Heroes and Martyrs for their Cause.  And, yes, we can infer almost certainly that ‘somebody’ must have actually made sure that there were children playing downwind of the ‘Weapon’ before it was detonated – as the “Story” simply would not have had the same emotional impact on an Impressionable President without video footage of a pile of dead babies.   

 

As I alluded to above, the Rebels tried the same Play a few years ago, but President Obama is a very smart man and he probably figured it all out after just the first or second Intelligence Briefings of the “Attack” came in, and we can all assume he was most certainly sorry for setting up the situation with his very unpolitic “Cross the Line” statement – he knew that the Rebels did what they did to exploit his ‘Gaffe’.  Maybe there was an investigation and it did indeed find that the Rebels staged that “Attack” but that the Results of that Investigation were Classified and Buried (maybe even destroyed) so that the Rebels would not be totally discredited, for, as you see, America has in large part taken Ownership of the Syrian Rebels, since the Only Reason the Rebels Rebelled in the first place was because the American State Department and Radio America flashed them the Big Go Ahead Signal, that the “Arab Sprint” had America’s Unqualified Blessing and Approval. 

 

I believe that the same dynamic is going on now, that Every “Mature Person” Who Knows Anything in America KNOWS that the Rebels Staged another Attack, but Nobody wants to discredit our “Friends”—those Ruthless, Tainted and Unprincipled Rebels.

 

What puzzles me most is that the News Media says nothing about it.  If the Government is not controlling them, then who is?         

Naturalism Idealism Spiritualism Pragmatism and Anger

I would suppose that most people’s Behavioral Patterns, and the particular Philosophies by which they decide on how to Behave, is not consciously and deliberately chosen by them.  The Usual Case, I suppose, is that People behave in much the same way their Families had behaved before them, and then of course there are the Regional Types of Behavior, such as in the case that ‘all People from New York act like New Yorkers’.  But if one wished to Categorize and Specify particular Types of Behavioral Orientations in a sort of Philosophical Way, well we could start with the conceptual frameworks of Naturalism, Idealism, Spiritualism and Pragmatism. 

 

Naturalism is perhaps the easiest of these ‘Ism’ to achieve in practice, as one simply has to follow one’s Animal-Instinctual Impulses and Drives – ‘as easy as falling off a log’, as they say.  Yes, it would be very easy to be Judgmental toward those who behave entirely Naturalistically, but if I had to say something ‘Good’ about Naturalism it would be that, in Material Terms, sometimes the Animal Instincts – particularly the Go-For- the-Throat Killer Instinct, can pay off Big in many career fields.  Indeed, many of the most successful Business People are almost entirely Animalistic.  And Nowadays it doesn’t seem to hurt in Politics.

 

But it is easily understandable that these Naturalistic People would tend to do poorly with Anger Management.  You see, to them Anger is SO ‘Natural’ that they tend to forgive it in themselves, just as one can easily forgive a dog, or for the dog to forgive itself, for barking and growling at the Potal Carriers.  But while we live in a mostly Civilized World, it often happens that Naturalistic People find themselves inconvenienced by their Episodes of Angry, particularly if they must face adverse Social and Legal Consequences afterwards.  But when this happens, well, these Naturalists most often resort to blaming others for having provoked them –by such means as not readily conceding to all of their Business or Personal Demands, or by not showing them enough Respect or Whatever.   Of course, it is very often the case that the People whom the Naturalists blame for their Troubles are in fact other Naturalists themselves!  So you see, behaving Naturally just seems to be Everybody’s Road Map to Trouble.  

 

With Idealism I don’t have to be quite so much on my guard against being Judgmental – I like Idealists!  You see, Idealists are your quintessential “Human Beings”…They believe that there IS or at least that there SHOULD BE an Intrinsic and Basic Distinction between ‘Human Beings’ and the ‘Lower Animals’.  This Distinction, as we look about us in a largely Man-Made World, created  for us largely by Past Idealists, is demonstrated in quite a number of Ways – Human Beings adopt a Sense of Morality and maintain Moral Ideals; Human Beings tend to endeavor to live like Ideal Beings – Dressing in Cloths, shaving and styling their Hair, and closeting off privately to accomplish the Animal Functions (such as sex and bowel movements), using utensils to eat rather than eating with their hands or just digging in with their ‘mauls’,  and certainly there are many other examples we could think of .   It is as though Idealistic Human Beings see themselves as something More and Better than just their Physical Bodies.   And all of the Thought that has gone into Lifting Us Out and Above the Animal Nature has certainly helped us in many other ways – The Age Old Drive to push Thought to Higher and Higher Levels, in order to Adapt our Way to Better and Easier Means for Survival, undoubtedly served to Evolve our Large and Capable Brains, giving us the Ability to formalize, record and communicate Concepts, which is perhaps the Well Spring of All Human Inventiveness, and the Foundation for both Our Material and Moral Progress.

 

Spiritualism is much akin to Idealism, in that most Spiritualists are also Idealists.  But not all Idealists are Spiritualists.  You see, Spiritualists have the distinction of acknowledging some Central and Unifying Oneness or Life-Force in which all of our separate Lives form into One Great Life of All Things.  It is a difficult concept to explain, but I was once helped to SEE the Idea of ‘Life In All Things’ in a Dream I had decades ago when I was still quite young.  In this Dream I dreamt that I met this Young Man out in some Sun lit and arid countryside where the grass and the bushes were meagre and far between.  The Young Man approached me and he had the most intense Smile – his whole Face beamed with it… no, it wasn’t a grin, and it wasn’t close to a Laugh…rather it was a deep benign and penetrating Smile – a Smile full of disinterested but fathomless Love, and it shown especially through his eyes.  I was quite startled by it, as nobody ever looked at me like that before... or, wait… now that I think about it, not since I was a small baby (it seems my very First Memory is of my Grandmother looking down at me with just such a Smile (while I was being ‘changed’!)… apparently such a ‘Smile’ was powerful enough to awaken my Consciousness and switch on the Life Memory Circuit that has been running ever since… well, except for moments that are probably best forgotten...).   But Back to My Dream! … after the Young Man gave me that penetrating, eerie and startling smile, he nodded a kind of ‘farewell’ and turned to walk away, out into that arid countryside.  Then this Great Deep and Powerful Voice from ‘Out of the Blue’ spoke saying “And He went out into the Wilderness and became One”.   As I continued to watch him, and he was still not very far away – he developed an Aura of Silver-Blue Light.  But then I noticed that all of the Grasses and Bushes close by also began projecting the same Silver Blue Light… and then the bushes further off… and then the Trees out in the Distance.   It seemed to show that the ‘Oneness’ that the ‘Out of the Blue Voice’ spoke of was a Oneness In the Life of All Things (if I could have seen myself at the moment, I probably would have had that same Blue Silver Aura!).   We could ask why the Blue Silver Aura seemed to start in the Young Man.  Interesting question, that.  I would suppose because he was able to Feel It – that ‘to Feel It’ sparks a kind of cascading expansion of The Thing that is Felt – Boundless, All Penetrating Life.   It kind of reminds me of another Old Dream I had in which a Dream Guru told me “You have Seen It.  You have Heard It.  Now all you have to do is Feel It.”  Well, enough of Dream Land… let’s get back to the Waking Reality of this Discussion!

 

Well, we can easily imagine why any Spiritualist who thus acknowledges Oneness In All Life would adopt a Moral and Cooperative Approach in his or her Behavior.  But the Idealist, who behaves in almost exactly the Same Way, may only have different Motivations – being Good and Moral because of Rational Convictions, Logical Arguments, Religious Reasons or by the influence of a Strong Moral Example.   

 

Well, after such warm and glowing appraisals of Idealism and Spiritualism, you would think such people would have no problem with Anger, but in fact they do.  They may actually have less anger than other people, but they are often more aware of anger as a ‘Problem’, that is, they are bothered more by it, as it conflicts with what they would see as appropriately ‘Ideal Behavior’. And then there is the Problem of Causation, that is, of What Makes these High Minded People Angry to begin with.   It seems that for all of their Ideals, they are still saddled with many of the same Habits and Conditions of Life which weigh upon everybody else, and just like as with anybody else, for every Good Role Model in their Lives, there have probably been a Thousand Bad Ones.  And there are some Bad Role Models to which Idealists are particularly susceptible – those who make a display of ‘Righteous Anger’ or Overweening Pride and who flaunt an Attitude of Contemptuous Indignation or Snobbish Superiority – all that is exactly the opposite of our Smiling Saint from the Land of Dreams!   And then there are Family Dysfunctions in even the Best of Families, and of course the Peer Groups from One’s Youth are almost always the epitome of Stark Barbarism (“no Child is Enlightened… they are all Barbarians somehow or another”, as Aristotle had said.).   So, yes, Idealists and Spiritualists can have Anger Issues, and it seems that they can also be caught in an impasse when it comes to Confronting their Anger, that is, when they try to ‘Re-Invent’ their own Anger Management ‘Wheel’, so to speak.   I would suppose that They believe that just re-emphasizing the Constructs of their  own Ideal Beliefs and Convictions would be enough to quell their Anger, that is, when they Flip Out they try to Fix Themselves by reading their same old favorite Books on Spirituality or Philosophy.  While such readings won’t ‘Hurt’, still it would tend to lack the directly applicable focus that a dedicated Anger Management Book would have.   So it is that some of the Best People continue on with sporadic incidences of Anger cropping up now and then all of their lives because they can’t somehow come to effective grips with the Problem in Terms that they are comfortable with.   I would be the last person to call Idealistic People ‘Snobs’, but it does seem that they have an abiding Belief that Anger Management Books are somehow beneath them… maybe if the Publishers bound them in Tooled Leather and printed them with gilded edges…

 

Pragmatism is the last Behavioral Category we will discuss.  Pragmatism, basically speaking, is doing what seems most ‘Practical’.  Pragmatism rises above Naturalism in that it recognizes the importance and complexity of Events, Situations and Conditions and attempts to steer the straightest and smoothest course through Life’s various Obstacles; whereas Naturalism only reacts moment by moment with emotion driven impulse.  Of course the Pragmatist can be accused of oftentimes violating Moral Precepts in an effort to make Life More Comfortable for themselves, as, for instance, with those who Cheat on Exams or lie to their Relationship Partners about such things as ‘where they were and who they were with last Saturday Night’.  Indeed, there is a Great Deal of this kind of Amoral Pragmatisms circulating nowadays, especially since the slow and steady decline in Greater Civilized Traditional Religious Values over the last several Centuries  (yes, while there are people nowadays who claim to be motivated by “Religious Values”, well, what they call ‘values’ are often not very ‘Traditional’ – not in the context of our Greater Western Civilization that developed all of its Moral Fiber BEFORE the Protestant Reformation and all those Other subsequent Revolutions that have lead up to our Modern and Morally Muddled –Up Era.

 

Perhaps it would be helpful to present some idea or example of Amoral Pragmatism.   So let us pretend that a circumstance containing a Moral Dilemma pops up, and actions must be taken at a Moment’s Notice, and IF it seems Easy and Uncomplicated to Lie, Steal or Cheat, and if Nobody will ever Know or Find Out (besides the ‘Friends’ who are urging one on), and if the Benefits will be Great, well, THEN there is really nothing of any weight in the ‘Pragmatists’ Mental and Moral Outlooks to stop them from choosing to do what they ‘KNOW’ to be Morally Wrong, is there?   “Knowing” that Something is ‘Wrong’ would just be their cue to be careful not to get ‘caught’.  Essentially a Pragmatist’s ‘Moral Choices’ come down to a Calculation based on Expected Consequences.  The Religious Person would fear some kind of Supernatural Religious Consequences, whatever they might be – Hell or Bad Karma or Whatever.  Indeed, many of your Religious People have the core belief that God SEES, or at least KNOWS somehow, everything that one does, and that He somewhat vindictively Keeps Score on it all and Promises to get Even in the End!  Yes, such Beliefs may not be very ‘scientific’ but they do serve to keep The Believers on the moral ‘straight and narrow’…and all without the expense of maintaining Universal Police Surveillance, and a Judicial System that gives us more Lawyers than Doctors, and a Prison System that gives us more Prison Guards than School Teachers.   Anyway, with the Rise of Pragmatism, we must be aware that there will be a corresponding Drop in the Trust we can expect to have in and from other People – “Love your Neighbor, but count your Forks before the guests leave”.  

 

But, yes, of course, Pragmatisms isn’t always immoral (on the rare occasions when doing ‘Good’ would seem to result in some Material Benefit (such as contributing to a Tax Exempt Charity in response to solicitations from your Boss’s Wife) , but sometimes Pragmatism does have to Choose Between Evils – the Choice of doing some Absolute Good is often times not on the List of Available Options (and in Situations such as these often the Idealists are effectively ‘paralyzed’ – if not positively sure of doing ‘what is positively right’, they will do nothing at all).  So, while we live in an imperfect World, it can be argued that People who are Responsible for the Welfare of Many Other People really should be Pragmatists.   Take the Decision to Go To War – a Politician’s Decision to go to War should always be a Pragmatic Calculation –balancing the Concerns of Right, Justice, and National Interest, against the concerns for the Life and Limb of the Soldiers and Civilians involved (on both sides of the Conflict) and the possible detrimental Economic and Social Costs to the Nation, which can never be accurately predicted (“No War Plan survives the First Shot”… Sun Tzu).    History is Full of instances where National Leaders would have begged to be able to go back in Time simply so they could ‘look the other way’ if given a Second Chance on their Choice for War.   I suppose many Voters do not understand this or the underlying quasi-principles involved .  We hear of Citizens criticizing various Politicians for Neglecting Principles and doing what is Expedient, and it doesn’t seem to occur to them that THAT is exactly what our National Leaders SHOULD be doing – that they really ought to DO whatever it takes to Bring the Best Long Term Sustainable Results for One’s People, even if it requires something of a Morally Zig Zag Approach to do so.   And, yes, if it is not all Goodness and Light, our Leaders should not scruple but to Take the Sins upon themselves (when a President says he will take Full Responsibility, it is not for the Good and Moral Things he does, but for all of the unfortunate Things that Weight Heavy with Guilt).  So before any of us People allow ourselves to get Angry with the Lying, Cheating and ‘waffling’ of Politicians, consider whether they are doing it only for their own personal benefit or whether that maybe they might be doing it all for the Good of the Entire Nation or even for the Sake of the World and Greater Civilization.  And, of course, on the smaller scale, when you notice certain people within your own Orbit consistently being Pragmatic – choosing what Moral Precepts to Follow on a Case by Case basis, well, try to consider that if one could know the Full Circumstances and Conditions surrounding all of the related Events (if one could see “The Big Picture”), whether such Pragmatism could actually seem warranted or at least understandable in some vaguely qualified Moral Sense –You know, such as the “Robin Hood” Rationale.  

 

But, now, considering Pragmatists in reference to Anger Management, they are perhaps the most pliable group.  Yes, the Idealists and Spiritualists would be Perfect, but only if they were as Good as they Wished they were.  But Pragmatists have no problem doing whatever they calculate will be to their lasting advantage. So, if such Pragmatists find they have an Anger Problem that is holding them back, well nothing seems more sensible to them then to just Deal With It by resorting to Anger Management Therapy or Self Help.  

 

So, in conclusion, let me go over my assertions in brief: that Naturalists see Anger as just a Part of Life, and if reprimanded for it, they tend to resort to excuses and rationales, and this makes them very poor candidates for Anger Management Therapy.  Idealists and Spiritualists are typically less angry than most other people, unless they have a ‘thing’ for Righteous Anger, but when these High Minded People are angry they may feel more than ordinarily concerned for it, as it does not conform to their Ideal Image of Themselves, but in dealing with their Anger Issues they tend to confine themselves to their Own Personal and often very limited Resources, so they tend to shy away from Effective Anger Management Therapy or Self Help.  Pragmatists, if they become aware that Anger has become a Problem for them, will seek appropriate help and will tend to cooperate and take an active role in Fixing their Anger Problem.   Of course, all of the Above are all just very Broad–Stroke Generalizations, but it still may offer a Starting Place for one’s Thinking if this type of subject matter ever becomes a matter of concern.                       

Dream of Catastrophic Winter Storm

Oct 2016

 

I had a dream which was interesting on several points.  It started as I was out on some urban street and suddenly noticed I was with this young attractive woman.  The odd thing about it, looking back at the dream, was that I do not recognize the woman, accept to say she has similar features to other women in my dreams that I also did not recognize from before.  BUT in the dream, I immediately recognized her as something of a Steady and Exclusive Girl Friend.  One of the first things I said to her was “hasn’t it been a long time since we made love?”   Now that would be a very forward and inappropriate thing to say, and most women might object to it.  But this woman accepted the statement, but I saw that she looked concerned and preoccupied about something, and apparently we were on good enough terms for me to ‘shift gears’ immediately and begin to commiserate with her for whatever she was worried about, AND she seemed to have assumed that I would do just that… there seemed to be a trust between us.  She asked me to come along and I followed her.  She took me to her Place – it was clap-trap building that seemed to have the structural integrity of a House of Cards, like a large make-shift patched-together structure in some Indian Slum.  We passed through a hallway that was barely more than a foot wide, and I had to duck my head to pass under diagonally placed boards buttressing up the ceiling.  We came to her room, which seemed smaller than a Nun’s Cell… barely large enough to hold a narrow cot, but at the end of the cot was TV Set. She sat on the cot and turned to position herself so that I could see the TV Screen.  It showed a Time Lapsed Satellite Image of a Storm crossing the North American Continent.   The Storm had come in from Southern California and Arizona and proceeded through Nevada and Utah, and then through Idaho and Western Washington and Montana and then into Canada where the storm curled North to East through Alberta and Saskatchewan.   The Clouds seemed to be rotating clockwise, which I found odd, as Cyclonic Storms in the Northern Hemisphere rotate counter-clockwise.   The girl looked at me sadly and told me that thousands of people would die.

 

The dream made me think.  I had read a few years back that the ‘unexpectedly severe storms’ in Europe and North America could have their cause in the Melting Arctic Icecap.  You see, when it was Just Ice up there at the North Pole, the Pure Whiteness of the Snow would reflect off the Light from the Sun, and so it remained frigidly cold, even during the Summer.  But now that the Snow and Ice have largely melted, there is now Dark and Energy-Absorbent Water in its Place, and so it is all Heating Up up there.  When it used to be Cold, there was a very Tight Circular Pattern of Wind Currents – the Wind would go around and around, always at gale force, but the winds would stay put in a kind of fixed pattern up there in the Arctic Circle.  But since the Warming, and the Unevenness of the Ice and Water Cover, now those Winds have become unpredictable, and their speed has diminished which also increases their instability – like a Toy Top that slows down – it begins to Wobble and then to Fall.   And because the Winds are now Moister as Warmer, making them more Low Pressure than before, they are Pulled downward into the Dryer Continental Air Masses, but Once Moving they take on a Momentum, and while they are Warmer than the Old Arctic Extremes, they are much Colder than the Air Masses down further in the Temperate Zones, where the Pressure Dynamic shifts and these Arctic Winds, by Relativity, become the High Pressure Systems, and so they are pulled even further South by the Mid Continental Lower Pressure Systems.

 

A few years ago there were terrible Storm Systems in both North America and Europe in which there was kind of ‘Double Whammy’ effect – low pressure storms coming off the Pacific into America, and of the Atlantic into Europe met with the Plunging Arctic Systems to create unprecedented ‘Super Storms’.   But what I saw on that Dream TV was a far more terrible, and I think I know the reason.  The Dream Storm may be a kind of a One-Two-Three Punch – 1^st the Arctic System plunges downward, 2^nd a Tropical Storm slams into Southern California and travels swiftly Northward.  As that Pacific Element of the Storm causes the Northerly Winds to Accelerate from Low to High Pressure, Another Low Pressure Storm comes in off the Gulf of Mexico and it also travels North, but slightly behind and to the South of the Pacific Element, so that when the Two Storm Element meet, the Pacific Element Curls downward and Winds Accelerate again as they are pulled into the Gulf Storm Element.

 

Such a Storm would be Bitterly Cold due to the Arctic Element, and the Cloud Swirl I saw on the Dream TV was hundreds of miles wide.  Between the Wind and the Snow, we could expect Most of the Power Lines to come down.  We could expect ALL of the roads to be closed.  Many people would simply freeze to death.  Many people would be desperate enough start fires in their homes to stay warm, only to die of carbon monoxide poisoning or they would lose control of the fires and die of smoke inhalation.  Think of a large Apartment Building, where if just One Unit caught fire or began emitting carbon monoxide gas, the whole building could be killed off.  Then there are the thousands of people who would attempt to flee the storm in their cars only to get stuck on the roads where they would die as soon as they ran out of gas.  Yes, it could really be bad.

 

If an Area that Large were to be impacted, the roads could not be cleared quickly enough or the power lines restored quickly enough, and every helicopter on the continent would not be enough for all the Air Lifting that would be necessary to save everybody.  Yes, it could really be bad.

 

Well, the Girl was demoralized by it all. She got up and languidly squeezed past me in the hallway (I had been watching from outside the doorway) and she took a left turn and walked down another hallway deeper into that dark ram-shackle building and was soon out of sight.  Now, in many of my dreams, when I meet new and fascinating woman and enjoy their company, and they should leave the room, well, I try to follow them and find them again, but it is always a Lost Cause.  I eventually learned that IN A DREAM when somebody Leaves The Room it is kind of like an Actor in a Play doing an “Exit Stage Left”, that is, the Character Ceases to Exist at that Point.  Well, this is the First Dream in which I finally Realized That, and did not attempt to follow… I had understood at some level that at that point she was simply ‘no-more’.  It is not that I was Lucid, but I had made it such a point to Instruct Myself to Not Continue making this Same Mistake over and over again and wasting so Much Dream Time attempting what was effectively Impossible, that the Suggestion finally ‘took’.   You know how we say that the Subconscious Mind can affect our Conscious thinking and behavior, well, perhaps the Same Kind of Thing works on the Inverse – that  Suggestions from the Conscious Mind can have an Impact on the Dream Mind’s decision making processes.

The Piccolo Bass, 4 String, 5 String, String Setups, Etc

I was delighted when I learned there was such a thing as the Piccolo Bass.  I play a number of stringed instruments, especially instruments in the Guitar Family.  But the Stringed Instruments that I can Play most expressively are the Basses (… but of course there are the Violins, but I’m always afraid that I will poke somebody’s eye out with those pointy little bows…).   The primary Reason accounting for this more-than-ordinary ‘Expressiveness’ in the Basses is that they have Way More Clearance between their Stings.  One can really get one’s fingers in There without fear of bumping into the wrong strings, and this really helps with regulating the Feel and Intensity of one’s Playing – one can go from a mere whisper by just gently rubbing the side of a string to the ‘bullet shot’ of hooking a finger under the string and giving it a good hard pull, and all without touching the Volume Knob.   That kind of Expressiveness needs a bit of ‘elbow room’.   With Guitars, well, the strings are so close together that one is tempted to always use Picks, and since it’s so difficult to isolate individual strings, well, nearly all playing is done in chords and intervals, which Sounds Great… when that is what you want, but sometimes wouldn’t we rather enjoy Finger Picking out some lovely little lilting melody or some subtle and intriguing Arpeggio?   So for some Songs, some Styles and some Sounds, well, the Guitar is simply Not exactly the Right Instrument, though we must all admit that a great many Guitar Players manage to do rather well against those Limitations.    But the Bass is not exactly perfect by any means either, is it?... and it’s kind of obvious what Its Biggest Problem is – it’s simply Too Low.  What good is having an Instrument with sufficient Clearance between the Strings to be Melodically Beautiful if all the Notes come out sounding like a distant thunder?   

But, let me start my Story -- there I was, practicing the Bass, doing the best I could, but knowing that nearly everything I could do on the Bass was too darn Low from where it ought to have been.   So I kept wondering what I could do about it… 

I was almost ready to buy a Seven String Guitar, so I could install just 4 Strings, leaving every other String Slot empty, and that would have given me Twice as much Clearance between Strings as any normal Electric Guitar.   But that seemed like a bit Too Much Clearance (Electric Guitar strings are spaced about 10mm apart, while Basses are 15mm or 16mm).  Then one day I got lucky when a Salesman at the local guitar shop had heard about something that he thought I would be interested in and he researched it out for me – he told me of existence of the Piccolo Bass.  Wow!... For me, the Piccolo Bass Idea represented an Instrument in the Bass & Guitar Family with close to Optimum Tonal Range AND with plenty of clearance between strings.  

The only Piccolo Basses I have heard of so far are the Short Scale (30”) 4 String Piccolos.  Their Strings are the SAME Notes as the 4 thickest Strings on the Guitar – E A D G.   I would suppose that Many a Musical Sceptic would suggest that a Piccolo Bass is “Just Like a Guitar, only Two Strings Less”.  So why not just get a guitar!?  Well, that Objection is certainly True Enough, if taken solely in view of its own tightly focused Logic.  With that being the case, well, if there is any justification for the Existence of the Piccolo Bass at all, it has to be because of its more Optimum String Spacing.   

The Piccolo Basses I have heard about are converted Fender (or Squire) Mustang 4-String Basses.  They come as regular ‘Low-Note’ Basses, and so you have to swap out the strings to make the ‘Piccolo Conversion’.  D’Addario sells  a Set of Strings for the Piccolo 4 String – the Skinny G (.020) string is a Plain Wire String (sounds Great!) and the other three strings are Round Wound (.052, .042, .032)– which is not so great if you like Flat Wound.  But if you don’t mind ordering strings singly, you can get Flat Wounds in .050, .040, and .032 (Ernie Ball and D’Addario sell them) – I strung my own Mustang Piccolo with Flats (Ernie Ball .050 and .040, and a D’Addario .032) and I am quite pleased with how it worked out.   

Oh, there is a kind of a Lucky Peculiarity with the Set of Strings that D’Addario sells for the Piccolo Bass – that while the String Set is designed to have the correct Tension on a 30 inch Scale (to be tuned to E A D G), the strings are actually “Long” Enough to be installed on a 34 inch Long Scale Bass… which is most Fender Basses.  But those Strings are REALLY Tight even on the shorter 30’ Scale, and so I would be afraid to tune them to E A D G on a Long Scale Bass – either the Strings would Snap or your Poor Finger Tips would go raw and bloody trying to pluck at the rigidly stiff things.  I read over the Famous D’Addario String Tension Chart PDF for several hours trying to see if I could identify any suitable strings for a Long Scale Piccolo Bass (tuned to B E A D G)… well the Deal Stoppers there are the two thinnest Strings, the D and G, as there are no Long Scale Strings about ‘a half notch’ lighter than the .032 and the .020P.  So if you wanted to Convert  Long Scale Bass to Piccolo duty it seems that one would have no choice but to drop the Tuning a full Note (two Frets) lower.   Such a Drop Tuning would give you a 4-String Long-Scale Piccolo Bass tuned to D G C F.  If you had a 5-String Bass, it would become an A D G C F.   The Splendid Coincidence about A D G C F Tuning is that a Standard Bass ALREADY has an A D and G Strings… you just have to move them from One Side of the Neck to the Other.  I already converted my 5-String Fender Jazz Bass – it works and sounds great.  

Oh, I sort of accidentally stumbled upon Something that maybe not everybody knows already.  You see, because I am now practicing with both a 4-String Short Scale E A D G Piccolo, and a 5-String Long Scale A D G C F Piccolo (two frets Lower than  a “E A D G”), I was a bit surprised when I found that I could jump between the two different Tunings and Scales with such ease, and I was unwilling to just suppose that it was because I was somehow ‘that good’.  You see, incidentally, I have been studying Math  (can’t play music All the Time), and it occurred to me to compare the Two Different Tunings and Scales with some precise Exponential Mathematics… and then a straight edge ruler just to Make Sure.   It turns out that while the Tuning of Each Piccolo Bass is one Full Note apart (two frets), the Fret Sizes for the SAME ACTUAL Notes are practically identical (for instance, the 12^th ‘Double Dot’ Fret on the 30” Scale Piccolo is a ‘G’, and that fret is virtually the same size as the ‘G’ Fret on the Long Scale Piccolo which is played two frets further down).   What we can Infer from that is that IF you plan to have both a Short Scale Piccolo and a Long Scale Piccolo, well, you shouldn’t worry that you may have to drop the Tuning of the Long Scale Bass down a couple of notches, since such tuning actually Preserves the Same Spacing between the ‘Fret Notes’ from One Bass to the Other… you just have to slide up or down the neck depending on which Piccolo you pick up to play.    

Oh, by the way, that Same Note-to-Fret close similarity exists for the other Common Guitar and Bass Scales – Using the Long Scale 34” Bass as our reference, the next Scale down is the 32” Medium Scale Bass (a Half Step or One Fret Higher),  then comes the 30” Short Scale Bass (2 Frets Higher), the 28 ½” Baritone Guitar Scale (3 Frets Higher), the new 27” Electric Baritone Guitar Scale (4 Frets Higher), and of course the Guitar at 25” which is 5 Frets or a ‘full String’ higher.  Theoretically you should be able to use the Same Strings on every one of those Scales, just tuning to the Higher Note made possible by the Shorter Scale (But on the Practical Level, Strings in the 25” ‘Guitar Scale come in a greater variety and are far more affordable).  

So, with all that being said, I am relatively Happy with my Piccolo Basses – the 5-String Jazz Bass and the Little 4-String Mustang Conversions,  But What If I Could have Anything I Want…and if it did not already Exist, I could just snap my fingers to make it magically appear ?   Well, such a Thought makes me wonder whether the Piccolo IDEA is really the best of All Possible Ideas, for an instrument intended to be played in its Intended Style?   Yes, the Piccolo Bass is a great deal better than Nothing.   BUT if I could design the Optimum Instrument for that ‘Kind of Thing’, well, and it would be on the same 25” Scale as ordinary Electric Guitars and it would use 5 regular scale Guitar Strings.  Well, I suppose there should be a 4-String Version for the people who find the Narrower 4-String Neck ‘Faster’ and more ‘User Friendly’.  The 4-String application would not require a wider neck to permit 16.6mm of Clearance between Strings, but a 5-String would need a Neck the same Width as a 5-String Bass.   Also, Such an Instrument could be tuned ‘One String’ or even ‘Two Strings’ higher than the Piccolo Bass.  It would certainly be more versatile in its tuning options and possibilities.   With the Wide String Spacing, such an Instrument would be Expressive in a Whole Different Way than the usual Electric Guitar.  The World could use an Instrument like that!   Just look at how the Music Industry works now… nobody wonders that a Lead Guitar Player is playing essentially the SAME Instrument as the guy playing Rhythm.  The Lead Guitar Player must necessarily be cramped inside the Limitations of his Instrument.  Really Creative and Expressive Music, when it IS done nowadays, well, it has to be done with all that Acoustic Stuff, because the Acoustic People have a larger choice of Instrumentation, but, well, then you lose the Electric Sound… and Everything you can DO with Electric Sound.   So, anyway, I think there is a Gap in the Potential for Electric Music, and that a 4 or 5-String  Instrument with Wide String Spacing but on the Same Scale as the good ol’ Standard  Guitar could jump into that Breach. Hmmm… what to call such an Instrument?   With the String Spacing of a Bass but being of the same size and appearance as a Guitar, well, such a Cross Breed could be called a ‘Bass-tar’ – wouldn’t That be a catchy enough Name?  

Well, to conclude… since Anything Better does not seem to Exist yet, I DO Hope the Piccolo Phenomena Catches On so that People can begin to see the Stylistic Possibilities for That Kind of Instrument. 

The 3Civilized Ideals: Philosophic, The Gentleman, The Religious

 

It happens time and again Nowadays, that people find themselves excluded from the Society that they seek … not being invited to what Every Else is invited to, or people being ‘too busy’ to attend to your own invitations.  And they may wonder what is wrong, well, besides what their first Thoughts might be – that everyone either does not understand them, or that everybody is jealous and defensive, and that they wish to exclude Him so that they themselves may have an opportunity to Shine.

 

Well, how to decide?  What is the Problem?   Do some people get excluded for simple reasons of jealousy  and envy, or is it More Than That?    Well, perhaps, without Society actually Saying So, in so many words, that there are Rules, Codes… what I would say are IDEALS which, if not strictly followed all the time, must at least Seem to be acknowledged…. Or the ‘None-Ideals’ will simply be ‘Cut’… excluded without a word.   Nobody would SAY or Explain why a Person, perceived to be too far Under an Expected Ideal is ‘Cut’ or shunned, as that would be so unpleasant and so uncalled for.  Social Ostracism can go forward without a single unpleasant word. 

 

 

Now, of course, Society is not made up of Philosophers, Moralists and Theologians.  Yes, all of these Society People have Ideals, but they are probably just ‘tacitly’ understood.  Fin e Society just seems to Know when a Guest or a Host is Perfectly Ideal… or Perfectly UN-Ideal, for that matter, but I think it often just resolves into a Feeling, and that they would be hard pressed to explain it.   But these Ideals Can Be explained. 

 

First:  the Philosophic Ideal.   Philosophic People think and reflect upon their Social Behavior, and remain ever Calm, Unflappable, always Objective.   In experiencing Hardships, they would be Stoics.   When presented with New Moral Systems, they would be Skeptics.   When presented with new Social Systems advanced by Interested Parties, they would be Cynical… but All while remaining Unflappable, Calm and Philosophically Serene.   Such People Never Offend, and so there is never any Reason to Not Invite them to Parties… though they may seem a bit too dull to actually seek out their attendance.  

 

Then there is the Gentlemanly Ideal.   Now, it used to be that being a Gentleman was a Class Distinction, and this may be one of the Driving Forces that persuade ‘Modern’ Common People that Gentlemanly Behavior is a Snobbish Thing which they should avoid, but at the cost of their own Personal Dignity, seeming to prefer the role of being an Uneducated and Unenlightened Commoner.   But, this eventuality had never been the product of any considerable Intent… or I hope not.  You see, with the advent of Universal Education, at least before the 20th Century was much advanced, it was Supposed that the Proper Education could make a ‘Gentleman’, or a ‘Lady’ out of anybody.   It just did not seem to work out. 

 

Anyway, So… what IS the Gentlemanly Ideal?   Well, it is not much different from the Philosophic Ideal but it is a bit more augmented in the direction of Aesthetic Appreciation:   One must Appear Well.  One must be clean and wear fashionable cloths.  Then, one must be Pleasant and Agreeable.  One must be Lucid and understand the direction of Conversations, and be able to take part and Blend In, that is, be an active part of the Social Group.  They must be objective and impartial about things and never offend or ‘act’ offended at what other guests or what the Host may say.   Of Course, you might think all of this is kind of Obvious, and that doing this and Knowing to Do it would be Easy Enough, but the Natural Instincts of Some People tend to push them to being Proud and Independent, argumentative, crass and insulting, or just totally Self-Absorbed without Care or Empathy for the rest of the Social Group.   It seems that being Common, is, well, common.

 

Fine Society is kind of Used to this Problem of  dealing with people beneath their Social Ideal.   When Fine Society was considered a ‘Class Thing’,  it was often thought… very widely thought, in fact… that Business People could never fit into the Gentlemanly Ideal.  Their perceived greedy Self Interests tends to occupy their thoughts, and they can’t seem to attend to the interests or needs of others.   They Talk, but don’t Listen, which makes them, if not Rude, at least it makes them ‘Bores’.  When subjects come up which interest them, whether Pro or Con, then they tend to respond with Partisan Enthusiasm… either For or Against… seeming to be Excited or even Agitated.   But the Social Ideal is to be Objective and Detached – Thoughtful, but never  Zealous… Interested but never Extreme.  Especially, to Never Be Judgmental… as that would be Offensive, and Gentlepeople are Never Offensive.  To imply that another Guest, or, heaven forbid, that the Host is Absolutely WRONG about something, is probably Society’s Number One Sin.   But it is seen as something that Non-Gentlepeople do all the time.  So Fine Society still sees reason for ‘circling’ their wagons, and exerting, well, their Snobbishness.  It must be a bit like Heaven, where it seems only logical that Heaven cannot really be Heaven if too Many ‘Sinners’ are allowed in… and so while God may ‘Love’ everybody, well, Heaven Can Only Be Heaven if only the Good People… the Gentlepeople… are allowed in.   

 

Oh, there must be a particular problem occurs with Lawyers.   It seems that while some Lawyers can make a great deal of money… enough to show themselves in ‘Well’ in Society, that is, ‘clean’ and ‘well dressed’, that they still fail with Society and probably because of their Professional Training.    For instance, if they are not Impartial or Objective, it is because they are trained to be Partisan and Adversarial, and, as is allowed in the Courts, if they don’t like somebody else’s opinion upon things are at issue, well, they won’t hesitate to Attack the other Person’s Knowledge, Judgment, or even Moral Standing in regards to the Subject.  Well, in Fine Society, this is simply seen as too Ruthless… too much from out of a Very Violent and Mean Sub-Culture… from out of the ‘Jungle” –not at all very charming.   And so Lawyers, unless they really learn how to Leave their Work at the Office or back in the Stuffy and Unpleasant Courtroom, will mostly be shunned from Fine Society.

 

Finally, there is the Religious Ideal.   This is perhaps the hardest, or the easiest, to explain.  Religious People think that they should Think and Act as God would think and act.  The Primary Considerations would be that God is Great, All Inclusive, and Above the Common Fray – that God is Transcendental.  So God would be Unflappable.  God would Never be worried or nervous.  God would always be above Insult or Misunderstanding.  God either Understands Everything, or treats Everything as though it could be Understandable if perceived correctly and completely.  The Religious Person’s Assumption is that there is some Divine Meaning in Everything.    Personal Ego is set aside, and everybody and everything else are treated as having some Equal Share in one’s Personal calculations and deliberations. 

 

And then the Religious Ideal also includes some aspects of the Aesthetic:   that Religious People often open up to a Love of All Things… and this is what might set them apart and Above the Philosophic or Gentlemanly Ideals, that they Love or Find Compelling All Things and Everybody, just because they EXIST… that they need no special Reasons or Feelings to Explain it.  They Simply Experience and Respond to All Things as though in a Perpetual State of Bliss.   Of course, such Idealists, if they actually hit that High Mark, are Saints, and as such, perhaps the rarest of all People.   But!  When they do appear, well, they are perceived as being so Nice and Pleasant, that they never lack for Social Invitations… even when their fashion sense seems a bit ‘off’ or their personal hygiene seems a tad wanting.

 

 

Now, these afore mentioned Ideals are no strangers to Western Civilization… there is nothing new in anything I have said.  But it is a matter of concern that our Universal Education Systems make hardly no mention of them.   And so it is that People grow up, get ‘Educated’, and think they are doing all the right things, and still find they have problems being accepted by Fine Society.  And nobody is so unpleasant as to explain why.     

 

And I see the problem only getting worse.   Nowadays, in Western Culture, it is not the Traditional Ideals that get the attention.  The Media – TV, Movies, even Journalism – focus on the More Interesting Story Lines and Character Traits.  We are treated to Greed, Lust, Anger (which is presented as Moral Indignation), Violence and Vindictiveness… that is, we are presented only with the kind of Things that Make for Exciting Drama.   And so it works out that a kind of Unintentional Media Propaganda, that washes over everybody, presents a Way of Life that, really, has no basis in any kind of Idealism.  And nobody pretends that it does.   It is presented as just simple Human Behavior, with the tacit understanding that nobody can ever expect More from Humans than to simply act like, well Walking and Talking Animals from out the Jungle. 

 

But, looking back into History, well, their used to be things called Ideals.  And it was the Recognition of these Ideals… all inherently Spiritual… that separated Man from Beast.  We can be Better than the Animals, but only if we Will to Be Better, and can Envision a Better Life than simple Instinct and all that is simply Predatory can provide for.   Maybe these Ideals are Lost… or maybe not.   It used to be Understood that Ideals were for the Few and were never expected from the Many.   The Advance of the Common Man made everyone expect that Anybody and Everybody could attain to the Same High Levels, but this apparently never happened.  The Common Man stayed, well, Common. 

 

So, Ideals still seem only for the Few.   But there is no restriction on who may adopt them.  Anybody who thinks about it, may certainly become better than Common… it is just that their seems to be no Cultural or surviving Traditional Impulse that encourages the old Ideals that were once held in such high esteem.   It seems to be All Jungle, nowadays.  Survival of the Fittest… the Meanest, the Cruelist… the exact people everyone hates to have at a Party. 

 

Well, what does it all mean?  Well, I guess it comes down to that Civilization is effectively dead, but hasn’t quite ‘fallen down’ yet… and that we are simply transitioning now to a full fledged Barbarism.  It is sad… but I prefer to look upon that eventuality with a Philosophical Composure.  After all, it would not be the First Time that a Civilization had collapsed…  Maybe in the Next Round, we will have splendid Parties again…                            

Lonely? Need (Aggravating) People? Maybe A Cat Will Do.

Lonely?  Need  (Aggravating) People?  Maybe A Cat Will Do.

 

In the Anger Management sphere of interest, we find so many people who, if more or less just left alone by themselves, would never be angry, as for example, disconnected telephone calls don’t bother them… they simply redial; or their computer acts flakey all day long and these people do not as so much utter a ‘tinker’s ‘dingidy dong’’… they are at peace with themselves and their, well, rather isolated universes.   But it is the frustrations and perceived disrespects of other people, who in these cases instigate troubles, that tend to trigger the angry episodes experienced by our otherwise calm and peaceful ‘isolationists’.   Yes, yes, yes, it is our job here to provide people with the support and help to withstand any abuse, any indignity, any humiliation, all while being able to calmly and serenely react and respond to the worst situations Society can throw at them… as though they were American White Bread in Paris…  But, really, My Oh My, supporting and training all these essentially Nice People to withstand the barbaric attacks of the Hordes of Rude People out there, well, it is difficult, isn’t it? … and, what’s more, if we could only tell them to avoid all of those, really, contemptible Rude People – all those people who trigger their Angry Episodes, well, they would no longer have a worry in the World.  In fact, it is sad that it is all put upon us.  We are only going through so much trouble because, well, so many people are barbaric, rude, and uncivilized and do not know how to behave.  And the governments are  too cheap to include Civilized Behavior in the Core Curriculums of their Public Schools, or too prissy to sentence Manifestly Rude People to death, to graciously save all the Civilized People the trouble of having to deal with them.   Yes, of course, I have a great respect for the Value of Human Life… but isn’t a Rude Person worth less than Nothing?

 

So, in addition to all the advice we give regarding how we should all deal with those Terribly Rude People, well, shouldn’t we add a word of advice on simply avoiding all unnecessary Social Exposure…. To stay clear of the beastly multitudes.     Of course they can go out shopping.   “The Customer is always right”.  In the majority of retail establishments, the salespeople and service reps are extensively trained in being, well, as civilized as we wish everyone else were… except in France…and maybe some bureaus in New York, where the Upper Management are so barbaric themselves that they don’t quite see any ‘barbarism’ in their employees worth correcting.   But most everywhere else, if you are wearing the Hat of Consumer and Customer, you are perfectly safe… oh, as long as YOU aren’t the Barbarian.  So many Customers give Service People and Sales People a terrible time.  The Working Retail People are only doing their jobs, and any Civilized Person, who has an issue with some product or service, should be ever smiling and patient, all while the Wheels Turn, ever slowly, for the problems brought forward to be resolved.  Staying Friends with the Service People only helps in all of that.  Anyway, if YOU aren’t the problem, then you should have no problem with Shop People. 

 

But, when advising relative isolation, well, SO many people feel that they need Life Companions… Mates… Partners… Spouses… that is, to welcome potential Barbarians through their Gates.   Really!?  These such People have the potential to be the worst perpetrators of all the rude and disrespectful triggers we can receive.  Why ‘On God’s Green Earth Where the Sky is Blue’ would anybody in their right mind attempt to establish some constant relationship with such a potential threat!?   It is not as though you can actually meet a person and get to know them… NO!  People keep their Barbarism a big Secret until it is too late!   Here!  Let me tell you a story… Even a Psychologist friend of mine, when I was back in my Dating Age, advised me to… really, he did…to do everything to make myself likeable and attractive in order to gain the favor of those people I would want to, well, ‘seduce’… he didn’t use that word, but that is surely what such advice intends.   But that advise was not so very original, was it?   Such thinking, and such Dating Behavior is, well, Universal, isn’t it?   Nearly everyone who wants a Relationship is posing and pretending in order to get it.  And they keep it up until they get a Commitment.  You don’t meet the Real Them until they think it is too late for you to back out (oh, by the way, it is NEVER too late to walk out…. Just do a ‘one-eighty’, find the door, and leave… oh, grab your best stuff first… going back for it later is always, well, so awkward, and it spoils the effect of your dramatic exit, no?)

 

But, the fact IS that people do get lonely and need companionship.  But they think they need other people… like the Barbara Streisand Song “People Need People”.  Well, not really.   Studies have shown… people studying ‘Cat Ladies’ in order to isolate ‘Cat Ownership’ as some kind of a Dysfunction… well, the Studies kind of back fired on the original intent, and found, unexpectedly, that Cat Ownership (well, up to certain point) was indeed healthy.   It was found that people who had a ‘good companion relationship’ with a cat were just as well benefitted as those who had a good companion relationship with another human being, as rare as that is in these days were everybody only thinks of themselves and doesn’t care what offense they give to others as long as they can manipulate and maneuver, complain and bicker to get their own way… meaning that you are more likely to strike up a good relationship with a cat than another Human Being (and you can’t take the other Human Being to the Kennel if it doesn’t work out…).  Also it should be considered that no man ever lost his house and had to pay alimony to cat that he decided he hated and wanted to get rid of.

 

Even before reading these studies, about the companionship of cats being so beneficial to Human Beings, well, I sort of found out about it by accident.  There had been a Situation building up in my Neighborhood – some ‘overflow’ kittens from a Cat Lady who couldn’t really feed all the cats she already had were going about begging and scrounging.  Anyway, one little skraggle cat accosted me while I was walking past… a little kitten, yelling at me for me to feed it (I had had cats as a child and so I already knew their language…).   Well, okay.  So I went up to my rooms and tossed it out something.   Well, it became my friend.   I would keep a window open for ventilation, and it would come in and sit on the arm of the sofa where I would read a book just a few feet away.  I would ‘thump’ it a few times when I would give it food, and scratch its head sometimes, but that was IT.   Nothing big.  No hugs.  No kisses.   But, as I used to go OUT several times a week, well, now I began to stay home.  Even some Friday and Saturday Nights I would stay home.   I was saving a Ton of Money and was glad, but I REALLY had no idea why I was turning into such a home-body.   Then I read that Research Paper!  MY GOD!  I thought…. My Life has been stabilized because some silly cat sits on the Arm of the Sofa!?   Well, I guess so.  The Research was Right.  It seems that a scraggle cat was all the companionship that I really needed.   

 

Oh, this is not to say that Dogs may not be just as good, or even better.  Perhaps they are.   But dogs need to be walked or they will poop or pee anywhere, and unless they are trained they may be troublesome about chewing up expensive shoes and such.  And dogs will whine and cry for attention, and they may have fits of destructive frustration when left alone too long.  But cats, for the most part, are staid and independent, clean in their habits, and while they offer their companionship, are not often needy and dependent and overly bothersome about it.  Cats are great.