Joys of Being a Linguist

Joys of Being a Linguist

Now, adults are bombarded at every turn with the dubiously helpful insight that children are so much better at learning languages than are adults. Indeed, however, when the details of such findings are fully revealed, this Age of Susceptibility, this Window of Opportunity for Linguistic Achievement, is rather too small to be put to much practical use, beyond supposing that there might be some benefit in playing child’s games with more than one way to say “you’re it” or “naa na-na neh naa naa!” It may be that children can learn better only because they are content to learn less.

So let us put it out of our minds, that anxiety that learning another Civilized Language might be significantly harder than if we had set out to do it when we were three years old.

But now, why? Why learn another language? Particularly if one already knows English, which has become something of the Lingua Franca of the Modern World. Can’t one language really be enough?

Well, as in many other things, it is a matter of taste and inclination. Consider the case that one is really delighted in one’s Language, and had practically read everything, and, well, “heard it all” so to speak. Can one really continue to go back endlessly to one’s old favorite books? Many do. But many develop the urge to reach toward something more.

I have been gifted with a good memory. Many people have the vaguest memories of their childhood, but I remember a great deal. I remember being a very little boy uncertain of even my own Mother Tongue. I recall being in front of a door of a friends house, knocking, and wondering what on earth I was going to say to the mother who would open the door and enquirer as to what I wanted. Happily, when she did she knew somehow automatically that I was there to ask to play with the boy of the house, and that prescience of mind relieved me of the anxiety of having to find something intelligent to say. But Language continued to worry me. I then remembered my first years in school and how fussy teachers could be about spelling and pronunciation, and how I had to do much deliberate practice and study to keep from being put down with the stupid boys. Then I remembered the first books I actually enjoyed reading. Then I remembered the first books that I enjoyed despite their making me reach for dictionaries and grammars. I remember one teacher awkwardly suggesting I start upon Fine Literature, and I could see the doubt in her eyes as she wondered whether she was pushing too hard or two early. It was that look that sent me to the Library where I discovered the Great Literature of my Language. Then came the vocabulary notebooks. The Quote notebooks. Oh, I had other interests. There was plenty of stuff I was doing. But amidst it all was Language. And now that I am getting older, and sports, cars, girls and all those other interests recede, there still remains Language.

But the vocabulary notebooks, the quote notebooks… one can never return home again. Few new cards can be written. The cards, back then, well, they did their job. I now speak in Vocabulary Notebooks. And there are even moments, when I hit my stride, where I am even quotable. But those old joys of discovering English can not be run through again. The original wonder of a book can not be had on its tenth reading. So one looks to a New Language and a new Great Literature.

Now, even with my fine memory, I can’t remember the first moment I thought of learning French, to again break out the Vocabulary Notebooks and the Quotes, and the Verb Conjugation Charts that I had not even suspected, and the Grammars which are so necessary if only to make sense of some words which, despite their individual and separate meanings, when arranged together seem to make no sense at all. It is the colloquialisms, the mystery of the little words with their special funny meanings that I guess are so easy for the child but which pose such a problem for the adult. But since they are common, they are seen often and eventually the strange use of the little words becomes familiar.

It is all surprisingly quite fun. While Fast Cars and Pretty Young Women played such a large part in the first phase of my Mid-Life Crisis, now I find myself putting in a great deal of time studying Linguistics. It is certainly safer, far cheaper, and I get better sleep at night. What is not to like?

Oh, there are discouraging moments. When I first started it seemed like I was forever studying, going over vocabulary lists and reading, reading, reading and still it seemed as though I was always returning to a completely foreign language every time I unloaded my book bag. Then the day arrived where I read through my first entire French Paragraph without having to consult a dictionary or a grammar. I was stunned at first. I suspected it might have been a matter of lazy inattention and went back and re-read the paragraph, and, yes, while I knew some words had additional senses that had slipped my mind, I knew that as the words were used in this case, I knew what they meant. Wow! It was like a small Religious Experience, but a small one of those is better than none at all. A blip of Rapture!

Then one finds that one day one can actually begin using the Primary Language Dictionary, not having to ever resort to the English-French Cheater Dictionary. That was a strange and sneaky advance. It seemed like only the day before I could not understand nearly a thing of the pure French Dictionary, with the definitions giving me only more words to look up, with more words to look up after that, and never answering the original question… in most cases forgetting what the original question was. But then, one day the French-English Dictionary must have slid beyond my reach and I grabbed the Pure French instead, and I suddenly found I could read it, no, not completely, but enough to serve.

Finally there comes the moment when one actually enjoys a fine turn of phrase… not mistaking it for the ordinary usage of the Language, but actually being able to detect something special going on… some artful arrangement of the words and phrases that go way beyond what the grammar books would anticipate. All before that there was the Love of wanting to Fall in Love with the Language. But then to actually hear it and grasp it and appreciate it. To really feel the effect of the Fine use of a new Language… one is no longer a Virgin anymore.

Oh, there is a plodding and practical use for learning a New Language. One becomes so much more aware of one’s English… of its Grammar and usages. I had always wondered to myself why the English writers were so much better than the Americans. Well, of course, its because they all knew French.

Chipping People the Latest Surveillance Technology

Chipping People the Latest Surveillance Technology

Some old friends in the Intelligence and Police Communities had been updating me on the latest Surveillance Technologies, covering Information and Communication, as well as the Iraqi Surge Secret Technologies, of using multi-spectrum satellite imagery to effectively ‘fingerprint’ identities and then using new Search Engine Information Technologies to effectively catalogue the vast amounts of Data into useful chunks of Intelligence Information… who to drop bombs on.

It is all very impressive. Yes, it all could have been done years ago. But before Terrorism there were only Criminals, and Governments had no interest in really doing anything about Criminals… you see, Criminals are such a tempting source of Cash Money Contributions. The mistake the Terrorists are making is that they are not paying anybody off. But since the Terrorists won’t behave reasonably within the Democratic World, hiring the compulsory Lobbyists, like the Israelis do in order to become Respectable, then they must be dealt with, and this requires real action. And we DO have some very capable people when it comes to implementing real action.

Anyway, I had written an essay before on the Surge Surveillance Secret Technology – the combination of Multi-Spectral Identity Certification with Mass Information Cataloguing. Everybody in the Community is still oowing and ahhing over that, but, then, especially from the Police, we hear the suggestion that using elaborate cameras that push out so much data and need so much computer bandwidth in order to be understood… that it is clumsy, even while being so impressive; but that it could all be done with so much less muss and fuss if everybody was simply required to carry a small Radio Transponder that would mark Identity and Location, that is, if everybody was CHIPPED. Oh, and If vehicles and significant pieces of mobile property were also required to be chipped.

Already all phones, websites and emails are surveilled. If we added this next step of being CHIPPED, then Terrorism would be, well, impossible. Using the Mass Information Cataloguing Technologies (derived from the Search Engine Wars… making Google the Father of Big Brother) the Law Enforcement and Intelligence Communities would have a complete map of everybody’s associates, everybody’s habits, comings and goings. Certainly most elaborate Terrorist Attacks could be nipped in the bud, well before execution, but certainly nobody would ever be able to get away with anything.

Oh, the only drawback is that anything used against Terrorism might be used against Crime. Right now the Terrorist’s greatest Ally in the West is Organized Crime. Most of the Propaganda in support of Privacy has been paid for by Organized Crime or those sympathetic to Crime (political Anarchists and destructive psychopaths), and every Politician asked to support more thorough Surveillance Technologies must contend with the anxieties of major criminal contributors… again, all in unmarked cash. It’s not the Declared Contributions we need to be worried about, but piles of cash money that can be shoved anywhere and certainly must have an influence on how Power is exercised.

Anyway, the same as how 9-11 did away with any effective opposition to complete monitoring of Email and Telephone Communications, when Criminal Organizations simply had to shut up about it and hope that their continued Pay Offs would protect them from Prosecution (and it has, hasn’t it?), so it is hoped that the Coordinated Terrorist Attacks in India will convince the Civilized World of the necessity for Chipping every Person, every vehicle, every important little thing.

We will live in a Safe World when we know where everybody and everything is, was and will be.

What To Do About Islam’s Violence

What To Do About Islam’s Violence

Yes, yes, one hears endlessly that the Muslim Mainstream is Peaceful. Of course they are. They are in business and have good jobs and Peace is what they mean when they are talking about ‘not rocking the boat’, ‘not killing the goose that is laying their Golden Egg’. Yes, Islamic History is full of repeated examples of their Educated Schools trying to make Doctrinal Islam worthy and supportive of their flourishing Civilizations by establishing Moral Doctrines and layering some soothing Interpretations over all the Seeping and Simmering Violence embedded within the Koran. All of this was Noble and Worthy. Good Men trying to do a Good Thing. Admirable.

However, every new wave of Barbarians coming out of the hinter-country Hills, who would learn the most basic Arabic from those who knew barely more than the most basic Arabic, would insist that they needed no Doctrine, they needed no Enlightened Interpretations. Indeed, they would not understand it anyway, as it was far beyond their simple Readings. But, they would insist that they could read with their own two eyes how Mohamed their Great Prophet hated everybody and wanted everybody dead… all except those Faithful willing to do all the Specified Killing. Their Mullahs would open the Koran and point to the passages. And, yes, the passages are there. I’ve looked. The Koran, with as much respect as one can summon to say so, has serious moral problems.

It does not help that Islam has no Official Organization. Islam is largely a great deal like American Protestantism, where Religious Leaders are, well, Self Appointed. Yes, it is in some manner Democratic, that every so called Religious Leader has power in proportion to the number of those he has been able to convert to his Cause. Unfortunately, history shows us that Opportunistic Religious Leaders have the most ease in ‘Converting’ those of the lowest Education, those most easily manipulated. Also there is the Matter of the Rich and Powerful being able to greatly influence the Doctrines of these Community Religious Leaders, as we see in America, where Rich Corporate Republicans effectively hire the services of Ministers who can control the vote and political leanings of the poorest parishioners … or those who simply follow their Christian Heroes via television.

Islam, and American Protestantism, for that matter, need to Organize and Solidify Doctrine, and to positively STOP all those who attempt to Resurrect justifications for Violence out of Scripture. This might imply a great Civil War within Islam. But yes, the World must Insist. If Islam will not clean up its own House, then the World owes it to its own Security and Safety to knock down that House that is proving to be such a General Threat to the World Community as a Whole.

Seriously, let any body of Historians take a look at Islamic History and it will be obvious that Islam can not be at Peace with the World or even at Peace with itself. Then let Theologians take over and look at the Koran and it might appear obvious to them that the greatest difficulty is in rehabilitating the Koran itself. It is simply too True that the Prophet fulminated too often, shook his fist too often, and bore the Sword too often, all to be a creditable Religious Leader in regards to any Doctrines of Peaceful Coexistence.

And it is not very encouraging that it takes years of University Training to see how Islam is really a Peaceful Religion, but that the Hinterland Mullahs need only a fiery Sermon or two, from straight out of the Koran, with Quotes and everything, to show a village full of men that the Koran is just some great Death Warrant to be assigned to any convenient Enemy.

Maybe Islam needs to take a page from Mormon History – as the Mormons have never hesitated to rewrite their Scripture, melting the plates of all prior editions, even replacing old Family Coffee Table Bibles, so Islam might consider putting the Koran through a major Editing. Take a Page from Jewish Screenwriters in Hollywood who are satisfied if their finished product is only BASED on the Original. It might fix all of Islam’s problems if they could only just update the Koran, and root out every old edition. Ask the Mormons how they did it. But, then again, Mormons don’t have to worry about what individuals think, as they have a very strict Centralized Organization. Mormons are told what to think and they think it, or they lose their jobs and privileges, and nobody wants to be a normal person in Utah, on non-union slave wages and no human rights… not being Mormon and all. You know, after the World deals with Islam, it should consider the attack coming from Mormonism… not to Kill us, but to enslave us, in a very real sense. If Mormons wish to Utahize the World, then everybody should be really worried.

Anyway, the World needs to decide what to do about Islam. The Answer might not be very nice. The Best Thing would be for Islam to foresee this eventuality and take care of their own Problems before more Responsible Bodies have to step in and do it for them.

Oh, and it is a mistake for America to suppose that they are indispensable. The Arab World has PLENTY of money, and doesn’t need American Soldiers pretending somehow that they are shooting Muslims all the way on the other side of the World for the sake of American Freedom. The Saudi Oil Billionaires could bring in Larger Armies, cheaper, from all over the Third World and establish an Pan-Arab Islamic Region with only One Acceptable View of Islam, and that a Peaceful one… or the World would have to step in.

Yes, while it is nice to be Open and Tolerant, the World does not NEED Islam, and if Islam insists upon being a continual, even eternal THREAT to World Peace, well, let the Solution be quick, and if done well, in a hundred years our Children will never know there even was ever a problem (like on the American East Coast where nobody ever speaks of Indian Tribes)… nobody will ever ask about Islam except maybe some future history scholar looking for something obscure enough that nobody has already done dozens of doctoral treatises on the subject already. What a wonderful Subject – “The Disappearance of Islam”.

India Terror Prevented and People Should be Chipped

India Terrorism Prevented and People Should be Chipped.

India experienced coordinated terrorist attacks. The Terrorists must have made extensive use of Communication and Transportation resources. But nobody was looking and nobody was listening.

In India this may be a matter of pure Governmental Poverty, or perhaps Official Incompetence and laziness in the Intelligence and Police Communities. Or there may be some misguided Respect for Privacy Rights.

Well Edmund Burke, or was it Winston Churchill who had said “Privacy is the Darkness where Evil lurks”.

As in America, all phone calls, all emails, all computer traffic can be put under surveillance. Yes, it must be terribly expensive. All this communication traffic must be scanned for Code, that is, are speech patterns and narrative ‘real’ or artificial, and if ‘real’ is the content non-threatening. Logs must be kept of who is talking to whom, and who cares about what. On the Visual Surveillance side, a great deal of Computer Bandwidth is necessary, not only to store the vast amounts of visual imagery, but also in the Computer Capacity necessary to analyze and catalogue the Core Information – everyone’s comings and goings, habits, patterns, and especially in detecting when any group of known associates break out of their established patterns, as in the case of launching a Terrorist Attack.

All this Technology already exists. Simply ask about the Secret behind the Surge Strategy in Iraq. A few soldiers on the ground did not make all the difference. The progress made in Iraq was all about New Surveillance Technologies and advances in Computer Cataloging Technologies – whereby billions of bites of Data can be compressed and reduced to small packets of important and useable information. Surprisingly, it all sources back to all the Search Engine advances. Google is the Father of the New Big Brother. The Search for the Brave New World is over.

In addition, Modern Civilized States can take even further care, by insisting that every Citizen or Resident wear a short range Radio Transponder, to establish Identity, what we would call a Chip. Yes, I have heard rumors of Multi-Spectrum Photo Scanning, even from Satellites that can effectively ‘fingerprint’ Identities and thus positively track individuals from moment to moment, day by day without any such Chip. But the Bandwidth required to record and analyze such necessarily complex information must be prohibitively expensive. It would be so much more simple if everybody just ‘beeped’ a unique personal code and their position continuously recorded. Cameras could be used to identify Non-Chipped people walking or driving around, and Police could instantly be alerted to their presence.

This would be bad for Criminals. For instance, if anybody is mugged in a dark alley, then simply by consulting the Records it could be easily determined who was in that particular Alley at the time of the Illegal Infraction. Equally, on the other side of it, the Innocent could greatly benefit. How often do we hear the cry from the Jails and the Prisons of “It was not me!” “I didn’t do it”. Yes, so often people (victims and witnesses) miss-identify suspects… when both the Evening and the Suspect are dark, so to speak, nobody can be sure of what is really seen, and victims and corroborating witnesses assume that the Police are arresting suspects for good reasons and feel pressures not nullify the hard work of the Police by expressing such seemingly counterproductive doubts just when arrests can be made. So it is that the System sometimes strikes at Crime blindly, but only because it is kept in the Dark. But with Chip Tracking and Chip Identification every Innocent Person automatically will have an official alibi. This is especially good for people who live alone, who, under the Old Regime can be accused of anything, done anytime, done anywhere, because, until cats can talk, they would never be able to assert an alibi. In our Modern Societies where it is so often incumbent upon us to prove our own innocence, the Chip should be welcomed with open arms and dancing in the streets.

However, Privacy Fanatics might suppose that the World will break out in Bloody Protest before submitting to Identity Chipping, but it could very well be welcomed by most people when the benefits for themselves are pointed out. But I do realize that Popular Media Propaganda for close to a hundred years now have been heavily on the side of Criminality, Anarchy and Privacy. It seems that many of the People with the Most to Hide are very wealthy and have connections in Publishing, Movies, TV and Radio. We have been bombarded with totally Artificial Scenarios of how bad it would be if the Truth were Known about Things. We have been left to suppose that Governments would Naturally hold Goodness and Purity against us, and would persecute and prosecute us for merely being good and decent Human Beings and for minding our own businesses. The real fact of the Matter is that the Worst Criminal Elements have put forward this intensive Propaganda Campaign in order to maintain their Massive Criminal Enterprises in the Dark, maintaining Privacy as the First and Foremost Right within Liberal Democracy. But we should wake up to the Deceptions and Impositions and announce to ourselves and the World that finally there will be Light.

The Technology is already here. We can choose now to chase the Criminals and the Terrorists out of the Darkness of Institutionalized Privacy Rights.

The Free Masons and Conspiracy Theory

The Free Masons and Conspiracy Theory

Okay, anytime you have National Security States, that is, where more than half of all Government generated reports are Classified so that nobody can lawfully discuss with anybody what they are doing or why, then you will have Outsiders trying their best to figure out What, Why, When and Where. Honestly, how does anybody suppose it is consistent that a Democracy can also be a National Security Police State? People frozen out of all relevant information sources can hardly make informed decisions.

Anyway, important things happen. But nobody says boo. Well, things don’t just happen. So Independent People work backwards from the Events to possible causes, motives, and all the necessary dynamics of planning and coordination on which such momentous events must depend. And when looking at every single variable known and discussed by the Public, or to the Public, well, there is this huge VOID. All these things that HAPPEN could not have possibly happened, not with the powers, potentials and agencies we can now take count of. Something is missing.

But this is where Free Masonry comes in – when Government Agencies and even Private Entities SEEM to be working together. Orders and Agendas coming out of NOWHERE. The Government and Private Corporations insist that they have absolutely no documentation to explain their involvement in these certain momentous events, and they are most likely being truthful, because it is the Free Masons who are carrying the ball and making the plays. And they have never submitted their Records for examination.
It is an honest concern when everything that is otherwise unexplainable has only one thing in common, that the Leadership of every Agency, Company and Organization in involved is in the hands of the Free Masons.

A Real Avatar A Real Christ A Real Matraiya

A Real Avatar, a Real Christ, a Real Matraiya

Hope is one thing. Faith is one thing. But Certainty is another.

People see a claimant to the much hoped for position of World Savior, and they hope that he is for real. But the Hope may exceed all reasonable bounds.

The honest process would be to wait and observe. Are all actions and words befitting of a World Savior? If yes, then fine. But if found lacking, then what is the purpose of making extenuating excuses? Honestly, will a real World Savior be so soon and easily detected for being lacking in Deed and Word? Can mere mortals brush aside the Flaws of their Saviors? Or even should they?

I’ve had a lifetime of Dreams of Messianic Figures, and for the most part they were flawed. Only I was not kidding myself. These Dreams would give me every indication I was in the Presence of a King or some Great Leader, and then these Personages would come off acting silly somehow. It was disappointing and puzzling.

But I am glad, now, that I did not make excuses for them.

Recently I had a dream of a Worthy Messianic Figure. No Vanity. No immaturity. No self-preoccupation. There in my dream was a Strong and Determined Messianic Figure with a Purpose, and certainty to his step. He saw on the Horizon where the Battle was and resolutely headed for it.

That is who we need to wait for. If we toss in with every silly and stupid Pretender, then who will believe us when we finally come across the Real Thing?

Feelings Over Thinking

Feelings Over Thinking

Several Centuries ago, when the Ideals of Democracy were for the first time envisioned for the Modern World, they referred to their Age as the Age of Reason, and nobody spoke seriously of Democracy without putting forward the corollary notion that Public Education and the unrestricted publication of Ideas would inform the Public Mind and make Democracy Reasonable. Nobody ever supposed that an Uninformed and Unreasonable Public could possibly ever make intelligent and productive political decisions.

But at sometime during this long process toward Democracy the emphasis toward Enlightened Thought and Reasoning was allowed to recede into the Past. A New Ideal arose, though it was not so loudly spoken of, and that was that the Public Mind could be manipulated by Powerful Interests correct in Themselves, and the less the Public was actually Educated, the easier it would be to manipulate the Public Mind for the benefit of these Interests, assumed to be correct in themselves.

Well, actually it was not the Public Mind that would be influenced… we speak of the Public Mind only out of habit… but the Public’s Feelings – unreflective and uninformed gut reaction feelings. The less that anybody actually thought, the better. Feelings from the Heart. The Head would only get in the way of the purity of these feelings.

It puts me in mind of how I have always gotten out of Jury Duty… when the lawyers ask if I have any hobbies, I reply that I read books of fact and I think about it. Lawyers simply do not know what to do with that, as they have grown accustomed to only appealing to people’s feelings.

Now, some people might think that Feelings are the Way to Go, that Feelings are more honest than Thought. We can only Feel Good about Good things and if something makes us Feel Bad, well, it is a clear indication that it is probably bad. It is the Honesty of Aesthetics – the Good is Beautiful, and all Evil is Ugly. Well, that is what they want us to Think. But Art History shows us that Rembrandt thought fat chicks were cute. Feeling, Aesthetics, are not fixed.

But how are Feelings inculcated? All it really takes is Association – reward some Feelings and discourage others. Once Thinking has been discouraged, then the Propaganda Artist has a relatively easy job before him, as long as his Media Resources are veritably endless. For instance, both Nazis and Israelis are in fact bigots and in fact persecute the Minorities within their power (the Nazis call themselves the Master Race, and the Jews call themselves the Chosen People… whatever is the difference), and while the Media unexceptionally vilifies the Nazis, the Israelis, on the other hand are presented as the Chosen People of God, or at least quiet any opposition to Israeli Persecution by associating such criticism to a Renaissance in Nazi Evil. Any THOUGHT would quickly undo this Nonsense, but while the Public Discussion is only conducted within the realm of FEELINGS, then all this irrational manipulation of Public Feeling is allowed to seriously influence World Democratic Politics.

And it is continuing. Now, EVERYTHING BLACK IS GOOD, and all criticism of anything Black is BAD. So attacks on the Gay Community, exploiting easy Religious Based Propaganda being played out on the Black Community is given a Free Pass because it has become politically impossible to criticize anything Black. However, it was recently been uncovered that nearly all the money going into the Black Community to influence their FEELINGS on the Anti-Gay Issue have come from Out of State, from the Mormons in Utah. White Mormons. Again, while the System works only on FEELINGS we are all too easily manipulated by anybody who has become jaded and cynical enough to wish to Pull the Strings.

And few people are aware of the Problem. Even on so called Intellectual Discussion Forums elaborate thought and logical constructions are attacked whenever it is found that it simply does not FEEL RIGHT. And these Sites more often than not go with their Feelings. Feelings are automatic, but it takes work to Think.