From Whence, Whither To?

 

Here, on the precipice of the Brave New World, we have reached a nexus in history as seems to happen every 500 years.  The Age of Exploration and the Renaissance was the last moment of choice, and the outcome of our current age will steer history for centuries to come.

There are three contexts which are in flux, as they always are at these nexus points - culture, reason and politics.  Within the context of culture, we find religion, art and education.  Under the topic of reason, we find science, health and philosophy.  The topic of politics encompasses law, social order and economics.

That culture is in turmoil is indisputable by even the most bovine character.  Religion of all flavors has been in decline for the last century.  Art has devolved from ascendant aesthetics to taping bananas to the wall.  Education, particularly in the West, is completely wrecked by any classical standard.

At the last nexus point, the Catholic Church dominated the West, and by extension of the Age of Exploration, much of the world.  In AD 1000, the Church declared dominion over the entire Earth in trust for the return of Christ.  This moment set up the following nexus, where the European powers were subservient to Rome, though in the 1500s, Martin Luther and Johannes Gutenberg were already planting the seeds that would flower in our current nexus. We now see the Church as a faded and corrupt relic of a day long past.  This is only one example, but the ability of religion to dominate and control culture is withering fast.

Art is quite nearly dead, and has been in the throes for a century.  For centuries, art was the elevation of raw materials to sublime beauty.  Canvas, pigment and stone were manipulated to draw out form, balance and harmony to transcend the materials used.  In the last nexus, art exploded in an orgy of creativity and new techniques that reformed the degraded culture in the Great Rebirth.  In our current nexus, we see herds of mindless sycophants applauding piles of garbage, a pair of glasses and regurgitated milk.  Even our newest art form - film/video/photography - has rotted and putrefied in less than a century, to the point it no longer elecates and educates, but dictates and castigates.  Art has crossed the line from the sublime to the propagandistic.  It has become a celebration of the ugly, the profane and the sacrelege. 

When it comes to education, it is nearly impossible to find an example of it anywhere in our nexus.  The very concept of teaching the tools of critical thinking is derided, and people with degrees in "education" are lauded while simultaneously being self-contradictory - how can one be "educated" in education?  Rote recital of doctrine has replaced logical inquiry at every level and in every college  The humanities are little more than ideological clap-trap, and the sciences have devolved to grant chasing.  One no longer learns to question assumptions, but to regurgitate them as Truth and never question them.  This is not education.  Reasoning with letters and numbers is derided as antiquated foolishness, while universities literally offer doctorates in foolishness.

As the culmination of culture, reason is a fundamental quality of civilazation.  That science, health and philosophy are the results of applying art, religion and education to the great questions of existence.  Science is supposed to seek fects in repeatable patterns that are free of bias and assumption.  This leads to greater health and logetivity, providing us with more time to pursue truth, and this, in turn, leads to philosophy, where facts are intrepreted for meaning within the randomness of the Universe.  Sciene, though, has been perverted into providing plausibility to stupidity, which undermines our health, and robs us of the search for meaning by corrupting facts and diverting our time to circular pursuits.

Take for example the scourge of our nexus point - the COVID pandemic.  The most profound assumption of this whole event is that viruses make us sick.  Rather than constantly examining the facts underlying the pandemic, science has been co-opted to uphold the dictates of organizations with agendas, the most crass of which is profit.  This undermines our health, not because we are getting sick from a virus, but because the reactions we are told to have are based on an incorrect assumption.  This culminates in a philosophy of humanity versus nature, rather than us against our selves, and so our search for truth is completely derailed by a simple, inccorect assumption.  How much different would our world be right this moment if we assumed that illness was not caused by the virus, but rather our body's response to its presence was making us sick?

At the apex of the foregoing sits politics.  How we conceive of and institute the legal, ordinal and economic structures of our civilization are completely dependent on our cultural and rational underpinnings.  What we call moral and acceptable is a function of our art, education and science.  Though all of these things may be categorized and typed, they are ultimately and completely dependent on each other to craft moral law, order and exchange.  Art determined harmony.  Harmony crafts fairness.  Fairness informs the law.  The law establishes order.  Order allows for exchange.  Exchange buys us health.  Health delivers philosophy.  Undermine any of these, and our world is thrown out of balance.  Undermine all of them and we arrive at a nexus point of choice.

At the last nexus 500 years ago, we chose the secular nation-state over genetic sovereigns; we chose capitalism and a vibrant middle class over command economies and rigid class systems; we chose free and open inquiry into the nature of the Universe over superstition and magic.  In other words, our species entered its puberty.  It is interesting that a debate now rages over puberty-arrestng drugs and gender fluidity, as a kind of metaphor for our civilization at large.

In our current nexus, we are faced with the ultimate choice - turn back to childhood, or proceed into adulthood.  Do we cling to Santa Claus and the Eater Bunny?  Or do we open our eyes to reality and responsibility?  In AD 1000, our species chose to turn back to childhood, and it was another 500 years before we finally accepted the inevitable.  Once again, we face reversing course and cowering in our myths and legends, or boldly and maturely stepping into our next stage of development.

We don't wake up one day and find that we are adults.  It is a process of develoment in which certain values and realities become inevitable.  In the same way, our species has been making a series of choices over the past century or so that have been leading us to a moment of critical choice.  It is not whether we wear a mask or a certain individual becomes president of a country tha tultimately matters.  It is rather that what we choose now will accelerate or inhibit our journey towards the inevitable.

That we will be forced eventually to mature as a species is inevitable.  When we will accept that reality and the responsibility that goes with it

We all know individuals who were responsible and mature at a young age, and others we generally refer to as "late bloomers".  This is the nature of our current nexus.  It is as simple, yet as complex as that.  Watching an individual mature at the gross scale seems fairly straight forward, but observing the process on the cellular level is mind-numbingly complex.  In either case, the process happens and only our understanding and appreciation of the process differes.

Like all adolescents, there are powerful forces pulling us in different directions.  Part of our species wants to remain in the familiar and carefree world of magic and fantasy, while the inexorable force of Nature herself is dragging us into the realm of adult responsibility and mature wisdom.  We are each a cell in the body politic, a neuron in the collective mind.  Consciously or not, we each are pushing or pulling, advancing or regressing

At some point, though, we must realize as a species that remaining forever children will be hazardous to our health.

This is the true Great Reset.

Antifastan

I have lived in both a Catholic and a Buddhist monastery.  I have experienced first-hand a communal lifestyle in which one contributes according to one's abilities and talents, and receives according to one's needs.

Those communities produced products that were sold to the world at large and the revenues were put into the community treasury for use to benefit the community.  Every member had food and clothing, a cell (personal space), medical care as needed, and time off once a week for personal pursuits.

In exchange, the individual contributed labor, ideas and vigilance to the greater good of the community.  Each individual submitted to the will of the community and took an oath to follow the rules and goals of the community.

In both cases, the communal goals were loftier than the community itself, or any individual who comprised it.  The central goal in both cases was enlightenment and the entire community was committed to providing everything the individual needed to achieve that goal.  It is a deceptively simple system, but functional as proven by the fact that monasteries have existed for thousands of years.

My monastic experience taught me that communism (little 'c') is not an inherently bad system, and it can be manifested is many different flavors that are all equally beneficial to the individual.  However, I have never been able to conceive of a means to expand a system like this beyond a small, close-knit community with a single overarching goal.

It should be noted at this point that communism and socialism are not equivalent.  Communism supports the individual's journey, while socialism is focused solely on promoting the State at the individual's expense.

When we look at Antifastan, or the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) as they like to call it, we see none of the ideals or organization that are hallmarks of a successful alternative system.  Despite the rhetoric of wanting to establish a fair and equitable alternative to the greater society, they immediately set up walls to control "immigration," established a paramilitary police force, began demanding "taxes" from the local population, and issuing edicts that are effectively fiat laws.  In other words, they immediately became what they are supposedly fighting.  Their actions belie their words, which is typical of these kinds of movements.

Essentially, Antifastan is all about power - who has it, who wields it.  There is no higher ideal or goal that transcends the community.  There is no sense of justice or an equal playing field that protects access to opportunity for the community, just aggrandizement and fame for the self-appointed leaders and click-bait for their social media scoreboards.

The united States were founded on the ideals of The Enlightenment - that all people are fundamentally of equal value and deserve a System tha protects their basic bundle of congenital rights, so that they can pursue those things most important to their individual well-being.  In this sense, the US was conceived as the purest form of communism (little 'c'), much like a monastery on a grand scale.

The US was thusly founded on the concept that the community provides the infrastructure of fairness that allows the individual to achieve some higher ideal.  The primary difference between a monastery and the US system lies in the overarching ideal.  The monastery is a group of individuals seeking a common goal, while the US was supposed to allow the individual to select and pursue their own goal.  It's a subtle but significant difference.

What we witness in Antifastan is the community being forced to support one individual's or group's goals, without respect for any other member's needs and desires.  There is no declaration of common rights, just a sense that all must contribute to the leadership's selfish desires.

As someone watching from afar, I am reminded of the novel Lord of the Flies, with a generous dash of Animal Farm for flavor.  We see a group of children using force to gain and hold perceived power at all costs, while essentially declaring "some animals are more equal than others."

I would find myself supporting something like Antifastan if I saw a mature and sincere effort to demonstrate the advantages of an alternative system.  What I see, however, is the same corruption that has destroyed the original concept of the US.

In surveying history, the primary problem I see with all governments is that no one has yet devised a self-correcting system that inherently rejects corruption.  At some point, the Seven Deadly Sins find a way to derail the cogs of governance and redirect the ideals to serve one individual's or group's purposes.  Thomas Jefferson, who thought about this problem extensively, ultimately concluded that the singular ideal must be embedded in the culture, and that the culture must 'refresh the tree of liberty from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots.'

Here, we reach the crux of the current situation.  The corrupting forces realize that the culture is the key to success.  They are doing everything possible to destroy and obfuscate the cultural ideal so that the urge to reform is gone, and is supplanted by the corruption itself.  In other words, it all depends on what the definition of "enlightenment" is.  If Enlightenment is defined as achieving a state of pure Love and Morality, then the culture serves to clear the path to that ideal.  If the definition of Enlightenment is to satiate the base desires of the individual, then the culture will clear the path to that ideal.  In either case, the culture is the key to success, however it is defined.

Antifastan is nothing more than an expansion of the child's "all for me" ideal.  It is the expression of the base desires for attention and power.  It is the embodiment of 'some animals being more equal than others.'

Once upon a time, Western culture held up the mature adult with balanced mind, body and spirit as the ideal.  In the last 50 years, we have seen that ideal warp and devolve into eternal childhood - the utter rejection of responsibility for one's self and the goal of elevating one's self above the inner animal.

In another time, the "leaders" of Antifastan would have had their mothers grab them by the ear and march them home, where fathers would apply judicious corporal punishment.  Now, the social institutions are glorifying this childish display, further eroding the hard-fought advances in Western philosophy.

True communism, such as we see in monasteries, seeks to combine the total effort of the community into a solid and secure foundation from which the individual can achieve higher goals without the constant distrction of daily needs.

Antifastan is the glorification of daily needs over all other concerns.  It sacrifices the individual's journey towards enlightenment on the altar of physical gratification

Is this really what we want - to be technological animals satiating our base desires at the expense of all else?  Or are we seeking to build a level foundation that removes certain key variables that stand in the way of our evolution towards the Divine?

The Name Of The Q

We want to express our sincerest thanks to Jeff Rense and his team for their invaluable support.  If this topic interests you, please keep an eye on the Rense Radio Network for exclusive content and updates as we ferret out the Q.

Previous posts:
Deep Throat v, Q
Q The Conspiracy - A Phenomenon
The Gospel According To Q
A-Marketing We Will Q

In this ongoing series of articles, we have presented evidence that the Q Phenomenon is a sophisticated multi-layered psy-op that appeared fully conceived in late October 2017 on 4chan, later moving to 8chan.

We have shown that Q purports to impart covert information to followers in multiple dimensions, where it is not only the message, but the medium iteself that has meaning.

At its most basic level, Q functions as an "insider" source for information on Trump's promised effort to "drain the swamp."  At this level, Q resembles Deep Throat during the Watergate era, except that Q places its entire audience in the role of reporters Woodward and Bernstein, thus subverting mainstream media filters.

We have proposed that Q is a sophisticated marketing/PR campaign that uses classic design, but in a weaponized form.  The many layers of the campaign work on numerous levels to attract as diverse an audience as possible.  Q uses standard Pavlovian Response methods to "establish and associate," a technique where engendered trust is extended to include other concepts, individuals and groups.  This is the core of the psy-op aspect.

We theorize that Q operates by design with key religious elements that spread through the social media culture at amazing, if not alarming pace.  Elements such as revealed truth, hierarchical structure, occult interpretation, and prophesy all play a significant role.  Followers have developed a fanatical and even cult-like community around Q that demands strict adherence to a kind of "theology," or risk excommunication.

We have already and continue to develop tests and specific predictions to establish the validity of our working hypothesis.  It stands to reason that if Q is operating on multiple levels of meaning, including symbolic, emotional, rational, and historical, then even the name "Q" should have significant meanings across various areas of interest, working in concert with the other proposed elements we have detailed.

With this in mind, we investigated various uses of the name "Q" in other areas of society.  To be significant, the use of "Q" should have appeared well before the rise of the extant phenomenon, so as to be included as an aspect of the Q design, and not be a result of it.  Previous uses of the name would ideally intersect with the various elements of our theory in a meaningful way, such that other meanings of "Q" would add insight into how the Q Phenomenon is designed, how it functions, and how the entity(ies) behind it think.

We were not disappointed.  We found no less than six distinct, superficially unrelated uses of the name "Q" in widely disparate fields that conceptually and significantly intersect with our theory.  These findings serve as a confirmation that we are looking in the right places, as well as enhance the view that Q is operating at multiple levels in a way that is sometimes referred to as "4-D thinking".

Note that we use the neutral pronoun "it" when referring to Q, because at this point, we are not sure who - or what - is behind it.  We do not want to limit our view, or the reader's, until some evidence arises regarding the nature of Q.

Q itself told us in early "drops" that the name refers to Q-level security clearance within the US federal government.  It is supposedly the highest level, allowing full knowledge of compartmentalized information, thus having access to the Big Picture when it comes to government secrets and intelligence.  Q also claims to be a function of US military intelligence, and so has access to roughly the same data, systems and techniques available to the NSA, CIA and other high-level intelligence agencies.

A couple of easy clicks led us to Wikipedia**, where Q-Clearance is indeed the highest level of security clearance, BUT only in the Department of Energy (DOE).  According to the article, Q-Clearance is equivalent to Top Secret within the military, but a distinction is clearly drawn with Q-Clearance limited to the DOE.  This is curious, as Q specifically claims to be military, but the claimed clearance only applies to the DOE.

It would be easy to dismiss Q at this point for not knowing or accurately establishing what it is talking about.  If the entity(ies) behind it are really military and in the US government, they should be well aware of this distinction.

Too easy.

If our model is correct, Q would choose a name based on a number of dimensions, rather than just a literal one.  The fact that Q-Clearance is equivalent to Top Secret (a.k.a. TS-SCI), it implies high-level access to information, while allowing for other dimensions of meaning.  It also provides a single, distinctive character to embody a complex collection of ideas in the form of a well designed and marketed "logo".

As a prediction, we believe that "energy" will play a role in Q as we continue to investigate.

Given what follows, it stands to reason that Q chose the name based on multiple intersections of meaning, rather than a strict definition of the security clearance term.

Our next stop is somewhat less spectacular, but in keeping with the overall design we propose, as well as having cultural and symbolic significance.

As we have mentioned before, Q is a character on Star Trek that has god-like powers.  Without rehearsing everything previously reported, suffice it to say this layer of reference would appeal to certain fan-type demographics, who would transfer their interest in sci-fi and humanist messages to the Q Phenomenon.  The inference of being god-like is in keeping with out model of what Q is, and what it desires to be seen as by the general audience.

In the TV series, the name Q refers to both an individual and a "race," which is also interesting in this context.  Being simultaneously one and many connotes a kind of symbolic Trinity.

It is noteworthy that the Q character is not considered trustworthy and his modus operandi is creating elaborate puzzles that the crew must decipher in order to escape some catastrophe.

Up next are two additional cultural references with varying levels of significance.  The is quite clearly related to the Q Phenomenon, where one of the main features of the operation is creating multi-leveled puzzles in order to transfer hidden meanings to the audience.  These puzzles are given ostensibly because the information is considered sensitive, and Q cannot just come out and say it.  It must be encoded and teased out by the Anons, so that Q is not actually "leaking" anything.

The first is the character Q in the James Bond series of novels and films.  Q, standing for "quartermaster," is the character responsible for designing high-tech weapons and gadgets for the Double-Oh spies in British intelligence operations.  This link is intriguing for the intersections with "British," "spy", "weapons" and "high-tech".

The "high-tech" and "weapons" aspects obviously connect with the sophisticated use of the internet and social media, and our proposed weaponization of that technology.

"British" and "spy" invoke the perceived close relationship of US and UK intelligence operations, especially GCHQ (!) and MI6, which are the UK equivalent of the NSA, CIA and other agencies.

"British" also invokes the 5-Eyes, an intelligence cooperative among the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.  The 5-Eyes have been referenced by Q on numerous occasions, making this a significant intersection with the Q name.

Q has also specifically claimed that data from the 5-Eyes circumvents US law and allows elements within the federal government access to data on US citizens, bypassing restrictions on domestic agencies.

On an emotional level, the link with James Bond would serve to romanticize Q and give it an element of action, adventure and suspense.  It serves to transfer all the emotional connotations of Bond's long history onto Q, providing a kind of instant history or background.

This, in turn, implies a battle against a sinister global network hell-bent on dominating the world, known as SPECTRE in the Bond universe.  This, too, is in keeping with the nature and interpretation of Q's drops over the past nine months, as it purports to stand against various individuals and organizations in the real world with similar goals and ambitions.

Another cultural reference is an obscure 1982 film entitled, "Q".  It would be easy to dismiss this reference, because it is rather obscure; however, it is interesting as the film deals with a group of New York City police investigating a series of mysterious murders using Aztec rituals that have apparently unleashed the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, a feathered serpent associated with, among other things, learning.

The initial letter "Q" in the god's name, yet another god reference, and the association with learning are all significant intersections with our model of the Q Phenomenon.  Q often states that followers must "learn our comms."  The snake image, of course, has all sorts of religious connotations.

The link with Mexico is also curious, given Trump's signature focus on the US border with that nation.  We also have in mind the Lady of Guadalupe, whose common depiction has her stepping on a snake - yet more religious symbolism.

At this point, it really starts to get interesting.

Thanks to a prompt from Joseph P. Farrell, we were led to the area of Biblical scholarship called, appropriately enough, the Q-Gospel.

Yes, the Q-Gospel!

In the early 20th century, Biblical scholars proposed a quelle (Germ., "source") for certain common elements in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew.  This "source" was theorized to stem from early Christian oral traditions composed primarily of Jesus' sayings.  The theory has fallen out of favor in recent years, but it nevertheless exists as a significant part of Biblical research and still attracts serious inquiry in the field.

We believe this reference should be obvious to the reader who saw our previous article called, "The Gospel According To Q."  That "Q" should randomly refer to an area of theological research stretches credulity, given the demonstrated multi-layered nature of the Q Phenomenon and its religious elements.

The final Q reference is the clincher, in our opinion.

In the field of mathematics, there is an area called Set Theory that examines the construction, content and relationships between sets.  Within this area, there is a sub-category called Q-Analysis.

Developed in the 1970s, Q-Analysis examines the alignments and intersections of sets in multiple dimensions.  It is used to examine "large-scale system structure, social networks and decision making," among other things.  It's function is to define how "sets" or "entities" relate and interact with each other, and how those relationships affect the internal content of the sets.

It should be immediately apparent to the reader that Q-Analysis describes almost exactly what we propose the Q Phenomenon is doing.  It is inserting itself into decision making, using and manipulating social networks, and can easily be used to measure and manipulate large-scale system structures, such as demographics and internet architecture.

Using Q-Analysis, someone could easily track the Q Phenomenon across the internet to map and quantify how information spreads and what effect it has on audiences down to fine detail.

Other than the definition and history of the actual letter "q", these are the only significant references for the "Q".  It was not necessary to make a value judgement for inclusion or exclusion of data.

That all these references should have internal elements directly related to our hypothesis, as well as conceptual relationships with each other through multiple, intersecting meanings and connotations is beyond random.

Six primary references to the letter "Q" can be found on the internet.  All six relate significantly to aspects of the Q Phenomenon.  All six have intersecting vertices in one or more dimensions.  All six match elements of our theory of Q.  And all six serve to increase and focus our understanding of the Q Phenomenon.

Since we propose that Q is messaging its audience on multiple levels in a 4-D system, it stands to reason that the name Q would also have multiple significant meanings.  That all six references have some degree of correlation with each other and with our theory of Q, it stands to reason that this serves as a confirmation of the theory, especially since they enhance and clarify aspects of our a priori speculations.

We therefore conclude that our theory withstands a major test, and that our operating assumptions about the Q Phenomenon are at least partially correct and worth pursuing.  This is by no means final and conclusive, but it is significant and instinctual, given our existing propositions.

It seems that we can now perceive some part of this real-life Matrix.  If what we have found so far is any indication, the ride is about to get a lot more interesting.

P.S. - one reader brilliantly added QED, used at the end of logical proofs, meaning quod erat demonstandum (Lat., that which was to be shown).  In quantum physics, it also means quantum electrodynamics, which also has interesting connotations.

I would also add that "Q" is shorthand frequently used by Lighting and Sound Operators, and computerized lighting and sounds boards to indicate when a change or effect is triggered - with interesting connotations.

I also forgot to mention "Max-Q," which is the point during a rocket launch where the rocket pitches over from perpendicular to the Earth's surface to parallel flight.  The rocket experiences the maximum mechanical stresses at this point.  It is the point when the shuttle Challenger exploded, and many other rockets disintegrated during the Space Age.

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**We do not recommend Wikipedia as a primary source, however it often has valuable leads linked in the RESOURCE section at the bottom of every page.  These links are sometimes primary sources, or at least lead to them.

You Ain't Him

Story link: https://www.rt.com/uk/417075-icymi-snowflake-offended-guide/

You know what really pisses me off? Bourgeois #Bumbledicks who spout off their overfed pie-holes about how they hate "white" culture and think "White" culture should be torn down. These puffed-up, sophmoric shit-wits sit in their protective arm chairs in New York or Los Angeles and complain about something they've never experienced. Nor has anyone else, for that matter.

I've been to 59 countries (and counting), many of them in Europe and North America, which are the supposed centers of "white" culture, and I have yet to encounter "white" culture.

I have greatly enjoyed Irish culture, German culture, Italian culture, Spanish culture, Portuguese culture, French culture, Dutch culture, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, even British culture. I have even experienced Swiss culture, which despite being composed of three distinct cultures, is nevertheless distinct in and of itself. And yes, even poor old Canada has a unique culture.

Russia and Greece have wonderfully distinct cultures even though they both use Cyrillic alphabets. I don't think anyone would argue that Israel has its own culture, despite being based on war, death and suffering.

I have been to 48 of the 50 US states, and each one of them has a very distinct culture.

South Africa, Australia and New Zealand have completely unique cultures.

Just where, exactly, is this "white" culture the Bumbledicks keep railing against? Apparently, they don't get out much. This is the problem with lard-butt boneheads who look at a couple of travel sites on the internet and think they've experienced culture. These dim-bulbs have more than likely never been to an art museum, opera or symphony, so they wouldn't know culture if it bit them on their over-protected posteriors.

When you listen to these uneducated blowhards talk, it's always in gross generalizations - black culture, white culture, hispanic culture. Hell, they barely speak English, much less Spanish or Portuguese, and wouldn't know Hispania if it slapped them across the face and rubbed their swollen noses in it.

These Bumbledicks talk about Native Americans with the wave of a hand in the general direction of North America, forgetting that there were/are hundreds of distinct cultures, and forgetting that America also applies to Central and South.

These disgusting, small-minded Bumbledicks want to put the world in tidy little boxes and label them according to which way the wind in blowing that day. They are so terrified of leaving their isolated, echo chamber compounds that they really have no idea what the world is really like. They spend their entire lives watching echo-chamber programming and spouting their slogans on echo-chamber social media that they don't have time to actually go out and subject their senses to real culture.

I get attacked all the time by these effluvium-encrusted snake tits all the time. They say I can't possibly understand the plight of the (insert box du jour), and that I belong to the "privileged white" box and should be punished. They never bother to notice I live in Indonesia, one of five countries I have lived in, speak 17 languages, am an artist, and have been around the world several times the hard way (not flying). In fact, I'm not even "white" - I'm pinkish-red with multi-colored spots. None of that, including my two non-white wives, disqualifies me from "white" privilege boxes or "white" culture boxes. None of that fits their tidy little categories that enable their hate and bile.

Somehow these lunatics earned a weekend furlough from the asylum and never went back. Unfortunately, the guards too overpaid and under-motivated to go find them. They weaselled their way into areas with microphones and started broadcasting their insanity to a nonplussed world. It's a sad but true fact that we must all live with that mistake we sane folk can take the microphones away from them.

The heart of the matter is that us sane folks believe that everyone deserves a chance to express their opinion. It's called free speach, and we consider it a valueable natural right that no one can abridge. However, these stoop-headed boat anchors want to spew their sputum all over us, while denying us the right to shower off afterwards. Don't know about you. but this doesn't fly in my cabin.

Sorry, Bumbledicks, it's time to put you down. You have gotten out of hand and you are now a danger to polite society. Your minions think violence againe person and property is a good idea. Your minions think that gagging reasonable voices is just hunky-dory. Your minions are choking out the good grass with weeds. This cannot be tolerated, even by exceedingly tolerant people. You get to speak, but you aren't allowed to hush. Your right to live is based entirely on your willingness to let live.

Take your hateful, segregationist, privileged rubbish and go crawl back into the cave you slithered out of. The clear thinkers are retaking the asylum and Bumbledicks aren't allowed to roam freely. The way you should have dont it was to express your opinion, let others do the same, and argue based on facts. You blithering fools dove off some deep end the rest of us cannot and will not follow.

Diversity includes everyone or it includes no one. That's how it works.

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, and you ain't him/her/it/them/xim/xer.

The Fragments I Have Shored

"LET us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats        5
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question….        10
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.

"In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo."
--The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T. S. Eliot

In an age of eternal turmoil, what can possibly remain important?  If every moment of every day is a new superlative, the world becomes devoid of comparatives.

I remember when the Guiness Book of World Records was a big deal.  Us boys bought the new edition every year and would faithfully memorize the most amazing facts we could find to regale our friends with factoids.  It was also fun to see which records had not fallen since the previous year.

Kids today don't seem to care.  Just waking up sets new records, or so it seems.  The world is in a constant state of flux, where extraordinary events are commonplace, and the commonplace is the most vile form of mundane and banal.


I briefly reminisced on Skype early this morning with a friend back in Texas.  We marveled for a moment at our ability to conduct business and have conversations in real time half a world apart.  In fact, those abilities were free, outside of the minimal monthly charge for internet access.  The stuff of wildly absurd science-fiction movies and books just 40 years ago are now expected, and even necessary to daily life.

What is even more amazing is the cavalier manner in which most of us accept the extraordinary as something expected and required.  No different, really, than the way my generation treated cars, which were to my parents and grandparents extraordinary new devices.

Eventually, the world gets away from us.  We reach an age in which the marvels are far too frequent and amazing to bother paying attention.  We relegate the responsibility to our kids and grandkids to keep up with it all, as we opt to stroll down familiar lanes and greet old experiences.

If you are under 40 and reading this, then the same thing will happen to you, far sooner than you would imagine possible, especially now as the marvels come faster and faster.  Eventually, you will cease to be amazed, even excited.  Eventually, you will throw up your hands and quit worrying about all of it and just be happy to sit and watch the clouds.

Just as the blacksmith gave way to the mechanic, and the mechanic will give way to self-repairing robots, we all become obsolete.  We all outlive our usefulness and even our desire to remain relevant to the extant culture.  After a while, it's enough to pluck a fresh tomato and bell pepper from the garden, make some homemade vinaigrette and enjoy a fresh salad for lunch with the taste of sunshine still in it.

It's not that the creative spark is spent, it's just that we cover it with dirt in the hopes of reviving the fire later in the day with some new catch to roast.

It's not that we no longer enjoy the race, it's just that we finally realize there is no winner - each wave is ultimately overtaken by the next.

The best part is reaching that point where we no longer give a high hoot what anyone else thinks, and just worry about what makes us happy.  You can set all the records you want, but at some point someone else will come along and erase all your efforts.

It's not a bad thing, really, to realize it's fairly pointless.  The memories make a fond companion, if we bothered in our youth to make them.  That, I suppose is the real crime of hte extant culture.  All memories come through a box now.  There is no adventure, no pitting one's self against the elements and being self-satisfied that we survived whatever the world could throw at us.

It is not the same to launch an app.  There is no sense of victory at overcoming time and space.  There is no Grand Battle to fight when we can simply send a robot to do a Man's work.  The only frontier left is the one inside, and precious few dare go there now.

I grow old ... I grow old ...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

"Shall I part my hair behind?   Do I dare to eat a peach? 
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. 
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."

It Ain't Art Till It Hurts

In my career, I have been a writer, producer, director, actor, designer, sculptor, painter, poet, musician, composer, cinematographer, videographer, photographer, critic, and reviewer.  I have studied art, art history, theater, film, and language.  I have been a patron and collector.  And in every case, I have assiduously avoided glorifying the profane and shocking my audience.

I love art.  I am an artist.  I create provocative things that are pleasant and edify.

I hate contemporary art.

I detest Mark Rothko and Roy Lichtenstein.  I would kindle my hearth with Jackson Pollock if I could afford the price of admission.  I find Andy Warhol detestable and pedestrian.  I think much of Edward Albee is disposable.  I find much of Philip Glass' later work to be a parody of his earlier genius.  And pretty much anything produced in any art form since the late 70s is vile and corrupt.

That's the short answer.

At some point in the history of art, beginning around the turn of the 20th century, art took a dark and foreboding turn into the nihilistic and desperate.  With the decay of the education system across the board, artists were forced to do anything to get attention, though once gotten, they had no idea what to do with it.  So they pissed on crucifixes, shat on canvasses, shot spastic out-of-focus rubbish, and pounded their tail ends on keyboards like children unable to express themselves with good diction.

The critics, unable to utter coherent phrases, oohed and ahhed over these sophomoric tantrums as if they were timeless masterpieces.  They convinced the well-heeled to drop obscene amounts of money on these trash heaps, which they did because they, too, were uneducated and slovenly.

Across the aesthetic spectrum, crass practitioners reinforced each other's errors.  The idiots created rubbish, which the critics hailed as genius, which the nouveau riche bought in a craven attempt to look chic.

All the while, the uncultured cretins pressed the concept that art was not objective, that art was "expression", and that art was nearly anything removed from context and well lit with a glass of wine and a few slices of over-ripe cheese.

The fact is, art is a language that has grammar and vocabulary developed over centuries of human experience.  It can be spell-checked and graded just like any high school essay.  Most especially, once you are trained in the language, you recognize slang and poor usage immediately.

When schools (at any level) are stressed financially, without fail the first thing to be jettisoned is the art department.  Not that it matters much, since most art teachers are clueless about the fundamentals, nor how to relate them to the world at large.

Most people anymore are unaware that art has its own grammar, vocabulary and tropes, like any language.  It should be taught as a language and used as a language.  It has genres and traditions, like any literary system, and it has a profound effect on society because it transcends boundaries like no other language can.

The grammar of art includes balance, harmony, rhythm, variety, emphasis, gradation, movement, pattern, and proportion.  These create the syntax of art - the composition of the visual sentence into which meaning is poured.

The vocabulary of art is space, line, shape, form, color, texture, and value.  These are the words that carry meaning and emotion.  They create depth, breadth, heighth, weight, and significance.

On top of these are the tropes, such as myth, legend, history, religion, humanity, and dozens of other tales and emotions.

At best, contemporary art is a jumble of vocabulary without structure or meaning.  In the case of Jackson Pollock and many others, it is literally letters and words completely out of context, highlighting form without function, and entirely devoid of meaning.

By the time the art world had devolved to Andy Warhol, art had become glorification of common objects far beyond any true significance.  At this point, the mundane and profane had triumphed over the aesthetic and beautiful.  It was akin to speaking jibberish interlaced with profanities.  In other words, it was not only meaningless, it was offensive.

The purpose of this devolution of art is horrific in its simplicity.  It is a concerted effort to reduce the human mind to its most base level and remove any possibility of rising above it.  Beethoven has become Snoop Dogg.  Michaelangelo has reduced to Millie Brown.  William Shakespeare has rotted out to Hamilton.

Make no mistake, this has been a planned train wreck.  If humans are unable to understand the great works of the past, much less approach or exceed their artistry, then they will be entirely too stupid to challenge the ruling class.  How gratifying it must be for the Master Class to profit from the swine wallowing in the slime, literally immersing cultural icons in feces and urine and celebrating it as transcendent.

Soon, if now already, humanity will be cut off from its heritage, unable to grasp the basics, much less interpret the message.  It does not matter the medium - whether words or paint, stone or music.  Once divorced of history and culture, the masses become nothing more than malleable objects and playthings of the self-appointed gods.

If you have children or grandchildren, it is vital that they receive proper education in the arts - all arts.  They must be taught the grammar and vocabulary of art, no matter what medium.  They should not be allowed to graduate without having written a story, acted in a play, recited a poem, thrown and fired a pot, painted a canvas, and sung a song.  They should know not only the structure of the language, but at least have spoken a few paragraphs of the great masters.

In fact, when was the last time you went to the museum, enjoyed a play, or attended the symphony?  The best teacher is example.

ADHD - Alleged Digital Hyperreality Disorder

Age has its advantages.  Since I rounded 50, I've noticed I am much more patient now.  Whenever I am surrounded by idiots in traffic, my first impulse is not to jump out of the car and start shooting.  Now, I'm perfectly content to use a knife.

It's a good thing too, since any more it seems idiocy is proliferating.  People are literally becoming incapable of making simple decisions without a device to tell them what to do.  Even the smart ones still rely on authority figures to think for them, though the authority figures rely on devices for guidance, as well.

The world is being conquered by gee-gaws and apps and not only are we voluntarily submitting, we are obligingly running out and paying for the latest sparkly things in a box and downloading the newest version of the old Magic 8-Ball to make decisions for us.

It's rather frightening.  On the occasions when I lower my shields enough to wander into a location with more than 4 people in a herd, I am astounded by the complete lack of interaction with one's surroundings exhibited by most folk.  Of course, there have always been places like New York City, where people assiduously avoided human interaction, but this is different.  At least the Yankees would occasionally look up to see where they were going.  Now folks are so absorbed by their digital masters, they can't tear their eyes away from the pretty pictures and sparkly lights.

It's a form of hypnotism.  Any hypnotist will tell you that the target must be willing to be controlled, and that is certainly what we see today.  People would rather have virtual discussions (granting a certain level of non-existent intellectualism) with people they have never met living thousands of miles away, than to simply look up from the screen and say hello to a living, breathing human being standing directly in front of them.

It's extremely rare now for anyone under 30 to be able to hold a conversation.  At best, on the incredibly auspicious occasions one can elicit a spoken word, these zombies talk in 145-word bytes.  And that's only if they can be distracted long enough to form a complete sentence.  If such a miracle happens, you can watch the zombie's eyes being continuously pulled down to their god-in-hand, hardly able to rip their minds away from the magic incantations scrolling across the screen.

When I was in the pink of youth, the whole purpose of a work week was to have enough dough in my pocket to gather with friends, take in cultural events, raise (more than) a few glasses, and TALK.  If we went to a movie, we actually watched it (having paid for the privilege) and then - gasp, horror - would sit around and discuss it.

Don't know if you've been to a movie lately, but even dating couples sit through the flick with only the barest of attention given to the Big Screen and their partner, but as they leave the cinema, they are once again buried in their blinky lights.  They don't even have a hand free to hold their paramour.

I know, I know...even Aristotle complained about the Youth of Athens 3,000 years ago, but I think he would be horrified at the complete disconnect between living a real life and some virtual estimation of it.

I sometimes wonder what would happen if it all switched off tomorrow.  Can you imagine the sheer panic?  Literally no one would have a clue how to navigate without GPS, or find a meal without Zomato, or hold a conversation without "social" media, or form an opinion without first checking the Political Correctness gods?

Would they know how to express an emotion without "emojis"?  Hell, would they even know what a genuine, human emotion was?  How would folks react if they didn't have their little boxes to insulate them from real human interaction?  Would they know the basic pleasantries of civilized interaction?

What's worse than all this is the fact that humans are being trained literally from birth to depend on gadgets.  Toy cell phones appear in cribs now, with real, functioning devices placed in children's hands by no later than 3 or 4 years old.

When I was a child, I sat around listening to adult conversations, learning about the larger world that I had only just become aware of...Now, children sit in corners playing digital games, oblivious to the world until the wifi signal is disrupted.

This "life" was once the stuff of sci-fi horror movies, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  Yet, here we are watching come to life - such as it is - moment by moment.  Our families and friends are slowly taken over by flashy things, becoming robotic shells of emotionless zombies with cartoonish swirls in their eyes.  When one looks into their eyes, there's no "there" there.

For millennia, humans have wasted kajillions of dollars and lives in wars trying to take over other countries.  No longer needed.  Now just hypnotize the natives with blinky things and walk right in.  No one will ever know the difference.

It is a sad commentary that...oops, sorry, text message...

Fatwa On Joy

It's that time of year again when supposedly "Muslim" trouble-makers run around the country destroying private property and claiming Indonesia is an Islamic country.  By that I mean that certain groups claiming to be "defenders of the faith" decide that Christmas decorations and costumes are offensive and take it upon themselves to harm others in the name of God.

Not that it is all that unusual.  Private holiday displays are attacked even in the US.  A bunch of Texas busybodies tried to ban a poster featuring Charlie Brown's Christmas images.  A court had to rule that it was OK as long as it was clear that the poster was produced by a private individual and not a public organization.

In the case of Indonesia. the Ministry of Religion (MUI) issued a fatwa (religious edict) banning private companies from requiring their employees to wear Santa hats and other festive items.  This led the police chiefs in several regions to issue circulars claiming the fatwa was law.  Based on that, the Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI), a quasi-official bunch of busybodies, marched into malls in Surabaya (large East Java city) under police escort to confiscate and destroy private property.

This, in turn, led to the National Police Chief ordering the regional police to stand down, while at the same time sending a representative to the MUI to ensure that fatwas are not issued as law, but only guidance for Islamic followers.

The FPI is notable for destroying bars and entertainment businesses during Ramadhan and extorting money and food from Christian churches to stop them from interfering with services, especially during Christmas time.  They are, in effect, a radical enforcement group for Shariah law, which has no legal standing in Indonesia.  The nation's constitution recognizes five religions as having equal protection under the law.

Anyone with any sense knows that Santa hats are about as religious as Charlie Brown cartoons.  As I wrote yesterday, most of the icons and traditions of Christmas are actually based on very ancient Roman and German festivals.  Most holiday displays, especially in malls and other business establishments, are little more than enticements to spend money and are as far removed from Christian dogma as one can get.

At the root of all this is the belief that dominant groups of people have the right not to be offended, or in the case of political correctness, that overly sensitive and highly vocal minorities have the same right.  The fact is that if the world tried to ameliorate every possible offense, the world would simply cease to function.

Numbnuts, such as the FPI and the ass that drove a truck into a crowd of holiday shoppers in Berlin obviously don't read their own book.  It states quite clearly:

“There is no compulsion where the religion is concerned.” (Holy Quran: 2/ 256)

In other words, mind your own business and leave everyone else alone. There are plenty of Christians, atheists and what-nots who could take this to heart, as well.

The frequent reader here knows that I have no truck with organized religion.  I find the history of violence, dogmatic mind control and division to be offensive to a Waking Life of Reason.

By the same token, I find religious holiday displays fascinating and a great opportunity to enjoy and learn from a variety of cultures and histories, from Dia de los Muertos to the ogah-ogoh during Nyepi to the anamatronic Christmas tableaus in the windows of Sakowitz in my youth.

In the end, it is the rich diversity of cultures and traditions that make life worth living.  The ability of one to one's own holidays is predicated on allowing others the same courtesy, and in so doing seize the opportunity to find the kernels of truth that lie at the heart of all traditions.  One doesn't have to be Christian to enjoy a cute salesgirl wearing foam-rubber antlers, or the bizarre Hindu art of an ogoh-ogoh, or the intricate display of an ofrenda, just as one doesn't have to be Muslim to enjoy the flowing calligraphy of Quranic verses or the geometric pleasures of mosaic panels.

In an ideal world, people are not only allowed but encouraged to put up their holiday displays.  But more to the point, the rest of us should be open to the pure enjoyment of the festivities and use the opportunity to expand our knowledge and experience of the world's cultural wealth.  The mindless destruction of others' traditions achieves nothing but hatred and belies the weakness of one's own culture and beliefs.

Live and let live is a simple yet profound philosophy.  In granting others the room to enjoy their lives, we receive in turn the room to enjoy our own.  Denying any one group's right to enjoy their culture forces all of us into a life of prolonged paranoid defensiveness and removes the possibility that any of us can experience joy.

Is that any way to live?

Slanting Toward The East

The other day, I came across a video of a guy running from police using a motorcycle.  The commentators are breathless talking about how unsafe the driver is, weaving in and out of traffic.  I laughed hysterically.  He is driving far better than what I consider everyday driving in Jakarta.  The Indonesian word for "weaving in and out" is nyelip-nyelip, and it is the reason why people use motorcycles in Jakarta.  Asian drivers are, by comparison to US drivers, completely bat-s**t crazy.

Let me just emphasize that life in Asia is BAT-S**T CRAZY.

Not that I'm complaining.  I'm one of those people who likes a little anarchy with my coffee.  Western civilization is just too regimented and regulated for my tastes.  I'm one of those people who, if there was a still a frontier, I would be on the next train out.  Not that I am all against a little routine, but I just can't abide having to walk on eggshells lest I "trigger" someone or step ever-so-slightly outside the "legal" boundaries.

Living in Indonesia means that I can get my fill of city life and then take a short jaunt into the jungle and live completely by my wits.  I love camping, hiking and anything where I pretty much make my own rules, though I am always careful to respect my surroundings and those who will follow later.

In my experience, Westerners who live in Asia do so for the simple reason that life is freer.  There aren't so many rules about what you can and can't say or do.  It's a much more relaxed way of life with a stronger sense of live and let live.  Kind of like Texas used to be before all the Yankees took over.

I say Westerners who live here, because it's not something readily apparent to a tourist.  It takes time to expand and figure out where the new boundaries are.  Some people can't handle it and run screaming for the exit after a couple of weeks.  They realize fairly quickly that imposing one's rules on those around you doesn't fly here, and those used to having their lives regimented to the tiniest detail are fearful of having too much responsibility laid on them.

I often wonder is the Western mentality is what drove people to leave and colonize.  Certainly, North America attracted thousands escaping the severe lock-step mentality of European culture.  There's a certain type of European - and by that I mean Americans as well - that craves being left the hell alone.

Unfortunately, once these folks set up housekeeping, the busy-bodies come right behind and start dictating rules again.  That's what drove the American expansion across the western half of the continent.  The free spirits went out ahead to get away from the hive mentality, but were quickly overwhelmed by the hive once things were tidy and operating smoothly.

Asia is definitely unusual for most Westerners.  When someone is fat, you call them fat.  When they are crippled, you call them crippled.  There is neither political correctness nor euphemistic language.  People talk plainly and do pretty much as they please, and by extension, allow others the same courtesy.

It's the "liberal" western mentality that drives so many people to leave the West and come East.  I put "liberal" in quotes because the root comes from the Latin for "free," and having a small group of people dictating what one can think and say is definitely NOT free.  Nor is forcing someone else to accept one's own idea of "free."  Free is the ability to think, say and do whatever one pleases, especially within the domain in which one lives.

Almost to a soul, the Westerners I meet who live in Asia talk about the freedom here.  As long as I don't push, no one will push back.  If I don't try to force someone to believe what I believe, then I am pretty much free to believe it.  Very simple, clear rules.

Granted, there is a spectrum of freedom in Asia.  Each of the vast number of cultures here have their boundaries, but they are broad and not overly enforced, and certainly no one will take you to court for what you believe.  /The point where you got spanked is when you overstep propriety or start proselytizing.  Up to that point, you might get a sidelong glance or raised eyebrows.

Western intolerance is not a new phenomenon.  It dates back centuries.  Between religions and politics, the West has always been ready to force compliance with the ruling dogma.  It shows up in culture, science, personal relationships, and a dozen other more subtle ways.

Some Westerners, steeped in Western propaganda, will likely take umbrage with these statements.  I will likely get a flood of email telling me what an insensitive jerk I am, or how I don't know what I am talking about.  I suspect those are the people who would run for the exit here, being terrified of the sudden release of constant pressure to conform.

I am well aware that the East considers the West to be far too open, and the West considers the East to be far too rigid, but having lived in both places, I feel confident in my statement that the East is more free and less rigid - and yes, that includes mainland China.

I realize that I am speaking in gross generalizations here.  I could write books on comparative cultures across Asia and the world.  I know full well that Japanese culture is very rigid, and Korean culture is very regulated and Thai culture is pretty much wide open unless you insult the king.  However, when it comes to being able to have one's own beliefs and the ability to speak openly about them, Asia beats the West by a mile.

Yes, speech is only one of many individual freedoms, but it is the most important.  The ability to speak one's mind without reprisal is a hallmark of liberty.  Perhaps it is that Asian culture is far older and more mature than Western.  Perhaps it is just that no one cares or wants to humiliate in public.  Whatever the reason can be debated for hours on end.  Whatever way you want to slice it, I would much rather live bat-s**t crazy.

The Sounds Of Our Lives

Today's soundtrack can be found by clicking here.

OK, I've figured out all the world's problems.  See?  You knew if you stuck around long enough, that I, your faithful correspondent, would eventually figure it all out.

The Problem Is (are you ready?)...

MUSIC

That's right...music.  Go ahead, turn on your radio to something other than talk shows.  See what I mean?

I don't know about your side of the world, but here on the Far Side, K-Pop is all the rage.  If you haven't been subjected this somewhat harmonized caterwauling, it's a bunch of Korean whatevers wearing make-up and flashy costumes sync-dancing to songs that remind me of the innards of a good-sized pimple.  In fact, I've had some pimple guts that were far more creative.

Over on the Near Side, the music scene took a belly-flop at the beginning of the Noughties and the demise of the Grunge Movement.  Lyrics became mantric repetitions of inane "hey babies" and the instrumentation bowed out and let the rhythm sections take over while the rest of the band went out in the alley to smoke a joint and talk about where to go from here.

Think about it...in the 40s, sweet pipes like Sinatra and Cosby crooned us into a stupor with grammatically understandable lyrics.  In the 50s, talents like Chuck, Elvis, Jerry Lee and Buddy brought R&B out of the smoky dens of dark inner cities and into the Rock & Roll revolution.  That movement blended with the wild explosion of creativity of the 60s, where folk met rock met gospel and they had an ecstatic orgy of sound and meaning.

In the 70s, we briefly saw the Disco Monster rear its horrible head, but it was eventually conquered by the Pettys and Springsteens of the world, and their harmonies inspired the Grunge Movement of the late 80s and 90s.

But, then a terrible thing happened.  Little did we realize that the Disco Monster, just before expiring, had thrown out an egg sac that fertilized with with another inner-city movement called "rap."  The offspring that emerged were horrific in their countenance.  The Pop Movement was born, and like any good bowel movement, it landed on the world with a resounding thud and immediately drew flies.

Lyrics have devolved into endlessly repeated catch-phrases - like diamonds in the sky - and the performers are all of the same pasty, limp noodle variety with little more than a well-placed sequin to distinguish them.  In fact, the most interesting product of this insipid movement are the videos, which are anathema to music, since music is intended to be (ahem) heard, not seen.

You can see the effect in the eyes of the Millennial Generation.  Their hollow haunted looks reflect that complete lack of creativity in their shared culture.  Like some warped Zen koan, they are forced to draw meaning from meaninglessness, and the result is a vacuous mentality that seeks nothing, because that is always the point of a good koan.

While pondering this article, I went and checked my own library.  My collection begins with the Dawn of Time and runs right up to the early 2000s, then abruptly stops.  The collection encompasses nearly every form of music ever recorded, even the sounds of planets and stars (oddly melodic by the way), but from the last 16 years, almost nothing, not even movie soundtracks or show tunes.  Creativity in music just died.

Music is one of those things we all take for granted, but is very important to humans.  Hearing is pretty much the strongest human sense. Our eyes aren't worth a damn, compared to the rest of the animal kingdom.  Our sense of smell is only a fraction of other beasts.  However, nearly half or more of our experience in the Universe comes through our hearing.

Music is vital to culture, can excite vivid memories and can unite radically diverse groups across physical distance and across generations.  Creating music is one of humanity's most primal instincts.  It is a language that all people understand instinctively.  Music, in fact, is embedded in the very nature of all we perceive, and that is not hyperbole.

At its core, music is just harmonious vibrations.  We are sensitive to the harmony, finding some vibrations pleasing, while others irritate or excite us in a wide variety of ways.  Music is the expression of time and mathematics, as music cannot exist without time and its very nature is wavelengths - sine waves of various lengths.

Who among us can listen to Wagner without feeling our pulse quicken?  Is not Beethoven the embodiment of joy?  Even the sounds of the gamelan evokes the endless and serene world of tropical Earth.  From humanity's earliest awakenings, music has been a vital and uniting force behind our civilizations.

Yet, here we are.  We have arrived at the empty and meaningless Age of Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber, the vacuous noises of Psy and Lee Ji-Eun, and the violet arrhythmia of Dead Kennedys or Sex Pistols.

We have entered an era where art has devolved into something called "self-expression."  It has affected all media and forms, and it has laid waste to the very fabric of society.  It is hard to separate the devolution of music from the increasing courseness of society.  Whether art has followed the increasing destruction of harmonious culture, or led it, is of little consequence, but it is certain that a major change in music - a burst of creative force - would give great power to the restoration of peaceful and harmonious life.

If all life and existence is based on vibrations, then it stands to reason that the most powerful force we can unleash - for good or bad - is vibrations.  Meaningful and harmonious vibrations fill our lives with peace, while empty and vacuous ones cause strife.

We call upon the musicians of the world to return us to peace with your music!

Revolutionary Culture

It is probably safe to say that most people reading this article have never seen Citizen Kane, nor remember Orson Welles for more than his regular stints on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson or Dean Martin's Celebrity Roasts.  In fact, few may remember him other than his still-famous though rarely heard Halloween broadcast of War of the Worlds on CBS radio in 1940.

In fact, it was the radio broadcast that got him noticed in Hollywood.  Welles and his Mercury Players, already well known on the New York theater scene, had taken a classic novel and dramatized it as a news broadcast, regularly 'interrupting' pre-scheduled shows with updates from reporters and interviews with 'experts.'  Listeners who did not hear the disclaimer at the beginning and end of the broadcast were, in many cases, genuinely terrified, with extreme cases of mass murder/suicides in some parts of the country, though the validity of the reports has been questioned.

Welles was given a three-film deal with RKO Pictures based on the phenomenal success of the radio broadcast.  Welles, being all of 26 years old and never having produced a feature film in his life, received copious amounts of scorn from Hollywood insiders, because he had been given complete creative control over his films, a deal all but unheard of in the studio-dominated industry of the period.

Welles set about co-writing, producing, directing and starring in his first film, Citizen Kane.  The script alone was a marvel of innovation.  Until that point, nearly every film ever released by Hollywood followed a standard narrative style of a beginning, middle and end, with the story progressing in a straightforward timeline of events.

Citizen Kane turned the standard narrative on its head.  The story began with the eponymous character's death and went on to tell the story as a series of news reels and interviews with various supporting characters.  The narrative was held together by a reporter, whom we never meet or see clearly, on the trail trying to discover the meaning of Kane's last word, "Rosebud."  In fact, none of the characters in the story ever understand the significance of the word, but we the audience are clued in by the final shot of the film.  The story jumps back and forth in time, though it loosely progresses chronologically  through Kane's life.

What was even more radical than the story itself was the visual execution.  Even today, some of the visual effects and transitions can draw awed attention, for example the camera flying through a neon sign and then down through a skylight in a virtually seamless transition.

In fact, one of the most remarkable innovations of this film is the camera movements and positions.  Up until Citizen Kane, the camera was primarily a passive recorder of events in front of it.  It stood roughly eye-level and other than a pan or tilt, never moved.  In this film, the camera becomes a character itself, no longer passive, but imparting information and emotion by the choice of angles and movements.  Welles went as far as to jack-hammer holes in the studio floor and design new rigs in order to get never-before-seen angles and movements through scenes.  Greg Toland's cinematography, including lighting, was nothing less that astounding for his choice of lenses for deep depth of field and the shadowy scenes of newsmen gathered to assign the reporter.

But these innovations were still not all.  The film editing by the now-famous Robert Wise (Run Silent Run Deep, Sound of Music and much more) cut the film to reflect the radical change in style that Welles and Toland had delivered.  The pacing is brisk, lingering only enough on wide shots to establish the settings, but in many cases staying in medium and close-up, when the story did not require much in the way of establishing shots.  There's hardly a moment when the viewer feels bored, as the pace is unrelenting, much like the central character.

Part of the editing are the transitions between scenes, and Wise cannot take credit for many of the ones in Citizen Kane, they were obviously pre-planned by Welles.  One famous transition has the camera dolly in on a photo of a rival newspaper's editorial staff, which then seamlessly become a live shot as Kane walks into it.

Mel Berns' make-up effects almost single-handedly launched the prosthetic craze in Hollywood.  The subtle and realistic aging of the characters over time, especially making a 26-year-old Welles into an 80-year-old man with flesh-like texture and movement was major departure from the grease-paint effects that had preceded it.

There was, in fact, a creative fire-storm raging around this film.  From the art direction to the acting, everyone seemed determined to out-do everyone else in their creative efforts.  Even the settings reflected the characters and the narrative, telling entire stories of their own.

One of the most famous scenes in the film is the legendary "breakfast table," where Mr. and Mrs. Kane progress through an entire lifetime of their relationship with as much of the story being told by the actors and make-up, as by the props.  One gloriously subtle detail near the end of the scene is Mrs. Kane reading the newspaper of Kane's largest rival.

The list of firsts in Citizen Kane is a long one and touches on nearly every aspect of film-making.  There is hardly a director today who is not influenced in some way by Welles and his ground-breaking work.  Every time you see a camera fly through a window, you can thank Welles.  From Raiders of the Lost Ark to The Player to the long travelling shots or worm's-eye/fly-on-the-wall views in Kubrick's remarkable filmography (Welles notably called Kubrick the greatest film-maker of all time), the greatest Hollywood directors have all stood on Welles giant shoulders.

Welles' fatal mistake, other than his notorious penchant for not finishing projects, was that Citizen Kane was widely interpreted as an indictment of William Randolf Hearst, the Rupert Murdoch of his day.  One certainly cannot deny the superficial resemblances of Kane to Hearst, even to the extent that "rosebud" was widely rumored to be Hearst's pet name for his mistress' private parts.  However, those who know Welles' life story can easily pick out the autobiographical elements, and even the eerie way Kane's life mirrored Welles' in later years, especially the character's motivations and flaws.

I highly recommend that even the casual film-goer watch, or re-watch, Citizen Kane.  It is instructive to see the seeds of modern cinema being planted and edifying to know that one man could have such an influence on an art form, in a way that is more readily apparent than, say Claude Monet's impressionist revolution.

It is important to note that it is not just technical developments and technique that set Citizen Kane apart, but the narrative style itself.  Reverse exposition and the use of retrospective storytelling in film can all be traced directly to this landmark film.

It is also noteworthy that Welles' achievements throughout his filmography have often been copied, but rarely equaled.  In many ways, even the modern achievements with CGI and other technologies are little more than perfecting the innovations brought to film by Welles.  Citizen Kane was not a fluke - a one-off burst of creativity - but rather the first shot in an amazing volley of revolutionary visual and narrative techniques.  Even a cursory study of Welles' work will bring one to a much greater appreciation of the value and power of the creative mind is advancing the cultural milieu.

Though we are not all destined to have such public or examined effects on our world, it is nevertheless a worthwhile effort to push our creativity as far as we can in the service of culture.

Who could have predicted that Monet's failing eyesight or Welles' brash and youthful ignorance would have had such profound effects on our world?

A Modest Proposal, Part 2

In my previous article, I argued that the Political Correctness movement of the past few decades has resulted in irreparable damage to the culture and especially education.  Given that culture is like a chain that, once broken, cannot be repaired, there is no longer any way to "fix the system" and the aware human must now focus on saving what we can for the day when it can be revived, much as the Renaissance did in Europe at the end of the medieval period.

I used the secret societies as an example of organization designed to both hide and propagate forbidden knowledge - and certainly that is what classical education has become.  I concluded by saying that I would propose a new way of looking at "prepping" and "survival" in this current epoch of history.

The important thing to realize at this point is that survival of the individual is subordinate to the survival of the culture.  Without the culture, survival is nothing more than a loose group of hunter-gatherers foraging for food in a daily struggle to live one more day.  It is the culture that has defined our advancement as a species from mere beasts of the field to homo sapiens - the wise man - and which is the basis for our technology and mastery of our condition.

When I look at the modern "prepping" movement, I see a heavy focus on buying gold and silver, and storing food and water.  This is a non-sensical approach to survival that is doomed to fail.  Gold and silver only have value in a culture capable of abstract concepts, such as storing wealth.  Storing food and water is fine, as long as you think you can stay in one place, which again depends on culture to form self-organized and self-sustaining societies.

The wise "propper" must be flexible and mobile.  One must be ready to go at any time in order to escape natural and man-made disasters.  What good will all your stores be if a tornado scatters it all to the winds, or a fire reduces it all to ash?  And how mobile can you be with several pounds of gold and silver coins in your pocket?  Or how safe would you be with that kind of target on your back?  This default to normalcy is a serious flaw in the thinking of many people who adhere to the "hunker down" theory of survival.

Even if you have stored a year's worth of groceries, or months worth of water, it will run out eventually.  Do you have the skills to can food or purify water or make a fire without all the modern conveniences provided by society?  Even more important, can you read the sky to know the season and location?  After all, planting survival seeds in mid-September will be fruitless in many parts of the world if you can't look at the stars and know that it's mid-September.

Can you calculate height or distance using your position and the Sun angle?  It would help if you are confronted with a mountain range and want to know how far away it is and how high you will have to climb to get over them.

The most critical thing to consider is how will you educate future generations (or yourself for that matter) without books?  How will you teach art, science and math to future generations when the internet is gone and you have no reference materials?  Sure, your stores may last for a while, but what about the long-term collapse of society and the multi-generational effort to rebuild from those ashes?

But even books, for all their low-tech wonders, are vulnerable and must be replaced regularly.  Could you make paper or parchment?  Ink from lampblack?  Find and harvest bee's wax and make candles?  A manual printing press?  No?  Then how can you record weather patterns, growing techniques and other critical information beyond your ability to talk to someone or beyond your lifetime?

The part of survival that few people ever stop to consider is that our entire civilization is predicated on the ability to reason critically and then transmit the results through time and space to other people.  Almost everything I have ever read on prepping and survival forgets that it is dependent on the ability to tell others how to do it.  All most of these folks want to do is sell you boxes of food, seeds and water filters, but neglect the very foundation of finding food, seeding plants and building water filters out of found objects.  Furthermore, they all assume that the infrastructure to pass on knowledge is a given technology that will always be there.

Some readers may think this is a silly and pointless article, that "someone" will always be able to print books or transmit information.  They fail to consider that these technologies were radical in their day, or that civilization and culture are dependent on our ability to transmit information to other locations and beyond our lifetimes.

So what's my solution?

First, a true prepper must learn the necessary skills to make paper, ink and bindings.  The ability to observe and document our environment is the first critical step to understanding.  Knowing how to read the sky (astronomy) and create stores of food anywhere at any time.

Once these skills are learned, you must be able to document and transmit the information to future generations.  It is said that we have built our world on the shoulders of giants, but what happens when those giants stumble and fall?

Once you have the ability to transmit information, you need the information to transmit.  Thus, I propose that groups of like-minded folks get together to create private libraries.  One of the scourges of modern society is the destruction of the public library.  It is vital, therefore, to work together to create a neighborhood library, privately funded and stocked.  Perhaps you or a neighbor have an empty basement.  Build some shelves and start buying bulk used books (very cheap these days).  And by books, I don't mean pop fiction, I mean the classics of art, science and mathematics.  We cannot depend on our ability to transmit or read binary code, so physical books are the only sure means to store and propagate information that cannot be intercepted or edited by outside parties.

And that brings up the whole reason for this line of thought.  As I mentioned in the last article, the system cannot be fixed and it has entered the dangerous realm of protecting itself from change.  It has already infected the minds of generations of people, who are now incapable of critical thinking or even controlling their emotions.  The system is perpetuating itself on its ability to control the flow and content of electronic information.  The hard-won right of free speech is being dismantled, and what's worse, the minds of the next generation are being controlled to the point that they are physically repulsed by open and unfettered discourse.  They literally cannot distinguish a logical fallacy from a condomed phallus.

The control of education, the destruction of the public library and the censoring of electronic discourse has reached a critical phase.  If not the current generation, then certainly the next will - a la Orwell - no longer be able to conceive of natural rights nor defend the reasons for having them.  They are becoming the ultimate slaves, who not only have no desire for freedom, but cannot imagine any other way of living.

It is fast reaching the point that individual survival is subordinate to the need to preserve and transmit information.  Our culture is dying by design, and the system that is doing it cannot be fixed.  It doesn't want to be fixed.  It was never intended to be fixed, as it is doing exactly what it was intended to do.

The time is now to create underground cultures to preserve and disseminate information and knowledge, however one can do that.  We must look to the success and structure of secret societies, which have done just this sort of thing for centuries.  We must accept that in the current epoch real knowledge is becoming a bad thing, and that those of us who want to preserve it are bad people.

To chose another literary example, look to Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.

Or perhaps my own experience will illuminate the issue.

Back in the 1980s, when I first began studying alternative history and "subversive" knowledge, there was no internet or digital revolution.  The only way to get this information was through hard work and persistence.  If you wanted a copy of Henry Ford's The International Jew, or to see for yourself what mysteries were contained in The Poor Man's James Bond or The Anarchist's Handbook, one really had to go far out of the way to find it.  In fact, in my case, I had to drive out to the remotest parts of West Texas, to a place called the Patriot Gas Station, where the owner sold fill-ups, oil changes, tire repair, military surplus, and underground literature.  It was a minimal two-day round trip just to obtain information that the system had deemed to dangerous - to itself.

Because I have stood on the shoulders of giants, I have concluded from their experience that we are perilously close to a new dark age for free inquiry and thought.  It also seems, from their experience, that the only way to survive this period in history is not by buying K-rations, water filters and gold coins, but by learning basic skills and protecting knowledge from those who would destroy the past to control the future.

Fixing what is, is not possible, and the sooner we acknowledge that fact the quicker we can get about saving our culture for a time when the winds are a bit more friendly to freedom.  We should be prepared for that time to take centuries, as history shows us that breaking the chain of culture means that it must be rebuilt one link at a time.

It is entirely possible that I am a complete nutter and all of this is some apocalyptic fear-mongering.  I freely admit the possiblity, but in the end, what have you lost by following this prescription, and what has been gained should this nutter be right?  A rational cost-benefit analysis says that it is a worthy investment.

Besides, think how cool you would look if you sent out your next batch of Christmas cards on handmade paper with handmade ink using hand-carved wood blocks.  That's something people would save for years.

Post Scriptum: Wouldn't it be handy to learn how to make a camera and photographic plates so you wuldn't have to hand-copy all those books?