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?

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...

Male Of The Species

I was raised, like most civilized males, to respect social mores and keep certain talk to certain places.  I should be clear that certain talk was not forbidden, as it is a fundamental part of being male, but that the proper places and occasions for such talk were limited so as not to offend more delicate ears.

Despite decades of effort on the part of the PC (politically correct) Police, males - thankfully - are still males.  It is a function of the Y-chromosome and no amount of whining and ear-plugging will ever change that.  Gender roles are as much a function of genetics as environment.

When I was growing up, I was taught by other men that certain conversations were to be had only around other men and only in certain places, such as the locker room, the golf course, hunting trips, and bars (in proper society women were escorted to "lounges" never bars).  I will catch all kinds of crap from the feminists and PC Police, but I see nothing wrong with Standard Male Bragging (SMB), in the proper context.

I am painfully aware that there has been a multi-decadal war on males.  Ritalin (the drug) is primarily used to control male behavior, since kids aren't allowed to play real games anymore, and have a metric tonne of energy to blow off one way or another.  Males and male behavior have been consistently demeaned and belittled, and any signs of it have been drugged and castigated until most males now are just sick to death of it.

If you have any questions why Donald Trump has risen so fast in the political arena, it is because he is unapologetically male.  He speaks directly.  He likes attractive women on his arm.  He knows wealth and power are aphrodisiacs.  His only mistake was apologizing for the Trump Tapes.  It is the traitorous weasel who recorded that conversation and saved it for 11 years that ought to be castrated and hung out to dry.  Trump was well within his male rights to speak the way he did among other males in the locker room context.  That is what we males are all taught.

Women and children have the right to demand that men keep their baser behavior controlled and contained, but no one can demand that we deny our very nature.  Nature created men to amass wealth and power so as to attract the most desirable mates, just as it created women to primp and preen and seek out the wealthy and powerful men.  There is no apology for expressing our Natures, so long as it appropriate to the time and place, and the locker room is definitely the time and place for men to be men.

It strikes me as rather conspicuous that the number of wars in process or about to start are a direct consequence of denying men the right and ability to "blow off steam."  And frankly, doing things like allowing transvestites into the military and striking the word "man" off of all the ranks and titles is even further pushing men into a fight.  Furthermore, blasting men-talk all over Creation that was said in the appropriate time and place is yet another sick and depraved attack on all men, not just one or two.

To my admittedly and unapologetically male mind, Trump is not wrong, the media are.  They knew the context of the talk.  They knew full well that they do the same thing.  They knowingly and hypocritically violated a social trust in a way that deserves the most vile reprehension possible.

What's really strange about all of this is that the popular media (TeeVee, Moovies, etc.) are absolutely awash with foul language and chest-beating males - reference any Marvel Moovie - yet the minute a male gets off the couch or leaves the cinema, he is battered and bashed from all sides for daring to imitate the behavior he just witnessed those "cultural heroes" performing.  It's no wonder males are acting out in so many inappropriate ways; they are receiving severely disconnected messages from society and the cognitive dissonance is driving them batty.

Even I experience massive amounts of cognitive dissonance.  On the one hand, my Inner Male cheers when people like Trump ignore the Whining Class and act like a real male.  If for no other reason, I secretly hope he gets elected, even though my Inner Intellectual is reviled by his complete lack of historical context.  Plainly, you can see my dilemma.  My mental and physical selves are in constant battle over whether love the guy or run in horror.

I truly wish that America could produce a figure like Putin, and it's no wonder he is admired around the world.  He is a Man's Man: intelligent, mannered, witty, wily, erudite, and is a formidable verbal sparring partner.  In the real world outside the molly-coddled nanny states of US and EU, real men still exist and still admire other real men.  In fact, I suspect that Hillary et al. vilify him for this very reason - he is a fine expression of the Real Man.

If Trump has had one major victory, it is on the PC front.  He has put a large dent in the effort to destroy the male.  He is unabashed and proudly male, and for that I salute him.  In the darkest recesses of my inner-most thoughts, I secretly hope he wins, if for no other reason than to put a sock in the mouth of Political Correctness.

I fear it is too little too late, though.  The damage has been done and there are generations of Western males who will never recover, and it will take generations again to repair the damage done by the Progressives and Feminists.

But I can celebrate small victories, and having the Trump Tapes fly back in the face of the PC Police is one of them.  I imagine that Trump and his sons are in the locker room now, clapping each other on the back and laughing at the silly hypocrites in LaLaLand.

And honestly, I'm willing to bet that Real Women admire Real Men, and thus the species goes on.

In the immortal words of Blue Swede, "Ugga chacka, ugga ugga ugga chacka!"