thinking just now about how easy people are apparently swayed into believing the most outrageous of lies, especially those uttered by "authority". of course truth has never been the final arbiter of human affairs, nevertheless i'm struck by a sense that the simple explanations--the ones that fit into our preconceived notions, that tell us we're good and right, that allow us, on the whole, to ignore the direction of our combined efforts on the largest scales (i.e., states and large corporations). we get a fun story.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Monday, January 01, 2007
Sunday, June 25, 2006
suicide in the trenches
Suicide in the Trenches
I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
-siegfried sassoon
I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
-siegfried sassoon
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
patriots
some thoughts while reading how would a patriot act on the train this afternoon:
our government has expanded its power considerably over the last five years, as well as over the past century. where will it lead? i imagine there is always a tendency for systems to grow larger, more centralized, more intense and complex. what is the nature of this tendency? what are examples throughout history of nations growing larger, and eventually overstepping their bounds? what are the mechanisms by which nations fall (debt service, over-expanded military)? what about current talk of our nation becoming one of service jobs as opposed to industrial jobs? what does that really mean? what about all the tax cuts--extreme concentration of wealth, income disparity, loss of a middle class?
which is cause and which is effect?
our government has expanded its power considerably over the last five years, as well as over the past century. where will it lead? i imagine there is always a tendency for systems to grow larger, more centralized, more intense and complex. what is the nature of this tendency? what are examples throughout history of nations growing larger, and eventually overstepping their bounds? what are the mechanisms by which nations fall (debt service, over-expanded military)? what about current talk of our nation becoming one of service jobs as opposed to industrial jobs? what does that really mean? what about all the tax cuts--extreme concentration of wealth, income disparity, loss of a middle class?
which is cause and which is effect?
Monday, June 12, 2006
anything!
i'm going to start writing now. i still don't have definite ideas of what i want to write about; but if i wait for them to appear fully-formed, i'll never write a damned thing. i spend most of my blog-reading time on politics, and i think i have a lot to say about the current state of affairs in american society, as well as the history (and future) of political thought. but i want this blog to focus on a wider field-of-view. over the past year or two i feel that i have made profound insights into humanity's place in the world; i would like to apply these insights both to my personal life and to the politics of our time, in hopes of changing the world for the better. i don't have grand plans for the blog per se; rather, i'd like to use it as a sounding board for my ideas, to help me better form them and learn from them.
just a few of the topics i'd like to expound:
UPDATE: oh, also, lots on elites (which relates to hierarchy) and the way they guide 'history' as we know it; and are they really dumb/blind or in fact extremely intelligent? for instance, democrats like to say that the bush/cheney administration totally blundered the war by 'not planning for the aftermath', which appears to be true; but can it be said that they didn't want this result in the first place? their friends at halliburton and elsewhere within the military-industrial complex are receiving hundreds of billions of dollars for their efforts; the price of oil is up because of increased violence across the middle east, a direct result of the iraq invasion; and, despite the american public's ever-so-slowly diminishing support for the war, they've been able to secure (it seems) large military outposts across the country for years to come (years, they probably hope, filled with war for the remaining oil resources of the region). tie this into resources in general; the end of oil, etc.
just a few of the topics i'd like to expound:
- science as a way of discovering truth
- human morality, its purpose and uses, origins, inconsistencies, and future
- intense consciousness, its mechanism, origin, and singularness
- symbolic communication, and how it has created so much of human society
- evolution in its broadest sense: from the quark soup to "the universe studying itself" in the human mind
- politics/war/community vs. individual: looking at these issues in an evolutionary context
- biological life as systems using the 2nd law of thermodynamics to harness energy (?)
- complexity, hierarchy, centralization, evil?
UPDATE: oh, also, lots on elites (which relates to hierarchy) and the way they guide 'history' as we know it; and are they really dumb/blind or in fact extremely intelligent? for instance, democrats like to say that the bush/cheney administration totally blundered the war by 'not planning for the aftermath', which appears to be true; but can it be said that they didn't want this result in the first place? their friends at halliburton and elsewhere within the military-industrial complex are receiving hundreds of billions of dollars for their efforts; the price of oil is up because of increased violence across the middle east, a direct result of the iraq invasion; and, despite the american public's ever-so-slowly diminishing support for the war, they've been able to secure (it seems) large military outposts across the country for years to come (years, they probably hope, filled with war for the remaining oil resources of the region). tie this into resources in general; the end of oil, etc.
Monday, April 24, 2006
"Ready For Anything"
"Ready For Anything": "The prices of both oil and gold continue to rise; the former is now trading at nominal all-time highs, while the latter has been hitting new quarter-century highs day after day. This is excess liquidity coming home to roost. While the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates to mollify foreign central banks, it’s made it clear that any weakness in either the stock market or the economy will be met with massive infusions of liquidity, and dollar-denominated debt will be inflated away. The world is waking up to this, which is why oil and gold march inexorably higher and the long bond is tanking. This is inflation, and the rest of the world is acting accordingly. Today, Iran’s President Ahmadinejad said, 'The global oil price has not reached its real value yet.” He’s right, of course. He knows that every dollar he receives for his oil today will be worth less tomorrow, so Iran (and OPEC) is demanding ever-higher prices for its only natural resource. The nerve, eh? We won’t take that lying down, whi"
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Hissy Fit by digby If you didn't get to see Little Lord
Hissy Fit by digby If you didn't get to see Little Lord: "Hissy Fit
by digby
If you didn't get to see Little Lord Fauntleroy have a temper tantrum in front of the press today, do yourself a favor and check it out.
HENRY: Mr. President, you make it a practice of not commenting on potential personnel move.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Of course, I did.
HENRY: Calling it speculation.
BUSH: And you can understand why. Because we've got people's reputations at stake. And on Friday I stood up and said I don't appreciate the speculation about Don Rumsfeld. He's doing a fine job. I strongly support him.
HENRY: But what do you say to critics who believe that you're ignoring the advice of retired generals, military commanders, who say that there needs to be a change?
BUSH: I say I listen to all voices, but mine's the final decision and Don Rumsfeld is doing a fine job. He's not only transforming the military, he's fighting a war on terror. He's helping us fight a war"
by digby
If you didn't get to see Little Lord Fauntleroy have a temper tantrum in front of the press today, do yourself a favor and check it out.
HENRY: Mr. President, you make it a practice of not commenting on potential personnel move.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Of course, I did.
HENRY: Calling it speculation.
BUSH: And you can understand why. Because we've got people's reputations at stake. And on Friday I stood up and said I don't appreciate the speculation about Don Rumsfeld. He's doing a fine job. I strongly support him.
HENRY: But what do you say to critics who believe that you're ignoring the advice of retired generals, military commanders, who say that there needs to be a change?
BUSH: I say I listen to all voices, but mine's the final decision and Don Rumsfeld is doing a fine job. He's not only transforming the military, he's fighting a war on terror. He's helping us fight a war"
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