Bright night's asphalt steam devours
Hillside necking parked moon showers,
Beam's arced water sparkling tridents
Subvert firefly monuments;
Devoted tingle gardens' walls'
Cupboard door cradled ghostly shawls' -
Forests - now plow sunrise corn highways'
Sight broken breastfed one act plays.
Iridescent repossessed dreams
Of inarticulate slipstreams
Cascade by newborn unsuppressed
Symptoms with an acid-etched countenance;
Dispelled conditions' snowflake flair:
Wilderness - an unbuttoned stare.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
The Approaching Age of Equality
Life is change, an ongoing process. No one controls the procession of social order within cultures, societies or nations. History is marked by the flowering of world civilizations from epoch to epoch.
Western Civilization has been defined by ages - epochs marked by specific qualities and social movements. The Middle Ages began after the fall of the Roman civilization, and lasted some 1000 years until the first sparks of neo-Platonism ignited the Renaissance in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. The Renaissance lasted through the 16th century and into the 17th.
By the 17th century, the Reformation ensued. Together with the advance of the printing press and the translation of the Bible into local languages, the Reformation helped spread literacy. Because of the rise of literacy, new ideas expressed by the philosophers and political theorists of the late 17th century through the 18th century period known as the Enlightenment empowered masses of people to cry out for basic human, individual rights for all classes and individual autonomy over their lives and life choices. The Enlightenment ushered in an age of Revolution from the mid 18th century through the mid 19th century which was expressed through the clash between monarchists and liberal republicans.
A backlash occurred as the powerful elite sought to retain power, as exemplified by the spread of empires and imperial clashes for economic, political and military hegemony throughout the 19th century in the aftermath of Napoleon and because of the reconstitution of nobility throughout Europe as designed by Metternich. The Industrial Revolution, which began centuries earlier in England, eventually spread to France, Germany and the United States. By the 19th century, the powerful and wealthy elite discovered that the Industrial Revolution provided them with new avenues to wealth and power. No longer did they need to indenture people to the land and agrarian servitude, nor must wealth accrue solely from agriculture and mining. Industry meant the creation of new products and new sources of wealth.
The rise of industry fostered a movement of people from the countryside to the cities as a means of finding employment, their search for greater personal autonomy, and the opportunity to explore new experiences. A synergy arose out of the migration to the cities and the institution of assembly line production. Those conditions, in concert with the Industrial Revolution and the advance of science, including the creation of new technologies, products and services, also contributed to the synergy, which unleashed a population explosion.
Wealthy industrial magnates found a means to extreme wealth beyond their previous imagination with the proliferation of mass-produced products as well as a ready source of both cheap labor and a rapidly expanding consumer class. This new economic dynamic indentured workers to their industrial and assembly line employments, and became their only means of survival. The wealthy elite wielded a broader hegemony than ever before, and learned how to control governments with their wealth instead of having to be the governments as in the past through their status as nobility or royalty. A new, politician class arose to handle the task of governing in a sort of proxy for the wealthy elite. That new class was sufficiently susceptible to influence through their greed, corruption and narcissism, so the machinery of government was (and continues to be) easily manipulated by the wealthy elite.
The 20th century was marked as an age of devastation, destruction, sociopathic war and dehumanization. The wealthy elite broadened their economic interests by creating multinational corporations with highly diversified lines of products and services. In the wake of WWII, the advent of television, and the spread of mass-marketing campaigns designed to brainwash the public into orgiastic consumption, an excessive response to the still-not-forgotten Depression years grew. The consumption of products further enriched the wealthy elite at the same time as it plunged the middle class into permanent debt. The baby boom in conjunction with the sudden affluence within the rapidly expanding middle class of the post WWII period fed a new culture of greed and complicit corruption among the wealthy elite and their political lapdog lackeys.
Today, we stand upon the edge of a palisade precipice. Across a chasm of uncertainty lies a new paradigm. Recognizing the chasm, finding the best pathway to span it, understanding the parameters of the new paradigm, and cooperating in creating the world of the future is this generation's task.
Change is inevitable. Trying to hold on to the past will only lead to greater suffering as time ticks off the clock leading to the inevitable future. Oh yes, the wealthy elite and their strong armed governments can postpone the movement into the new paradigm through force, repression and conditioning, but that will only lead to a long battle between the classes which is in no one's best interest. Once the movement towards change has begun, there is no stopping it.
The wisest course ahead for humanity would be to recognize that we can ease our pathway into the new paradigm, save the best of our current civilization, and reduce the potential suffering for the greatest number of people by uniting our efforts, cooperatively, through the coming social evolution. We can accomplish common goals and effect a positive outcome by embracing change and integrating it systematically rather than fighting it and undergoing tumult and turmoil, enmity and struggle, and a great sociological soul-sickness which would derive from a consequent division of humanity accruing from any great class struggle for power, wealth, position and prestige.
There are signposts everywhere which indicate the nature of the coming new paradigm. Four movements which began in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s offer insights into the nature of the new paradigm: the peace movement, civil rights, feminism, and environmentalism. A fifth presents itself out of the 1980s movement of people in the primarily southern hemispheric regions for basic human rights for all people, even in the so-called underdeveloped nations. Other factors continue to arise: climate change, the development of information technologies in conjunction with the internet, the continuing population explosion, and the current popular demands for an economically just and equitable system - including a more reasonable distribution of income and wealth.
I look across the chasm and see the new paradigm as the Age of Equality.
How do we get there from here?
First, we must address climate change and the types of energy we will use in the future. Humanity cannot maintain a sustainable culture, economy and civilization if it continues to invest in petroleum products for its primary source of energy. However, by immediately initiating a change to clean and renewable energy sources, we can not only abate the worst effects of climate change in the future, we can also start to clean the environment, reverse climate change, provide a better world for our children, grandchildren and the generations beyond them, as well as employ masses of people in every city and town with careers that will be sustainable as far into the future as one can imagine.
Second, we must rethink the whole notion of a global economy. The point of the global economy is to further enrich and empower the already wealthy elite. The whole premise is: corporations can produce products where ever and everywhere costs for production (especially for labor) are cheapest, and these corporations can ship those products to markets where ever and everywhere prices for the products can be set at their highest level.
This system is designed to put the greatest amount of capital into the hands of the wealthiest people, and extract as much of that capital as possible from the hands of everyone else. This system explains why American jobs have been exported overseas, why the debt of most Americans has increased, why the jobs which remain are generally underpaid (the glut of available workers creates an employers' market, so they can pay what they want for labor), and why the accumulation of wealth among the wealthy elite continues to grow at rates higher than ever before.
Third, people of all genders, colors, races, creeds, ethnicity, classes, and cultures must be valued equally and treated with equal respect and consideration, while also being offered equal opportunity for prosperity. If everyone, everywhere, is paid the same rate for their work, while at the same time is taxed equally without loopholes or deductions favoring the wealthy, then income, wealth and prosperity will redistribute naturally - easing the burdens on the poor and middle classes, making affluence available to all, but also denying ostentatious wealth to anyone. Cooperation, understanding, respect, appreciation, acceptance, interconnection, and mutuality become the bywords for the ethos for this new society.
Fourth, in such a society, where everyone is included and valued, the new ethic of community and mutual prosperity will naturally create a need for, and engender a commitment to, peace. Nearly all the wars fought since, and including, the Spanish Armada attack on the British in 1588 have had as their root cause economic competition, religious intolerance, and/or ethnic or racial prejudice. These root causes would be naturally eliminated by the social changes which are inevitable as the world moves into the new paradigm.
Finally, in order to better foster all the prescriptions for change, and to best create a sustainable civilization in the future, population levels must decline, probably by about half - not by execution or war, but slowly, evolving naturally, through education, removing the social stigma on contraception, making contraception widely available and affordable, and the rise of a common understanding regarding a mutual need to reduce waste, reduce the strain on our natural resources, and create a climate which will increase each individual's affluence in the future.
To assist in these goals, a redistribution of the population is also advisable. In smaller communities, where local production of products can supply and satisfy local needs and appetites, everyone's contribution becomes necessary. That leads to everyone being equally valued. At the same time, every community will have a local investment in employing wise, ecologically sound methods and materials, waste will be reduced to a minimum, and individual participation will be maximized. Those conditions will also lead to a more even distribution of labor, affluence and prosperity. I am not talking about capitalism, communism, socialism, or feudalism. I am suggesting that the new paradigm will be based on community, cooperation, respect, mutuality and equality.
Yes, the Age of Equality awaits.
Western Civilization has been defined by ages - epochs marked by specific qualities and social movements. The Middle Ages began after the fall of the Roman civilization, and lasted some 1000 years until the first sparks of neo-Platonism ignited the Renaissance in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. The Renaissance lasted through the 16th century and into the 17th.
By the 17th century, the Reformation ensued. Together with the advance of the printing press and the translation of the Bible into local languages, the Reformation helped spread literacy. Because of the rise of literacy, new ideas expressed by the philosophers and political theorists of the late 17th century through the 18th century period known as the Enlightenment empowered masses of people to cry out for basic human, individual rights for all classes and individual autonomy over their lives and life choices. The Enlightenment ushered in an age of Revolution from the mid 18th century through the mid 19th century which was expressed through the clash between monarchists and liberal republicans.
A backlash occurred as the powerful elite sought to retain power, as exemplified by the spread of empires and imperial clashes for economic, political and military hegemony throughout the 19th century in the aftermath of Napoleon and because of the reconstitution of nobility throughout Europe as designed by Metternich. The Industrial Revolution, which began centuries earlier in England, eventually spread to France, Germany and the United States. By the 19th century, the powerful and wealthy elite discovered that the Industrial Revolution provided them with new avenues to wealth and power. No longer did they need to indenture people to the land and agrarian servitude, nor must wealth accrue solely from agriculture and mining. Industry meant the creation of new products and new sources of wealth.
The rise of industry fostered a movement of people from the countryside to the cities as a means of finding employment, their search for greater personal autonomy, and the opportunity to explore new experiences. A synergy arose out of the migration to the cities and the institution of assembly line production. Those conditions, in concert with the Industrial Revolution and the advance of science, including the creation of new technologies, products and services, also contributed to the synergy, which unleashed a population explosion.
Wealthy industrial magnates found a means to extreme wealth beyond their previous imagination with the proliferation of mass-produced products as well as a ready source of both cheap labor and a rapidly expanding consumer class. This new economic dynamic indentured workers to their industrial and assembly line employments, and became their only means of survival. The wealthy elite wielded a broader hegemony than ever before, and learned how to control governments with their wealth instead of having to be the governments as in the past through their status as nobility or royalty. A new, politician class arose to handle the task of governing in a sort of proxy for the wealthy elite. That new class was sufficiently susceptible to influence through their greed, corruption and narcissism, so the machinery of government was (and continues to be) easily manipulated by the wealthy elite.
The 20th century was marked as an age of devastation, destruction, sociopathic war and dehumanization. The wealthy elite broadened their economic interests by creating multinational corporations with highly diversified lines of products and services. In the wake of WWII, the advent of television, and the spread of mass-marketing campaigns designed to brainwash the public into orgiastic consumption, an excessive response to the still-not-forgotten Depression years grew. The consumption of products further enriched the wealthy elite at the same time as it plunged the middle class into permanent debt. The baby boom in conjunction with the sudden affluence within the rapidly expanding middle class of the post WWII period fed a new culture of greed and complicit corruption among the wealthy elite and their political lapdog lackeys.
Today, we stand upon the edge of a palisade precipice. Across a chasm of uncertainty lies a new paradigm. Recognizing the chasm, finding the best pathway to span it, understanding the parameters of the new paradigm, and cooperating in creating the world of the future is this generation's task.
Change is inevitable. Trying to hold on to the past will only lead to greater suffering as time ticks off the clock leading to the inevitable future. Oh yes, the wealthy elite and their strong armed governments can postpone the movement into the new paradigm through force, repression and conditioning, but that will only lead to a long battle between the classes which is in no one's best interest. Once the movement towards change has begun, there is no stopping it.
The wisest course ahead for humanity would be to recognize that we can ease our pathway into the new paradigm, save the best of our current civilization, and reduce the potential suffering for the greatest number of people by uniting our efforts, cooperatively, through the coming social evolution. We can accomplish common goals and effect a positive outcome by embracing change and integrating it systematically rather than fighting it and undergoing tumult and turmoil, enmity and struggle, and a great sociological soul-sickness which would derive from a consequent division of humanity accruing from any great class struggle for power, wealth, position and prestige.
There are signposts everywhere which indicate the nature of the coming new paradigm. Four movements which began in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s offer insights into the nature of the new paradigm: the peace movement, civil rights, feminism, and environmentalism. A fifth presents itself out of the 1980s movement of people in the primarily southern hemispheric regions for basic human rights for all people, even in the so-called underdeveloped nations. Other factors continue to arise: climate change, the development of information technologies in conjunction with the internet, the continuing population explosion, and the current popular demands for an economically just and equitable system - including a more reasonable distribution of income and wealth.
I look across the chasm and see the new paradigm as the Age of Equality.
How do we get there from here?
First, we must address climate change and the types of energy we will use in the future. Humanity cannot maintain a sustainable culture, economy and civilization if it continues to invest in petroleum products for its primary source of energy. However, by immediately initiating a change to clean and renewable energy sources, we can not only abate the worst effects of climate change in the future, we can also start to clean the environment, reverse climate change, provide a better world for our children, grandchildren and the generations beyond them, as well as employ masses of people in every city and town with careers that will be sustainable as far into the future as one can imagine.
Second, we must rethink the whole notion of a global economy. The point of the global economy is to further enrich and empower the already wealthy elite. The whole premise is: corporations can produce products where ever and everywhere costs for production (especially for labor) are cheapest, and these corporations can ship those products to markets where ever and everywhere prices for the products can be set at their highest level.
This system is designed to put the greatest amount of capital into the hands of the wealthiest people, and extract as much of that capital as possible from the hands of everyone else. This system explains why American jobs have been exported overseas, why the debt of most Americans has increased, why the jobs which remain are generally underpaid (the glut of available workers creates an employers' market, so they can pay what they want for labor), and why the accumulation of wealth among the wealthy elite continues to grow at rates higher than ever before.
Third, people of all genders, colors, races, creeds, ethnicity, classes, and cultures must be valued equally and treated with equal respect and consideration, while also being offered equal opportunity for prosperity. If everyone, everywhere, is paid the same rate for their work, while at the same time is taxed equally without loopholes or deductions favoring the wealthy, then income, wealth and prosperity will redistribute naturally - easing the burdens on the poor and middle classes, making affluence available to all, but also denying ostentatious wealth to anyone. Cooperation, understanding, respect, appreciation, acceptance, interconnection, and mutuality become the bywords for the ethos for this new society.
Fourth, in such a society, where everyone is included and valued, the new ethic of community and mutual prosperity will naturally create a need for, and engender a commitment to, peace. Nearly all the wars fought since, and including, the Spanish Armada attack on the British in 1588 have had as their root cause economic competition, religious intolerance, and/or ethnic or racial prejudice. These root causes would be naturally eliminated by the social changes which are inevitable as the world moves into the new paradigm.
Finally, in order to better foster all the prescriptions for change, and to best create a sustainable civilization in the future, population levels must decline, probably by about half - not by execution or war, but slowly, evolving naturally, through education, removing the social stigma on contraception, making contraception widely available and affordable, and the rise of a common understanding regarding a mutual need to reduce waste, reduce the strain on our natural resources, and create a climate which will increase each individual's affluence in the future.
To assist in these goals, a redistribution of the population is also advisable. In smaller communities, where local production of products can supply and satisfy local needs and appetites, everyone's contribution becomes necessary. That leads to everyone being equally valued. At the same time, every community will have a local investment in employing wise, ecologically sound methods and materials, waste will be reduced to a minimum, and individual participation will be maximized. Those conditions will also lead to a more even distribution of labor, affluence and prosperity. I am not talking about capitalism, communism, socialism, or feudalism. I am suggesting that the new paradigm will be based on community, cooperation, respect, mutuality and equality.
Yes, the Age of Equality awaits.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Memories' Amber
In the night
light rains
from the solitary
every-star grains'
blanketed amusement
the constrained shining
all-in-one star's
perpetual light
I drink it up
to quench your thirst
You are my gift
All knotted up
indispensably untethered
your indivisibility severed
while crimson fractals
glistened individuated sparks
of memories' amber
from ancient seasons
when the unredeemed
schism fracture
birthed infinity
I-we lie
together
under the weeping willow
sorrow forgotten
stardust alive
looking through
tomorrow's eyes
light rains
from the solitary
every-star grains'
blanketed amusement
the constrained shining
all-in-one star's
perpetual light
I drink it up
to quench your thirst
You are my gift
All knotted up
indispensably untethered
your indivisibility severed
while crimson fractals
glistened individuated sparks
of memories' amber
from ancient seasons
when the unredeemed
schism fracture
birthed infinity
I-we lie
together
under the weeping willow
sorrow forgotten
stardust alive
looking through
tomorrow's eyes
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Perpetual Revolutions Shimmer
From All Hallows Eve
until the next Samhain day
a worthy operation works
upon each of three hundred
and sixty-six midnights
soar through dark's blackest reaches
fathom the staircased bowel's depths
of the Great Pyramid
seek out the calm eye
of turbulent Jupiter's hurricane
which no hazy mist obscures
From All Hallows Eve
until the next Samhain day
the magical rite performed
screams its birth on the final solstice
when a cold wind gusts
through the northern winter tide
and judgment bells bellow
the highest neap captures
greed and lust in ebb's onset
and the dreams of the meek
etch future's glyphs on the blank wall
From All Hallows Eve
until the next Samhain day
time circumscribes impregnation
gestation a mere
fifty-one spins more
until the door to Aquarius
creaks open gaping-eyed hearts
witnessing the Great Wheel
perpetual revolutions shimmer
a constant seed
an eternal garden
until the next Samhain day
a worthy operation works
upon each of three hundred
and sixty-six midnights
soar through dark's blackest reaches
fathom the staircased bowel's depths
of the Great Pyramid
seek out the calm eye
of turbulent Jupiter's hurricane
which no hazy mist obscures
From All Hallows Eve
until the next Samhain day
the magical rite performed
screams its birth on the final solstice
when a cold wind gusts
through the northern winter tide
and judgment bells bellow
the highest neap captures
greed and lust in ebb's onset
and the dreams of the meek
etch future's glyphs on the blank wall
From All Hallows Eve
until the next Samhain day
time circumscribes impregnation
gestation a mere
fifty-one spins more
until the door to Aquarius
creaks open gaping-eyed hearts
witnessing the Great Wheel
perpetual revolutions shimmer
a constant seed
an eternal garden
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Thus I Heard Zarathustra Tonight
The following are a few brief excerpts from Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra. The passages are especially poignant at the current moment in time. I add my commentary afterward, which is intended to challenge you to think about your choices and put Nietzsche's words into the perspective of the contemporary world.
First, allow me to quote from the chapter titled "The New Idol."
"Somewhere there are still peoples and herds, but not with us, my brethren: here there are states."
"A state, is called the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly lieth it also; and this lie creepeth from its mouth: 'I, the state, am the people.' But the state lieth in all languages of good and evil; and whatever it saith it lieth; and whatever it hath it hath stolen."
"The state, I call it, where all are poison-drinkers, the good and the bad: the state, where all lose themselves, the good and the bad: the state, where the slow suicide of all - is called 'life.'"
"Culture, they call their theft - and everything becometh sickness and trouble unto them!"
"Just see these superfluous ones! Sick are they always; they vomit their bile and call it a newspaper. Wealth they acquire and become poorer thereby. Power they seek for, and above all, the lever of power, much money - these impotent ones!"
"Madmen they all seem to me, and clambering apes, and too eager. Badly smelleth their idol to me, the cold monster: badly they all smell to me, these idolaters."
And now, let me share some lines from the chapter titled "The Flies in the Marketplace."
"Little do people understand what is great - that is to say, the creating agency. But they have a taste for all representers and actors of great things. Around the devisers of new values revolveth the world: - invisibly it revolveth. But around the actors revolveth the people and the glory: such is the course of things."
"To upset - that meaneth with him [the actor] to prove. To drive mad - that meaneth with him to convince. And blood is counted by him the best of all arguments."
"Full of clattering buffoons is the market-place, - and the people glory in their great men! These are for them the masters of the hour. But the hour presseth them; so they press thee. And also from thee they want Yea or Nay. Only in the marketplace is one assailed by Yea? or Nay?"
But -
"Away from the market-place and from fame taketh place all that is great: away from the market-Place and from fame have ever dwelt the devisers of new values. But take care lest it be thy fate to suffer all their [the rich and powerful] poisonous injustice! They flattereth thee, as one flattereth a God or devil. Often, also, do they show themselves to thee as amiable ones. They think much about thee with their circumscribed souls - thou art always suspected by them! They rejoice if once thou be humble enough to be frivolous."
Yes, indeed, "Thus spake Zarathustra."
Nietzsche wrote these thoughts in a different age, in a different world. The world of the marketplace was only just beginning to develop into what we have today. He knew not of the cajoling of advertising or the subtle, yet insidious, seduction of television and movies and the planned obsolescence of high-tech toys. He had not seen newscasters molding public opinion even as they fabricated news, slanted to make you believe in the necessity of the state and the necessity of its laws, its wars, its tax codes, its destruction of the environment for profit, and its erosion of individuality.
Our ancestors were herded off their private farms into cities. Humanity cannot subsist any longer without big agriculture and the multinational corporations that ship their packaged food to the supermarkets of the world. There is no land left to subsist upon. Your lives are those of serfs, selling away the precious hours of your so-short lives to earn a few dollars to feed and house and clothe your families. Those hours of your lives are stolen and can never be regained. Meanwhile, your toil further enriches the wealthy, while today, in the current marketplace, you are lucky if you can find a job. And if you cannot, some smug Repugnican says you are lazy and really just don't want to work.
This is bigotry in action my friends. These are the same bigoted epithets once used against African-Americans, still hurled at Latinos, and now hung about your necks. Today, the bigotry is against everyone who is not among the wealthiest or who does not, will not or cannot conform to social norms, as well as anyone and everyone who is willing to stand up and complain about the current situation. Yes, those who Nietzsche called idolaters, and seekers of wealth and power are the one's who mold the opinions of the sheep, who are then taught to direct their bigoted epithets at you for them.
The wealthy want all the money and all the property. They want you to keep doing their bidding. And if you cease to be of use to them, they don't want you to be around. They don't want to educate you, because you might wake up and see what is going on. Without education, you will not want anything more for yourself, and you will not question their pre-eminence. When you reach your mid-forties to early fifties, you are undesirable as a worker because your most productive years, your most malleable years, and your cheapest years are all behind you. If you are old or infirm, you are useless, so you may be discarded. They do not want to pay for you to be made well again, there is no profit in that for them. They do not want to pay to ease your health concerns when you are old and they have used you up, there is no profit in the for them. They do not want you to have a Social Security pension, there is no profit in that for them, either.
The state will not protect you, it is owned by those idolaters. They pay for politicians' campaigns, and advertising. They keep the elected in their pockets with perks from lobbyists. The state is here, not to serve you, but to serve the wealthy, that is why the wealthy are not asked to pay taxes. The wars that the state fights in the name of some platitude are really only fought to advance some economic advantage craved by the wealthiest within the state whose money buys the politicians, the judges, and the newscasters. The wealthy own the media, and then they create the myth of a left-wing media bias, but only to convince you to shut your mind, stop thinking for yourself, avoid listening to anything contrary to their official point of view, and buy into their programs, their wars, and the favored status for the wealthy in the courts and tax codes.
They placate you with gadgets. They give you Play Stations, and iPods, and iPads, and Social Networking, and cell phones with digital cameras that are also mp3 players that also offer a constant stream of apps, and hundreds of channels on television, and designer clothing. Then, they charge you exorbitant prices for these items, and plan them to be obsolete in 2 or 3 years so you'll buy the products all over again. Most of these items are made of plastic, so when one becomes obsolete, it will sit in a dump for thousands of years since it won't biodegrade. And all this plastic is made from petroleum. Every product is shipped across the world to local marketplaces, and that shipping uses more petroleum.
To assure an endless supply of petroleum, these multinational corporations demand states go to war in the Middle and Near East. So your sons die, not to free people from oppression, but to further enrich the already wealthy by securing the oil needed for the companies to make their products and ship them to you.
Meanwhile, the state tells you it is your use of the automobile that destroys the climate. No one can legitimately argue that individuals using the combustion engine do contribute to climate change. But the greatest damage to our climate through petroleum use arises from military engagement in wars, the shipping of products around the world, air travel, and industry as it makes the useless toys and products that sap future generations of natural resources and which brainwash you into thinking this is such a marvelous life which it is anything but. The state takes special care not to regulate those uses of petroleum, only yours.
And yet, you have come to believe, you have no way out. Your children must have the latest gadgets, latest clothing, most desirable designer labels, and hippest new games if they are to be popular at school, have the right friends, and properly be indoctrinated into conformity. You have to pay for the petroleum which heats your home and your bath water, and which powers your automobile. You must put food on the table and shelter your family. You must provide abundant Christmases and the funds for an endless stream of mind-numbing entertainment - movies, restaurants, vacations, and parties, not to mention whatever your drugs of choice may be, including alcohol.
To further numb your mind, your culture creates stars out of the most attractive people. You become obsessed with them because the media tells you to be and bombards you with their pictures, their movies and TV shows, advertising with them as spokespeople, magazine articles, gossip shows on television, and on and on. So, you give yourself over to fascination with them and join in the cult dedicated to celebrity worship.
To buy all these products, provide a comfortable life for your family, and enrapture yourself with the fascination of shiny toys and beautiful celebrities, you must sell your life, hour by hour, week by week, and still you must go into debt. You must also live with stress, and a constant fear that if you lose your job, you could lose everything. So, you shut your mouth, take whatever shit your employer decides to shove up your ass, and you go to work everyday, for the rest of your life. In so doing, you have so few hours left over to spend with your loved ones that you forget what love is, lose your connection to them, and end up divorced or find your kids arrested or overdosed. Why? So you can keep paying the interest on the debt you have accumulated. And then, you will die far too young because of the accumulation of stress and the toxic conditions corporations have wrecked upon the environment.
This is not freedom, my friends. This is a form of slavery, indentured servitude, which you cannot opt out of. This is the future for as long as can be imagined.
Is this the life you want to give your children? Is this the world you want to endow upon future generations? Is consuming, amassing debt, selling the hours of your life, and creating piles of non-biodegradable refuse while you idolize beautiful celebrities the future you would choose for yourself if you had a choice? Is this servitude to the marketplace really fulfilling enough to bequeath to all future generations?
Or -
Are you brave enough to be an individual, think for yourself, take your balls out of your bosses' wallets, and demand a better world?
First, allow me to quote from the chapter titled "The New Idol."
"Somewhere there are still peoples and herds, but not with us, my brethren: here there are states."
"A state, is called the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly lieth it also; and this lie creepeth from its mouth: 'I, the state, am the people.' But the state lieth in all languages of good and evil; and whatever it saith it lieth; and whatever it hath it hath stolen."
"The state, I call it, where all are poison-drinkers, the good and the bad: the state, where all lose themselves, the good and the bad: the state, where the slow suicide of all - is called 'life.'"
"Culture, they call their theft - and everything becometh sickness and trouble unto them!"
"Just see these superfluous ones! Sick are they always; they vomit their bile and call it a newspaper. Wealth they acquire and become poorer thereby. Power they seek for, and above all, the lever of power, much money - these impotent ones!"
"Madmen they all seem to me, and clambering apes, and too eager. Badly smelleth their idol to me, the cold monster: badly they all smell to me, these idolaters."
And now, let me share some lines from the chapter titled "The Flies in the Marketplace."
"Little do people understand what is great - that is to say, the creating agency. But they have a taste for all representers and actors of great things. Around the devisers of new values revolveth the world: - invisibly it revolveth. But around the actors revolveth the people and the glory: such is the course of things."
"To upset - that meaneth with him [the actor] to prove. To drive mad - that meaneth with him to convince. And blood is counted by him the best of all arguments."
"Full of clattering buffoons is the market-place, - and the people glory in their great men! These are for them the masters of the hour. But the hour presseth them; so they press thee. And also from thee they want Yea or Nay. Only in the marketplace is one assailed by Yea? or Nay?"
But -
"Away from the market-place and from fame taketh place all that is great: away from the market-Place and from fame have ever dwelt the devisers of new values. But take care lest it be thy fate to suffer all their [the rich and powerful] poisonous injustice! They flattereth thee, as one flattereth a God or devil. Often, also, do they show themselves to thee as amiable ones. They think much about thee with their circumscribed souls - thou art always suspected by them! They rejoice if once thou be humble enough to be frivolous."
Yes, indeed, "Thus spake Zarathustra."
Nietzsche wrote these thoughts in a different age, in a different world. The world of the marketplace was only just beginning to develop into what we have today. He knew not of the cajoling of advertising or the subtle, yet insidious, seduction of television and movies and the planned obsolescence of high-tech toys. He had not seen newscasters molding public opinion even as they fabricated news, slanted to make you believe in the necessity of the state and the necessity of its laws, its wars, its tax codes, its destruction of the environment for profit, and its erosion of individuality.
Our ancestors were herded off their private farms into cities. Humanity cannot subsist any longer without big agriculture and the multinational corporations that ship their packaged food to the supermarkets of the world. There is no land left to subsist upon. Your lives are those of serfs, selling away the precious hours of your so-short lives to earn a few dollars to feed and house and clothe your families. Those hours of your lives are stolen and can never be regained. Meanwhile, your toil further enriches the wealthy, while today, in the current marketplace, you are lucky if you can find a job. And if you cannot, some smug Repugnican says you are lazy and really just don't want to work.
This is bigotry in action my friends. These are the same bigoted epithets once used against African-Americans, still hurled at Latinos, and now hung about your necks. Today, the bigotry is against everyone who is not among the wealthiest or who does not, will not or cannot conform to social norms, as well as anyone and everyone who is willing to stand up and complain about the current situation. Yes, those who Nietzsche called idolaters, and seekers of wealth and power are the one's who mold the opinions of the sheep, who are then taught to direct their bigoted epithets at you for them.
The wealthy want all the money and all the property. They want you to keep doing their bidding. And if you cease to be of use to them, they don't want you to be around. They don't want to educate you, because you might wake up and see what is going on. Without education, you will not want anything more for yourself, and you will not question their pre-eminence. When you reach your mid-forties to early fifties, you are undesirable as a worker because your most productive years, your most malleable years, and your cheapest years are all behind you. If you are old or infirm, you are useless, so you may be discarded. They do not want to pay for you to be made well again, there is no profit in that for them. They do not want to pay to ease your health concerns when you are old and they have used you up, there is no profit in the for them. They do not want you to have a Social Security pension, there is no profit in that for them, either.
The state will not protect you, it is owned by those idolaters. They pay for politicians' campaigns, and advertising. They keep the elected in their pockets with perks from lobbyists. The state is here, not to serve you, but to serve the wealthy, that is why the wealthy are not asked to pay taxes. The wars that the state fights in the name of some platitude are really only fought to advance some economic advantage craved by the wealthiest within the state whose money buys the politicians, the judges, and the newscasters. The wealthy own the media, and then they create the myth of a left-wing media bias, but only to convince you to shut your mind, stop thinking for yourself, avoid listening to anything contrary to their official point of view, and buy into their programs, their wars, and the favored status for the wealthy in the courts and tax codes.
They placate you with gadgets. They give you Play Stations, and iPods, and iPads, and Social Networking, and cell phones with digital cameras that are also mp3 players that also offer a constant stream of apps, and hundreds of channels on television, and designer clothing. Then, they charge you exorbitant prices for these items, and plan them to be obsolete in 2 or 3 years so you'll buy the products all over again. Most of these items are made of plastic, so when one becomes obsolete, it will sit in a dump for thousands of years since it won't biodegrade. And all this plastic is made from petroleum. Every product is shipped across the world to local marketplaces, and that shipping uses more petroleum.
To assure an endless supply of petroleum, these multinational corporations demand states go to war in the Middle and Near East. So your sons die, not to free people from oppression, but to further enrich the already wealthy by securing the oil needed for the companies to make their products and ship them to you.
Meanwhile, the state tells you it is your use of the automobile that destroys the climate. No one can legitimately argue that individuals using the combustion engine do contribute to climate change. But the greatest damage to our climate through petroleum use arises from military engagement in wars, the shipping of products around the world, air travel, and industry as it makes the useless toys and products that sap future generations of natural resources and which brainwash you into thinking this is such a marvelous life which it is anything but. The state takes special care not to regulate those uses of petroleum, only yours.
And yet, you have come to believe, you have no way out. Your children must have the latest gadgets, latest clothing, most desirable designer labels, and hippest new games if they are to be popular at school, have the right friends, and properly be indoctrinated into conformity. You have to pay for the petroleum which heats your home and your bath water, and which powers your automobile. You must put food on the table and shelter your family. You must provide abundant Christmases and the funds for an endless stream of mind-numbing entertainment - movies, restaurants, vacations, and parties, not to mention whatever your drugs of choice may be, including alcohol.
To further numb your mind, your culture creates stars out of the most attractive people. You become obsessed with them because the media tells you to be and bombards you with their pictures, their movies and TV shows, advertising with them as spokespeople, magazine articles, gossip shows on television, and on and on. So, you give yourself over to fascination with them and join in the cult dedicated to celebrity worship.
To buy all these products, provide a comfortable life for your family, and enrapture yourself with the fascination of shiny toys and beautiful celebrities, you must sell your life, hour by hour, week by week, and still you must go into debt. You must also live with stress, and a constant fear that if you lose your job, you could lose everything. So, you shut your mouth, take whatever shit your employer decides to shove up your ass, and you go to work everyday, for the rest of your life. In so doing, you have so few hours left over to spend with your loved ones that you forget what love is, lose your connection to them, and end up divorced or find your kids arrested or overdosed. Why? So you can keep paying the interest on the debt you have accumulated. And then, you will die far too young because of the accumulation of stress and the toxic conditions corporations have wrecked upon the environment.
This is not freedom, my friends. This is a form of slavery, indentured servitude, which you cannot opt out of. This is the future for as long as can be imagined.
Is this the life you want to give your children? Is this the world you want to endow upon future generations? Is consuming, amassing debt, selling the hours of your life, and creating piles of non-biodegradable refuse while you idolize beautiful celebrities the future you would choose for yourself if you had a choice? Is this servitude to the marketplace really fulfilling enough to bequeath to all future generations?
Or -
Are you brave enough to be an individual, think for yourself, take your balls out of your bosses' wallets, and demand a better world?
Friday, October 21, 2011
Tolled Dull Waste
Fowl wind's
brash past
stashed
sky, blew
flush guts'
gust: blushed.
Sever all
thrill-kilt
stilled
lie, tolled
dull waste
waits: sculled.
Corrupted file's
flies memorize
disguised
profit: net's
nest subsidized.
brash past
stashed
sky, blew
flush guts'
gust: blushed.
Sever all
thrill-kilt
stilled
lie, tolled
dull waste
waits: sculled.
Corrupted file's
flies memorize
disguised
profit: net's
nest subsidized.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Unrecalled Dreams
Walking through ancient corridors
over rickety bridges
behind new moon shadows
Singing atonal melodies
without breathing
Collapsing umbrella fantasies
Stranded on the edge
of a sand grain
without any salt
Drenched by your wordless rhymes
in my unrecalled dreams
as a cricket gasps
A tiny black kitten
with white paws
and a tiny white tufted ascot
who mews in the softest voice
scampers over to me every night
so that its owner raises a fuss
as it nuzzles into my lap
I hear my dead mother's voice
in the haunted river willow
awaiting the hand of cancer's taut grasp
over rickety bridges
behind new moon shadows
Singing atonal melodies
without breathing
Collapsing umbrella fantasies
Stranded on the edge
of a sand grain
without any salt
Drenched by your wordless rhymes
in my unrecalled dreams
as a cricket gasps
A tiny black kitten
with white paws
and a tiny white tufted ascot
who mews in the softest voice
scampers over to me every night
so that its owner raises a fuss
as it nuzzles into my lap
I hear my dead mother's voice
in the haunted river willow
awaiting the hand of cancer's taut grasp
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Disconnected
On the contented fields
tiled with jigsaw puzzle
leaves - cue-cured by burning hues
where flaming dreams wander by
unlit-candle starry skies -
a day lecher never winks.
But flawed October teardrops,
crowded around faulty rifts,
pass the lines of discontent
furrowed into the ancient
brow of memories relived.
Feet feelings die by inches.
Enthusiasm falters
under the last mournful gaze
of quail eggs, whose longing
smothers calculated broods.
Clever sings in its own ears.
tiled with jigsaw puzzle
leaves - cue-cured by burning hues
where flaming dreams wander by
unlit-candle starry skies -
a day lecher never winks.
But flawed October teardrops,
crowded around faulty rifts,
pass the lines of discontent
furrowed into the ancient
brow of memories relived.
Feet feelings die by inches.
Enthusiasm falters
under the last mournful gaze
of quail eggs, whose longing
smothers calculated broods.
Clever sings in its own ears.
consensus constrained
in The Beginning
a Spark of Truth
spread through
Our World
proclaiming peace
without indemnity
blocking annexation
blotting out
the conquerors
and unbranding
the conquered
but the olive
branch lies
upon the ground
yet undelivered
consensus
constrained
a Spark of Truth
spread through
Our World
proclaiming peace
without indemnity
blocking annexation
blotting out
the conquerors
and unbranding
the conquered
but the olive
branch lies
upon the ground
yet undelivered
consensus
constrained
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