What prompted this? I’m not certain, as it just took over when I sat down to compose the opening for today’s missive. It sounds as if my subconscious is reacting to a perceived threat, but the only threat I know of right now is the threat of bad poetry, or the heartbreak of diverticulitis, and neither is particularly imminent. I suppose it’s just feeling nervous about how the political scene in this country is shaping up; it gets more bizarre every day, as the candidates jockey for position for Tuesday’s dustup primaries, and continue to make their outrageous claims and wild accusations of conspiracy by the White House. I’ll sit down and have a talk with it, give it some soothing words…. it should be okay in a little while.

My subconscious tends to a fairly high degree of paranoia, but I don’t want to blunt the edge of its perceptions, even if a bit extreme. It’s better to be prepared for the worst it can imagine, then whatever does happen is easily handled, as it generally is not as bad as what my subconscious mind has prepared to deal with. That’s the whole point of a successful defensive strategy, to be ready for the worst; anything short of that is a piece of cake….
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“There is in us a tendency to locate the shaping forces of our existence outside ourselves. Success and failure are unavoidably related in our minds with the state of things around us. Hence it is that people with a sense of fulfillment think it is a good world and would like to preserve it as it is, while the frustrated favor radical change. The tendency to look for all causes outside ourselves persists even when it is clear that our state of being is the product of personal qualities such as ability, character, appearance, health and so on.” — Eric Hoffer

Mr. Hoffer makes a good point here, a point that has fallen into disfavor in today’s society. I speak, of course, of the concept of personal responsibility. By always looking for external factors to explain what is wrong with our world, the personal responsibility that each person holds is nullified, or at least ignored. It has become fashionable instead to find a scapegoat for our problems; we blame our upbringing, our parents, our struggling schools, the President, the economy, or anybody or anything else we can come up with that might have contributed to our discomfort.

There are very few people left today who will admit to having any part in their difficulties; it’s much easier on the self-image to blame it on one’s parents, who are not there to defend themselves, or on some diffuse entity like society, to which all may point as the perpetrator of whatever problem they have encountered. I’d guesstimate that 95% of the members of society today fall into this category; real integrity and honesty is virtually extinct. Just another in a litany of human folly, one which will not only support our extinction as a species, but will hurry it along like a manic sheepdog worries its flock. And when we’re all dead and gone, the planet isn’t going to care one little bit about whose fault it was……

“There is a perfectly satisfactory explanation for everything, but security prevents its disclosure.” — The Anthony Blunt Excuse
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“Already the spirit of our schooling is permeated with the feeling that every subject, every topic, every fact, every professed truth must be submitted to a certain publicity and impartiality.  All proffered samples of learning must go to the same assay-room and be subjected to common tests.  It is the essence of all dogmatic faiths to hold that any such “show-down” is sacrilegious and perverse.  The  characteristic of religion, from their point of view, is that it is intellectually secret, not public; peculiarly revealed, not generally known; authoritatively declared, not communicated and tested in ordinary ways…It is pertinent to point out that, as long as religion is conceived as it is now by the great majority of professed religionists, there is something self-contradictory in speaking of education in religion in the same sense in which we speak of education in topics where the method of free inquiry has made its way.  The “religious” would be the last to be willing that either the history of the content of religion should be taught in this spirit; while those to whom the scientific standpoint is not merely a technical device, but is the embodiment of the integrity of mind, must protest against its being taught in any other spirit.” — John Dewey (1859-1953), American philosopher, — from “Democracy in the Schools”, 1908

This is long enough, and clear enough, that it needs no more added, by me or anyone else. It’s a well-thought out, and clearly stated premise, and a perfect description of a problem that society has obviously not solved, as this sentiment from 1908 remains as valid today as when it was first uttered. I guess it just goes to show that not only are we bozoid creatures, but stubborn as well, unwilling to give up our prejudices and delusions without a struggle. It’s the old “devil you know” outlook carried to its logical extreme; it doesn’t seem to matter that it will kill us just as dead as a new devil….. as long as we don’t have to think about it…..
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The human body produces far more energy than the sun (per unit weight)

It’s simple, really. A human body is an energy conversion tool, or machine, whereas the sun is a source of electromagnetic energy. The body consumes energy in the form of food and converts it first to neurochemical energy by the digestive system, then to kinetic energy by the neuromuscular system. The processes they employ to create and convert one form of energy to another are very complex biochemical transformations, involving a number of steps. Electromagnetic energy is produced by the sun by the process of nuclear fission, in subtle and complex processes not fully understood by mankind, as we are not yet able to look inside a star to gather any evidence of how it functions; at least, not to any important degree.

Nonetheless, we can measure and compare the relative levels of each type of energy produced by the human body and the sun; from there it is merely an arithmetic problem, with a solution provided by addition, multiplication, and long division of the defined numbers representing the energy produced. Both processes are beautiful examples of how understanding the underlying mathematics of the universe lends itself to harmonious functioning between the various manifestations of which it is comprised, to wit: energy, biology, chemistry, and all of the other branches of physics that make up our mathematical model of reality.

From any direction it is viewed, the existence of Life, Consciousness, and the Universe at large is pretty miraculous, exceedingly, almost painfully beautiful in its grandeur and scope. Tossing in the concept of Entropy (you know… Chance, randomness, chaos, Satan, free will, statistics, human nature, the power of PMS, etc.) makes Life all the more intriguing…. besides which, as far as I can tell so far, it’s the only game in town….

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them.- that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality.” — Lao-Tzu
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“Half of the American people have never read a newspaper.  Half never voted for President.  One hopes it is the same half.” — Gore Vidal

Hope springs eternal, does it not? This particular hope is, I’m afraid, never going to pan out. Besides, of the half who actually read a newspaper, only half of them are reading the articles on the front page; the rest only take it for the comics, the sports page, and the astrological forecast…..

But Hope, the charmer, linger’d still behind. — Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) — Pleasures of Hope, Part i, Line 40
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“What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?  Let them take arms!” — Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), Letter to Colonel W. S. Smith, 1787

“Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the _real_ object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?” — Patrick Henry

I have nothing to add to this, it’s perfectly clear……
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So ends another episode of temporary sanity, sent out with love from my little corner of the universe. It’s not Ibsen, but it’s still Art…. y’all take care out there…..