Ffolkes,
T’is a fine line indeed between madness and genius; a line so fine that the two bleed into each other’s meaning, distorting the sense of reality we depend on to anchor us. It is almost as if they are inter-dependent, one not possible without the presence of the other. In a way, it makes sense, as the only progress humanity makes is when people act abnormally; one must break eggs to make a ….an omelet (I wanted to say another dish, but spell checker refused to use it).
I have long understood this, as many of my best moments in life came when I allowed my madness free rein over my perceptive judgment. But it isn’t wise to allow that too often; it has a tendency to produce concepts that alarm the natives……let’s get on with the day’s musings, eh?….
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“From stupidity there is always something to be learned, but it’s always the same thing: don’t be stupid.” — Robert M. Adams
Again, the saddest part of this is that it has to be said at all. I don’t know about you, but I stopped drinking my shampoo many years ago, and haven’t felt the urge to bite into an electric cord, or see if the stove is hot since infancy. (There are, however, a number of people I have had the urge to bite, on several occasions) But, because our society has the unfortunate habit of repeatedly passing laws intended to “save ourselves” from our own stupidity, regardless of how richly the consequences of acting so might be deserved, our beloved ruling class benevolently bestows upon us a law to “keep people safe.”
This is called legislating morality, and has been attempted by any number of governments throughout history; each and every time we end up with many more problems than the one for which the solution was created for. It’s all just a piece of human nature, (Robert Heinlein calls its proponents Mrs. Grundy, the old neighbor who watches out the window to gather gossip and judge the morals of everyone else), and has probably caused more deaths than sheer stupidity alone. Being human nature, what can one do? Well, not much…. but, ignoring Mrs. Grundy on a consistent basis can at least make her go bother someone else for a time……
“If you attack Stupidity you attack an entrenched interest with friends in government and every walk of public life.” — Robertson Davies
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“Yes, many primitive people still believe this myth…But in today’s technical vastness of the future, we can guess that surely things were much different.” — The Firesign Theater
What, you may ask, is he talking about now? Primitive myth? What myth?……Well, lemme tell ya….. There is a commonly held belief in this country that the people who are elected to political office are honest, concerned citizens who will work tirelessly to make society a better place for all. I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but this belief is sheer caca….(that word, btw, is the word most common to all languages on Earth; every single culture has this very word, or a close variation with the same sound, and they all mean the same thing…..caca) (you though I was going to say s__t, didn’t you? Shame on you….)
Oh, I’ll grant that there are a few Congressmen from small states & districts, or are new to the national scene, that still might retain some of the shiny idealism they had when they first came to D.C., but just a couple years watching everyone else getting rich, and never being able to get any real reform legislation discussed, much less passed, will generally rub off most of that shine. The great majority of the folks in power are there because they have figured out the easiest gig on the planet, i.e., ripping off the rubes, legally.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The ubiquitous ‘they’ do NOT have your interests at heart. Hell, they don’t even care what your interest are, beyond knowing what they need to lie about. Proof? Ever hear this joke? How do you know a politician is lying? His mouth is open. All humor has a piece of truth at the core… And once they are in office, it’s rather like hitting a golf ball. After it’s in the air, you can’t control it at all, no matter how you twist your hips and grimace……
“Will this never-ending series of PLEASURABLE EVENTS never cease?” — Zippy the Pinhead
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“In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o’clock in the morning.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
Sometimes, in the hands of creative genius, prose is almost indistinguishable from poetry; this is a perfect example of that, although F. Scott can only marginally be called genius. His work sometimes seems to me to be channeled into him from some other source, as if he were merely the vessel that contains the ambrosia, not the ambrosia itself. But, who cares, eh? If you like it, it won’t matter what anybody thinks about it, so go ahead and enjoy.
My point here, though, is that this particular phrase is one of those that I can personally admit to feeling; I’ve spent many a night pondering why I was up at 3 AM, again. All too often, the reasons which make us restive at that hour have their source in despair, or fear, or even anger, all emotions that affect us strongly. But as the animals we are, we also retain a lot of leftover evolutionary habits, or species memory. Our bodies know that 3 AM is the most dangerous part of the night, and being up and awake at that time makes the body/mind nervous, for no apparent reason.
So, we awake from a nightmare, or to answer the call of the porcelain throne, and to our own turmoil is added the signals of danger, flashing across the background of consciousness, with subliminal undertones of our most ancient fears. In a corner of our soul, we cower in abject terror of the horrors in our imagination, until our mind clears well enough to throw off this unintended consequence of wakefulness. We may not live in the forest anymore, but you can’t convince that piece of you that the monsters aren’t out there, just beyond the light of the fire, waiting for us to foolishly leave the cave…..
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“The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper” — Thomas Jefferson
If we consider this to be correct, it bodes ill for our society; if it was true 200+ years ago, it’s all too true now. Advertisements are deliberately misleading; outlandish claims of superior quality are normal and completely untrue. We all know this; we’ve always known this. It’s just that most folks ignore it, and pretend to believe what they hear. So, if the ads are the most truthful, what does that say about the rest of it? Nothing very flattering, to be sure. Sure, everybody claims to not pay attention to all that garbage, and it may be partly true. But people soak up a lot of stuff they are not aware of, and won’t admit to, even when confronted with irrefutable evidence, like a video of them snarfing Cheetos while riding a stationary bike.
The other problem brought to light by this concept is that exposure to this barrage of untruth insidiously conditions people to accept it as truth. Or maybe they just rationalize it as an alternative truth. I don’t know; not a frigging clue. I’ve never understood how people can give up so much control over their minds to other people. Offhand, I forget who said “If you don’t control your own mind, someone else will”; it wasn’t me, but it is bottom line truth, in my not so humble opinion.
Through circumstances not entirely my choice, I haven’t had a television, or cable, or a DVD player other than my computer, for close to two years now. I’ve caught a few games at other folk’s places, or while I am enjoying an adult beverage at the neighborhood watering hole, but mostly, I am completely out of touch with that whole medium of “entertainment”. I don’t miss it a bit….and it cuts my crap intake by at least 40%. Makes it easier to defend against the rest of the crap, online and in newspapers, and is very helpful in reducing the number of times per day I feel like turning homicidal…..
“In our country are evangelists and zealots of many different political, economic and religious persuasions whose fanatical conviction is that all thought is divinely classified into two kinds – that which is their own and that which is false and dangerous.” — Justice Robert H. Jackson
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“Never try to out-stubborn a cat.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”
This is an important little piece of advice, based on well-earned experience, backed up by ongoing physical and observational evidence. One good reason to avoid this egregious sort of error is that learning to coexist with a cat can teach one the finer points of diplomacy and negotiation. Plus, it is well to remember that cats do not own shoes that you can pee into, in the middle of night when they aren’t looking. You do, and I’ve never known a cat who was shy about expressing their displeasure with their pet human……
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Why is it that, having misplace an object we need, everyone always says that what we are looking for is always in the last place we look? OMG, tough one…..doh! When you find it, you stop looking, which automatically makes it the last place you looked, even if it is the first place you’ve looked. The only way for this statement to be untrue would be for us to keep looking after we found it….doh! But people always repeat this as if it were a new concept they just discovered, trying to give the impression it is the first time they’ve ever heard it. I guess we humans are just easily amused….. y’all take care out there….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.
gigoid
Kowabunga!
gigoid 