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BLANKET MAN Excerpt
I remain distraught about Jim’s story about poor blanket man, the guy who for years has sat wrapped under blankets on the bench near the park fountain. He got up and fell, hitting his head. When the hospital staff took off his shoes, his toes came with them. His circulation was so bad, he had sat so long, his shoes had been on so long (supposedly three years, though I don’t know how they knew that) that blanket man’s toes simply rotted away.
Read BLANKET MAN
The Antithetical Societal Solution
(excerpt).....the resulting systems that demand ever longer work hours and ever more consumption and ever more superficial entertainment allow ever less time for prayerful contemplation, and the vicious cycle spirals ever downward, along with our free time and inner satisfaction.
The root of the cause and the only source of solution lie within us, but the boss, cell-phone, next episode, next tweet, and next playoff game erect the bars and razor wire to lock us out of our inner self.
No mass movement will solve this ill, nor any civil rebellion, societal revolution, or group occupation.
This ill requires the quiet courage of individuals, moving within themselves, rebelling against all–consuming schedules, revolting against pernicious norms of more and bigger, individuals reclaiming their time, and re-occupying their own souls. Read entire essay
The Curse of Approval
How often do we dare to risk disapproval? How often do we so much as get dressed in the morning without “approval” as the driving force? How many actions and statements in a given day can we point to and say we took that step with absolutely no regard for what anyone would think?
Winning Versus Conquering
In politics you can win by uniting or conquer by dividing.
The former benefits the nation, the latter benefits the powerful.
Many Truths
......It seems at first to be only a subtle difference of phrasing, "many truths" versus "complex still to be determined" truth. But the difference is far more profound, the former a nominally psychotic solipsism with the inevitable effect of erecting antagonistic barriers, for some of your "truths" will inevitably pose threat to mine. "There are many truths" deceptively promises liberation but in fact is a seduction into a prison of solitary confinement....
Childish Questions
.......Let our descendants five hundred years hence laugh at our styles, clothing, trends, fads, and follies. They cannot understand how desperate we were to belong and to get along, and they will certainly be engaging in their own versions of the madness we call “society”........
Hollow Busyness
“Hollow busyness”. That is my new watchword summarizing modern United States society. From the outside the “hollow busyness” always looks like so much substance.
It always provides an answer to those inescapable questions “what did you do?”, “what are you doing?”, “what will you do?”, “what do you want to do?”, “what do you plan to do?” Woe be to those in modern consumer society who confess they did nothing and have no plans for doing something!
Outsiders cannot see past the perimeter of our lives into the hollowness at the core because of the obscuring surface whirlwind of activity, and we ourselves often as not are blinded by the dust and sand kicked up by our frantic busyness, our watering eyes unable to discern the relative merit and value of our frenetic activities, unaware of the real reasons for our tears.
Digital Disruption
Excerpt:.... A pandemic of digital detachment has left us isolated from reality and each other.
Never have we had such opportunity for connection and communication. Never have our connections and communication been so shallow and superficial.
We have created a societal sham when we need substance; we stand on shifting sand of fads and trends when we need foundations secure and solid. The fog of the superficial hides the substance. The glare of the shallow blinds us to solid reality......Read entire essay
Digital Migrations
(Excerpt): ........The technology has changed and the geographic distributions have changed……but have we changed? Do we want to change? Each historic coalescing of identity: family – tribal – religious - and national, led to violent conflict with the “others”. Will our coalescing into right and left - red and blue - liberal and conservative - fundamentalist and progressive - NASCAR and Indy Racing League - science and superstition, simply lead to new iterations of conflict? …or will we finally learn that the person of different belief – opinion – perspective – attitude – philosophy does not necessarily pose a threat? When no longer separated by the mountain between villages, the river between tribes, the language between nations, when we have the same language - the same neighborhood - the same community - the same world, when we are done texting and tweeting those who agree with us, will we finally talk to each other? Read entire essay
Reality Gap Excerpt
Speak truth. Do compassion. But resign yourself to the fact it will all be interpreted and misinterpreted through each individual's lens of experience. Read the rest: Reality Gap
Overlapping Realities
Objective Reality could dissipate the madness, but we no longer live in an objective world of earth and stone and water. Our screens and scrolling text amplify our madness, until conflict with those dwelling in a different madness leads to mutual destruction of the illusions.
Oblivious to the Obvious
Excerpt: .....The great tides of societal change arise when someone figures out how to harness the latent madness, fear, and anger that restlessly resides in the darker recesses of the human soul. Such is the phenomenon now unfolding in our nation and the world. The worst of human nature has once again been harnessed and brought to focus, the most easily manipulated masses set into concerted stampeding motion, fear and fulmination concentrated into irrational political panic.
It catches us by surprise, these surging tides of self-destructive populism. “It could not happen here!” is our cry of denial as at the behest of miscreant leaders the mobs set alight the foundations that support and sustain their own interests. ........ Read essay
Spark of Progress
Excerpt:......Do not let the momentary inevitable political tides of fear and anger anchor your spirit. Be the exception, and by being the exception add your spark to the combined potential of the human spirit that will someday rekindle the flame of progress that liberates from fear and prejudice and scowls of retribution, progress that frees us to hope and help and courageously smile...... See full essay.
Trust Your Robot
On the question of whether robots and machines that listen and sympathize will prove adequate to comfort the human soul. Never has so much been said and so little heard. Read all of Trust Your Robot
Cynical Encouragement
Two perspectives, one worldly and cynically pragmatic, one hopeful and encouraging, one with potential if adopted by everyone to inexorably lead to unrelenting conflagration, the other with potential if adopted by everyone to put an end to all conflict.
The latter will never triumph. But thank God it keeps the former from triumphing.
Terlingua
Terlingua can’t afford the luxury of pretense. Dig deep for the mercury for use in explosives detonators, but don’t bother digging too deep a grave. Scorpions in candy is about as eloquent a summary of life as you’ll find, rivalling the Day of the Dead postcard with the innocently hot corpse-chick pulling the strings on marionette romantic partners.
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