Not a poem, but a heralding song
To gather audience, a hearty throng
Worthy of the artists' time --
An invitation set to rhyme

 

 

 

Look at the idiots with the plane bombs. They were not bombers. They were clowns. The point was not to bring the planes out of the sky, but to put the fear into the flyers.
Why did they fail? Not because of TSA. They were clowns, but they also were observed by the people around them to be acting inappropriately. My point is not that they are funny, but that they have won (not failed at all) when we act so inappropriately, unreasonably, and alarmingly idiotically. No one will get blown out of any sky, or not, because we did or did not humiliate, infuriate, and objectify the traveling public. We will be less as people if we continue to kneejerk ok any stupid ploy to make it look like something is being done. Spoiled brats insist on being impervious to harm, no matter what, refusing to acknowledge there is no such thing. There are much worse dangers than would-be plane bombers who can be focused upon and defused with so much less bad baggage for us all.

 

You want to be safe? Find a nice, well-protected hole, far from anyone. Fill it with the supplies you will need for the rest of your life and lock yourself in. No? How about developing good awareness skills and better intuition? Speak up if you notice something suspicious. Speak up if you feel abused.

 

What kinds of sensitivity training are agents given for people with such issues as rape survivors, for instance? How about everyone who feels violated by such treatment keeps account of mental health expenditures or other proof and find a sympathetic lawyer to put together a class action suit.

 

Overexposure to such rays is well known to be counterproductive to health. What about all the people with compromised immune systems, cancers, all kinds of health issues, who need to travel often (maybe for work, maybe even for medical reasons)? I don't think these policies were thought through at all. More like: "Hey, what can we do to show we're serious about fighting terror?"

 

But are we groping and raying the cargo?

 

Yes, of course, molest the passengers and let the cargo go free

 

You know what has been the best defense against these attacks:
public awareness.  Get rid of the machines and gropers. Let the public know how our input is appreciated. Maybe loudspeaker announcements thanking passengers for their help in keeping us all safe and these are the people to go to if you see something suspicious.
Because, you know, smugglers have used body cavities for millennia; the next step in "safety" is wholesale rape. And then there will be the pregnant women with explosives implanted or ... come up with your scariest scenario.
There is no absolute safety. All this insanity only keeps us from doing the things that do make sense.
When we dishonor each other, treat paying public like meat to be inspected, build up the fear of the people, we are working directly and with great loyalty for the terrorists.

 

Of course we can get rid of these intrusions. We have to demand to be treated respectfully or (just like with any bully) we will be derided and our concerns ignored

 

 

 

It wasn't Afghans who did the 9/11 acts. They were just jumped on because they were being oppressed by the Taliban, unleashed on them as an antidote to Soviet invasion. Kind of in the same vein that we promoted Saddam Hussein to help fight the Iranis. The enemy of our enemy is our friend, until they are of no more use as a friend and more useful as an enemy. Meanwhile we destroy people's lands/homes/lives to make some kind of erroneous point.

 

Instead of putting all these resources into destruction of war, wouldn't it be easier (and a big boon to the world economy) to say run contests and give big awards to people who organize peaceful businesses in communities at risk?

 

 

 

 Of course we are all feeling the effects of global warming. Of course the climate is already changing. It is far too late to put that back in the box. The urgent need now is to make the changes we need to in order to live in these changing conditions. We all know, we all complain endlessly, that Congress can't find its way out of a wet paper bag. Congress does not act on information; it acts on polemics. The only thing holding up clean energy is all of us. We need to demand it. Not from Congress, from those from whom we get our energy. Corporate money is not about destroying the world. It's about making more corporate money. If the market has spoken and demanded clean energy, you better believe they will fall all over themselves to provide it.

 

 

 

Those quietly moving and shaking behind the scenes are the plutocrats pushing an oligarchic agenda. They have the best that modern psychology can offer to pick off those below with lies and fantasies. People become so conditioned, they just move along in line. It is all very sad.

 

We have no idea what we are doing, not only to ourselves but to the environment on which we depend, in our mad drive toward profit.

 

well-regarded alternatives to big medical business are portrayed as quacks, scams, not allowed. This is not about "Obama-care" but has been the mainline paradigm for a very long time here. Why aren't the alternatives people want talked about?
As near as I can tell, they want to get us hooked on their products, then hooked on more of their products to counteract the "side" effects of the products they have already hooked us on and so on and so on -- fabulous business model until we're all sucked dry.
People don't generally seem to understand that "side effects" are just as much effects of the substance on your body as, not merely incidental to, the desired effects.

 

We should have clear, easily understood, write-ups of the research, of the various other remedies and their pros and cons, of various medical professionals and consumers giving their opinions, where questions can be raised and responded to in easy to access locations on the web and otherwise. As they say: "Sunshine is the best disinfectant."

 

If big business is really so socially responsible and the best way to get important projects done, why haven't these businesses taken on these projects. There is plenty of work to be done, and plenty of unemployed people to do it.

 

we don't need no stinking government to fix our economy
we do need to understand that freedom requires responsibility
It should be so obvious: If we don't want government interference in the marketplace, we need to be proactive and work out the problems in our communities that adversely affect our lives.
Politics is not about truth, but about persuasion. If the anti group can convince the people to make big noises, it matters not that it is merely noise. Those who dance to the tune of power through populism carry the day. No, of course, a majority in the House is not a license to repeal or even rule. That doesn't mean any of it is based on what is real in the world outside of hypeville.
There's always a trade-off. If we are informed, we can decide what we are willing to trade.
It is not only big government that can stimulate our economy. There are long religious and secular traditions of giving charity, providing within community, not to mention creative ideas such as contests in which small fees become a prize possibly based on developing clever ways to provide services or maybe starting small community-based enterprises through which people can earn money ad hoc or ...

 

There are easy ways to Win = Win in theory; but you get politics into it and all bets are off.   In reality, the economy is not a problem at all. The #1 problem in this country right now is angry cross-talk which keeps everyone at arms' length bickering rather than coming together to reasonably work out how to live together successfully.

 

What no one seems to want to say is that there is no possible way of saving ourselves out of the deficit. The only way out is up: growing the economy. If we want to survive this insanity we need policies that will encourage growth, like much more realistic education and encouragement of small businesses.

 

Social Security and Medicare are paid for independently of the other budget items. If we got rid of the cut-off, we could all pay a much lower percentage of income and save money for employers right where the employees' pay is concerned.

 

Get rid of all these unwanted foreign adventures, wars and rumours of wars and pushing around sovereign nations, and all those unfortunate weapons that mostly don't deliver as promised. Get rid of corporate welfare. Do real due diligence on making sure government agencies are administrated efficiently, including getting rid of overlaps. Spend to prime the pump, to encourage true government/private partnership in upgrading skills, promoting useful projects and providing sound infrastructure.

 

The good old days generally referred to are the post WWII times when we were full of vim and victory and most of Europe along with Japan were in shambles. Those were days of high taxation on the highest incomes, if you will recall. Also, it was a time when community philanthropy was expected and respected. The culture now is more about isolation and bifurcation. How do we bring ourselves together for our common good?

 

Kowtowing to big corp is exactly the wrong way to improve our economy. Many of those "regulations" businesses complain keep them from operating effectively are imposed by big business interests who buy themselves politicians to kill off competition. For a thriving economy we need small, local businesses providing for the needs and desires of customers in return for fair compensation, and so on, and so on, all around.

 

Don't cut programs that benefit people. But how do we know what is beneficial, what is merely politically expedient? Why not have a project: there must be Congressional oversight committees. Go through the budgets, piece by piece, not with an eye to cutting but an eye to efficiently administering programs to meet real goals. You know, like business executives are supposed to if they want their business to run well. Post the process online. Let us all see exactly what government spending is.

 

 

 

From a point of view with which you may be unfamiliar, government has no place in the free market. Free market forces, the invisible hand, if left to themselves will give everybody the shot they deserve. It is incumbent on the individual to produce appropriate goods/services to trade on the free market. If they do their job well and provide a product which sells, they deserve the reward. If they don't, they need to be told in no uncertain terms that they need to do better.
Let them find work they can do. Let the market provide entrepreneurs who can sufficiently monetize training and mentoring people without the ability to do it for themselves. [Or, maybe put together badly managed programs to give them too little to adequately live on while demeaning them with constant questioning of their deservingness, keeping them dependent, powerless, and miserable?]
 A major problem with this mindset, taken as an argument, is that we have never had a truly free market in the US. At this point the advantages to the advantaged are so intricately woven into the fabric that the only way to mitigate it is a radical realignment. People get so tightly wound into their ideologue fantasies they fail to actually look at the real situation and how their preconceived ideas don't fit it.  However, there is nothing wrong with postulating philosophies as an exercise in discovering possibilities.

 

 

 

Science slowly seems to be catching up with simple realities. The human response to the unsanctioned truth seems to be "No!" "No!" "No!" "Well, what do you know? Science has made it true."

 

 

 

Perhaps you honestly don't realize, or think that because you are so much milder than many of those antagonists on the "other" side that your belligerence doesn't matter. But it does. If you are to be an impeccable warrior, when it is pointed out that you have taken on characteristics that you demean in your opponents the response of defensiveness is no defense. Take the responsibility. Learn to be kinder. That does not mean to lessen the strength of your arguments. In fact, coming from a place of truth and honor strengthens them (and you) more. (However, if you decide consciously to enjoy a spell of bitchiness here and there, go for it. Just don't pretend you didn't.)

 

 

 

Ignorance and prejudice are not religiously based -- anyone can play.

 

Forgiving doesn't mean forgetting. It doesn't mean you welcome the mean spirit into your heart. It means you welcome love into your heart; allow the hate to fall off your back into the past. Forgive. Don't forget. Let the meanness be a lesson in how not to live.

 

Oh, my recent mantra: Never argue with a bigot. It will upset you and make the bigot madder.

 

What religion is is not about morality or rights. It is about a common understanding of the meaning of life that those who agree well enough can feel they are those in the know. Faith, spirituality, these are different from religion.
Religion, way back in tribal society, was a "yoke" of underlying tribal knowledge orally transmitted. As societies grew and took over further lands, ritual, ceremony, gathering for more formal teachings of collective knowledge became more and more formalized into what we now call "religion". Morality, spirituality, these are more individual relationships to what is beyond the individual. We are perfectly capable of living as moral beings simply because we understand that "morality" is about successfully living among others. Codification of morality is more likely to become oppressive and about hierarchical power.

 

There are Christians and Christians (as well as probably any other collective nouns).  Unfortunately, there are a great many seriously disturbed folks out there proclaiming Christianity as their cause.  They harass people mercilessly for not believing exactly as they believe their God commands.  Of course, there are a great many Christians (probably the vast majority) who are lovely people, living exemplary lives as their God commands, caring for those in their community no matter what the other states as belief because they understand in their hearts that the "One God" loves all of Creation.

 

There are a great many people who proclaim their love for their God and treat his Creation like a cesspool, and their brethren like mortal foes.

 

I believe there can be (perhaps will be) a paradigm shift such that we no longer need religion. It would have to be a true and overwhelming realization that we are all interdependent, among ourselves and with our environment.

 

 

 

It is a poem because of the evocative nature of the language, because it intends to speak with more than the prosaic words, but as a massage for the mind and heart. The line breaks are to make the reading easier, to put the phrases together as the poet's ear hears them, like stage direction.

 

Poetry throughout written history has been both an oral and visual art. There is a great deal of spoken poetry available, as well as more and more writing, experimenting, genre melding and overturning. Look for what speaks to you.

 

 

 

After many years of awareness introspection I have recently felt freed of the need to be bound by mislearned lessons of childhood. (Well, I hope I don't just fall back into those familiar but dreadful patterns.) It really is about accepting without blame, and realizing that the past can be let go to allow the present to be an adventure.

 

 

Speaking of folklore/fairytales/myth -- I am in the beginning stages of working
on a story (very soulful) in the style of an old folk legend. Perhaps some of
you here could point me toward useful online sources of such stories that I
might immerse in the flavor?

politicking

politics


infinite regression of change and resistance

multi-rhythmed rhyme

singing into the winds of change

to move their vector more in line

with where we wish to arrive

Common Ground

They say them liberal critters

Got their heads up in the clouds

They haven't got a clue to how

to live here on the ground.

They give hand-outs to criminals

Can't tell a foe from friend

They're scared of guns and gumption

so ready to amend.

But there's something we agree on

If we're all on common ground

You help folks if they stumble;

don't kick 'em when they're down.

duelality

Duality, dichotomy, antipathy

All we see is

black and white

wrong and right

day and night

running blind into sharp edges

unneeded bloodshed

See:  the world round, encompassing dimensions

Prologue

Sun and Moon embrace

as one 

for brief eternity

all mystery within

Black and White

create gradation

radiate kinetic energy

We can achieve

believe, begin, begin, begin

Gardeners, planting flowers,

planting food,

planting souls in

nurturing soil

Healers

perceiving wounds

to be sewn

relieving loneliness

revealing pain

held in, denied

twisting ardent toil

Teachers

admiring their wards

finding with them

questions, keys and doors;

realizing history is only destiny

when explorations cease;

invitations from space and time

come complete

with choices

A choir of voices

from softest spark

to fervent blaze

Troops of effervescent players

Symphonies, 

drums at dawn

Inspiration and instruction

carried forth through song and stage

vibrant murals painting onward age to age

Taking up the challenge of the tale

that twists, turns, meanders

providing kaleidoscopic opportunity

ever to begin again

unLocked

 

In the state of nature

Laws are enforced by

necessity, not choice

The Contract plainly reads

"Do what you will --

and see where that gets you."

hatemongers

They take up space in the marketplace 

with nothing but putrefying rotten wares.

Why should we think they have anything to offer us at all? 

Bullies have always tried to demand respect with violence. The real point is to cut off the power of the bullies by refusing to acknowledge them as anything but what they are. What needs to happen is for the bullies to be treated as the fools they are, instead of respected as some kind of power or authority on who deserves bullying. That includes the bullies on the playground, in front of the classroom, in the home, in the work place, in the street, on the battlefield, in the media, everywhere.

The point of the First Amendment to the US Constitution is that we each be heard, all be represented, all get our say.

we at the bottom have always known you can defeat money with imagination

The good old days generally referred to are the post WWII times when we were full of vim and victory and most of Europe along with Japan were in shambles.

Those were days of high taxation on the highest incomes, if you will recall. Also, it was a time when community philanthropy was expected and respected.

Instead of putting all these resources into destruction of war, wouldn't it be easier (and a big boon to the world economy) to say run contests and give big awards to people who organize peaceful businesses in communities at risk?

If big business is really so socially responsible and the best way to get important projects done, why haven't these businesses taken on these projects. There is plenty of work to be done, and plenty of unemployed people to do it.

The thing is, kowtowing to big corp is exactly the wrong way to improve our economy. All those "regulations" businesses complain about keeping them from operating effectively are imposed by big business interests who buy themselves politicians to kill off competition. What we need for a thriving economy is small, local businesses providing for the needs and desires of customers in return for fair compensation, and so on, and so on, all around.

If big business is really the driver of employment, we do not need government involvement. However, do you see the millions of jobs these businesses have provided to bring us into near full employment today? I don't either.

A real stimulus would not cater to entrenched players with bad records. Where are all the innovative 21st century manufacturers? Is the US ready to enter the real world?

I am so tired, exhausted, over and done with these "parties" and their labels. Those old tried and true conservatives that really had important messages about, you know, conserving what is best in our country, keeping a tight reign on common resources, thinking clearly and deeply about what is truly of value, could not even get a fair hearing on Fox or from those rabidly proclaiming their allegiance to ignorance. There is nowhere for a real conservative to go.

Those quietly moving and shaking behind the scenes are the plutocrats pushing an oligarchic agenda. They have the best that modern psychology can offer to pick off those below with lies and fantasies. People become so conditioned, they just move along in line. It is all very sad.

The only thing I can think of to keep from totally going under with the shipwreck to be in Washington, D.C. is to go local, as much as possible, making it more possible every day to spit in the eye of Congress because we're making our world just fine ourselves.

With the national elections skewed by the focus of oligarchic special interests, it is ever more important to make a stand on the local level, where real people meet and work out regulations and services "on the ground". Because the vast easily manipulable electorate is not paying attention to the real issues affecting their immediate lives, those who do can make a real difference where it most immediately counts.

It's a midterm for the federal Congressional elections; but most of us also have State and Local governments, initiatives, referenda. The local level is where individuals can actually make a difference, where the rubber meets the road for immediate services and restrictions. To base the vote solely on the D.C. merry-go-round is to do a disservice to ourselves, to the concept of democracy, and to the communities in which we operate our everyday lives.

Serious about wanting people to vote? Get out there and promote -- offer assistance to get folks to and from the polls, to babysit, to help with whatever circumstance makes staying home seem a better option.

People don't get Obama. On the one hand they don't see beyond his color and liberal supporters and think he is a promoter of a far left agenda. On another hand they don't see beyond their own projections and fault him for bending too far towards the right. In fact, he is and always has been a centrist. He is mainstream America from his hybrid roots to his capitalist vision of the American dream.

Well-regarded alternatives to big medical business are portrayed as quacks, scams, not allowed. This is not about "Obama-care" but has been the mainline paradigm for a very long time here. Why aren't the alternatives people want talked about?

rebalancing

The line between politics and entertainment recedes
We have entered the 21st Century

 

 

 

Tango
Tangle
Twist and mangle
Whine and Wheedle
Thread the needle
mend the tear
become aware
within a muse's
winsome glare
dance alone or in a pair
or as a party to the fiddle
on the edge, out from the middle
rearrange stage from chair
move in tandem
or keep it random
lines at angle
long past parallel or paradigm

 

 

 

Bullying takes place because bullies get away with it. Bullies will find any identifiable "difference" to designate victims. It helps them that others in the greater cohort will willingly allow such victimizing.

 

Do not close off your thinking to decry gay bashing. Anyone can be bashed for pretty much any trait. It's not our differences that cause the bashing, but the same sad old story of the bully making big waves with loud obnoxious pugilence. The real point is to cut off the power of the bullies by refusing to acknowledge them as anything but what they are.

 

How about a concept: actual supervision. Maybe we can think of ways to reward good behavior. Maybe those who are playing nicely can be given fun new toys or be led in fun games. Bullies would have to reform, play nicely, before they could join in the fun. Otherwise, they could be ignored, except in cases where they need to be isolated.

 

It is not that the schools or any other institution needs to protect their charges from each other. It is the true responsibility of all of us to call out the bullies as the naked emperors that they are.

 

These kids are made miserable by more than bullying. They are made to feel they deserve the bullying, don't deserve defending, or, at best, that though they don't deserve it, they will always be bullied.

 

This is nothing new. Bullies have always tried to demand respect with violence. What needs to happen is for the bullies to be treated as the fools they are, instead of respected as some kind of power or authority on who deserves bullying. That includes the bullies on the playground, in front of the classroom, in the home, in the work place, in the street, on the battlefield, in the media, everywhere.

 

 

 

If police are so ineffective, and the neighborhood is so dangerous, wouldn't the logical step be to get together a neighborhood watch organization? You don't need guns -- just light on the problem and concerned awareness, and a small bit of actual courage to take back our lives.

 

 

 

Love,
amniotic ocean for the fetal dream
feeding on effulgence infused with faith
longing fulfilled
drop by drop
until the wake descends

 

 

 

We tell ourselves stories, display labels, devise descriptions to make it ok to be part of the human construct world. When we leave the construct, we just are. But, why do we leave this superconstruct? Why do we want to be other than interactive cells of humanity?

 

 

 

It seems to me that the essence is that what people need is back-up. Not drugs, not superiors telling them what to do or how to feel; people who are in crisis need to feel there is someone who is listening, really, a safe place where they can be totally real, and real hope that they can figure it out and get to some better understanding of themselves, their goals and needs, and their abilities. But really, people need to know that they matter, that they can learn and do what is needed, and that the stories of their lives are still being written and read.

 

 

 

dark evocation
tension, sensual and sad
branded bold, bad, dense
and pale in waning light

 

 

 

food, water, air, sexual reproduction -- these rightfully ought to be celebrated as our necessity for interaction, for deep meaningful understanding of our environmental connections.  We as individuals can never exist alone.

 

 

 

Anyone who invests human animals with "spirit" denied to everyone else is operating on prejudicial discrimination -- not some higher power.

 

 

 

If Love is universal
why limit it to the living
or possibility of life
Love freely, all that inspires
love, all the companions
and comforters,
all the blessings and brightenings

 

 

 

As you astutely observe, it is not the drug culture, nor the influence of druggy friends that create a downturn. They are in some sense a cure, or at least a palliative, for the sweet comforts of home. On the other hand, check out biographies of the artists who truly move us and even culture. We don't get to sing the blues effectively if we haven't paid the dues.

 

Getting "high" needs no excuse. Easing pain and other aspects of illness that interfere with the activities that are important to us is what is to be expected when possible.
or
No, let's be so in awe of the boogie-boogie of "DRUGS!"* that we joyfully embrace our suffering because it shows our strength in staying away from ... what big pharma doesn't profit on.

 

*Deny
Reasonable
Use
Government
Sanction

 

What are/were those "progressives" thinking? It ought to be a no-brainer that prohibitions are counterproductive, counter-progressive.

 

 

 

I've been thinking about this narrative as essence or pseudo-essence in terms of biosemiotics. Every bit of life a construct evaluating and acting out the narratives implied by collective and continuously collated data.

 

 

 

In deep field dreams
rustic woodfire comfort
blesses autumn morn

 

deadly sweet sister
howls into windy canyon
sad chants ricochet

 

 

 

gracious glorience
calcified webs of sparkle and synapse
Terra forms; delicate balance renders

 

 

 

Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Neo-Pagans, Zoroastrians -- no we can't trust any of them, because people can be a nasty, dishonest lot. It's not their gods; it's their blatant idiocy.

 

If we were indeed an intelligent race (that's homo sap, not some divisive idea about "races"), we would honor and respect each other as a matter of "of course!"

 

 

 

We are not being suffocated by illegal immigrants. Most of them are here because employers are employing them to do tedious or dangerous work for low wages. We are being suffocated by our own frankly insane ways of working out our differences.

 

 

 

Instead of hunting for a job, it might be more productive all around to hunt for a market.

 

 

 

If big business is really the driver of employment, we do not need government involvement. However, do you see the millions of jobs these businesses have provided to bring us into near full employment today? I don't either.

 

 

 

I don't get why anyone would not be able to name the person they want as intermediary when they are too sick to speak for themselves. Often a next of kin might have very different ideas about what is to be done than the person being done to.

 

 

 

Nietzsche believed will is exploration
far beyond the need of expiation
I am and thus breathe in reality
breathe out subjugation
to Lords

 

 

 

Eternities' glow, transform, trip fantastic light
Timeless journeys cycle into life
We breathe, entangle air and Earth
perceive other stars and hearts, wishes
to believe our fates have fire

 

 

 

Life's song can rise and fall in tone
Encode the call we each alone
can hear and dance with
through fear, romance, death,
learning to repair, to own the tune we play
expand and jam throughout each day
maiden to crone
Creating symphony, notated memory
of how we've grown

 

 

 

I wonder about the mindset that makes sense of hoarding resources in the hands of any few elite. Wealth is not money or even precious jewels. Wealth is active commerce thus that resources are used to create better resources.

 

 

 

The thing is, kowtowing to big corp is exactly the wrong way to improve our economy. All those "regulations" businesses complain about keeping them from operating effectively are imposed by big business interests who buy themselves politicians to kill off competition. What we need for a thriving economy is small, local businesses providing for the needs and desires of customers in return for fair compensation, and so on, and so on, all around.

 

Women are subjugated as part of the mindset that favors ownership of the means of production for the benefit of oppressors.

 

I've been thinking about fear and anger. Fear is often to a large extent paralyzing. Anger is energizing.

 

I too prefer to vote for someone I like seeing on tv. However, being of more intellectual persuasion, I like to see them making useful arguments and explaining policy. Probably why I prefer C-SPAN to reality tv.

 

 

 

Serious about wanting people to vote? Get out there and promote -- offer assistance to get folks to and from the polls, to babysit, to help with whatever circumstance makes staying home seem a better option.

 

 

 

Blame the politicians, the parties, the President, the tea and coffee crowds, whatever. I like to blame the education system that doesn't. But, honestly, if the people who are so concerned about progressive issues would get in gear and fire up some imagination and grit, we could overwhelm all the nasty nyah nyah "right wing" trash and swing that American Dream.

 

 

 

so-called Republicans confuse me. They insist on doublespeak such that they're activities totally belie the tenets they traditionally claim to uphold. The party of rah-rah America sells us out quite literally. The party of limited government puts the law into our bedrooms. The party of fiscal responsibility spends on a system of voodoo economics. The party of family values gives no value to family needs. The party of Christian values angrily spits in the face of the mere idea of brotherly love. I think we get the idea -- they are institutionally insane.

 

 

 

Money, much like bureaucracy, effectively acts as a separator of actors. If I can give you money, I don't have to interact with as much as if I had to trade directly.

 

My impression of mainline Republicans is that they don't like to get too close.

 

 

 

It occurs to me that those who are truly "elite" in the sense of having more clearly defined ideas about social good would not, by the nature of the clarity of their ideas, be oppressive to anyone. Rather, it would behoove them to lead by example.

 

 

 

work and love
expression and assimilation
need for food, air, stimulation
ideation, imagination, succor
self-aware cells, each with place
and passion
busily interchanging
at market and field
combine wielding power, growing
beyond boundaries
permeable to trade, elation
creative generation
each lives to give
essence 

Emerging Visions #19 seeks Submissions

upcoming issue of Emerging Visions visionary art 'zine:

 

The theme is to be "Spacing Outward".

 

If you are interested, the link to the Submissions Guidelines is near the top of the "Contributors' Page" --

 

scroll down through the current issue: 

 

http://emergingvisions.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

 

feel free to send this message Outward

forest lore (for 10/10/10)

Consciousness 
conscious 
self-aware 

simple fare, not denied 
to self-organization 
we call life. 

We come alive in narrative. 

Structured tales 
tether history, 
scientific discovery: 
We saw, surmised, tested, 
told for you to see. 
All of artistry suspends in story, 

society, politics, religion, 
myths of tribes and 
nations; war and tribulations, 
arguments for peace, for justice, 
philosophers' laboratories, 
suggestions, syntheses 
Grey matter cogitates, spins 
memory far beyond 
sense perception, 
evolving interaction within 
an eco-sphere. 

A tree may speak of self 
within its frame 

But feels no need to form 
fantasies of ancient trees, 
explain the lore of forest 

mindful service

See the waste; smell the trash
piss-stained street without conscience,
without consequence,
nights of strange dank sounds, stifled

 

struggle
days of dark sulfur fog, strangle faint

 

signs
of future

 

Con me, con mine, give us a taste
of "Look at me, world!"
Give us a clock face, stern behind
a calculated smile
Give us candy-coating white powder,
power to gangle and glee in the open
colored rain.  Tagged with acid disdain,
we fall to our knees in worship.

 

Disassociate, ghosts of Christian past,
waifs of mortgaged time, salute us with
grandeur, stiff staff keeps us in
wavery line, pissing what we might
have been to mark the dust in passing.

 

 

gi'me, gi'me, gi'me
just a sad hit, another bad hit
lusty life out o' me head
out o' me bed
out o' me
Forgive me, forgive my mind oh dearest,
oh kindest, scent of sin
washed pure, washed white as snow
falls, lightens my old grey
imagines me
dead

 

 

 

Do not pity

There is no mirror

There is no better

There is only now and memory

Hidden in pocket diaries and

molecules scents, scenes,

ordinary hells

Children mock in play,

create characters of mockery

of melted jelly beans, colors

blending in the setting light

There is no Knight

There is no Conquering Champion

only children

forgetting why they laugh

 

 

 

In the future we will sit in awe before big electronic windows overtaking our living rooms giving us pictures of reality to replace our lives

 

 

 

Eventually, perhaps, the "scientists" will discover that correlation is not causation and the brain/body/soul is a fully interactive system. The brain activity associated with depression is the brain going through its processes to tell you what is happening with your system. The brain activity will change as you change.

 

 

 

I get angry with the assumptions of these "scientists" that just because they like theories that seem to fit the facts that makes their theories the way it is. I can see these same facts and easily propose other theories that can in fact obviate the usefulness of all these big pharma solutions. As to the drug addictions (which they freely admit are habituated behaviors like gambling, shopping, all kinds of activities that include no "substances"): human tend to repeat behaviors for which we are rewarded. You can extinguish the reward. You can remove the association of the reward with the behavior. You can initiate behaviors with better rewards. But then, they don't even seem to understand that the giving one's life over, not to the drug but to seeking out and obtaining the drug, getting it in your system, then back to finding more is the point and not some kind of collateral damage or side effect. The point for the drug addict is to simplify their life to that single obsession to block out the life that they didn't want or never had.

 

 

 

Sweet and sour fruit of bittersweet summer

when taste and touch could overwhelm

sadness tender exploration, sense memory

oranges, apples

love and loss

seeds of blooming

 

 

 

Religion is not about spirituality, the "big questions," or relationships with the ineffable. Religion is about community, shared values, a tribal kind of comfort. Religion is easily used as a tool for those seeking to take control of the community for their own kind of comfort in having power over their lives by practicing power over others.

 

 

 

The essence of health is entanglement

It is no accident we are born not fully formed,

never can become complete independent

Life is giving and receiving,

a locus of meetings.

 

 

 

I have been saying since high school that my problem with science is that they so often get it wrong. I am learning to be more tolerant. It is not so much that they get it wrong, as they don't seem to understand that "science" is not knowledge, but a method to discover knowledge based on observation, theorizing, testing, observation, etc. So, at any point, we only have the knowledge of what we think we have seen and what we think that means, which keeps moving forward.

 

 

 

It's not about how long
It's not about now and gone
It's not about make it last
It's not about relive the past
It's not about memory
It's about the melody
The Song, the Poem, the painted wall
With Art, we visualize the All

 

 

 

But, no

Here in the gloom

Quiet, serene

sweeter than the bees

low light a welcome breath

of repair

tuned in to desire

of soft, simple glow

I am mine to admire

 

 

 

You say: "You are not yourself." Perhaps because it is not my self you seek. I say: "I am multitudes. Wait 'til the I you seek comes around."

 

 

 

roads to wonder
dust erodes the twisted trail
dares and dalliance cast asunder
realign like rain to thunder
zagged dreams rewind the tale

 

It seems to me that instead of protesting about wanting jobs to politicians -- who after all only have a few patronage jobs which are mostly already promised -- we do better to do what we do, improve or learn new skills, figure out how to monetize and/or find others with whom to put together projects that can be sold.

 

 

 

the tax payers get the tab for essential research. Then the corporations get the contracts and make us pay again. Then the "conservatives" say we have to keep the corps happy and taxfree to provide the research we need to create jobs.

 

 

 

It is not a hard problem. It is not a problem. It is not telling stories, which is a whole other thing. Consciousness is the "I am" as the integrator of sensory input and experience, beyond the creative rationalization we call "stories" or internal dialog. It is that silent "voice" that knows exactly who we are.

 

We are not perhaps consciously aware in our prefrontal action center until the experience is processed to the degree necessary to form a narrative; this is not "consciousness," which is aware throughout, to some extent is, the processing process.

 

 

 

The point of love is not adoring of the perfect, but engaging with the just as imperfect as me because we are not alone.

 

 

 

You are not your debt. You are a marvelously complex interaction of biology, semiotics, spirit, and creative source. Debt is an imaginary sin created by an evil cabal of anti-life sorcerers who enjoy feeding on misery. Your debt is not even yours, unless you sign the contract with the devils to agree to fall under it. What is yours, that you can exult in, enjoy, share into a beautiful loving sphere of reality. Paying off the debt, like paying any bills, can be just a momentary task of practicality.

 

 

 

It's the same problem whether in the schoolyard or the town square or the political arena: finding the best response to end the bullying. Perhaps if we each realized that we are all potential scapegoats -- that in the schoolyard the bullies will exploit any difference to play their game -- we could stop enthrallment to the bullies' definitions and refuse to play.

 

 

 

 Republicans have been a lousy opposition party -- petty, mean, obtusely obstructionist, working on a theory of destroying government to get governmental power. It's all much too silly and tragic. The Democrats are no prize either. Yet, there are still many Dems I admire and want to see succeed because the idea of country as intercaring community makes more sense to me than country as warmonger.

 

The Republicans have cynically built their strategy around obstructionism. The point is not even so much to slow down government or pander to wealthy campaign contributors or show a strong opposition to those of a different political view. The point is to keep what needs to be done to improve the lives of US citizens from being done so they can play upon the resultant fear and anger.

 

The devil and the divinity is in the details. Yes, we need to start thinking, continue thinking, very clearly. Obviously we are much more interconnected as a people of this planet than in previous eras of world politics. A world government of some kind makes sense. But let it be based on more libertarian principles than most current governments.

 

 

 

What so bad about communism is that it gets vilified without cause by people who have totally distorted the meaning of the idea -- which is what communism is, an idea. The idea is that value, wealth, comes not from ownership of the means of production, but from labor. We own our bodies. We own our labor. We come together in a social context to each give of our labor what we can that all may be given what we need to form a familial, interactive, well cared for people. It is a beautiful idea, apparently not within human ability to enact as we are now. Apparently simple communism was very happily practiced by hunter-gatherer tribes, and even tribes today, both modern "communes" and as yet still primitive peoples in remote areas. What we think of as "Communism" was really a branch of imperialism. It was a cynical usurpation of the communist ideal to promote revolution against monarchy and loyalty to the new totalitarian regime. Oh, and actual communism is much more conducive to true democracy than actual capitalism. It is all about the society being ruled by the people, the workers who actually keep the system together. It is the very antithesis of totalitarian dictatorship.

 

 

 

Most of the stuff that happens does not happen in Washington, D.C. How many who waste so much time decrying or obstructing do anything useful on the local level? If we each had our local resources in order, there would be little left for the feds to have to manage, and much less waste of time, resources, outrage.

 

States do have legislatures. We do (those of us who do) vote for our state representatives. We can have a lot more influence on the state level if we just do the work to influence our state reps, to vote for those who do the work we want done. Yet, all the interest in influence seems to be directed toward D.C.

 

The problem isn't so much what is taxed as what is done with the resources thus extracted.

 

the rich (evil or otherwise) do not base their adherence to taxation based on fairness. The rich have tax lawyers and accountants whose fiduciary responsibility it is to minimize their employers' tax outlay, within the very complicated and therefore receptive to creative interpretation tax laws. The best boon would be if tax laws were simplified. As Elizabeth Warren promotes for financial contracts: two pages, large type, simple English.

 

 

 

I am chortling with love for 
your present, reminder
we plan; the cosmos smiles paternally
we love; we smile as one
we laugh; pain ripples outward, lightened
we cry; rivers mingle; the story carries on

 

 

 

I like in my expressions of thought to have form follow function. Poetry is to say more elegantly, beautifully, concisely, evocatively those ideas, images, impressions, stories that are too subtle, complex, emotionally charged, uncomfortable, confused or inchoate to be adequately addressed within the rules of prose. Poetry can be about breaking rules or adhering to strict structures, or finding the metalanguage that breaks codes of mundane communication.

 

 

 

One little peek; let the mask sneak 
down
face frown
allow reality it's healing 
let them know
it's ok, really
to be low
the only way to truly rise
undisguise

 

 

 

We can not possibly save or tax ourselves out of this deficit, many years in the making in many foolish ways. We can either grow ourselves out of it -- very possible considering the breakthroughs in technologies every day that can lead to fantastically profitable industries we have no way of foretelling. Or, we can radically change our economic paradigm -- which seems to be happening as well.

 

 

 

But, no
Here in the gloom
Quiet, serene
sweeter than the bees grow
low light a welcome
breath of repair
tuned in to desire
of soft, simple glow
I am mine
to admire

 

 

 

Deny "global warming" all you want. But what are we going to do about the environmental changes that cause severe disruptions and loss of lives and resources?

 

 

 

People are legitimately scared. The world is changing quickly in many directions. The changes are not only uncomfortable, but often unmanageable within the world view that is generally encouraged and believed. Anxiety and rife; and the tried and true method to subdue anxiety is lashing out. People are easily turned toward hatred of those whom they perceive as elite, not familiar with real life as they know it, obstructive to what is taken up as the logical or time tested solutions. They do cling to the faith that has sustained them, that they have been taught is what can sustain them when everyday life is out of control. They want to believe in an archetypal America, land of prosperity, opportunity, rugged individualism, Christian ethics, under God. Can't you feel that heavy, heavy need for primal immersion, for stolid underpinning of tradition, for a divine hope and providence? Don't be cruel.