Dear George,
I am in a phase when my meth-addled moon brain has cut lose its synapses and allowed them to float randomly in the cosmos as unrelated and disparate thoughts pop to the surface like methane bubbles from the pool of sludge that cover the R-complex of my brain.
Thus, do I commence…
The religions that evolved from the God of Abraham are called monotheistic. This is a misnomer. Each and every one of them is polytheistic. This is what makes them such powerful forces for evil. Many Gods populate the various scriptures from which these religions draw their inspiration. Some of these Gods are troublesome, some are quite productive. The troublesome Gods eschew political power and employ prophets who stand outside the city walls and demand decency and compassion from the pimps of Babylon within. Fortunately, they are easily marginalized as half-crazed do-gooders who have little or no influence on the fully-crazed kings within the walls. Once a religion discovers power, it heads straight for the God of Leviticus whose idea of a Sabbath service is a rousing stoning of sinners.
…a diversion…
There are some positive aspects to stoning that are frequently overlooks. Properly handled, a public stoning can be an impressive revenue stream. Imagine booking Yankee Stadium for the stoning. It would be a sellout. Bring in pay-for-view and you’d be looking at big bucks. Further revenue could be generated by selling space on each stone for a corporate logo and panning in on the logo just before the stone was cast. But the really big money would be in selling the right to cast the first stone. What politician wouldn’t pay a fortune for this privilege?
…and on to something completely different.
Pundits keep wondering why the under classes in America are always voting against their interests. All sort of reasons have been floated such as culture wars, clever propaganda, and effective fear mongering. All of these do indeed play a part. But there is a metanarrative at work here. The greatest propaganda coup executed by your administration has been to convince the public that Russian roulette is as safe as it is healthy. Its safety is confirmed every time a player pulls the trigger and the hammer clicks on an empty chamber. The occasional player who pulls the trigger and blows his brains out is a statistical anomaly, and a good example of market forces at work. Such victims in no way distract from the overall safety of the game and should not be used as an excuse for increased regulation of the activity. Both our prosperity and our security depend upon free men engaging in free games of Russian roulette.*
,,,next i…
Weepywackos are always bemoaning the exploitation of the Southern Hemisphere by the Northern. They have it all wrong. The North isn’t exploiting the South, it is civilizing it. It is a noble mission we are engaged in, one in which we are modeling for the South the Northern virtues of greed and exploitation. It is a grand exercise in reconciliation in which the South will be lifted from nature's muck and scrubbed clean of all that is organic and real.
Fastidiousness is the midwife of oppression.
There you have it, George, the effluvia of a brain that has looked into the septic tank and seen the future. The rank odor that remains as my thoughts drift back to the security of the tank are markers of their vision, a vision you share that is leading the world down into the pit of fiery redemption.
Your admirer,
Belacqua Jones
*This is a rift on some thoughts by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his insightful book, Fooled by Randomness. --cw
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5 comments:
I'll have to get Fooled by Randomness, the book that is. :>)
Your thoughts on the book make it all the more intriguing.
And it would appear the South(ern) (Hemisphere) might rise again- or be defeated...again.
This would be a healthy South that would rise.
Oh Ye of Little Faith, Hark to the words of Joseph Conrad, explorer of the Heart of Darkness:
"Or think of a decent young citizen in a toga--perhaps too much dice, you know--coming out here in the train of some prefect, or tax-gatherer, or trader even, to mend his fortunes. Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him--all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. There's no initiation either into such mysteries. He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is also detestable. And it has a fascination, too, that goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination--you know, imagine the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate."
He paused.
"Mind," he began again, lifting one arm from the elbow, the palm of the hand outwards, so that, with his legs folded before him, he had the pose of a Buddha preaching in European clothes and without a lotus-flower--"Mind, none of us would feel exactly like this. What saves us is efficiency--the devotion to efficiency. But these chaps were not much account, really. They were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force-- nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind--as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness.
The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea--something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to. . . ."
Sharpen the knives, and all kneel down...
Gunboat,
A truely relevant quote. I'll have to go back and reread Conrad.
"I'll have to go back and reread Conrad."
That would be a lot of reading, but . . . I think you're right.
Plus.
"The religions that evolved from the God of Abraham are called monotheistic. This is a misnomer. Each and every one of them is polytheistic. This is what makes them such powerful forces for evil."
No kidding. Isn't the need for worship a human failing? How can the One God be in need of anything, that is, if the OG is all omni this and that. That's always had me stumped. I mean I get it that the Greeks and the Norsemen and whoever had all those different galgods and guygods with a whole bunch of individual personalities and temperaments and such, but . . . oh, there is just so much to learn. Thank God that's a good thing.
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