WHAT BUSINESS IS IT OF YOURS?

IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, WHICH HAS BLED HEAVILY INTO THE TWENTY-FIRST, EVERYTHING IN  AMERICA WAS BUSINESS. IN MY YOUTH I HAD NO INTEREST IN IT.  I OPENED MANY DOORS THEN, LOOKING FOR SOMETHING ELSE; BEHIND EACH DOOR, INTO EACH ROOM I PEERED, I WAS DISAPPOINTED TO FIND JUST ANOTHER ENTRANCE TO THE GREAT HALL OF BUSINESS. THIS INCLUDED DOORS LABELLED MUSIC, ART, LITERATURE, FILM, MEDICINE AND EVEN MY PRECIOUS SCIENCE, ALSO SOME ITEMS I DID NOT VALUE PURSUING LIKE RELIGION. THIS WAS A CENTRAL DISILLUSIONMENT WHICH CAUSED MUCH OF MY ALIENATION AND HAS COLORED MUCH OF MY LIFE EXPERIENCE.  IN EUROPE  SO-CALLED EGGHEADS AND LONGHAIRS FARED BETTER, RECEIVING A LEVEL OF APPRECIATION IN THEIR RESPECTIVE SOCIETIES THAT SEEMED TO AMERICANS LIKE CRAZY ADORATION, RATHER THAN THE ADORATION FILM STARS AND GANGSTERS AND SPORTS HEROES AND ESPECIALLY WEALTHY PEOPLE OF EVERY CALLING INCLUDING MAFIA TYPES ENJOYED IN AMERICA.

MY SOLUTION WAS BASICALLY TO LEARN TO LIVE ON THE SMALLEST POSSIBLE INCOME AS A DEFENSE AGAINST SPENDING ALL MY TREASURE - MY TIME - PURSUING GOALS I DID NOT VALUE.  I READ AND REREAD AMERICANS LIKE HENRY THOREAU AND WALT WHITMAN, GAINING RESOLVE AND LESSENING MY FEELING OF ISOLATION. THERE WERE MANY OTHERS - ALAN PATON, TOLSTOY, JOYCE, DOSTOEVSKY, CAMUS; PLAYWRIGHTS LIKE ARTHUR MILLER, TO SAMPLE JUST A FEW; COMPOSERS LIKE CHARLES IVES, HENRYK  GORECKI,  RANDY NEWMAN; FILM DIRECTORS AND SCREENWRITERS, DE SICA, SATYAJIT RAY, JIRI MENZEL AND MANY EUROPEANS FROM EVERY COUNTRY.  THESE WORKS FROM THESE COUNTRIES WERE LARGELY MADE WITH SUPPORT FROM GOVERNMENTS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, AS THE GREAT WORKS OF OTHER CENTURIES HAD BEEN SUPPORTED BY DYNASTIES AND RELIGIONS AND OTHER ELITES.  NOW IT SEEMS TO HAVE FALLEN LARGELY TO THE PROFIT MOTIVE TO FUND THESE WORKS AND THE GREAT BULK OF IT IS SHABBY AND CONTEMPTIBLE.  PAINTING IS A BUSINESS, A GALLERY BUSINESS, LITERATURE IS A PUBLISHING BUSINESS, ALSO LARGELY STEERED BY PERCEIVED PROMOTABILITY NOT LASTING WORTH, AND THE EFFECT IS BEING FELT AROUND THE WORLD.  PROSPERITY AS A GOAL HAS CONTRIBUTED TO OVERPRODUCTION AND USELESS PRODUCTION AND EVEN SUICIDAL PRODUCTION, LIKE NUCLEAR AND OTHER WEAPONS OF WAR, ALL IN THE NAME OF SOMEBODY'S PROFIT, EVEN OBSCENE PROFIT IF AT ALL POSSIBLE.  THERE SEEMS TO BE NO REASONABLE LIMIT TO THE LUST FOR WEALTH AT ALL COSTS, INCLUDING HUMANS WASTING MOST OF THEIR TIME AND MOST OF THE PLANET.

I DOUBT AN ALTERNATIVE REALITY WAS AVAILABLE AT THIS STAGE IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE ANIMAL, I CAN ONLY HOPE THAT A SUBSEQUENT STAGE WILL ARRIVE BEFORE THERE IS NOTHING LEFT BUT ASHES.

EVIDENCE OF FREE WILL

THE SOCALLED DEFEAT OF THE FREE WILL CONCEPT BY NEUROSCIENTISTS DOING fMRI, WHICH SHOWS THERE IS A SPIKE OF ACTIVITY IN YOUR BRAIN BEFORE YOU WIGGLE YOUR FINGER AND IT IS ONLY AFTER A DELAY THAT YOU ACTUALLY WIGGLE YOUR FINGER, AND THAT, FURTHER, YOU ARE ALSO NOT CONSCIOUSLY AWARE OF THAT SPIKE, WHICH TO THEM REPRESENTS THE DECISIVE MOMENT, UNTIL AFTER IT HAS TAKEN PLACE,  SUGGESTS TO SOME SCIENTISTS THAT THERE IS NO FREE WILL.  BUT IT IS A RIDICULOUS AND ANNOYING ASSERTION.  YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT A MECHANISM  - THE IDEA SPIKE THAT IS IN YOUR BRAIN IS CAUSED BY YOU, THE TIME LAG BETWEEN THE MOMENT THAT THE SPIKE WHICH IS GENERATED IN YOUR BRAIN FIRES OFF AND THE TIME IT ENTERS YOUR CONSCIOUS MIND IS ANOTHER INTERNAL DELAY, BUT IT IS ALL YOU - THE SPIKE IS YOU, IT IS CAUSED BY YOUR MIND, IT IS CAUSED BY YOUR WILL, AND THE CONSCIOUS RECOGNITION OF THAT DECISION TAKING PLACE AFTER  ANOTHER SMALL DELAY IS YOU, WHETHER OR NOT THE DELAY IS MORE THAN THE DELAY IN THE TIME IT TAKES FOR YOU TO PERFORM THE ACTION - BUT REALLY, WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT SOME OTHER FORCE CAUSING THE WIGGLING, WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THE TIME LAG BETWEEN THE TIME YOU DECIDE TO WIGGLE YOUR FINGER AND THE TIME THAT THE THOUGHT  BECOMES CEMENTED IN YOUR MEMORY AND RECALLABLE  IN YOUR SUBSEQUENT MENTATION. THE DELAY IS IN FILING THE INFORMATION FOR RECALL, NOT IN INITIATING THE THOUGHT.  SO IT IS ANNOYING WHEN PEOPLE TRY TO USE THAT AS  PROOF OF ANY SORT OF PHILOSOPHICAL NOTION.  IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH PHILOSOPHY, IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH FREE WILL.  I THINK FREE WILL IS A DICY CONCEPT FOR MANY REASONS BUT THAT IS NOT ONE OF THEM, THAT IS NOT EVIDENCE OF ANYTHING EXCEPT THE MORE OR LESS MECHANICAL DELAY  IN THE PROCESSING AND STORING OF INTENTIONAL ACTIONS, IN THE TIME WE ARE MADE AWARE OF THEM IN THE FORM OF RECALLABLE RECOGNITION.  FOREGROUND OR BACKGROUND, IT IS ALL US, THERE IS NOTHING FROM OUTSIDE.  

WHERE FREE WILL REALLY RUNS INTO TROUBLE IS WHEN ONE LOOKS AT THE INFLUENCE OF DNA MATERIAL ON ALL DECISONMAKING.  IT BLURS THE LINE MOST UNCOMFORTABLY BETWEEN INHERENT ACTIONS AND INTENTIONAL ACTIONS; ALSO, THE ABILITY TO CHANGE OUR BEHAVIOR OVER TIME, CONSCIOUSLY AND/OR EPIGENETICALLY, IS A CHARACTERISTIC INHERENT IN OUR GENES IN A VARIETY OF STRENGTHS FROM BIRTH.  

IT COULD BE ARGUED ON A PHILOSOPHICAL LEVEL THAT DNA DOES NOT REALLY BELONG TO US, WE DIDN'T INITIALLY, AND CAN NEVER DURING OUR LIFETIMES, CHOOSE ANYTHING ABOUT IT, IT COMES DOWN TO US AS THE COLLECTED SURVIVING STRATEGIES OF OUR SPECIES AND WHAT THAT REALLY LEADS TO IS NOT A DISCUSSIN OF FREE WILL AT ALL BUT A LARGER AND MORE RADICAL DISCUSSION OF WHAT EXACTLY CONSTITUTES AN INDIVIDUAL.  THIS INDIVIDUAL, UPON WHICH THE MORAL AND GOVERNING PRINCIPLES OF OUR MODERN WESTERN STATES IS BASED, IS ITSELF A FICTION.  THERE REALLY IS NO SUCH THING - A PERSON EXISTING WITHOUT OTHER PEOPLE OR THE COLLECTED EXPERIENCE OF THE PAST BOTH EXTERNALLY BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY INTERNALLY.  THIS IS AN UNSTABLE CONCEPT.

STUPID MEN

STUPID GUNS.  THE RHETORIC IS NAUSEATING.  IN TERMS OF GUN DEATH THE UNITED STATES HAS 10.20 GUN DEATHS PER 100,000 PERSONS PER YEAR - 3.2 HOMICIDES, 6.3 SUICIDES, 0.2 UNINTENDED AND 0.1 UNDETERMINED.  THE UNITED KINGDOM, A COUNTRY MUCH LIKE THE US IN TERMS OF DEVELOPMENT AND LITERACY RATES AND EXPERIENCE OF SO-CALLED DEMOCRACY, HAS 0.25 OVERALL DEATHS, 0.04 HOMICIDES, 0.17 SUICIDES, 0.01 UNINTENDED  AND 0.02 UNDETERMINED.  THAT IS 40 TIMES AS MANY GUN DEATHS IN THE US.  FORTY TIMES!

THE EXPLANATION IS SIMPLE:  THERE IS NO PERCEIVED RIGHT FOR PRIVATE CITIZENS TO CARRY FIREARMS IN UK  AND THERE ARE VERY FEW GUNS THERE.  THERE ARE APPROXIMATELY THE SAME NUMBER OF VIOLENT PEOPLE, PSYCHOTIC PEOPLE, SUICIDAL PEOPLE, HOME INVADERS, SCHOOL INVADERS, CURIOUS CHILDREN, PETTY CRIMINALS AND THE LIKE, THE ONLY SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE IS THE NUMBER OF GUNS THAT ARE FOUND WITHIN ITS BORDERS. 

WAKE UP AND LOOK AROUND!  AND DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION, A DOCUMENT FROM A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TIME WRITTEN BY ELITIST MEN FROM A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT COUNTRY, WILFULLY GROSSLY MISINTERPRETED IN THE PRESENT WITH OUTRIGHT LIES BY STUPID STUBBORN MEN WHO FEEL STRONG ONLY WHEN THEY CAN WITH A FINGER KILL ANYBODY THEY CHOOSE.

IT ISN'T AMERICA THE STRONG AND FREE, IT'S AMERICA THE PARANOID BULLY.  AND WHERE ARE THE GODDAMNED WOMEN?  WHERE ARE THE BRAINS?  ALL I SEE IS COWARDS AND FEAR.