BOMBS

WHY ARE THERE BOMBS?  WOULD YOU TAKE A JOB MAKING BOMBS?  WOULD YOU SUPPORT YOUR FAMILY AND WATCH YOUR KIDS GROW UP BY MAKING BOMBS?


WHY?

HYPOCRISY

THE PEOPLE WHO TALK ABOUT WANTING TO GET RID OF BIG GOVERNMENT, WHO TALK ABOUT NOT WANTING TO INCREASE TAXES AND WHO TALK ALOT ABOUT ABSTRACT QUALITIES LIKE FREEDOM, ARE THE SAME PEOPLE, WHEN YOU ACTUALLY LOOK AT WHAT THEY STAND FOR, WHO WANT TO ENFORCE MORAL LEGISLATION — FOR INSTANCE, THEY WANT TO KEEP DRUGS ILLEGAL AND CRIMINALIZE ABORTION AND GAY MARRIAGE AND ENFORCE, THROUGH THE ACTIONS OF GOVERNMENT, LIMITS ON THE FREEDOM OF THE PEOPLE TO PURSUE THEIR PERSONAL LIVES WITHOUT INTERFERENCE. THEY WANT TO PUT PEOPLE WHO USE DRUGS IN JAIL AT EXPENSE TO THE TAXPAYER. THEY WANT THESE ACTIONS, WHICH ARE FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT AND INCREASE THE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT, TO BE BASICALLY SUPPORTED AT THE EXPENSE OF PROGRAMS OF EDUCATION AND HEALTH AND INFRASTRUCTURE WHICH MIGHT AID THE VERY PEOPLE WHO OFTEN WIND UP ADDICTED TO DRUGS AND OTHER MEANS OF ESCAPE FROM THEIR DAMAGED LIVES, WHILE ASKING NOTHING IN THE WAY OF SUPPORT FOR THEIR IDEAS BY THE GREAT BULK OF THE PEOPLE WHOSE IDEAS THEY ARE.
THIS STRIKES ME AS ABSOLUTELY ILLOGICAL. I CANT IMAGINE WHY ANY THINKING PERSON CAN FAIL TO SEE THE HYPOCRISY IMPLICIT IN THESE VIEWS.

THE HAND

fate is the dealer and the cards are genes.  i didnt deal this hand — im just trying to play it.

THE PRESIDENT SPEAKS ON THE MIDDLE EAST

in adopting the rhetoric of peace in the current unfolding events in the middle east, especially as it pertains to the longstanding conflict between palestine and israel, mr obama is continuing a tradition of obfuscation which makes it more difficult to understand the truth of human history.  peace should never be the goal of any movement among the people of the world in any conflict anywhere. the goal now as always can only be justice, though justice — truly egalitarian disinterested reciprocal justice — always and inevitably presages enduring peace and is in fact the only path to it.

UNEXAMINED LIFE

the unexamined life does not imply an unemotional life, in fact quite the contrary, it implies an unreasoned life.  and an unreasoned life turns out to be — as the word would suggest — unreasonable.

ELEPHANTS

there are two enormous elephants in the room of the american economic structure which are not being discussed in the current debate over the federal budget.  one of them, which is the largest elephant in the whole american economic system, is not part of the federal budget, its the cost of financial services, which is approaching forty percent of the gdp of the united states.  this is an absurd weight around the neck of the american citizen, whose main purpose is to concentrate wealth in the hands of an inside few.  the second is the cost of the military and military production.  the net cost to the american economy of these two elephants is enormous and its the main stumbling block to the americans being able to take care of their underprivileged, their young, their sick, their mentally challenged people, many of whom wind up as prisoners of the state. there is no humanity in the discussion and thats because the two major items which would allow for a more humane american ethos are not even on the table — but theyre in the room (hiding).

POWER

i dont want power over others, neither do i want others to have power over me.  i prefer to search for a relationship of equanimity with all other persons, of thoughtful respect for all other persons.  and that is quite different than the present world’s fascination with, and love of, power.  

DRY READING

theres something that music and film have in common and that is that they communicate through emotional connection.  they take advantage of mirror neurons and the instinct in animals to harmonize emotionally.  most people, when they read books, want the same connection.  they consider that to be the only connection and if something attacks the reason only and is emotionally cool they call it dry reading and they more or less disdain it.  and yet the thing that is particularly human and almost unique to this species, and is in fact the only key to our survival, is this ability to reason, which is whats called dry and in our time is soundly frowned upon.

that's too bad.

JUSTICE

i believe in justice and justice, though it has a genetic base, should not be fashioned from an emotional process.  it requires reason to ensure it remains reciprocal.  to speak of being passionate about justice is to me a misreading, though one can be extremely grateful when justice occasionally prevails.

MORAL ANIMALS

im looking to uncover timeless truths, truths about humans in nature, about a human nature which has nothing to do with the anecdotal moments when we ourselves happen to exist on the planet, but everything to do with the accumulating knowledge about animal behavior and the chemistry — the mechanics — of life, including human life, that are now known to us for the first time.  so now we can better understand who we actually are and how we actually should conduct ourselves as moral animals on the planet (with a note: we are not the only moral animal, we are just one of all animals, which are all in some ways moral animals).

RELIGION

‘you know — i have no religion.’  ‘how come?  how can you live that way?  how can you be a moral person who knows right from wrong?’  ‘well i dont know.  its just like — some people who live in cities or villages dont need a car.  right?  they find other ways to get around.  well i dont — i dont need a religion.  i find other ways to know right from wrong.  i think inherently i understand reciprocity, so religion has no special utility for me.  i think everyone inherently understands reciprocity — even other animals — and that it is a mistake to believe you have learned that from your religious instruction.  more, you need to put it into practice and in that the entire ethos of your society can aid or hinder you.  but religion is only a subset of that constellation of influences and often it is pulling the wrong way — pulling against your common better nature.’

OBLIGATIONS

i watched the ant dragging her fellow worker, who had died, at some great cost back toward probably the nest, though it was a circuitous route at best.  i thought of my own life, how it was absolutely unnecessary to justify it in any terms whatsoever, that like an eagle on his perch watching what happened below or me in my cabin watching the ant or the ant working on transporting the dead one, all these things were done and reasons had nothing to do with it.  my first obligation, like the obligation of the ant like the obligation of the eagle, was to remain alive and do things necessary for that.

OAKS

here among the oaks i watch them.  they dont watch me back.  they have no nervous system, they have no brain, they have no sense organs.  they dont respond with eyes or ears.  even touch is limited.  animals have a global consciousness.  the whole brain is aware of the whole body and is conscious of its autonomous presence in its surroundings.  trees have atomistic consciousness.  each part responds to the stimuli locally around it.  even though there is a coherent growth and response to the entire plant, its not centered anywhere.  its centered only in the arrangement coded in its dna.  each region of the plant knows only what to do in response to its role in its immediate surrounding. 

because plants have no brain, have no reason, have no emotions, doesnt mean i love them any less.  plants are the great intermediary.  between the sun and me are the plants.

NONALIGNED MIND

i want to leave myself at home while i go out and look around.  i want to know what the world is like without me, what it was like before i got here and what it will be like after im gone.  

YOUR EMOTIONS

your emotions arent your own.  they dont belong to you.  you could say ‘well what about my thumb?  my thumb belongs to me.’  and i could say ‘well yes, your thumb is part of you as are your emotions.  but you didnt design your thumb, youre not proud of the design of your thumb in a personal way and you dont do whatever your thumb tells you to do.’

THIS ISLAND

when i moved to this little island i was already forty and thought it an ideal occasion to approach my new life here as much as possible without assumptions.  toward that end i determined not to do anything until i needed — truly needed and not just expected — whatever it was i was contemplating adding to my life.  i lived with my mate for two years in a plastic a-frame that cost about thirty-six dollars, part of the time with a little orphan fawn named by us ralphie, who used to crave heat so badly that he would stand inches from the airtight and twice burst into flame, which was only fur and quickly extinguished with my hands to no ill effect for either of us.  we planned a cabin and as was my emerging habit i made it as small as possible, which was the cause of some debate. 

this project we began but had to discontinue to spend time in the city gathering up money to pay the mortgage and continue.  when we finally moved back it wasnt long before we became two households.  it was a large property and we both loved it and determined to be neighbors and friends.  after she had finished a small house/studio with some help on a plateau below the top to the south, i moved into the tiny studio we had built for her work as a painter and converted it with a loft bed and tiny wraparound galley in a weekend.  i began making trips with the wheelbarrow to the old plastic a-frame to bring over stuff, kitchen, lighting and such.  after two trips i loaded up the wheelbarrow and moved it all back into the a-frame.  from then on when i needed something i would go over and get it — a frying pan, for instance — and bring it back in my hands.  so little by little i equipped the tiny studio with what i needed, but only what i needed.

this became a way of life.  it was less difficult than one might imagine and it began to weave itself deeper into the fabric of my life as i saw how it pleased me.  my burden remained light.  i had time to consider the things i did, how i spent the time of my days, and ultimately the accumulated time of my life.  i found certain modernities practical, like modern lighting and windpower and solar, and certain unnecessary.  in the end, not to be too inhumanly consistent and logical, i kept on with my love of flying — but not my love of plumbing.  it seemed uncivilized to defecate in my cabin and i retained my simple bucket composting outhouse permanently.  i also found that going out to the water barrel and carrying in the water for the day kept me able to bend and lift and twist and balance — all useful skills.  so though i had worked as a plumber and had got the pipe, i never plumbed the cabin and still to this day go out to fetch my water myself.  i also found that dead and down wood on my acreage more than supplied my heating needs for close to free (the chainsaw cost almost nothing to run for a year) and again kept me strong and flexible and forced to go out during the winter no matter what the weather, for i never got wood ahead for more than a month, lest i become too sedentary in the wet winters.  my cabin occupies a natural grass clearing — the whole south side of the island is largely open grassland — and for mowing i had the deer and feral goats who did a fine job for me and themselves, whether they thought of me or not. 

in the end, fitting in to the island the way i had found it caused rather fundamental changes in the way i approached other situations.  the list of things i needed for my happiness grew shorter as i grew happier and more grateful for any life, however plain, and the time i captured for my thoughts and works was more rewarding than the material things i was apparently lacking when compared to some others.

NONREPEATABLE LIFE

i was housed in this body, but not only this body.  i was housed in this personality, i was housed in this emotional web, i was housed in this identity.  but there is still an i even that stands aside from all my anecdotal identity and that i is rather pure and featureless.  its probably what religious people think of as the soul, but i dont think of it that way because i have no religion.  i think of it as my universal identity and it goes beyond ego — it goes beyond being hank, it goes beyond being male, it goes beyond being human, it goes beyond being animal, it is just life that i am an embodiment of, a universal cosmic quality called life.

but this quality, this featureless simple fact, is not recyclable.  its not as though — and thats my problem with the soul — it will go on beyond me or my time.  it is common, it is everywhere, there are trillions of examples of it as i speak and it never needs repeating, in the particular personal sense, theres no justification for the view that i will live my life or a life again, that i have multiple lives.  but multiple life is an obvious fact and this simple featureless force which is life repeats itself endlessly without needing to repeat me.

ARIZONA

this young man who shot the congresswoman in arizona and some other people, he didnt pick to be the way he is.  i think thats ludicrous.  i think that he probably in fact, influenced genetically, has a certain perception of life which is in error and what he is trying to do, every day of his life, is to make sense of the world as he perceives it.  but since he didnt design his receptors, then hes not responsible for the map that he develops, the map that allows him to navigate in a world that he thinks is the world — its not the world, its his world — but its not his world in the sense that he has intentionallly designed it.  it is unintentional.  it is inherent in his personality, probably from birth.  that is the world that he has grown to perceive.  there may have been influences on him in his family, in his early years with friends in school and in the ethos of his nation, but all those influences would be acting on him, particularly him, a person with a unique perception of what the external world is and how he relates to it and in it, and those perceptions are genetic.  so to blame this guy is not useful.  what one has to do is try to find mechanisms by which to identify people whose perception of reality is so far removed from whats useful that they will do in the end very great harm to themselves and perhaps to others.  if we could observe these people, observe the clues in these people's actual behaviors — in their symptoms and assumptions — and intervene in a way that is meangingful before its too late, thats the only solution.  we need to gain a better understanding of how mentally ill people, even pathological people, have not picked to be that way, that they have no choice in the matter, that they are acting in a way to try to make sense of the only world they know, which is the world they have inherited through their blueprint, which is genetic.

so what has blame and retribution got to do with it in any honest world?