Month: April 2017

I had something happen the other day which convinced me that Fate is a real thing.  We all have destinies.  What this means, who chooses them, I don’t know.

But I have decided that the way soldiers make peace with horror is wise and what I want to pursue.  When it is your time, it is your time.  You can’t escape it.  And when it is not your time, then all your worry is wasted.  Practically, this means almost all worry is wasted.  No need to duck when you hear the bullet whistle by your head: it is far beyond you now.

Expand what is beautiful.  Expand hope.  Expand generosity and kindness, at least to your self.  None of it is wasted.  You become, slowly, what you dream.

As a sort of way of sewing myself to the path of persistence, I had “Don’t whine/Don’t complain/Don’t make excuses/Never quit” tattoed on my arm, or at least the abbreviations, some ten years ago.  It is 3/4’s John Wooden’s father, whose name I really should find out.  John Wooden did not spring like Athena from the forehead of the God of Basketball.

In reality, these were always distant targets I shot for not enough, and missed regularly when I did.

But slowly I am rounding a corner, and have determined that I need to define these terms for myself.  What do I mean?  This is part of my creed, one I chose freely from many possibilities.

This will be a project over the next week or two.  What I mean is in part who I am.

Do you wonder who you are?  Pick a direction, travel it, and see how you feel.  Repeat until your heart meets your will, and there you will likely find peace and success.

In any way, especially in the modern era, there are more variables than can be accounted for by even the best mind.  It is always best to avoid war, but at the same time I cannot see us standing by idly watching as a man who has nuclear weapons works continually to develop the means to deliver them, all while threatening nuclear war.

It seems to me one major barrier to peace is Kim Jung Un’s complete ignorance as to our ACTUAL military capability.  Perhaps we should invite one of his senior officers on a tour of our battle fleet, of our actual supplies of weapons and munitions, and allow him to film significant portions of them.

Perhaps we could bring them to the United States to see how we ACTUALLY live, versus what their propaganda teaches them.

And I continue to believe that Kim Jung Un has ZERO idea how much luxury and pleasantness we would be willing to shower on him for abdicating what amounts to his throne and opening North Korea to foreign goods and investment.  People could operate sweatshops paying close to nothing there and their people would be still be MUCH better off than they are now.  Hunger is a regular feature of their lives, as is sudden death from political activism, which could amount to no more than saying publicly “I’m hungry”.

I have said this before, but building a Disneyland for Kim Jung Un on some uninhabited island in the South Pacific–in paradise–would still be cheaper than war.  It may have been his father obsessed with Disneyland, but he likely has his equivalent.  There is likely something he craves that he simply can’t get where he is.

South Korea, which is our ally, is prosperous.  North Korea could be too, if only he would relent and allow his people their freedom.

It occurs to me that two dead people are more equal than any two living people can be made, if we do not ask what the  POINT of equality is.  Free to what?  Why?

Even if we get everybody at the same spot on the same line, some are naturally faster than others.  If the goal is to tear them down, to thwart them, to prevent them from demonstrating natural or social superiorities in talent and/or drive, then, again, what is the point?  Of what value a life where nothing matters but life, and equality?

Since the people articulating these lunatic creeds are not speaking from places of humanity, from their hearts, from any felt connection to the human condition, from any real sense of compassion, or even capacity for empathy, they have no answers, because these are simply not questions that interest them.

When one looks at the Fascists who claim to be fighting Fascists, the degree of disconnection from the whole of humanity and from obvious social realities, is such that they really become not people who think differently, but an example of psychosocial pathology which warrants explanation.

How, we can ask, in conditions of freedom, have Soviet Union levels of absolute brainwashing been achieved?  My personal opinion is that the long term Communist strategy of dehumanizing all of us, of tearing us from our roots, from groundedness, from belongingness not connected to economic factors, has had the effect of creating a whole generation of radically Other Directed people, who by the nature of their predicament MUST seek out and imbibe propaganda.  They need it like junkies need drugs.

It is quite a feat that has been achieved.  But for what?  It is no secret of history that murderous lunatics can be operationally and socially clever.  Should one admire the serial torturer, rapist, and killer who is never caught?  Research seems to show they all eventually commit suicide anyway, because they live their lives in hell.  There is not, and never can be, anything beautiful in violence.  It is sometimes needed, but far too many people, in denying this, bring it out anyway in the wrong ways and wrong places, and have no principled means for self correction or moderation.

I find myself alone today, which is not surprising, since I am alone most days.  But what I found this morning, which was unexpected and new, is a newly functioning capacity for positive thinking, for ACTUALLY believing myself when I say things will get better.

Loneliness is never a lack of people.  There are people all around us.  In my own case, I push people away often, in irritability and mistrust.  Even though my adult experience has been fine, primitive parts of me continue to enact survival scripts from my early childhood.  I try to catch myself, to pattern interrupt, and sometimes succeed, but it is like facing a steady and strong wind.

So I do my practice, and recently I have been allowing up the most painful feelings I have ever known.  And what I am finding is that when they are allowed to speak, to expand as much as they want to, they diminish, and I find myself slightly more present to my own experience, and this, over time, will make me more present to others, and them, in turn, more present to me.  I have to be there, after all, for them to notice and care about me, or at least for me to be able to accept what they offer.

And it occurred to me that this skill–that of being present to experience, of enjoying life, of enjoying the company of others who are in turn attracted to my own lust for and embrace of life–is a skill which can be gradually improved across a lifetime.

What I am wrestling with in my Kum Nye practice is the tacit truth that what matters most is who you ARE, not what you can do, or what you have done.  Being–how you interact with the world through your senses and what underlies the senses–can be improved; or, perhaps, awareness of what was already there can be improved.  The two amount to the same practically.

It is an odd fact of Socialism is that it takes the same economic logic of Marx’s version of “Capitalism” and makes them worse.  People have concrete and very specific values.  Life is about material comfort and progress, with nothing said about the more subtle aspects of life which make it genuinely worthwhile.

Socialism, if I might put it clearly and bluntly, has no means of placing high value on old people.  Their economic use is gone, and they are now net burdens on a system which simultaneously insists everyone must be within it, and also insists that it can decide which lives matter.  There is nothing moral or beautiful about this.  It takes the bottom line of Capitalism–which only there applies to business profit/loss statements–and applies it generally as a morality based upon naked utility.  Hence Shaw’s poison–but humane–gas.  Hence some senior Japanese some years ago wishing out loud that old people would just get on with the business of dying.

This vision is anti-Humanist.  It sees no inherent worth in ANY human life.  It takes the logic of valuing people according to their economic productivity to the final possible extent, that of making of men machines in a massive assembly line, and denying them all other dignities and possibilities, something which cannot be said of what is called “Capitalism”.

What is the point of life?  What is the VALUE of life, and how, philosophically, do we even begin to answer this question?

Economics only speaks in principle to how to get more stuff produced and distributed.  The most efficient, the best, economic system ever developed is free markets, free trade, enforceable contract law, and enforceable property rights.

Socialism, as I keep saying, is not an economic system at all.  It is a poorly constructed, utterly imbecilic system of MORALITY.  But because within its value system only material things matter, and since economics is historically what deals with things, it finds itself obsessed with HOW goods are produced and distributed, with the only real things in life being those which can be counted and weighed.

I am feeling a bit sad, and abstraction of course is how I deal with these things sometimes.  I would not change what I wrote if I were happy, but it’s quite possible I might not have written it at all.

But I also feel cautiously optimistic, genuinely.  I am feeling the capacity to generate and maintain for increasing lengths of time positive feelings.  I do feel this will be a good day.  It is beautiful weather, and I will go for a long walk after doing my Kum Nye practice, and possibly smoking a cigar and reading for a couple hours.

Here is the thing: I cannot directly affect world events.  I cannot even affect the emotions of people close to me, at least directly.  How could I, when they themselves can’t control them ? Most of what you see in the world is utterly beyond your control.  It will happen or not happen according to many factors, many of which cannot be foreseen by the actors themselves.

But connecting ones happiness and sense of well being to a massive world like this is a surefire recipe for unhappiness.  Something will always be wrong somewhere.  And being overwhelmed takes away what power we DO have.  There are many occasions to make small impacts here and there, and the Big Picture in many respects is an Emergent Property of countless small acts.

It is undoubtedly more useful to make oneself an excellent meal than to worry about anything.

I requoted Corrie Ten Boom somewhere, but I don’t think here: “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows.  It empties today of its strengths.”

It remains to be seen how things will play out, but I wanted to point out that acting in apparently erratic and even contradictory ways is part and parcel of the Trump interpretation of the Game Theory of negotiation.  If you give people absolute confidence in who you are and what you want, they can make very precise calculations intended to get the best deal possible for them.  If they can’t figure you out, you carve out a large space which is potentially negotiable, and thus potentially a better deal.

Trump said he wanted to get along with Russia, but now he is sounding war drums over Syria and calling for regime change.  This could be honest confusion, honest emotionality, and thus honest incompetence.

At the same time, we are not Russia’s allies, per se, and they are not ours. Their interests and our interests do not precisely coincide.  Both of us have an interest in avoiding war, and both of us would like to see ISIS destroyed, but is Trump’s best play inherently to suck up to Putin?  Not necessarily.  What if there WERE chemical munitions stored where he sent the missiles, weapons both Putin and Assad knew about, even if they were not using them, and in fact WERE the targets of a false flag attack, as I believe? It’s hard to justify chemical weapons in that environment, even if they were not being used.

The whole thing has to confuse Putin, frustrate him, and make him wonder where he stands.

It also worked to shut up most of the media which was obsessing on their made-up story about Trump colluding with the Russians.  Now Trump is making nice with China.  What is one to think?

Add to this the North Korean situation and the decision to drop that huge bomb in Afghanistan (am I the only one wondering how the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria got into Afghanistan?), and it is POSSIBLE that a very complex game is being played.  It is also possible he is shooting from the hip, stupidly.

Either way, the path forward could easily include asserting tacitly that this was all well planned.  So if you make being erratic your MO, you can still seem a genius even when you fuck up.

Where do we go from here?  Well, obviously we want regime change in North Korea, and we want a ceasefire in Syria, some concessions of human rights to non-terrorists, and we want ISIS destroyed utterly.

Where I think focus should be placed, because this is interesting and important, is how do we get to a genuine return of something like the status quo ante in Syria, ideally with some political improvements?  What are the conditions, politically, economically, and militarily, which must be met for this to happen?

You can ask: what could Trump get from alienating the Russians?  For one, he makes clear that although he does not want hostilities with them–he did not target any Russian troops or planes–that he is also not necessarily their friend, especially if they are complicit in making it even POSSIBLE for Assad to engage in gas warfare.

As far as I know, nobody died in the missile strikes.  I may be wrong.  I don’t know.  But it was certainly not MAINLY an attack on troops.  Sometimes when dealing with dangerous determined people–and Putin is that–you need to put them on notice.  You don’t need to do anything that cannot be smoothed over, but you also need to show you have balls too.

The proof of the pudding will be what happens in the next six months.  If Trump commits significant troops to fight alongside and effectively in support of serial killing psychopaths, then he has lost his way and will lose my support, at least in that aspect of his Presidency.

But if he gets involved in serious negotiations and helps broker a truce and honest ceasefire, then I will call his game playing successful.

I personally would like us to ally with the Russians and yes the Syrians in destroying ISIS, which is an enemy of all humanity.  We don’t have to be the best of friends, but we can and should help each other.

Time will tell what is really happening, and what Trump is really thinking, IF he is thinking.

1. Bill O’Reilly.  From a business perspective, the only argument that could be made for firing the top rated member of your network would be if he was going to start costing you money.  That seems very unlikely.  Whatever is alleged to have happened has already happened, and will be duly investigated by the State.  Their findings will be the same whether O’Reilly stays or goes, as will his and Fox News liability.

More generally, it should be obvious that as a top rated conservative, all the witch hunters on the planet have him in their sights.  The Left doesn’t debate because it can’t.  Their ideas and the outcomes based on their ideas, are uniformly horrible.  They seek to silence and intimidate those who will not agree to their lunacy.  For that reason alone–EVEN IF he is guilty–he should stay.  We need him.

And in the hypocrisy department, was there ever any doubt that Bill Clinton not just serially harassed women but routinely committed acts of sexual aggression up to and including rape?  Where was and where IS the Left on all that?  They don’t care about it.  They don’t care about women.  They don’t care about human beings.  All they care about is expressing their obsessions in the public domain, no matter the human cost in suffering and misery.

2. Sean Spicer.  Spicer was right.  Hitler never used chemical weapons in his conflicts with foreign enemies, even though Germany easily could have.  The Holocaust was not a a civil war.  The Jews, with only extremely rare exceptions, never shot back.

This whole tempest in a teacup, again, has to be contextualized within the general environment which seeks to make of EVERYTHING Trump or anyone connected to him does a horrific and willful crime, which this time will FINALLY cause his supporters to cease supporting him.

What this mindset fails to feel in the air is that Trump is not so much loved as the Left–and its use of tactics JUST LIKE THIS–is hated.  We hate those abusive, cynical, evil mother fuckers with every fucking ounce of patriotic loyalty and pride we can muster.  There can only be small swings a few points one way or the other.  The vast majority of us see Trump as the last possible line of active defense and counterattack.  That won’t change.

I will have to ponder whether or not I am grossly oversimplifying, but I think it could in any event be argued that the Western tradition rests on the idea that all important truths can be spoken.  This would seem to be the claim implicit in Plato, where the examined life–which is the proper life–is in large measure a conversational life based upon the use of reason.

This makes Wittgenstein’s dictum “Worueber mann nicht sprechen kann, darueber muss man schweigen” a de facto demolition of the Western tradition, and it would seem that in practical cultural terms, this is exactly what has happened.  Moral valuation as a consistent process grounded, at least in theory, in the use of analytical reason based upon clearly articulated principles is gone.  It is dead.  You have people condemning Fascism using Fascist tactics, and embodying the Fascist mindset and cultural and sociological gestalt of radical Other direction and authoritarianism.  This cannot be pointed out within the system, because the system admits no principles.

But if we make the simple alteration that philosophy proceeds from Truth, which is embodied in our sense of self as consciously experienced in, say, a Kum Nye practice, then it recovers.  Truth is ineffable, inexpressible, but what comes FROM Truth IS expressible.

Put another way, most of the time what is to be done is obvious.  It is intuitively and instinctually obvious, but the obvious needs defense in our modern world, where abstraction from abstraction–the use of bad reasoning to destroy good reasoning, which includes the destruction of those categories–has led most of our thought leaders into full dissociation from their bodies, from their intuitive selves, from their basic natural impulses which alone can cause them to feel real and their lives genuinely worth living on a deep level.

Our system persists only because economic success has made emotional superficiality on a long term basis possible.  Our griefs can be managed, and in no small measure medicated.  Distractions and distractions from the distractions have proliferated everywhere and become a vastly important part of our economic life.

But how many Americans can sit in silence for an hour in tranquility?

All of our problems can be solved, but we must first decide that we want to solve them, and that humanity is worth saving. Their hyperventilations to the contrary, I think most Leftists long for death.  They conflate their personal selves with the collective, and they want release from their interminable and–within their world view–insoluble problems.

Most “intellectuals” (morally reprobate half-wits with degrees from prestigious schools) today seek global peace and harmony through centralized government.

As a general rule, men are physically stronger than women, and generally more aggressive.  They are usually less emotionally intelligent, and particularly less socially sensitive, for both good and bad: good, in that their feelings rarely get hurt in normal circumstances, bad in that nuance flies right by most of us.

But it is wrong to infer from the fact that men can rape and beat women either that women are helpless, or that they are not capable of horrific cruelty.

On the contrary, from petty bitchiness to outright psychosis transmitted through children, women are if anything more dangerous than men.  I would stipulate, in fact, as a general rule, that the most violent, fucked up men, had the most insidious and silently or overtly cruel mothers.  Men who are mistreated by their fathers take it out on other men.  Men who have been psychologically raped by mothers take it out on women, then get blamed for “toxic masculinity”.

I was reading that some group of lunatic women somewhere finds biological boys inherently objectionable, so, presumably, they plan to torture such children in ways which make happiness for these poor souls absolutely impossible.

Where I think we need to be clear is that CRUELTY is what psychologically normal people object to, and normal people object to it in all forms.  They object when someone kicks a dog, and they object when some deluded bitch tries to bring up a boy as a girl.

And to take a more general tack, the reason racism is wrong is that it facilitates cruelty against other human being by providing an ideological justification.  It begins as an attitude, but all dehumanizations of others begin as a form of social violence, and end in actual violence.

Thus some forms of advanced–let us call it Stage 4–feminism treat men as less than human.  They prescribe cruelty.  They prescribe denigration, humiliation, punishment, not for specific crimes, but for crimes of birth, of being the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This is ludicrous.

There clearly is a feminine nature, which is nurturing, compassionate, caring, and warm.  There is a masculine nature, which is daring, aggressive, curious, and highly protective.

It may be–I think it clearly is–the case that human advancement will involve better integration by both sexes of the best attributes of the other, but the pathway is THROUGH what already is, what is already given.

To deny what is given, what is there, is violence.  It is violence of the sort which permeated all the countless crimes of those robotic regimes run by the Communists.

To doubt who you are is to become a robot, and we have become a world filled with robots.

All this is a sketch based on some of the text from Allan Bloom I listened to today.  Some of it is mine, much of it is my interpretation of him.