Author: White Whale

Hate is wasted anger.

In considering my last post–if of course anyone is so inclined–please look at this link to the Church of Satan .

If you read about their beliefs, they are atheists.  They recognize no gods outside themselves.  This is what I intend when I speak of Cultural Sadeism.  These people may be politically active.  What direction would they go?  Logically, in any direction which weakens religion, the family, and all cultural forms which are not principally ego-oriented, which is to say narcissistic.  The Left, obviously, has this as a goal as well, with the nihilism of the true Sadeists being a perfect match.

If you reject morality IN PRINCIPLE, why would it be wrong to eat babies?  Would eating babies, on the contrary, not signal “liberation”?

Watch.  Listen.  Feel yourself.  We all have evil in us.  Some feed it in ignorance, and some starve it in wisdom.

My rules, again:

1) Never feel sorry for yourself

2) Never relent in your pursuit of qualitative pleasure, which is a deep, fulfilling happiness of living with gratitude, purpose, and connection.

3) Breath perceptually.  Be always aware of the totality of your feelings, those of others, and what effects your actions, thoughts, and emotions have on you and others.  Seek what releases you, and realize that cruelty imprisons you.  Anyone can see this, if they look without cowardice.

Drudge Report has recently linked several stories of cannibalism, the one I saw most having had to do with someone suffering from a drug induced psychosis.  That tells us nothing about our culture.  There have always been lunatics: Jeffrey Dahmer, for instance.  And as far as that goes, I see no reason to suppose there have not ALWAYS been serial killers in human history.  Many of them probably just found wars to fight.  You can get away with damn near anything in wartime.  Others were simply never caught.  Improved forensics and increased reporting have brought many things–like child abuse–to light that were simply hidden before.  As I have said a number of times, pedophilia seems almost structurally necessary in severely restrictive Islamic countries.  One suspects their men fuck everything but women.

Since the mid 90’s, though, I have felt that our culture is in such a state of decay that at some point a cannibal cult, constituted by “normal” middle class to wealthy Americans, will come to light.  There is so much anger, so much confusion, so much failure to form a common culture, to form coherent meaning systems, that it is small wonder the video stores are filled with stories about cannibalism, torture, and thrill murders.  Go to your local video store and LOOK at the Horror section.  Why are people watching these movies?  Are they watching them to make sure the good guys win?  Much of the time, the BAD guys win.  There is no hope, and much suffering.

Then we read that some roasted, gold covered babies (do not click on either link if you are easily disturbed; it is unclear to me why they saw fit to post pictures: it itself that is a bit disturbing, as they knew there was a market for it)  were intercepted in Asia, bound for we know not where.  Alex Jones thinks they were bound for the Bilderbergs.

Personally, I don’t think Bill Gates eats babies.  This is ritual Satanism, and he is likely an atheist.  It would make no sense for him.  He is searching for a mechanical Endloesung for the problem of human mortality, the “singularity”, I believe techophiles call it.

It seems to me that some of the Bilderberg attendees are evil, but not all of them.  A common mistake among conspiracy theorists is, I think, to overestimate the uniformity of purpose of heterogeneous groups.  It seems to me that there are likely various groups, some of which ARE homogeneous and unified in purpose.  Such a group may exist in the Bilderberg group, and may in fact do black magic.

One can depend upon those who NEED to pursue power, whose source of meaning lies in attaining power, to succeed.  This is the SOLE argument against political liberalism: that it can lead, over time, and in conditions of the complacency of the population, to the aggregation of power by those who do not want to share it.  This differs from a hereditary monarchy, in which those who wield power do not choose it.  I will note as well that historical monarchies were limited, at least in theory, and I think largely in practice, by religious restraints.  I see no reason to doubt that many kings did in fact believe themselves appointed by God, with all the responsibilities that implies.

There is no such restraint for the Cultural Sadeist, for whom power is an end in itself.  Such people can and have existed in ALL possible systems–Monarchy, Theocracy, Plutocracy,  Fascism, Socialism, Communism, and any other -ism or -archy you can think of–and they use the rhetoric appropriate to the time and place, but the end is always the same: control.

I do think cults have sprung up around the country and world, which do create a market for this sort of thing.  I have known one person who participated in a black magic ritual, which she described as very frightening, as they did get in touch with SOMETHING.  She did not go back.

In my favorite Mexican restaurant several years ago I saw a graffito in the bathroom saying “Ich habe kleine Kinder gegessen”, which means “I have eaten small children” in German. I have pondered this, and see no strong reason to suppose that the meaning was other than that conveyed.

There is a chain of coffee shops in Louisville, KY I am 99% sure is dedicated to the Marquis de Sade, named “Quills”.  This, of course, was the name given to the movie about him starring the very excellent Geoffrey Rush in the title role.  Here is their blog: http://www.quillscoffee.com/blog/

On their original website, they claimed they were accused by some of being Christian fundamentalists, which they denied.  Playing with the truth is, of course, a Sadeian virtue.  On the blog, you will see signs like “we don’t believe in keeping secrets. . .”, and an owl with the coffee, with the owl often being an occult symbol, whose exact meaning of course depends upon that which you assign.  Their sign has a quill dripping something black, which is presumably ink–but whose ink?–and which I think they intend also as blood.  My feeling, which could be wrong.

We live in a world of constant motion.  Things go up and down.  Good is done, and so too is evil.  Most motion is circular, making it hard to see aggregate, generalized motion.  It is impossible to say we are moving the wrong way, but it does seem clear to me that very little of our culture is oriented around feeling and processing the deep emotions we all have.  When you fail to process, you become a slave to those feelings, and slavery is a way of escaping the responsibility of processing those feelings.  Clearly, people do flee freedom.  You cannot, in the end, flee reality, but you can hide from it, and many people do.  Evil is a direct flight from freedom.  It is tightening a noose on your own neck.  It is a chosen death.

As I read here, some 37,000 people die annually in the U.S. from LEGAL drugs.  As I read here, some 110,000 people die annually from adverse drug reactions, and nearly 800,000 from all failures in medical care.

How much worse would it be if we legalized all drugs, channeled through doctors for supervision?  The number of people who die from cannabis use is really close to zero, and definitely non-zero for alcoholics.

We would not be a nation of lunatics without the DEA.  Mexico would be a much safer place, Columbia would be a much safer place, and the same people would be doing drugs.

In my view, it is absolutely clear that the Federal Government has NO business, Constitutionally, in declaring “war” on drugs, and that the DEA and all associated arms of the Federal Government should be disbanded, and all States allowed to dictate their own policies as far as drugs.

Oh, you say, but they we would be surrounded by drugs.  Here is the thing: I don’t do any drugs but alcohol, but I suspect that whatever I wanted, I could get, and that the route would be a friend of a friend of a friend.  That short, in nearly every city in America.  This after 20 years of “war”.  The only difference with it being illegal is the price, and the violence that that price engenders.

Both the War on Terror and the War on Drugs, in my increasingly firm opinion, are simply intended as VEHICLES for trampling the Bill of Rights while alleging we are being protected from some amorphous threat.

People die.  We all die.  It is how we live that we should be free to choose.  That is freedom, as should be clear.

I have not searched for a definitive explanation of the exact nature of the European financial problems, and doubt seriously I would be able to find one in plain English in any event.  The people that “do” finance use jargon that like all jargon likely works to hide foundational misunderstandings.

As it seems to me, though, you have 15 nations or so that all use Euros.  Currencies, like stocks, are bought and sold, depending upon their shrinking or increasing value, which is a function of relative rates of inflation.  Now, this applies to both the currencies, and to any investments offered in those currencies.

Despite having a common currency, the individual European nations do their own taxing, and their own spending.  Half of Europe has decided to spend far more than they tax.  This of course creates problems.  Greece in particular has the further problem that it is ADDICTED to all the things that come from having your parents Platinum Amex.  You spend the money, and somebody else pays the bill.  Not your problem.

Now, the economic disaster everyone keeps warning about, for Europe, is that somebody is going to go broke.  When they go broke, all the bonds issued by their government will become worthless. That is what going broke means: you stop paying your bills.

Now, this means that the Euro as a WHOLE could collapse in value.  This means that those banks that are currently financing the lifestyles of the poor and frivolous will stop making those investments.  Greece goes bankrupt, but then Spain and Italy can no longer borrow money.  This is why they are talking about “eurobonds”, which is to say bonds that in effect are backed by serious people who keep tight books, and who can be expected to pay for the spendthrift ways of their profligate brother nations.  This in effect rewards fiscal profligacy, and if the past is any indication will do nothing at all to curb the fundamental irresponsibility of these nations that think you can do close to no work and live like a rich man.

Unless and until the entitlement mentality of the PIIGS can be dealt with, there is no hope that the overspending and following problems will end.

As I see it, unless the juveniles in southern Europe can be convinced to grow up, the only credible option for those who do not want to support them forever is to figuratively (and literally) boot them out of the house.

 The irony, of course, is that the EU is a Socialist project, one intended to work towards a unified world government, under the nominal control of the UN, and the actual control of the global bankers–particularly the Central Banks.  ALL of these nations are trying to implement socialism.  They are all trying to use the power of government to eradicate poverty and provide social equality.  They have just failed prematurely.  One legged stools do that, though, the moment someone stops holding them up.

If I were to ask you how many things you could have perceived yesterday but didn’t, how would you go about answering that question?  In my view, you can’t.  I certainly can’t tell you, and by definition you did not perceive what you did not perceive, so you can’t either.  But can we both agree it was significantly more than what you did perceive?  If you don’t think so, let me widen the parameters a bit:

What could you have realized about an enemy or friend or associate or family member that you didn’t?

What innovation at work could have occurred to you but didn’t?

What color was the sky, exactly, when you drove home, and how much satisfaction could you have realized as a result?

What spontaneous, positive emotions were possible for you, but unrecognized?  How can you know?

What you can do, is try to do better.

General Relativity did not come about just as a result of Einstein’s IQ.  There are people, even today, who are his superior in that regard.  He himself attributed his fecundity to imagination and persistence.

I would submit that the first imaginative act necessary for paradigmatic thinking is the idea that the paradigm may be wrong.  I do not think Einstein was fully original–others, too, knew or suspected that Newtonian mechanics were not quite right–but he was certainly not surrounded by admirers when doing his most seminal work at the opening of the 20th century.  He worked in a patent office and smoked cheap cigars with a small group of like-minded, but nowhere near as bright men.

Talent, the ability to imagine that what you know is wrong, and persistence: in my view, this is the full list of traits necessary for what is called genius.

It occurs to me that banks enjoy a special exemption from the detriments of socialism to private enterprise.  The money they create, which acts to siphon wealth from the private sector as a whole, is not taxable.  They are only taxed on the money they make on the money they create.  For example, if a bank creates $10 billion, and loans it at 5% interest, they are only taxed on the interest, despite the fact that the $10 billion is far more important.  This $10 billion, being inflationary, also creates wealth for them, but virtually no one sees this.  Not one man in a million, as I recall Keynes putting it, although of course he had in mind wealth reallocation via government money printing.  The principle is the same.

This is how to explain the apparently paradox of bankers supporting socialism: it is beneficial to them.  They get to loan money to governments, and corporations–having more of their money taken in taxation–are in greater need of the loans that they make.

As I have said often–scratch that, this may be the first time I’ve said it just this way–my motto is “Every citizen a Capitalist”.  Everyone, top to bottom, should be self employed.  They should capitalize their own businesses with money they save.  All this would be possible, if our system were not constantly leaking wealth to the banking elites.

Why would Wall Street–which heavily funded Obama’s campaign–insist on supposed “reform” (which seems largely to consist in a preprepared slush fund for them to pull from when they get in trouble)?  Why reform themselves?  Public Relations.  Since they benefit disproportionately the Socialism of people like Obama, it was no doubt thought prudent to create the illusion that he was socking it to them.  These people do not become billionaires through complacency or stupidity.  I would suspect they continue to prefer Obama over Romney for this reason, although of course they can work out a modus vivendi with him as well–hence the contributions to him.  If  you have a lot of money, no sense being niggardly (Hey, one could make a news story out of someone using that word; if one were stupid and ignorant): spread the wealth.  It comes back.  It always does.

Or look at the IMF: teeming with Socialists.  Why?  Again, socialism should not be understood primarily as a system of helping people.  It needs to be seem as a TOOL for the most cynical to increase their political power, which is best accomplished by increasing the number of things the government directly controls, which necessarily implies greatly increased burdens on the private sector.

China, currently, embodies ALL the critiques that Marx made of 19th century England.  The workers have no rights, they work long hours in unsafe conditions, and a few–very few–are using their control over this de facto slave system to become ENORMOUSLY wealthy.  Those few, necessarily, are in or close to the supposed Communist Party, which is far more abusive than the class of Capitalists EVER has been in any Western nation.

If you learn to see the world as it is, you see how many of the words floating in the air are pure cow manure.  On a deeper level, you see how few people understand how to cultivate useful, lasting, true happiness, and how many pursue power for lack of a perceived alternative.

In my view, the notion that final truths are possible about “human nature” or even reality is pernicious.  It is not intrinsically pernicious, but rather leads, in the way 4 legged chairs with a leg missing tend to tilt, towards the use of power to compel others to a certain way of thinking.

Take nutrition.  Our nation only became fat when it adopted a nutritional prescription intended to prevent obesity, the notion that fat makes people fat. Once this “lesson” was learned, obesity skyrocketed.  We are still dealing with it today.

Nutrition often acts as a sort of ersatz religion.  Health is inextricably tied in with our mortality, so in some ways nutrition gets at the fundamental strangeness of human life: being here, but knowing this will not last forever, and that we will inevitably lose some large measure of our vitality before the end comes.

As I see it, many people, confronted with mortality, become vastly concerned with shaping out some area of CONSISTENCY, in the face of the randomness of death.  They find a little corner, and hide there, hoping death will find them last.  The need for this corner, this security blanket, this solace: this all leads inevitably to cognitive error.  But the point to be made here is that the error is SHARED.  That is the point of the corner: you are not alone there.  In fact, you have gathered around you in close proximity any number of kindred souls who have found the same hiding place.  This not only offers the comfort of “home”, but also family.

This does in fact serve many useful purposes, and I would propose that to the extent we have a diversity of corners, of opinions, we zig zag our collective way in the approximately correct direction.  This is the point of freedom, of genuine Liberalism.

Yet there exist those who want to impose their corner on the world, who cannot believe themselves that they are right until they have compelled everyone else to adopt the same world view; who in fact think it is there destiny, privilege, burden to share the “truth” with everyone out there.  This is the root of totalitarian thinking.

Academics are most dangerous for a simple reason: they have been taught–by test-taking, by obeisance to authority, by virtue of having substantial intellectual capabilities–that “right” answers exist in the world, and that THEY ARE THE ONES MOST LIKELY TO FIND THEM.

Practically, morality gets DONE every day, all over the world, by people making necessary decisions.  Academics don’t generally get to DO morality, so much as talk about it, about what a better world would look like, what “justice” looks like.

Thus, you have a confluence of people who DO something close to nothing, but who believe in absolute truth, and that they KNOW IT.

Why was the Russian nation–and virtually every nation bordering it–plunged into a nightmare?  Because of this dynamic.

Few thoughts on Woden’s Day.

It’s no use:
putting square pegs into the

ocean.  It’s not that it is round, but
that it swallows
measurement.

As long as you swim, you swim
alone.

Death is life, you see, and life death.

Nice poem for Memorial Day, my last post notwithstanding, and without failing to note and offer gratitude to all the veterans of all our wars, known and covert.

Of all the people in the mornings at the mall,
It’s the old liberators I like best,
Those veterans of the Bulge, Anzio, or Monte Cassino
I see lost in Automotive or back in Home Repair,
Bored among the paints and power tools.
Or the really old ones, the ones who are going fast,
Who keep dozing off in the little orchards
Of shade under the distant skylights.
All around, from one bright rack to another,
Their wives stride big as generals,
Their handbags bulging like ripe fruit.
They are almost all gone now,
And with them they are taking the flak
And fire storms, the names of the old bombing runs.
Each day a little more of their memory goes out,
Darkens the way a house darkens,
Its rooms quietly filling with evening,
Until nothing but the wind lifts the lace curtains,
The wind bearing through the empty rooms
The rich far off scent of gardens
Where just now, this morning,
Light is falling on the wild philodendrons. 

Robert Hedin