mutability

the current administration has coined a new post-truth word for the "special vocabulary" that will define the next four years by introducing the concept of "alternative facts"..i do not trust the current president or his advisors...which isn't saying much...i didn't trust barry obama...and i don't trust congress..and i wouldn't have trusted hillary or bernie either...or the supreme court for that matter...they do not have my ( or your ) interests at heart...only theirs...only the elite's...there is nothing new in this...old as humanity probably...certainly the twentieth century saw its share of fact distortions...reality is as mutable as history...stalin went to great lengths to banish his real and perceived "enemies" from the present as well as any recounting of the past...if you look at the two black and white photos you'll see nikolai yezhov vanish and a retaining wall and some water take his place...a crude distortion...in these modern ( or, perhaps, post-truth, post-modern ) times one assumes the technology has improved....we all know about digital manipulations of photos of models, why not crowds...who knows if mainstream media hasn't altered photos to fit editorial policy? i don't...i am not that technically informed...it could be...true everyone has a camera in their phones ( i do )...but that means reality shrinks from the macro to the micro...yes you can post photos on social media that contravene macro media..but who's posting them and to what purpose? fact or argument? truth or persuasion? there has been so much unfounded bullshit on facebook i don't much go there anymore...i know from manipulation and i am weary...and i am not alone in this..and is this weary turning away from events something someone wants me to do? it will continue without me...people will choose sides and believe the narrative their "group" provides...it is a function of human behavior and how it defines belonging as much by what it is not to belong as by what it is to belong...reactive...and so passive...used...i have saved the comparative photo(shopped?) of the crowds at the obama and trump inaugurals before it vanishes down the memory hole of alternative facts the trumpists are creating...they will continue to expand the vocabulary of their distortions to meet the needs of their deceit..the problem with these sorts of distortions is that the people who create them begin to believe them...embracing their own lies as fact...distortion leads to a disconnect from objective fact...the lies may thrive for a time..as the disconnect widens so do the consequences...have a look back at the history of the past century...eventually there will be rubble of one sort or another...brick and mortar...human...both.

civic kitsch

i was looking at a photo in the n y times of the rostrum of the house of representatives and i noticed ( for the first time...it is an index of how much attention i actually pay to these people and their processes as i try to render them irrelevant to my existence ) that there are fasces on either side...a roman symbol of civic authority that was subverted by mussolini...and the source of the name fascism...so i was curious...with all the political hysteria rampant these days...about exactly when they appeared...surely not post WWII...and it would seem not...they predate the house remodeling in 1951 and the subsequent changes have not seen them removed...so not a signal from the cold war then...rather simply more of the neo-classical kitsch that defines the capitol and shows its denizens see themselves as the heirs of rome...empire..and the deep seated strain of violence it left behind...there is talk of "draining the swamp"...it is an empty promise...whoretown is and always will be a trysting place when the full moon rises over the swamp...there is no cure...civic authority wants its way...no matter what it costs the polity.

continuity

“as the election neared, the papers competed to shake their heads about the disappointing choice the voters faced..” Whistlestop. John Dickerson____________________ here we could be thinking of the n y times and the crypto-fascists at the chicago trib taking pot shots at each other’s favored candidate ( although I cannot find who the trib has endorsed beyond rubio in the primary…they may be in some sort of cataleptic shock in the editorial room…see the conkling quote below )…however we are not… the quote goes on, “…faced between grover cleveland’s private dalliances with maria halpin and blaine’s public scandals”…we are in 1884 and, again, there is nothing new going on in 2016…this is how the system has been since, at least 1800 when jefferson’s attack dogs savaged hamilton and so the federalists…i see that the five living presidents have all stated their intention not to vote for trump ( a rare occasion to agree with old dubya ) ...when, in 1884 roscoe conkling, the republican machine boss in new york state and the man responsible for chester a. arthur being tagged as garfield’s vp [when guiteau shot Garfield he said “i am the most stalwart of the stalwarts and arthur is president now”] after he was run out of the port authority of new York for corruption ) was asked to vote for blaine for the “good of the party” he looked the deputation of nabobs squarely in the eye and said, “gentlemen, i have given up criminal law”…you must admit, there is continuity in american politics.

aside from endorsing hillary...

...and basically calling trump an idiot ( a theme they say they will expand on with tomorrow's op ed section ) the n y times sent along the "style and luxury" issue of the "t magazine"__________ http://www.nytimes.com/section/t-magazine/design?action=click&contentCollection=t-magazine®ion=navbar&module=collectionsnav&pagetype=sectionfront&pgtype=sectionfront _________260 pages of mostly advertising fro things like $15,000 couches and $9 million condos ( heavy on the luxury...possibly the motivation for the clinton endorsement...keep the quantitative easing flowing...design is subjective )...among the many ads there were with web addresses there was this one_______ http://gaggenaurestaurant1683.com/ ______"a sensorial journey of culinary luxury 333 years in the making"...okay...have a look at the web site...beyond " locally sourced ingredients" there is no hint of what actually may be served and i wonder what exactly how local the source is...fish from the hudson? east river? i loathe a foodie...not because they eat or that they are devotees of haute cuisine...pretentious but that is just one more human trait...it's because they are faddish and latch food that are traditional staples in traditional agriculture ( not the "culture" suffix ) and turn them from staples into pricey status foods...quinoa...maca ___http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/world/americas/in-peru-maca-spawns-larceny-and-luxury.html ___ traditional maize varieties ___http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/world/americas/oaxacas-native-maize-embraced-by-top-chefs-in-us-and-europe.html ___ that price the locals out of the traditional foods they grow and consume daily, destroying the local culture to feed some elitist diners at exorbitant prices to prove how hip and trendy they are and what fantastic chefs there are out there...only to find yet another "super food" and move on leaving the maca and maize growers worse off than before they were subjected to the vicissitudes of the foodie way...i read this paper to get some insight on how the elite think ( it is far to late for the times to claim it is not an elitist newspaper...pick up a copy of the sunday paper [if you want to part with six bucks for the privilege] and peruse it closely...it is unmistakable ) and why, if the thinking is clear enough..and just to tie it all back together, neither candidate for the presidency would find any of this reprehensible...they would spout bullshit about "level playing fields" "competitive advantage" and the benefits of the "global economy"...who cares about oaxan or andean farmers or the culture that supports them? it's all about style and "luxury"

highe and eminent in power and dignitie

“the leaders of Jamestown borrowed directly from the roman model of slavery: abandoned children and debtors were made slaves.”_________ “in ‘a model of Christian charity’, Winthrop declared that some were meant to rule, others to serve their betters: ’god almightie in his most holy and wise providence hath soe disposed the condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich some poore, some highe and eminent in power and dignitie; others meane and in subjection.’ lest there be any doubt, governor Winthrop despised democracy, which he brusquely labeled “the meanest and worst of all forms of government.’ for puritans, the church and state worked in tandem; the coercive arm of the magistracy was meant to preserve both public order and class distinctions.” nancy Isenberg. ..”white trash: the 400-year old untold history of class in America.”__________________________ ___ “if shays had not been as desperate debtor, it is much to be doubted whether massachucetts would have been plunged into civil war.” “that damned ass hamilton” federalist VI ___________ “complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good id disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force an interested and overbearing majority.” madison . federalist X_________________________________________________ ___ politics here has always had a puritanical edge to it…while the framers may not have directly come out and said that god said so, they agreed with Winthrop about the desirability of limiting anything that resembled an expression of popular political will…when madison talks about protecting the “minor party” from an “interested and overbearing majority” he isn’t trying to protect those with a small political voice…he is working towards subverting popular political will and so protecting the “highe and eminent in power and dignitie”…the elite…shays wasn’t so much a “desperate debtor” as a revolutionary war veteran ( a captain in the 5th massachucetts regiment ) with a “rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts ( actually burdensome property taxes ), for an equal division of property…”[madison federalist X] which madison calls “improper” and “wicked” projects…because they are the result of an “overbearing majority” infringing on “the minor party…the origins of class here stretch back a long way and the “classless” state of america is a fiction foisted on us by high school civics...high school was over long ago…I would never vote for donald trump…he is divisive, racist, and pretty much a jerk...i want that clear…it is instructive , however, to see how the republican elite ( the standard bearers of class warfare in the united states ) squirm when faced with what is , in the end, an expression of popular will by an “interested and overbearing majority” of putative republican hoi polloi voters…it will be instructive to see how the looming convention plays out as well...this all stands in direct opposition to the well-ordered system the framers of the constitution envisioned…trump is of the elite…his supporters are not…the doyens and doges in the republican party are not pleased…it is un-american…we could discuss the equally thick slime on the other side of this zoo parade…but I believe that can wait for a bit…necessary though it is.

engineered anxiety

"all you have to do is create enough anxiety. then you have your market."_______heard this morning on bbc radio on the way to work.________on some level we all know that this is how advertising works ( although it isn't usually stated so blatantly...but the interviewee was talking about creating markets in the third world...and it is britain...old empires and imperial attitudes die hard )...we are all being manipulated...the consumerist utopia runs on engineered fears...status anxiety...fears of being left behind...of not having enough...primal ,evolutionary fears born out of an uncertain foraging past...if i don't get enough to eat i will die and my chances of finding enough are better with a group..more eyes...more ground covered..but if i'm not eating that status food ( nasturtium garnish for my salad? eating like inca royalty ) am i just surviving and not living? if i don't catch that raise or buy that bmw am i left behind...no longer of the group..a colorless existence...a greyscale of going through the motions of living? i would say not...my life looks like it's in color to me...so, knowing this, what kind of rational response can i frame? turning of the television for a start...this may be sacrilege to some...especially to advertisers and those who make a living from the medium...and on some levels it removes me form the group as i cannot follow the debates and discussions about what was "on" last night...but it does free me from the utopia's prime manipulating instrument ( television not manipulative? beyond the commercials just watch the "news" sometime..objective reporting, never very healthy, seems to be dead...we are being propagandized, not informed )..i need some basic understanding of events so by using a few newspapers ( i can ignore print ads [unless i am trying to gauge the ny times advertising revenue that day ] television commercials are imbeded in the information in a more unavoidable way ) and a selection of on line sites buttressed by information gleaned from books covering subjects with broader and deeper scope than any half hour of "news" could hope to approach i can ferret out something that resembles reality ( remembering that causality i so complex that no one has more than a general idea of what is actually going on...they may try to convince me they do but they cannot )...an imperfect approach..one that relies on some second-hand information and mu own limited cognitive abilities but relatively freer of the biases the consumerist utopia wants me to have..i have left television behind since the fire...john prine was correct.

just being human?

“we are better than this.” Barry Obama in a “white house email” I seem to be doomed to get in perpetuity._____ “…]this]illustrates a general truth: the ultimate aim of the communist system was the transformation of human nature, it was an idea shared by the other so-called totalitarian regimes of the inter-war period. This, after all, was an age of utopian optimism in the potential to change human life, and, paradoxically at the same time, an age of profound doubt and uncertainty about the value of human life itself in the wake of the destruction of the first world war.” Orlando figes. “a people’s tragedy: the Russian revolution 1891-1924”_____ “skinner was a staunch blank-slater and a passionate utopian. His uncommonly pure vision allows us to examine the implications of the ‘optimistic” denial of human nature. Given his premise that undesirable behavior is not in the genes, but a product of the environment, it follows that we should control that environment…why are most people repelled by this vision? Critics of skinners “beyond freedom and dignity” pointed out that no one doubts human behavior can be controlled: putting a gun to someone’s head or threatening him with torture are time honored techniques. Even skinner’s preferred method of operant conditioning required starving the organism to 80 percent of its free-feeding weight and confining it to a box where schedules of reinforcement were carefully controlled. The issue is not whether we can change human behavior, but at what cost” Steven pinker “the blank slate: the modern denial of human nature.”_____ “we are addicted to tribal conflict, which is harmless and entertaining if sublimated into team sports, but deadly when expressed as real-world ethnic, religious, and ideological struggles.” e.o. Wilson, “the meaning of human existence”_____ what if we’re not barry? What if what we are is human and what if there is a human nature ringed with violence? There have been a multiplicity of schemes to change humans from the above mentioned skinner and the bolsheviki…and it doesn’t stop there…the webbs and Frederick taylor wanted to rationalize human work…hippies and other communalists were all about changing views on the individual…partnership for a drug free America wants us all to be clean and sober ( oh how I hate “special vocabularies” they mystify the uninitiated and frame debates…they seek to limit not expand thought )…no end of religious utopianism…ghandi…mormons…the branch dravidians….the pope…all sorts of religiosity that just can’t seem to get handle on things…religion is a product of human nature…not a cure for it…gropup-think as a norm…so what if much of the violence in life actually stem from elite social manipulation in their own interests…what if policy is driving this divisiveness…the politicians from the cretinous trump to the corrupt Clinton to the insider posing as populist sanders will tell you it isn’t…a fair sign it has at least something to do with it…none of them are what the purport to be and they all lie...and, while we are being iconoclastic…how much violence in this country is committed by military and former military personnel who are sucked into police forces and militias after their term of service? They are trained to be violent...and it seems that is difficult to be unlearned…the government certainly doesn’t teach it …No one seems interested in finding out…and as a last kicker...if texas wants to go, let them…the empire can’t dissolve quickly enough….we may never live entirely at peace with one another…Wilson is correct…we are tribal by nature and no matter how politely we phrase it we always think “our” group is a little better…how we define ourselves…and the “other”