ME AND THOSE CRAZY GERMAN PHILOSOPHERS!

“The possession of power inevitably spoils the free use of reason.”

— Immanuel Kant

Not that it is a ‘complaint’, because I appreciated the support that I received while bounce between ‘here and there’ only to add the ‘and back again’ before finally settling here, but I wish my Pops would have sent the rest of my junk by now.  I don’t plan on being upset if all I get is ‘what’s left’, presuming that my gear has been picked through, because whatever is left, I prolly will want!  Some of the things that I know I will want are my books.

Being a nomad for most of my adult life, I have let some of my things flake away and burn as I enter and exit the atmospheres of the various galaxies and planets I have visited.  But when it came to my books, I fought hard to keep most of them, my only notable losses being a couple of Stephen King hard covers and Joseph Campbell’s ‘Masks of God’ series (which I tentatively regard like the Ayn Rand doorstops, books I may well NEVER read again!) but the rest, I really liked and would want to keep.  One of those books that I am pinning for, Kant’s ‘Metaphysics’ (are they or Morals..?  Reason.??) which is one that I am confident I could pick up cheaply but that isn’t the point now is it?  I am going to have to make new associations with it because I read that book in Greensboro and the memories that I had there are now lost in the haze of my condition.

That said, this was a quote of his that I ran into out here on the interwebz and it made me reflect on our current political climate and how disappointing it is right now.  I liken it to the ‘dead ball era’ in baseball where there was such a paucity of home runs being hit that Major League Baseball had to adjust the rules so that more could be hit.  President Obama needed to be a transformative figure and he has not risen up to the task before him. Tut, tut… this is SO not the policy debate but my general assessment.  Like the Presidency his followed, he should win a second term, but it won’t be like that of Clinton or Reagan, where they had massive support behind them but because there is NO FREAKIN’ WAY anyone on the conservative side can overcome themselves and achieve electability, let alone win the presidential election.

With all the memorials around the anniversary of 9-11, I find myself fractured emotionally because there is so much attached to it and most of it wrongly so.  I wish I had the story link I am about to reference, I don’t so you will have to take my word, but NPR did a story one of these ‘anniversaries’ that contrasted the mood of the country after the Second World War.  It really provided the kind of perspective that Marv Levy hinted at in an article I read, where he, as a head football coach, was asked how big a football game was.  His reply?  “World War II… that was a ‘must win’”.  The people who ‘won’ that war did not revel or thump their puff-out chests as many here did when word came that Bin Laden was murdered (let’s get it right… if that is what they did to ‘ours’ that is what we are doing to ‘them’).  There were celebrations and joy, but it they weren’t to be prideful, but out of humility that this mass insanity had come to an end and a sense of relief that we were spared the worst of that which was visited upon the people that had to live through the combat.

As I sit here writing this, I just watched what to me was a disgusting use of commercialization of this national tragedy, a State Farm commercial of children singing to the members of a FDNY firehouse, interposed with scenes of New York.  I am at a loss to see what Alicia Keys and Jay-Z duet has to do with this mindless scene, or what kind of tribute this was, but whatever.  There are so many things that have less to do with honoring anything an more to do with moving merchandise and currying a favorable corporate persona with actual people (had to qualify ‘people’ because corporations are ‘people’ too) that I feel bad for being so ‘gullible’ (and that is because if my neighbor is draped in the flag and cheering because ‘we got ‘em’, I am as at fault as he is for ignorance, because I did not provide him with the knowledge he needs to know what is happening) about the anniversary. 

IT’S THE JUMP OFF POINT

I have accepted that I am always going to run into ‘feedback’ in relationships because I don’t follow an orthodoxy that people can easily relate with or that my beliefs are not commonly held by others.  When there isn’t enough ‘lubricant’ between me and someone else in a relationship, then things seize up between us and the relationship breaks down.

My decision to bail on Mookie Dee was not ‘sudden’, at least not to anyone who had been reading my blog at the time, but it was in the sense that my actual departure date came out of the clear blue.  I don’t know if it seemed to be a ‘storm brewed in a teacup’ (imagine any mix-up and the lot would blow!) but lil’ Mook was bouncing around the townhouse singing a popular song and I asked her about the lyrics.  I made a small stink about them and since her pushback was being supported by her Mom, I quickly let it go.  The next day I called my Dad and he came and got me!!

What finally had me implement my plan was how great the gap between us had become left us without enough ‘contact points’ for us to stay together and function as a couple.  This incident is typical when I speak of the kinds of ‘static’ that I would rather avoid in my life going forward.  This is representative of the kinds of contradiction that I won’t willingly bring into my life.  Because I feel like I am being exploited through my ability to be understanding and respectful of someone whose opinions and thoughts are ‘provincial’ at best.

APPARENTLY, NO ONE REMEMBERS THE FRIGGIN’ MAINE

I talk about my penchant for my belief in the validity of a few of the various ‘conspiracy theories’ and intrigue around political power (and everything in life regarding the relationship that humans have collectively with each other, the different societies and theocracies, are all about political power, the rule of men over other men) and some of the intrigue that surrounds 9-11 has many, many earlier references throughout history.  This is what makes the threat of the Tea Party and the wave of anti-intellectualism that supports it such a threat.  The Dark Ages came about because of political actions that are quite similar, and as far as the secret cabals of powerful and rich men making up reasons for war goes back as far as time itself.  Not opinion but historical fact, brothers and sisters.  So if I think that if I hold unto a construct or ideal that I have supporting evidence of, it deserves the same respect as ‘other things’ that people believe and feel that they have evidence of, you know what I mean?  And because I saw the ‘writing on the wall’ when it comes to being a square peg, I try to make sure that I have more than the utmost respect for the ‘usual philosophies’ that people have in the world.  In short, I don’t enjoy being ridiculed because I ‘did not get the memo’ that I was suppose to think a certain way because I am this, or I am from there and certainly not because I ‘dress to the left’ or that I have no problems with anyone who may ‘swishes’ or own a ‘muff’ and still prefers to dive into them instead of doing the ‘other thing’.

See, all those prejudices are used to draw in the masses so that they are easier to control and manipulate.  Because there are those who, IMO, could not convince others of their belief or philosophy through the rules of debate, they have chosen to attack the facts by re-writing them and by reinforcing ignorance, it has now become socially acceptable to be ignorant and when frustrated by those who dare to think.  I bet that is what sort of attracted me to Objectivism through ‘Atlas Shrugged’, because in her infantile way, Ayn Rand made sense.  Those that think, those that dare, and those that do, should reap the benefit of their production.  But I don’t think she understood how we are all interconnected and it is that lack of empathy that makes her philosophy, crackpot.

*SIGH*

When I would really and truly get angry, the twin that is in the Army used to say, “You know when Mark is really mad, because he will TELL YOU.”  That meant that I would speak pretty plainly and direct, and I feel like I did so here and still managed to accomplish the metaphoric meaning that I had intended… all in all, a decent piece of writing and with it coming on the heels of a pretty darned good football weekend, I am going to take it as a promising sign for this week!