Progress, Security and the Myth of Forgiveness

I have always marveled at the progress of some countries. Finland, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the US have led the world in the development of technology, a civilized society, freedom of capital and information. And from a starting point that could arguably be called a negative position in some cases as it is easier to construct a new building on a green field then to have to clear away a bombed out shell. One can also point to the dramatic innovations that arose out of the Nazi threat, the space race (albeit faked) in response to Russian claims for global dominance.

Both individual and collective human resolve is bolstered by threats, perceived or real and the resulting output and energy can be quite marvelous. I am reminded of the Russian dachas. Almost every Russian family owned a small shack in the countryside with a little bid of land surrounding it, even just a few square metres. Well, these dacha gardens, representing about 2% of all arable land in Russia produced 60 % of all agricultural production during communist rule. I am also reminded of the Chinese who also, very sustainably, produced huge yields in small spaces so as to maintain very high population densities. In fact, in some parts of China, it is considered extremely rude when invited over for a meal, not to use the toilet before leaving. They take their nutrients very seriously in China.

But in any case, it is threat and fear that provokes an energetic response and results in a better standard of living and a sense of economic freedom, national security notwithstanding.

Man responds strongly to threats and less strongly to greed. It is what drives the individual competitive spirit. People want to win. They want to attain higher status. They compare themselves to their neighbours, ridiculing their pathetic efforts and muttering curses at them behind their backs and from behind windows. Why is it that athletes continue to compete despite having achieved millions of Euros in income? It is not greed. It is because they hate the thought of quitting, of being a loser of seeing someone else occupying their rightful place, of their position of status.

Successful individuals harness this competitive spirit. Successful corporations harness it as do nations and economies.

We are told by self proclaimed experts that when we are wronged, it is healthy to forgive. Unless we forgive, we are told, we are unable to move on with our lives. What absolute nonsense!

It is the sense of feeling wronged that provides the high octane fuel to drive us towards excellence. It nurses our competitive spirit and our desire for revenge and status. I often quote from the movie “Red Dawn” starring Patrick Swayze. There is a scene where a kid’s parents are killed by invading Russians. The kid wants to cry but Patrick says “Don’t cry. Keep it in. Let it make you stronger.” I love that line.

Rather than preaching forgiveness, these fools should preach emotional management, discipline and control. That is the sign of a mature adult and a mature civilization. Forgiveness means surrendering.

Cheers and Good Mental Health

Avenge Hypatia.

Confronting Evil

Now that the madness of Christmas and the irrelevance of New Year’s is over with, we can get back to civilized conduct and discourse in our day-to-day activities.

And speaking of civilized conduct, the execution of Saddam Hussein comes to mind. The executions of mad dictators, serial killers, terrorists and other deranged criminals are, for me, an opportunity lost.

How many of us, in our civilized day-to-day activities, ever get a chance to confront evil? I’m talking about true, supreme, heinous, real Evil in the flesh.

No one.

I would like to confront them. I would like to have a beverage with them be it coffee, scotch, tea, or Hemlock, and talk with them about life, history, perspective and childhood memories. I would like to learn from them and have my ideas shaped by their opinions, be they mad, lucid, rational or passionate.

I do not fear them. I do not loathe them. I am curious about them.

The heroes of our history were not much different from many of them you know. Revered popes, respected generals, honoured leaders and adored queens were as bloodthirsty, cruel, and Soulless as any today but we allow our discontemporal biases to fracture rational opinion separating the evil ones from the adored ones.

I propose that we place all the Evilest of the Evil Ones in a traveling caravan. The caravan would tour Europe, North America, Japan and Australia and provide the public with an opportunity to see True Evil in the flesh. I propose that in large cities, a concert venue would be used. A large stage would have as a background, huge screens that would play the evil acts committed by the evil one. Audience members would be encouraged to scream and curse and vent their outrage. The evil one, in appropriate restraints, would be paraded on stage, for people to see in the flesh. Then, the evil one would be permitted to say a few words, either in defense of their actions, in asking for forgiveness or even to taunt the audience. It would be their choice. Then, the next evil one would be paraded out and the process repeated.

The Evil Ones Tour would also visit Higher Schools and Universities to give students an opportunity to confront evil and confront their own fears and responsibilities and ask themselves the question, “What does it mean to be Human?”


How very cathartic this would be! Would not one feel much more grounded after an encounter such as this? Would not one feel much more confident about the righteousness of their lives and the surety of their futures? Would this not pull those with synthetic lives in the synthetic world back into reality, much like a refreshing New Year’s Polar Day Swim?

Cheers and Good Mental Health

The Fear of Religion

Many years ago, back when I actually had to work to earn an income, I had a customer who had a fear and loathing of salesmen. I would tease him about his fear. “Better be careful, I just might sell you something.” He was not really afraid of me. He was afraid of himself, afraid that he might lose control of his senses and do something illogical, in defiance of his better judgment, and actually buy what I had to sell.

I find this same irrational fear is rampant among atheists or non-theists or anti-religionists or anti-fundamentalists. All people are ultimately seekers of freedom. They seek their version of freedom of the mind and freedom of thought. They want no barriers to obstruct their intellectual journey of exploration into ideas. Atheists fear religion as something that imposes barriers on that which is most precious to them – the freedom of their own mind and spirit. Some atheists believe they are the most open-minded of people. In fact they are not. They can be unconsciously intolerant and are closing doors to interesting intellectual adventures.

Everyone has their own moral construct. It’s about whether this construct conforms to an existing construct or not. Atheists fear preconstructed religion because it conflicts with their own construct. In this way, they are like any other religious group. To me, this fear appears irrational as if, like my mercatophobic friend, they fear that their whole world will collapse if in a fit of madness, they decide to convert to Calvinism on the spot. It is the same as the irrational urge one has crossing high bridges, a fear that in a fit of madness, one may hurl their wallet, then their keys and finally themselves over the bridge for the pure Hell of it.

It is very primal, this whole business of fear.

But I have found the solution. The solution is to embrace the madness, skirt the edge, peer over the bridge and dangle your keys, but don’t let go of them and feel the rush. Live your emotions in the now, take control of them and use them as you would use your intellect. This makes one incredibly powerful as fear becomes a tool, an engine upon which one draws strength. And it allows one to peer deeper into the abyss. To jump off the intellectual bridge while tied with an emotional bungee cord that will always save you from spiritual collision.

True freedom of the mind permits one to explore a broad religious experience and not just from a spiritual perspective which I find rather dull. What is fascinating is to study the flow of power that develops from having a group of people under a set of controls. The effect this power has on people’s daily lives, the affairs of the state and the progression of culture, science and technology is truly fascinating. Too many deprive themselves of this. One can also enjoy studying and being around so called moral and religious people, be they people, saints or gods. To wit may I present my discontemporal meeting with St. Francis at Assisi. To deprive oneself of what these people have to offer is to deprive oneself of opportunity to learn about them and about oneself.

Cheers and Good Mental Health

Coming Soon! The Myth of Forgivenes

Do we really need to forgive? Or do we just need to improve our anger management skills? I will demonstrate that it is the latter. Yes, you too can enjoy your hatred and be a more productive citizen without all the emotional baggage! Carry a grudge without the guilt. After all, its all about you sistah! Un hunh. Un hunh. Yeah baby!

On This December 7th....

Beware, beware and guard thy ports.
'Gainst any false and vile reports.
Of coming foes by silent skies
By facts concealed by prying eyes.

'Tis true that every modern war
Hath been conceived by plot and wore
The cloak of secrecy that hides
Evil agendas deep inside.

The Commisioner & McKay's personal tribute to the victims of Pearl Harbour and others since.

Coming Soon!

Many self-proclaimed "open-minded" people are terrified of religion. I will tell you why this is so and why they will burn in Hell for it. No, I mean why they are depriving themselves of a rich intellectual adventure.

Cheers and Good Mental Health you Godless Scum. You Heathen Wretches. You Foul and Vulgar Heretics.

Stupid Dolphins – Stupid People

I do not think dolphins are smart. Some say that these fish are smarter than humans and that their language is extremely complex and highly evolved.

To this I say “Ptah”. Dolphins are dumb. Well, they are about as smart as a common poodle. Their language appears complex because it is nothing but random splutterings of air through an orifice. It is like saying that people communicate through their farting habits. And while this is a very expressive and vastly underutilized tool of communication, it has not developed the necessary means of control and convenient availability compared to our oral powers of communication.

Some say that people only utilize 10 % of their brains. Not true. Nearly all people use all their brains, just like dolphins. The ones that use only 10% of their brains are the ones that think dolphins are bloody genii.

Dolphins are cold blooded killers. Yet ten percenters believe that they can swim with them and have their spirits boosted via kinship and one-ness with the dolphin. This is actually true to an extent. The hungry dolphin will eat the spirit person becoming one with them.

This is not only good for the dolphin but also improves the human intellectual gene pool.

I am rather partial to dolphin with a honey-ipruca glaze. A 2003 Chianti completes the pairing.

Cheers and Good Mental Health

“ipruca”

I had to enter this randomly generated word today as part of the security process required of me to approve and respond to comments on my blog.

What a wonderful word it is. “i PRU ca” with either a long or short “I” and a hard “c”. Were the “c” a “k”, it would bear a more vulgar form and though pronounced the same would be more unpolished. Visiting words should appear gentle and serene and not appear as ruffians. Kind of like those Atlanteans that stormed by chambers a few weeks back. Good guys but a little uncouth.

But what of “ipruca”? This beautiful word, selected by God from the chaos of randomness to appear before me just now, mewing up at me with doe-like eyes like a lost kitten on a doorstep, hoping for a home, praying against the inevitable closing of the door or pressing of ENTER and condemnation to certain death.

So I SELECTED “ipruca” with my cursor and pasted it here, to nurse it a little and provide it a chance, perhaps, to live a while longer while I decide what to do with it. In the meantime, I have cleaned away its quotation marks and washed it of its little squiggly red line via ADD TO DICTIONARY.

Ipruca. There, that looks much better.

So what are we to do with you, Ipruca?

You must be granted a meaning of some kind. You must have a little piece of emotion attached to you with little hooks that will allow you to grow within the holographic immateriality of human interconnectivity.

I think you should represent a positive good thing. Like syrup from sweet dates that nourished near dead Sahelian travelers. Yes, Ipruca, I think that you should rank right up there with words like “mead” and “manna”. And from the noun, Ipruca, you would become a title, a name.

Desert kings would name their daughters after your sweetness. “Dearest Ipruca. Abide with me as we watch the sunset’s glow and tell me what would make you happy.

“Oh dearest Papa. I wish to marry a handsome prince and be his only wife so that I may bear many, many sons that will bear your name and his and bring great honour to your family.”

And so Ipruca married a handsome desert Prince and went on to rule a great empire. She was known for her beauty, generosity and kindliness to strangers. Just like her namesake fruit.

Alas, poor Ipruca died. Her people mourned her. They sacrificed thousands of goats in her name. They beat themselves bloody with tamarisk branches so deep was their grief for her. They cried to Heaven in the hopes that she would hear them and know their pain and loss.

Ipruca lived on in the names of the daughters of Kings and of peasants for thousands of years. Stories of her beauty and her generosity lived on through tales and stories. She became a Goddess.

And so it is that today, anything that is sweet and nourishing, that appears as if from nowhere is referred to as Iprucan.

“The sweet smell of spring blooms beckoned to us like Ipruca, after a long, hard winter.”

“The iprucan appearance of storm clouds cheered the farmer’s heart.”

“You may wish to plant Iprucan Olives. They do especially well in more arid climates.”

Well, Ipruca. I think you can stay.

Cheers and Good Mental Health