I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
2001-07-08 - 11:52 a.m.
I should get back in the habit of writing these updates at night before I go to sleep; things are fresher in my mind then. Not that much happened worth writing about yesterday. I'll try to hit the high points.
I watched the Met Yankee game of course. After five innings the Met pitcher Kevin Appier still had a no-hitter going. I got the expected phone call from Alan who wanted to make sure I was watching. The first batter in the sixth got a hit of course; it's all Alan's fault ☺ Alan has a most unusual phobia, he is afraid he won't go to the first Mets no hitter, if it is at home. This game was technically a road game, at Yankee Stadium, but he would have felt awful if he missed it. This started back in 1984 when he let someone talk him out of going to a Doc Gooden start where Doc had a no hitter for I believe 6 and 2/3 innings. I was at that game, one of the best I've ever been to. That year Lauren and I decided to try to go to every Gooden start. Alan isn't the only one who doesn't want to miss the good stuff.
I had no real plans for the evening so I decided to just drop by the bottom line and buy our tickets for Christine Lavin. I picked up tickets for Carey, Lisa, and myself. If anyone else would like to join us let me know.
I left at 6 and took the subway. I usually take the Railroad because when I'm teaching I have a monthly pass and it is so much faster and nicer. On weekends it only runs once an hour though and I don't have a monthly over the summer. I should have taken it anyway. I had forgotten that Guiliani hates me. The subway service to Queens has been in a shambles since shortly after he became mayor. There was no express service in Queens and the F train was running very infrequently. The alternative, the E train wasn't running at all. The trip took an extra 45 minutes because of this.
I ate at Popeye's then walked down to the Strand, the world's largest used bookstore and one of my homes away from homes. I picked up a copy of The Caine Mutiny off the dollar racks outside then went in. Inside I bought a copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and three copies of Jurgen. The Jurgens are for gifts of course.
When I got to the Bottom line I was disappointed that Alan Pepper, the owner, who was in the box office didn't recognize me. It must have been my haircut. Most people there do know me.
I indulged myself by going to Johnny Rocket's afterwards for chocolate peanut butter malt. They make great old fashioned fountain malts and shakes and even give you the metal canister they mix it in.
Sometime during my travels last night I started thinking about feminist, social Darwinism, and the environment. Yes these are all intimately related. There are reasons that historically most societies have been male dominated. One simple one is that men are bigger and stronger of course. That is not the one I was thinking about though. It is that until very recently the success of any people could be measured largely through their population. This meant that it was important for women to have lots of babies. This is actually not even social Darwinism but biological Darwinism. It is how Homo sapiens spread throughout the world. A good example of the social aspects though is the story of Pyrrhus. He was a Greek general who fought the Romans when they first started expanding outside of Italy. He was a brilliant general and was able to defeat the Romans in a decisive battle. His army suffered substantial losses in it though. After the battle he said: "One more victory like this and we will be lost." It is the origin of the term Pyrrhic victory. The strength in Rome lied in the fecundity of the Italian peasants. They could afford to suffer huge losses and still field an army.
Now in modern times with overpopulation what was once a source of strength is now the biggest danger in much of the world. The single most important problem in the world is that there are too many people. If India, sub-Saharan Africa, and much of the rest of the third world could stop growing so quickly they'd have a chance to improve their life style. There resources are being stretched too thin.
So what does this have to do with feminism? As long as women were busy being pregnant and raising kids their entire adult lives they didn't have time for that much else. The converse is also true. If women are educated and given responsibilities outside the home they don't have time to have as many children. One of the best measures of how well off a society is, is the average education level of women. The more educated they are the better off the society is. In the developed world women's access to education is equal or near equal to that of men even if there opportunities in other areas aren't. The birth rates in these countries tend to be at just about the replacement level or even below it. The only reason the United States population grows is immigration and the children of immigrants. In most of the third world women are not given the same education as men and even most men aren't educated. Changing this should be one of the highest priorities of the world. If I were the head of UN I would start investigating immediately how to change this. It would not be easy; there are few things harder to change than the ingrained ideas of a culture. It is a matter of life and death though. If the status of women in the world can be raised the birthrates will drop. The economies of the poorer nations can develop, and the strain on the environment would be reduced. Simple justice of course demands that women be treated equally. The cause would be helped tremendously though if people realized that it is not altruism to improve the status of women it is in everyone's self interest.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
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Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018
creative commons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Horvendile 2001-07-08
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