I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

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.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

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 ...
-James Branch Cabell

November 05, 2015 - 12:31 p.m.

Appropriate Response

I went out yesterday but didn't do much. I just went up to my PO Box. I got my new WFUV member card. If I had kept all of them I'd have 25. Yes I'm loyal. I didn't get my premium. Now I have to find out what's with that. All I wanted this year was a tote bag.

So this sucks, my knee is much improved but that pain in the arch of my left foot now hurts. I was just sitting when it happened. Things just keep happening. I am going to stay home tonight and keep off it as much as possible. I'll ice it too. The bottom of my foot is a hard place to ice.

So as I didn't go out or talk to anyone or do anything what should I write about? I could write about Blake's 7 again. I've been watching a lot of it; I'm in the fourth and final season. But no I will spare you that, it wouldn't mean anything to most of you.

So what's to write? Looking at my list of diary ideas I see "Cultural Appropriation" and that's what I'll write about. Hey I told my therapist I would and you want me to keep my promises to my therapist, right? Don't ask me why it came up; that I forgot.

So now on to cultural appropriation or as I usually call it, civilization. The cradles of civilizations were at crossroads where cultures met and could be combined to make something greater. The Renaissance was triggered by taking things from the cultures of the east that were encountered through war, the Crusades, or trade, think Marco Polo. You think cultural appropriation is a bad thing? Well stop using Hindu Arabic numbers, violins, printing, paper money, spaghetti, and the compass. The alphabet was invented by Phoenicians appropriating and improving Egyptian hieroglyphics. I hope you don't like tap dancing. That's what happened when African Americans in New York appropriated Irish step dancing. And of course Jazz is African Americans appropriating European based music. And don't listen to Porgy and Bess or Rhapsody in Blue because they are Jewish American George Gershwin appropriating the music back. And I guess you think that Abagail Washburn is evil for incorporating Chinese music into her banjo playing. You know what artists do? They appropriate what they hear and love and make it their own. Nobody lives in isolation. Know why there is mandolin in bluegrass music? Because when they were building the railroads Italian immigrant workers played their mandolins and the southern workers heard it and liked it.

The approbation of appropriation is racist. It says that your ancestry determines how you live your life and you can't break those bands. When I started going to Falcon Ridge I started my search for clothes to keep me cool in the summer. I started wearing linen and wicking fabrics. Know what else I got interested in? Colorful African shirts. I always figure that people that live in a climate know how to dress for a climate. I also love the way they look. The only reason I don’t have one is that I haven't found any that I can afford.

If someone dresses as someone from another culture to mock them. Now that's wrong. Blackface in minstrel shows is wrong. But if you like the way something looks or you want to honor a culture that's fine. People object to college students dressing as Samurai? Why is that any different from dressing as a cowboy? And of course if you think appropriation is bad complain to Kurosawa for appropriating Westerns.

Even the horror of Pat Boone doing Tutti Fruiti isn't wrong because it's appropriation. It look nothing from Little Richard, just the opposite, it gave him money via royalties and probably got some people to want to hear his version of it. Of course it is evil because it's so bad.

Yeah so that's bad the same way Frank Sinatra doing Mrs. Robinson was and not quite as entertaining, "ding ding ding." If you don't get that hunt down the Frankie video. Sorry got distracted.

When people objected to Paul Simon making Graceland my reaction was any morality that says making that masterpiece was wrong, is wrong. He didn't hurt anyone making it. He didn't cheat people of royalties. He gave exposure and money to talented African musicians. If no harm is done something isn't immoral.

My politics is very liberal. I have never voted for a Republican. I have been to the left of ever elected official representing me. On Facebook I often post liberal diatribes. But preaching to the choir has its place, it can motivate people to action. But it's even more important to get people to hear what they don't agree with. I know some of My Gentle Readers will disagree strongly with this. I cringe thinking of possible reactions but hey I think it's important. And I just remembered the other thing I've been thinking about that also goes against a misdirected leftist trope. I wrote it down and will use it another day. I realize that in my mind they are right wing ideas in disguise.

Now to end as I always do, with breakfast. I might actually try a bacon and egg sandwich. I have those sub rolls to finish before they go stale.


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please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
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



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Horvendile November 05, 2015
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