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 ...
November 05, 2011 - 11:40 a.m.
I didn't have the best night's sleep but it's time to update. Wish I could remember the weird dreams I had. It would give me something to write about. I have things to write about. I always have things to write about. It just hate taking anything out of the ideas bin and I keep procrastinating and not putting new things in. I could write and entire blog about procrastination. I will: When I get around to it.
I haven't done much since I last wrote. The highlight is making Buffalo Wings for dinner. My supermarket didn't have any Frank's Red Hot Sauce so I had to use a substitute! Paul assured me that wasn't a mortal sin. It came out fine. I realized that not only am I amazed how good it is every time I make it but I'm amazed that I'm amazed and amazed that I write that I'm amazed that I'm amazed. I think somehow the peppers erase part of my memory so each time seems like the first. Maybe I just don't have a brain. I seem to remember something about not having a brain.
I hardly started but I'm reading another Discworld Novel, Small Gods. I think this is the first time I've read two in a row since Frances sent me my initial stock of three as a present. She's the pusher that got me hooked on the stuff. I have find a check list and see how many I've read and how many more I have to read. I need something meatier next so I ordered The Age Of Diminished Expectations : U.S. Economic Policy In The 1990s by Paul Krugman from the library. I need to plan out some more reading. I'm due for a good science book, any suggestions?
One of the things I like about blogging is that I can discuss something without directing it at an individual. There are things people say that drive my blood pressure straight up and I know that I'll never get anything constructive done if I engage them. One of my rules on FB is that I will rarely have a political argument on it. The stronger I disagree with what someone says the more I will avoid it. I see people saying things that show they are uniformed, prejudiced, or most often simply have not thought things through but I can't go to them and say these things. They just get defensive. The only thing I'll do is correct factual errors. Here nobody will take it personally because it isn't personal. It isn't about an individual. I can blog; they can blog with no reference to each other.
I'm often more concerned with methods of reasoning than the results and I think that's where I'll go today. One of the worst ways of thinking is that everything is a morality play the good as we see it must be rewarded and what usually comes to the fore, that he guilty must be punished. Now I agree that's what I'd like to see too. Justice is important, but everything isn't morals and it does no good to punish someone else it if makes things worse for everyone. An obvious example in the news now is Greece. The Greek government was profligate. They used the inflowing Euros to finance a political patronage mill. I can see why the Germans don't want to pay for that but if the only way to save the economy of Europe is to help Greece then Greece must be helped. Yes they can and should demand reforms in the patronage system but that doesn't mean crippling the Greek economy which punishes everyone guilty and innocent and in the end will punish everyone else in the European Union. But too many people just can't get past the morality.
It happens here too. The fury of both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street was catalyzed by the bank bailout. I have huge issues with how the bailout was handled. There were no strings attached. We are still in a position where financial institutions can create havoc and they are fighting tooth and nail to stay in that position. But, to many, I am afraid most, of the people the problem was the bailout itself. They say, "Just let them fail." Anybody hear of the Great Depression? That's what happened when we let the banks fail. Banks are not warm, kind and altruistic. They are necessary. As Krugman, no friend of the financial oligarchy said, letting them fail was not a realistic option, but to millions it is the only option because of their desire for a morality play.
I got the other end of that yesterday. I actually had a discussion with someone, well I heard someone talking, I tried to not ignore him. He was telling me how he was against Occupy Wall Street because some banker in the 50s financed some hero of his who invented the shopping mall. Yes it makes no sense but the point is in his mind the banks did something good so must be rewarded.
Much of the opposition to abortion and birth control is the idea that women must be punished by the consequences of their actions. No matter the burden it places on society. No matter that it brings unwanted children into the world. No what matters is that they be punished.
The US prisons are filled with people there for no other reason than they have a drug problem, especially a drug problem while being black. The sensible thing to do is help them with their drug problems and help them get their lives together but we don't because that isn't what happens in a morality play. They must be punished. We actually ban them from getting financial aid to get an education, the thing that would most help them and society. The desire for punishment is stronger than the desire for a better world.
I'm not arguing against morality. I'm all for morals and justice. Right and wrong are important. And I'm certainly not arguing against being kind and helping people. I'm arguing against setting public policy by the desire to punish or not reward those we feel unworthy even if it hurts everyone.
OK now I have to eat. There's an omelet waiting to be made in my kitchen. Right now it doesn't even know it's an omelet; it's separate eggs and milk and cheese and ham. Of course after I make it into an omelet it still won't know it's an omelet because you know, it's an omelet. Did you really think omelets know things? You're weird.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
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Horvendile November 05, 2011
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