Nostr notes by jerryk

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is truly the poet-philosopher of music, ...

2026-10-27T16:31:02Z

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is truly the poet-philosopher of music, at least as much literary, psychological and philosophical, as musical genius. So much so, that his opera based on the Pushkin stage play "Mozart and Salieri", probably formed at least as much the inspiration for the fabulously successful twentieth century adaptation, "Amadeus", as the Pushkin original. Rimsky-Korsakov saw the need to interweave music and text ineluctably and inextricably to achieve a true understanding of the characters and their interactions. We can see this throughout his incredibly evocative music, works that have obviously achieved international fame, and survived the test of time -- everyone with any acquaintance with music knows "Flight of the Bumblebee", and "Scheherazade", for example. He developed techniques of orchestration which created a true grammar and syntax of literary expression for musical use, and described them in great, almost scientific detail.

And, what is the significance of all of this for the ordinary human being? Other than providing entertainment, amusement, distraction, and being a trainer and educator of others doing the same thing? Well, you know, it's really very hard to tell! Anything that attracts our attention probably has some novelty to it, and anything that is novel, or new, may be a potential tool we can use at some time in the future. Of course, just being amused or distracted can be helpful at times. But, beyond that, most people acknowledge and recognize that human curiosity is fundamental to human survival and progress, and animals are very curious as well. Finding out about new things is an essential tool to acquiring information necessary for survival purposes.

But, how could Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" have had any practical consequences, whatsoever? Well, you know, the mechanics of bumblebees in flight are very sophisticated indeed. And, engineers and scientists study them closely, to learn what they can from them, to help in practical understanding of flight systems in aircraft. For a long time now, engineers and scientists, and future engineers and scientists have been listening to that score of "Flight of the Bumblebee", and, because it is strikingly accurate, it has most certainly got them thinking about things. It has made them curious, and, it has made them think. It has given them ideas.

How important was that? Very difficult to say. We really have no clear means at this time to know exactly what is important in this world, and why, with a high degree of precision. However, we do have the sense that the more we know and understand, and the better we understand it, the more ability we have to understand and deal with the world around us. And, composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov did make some significant contributions here, did he not?

#psychology #neuroscience #psychoanalysis #informationprocessing #cognition #perception #philosophy #metaphysics #amadeus #pushkin #russianliterature #russianmusic #russiancomposers #philosophyoflanguage #philosophyofart
#semantics #linguistics #philosophyofhistory #curiosity #philosophyofscience

In case you didn't notice, on Sunday, two momentous elections ...

2026-10-26T16:41:42Z

In case you didn't notice, on Sunday, two momentous elections were held, in which the Left won big time. One in Brazil, and one around the world in Serbia. Both were facilitated by mass demonstrations of the left, and both won against entrenched right wing financial interests, and attempted vote buying by Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and company. And, both were unexpected results. The Left was expected to lose, the demonstrators were expected to lose, but, in both cases they won, very much against the odds, and the established financial interests that ferociously opposed them.

These days there is much talk of the "violence" of these mass demonstrations by the left. Actually, if by violence you mean deaths and injuries, there's rather little of that, at all. Often none, at all. A million people "rioting", and no one gets hurt? What's that all about? Actually, what these demonstrations really are is passive resistance, very much in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi in India, and for precisely the same purpose. The purpose is to create economic disruption that can force a government to its knees, without a shot being fired, without a bomb being thrown. A million people marching can shut down a major city indefinitely, and if the authorities use force to intervene, it is really the authorities who are using violence, not the people. And, the people will understand this, too. This will turn the rest of the people against the authorities, and they will eventually be overthrown. This is why passive resistance is very effective in societies in which there are regular elections. Indeed, it can be very effective even in societies in which there aren't regular elections, it certainly helped to overthrow the Tsars in Russia.

Definitely, some people made a lot of money betting on a Lula victory in Brazil. The financial community was against him, and they all put their money on the line betting against him. Almost all anyway. Didn't work out too well for them, though, did it? They lost a lot of money, didn't they?

Currently, bettors are putting heavy odds on Marine Le Pen winning in next year's presidential elections in France. Don't count on that, my friends, don't count on it, at all! A similar situation obtains. While the financial interests are hoping and praying that the french people will favor a "law and order" -- i.e., kill and/or lock up all the protesters -- approach, the chances are the majority of the people in a democratic republic like France will not. What this really amounts to, is the rich have the right to kill and/or starve to death anyone and everyone who opposes their own financial interests, because "that's the law"! Ultimately, once most people get a chance to think about this, they tend to reject it, you see!

#politics #worldpolitics #brazil #serbia #uspolitics #elections #brazilelection #uselections #politicalscience #protests #civilunrest #politicalaction #demonstrations #france #frenchpolitics #elonmusk #donaldtrump #russianrevolution #geopolitics #passiveresistance #lawandorder #marinelepen #mahatmagandhi

Prince Harry's hatred of the media, pretty much everyone in ...

2026-10-25T20:01:24Z

Prince Harry's hatred of the media, pretty much everyone in the media, is pretty legendary by this time. I think Donald Trump may have finally surpassed Prince Harry in sheer hatred of the media by this time, perhaps even Elon Musk too, but, Harry's utter loathing for the world press corps is of much longer standing in its estimable ferocity.

In his personal memoir, "Spare", it is quite clear that loathing of the media is the defining aspect of Harry's entire existence. Now, to be entirely fair, I doubt any of the Royals have any profound affection for the media, the media are regularly very hard on the Royals, the relationship is highly adversarial. Now, to some extent this is of course the case with all celebrities, the rich and famous, their relationship with the media is love-hate, at best. People resent the rich and famous, and everyone knows it, especially the media. So, if a newsman can make a celebrity look very bad, the newsman will be very popular indeed! So, no real surprise that Harry and the other Royals shouldn't be overfond of the media.

In some ways, this problem is particularly acute for the British Royal Family, because a rather large proportion of the British population is far from sure they actually have any social utility, at all. So, a significant proportion of the news media are actively trying to get the Royals in as much trouble as they possibly can, at all times, by any and all means at their disposal. And, in Harry's case in particular, this issue is profoundly aggravated by a number of circumstances. Firstly, Harry is now only fifth in line to the Crown, he is exceedingly unlikely to ever be King. Which, effectively, means Harry is not of any real potential significance at all, in the great scheme of things. This can hardly help his standing with the media, can it? From their point of view, Harry is a non-entity who is merely in the way of what remains of British Royal Greatness.

Secondly, Harry has had no great personal success he can call on. Of course, how many British Royals in the last few centuries have had any great personal success, you ask? Fair enough. But, not all British Royals have had problems with drugs and alcohol -- quite a few, yes, but by no means all -- like Harry has. Also, Harry has not done well academically. Again, this doesn't really matter a great deal, but, it does provide further grounds for attacking him, and ridiculing him. Also, his wife's father is apparently some kind of sex criminal. Of course, given Uncle Andy, I suppose the media can't really get that all excited about that particular piece of trivia.

Finally, and this is really most important, a case can actually be made that Harry's mother was done to death by the media, and Harry certainly believes this is quite literally true. This elevates Harry's confrontation with the media beyond the level of mere farce, to high epic tragedy with possibly genuinely metaphysical implications. Harry is pure good, the media is pure evil, and the late Princess Diana, his mother, is, perhaps the Holy Virgin. Well, not quite that, I suppose! Maybe Mary Magdalene, though.

Now, of course, Diana was William's mother too, but, you see, William will shortly be King, and that really changes everything for him. Rather than hatred of the media being the defining aspect of his existence, the defining aspect of existence for William is the immediate prospect of being King of England. That isn't quite all it once was, certainly, but, it's still a very critical public relations role, a major source of revenue for the UK, and even a position of considerable, although rather ambiguously defined, political power. William has something interesting to look forward to, by definition. Anything Harry gets, he has to fight for, for himself. His Royal Position isn't really important enough to guarantee him much beyond a modest living. If he wants more, he has to fight for it.

And, that's really the reason Harry hates the media so much. Because, rather than helping him succeed, the media does anything and everything in their power to prevent it. They see him as a worthless parasite, and report and present him as such. Of course, Harry is probably nothing very special, but, he's probably a bit better than the media choose to present him, since it's more fun to see Harry fail, than to see him succeed.

#princeharry #royals #royalfamily #britishroyalty #media #bbc #britishmedia #worldmedia #celebrities #psychology #psychoanalysis #donaldtrump #elonmusk #princewilliam #princessdiana

The US election cycle of two years for replacing most of the ...

2026-10-24T16:00:39Z

The US election cycle of two years for replacing most of the legislatures at the state and federal level is somewhat unique, and largely defines the American political system and electoral process. This structure effectively means that it's almost impossible for the American government to go very far down a wrong path, before self-correcting, through the ballot box. This is, quite obviously, precisely what the framers of the US Constitution had in mind, and they probably should be given some credit for it. And, it's also why Americans have very little fear of their government, since they can pretty much bring it to their knees at will, whenever they want, at the ballot box. Probably more than any other nation in the world, Americans are the true "snout-counters", and if the snouts say no, the government has got to go!

Americans often look on in wonder at the demonstrations in other major world democracies of the world, in Europe, and other nations, at the disruption that often occurs. Americans simply don't understand why these people can't simply peacefully express their views at the ballot box, to resolve the problem directly. Americans don't grasp that five years or so between elections is simply too long, and that things can turn out very, very badly if incompetent or corrupt governments are given free reign for this long a period of time. So, from time to time, the people in nations with much longer election cycles have to take to the streets, and engage in acts of limited confrontation in order to straighten their own governments out. Ultimately, dangerously incompetent governments of any and all types have to be brought to heel, one way, or another. And, the people arrange to do that, one way, or another.

Of course, one could suggest that perhaps all nations should follow the American model, and have a very short two year election cycle. Then they wouldn't have to demonstrate so much to straighten their governments out, right? They could just do it at the ballot box, like Americans do. Well, there are downsides to the American approach, too. It makes it very difficult to enforce any long term policy goals or changes, at all, so, up to a point the American government is in a constant state of self-imposed inertia, as American politicians are spending most of their time constantly fundraising and blowing in the political winds of change, which change constantly, of course, doing rather little actual governing. Like all things in life, there is a certain trade-off. The American government is of very little danger to its citizens, but, generally, it is of very little use either!

The exception, of course, is during periods when the will of the American voters becomes -- and this is very rare, but it does happen -- extremely intense, consistent, and crystal clear. This happens generally during major wars, and important economic downturns. Then, American politicians realize their political careers are in imminent danger of termination, and possibly their personal freedom as well, if they do not act according to the will of the people. And, then, for a time, the American government can become very effective indeed. Until the will of the American people is done.

#politics #uspolitics #uselections #ushistory #worldhistory #politicalscience #uscongress #usconstitution #uslaw #usgovernment #europe #eu #government #philosophyofhistory #philosophyofgovernment #protests #massdemonstrations #publicunrest #politicalaction #civilunrest

The left-right divide in politics is fundamental, however, ...

2026-10-23T17:08:22Z

The left-right divide in politics is fundamental, however, sometimes one gets the impression there is some confusion as to exactly what it means. This is particularly true in the United States, where the American conception of what constitutes a "conservative" seems to be somewhat more extreme than in the rest of the world, as a whole.

I believe this is related to the somewhat unique circumstances out of which the United States were formed. Essentially, European diseases had wiped out most of the local native population, so American colonials found themselves in the rather desirable position of living in an almost entirely empty, but very temperate and fruitful land. And, under such circumstances, there is rather little need for government of any type, at all. After all, if there's more than enough land and wealth to go around, why would people come into conflict? What need for centralized control and organization? There was an old saying in colonial America, "If you can see the chimney smoke of your neighbors, it's time to move on!" So, given that obvious option, why have a government, at all?

So, in traditional American values, there is a profound distrust of any and all government. Who needs it, anyway? This is NOT the view of most world cultures, for whom this period of vast empty space with no need for government is too remote in the very distant past to remain a part of the culture. So, for Americans, "conservatism" generally means a longing to go back to a period when no government at all was in any way necessary, something that most cultures recognize is no longer a practical possibility on an overpopulated planet.

Basically, people on the left want change, social progress, social development. People on the right want things to stay more or less the same, or to go back to some previous "golden age" of world culture. I would say, as a general rule, the "conservative" right-wing philosophy makes the most sense if things are going well, or, if the problems are of a very familiar type, which are effectively solved by traditional, conservative approaches. On the other hand, if problems are new, serious and unpredictable, then, a "liberal" left-wing philosophy is likely to prove most effective as a means of dealing with these new kinds of problems, in the long run, anyway. Of course, in the short run, fundamentally new approaches might make things a lot worse, because we have no idea what we're doing, at all! Nevertheless, such problems might be inevitable, and the only way of ever achieving any true improvement from a thoroughly unsatisfactory condition may be to work through them, as best we can, trying out fundamentally new approaches, until we achieve a satisfactory outcome. What is the alternative, really?

#politics #uspolitics #history #ushistory #worldhistory #government #usgovernment #politicalscience #demographics #overpopulation #worldpolitics #liberals #conservatives #metaphysics #philosophy #problemsolving #philosophyofhistory

Ah, but you're missing the point. The problem is the total ...

2026-10-22T20:54:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…s4cc
_________________________

Ah, but you're missing the point. The problem is the total control and institutionalization of the process, and the extreme legal restrictions. Sure, the Pope could experiment with steam engines and gunpowder if he wanted, God help the local blacksmith if he did! He would be burned at the stake.

So, sure, we have highly regulated institutions playing games, but, there are too many restrictions. If no one is allowed to have more than a few pounds of Uranium without the FBI taking it all, no progress is possible.

It's fascinating how the media say "we know fusion is possible, we have it in stars!" We sure do, we also have it extremely efficiently, if rather dangerously, in H-bombs. However, no one can experiment with H-bombs, to try to make this technology feasible. Instead, people are compelled to experiment with fusion toys, that never seem to go anywhere, at all, ever. The most obvious source of fusion power is strictly off limits. Thus, no progress, just endless fusion toys. Claims of progress are easy to make, and generate a culture of scientific futility, endlessly.

Ah, but it has been banned, just like research on steam and ...

2026-10-22T17:35:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…r6et
_________________________

Ah, but it has been banned, just like research on steam and explosives was in the medieval Europe. You're just so used to seeing this banning as "essential", that you don't see it that way. Just like the medieval mind saw classifying scientific research on steam power and explosives as dangerous witchcraft. Of course we have to restrict research on Uranium explosives, it could destroy the world! Of course we have to restrict research on steam and explosives, it could burn the whole village down!

Same thing, don't you see?

Current restrictions on nuclear research rule out any meaningful progress, ever.

I've always been fascinated by Louis Ferdinand Celine since I ...

2026-10-22T17:19:27Z

I've always been fascinated by Louis Ferdinand Celine since I read "Voyage au bout de la nuit" as a young man. What a cynical nihilistic genius! However, I'd never read his astonishing "bagatelle pour un massacre", a superficially virulently antisemitic work which is, quite obviously, a caricature of antisemitism itself! Suddenly, in 1937, as Hitler is becoming all powerful, with no prior indication, whatsoever, Celine has become the world's biggest antisemite! And, both Hitler and the Pope are Jewish, too! According to Celine, anyway. The Nazis were afraid of this guy for chrissakes! While they were occupying France!

I wonder if anyone has really understood this guy?

But..but..but..the collaborationists used Celine's writings to "normalize" the roundups of Jews in France, right? Sure they did! That's why 75% of French Jews survived years of occupation, by far the largest percentage in any country the Nazis occupied. I guess Celine didn't "normalize" things too well, did he now? Maybe that was his intention, hmmmmmmm?

Celine knew exactly what he was doing, my friends. Louis Ferdinand Celine could see what was coming. He knew the French and British would never fight off the Nazis, they were too frightened of having another Western Front with millions of deaths. So, what was the poor man to do?

Well, Celine knew exactly what to do. He was the true master of international survivalist/pacifist tactics. Celine wrote a satire so brilliant that French people could read it, and read the Nazi occupying forces using it, and it would inspire them to protect the Jews of France, ridicule the Nazis, and rise again as a free and independent people!

Celine had to flee for his life from France for Denmark in 1944, and Denmark protected him from France for seven years, until finally, in the early 1950's, he was "tried", "convicted", and almost immediately "pardoned" by the French government. Can you imagine how hard Celine was laughing about all this in Denmark? Then, Celine calmly returned to France, and resumed writing and practicing as a country doctor.

So, who was really responsible for the liberation of France? Was it Charles de Gaulle, or the Americans?

Or, was it Louis Ferdinand Celine?

The pen, is mightier than the sword.

https://archive.org/details/bagatelle-pour-un-massacre-pdfdrive.com/mode/2up

#satire #caricature #funny #frenchlanguage #french #frenchliterature #wwii #antisemitism #philosophyofhistory #worldhistory #revisionism #historicalrevisionism #frenchhistory #alternativehistory #revisionisthistory #worldliterature #propaganda #history #degaulle #charlesdegaulle #france #irony #holocaust #nazis

Outlawing steam engines wasn't superstition, they were ...

2026-10-21T19:34:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…fa57
_________________________

Outlawing steam engines wasn't superstition, they were extremely dangerous when they were poorly understood, and they still are dangerous. Calling them "witchcraft" was a medieval fire code, effectively, just like outlawing nuclear weapons is now. The parallels are extremely close. Thus, it took over 1500 years to develop the steam engine. We seem to be on about the same timeline, for developing nuclear fusion.

If you've ever read "Voyage au bout de la nuit", you ...

2026-10-21T17:27:42Z

If you've ever read "Voyage au bout de la nuit", you know just how brilliant, controversial, pessimistic, analytical and important Louis Ferdinand Celine really was. He was a genius, with language, with culture, with human psychology, with helping our understanding of the darker sides of the human condition. Like William Somerset Maugham, Celine was a trained, practicing physician, and this advanced scientific training, and wide ranging experience of real human suffering, helped him understand and articulate a range of human experience in French that had scarcely been touched before. Unlike Maugham, Celine was heterosexual, so his writing and experiences were not so intensely focused on issues related to illicit sexuality and the implications and consequences of illicit sexuality. And, of course, at the time, homosexuality was still quite illegal, which certainly colored Maugham's existence, and somewhat reduced the generality of his observations.

In contrast, Celine's clinical medical observations of the human experience were most instructive for almost everyone. So, how could such an objective genius come to support the Nazis, be a Nazi collaborator, and a rabid antisemite who favored a military alliance with Adolf Hitler? A very interesting question, no?

It's necessary to consider the very, very difficult and uncertain situation France found itself in, in the 1930's, to find the answer here. The French were terrified of having another Western Front in France, with millions of dead French soldiers over a period of years. They constructed the "impregnable" Maginot line in an effort to make the war comparatively painless, and localized, if there had to be one. Of course, this was based on the usual error in war, preparing yourself ideally for the previous war. Of course, WWII, was nothing like WWI, certainly not in France. There were some similarities in Russia between WWI and WWII, but none at all in France. And, up to a point, that's exactly the way France wanted it!

Because, as we know, France gave up very quickly indeed, once the Nazis invaded them. Once it was clear there was going to be an enormous cost to fighting the Nazis, the French gave up. Immediately. If the French hadn't constructed the Maginot Line, if they had prepared for an active campaign against Germany instead, if the British had been willing to provide the level of military assistance they had in WWI, the Nazis probably could have been defeated at this point, rather quickly, possibly as soon as the Nazis invaded Poland. However, neither Britain nor France had any intention whatsoever to fight for years on another Western Front, with millions of deaths. No way, Jose. And so, they didn't. Let the Russians and Germans fight it out, no problem for us! And, so they did.

So, what does Louis Ferdinand Celine do? He advocates an alliance with Nazi Germany, to achieve exactly the effect that ultimately was achieved by the successful Nazi invasion of France. All Celine effectively did, was prophecy exactly what would happen, what everyone in France was planning to do, and do it openly, rather than pretending not to do it. Celine himself had precisely zero impact on the war, his writings were not inconsistent with Nazi philosophy, but, they did nothing to advance it, or propagate it, Celine was far too anchored in the real world and his own imagination to actually help the Nazis achieve their delusions in any way at all. He fled France at the end of the war, was convicted of war crimes eventually, but almost immediately pardoned, and then returned to France to pursue his medical and literary careers.

It is instructive to compare Celine's fate with two other well known "traitors" and Nazi collaborators. Ezra Pound was a prominent American poet who had lived in Italy for decades, and saw no particular reason for anything so trivial as another World War to interfere with his habits there. He had thoroughly enjoyed living in Mussolini's fascist Italy, and was sympathetic to it. So, he continued to broadcast his essentially literary analyses, with the odd bit of fascist leaning historical and economic perspective thrown in, even after the US entered the war against Germany, Italy and Japan, at the end of 1941. This was a mistake. Pound should certainly have recognized this, and the fact that his judgement was so bad as not to recognize this, explains his ultimate fate -- charged with treason, sentenced to confinement in a mental institution on grounds of being mentally incompetent to stand trial. He was released a dozen years later.

William Joyce, also known as Lord Haw Haw for his virulent pro-Nazi propaganda broadcasts, was a sincere fascist of Irish descent, who actually was an American by birth. His family were Ulster unionists, and he actually fought against the Irish Republicans with the British Black and Tans in the 1920's. He was marked for execution by the IRA. His politics veered to the extreme right, and he saw in Adolf Hitler a kind of savior for the cause of the British Unionists, and British Imperialism, and advocated a close alliance between Nazi Germany and Britain. With the advent of WWII, he fled Britain under a false British passport, and was eventually naturalized as a German citizen. This technicality of using a false British passport was used to justify his execution for "treason" by the British. His German naturalization made his US citizenship forfeit, so he could not be executed by the Americans for treason.

So, we have Louis Ferdinand Celine basically prophesying France's position in WWII, accommodating it, and largely keeping out of trouble, despite being "condemned" by France, and almost immediately pardoned. We have Ezra Pound rather self-indulgently ignoring reality completely, and confined for a dozen years for ignoring reality. And we have William Joyce pursuing his obsessive ideals, becoming sufficiently traumatized by his experiences to become extremely dangerous to the British, and after undermining British morale one way or another for many years, the British had become sufficiently tired of dealing with him that they found a totally spurious legal pretext to kill him "legally". That's the way the cookie crumbles.

#louisferdinandceline #frenchliterature #frenchhistory #maugham #englishliterature #williamsomersetmaugham #wwi #wwii #worldhistory #philosophyofhistory #britishhistory #nazis #antisemitism #ezrapound #worldliterature #americanliterature #ireland #irishhistory #treason #propaganda #williamjoyce #lordhawhaw #law #uslaw #britishlaw #philosophyoflaw

What makes a witch? Anybody know? The concept ranges widely from ...

2026-10-20T16:26:12Z

What makes a witch? Anybody know? The concept ranges widely from the benign self-help psychology and healing of most contemporary Wicca spells, to poisoners, adulterers, murderers of all types, to great sorcerers and mages who can virtually accomplish the impossible -- teleportation, telekinesis, shape-shifting material transformations, etc. So what is a witch, really, then?

In the Western Judeo-Christian tradition, witches are generally seen as evil, not good. Although the concept of "good" witches seems to be present too, to some degree, particularly in non-Western cultures. I think in a very broad sense, in all cultures, witches are seen, at best, ambivalently, because they violate social norms. Witches always violate social norms. They have powers and practices that simply are not normal in the societies they titularly belong to. Witches are marginal outsiders, never to be entirely trusted, always considered to be a potential danger and a threat. In particular, they were clearly outside of the power of contemporary authorities, so, whatever the average nobody thought of them, the powers that be did not like witches one little bit!

So, we have the mass witchtrials and public executions in the late middle ages and on into the Renaissance, and even the European enlightenment. Indeed, perhaps the most famous of them all, at least in the US, occurred in Salem Massachusetts, in 1692 and 1693, when some adolescent girls decided to have some fun by getting their elders tortured, hung, and pressed to death, by accusing them of witchcraft. In other words, the concept of witchcraft can easily be generalized to apply to any form of social condemnation for any reason whatsoever, or no reason at all! Indeed, frequently, witch trials were very dangerous to everyone, because they degenerated into mutual accusations on all sides, in which anyone and everyone in the community could, and would be themselves accused of witchcraft.

The concept of the Salem witch trials was generalized by American writer Arthur Miller to the so-called communist witch hunts in the United States in the 1950's, in his superb play, "The Crucible". Now, there was nothing particularly unusual about fear and hatred of communism in the US, a very young J. Edgar Hoover had a field day deporting "reds" from the US to the USSR in 1919 and 1920, during that particular era's "red scare", following the successful Russian Revolution of 1917. However, there was something a bit different about the early 1950's, it wasn't a communist revolution people were fearing, or terrorist acts, it was nuclear war. People were, in the US, quite understandably terrified of nuclear war with the USSR, Josef Stalin was still in power, and Stalin had never shown much tendency to play by any rules set by the West. Americans had never had to fear annihilation or takeover since their very inception, they were protected by two great oceans on either side of their huge nation. However, with airplanes, missiles and nuclear weapons, these oceans ceased to be an overwhelming obstacle or defensive barrier. Indeed, in all out nuclear war, they ceased to have much significance, at all. America and Americans could be utterly annihilated, if Josef Stalin and subsequent leaders of the USSR willed it.

This resulted in a level of irrationality leading to the "duck and cover" training for schoolchildren -- as if hiding under your desk would protect you from H-bombs -- the literal "burning" of the Rosenbergs in the electric chair for supposedly giving away atomic secrets, and the systematic persecution of anyone, anywhere in the US who had left-wing leanings. Now, how this could possibly have protected Americans from nuclear bombs, is far from clear, but, that's the nature of fear of witches, isn't it? The outsider is a threat. Anything new is dangerous, and if people are nervous already, they may react violently. However, in times of danger, it may be precisely the new that is essential, to survive!

Fear of nuclear weapons has largely defined the world for over 80 years now. Yet, these "weapons" are by far the cheapest and most efficient source of raw energy and power the world possesses, or may ever possess. The whole concept of controlled nuclear fusion is an attempt to fantasize some means of producing nuclear fusion with no inconvenience or risk. This may not be entirely possible, the fusion in stars is inconvenient and risky, you see. It is there in the H-bomb. It could certainly be used for some practical applications, like space propulsion, but, it is so controlled and regulated that necessary experimentation is totally illegal. Possessing more than a few pounds of Uranium is a serious crime, everywhere.

Effectively, nuclear weapons, even working on them, even atomic energy, are the new "witchcraft". As the medieval Church outlawed all work on steam engines or explosives, and declared such work "witchcraft", so, now nuclear energy and nuclear weapons -- which may be one and the same thing -- are outlawed. There is no clear scientific method in the history of science, but, we do know for sure that outlawing the most obvious and important energy sources clearly obstructs progress. The witchcraft of nuclear weapons must be unleashed, for the future good of humanity.

#witchcraft #wicca #witches #sorcerers #metaphysics #linguistics #philosophy #history #sociology #philosophyofhistory #witchtrials #arthurmiller #thecrucible #americanliterature #literature #ussr #atomicenergy #nuclearweapons #hbomb #abomb #atomicenergy #uranium #mccarthy #mccarthyism #capitalism #communism #philosophyofscience #scientificmethod #rosenbergs #psychology #psychoanalysis #historyofscience #cleanenergy #fusion #controlledfusion #spacetravel #sciencefiction

For physicists, Albert Einstein's Special Theory of ...

2026-10-19T19:29:17Z

For physicists, Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity is as self-evident as the fact the earth is round. Indeed, physicists will openly mock and ridicule anyone who questions that time is actually as much a physical dimension as space, and call them "flat-earthers"! The relation between space and time is absolutely proven for physicists, and most engineers, they see nothing more to say about it.

As absolute proof, they regularly declaim that it would be "impossible" for GPS to function without special relativity, all the calculations would quickly go much too far out of whack to be effective. And, indeed, here's the code for it right here:

c
#include <math.h>

#define CLIGHT 299792458.0 /* speed of light (m/s) */
#define MU_GPS 3.986005E14 /* Earth's gravitational constant (m^3/s^2) */

/**
* @brief Computes the relativistic clock correction for a GPS satellite.
*
* @param semi_major_axis The semi-major axis of the satellite orbit (meters).
* @param eccentricity The orbital eccentricity.
* @param eccentric_anomaly The eccentric anomaly (Ek) in radians.
* @return double The clock correction in seconds.
*/
double calc_gps_relativistic_correction(double semi_major_axis, double eccentricity, double eccentric_anomaly)
{
/* Relativistic constant factor: F = -2 * sqrt(MU) / (c^2) */
const double F = -4.442807633e-10;

/* dtr = F * e * sqrt(a) * sin(Ek) */
double dtr = F * eccentricity * sqrt(semi_major_axis) * sin(eccentric_anomaly);

return dtr;
}

So, case closed, right? After all, one of our most important technologies, the Global Positioning System relies absolutely on this code to "get it right", and this code is based on relativity theory. So, relativity theory must be absolutely true, right? Space and time really are related, and time is a physical dimension just like space.

But, not quite so fast. First of all, the disruptions from other noise sources like atmospheric and topographic distortions are thousands of times greater than anything predicted from relativity, and some of these effects are just as systematic for extended periods as relativistic effects are predicted to be from Einstein's theories.

However, there is definitely a drift in values. It doesn't particularly conform to special relativity predictions, but it is present, and some mathematical correction is indeed useful. This simplifies when and how empirical corrections must be made, and this is very useful for the system.

What's really happening here, is that engineers are just using special relativity as a convenient shorthand to refer to drift properties that exist, but really are not understood very well, at all. The equations themselves are a kind of "empirical correction", quite independent of Albert Einstein.

Albert Einstein is being used here as a sales promotion and public relations tool by GPS engineers. The global predictions of his theories are certainly not proven by GPS, there's nothing in GPS proving that space and time are related, that time is another physical dimension, just like space.

If anything, it's precisely the opposite. The need for regular empirical corrections to the predictions derived from special relativity proves that special relativity is actually false! It is wrong!

However, the public craves certainty, it seeks heroes who it can trust, and Einstein has fit the bill here for over a century. Einstein will not let you down, guys, really and truly! And, engineers really don't care how they get people to trust them, and pay them, as long as they do trust them, and pay them. So, let's keep saying "relativity", let's keep saying "Einstein", people will buy our product!

Now, the problem is, what if Special Relativity really is total nonsense and disinformation, and we really can get to the speed of light and beyond, with no problem at all, just with good old Newtonian mechanics, and maybe H-bombs. What if all those perfectly inhabitable "slime worlds", with no other life but single celled organisms on them could be ours for the taking, but good old Albert Einstein and relativity and GPS and engineers seeking steady work for themselves are getting in the way? That would be a shame, wouldn't it?

#physics #gps #relativity #specialrelativity #einstein #alberteinstein #engineering #marketing #sales #coding #technology #scientificmethod #philosophyofscience #publicrelations #spacetravel #exobiology #sciencefiction #science #newton #isaacnewton #mathematics

If you look at any form of media whatsoever in the US these days ...

2026-10-18T19:11:02Z

If you look at any form of media whatsoever in the US these days -- TV, radio, internet, youtube, religious stations, football games -- you will be inundated by ads attacking Democrats as "tax and spend liberals". Indeed, the Democrats specified may not even be ones you can vote on in the upcoming elections in a couple of weeks, the Republicans have limitless money from Elon Musk, they can spend as much money as they want just to make sure Democrats themselves can't run any ads during this period. No doubt, the Republicans are hoping to "force" people to vote Republican, using this media blitz, by some sort of social pressure or behavioral manipulation. It remains to be seen how successful this campaign will be, but, if the polls are any indication, it seems to be backfiring.

Now, why might this be the case? Well, for one thing these advertisements are irritating and monotonous. The attacks are obviously coming from the Republican Party, since they are always attacking Democrats, so, people will naturally resent being bombarded with this kind of nonsense day and night, and they will blame Republicans for them, not Democrats. Also, most Americans now want the rich and corporations to be taxed more, not less, and attacks of this type might well be taken as compliments. Yes, those Democrats are doing exactly what we want them to do! Finally, since Elon Musk is known to be paying for all this total garbage, and since no one believes a syllable Elon Musk ever says anymore, from hard experience, people simply tune out this nonsense attacking the Democrats, most of the time, anyway.

The real issue is these midterms is probably taxation, more than anything else. Sure, Trump is in a disastrous losing war with Iran. Sure, Trump's violent mass deportations of immigrants have antagonized most Americans. But, behind all of this is the desire of Trump to keep taxes low for his rich friends. Trump is attacking the rest of the world in hopes of stealing enough wealth that he doesn't have to tax his rich friends to pay for the deficit, and for benefits. Unfortunately for Trump and his rich friends, Iran is fighting back most effectively, and Iran is winning. This is being desperately and frantically denied by economists, who insist that Iran is on the verge of "economic collapse". The problem with the whole concept of "economic collapse" of course, is that economists do not understand very much, at all. Just some limited principles, under certain circumstances. So, predictions of "economic collapse" are generally rather meaningless. Trump is deporting immigrants to stir mass hatred to distract supporters from their problems, so they fail to recognize economic collapse in the US itself.

The real issue then remains, how to keep taxes low, no matter how much it hurts ordinary Americans to do so. Most Americans don't earn enough to pay much if any tax, they are just living day to day. Wealthy Americans are heavily invested in the stock markets, because corporate taxes and taxes on capital gains in the markets are very low now. Corporations like SpaceX earn nothing, they lose money, but, they are government subsidized, it doesn't matter, they can lose money forever, their products can be totally useless and destructive, nevertheless, stockholders will always make money, forever, these companies will never go out of business, they won't be allowed to. This is the Elon Musk paradigm, the ultimate government subsidized Ponzi Scheme.

However, there is a point at which the chickens come home to roost. The point at which people will no longer be able to support their own poverty caused by the trillionaire oligarchs. And, the point at which the total lack of productivity of the system, makes the system unable to defend itself militarily against attacks, as we are seeing now with the US military in the Middle East. Useless multi-billion dollar nuclear aircraft carriers are sitting ducks to Iranian and Houthi drones costing perhaps a few thousand dollars. But, as long as they are subsidized and untaxed, the corrupt military contractors will continue, as before.

Most Americans want the corporations and the billionaires and trillionaires to be taxed into submission now. The government cannot possibly be as counterproductive in its use of money as these serial criminals. The GOP would be advised to become aware of its problem with taxation.

#foxnews #media #massmedia #advertising #elonmusk #uselections #democrats #republicans #politics #uspolitics #economics #politicalscience #donaldtrump #classwar #iran #usmilitary #ice #immigration #massdeportation #taxes #taxation #markets #stocks #ponzischeme #spacex #billionaires #houthis #gop #philosophyofhistory

There is no scientific method. The concept of a "scientific ...

2026-10-17T16:39:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…0v7m
_________________________

There is no scientific method. The concept of a "scientific method" is fantasy created to accommodate the emergence of capitalism in the eighteenth century as a powerful economic force and social theory. By assuming there was some "method" by which scientists and engineers could systematically and inevitably create whatever society desired, it was possible to rationalize the investment of limitless sums of money, capital, in anything and everything scientists and engineers chose to work on. This is the basis of Elon Musk's endless Ponzi schemes to develop technologies that cannot reasonably be expected ever to actually work, at all.

The "Unveiling". That which is hidden, shall ultimately ...

2026-10-17T16:15:30Z

The "Unveiling". That which is hidden, shall ultimately be known. It shall be known through death and destruction, through trial and terror. Thou shalt learn through suffering.

These are the signs of the Apocalypse, the Great Revelation. And, after? A renewal, a return to an idealized golden age, a true Utopia for all.

So, what are we to make of all of this? Is it real, is it symbolic of something real and important? Serious practicing Christians certainly do believe that "the end times are coming". They've believed this for two thousand years of course, and always thought it was imminent, just around the corner. Indeed, to some extent the reason Christianity became more pragmatic and materially oriented after a century or two, is that it became clear that the Apocalypse was, frequently anyway, not imminent at all! So, rather than motivate Christians by simply saying, "Hey, Jesus is going to return and destroy all the unbelievers within a year or two, for sure, so, you'd better hop right on board, now!", they had to demonstrate that there already existed some good practical reasons for becoming Christians in this world. Things like social services, which the Christian Church was the main provider of during the Middle Ages. Thus the devotion to the Church.

So, what do we really need the Apocalypse for, anyway? What good is it? Why not just have good government, and systematic improvement to a higher level of existence, without any need at all for catastrophic events like an Apocalypse?

I think the problem is, we frequently do not have good government at all, yet we have no idea whatsoever what to do about it. We do not have systematic progress, we have no "scientific method" to guarantee progress, whatever scientists may say to the contrary. So, what to do?

Why, have a revolution, of course! Revolution, Revelation, Apocalypse -- they are all the same things, you see. Radical change is always radical revision, it is always going to unveil itself as something fundamentally new and different. And, with the new and different, there is the distinct possibility of improvement. Some improvement, anyway.

But, why destroy, in order to create? Where's the logic in that? Because that which exists, naturally and inevitably opposes that which does not yet exist, and prevents its growth and development. Out with the old, in with the new, or society stagnates, and ultimately dies.

#apocalypse #newtestament #judaism #zorastrianism #norsemythology #greekmythology #hinduism #buddhism #christianity #mysticism #metaphysics #earlychristianity #philosophy #metaphysics #scientificmethod #philosophyofhistory #government #politicalscience #revolution

One of the most highly publicized, and apparently most heinous ...

2026-10-16T16:38:21Z

One of the most highly publicized, and apparently most heinous "crimes" under the current Trump administration, is "Felony Voting". This concept has even been extended somewhat lately to the concept of "Felony Citizenship". Now, what's all this about exactly?

What it's really all about, exactly, is criminalizing everyone except Donald Trump and his immediate family. This situation is about to be reversed of course, and that's what this midterm election is all about. There's nothing so special about Donald Trump, he's just a salesman. He's an aggressive, effective salesman, however, still, just a salesman.

And, he's become a very, very nasty salesman, too! "You buy my product, or I'm coming after you," seems to be Trump's motto in his second term of office. And, most people in the country, and in the world now, are getting just a teensy weensy little bit tired of it, too. We see a truly astonishing array of unlikely allies systematically pummeling Donald Trump these days -- Democrats, Independents, MAGA stalwarts, all major news networks including conservative FOX news, President Zelensky of Ukraine, Iran, the Houthis, Iraq, the International Criminal Court, the Nobel Prize Committee, almost all major leaders in Europe, Canada, etc. They say that politics breeds strange bedfellows, but, this particular political orgy is really the most extraordinary thing, don't you think?

It's not entirely clear what is going to be done with Donald Trump next year, but, I suspect he isn't going to like it at all, and neither will his family. And, then we shall see who exactly is going to prison -- all US voters and US citizens, or Donald Trump and his immediate family.

#politics #uspolitics #uselections #donaldtrump #barrontrump #erictrump #melaniatrump #geopolitics #media #newsnetworks #uscitizenship #usvoters #fox #foxnews #marketing #sales #zelensky #ukraine #iran #iraq #nobelprizes #icc #europe #democrats #maga #republicans #independents #crime #law #uslaw #criminality

The film DOA (1949), starring Edmond O'brien is a gritty film ...

2026-10-15T16:16:03Z

The film DOA (1949), starring Edmond O'brien is a gritty film noir with an extremely unusual plot. Maybe a little too unusual! The story hinges on an accountant and notary public who has been poisoned for reasons unknown, by people unknown, and has been informed by doctors that there is no known cure, and he has only days to live. The film sees him scrambling desperately in the time remaining to him, to find the perpetrators, and ensure that they are "brought to justice". Haven't seen too many reports of stories like that one in the news lately? Gee, I wonder why!

Now, there are a number of rather serious problems with this plot. Actually, if you think about it, it's hysterically funny! OK, I've been poisoned, doctors can't cure me, I only have a few days to live. I know what I'll do! I'll ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice! And, then, I'll die a happy, fulfilled man!

This is really letting an eye for an eye justice get a bit out of hand, don't you think?

First of all, in 1949, did they really think doctors were omniscient? In 1949, didn't doctors disagree with each other sometimes, rather frequently actually? In 1949, couldn't some doctors try experimental treatments in desperate cases, where patients were declared terminal? If a doctor tells you, you are terminal, and they can do nothing, do people generally totally give up? I guess some do, but plenty try to deal with the problem with their own home remedies, even if doctors don't know what to do, and sometimes they succeed.

Sure, I know it's just a movie. However, I'm not sure this whole concept would even be playable these days. It would seem too absurd. People would focus on trying to survive first, and, then, go after the perpetrators, it's human nature, we're built to survive, it's in our genetic code. But, for some reason, this entire concept was plausible to audiences just four years after WWII, and at the dawn of the atomic age. Why is that, exactly?

The point is, this movie was made just four years after WWII, and at the dawn of the atomic age. The entire American population had just been subjected to an unprecedented level of bureaucratization in order to win WWII, the individual had no significance, the individual did not expect to survive. We can see this exemplified in brilliant german actress Marlene Dietrich using her genius to transform Hans Leiper's melancholy, existential pacifist WWI poem "Lili Marleen" into an anthem of victory in English for WWII. This was a feat comparable to turning "Where have all the flowers gone?" into "Flight of the Valkyrie"! Essentially, the individual had ceased to exist worldwide, by the end of WWII, something George Orwell noted in "1984".

So, while these days, our own personal survival is paramount, and this is normal for human beings, in 1949, personal annihilation was accepted as probable, and our sole power lay in defining what could happen after our death. So, that's exactly what Edmond O'brien does in DOA.

#doa #classiccinema #classicmovies #classicfilm #hollywood #edmondobrien #wwi #wwii #coldwar #ussr #marlenedietrich #wagner #1984 #georgeorwell #history #philosophyofhistory #worldhistory #ushistory #sociology #psychology #psychoanalysis #film #movies #cinema #individualism #bureaucracy #bureaucratization

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhbPMf7Jz10

Just before Donald Trump was elected for the second time, and ...

2026-10-14T18:10:37Z

Just before Donald Trump was elected for the second time, and just after, there was much talk of civil war in the United States, between those who opposed his MAGA policies, and those who supported his MAGA policies. Both sides expressed confidence of their ability to win such a civil war, and enthusiasm for pursuing one. And, up to a point anyway, one could claim we have indeed had a small scale kind of simmering civil war in the US over the last couple of years or so. We've had Tesla dealerships burned, we've had rioting and casualties between ICE and demonstrators opposing them. In particular, we had an armed standoff between Minnesota National Guardsmen and ICE in Minneapolis, when Governor Timmy Walz activated the National Guard under his command, to "maintain order", specifically after ICE had murdered a couple of Minnessotans in cold blood. And, then, Donald Trump put national guards in some red states on standby, to actively intervene against the Minnesota National Guard, in case they did open fire on ICE agents, or vica-versa. And, then, the entire US military started laughing, and said to Mr. Trump "No way, Jose, buddy! You think we're conservatives, so we're going to shoot up our liberal buddies in the Minnesota NG just for you, Donny boy. Go to bloody hell!"

You know, I was once talking to former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating, and he said about Donald Trump, "Sometimes he shoots, before he aims." Another way of putting this, is that Donald Trump has a tendency to, shall we say, overplay his hand. He overplayed his hand with ICE, in Minnesota, allowing ICE to murder several innocent demonstrators, and that has had serious consequences for him.

Then, of course, Trump decided it would be a really good idea to murder the Iranian Supreme Leader, just to prove that there was absolutely nothing the Iranians could do about it! And, this time, Trump overplaying his hand has had rather serious consequences for everyone. You see, the Iranians hold grudges, in case you hadn't noticed. Ask the Shah, or Saddam Hussein, or Jimmy Carter. Oh, oops, they're all dead!

So, as oil prices continue to rise, as the economy stagnates, and as the entire Middle East becomes a free fire zone, and Iranian agents pursue attacks around the world, Trump's popularity has rather cratered a bit, along with the popularity of the entire Republican Party. Democrats are expected to take House and Senate, possibly by substantial margins. And, that's according to the polls, which have consistently underestimated democrat support. This could well be a 20 point wipeout for the Republicans, not just a 10 point hammering, as the polls are suggesting.

So, now that only about 10% of Americans strongly support Trump, and about 60% of Americans strongly oppose Trump, you really can hardly hear a peep from MAGA diehards about wanting to stage a "civil war". Seems they don't like those six to one odds against, in terms of sheer numbers. Instead, we hear MAGA whining about "communists, islamo-communists, socialists" etc. Hey guys, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

#civilwar #ushistory #uscivilwar #civilunrest #politics #uspolitics #republicans #democrats #uscongress #uselections #philosophyofhistory #socialconflict #classwar #classwarfare #donaldtrump #maga #conservatives #liberals #conservatism #liberalism #ice #minnesota #minneapolis #geopolitics #philosophyofhistory #usmilitary #iran #economics

Over by our barracks, by the wooden door Stands a single lantern, ...

2026-10-14T16:41:58Z

Over by our barracks, by the wooden door
Stands a single lantern, and she waits there once more
And there shall we two meet again
By the lantern once again
As once, Lili Marleen

Our two silky shadows are conjoined as one
We had such perfect love, clear to everyone
All the people could know it then
When we were by the lantern
Just like Lili Marleen

The sargent calls behind me: "I know it's curfew time
It could cost three day's pay! Comrade I'll be fine!"
So say we our farewells, fond
How happy to be gone
With You, Lili Marleen

She knows your tender footsteps, your delicious song
All night she awaits you, but she's forgot you long
And should some sad mischance be mine
Who will stand by the lantern
With you, Lili Marleen?

From eternal Heaven
From my Earthen Home
Your beloved voice
Calls me like a dream
Through the swirling mists of time
I'm standing by the lantern
Just like Lili Marleen.

#poetry #hansleip #germanliterature #germanhistory #lilimarleen #marlenedietrich #classicsongs #wwi #wwii #history #writing #philosophyofhistory #pacifism #propaganda

So true, my friend.

2026-10-13T20:25:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…ven8
_________________________

So true, my friend.

The writer Isaac Bashevis Singer liked to play games with ...

2026-10-13T19:00:19Z

The writer Isaac Bashevis Singer liked to play games with surrealism, using this technique to dramatize antisocial or asocial behaviors in supernatural terms. So, anyone violating conventional social norms, and somehow getting away with it, is perceived as a kind of ghost, demon or warlock. And, I suppose, in a sense this is true, and has always really been true, in a way. After all, where do you think all those medieval and ancient ghosts, demons and warlocks came from anyway? And why not conceptualize people acting outside of social norms on a regular basis as ghosts, demons and warlocks, occupying some transcendental plane of existence? Isn't that effectively what they are actually doing, really?

While most normal adults are locked into traditional roles of husband, wife, employee, businessman, laborer, civil servant, religious leader, doctor, lawyer etc., there are a significant minority who don't seem to fit well into any conventional social behavior patterns, without exactly being dangerous criminals. So, what are they, exactly?

Isaac Bashevis Singer's answer is that they are supernatural beings. I actually don't find Isaac Singer's stories at all "macabre", it's perfectly obvious what he's doing. He's examining the confusing grey areas of human social behavior in ways that emphasize the powers and limitations of those outside of normal social controls. These are the eccentrics, the loners, the preternaturally independent, the marginalized, the homeless, the creative and independent poor. They generally are not wealthy, but they are by no means necessarily destitute, they can be materially reasonably comfortable. However, they do not follow the rules, and to some extent, the creators of the rules must bend their normal rules to accommodate them, and dance to the tune of these "supernatural beings". This is a rather interesting way of conceptualizing the strong-willed and effective eccentrics of this world.

They follow their own rules, and have their own communities, at times, totally outside of conventional social structures. Why can't they be controlled, exactly? Well, probably because conventional social controls don't really work that well, and have no very clear purpose, much of the time. They don't represent any kind of real ideal for progress and social utility, they just happen to be the way things are usually done. And, they can be done many other ways, that work just as well, much of the time, anyway.

And, these other ways of doing things may, actually, sometimes work much better than conventional approaches, these "supernatural" approaches may ultimately lead to a better society, and themselves become the norms themselves, in time. Or, perhaps not.

For the most part, these supernatural eccentrics do not represent a generally higher plane of existence, just an alternative one, often a somewhat worse way of doing things. A somewhat degenerate approach, that offers no material advantage, but, on the other hand, is much more independent, and offers rather more freedom. Or, it may simply be a marginalized existence that individuals were forced into through bad luck or lack of better opportunities. But, they are still a disruptive influence, almost despite themselves. Because, they still have free will, but, now, a free will operating outside of the normal realms of social behavior.

Ultimately, these supernatural beings, highlight the failures of society and its weakness and vulnerabilities. Otherwise, why would they exist, how could they exist? So, effectively, the ghosts, demons and warlocks force the whole of society to self-scrutinize, and perhaps to improve. Which, ultimately confirms their use.

#literature #writing #isaacsinger #jewishliterature #judaism #jewishculture #sociology #culture #philosophyofhistory #philosophy #surrealism #mysticism #reality #socialprogress #socialnorms #deviantbehavior #sociopathology #witchcraft #supernatural #metaphysics #ghosts #ghoststories

Aus dem stillen Raume, Aus der Erde Grund Hebt mich wie im Traume ...

2026-10-11T19:34:16Z

Aus dem stillen Raume,
Aus der Erde Grund
Hebt mich wie im Traume
Dein verliebter Mund
Wenn sich die späten Nebel drehn
Werd' ich bei der Laterne steh'n
Wie einst Lili Marleen.

From eternal Heaven
From my Earthen Home
Your beloved voice
Calls me like a dream
Through the swirling mists of time
I'm standing by the lantern
Just like Lili Marleen.

This is my translation of the last stanza of the fabulously popular WWII song, Lili Marleen, originally developed by the Nazis, rediscovered and made eternally popular to all sides in the war, and ultimately in 1944 sung in English by Marlene Dietrich, and becoming something of an anthem of victory for the allied forces, rather ironically. Now, this was never really described as a "war song", let alone a victory song, there are no battles, just a pair of lovers spooning and talking by a lantern in the street, and missing each other when they are not. However, the original writer of the poem, a German soldier in WWI, realizes that after missing him, Lili Marleen will forget him eventually, probably already has some time ago. He knows he may well die, and wonders if some other will join her by the lampost.

Now, my translation of the last stanza is fairly literal, but, perhaps written to emphasize an aspect of the poem/song that I think is insufficiently emphasized, and perhaps somewhat suppressed in the English translations. This is definitely not a war song in any normal sense of the term. However, it's not exactly a love song either. Love songs are about romance, or failed romance, in general. This is neither. It is about something else, entirely. It is about death. Death, and resurrection.

In other words, Lili Marleen isn't really a traditional popular song at all. Lili Marleen is, rather a hymn, or a prayer. It is a hymn and a prayer for resurrection after death. And Lilli Marleen is conceptualized as a Heavenly Angel, who can save a soldier from death. And, this explains the incredible and timeless popularity of this very unusual poem/song.

You see, it has tapped into a fundamental aspect of human experience, the religious experience, which is actually hard-wired in the human brain biologically. There are certain issues like life and death, and the survival of the species that have profound instinctive implications and our brain responds to them with a unique and profound attachment and excitement. These are the fundamental aspects of all major religions, and they create an emotional resonance that is very powerful. Lili Marleen taps into these.

#wwi #wwii #religion #marlenedietrich #sociology #biology #neuroscience #music #classicsongs #songs #christianity #judaism #islam #hinduism #buddhism #lilimarleen #germanhistory #german #germany #psychology #psychoanalysis #sociobiology #afterlife #resurrection #heaven #sociology #history #philosophyofhistory #poetry

The concept of "violence against women" is becoming a bit ...

2026-10-10T16:05:51Z

The concept of "violence against women" is becoming a bit murky these days. Actually, the concept of violence against women has probably always been rather murky.

Violence against men is actually a fairly straightforward conception. If you kill a man, or if you seriously injure him, you have committed an act of violence. Otherwise, no violence has occurred.

Not so, with women. Not at all. The concept of violence against women is much, much broader in nature. The concept of violence against women, as women understand it, and even as many men understand it, comprises such a wide range of possibilities, that it's not clear really where violent behavior against women begins, and where it ends, at all. Obviously, such violence includes the standard categories of violence against men -- murder, and assault causing bodily harm. However, it's really quite clear that women particularly see a great many more things than merely these, as quite real violence against women.

Obiouvsly, rape, for example. And, here, we must discuss what exactly we mean by "rape", becuase, unfortunately, the concept is a rather subtle one. It is so subtle, in fact, that women will, quite commonly, after a period of years, go from saying they weren't raped to saying they were, and vica-versa, apparently, with perfect sincerity!

I think, what we're often dealing with in the case of rape, is more a matter of current social attitudes to sexuality socially, than anything else. So, if the society views sexuality as a very postive thing, then there is scarely such a thing as rape. And society's attitude to sexuality is fundamentally linked to the bipolar variable underpopulation/overpopulation. If society is underpopulated, the more children the better, so rape is effectively a "good" thing, women must be persuaded to have children whether they want to or not. If society is overpopulated, as has become the case now with systematic increases in human life expectancy, then rape is a very, very bad thing, because it threatens overpopulation, and hence an insufficiency of resources to sustain the existing population.

Now, no doubt, women today simply see the current attitudes as the "correct" ones, and that in the past periods of underpopulation, when rape was tolerated and even encouraged to some extent, as being "wrong". However, I think they are failing to put the matter entirely in perspective. People's attitudes are intimately related to our instincts for the survival of the human species, and all our law and moral philosophy are largely defined by these instincts for the survival of the human species. So, all human law and morality is inevitably wound up with certain dynamically changing social variables like those of underpopulation/overpopulation. This continuum defines what we perceive as being right, and being wrong.

And, probably because of this purely sexual violence dynamic to female perceptions, a very broad range of physical and non-physical behaviors are also linked together as "violence against women" -- threats, argumentation, coercion of all types, hostility, non-cooperation, uselessness, ineffectiveness or even simply indifference. Essentially, anyone, particularly men, who don't perfectly meet women's needs, are being "violent" to them!

#psychology #psycholanalysis #feminism #women #violence #men #sociology #philosophy #history #crime #criminality #sexuality #populationcontrol #philosophyofhistory #sociopathology #lifeexpectancy #socialchange #philosophyoflaw #uslaw #ethics #moralphilosophy #metaphysics #socialchange #perception #sociobiology

As you may have noticed, as the lead in the generic polls for the ...

2026-10-09T16:50:20Z

As you may have noticed, as the lead in the generic polls for the Democrats approaches double digits in the elections upcoming in mere weeks now, the Republicans are engaging in frantic lip service to try to hold onto their jobs, without actually doing anything, and in particular, without actually doing anything to defy Donald Trump. Republicans are vehemently stating their opposition to the war with Iran, without actually attempting to do anything whatsoever to stop it. Republicans are expressing their opposition in no uncertain terms to AI data centers, without actually attempting to shut them down, or prevent their further development. Republicans are violently denouncing Donald Trump's intention to live stream the public execution of the perpetrator of the Fort Hood shooting, as barbaric and unacceptable, without taking any steps whatsoever to prevent it. Republicans are expressing their clear and unequivocal disapproval of Donald Trump and his family taking huge bribes from foreign businessmen, engaging in clear insider trading, and profiting in the billions from government contracts funded directly with taxpayer money, without actually making the slightest effort to limit them.

Even in areas in which their extremist right-wing ideology, and those of their core supporters, actually won't permit them to express lip service directly -- like, by saying, "Yes we will raise taxes on the rich and corporations to shore up essential social services, no problem, guys!" -- they are attempting to wheedle their way back into the hearts of voters with begging and whining. Take JD Vance saying "Give us another chance". Now, why would we want to do that exactly? Can JD Vance explain that? Has he even tried to explain that? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, JD. Or, take those charming Republicans whining that all Democrats are "Islamo-Communists", and that "I can't see why this is even close, we all know that socialism never works." Please, take them! And, guys, it's not even close, the Democrats are going to wipe the floor with the GOP in a few weeks, this election is going to be an historic disaster for the Republicans.

Fact is nothing works. Not that well, anyway. Communism doesn't work, capitalism doesn't work, socialism doesn't work. So, we keep trying things out , experimenting if you like, to see what helps the most, and does the least damage, at any given time and place. Obviously, Donald Trump is making a total mess of things, as Richard Nixon was making a total mess of things, which is precisely why he was forced out of office, Watergate was just a convenient legal pretest and excuse, merely a single clear example of Nixon's illegality, paranoia and total incompetence. As the Republicans will find out as a group, in a few weeks, and as Donald Trump will find out next year.

#uselections #donaldtrump #republicans #democrats #usgovernment #politics #uspolitics #sociology #politicalscience #capitalism #socialism #communism #hypocrisy #funny #corruption #barrontrump #ivanktrump #erictrump #barrontrump #jdvance #taxes #taxation #economics #finance #metaphysics #philosophy #philosophyofhistory #richardnixon #impeachment #history #ushistory

Overpopulation has been a question of fundamental interest to ...

2026-10-08T16:06:37Z

Overpopulation has been a question of fundamental interest to scholars for centuries, ever since the industrial revolution, when improvements in food production and hygiene began to dramatically increase human population. However, it really wasn't a new problem. Essentially, civilization itself was a direct product of overpopulation, some 5000 years ago, as progressive refinements in early agriculture necessitated more social organization in large communities to maintain survivability, and social stability for larger groups of people. And, in an even broader sense, overpopulation can just be seen as an extension of the concept of competition for resources, which always put constraints on the size of human population, well before the development of agriculture, possibly accounting for homosapiens absorbing the remaining neanderthal population and leading to their extinction.

Overpopulation is obviously a massive problem currently, being the cause of global warming, escalating military conflicts worldwide, hunger, disease, mass wildlife extinctions, global pollution of all types, depletion of resources, etc. However, it is much less common for governments to openly discuss the "human time bomb" of overpopulation than it was half a century ago. There are a number of reasons for this.

First of all, fertility rates in most parts of the world have actually dropped dramatically. Japan's population has been dropping sharply for some time, and population decreases in China are expected to bring total population there by the end of the century to a level comparable to a couple of centuries previously. China might be a rather nice place to live in 75 years, actually. Massive population growth is largely limited to sub-Saharan Africa at this point in time, the rest of the world has slowed down, or has stopped growing completely.

Secondly, since the issue now is not fertility, but existing human population, there is the moral issue of what exactly can be done about it. It's no longer simply a matter of not having children, which is quite common now. The issue is, how to eliminate the masses of people already here, without committing genocide. And, that is a very difficult issue indeed! The Israelis are coming to terms with this issue quite explicitly now, in an effort to control their own destiny without wiping out huge populations of neighbors surrounding them. To what extent does Israel's "right to exist" actually necessitate real genocide under these circumstances, and, how can that possibly be justified?

Thirdly, there are quite legitimate fears of underpopulation, not so much in terms of the human species ceasing to exist, as in terms of their being an insufficiency of young workers to maintain the older population, from an economic point of view. Once again, the Chinese are taking the lead here, making spectacular advances in robotics in an effort to replace younger workers with highly efficient machine technology. From a more capitalist perspective, Elon Musk simply advocates having more children, regardless of overpopulation, to feed his insatiable capitalist machine.

Finally, again from a capitalist perspective, overpopulation creates opportunities to make money. Global warming isn't just a problem, it is also a very big business now, arguably the one that really got Elon Musk going, in a big way. Rather than focusing on reducing overpopulation to reduce global warming, these entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists focus instead on using the "scientific method" to develop "solutions" to the consequences of overpopulation, like the needs for new sources of energy, food production, pollution of various types and, of course, global warming.

Of course, it may be that people should just stop having children. Or, more than one, anyway, like they did in China. But, where's the money in that?

#overpopulation #demographics #sociology #economics #archaeology #civilization #neanderthals #homosapiens #anthropology #israel #genocide #china #capitalism #elonmusk #economics #money #engineering #technology #science #globalwarming #philosophyofscience #scientificmethod #communism #ccp #ai #robotics #philosophyofhistory #pollution

The basic concept of the Ponzi scheme, is that there is no means ...

2026-10-07T18:02:17Z

The basic concept of the Ponzi scheme, is that there is no means of producing capital inherent in the scheme, other than investing more money in the scheme itself. It is essentially non-productive in nature. Now, this seems simple enough, really. Some things are productive, others are not. Growing crops is productive, it produces food for people, people need food. On the other hand, one shouldn't throw good money after bad. Don't invest money in something that isn't productive. In the case of the original Ponzi scheme, as practiced, money is invested, but nothing is produced, the only source of funding is finding further investors, to produce further dividends.

However, the concept of a Ponzi scheme needn't be quite this simplistic, and in its normal application, isn't quite this simplistic. For example, Charles Dickens wrote in Martin Chuzzlewit (1843), some time before the original "Ponzi scheme", about insurance agents as being in a rather similar line of endeavor. Of course, you could rather easily argue that all insurance companies are in this line of endeavor, the Ponzi scheme -- simply funding insurance payouts from other insurance investors, never producing anything -- however, the insurance companies generally do have a large capital, sufficient to pay off all likely claims. If not, they inevitably must go out of business.

How far can the concept of the Ponzi scheme be generalized? What is "true production", as distinct from just shuffling money around? Banks don't really produce anything, they just shuffle money around. No bank investors, no bank, period, they have no real "product".

Even where there is a product, how much is the product really worth, if anything? The "Tulip bubble" in the seventeenth century is a prime example of this, when specific types of tulip bulbs were selling for astronomical sums for a time, before the market collapsed completely.

What about "health care"? How competent are doctors, really? Are they really selling "health", or are they merely selling an illusion of competence, a mere "bedside manner", and little else? As for lawyers, enough said?

These days, there is much interest in Elon Musk's transformation of "junk bonds", into "high yield bonds", a transformation which looks a great deal indeed like the original Ponzi scheme. There is no immediate product of value, certainly. There is the long term prospect of all kinds of products of value -- the conquest of all of outer space, no less! However, there is no clear method to get there, unless we consider the "scientific method" to be a true guarantee of progress, which is dubious indeed.

Is the "scientific method" itself a Ponzi Scheme? Or is science just a religion? Are all religions, actually Ponzi schemes? Isn't the promise of perpetual bliss in an eternal afterlife, in return for unlimited devotion and contributions, the ultimate Ponzi scheme, where you give everything, are promised everything, and get nothing, ever?

#ponzischeme #economics #stockmarkets #charlesdickens #dickens #insurance #elonmusk #spacex #starship #pentagon #usgovernment #banking #banks #money #finance #spacetravel #religion #afterlife #metaphysics #junkbonds #philosophyofscience #science #philosophy #tulips #historyofeconomics #philosophyofeconomics

It is a myth, but, an extremely well propagated myth, that ...

2026-10-06T22:06:17Z

It is a myth, but, an extremely well propagated myth, that Richard Nixon was impeached, and forced to resign, because of the Watergate break-in fiasco. This is, actually, absolute and total nonsense. To grasp just how total this nonsense is, all you have to do is realize that the Watergate break-in was reported and condemned in July 1972, and Nixon went on to defeat the Democratic candidate by a 20 point landslide in the popular vote, and win 49 of 50 states in November, 1972.

Now, sure, additional details did come in during subsequent investigations, but, actually, everybody knew more or less what had happened, but no one particularly cared. In fact, it was said that it wasn't the break-in so much that destroyed Nixon, as the subsequent attempts at covering it up. But, actually, that wasn't really the problem either, at all.

You see, in 1972, Nixon seemed to be doing a very good job. The stock market was doing well, the economy was doing well, Nixon had pulled American troops out of Vietnam, and South Vietnam seemed to be holding up pretty well. Nixon appeared to have achieved that long sought for American dream of "peace with honor", to bring the long nightmare of Vietnam to an end. So, Nixon won the elections overwhelmingly, who cared if he had broken into Democratic headquarters, he would have won big anyway, right, what difference did it really make?

Now let's fast forward two years. Now, rather suddenly, everything is falling apart. South Vietnam is being overwhelmed by North Vietnamese troops, and is clearly going to fall soon. Israel has only won with great difficulty a hard fought war against the Arab world, one it would probably have lost without massive American aid authorized by Richard Nixon. In direct retaliation, an Arab oil embargo has been declared, that has totally trashed the entire US economy. Inflation is at 11%, the nation is deep in recession, the stock market has lost much of its value.

Now, suddenly, Watergate looms as the greatest and most significant crime in world history! Hysterical, right?

What we really see with Watergate, is how law is used to rationalize the broader agendas of society as a whole, right or wrong. You see, the US Constitution requires "high crimes and misdemeanors" to justify removing the President of the United States. Now, it was clearly seen as absolutely essential to remove Nixon, because he was making such a total mess of everything, so, by God, some high crimes and misdemeanors had to be manufactured!

Now, to be sure, the Watergate break-in was certainly an illustration of Nixon's paranoia, obsessiveness, and incompetence, but, it was only a very small part of a much bigger picture, and it was that much bigger picture that was the real problem, not Watergate.

#nixon #richardnixon #watergate #impeachment #nixonresignation #usconsitution #republicans #democrats #uselections #uscongress #history #ushistory #usconstitution #law #uslaw #philosophyoflaw #philosophyofhistory #revisionism #revisionisthistory #historicalrevisionism #socialanthropology #sociology #moralphilosophy #vietnam #vietnamwar #israel #yomkippurwar #araboilembargo #opec #useconomy #economics #uspresidents

While there is currently some uncertainty over whether the ...

2026-10-05T21:16:46Z

While there is currently some uncertainty over whether the Democrats will get the 4 seats necessary to take full control of the Senate -- odds are now about 2:1 in favor of the Democrats -- there is no such uncertainty about the House. With betting odds of more than 10:1, this is as close to certainty as betting odds ever get. The Democrats will take the House. However, although the odds of taking the Senate are only 2:1, the odds of taking at least 3 or more seats -- making the Senate a 50-50 tie -- also are now approaching 10:1 for the Democrats. So, at least a tied up Senate is also a lock. Democrats will at least tie up the Senate.

Of course, it's possible for Vice-President JD Vance to break the tie, if he's available. However, that's assuming there are no Republican defections, which is highly unlikely given Republicans like Rand Paul, and Lisa Murkowski. Also, given Trump's very low approval ratings, that are still dropping, any Republicans in vulnerable seats will think twice about supporting unpopular policies, for fear for their own political careers.

So, it appears certain, now, that Trump will be the lamest of lame ducks next year. No power to get anything through Congress, at all, ever, at any level. No power to appoint anyone, at all, ever. And, the Democrats should have little difficulty gathering sufficient Republican support to reverse most, if not all Trump policies, given Trump's unpopularity. It's clear now, the party is over for Donald Trump. He is finished.

#politics #uspolitics #uselections #geopolitics #democrats #republicans #ushouse #ussenate #usgovernment #donaldtrump #jdvance #randpaul #lisamurkowski

There has never been, and may never be, a character in literature ...

2026-10-05T18:06:22Z

There has never been, and may never be, a character in literature with the astonishingly enduring popularity of Sherlock Holmes. Why is Sherlock Holmes so very special, what is the particular magic of this character that Arthur Conan Doyle created, as a failed doctor trying to earn a living through his pen? What did he do, exactly, how, and why?

Conan Doyle was brought up a strict Catholic, so he had a natural disposition to seek the strict structure, faith and power of traditional Catholicism. This is the natural tendency humanity has, that Freud commented on, of trying to seek a great Father Figure, to control the world around us, so we don't have to. Up to a point, this is probably the basis for all world religions, past and present.

However, Conan Doyle was highly educated, and became trained as a doctor in mid-nineteenth century Britain, and such faith was highly inconsistent with his training and education. He really could not help but reject conventional religion. Instead, for a time anyway, he became a religious skeptic and a rationalist. It was during this period that Sherlock Holmes was born.

What is Sherlock Holmes, precisely? Is he a man? I'm not quite sure of that. Actually, it's not too big a stretch to suggest that Sherlock Holmes definitely has some Christ-like qualities. On the other hand, Sherlock Holmes was certainly based to some extent on incredibly influential, but rather unsuccessful Edgar Allen Poe, and his intellectual,intuitive detective Auguste Dupin, who is probably largely modeled on Poe himself. Dupin is a somewhat dissipated intellectual eccentric, no superman, but extremely intelligent and resourceful. As consequence, he has no trouble at all running rings around the none too bright bureaucrats at the Police Force.

This idea interested Conan Doyle, with his new religiously rationalist perception, and he probably unconsciously imbued Holmes with some element of his own innate religious fervor from his childhood. Certainly, Holmes is not the rather careless dilettante that Dupin, and up to a point, Edgar Allen Poe himself was. Holmes is quite obsessed with his work, and he is also quite obsessed with helping his clients, with something very much like a messianic fervor. Edgar Allen Poe and Auguste Dupin would have laughed at such obsessiveness, it was contrary to their natures.

So, what Conan Doyle created in Sherlock Holmes, is something rather like an intellectual superhero, an intellectual superman, but also a father figure because of Conan Doyle's own religious upbringing, with genuinely Christ-like qualities. In other words, Sherlock Holmes is a God, in the truest sense of the term, something superhuman, something beyond mere humanity.

That to some extent explains Holmes' unique attraction, because as L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer who founded the Church of Scientology so shrewdly said, "Religion is where the money's at!" Now, to be fair here, Conan Doyle never did say that, and, I really do believe that this religious aspect to Sherlock Holmes was something that happened quite unintentionally, it wasn't what Conan Doyle had in mind at all. So, Conan Doyle kept trying to kill off Sherlock Holmes, and get back to being a "serious" writer, but, he liked money, and Sherlock Holmes was the only way he could get it, at least in really large quantities.

However, there are lots of religions out there, why be a worshipper of Sherlock Holmes, exactly, what's the unique attraction? I think what's happening here, is that we have a reincarnation of the Greek God Athena -- Goddess of Wisdom -- who really had effectively died out, a long time ago, you know. You see, science has failed. Rationalism has failed. Probably it's been corrupted by bureaucracy and capitalism. So, where we had Einstein, Newton and Darwin as Gods in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, no one really takes them very seriously anymore, in the general population anyway. Scientists and Engineers are merely salesmen and hustlers, not be trusted, at all. But, who wouldn't trust Sherlock Holmes? Why, you could trust Holmes with your life. And, so, we have the worship of the Father Figure, Sherlock Holmes, the true God of Wisdom, the New Athena.

#freud #psychoanalysis #psychology #arthurconandoyle #sherlockholmes #conandoyle #religion #god #gods #polytheism #catholicism #literature #englishliterature #philosophyofreligion #philosophy #metaphysics #edgarallenpoe #augustedupin #detectives #detectivefiction #americanliterature #philosophyofscience #capitalism #mythology #athena #greekgods #scientology #lronhubbard

You know, people say that the US has never had a woman President, ...

2026-10-04T19:02:53Z

You know, people say that the US has never had a woman President, and maybe never will, but, nothing could possibly be further from the truth. In fact, the United States had a woman President even before women even had the right to vote in the US. Really! After Woodrow Wilson was sidelined by a massive stroke in 1919, his wife Edith completely took over the functions of Presidency of the United States, officially referred to as her "Stewardship" for eighteen months. She completely controlled the executive branch of the US government, effectively making all executive decisions, only referring to her extremely sick husband issues of her choosing.

And, if you're wondering why the United States has never had a woman President since, and may never have one again, it's because Edith Wilson, the First Lady and Presidential Steward, actually has a great deal to answer for!

The period of Edith Wilson's "Stewardship" was perhaps the most disastrous period of total mismanagement of government in all of US history. There was terrible post-war inflation, the country was paralyzed by massive strike action, and farm prices collapsed, leading to mass bankruptcies among farmers, and contributing to the Great Depression, some ten years later. In particular, this was the period in which the League of Nations was being negotiated, and Edith Wilson's total incompetence and ignorance absolutely guaranteed that the US would not be a member, that the League of Nations would be toothless, and that the world would within just a decade already be plummeting dizzily towards another World War. This was also the period of the "red scare" and the "Palmer raids", in which the young J. Edgar Hoover ran amok arresting and deporting anyone and everyone he chose, -- Edith Wilson had no capacity or inclination to stop him -- and fabricating cases against innocent men, like Sacco and Vanzetti, who were ultimately executed for a murder they did not commit. This inevitably led to anarchist reprisals against the government, such as the massive New York City bombing of 1920, which caused 38 deaths, in front of the JP Morgan bank building. Ultimately, the judge who presided over the Sacco and Vanzetti case had his home bombed.

When Henry James wrote "The Bostonians", in the 1880's, he was satirizing the intellectual elitist culture of high-brow feminists centered around Harvard University at the time. These starry-eyed lady idealists were quite certain that all we had to do was give women the right to vote, and all the world's problems would instantly be solved. Really! Actually, Henry James found this just as hysterically funny then, as we do now! Clever fellow, Henry.

#revisionisthistory #historicalrevisionism #revisionism #wwi #wwii #ushistory #history #leagueofnations #redscare #palmerraids #greatdepression #henryjames #thebostonians #philosophyofhistory #jedgarhoover #feminism #feminists #harvarduniversity #woodrowwilson #uspresidents #edithwilson #literature #americanliterature

From time to time, I like to listen the the surrealistic stream ...

2026-10-03T15:20:19Z

From time to time, I like to listen the the surrealistic stream of consciousness that is FOX late night radio, between 9 PM and 12 AM. It's astonishingly adaptable, you know? Just a few months ago you could hear rants for hours ridiculing and condemning transsexuality, non-stop. Really! As little as a month or two ago, you could hear guests gleefully describing all Democrats as "Islamo-Communists". Really!

However, if you listen to FOX late night now, things have rather abruptly changed. A lot! Suddenly, FOX late night is focused almost entirely on apolitical news stories like the issues with AI, and sometimes the best ways of funding sports stadiums. And, learned university professors are heard discussing them, too. Really! Actually, FOX late night is almost beginning to sound like NPR radio on a particularly slow news day.

Now to be fair, and entirely accurate, FOX late night does occasionally still have clips ridiculing Kamala Harris, and saying how stupid she is. But, you know, that really doesn't have much bearing on current news and politics at all, does it now? Is this out of pure nostalgia, perhaps?

Of course, it's pretty obvious what's going on here. Even the most diehard conservatives at FOX broadcasting recognize that the Republicans are heading into an electoral disaster of epic and historic proportions in a few weeks. They recognize that MAGA has failed miserably, and has become a lunatic fringe constituency of the extreme right wing, rather quickly. That's probably because all of their policies have now been tried by Donald Trump, and have failed miserably, and spectacularly.

Democrats are probably going to take full control of congress, both House and Senate, possibly by substantial margins. Donald Trump will be cut off at the knees, all his policies will be reversed, he will be impeached, possibly removed from office and imprisoned. So, FOX is trying to reposition itself, rather quickly, much, much closer to the center of the political spectrum, both for ratings and legal purposes. Makes sense, doesn't it?

#foxradio #foxnews #foxlatenight #fox #npr #media #massmedia #uselections #maga #republicans #democrats #donaldtrump #politics #geopolitics #conservatives #kamalaharris #uscongress #ushouse #ussenate #uslaw #uspolitics

Man is a tool making animal, that is perhaps the most ...

2026-10-02T17:53:47Z

Man is a tool making animal, that is perhaps the most straightforward definition of humanity that we can ever arrive at. Our species, and its direct lineal ancestors, have been systematically fabricating tools for almost 2 million years now. Other animals, particularly primates, can and do use tools to a limited degree in foraging for food, but the extent of actual tool fabrication is exceedingly limited. Man is uniquely suited and uniquely capable at tool fabrication, the creation of so called technology. It has made the modern human species great and powerful.

Money is an invention dating from the dawn of human civilization, a mere 5000 years ago. It was undoubtedly very closely associated with the effectively simultaneous inventions of writing and accounting. The first writers were certainly accountants, you see. The complexities of managing the needs of reasonably large cities necessitated more detailed records than oral recall recall could easily manage. So, city officials and managers developed simple visual, mnemonic devices to symbolize essential commodities of various types. The numbers of these types of commodities increased over time, until something rather like a comprehensive written language was developed.

So where does money come into this? Money is invented simultaneously, with the simultaneous inventions of accounting and writing. Money is the means of exchanging all those commodities that are so essential for the community. The Shekel -- still the unit of currency in modern Israel -- was the first form of money, used in early Mesopotamia, to represent an equivalent weight of barley or silver. In other words, silver could now be used in exchange directly for needed barley, or, for that matter, vica versa. Very convenient, no? No need to have the exact commodity on hand that is needed, money could be used in exchange for whatever was needed, within a very broad range of possibilities, by common communal social agreement and trust. Great idea!

Now it is a great idea, of course. However, there is a problem here, to some extent based on the power of the human imagination for over-generalization. The problem is, the human imagination could tend to make the error that money is an equivalent measure for absolutely everything! And, that may not really be the case at all.

Let's consider the very interesting example of a somewhat related human creation -- the ring. These days, of course, rings are considered essentially just a form of purely aesthetic adornment. However, even now, rings retain an element of special power, particularly conspicuous in wedding rings, and diamonds in wedding rings. Really, diamonds are just semi-precious stones now, they are actually quite commonly available, and should be quite cheap. However, their supply is strictly controlled, and this is tolerated because of the social power of the marriage industry, and their special use in diamond wedding rings. We don't want cheap diamond wedding rings, that would cheapen the sacrament of marriage itself, right? Try reselling your diamonds from a wedding ring though, you will find they are almost worthless!

So, in other words, rings have a social power, still. And, in the past, it was much, much greater. Why exactly? Why are rings powerful? Well, fancy, jewelled rings were much rarer in the past, and were a symbol of great social power, as well as wealth. But, even more significant than that, rings could bear seals, an early form of printing, which required highly skilled, extremely expensive craftsmen to engrave. And seals could be the basis of all essential social contracts, laws, decisions, state warrants, legal contracts, diplomatic agreements, etc. The seals on rings literally could be the basis of all or most of the power of states before the invention and widespread use of mass printing devices!

And, this is almost certainly the entire basis for the role of rings in the history of the Western imagination -- the Ring of the Nibelungen, Wagner's operatic Ring Cycle, JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. In other words, people are overgeneralizing the uniquely massive social power of rings at the time, for some kind of universal physical power of rings to control absolutely everything! Which, of course, rings do not have, and never will have.

Similarly, people are inclined to confuse the power of money as a convenient means of exchanging a wide range of useful commodities, for a power to control absolutely everything in existence! Money cannot do this, and, it never will be able to do this. Money is not the be all and end all of existence, whatever capitalists economists may say to the contrary, any more than rings are. Money is merely a convenient means of exchanging a large but limited and finite range of commodities. The fundamental error of all modern economics is to assume that money is the equivalent of absolute physical power in the real world, and can be used to control everything. This is totally false and totaly ridiculous!

Which gets us back to technology. Technology is the basis for manipulating the real world. In theory, technology really can do anything, and everything, if we can figure out how to invent it, anything whatsoever can be accomplished with technology. Unlike money, which just can just be used to exchange established, understood commodities, technology is a creation of human imagination, and intuition, it has no defined limits at all. So, by definition, money cannot be used to develop whatever technologies we wish. Even limitless amounts of money cannot automatically lead to the development of any technology to do anything we choose. Non-existent technologies simply are not a "commodity" that can be purchased. Human imagination and intuition simply cannot be controlled, predicted or purchased. Human inspiration cannot ever be fully understood.

Now part of the confusion here, is the development of the concept of the idea of a "scientific method", from the period of the European Enlightenment, the eighteenth century, when modern capitalism was also developing. Capitalists loved money, and saw money as the basis of all of human society, so, academic theoreticians were more than happy to fabricate the notion of some "method" that guaranteed scientific and technological progress, as long as enough time and money were thrown at the problem. This was pure fantasy of course, there is no such "scientific method", and, there never will be. However, this has led to immense confusion, and an immense waste of money and time on absolutely useless research of all types. The most extreme exemplar of this is, of course, Mr. Elon Musk, and SpaceX, and Starship. And, we are now about to suffer a massive stock market collapse, a bear market going on for years, because people have assumed that the more money they throw at problems they have no idea whatsoever how to solve -- like colonizing Mars -- the more progress they will make!

#anthropololgy #archaeology #technology #sociology #homosapiens #economics #neanderthals #philosophyofhistory #tolkien #wagner #lordoftherings #ringcycle #opera #money #capitalism #civilization #sociology #writing #accounting #jrrtolkien #trade #barter #society #rings #marriage #diamonds #power #socialpower #seals #officialseals #history #printing #historyofprinting #legalhistory #historyoflaw #stockmarket #markets #stockmarkets
#elonmusk #starhip #spacex #imagination #intuition #humanlimitations #science #engineering #scientificmethod #philosophyofscience #eigtheenthcentury #philosophy

In case you haven't noticed, Iran has begun engaging in ...

2026-10-01T16:02:47Z

In case you haven't noticed, Iran has begun engaging in "assymetrical warfare". And, I don't mean the drone attacks on shipping either. I don't mean drone attacks at all, actually. That's just conventional warfare these days.

No, what I mean is what we in the West call "terrorism". However, you may not have noticed that Iran is engaging in it, because no one wants to acknowledge that Iran is doing it, although they quite obviously are. I am referring to the recent attacks on the plane bound for Israel that had a "fight" in the cockpit, in which the pilot was stabbed, and the attack by vans of armed men on the British base being used as a stopover point for American attacks on Iran. How do I know that Iran was behind these attacks? Well, you know, despite the fact that Iran and the US are actively engaged in negotiations in New York, and despite the fact that Iranian President there has assured everyone that Iran does not want to kill Donald Trump, they have publicly announced a 10 million dollar bounty on the head of his youngest son, Barron Trump, and they have not publicly retracted it. This is a somehwat unusual situation then, you agree?

Now, who is responsible directly for all these complexities. I think we all know. I think we must put all this at the feet of Donald Trump, I'm afraid. You see, the gangster-in-chief has made it clear that the US now stands for the complete and total abrogation of all international law, of all justice and decency, and even of the US Constitution itself. All to make America great again! So, can we really blame the Iranians for playing exactly the same games? Why should the Iranians pay any attention to international law, if no one else is? Are the Russians? No. Are the Ukrainians? No. Are the Israelis? No. Are the Palestinians? No. Obviously the Americans aren't anymore under Donald Trump, and MAGA and Donald Trump are very proud of it too, so why would Iran want to be odd man out? Why should the Iranians follow any rules at all, if no one else does? Why call the Iranians terrorists, for playing exactly the same games the US and Israel are playing, all the time?

There are many levels of irony to this current situation. Americans still remember 911, and they don't want to go there again. Iran is now making it quite clear, that's exactly where America is headed, if they continue down the path of lawlessness that Donald Trump is pursuing. This, among many, many other things, may indeed help to contribute to the impending electoral disaster the Republicans face in a few weeks, when they will certainly face their worst electoral rout in decades. Democrats will retake total control of Congress, they will enforce international law again, they will bring Israel to heel, and, quite possibly, the Reupublicans will feel compelled to assist them, possibly removing Donald Trump from office, to avoid total extinction as a national political party. All because Iran is engaging in "terrorism".

So, American democracy is about to be saved by Iranian "terrorism". Isn't that ironic, my friends?

#terrorism #warfare #asymmetricalwarfare #iran #hijacking #911 #september11 #geopolitics #politics #donaldtrump #trump #history #ushistory #uselections #republicans #democrats #democracy #usconstitution #uslaw #crime #criminality #barrontrump #internationallaw #israel #irony #uscongress #funny

Suspense cinematic master Alfred Hitchcock always seemed just a ...

2026-09-30T16:35:40Z

Suspense cinematic master Alfred Hitchcock always seemed just a little bit creepier than he really had to be, in order to sell his suspense films. Like, maybe it wasn't entirely an act, you know, or some kind of artificial sales pitch. Like, just maybe, Alfred Hitchcock really was a very, very creepy guy! This was to some extent confirmed towards the end of his career, when he systematically destroyed the career of his favorite leading lady, Tippie Hendron -- mother of Melanie Griffith -- because she wouldn't sleep with him.

However, much earlier in his career, decades before, when he was just getting started, Alfred Hitchcock got involved with something that may have been even creepier than this. Alfred Hitchcock tended to focus on criminal activity for his suspense films, for most of his career. After all, for most of us, crime is the most frightening thing we are likely to have affect us, so, it is a natural source for material for suspense films in our culture. He occasionally departed from crime to accommodate popular taste -- for example, in 1966, he veered into science fiction with his highly successful "The Birds" -- but crime was his natural milieu. The one big exception to this pattern occurred during the mid-1930's, when he developed a deep interest in espionage as a basis for suspense films.

This is hardly surprising. With the rise of Adolf Hitler, the British were absolutely terrified of falling into another holocaust like WWI. And, it was even worse than that. To fully appreciate just how frightened the British were in the mid-1930's, you have to understand the full geopolitical situation. The British saw themselves facing off against Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Josef Stalin in the USSR! All at once! And, Britain's natural anglo-saxon ally in the US was totally prostrate, an economic wreck, overrun with heavily armed gangsters and virtually without any military at all! If you are interested, you can see this terrifying situation very elegantly sketched and illustrated in the world's first mass market paperback, the immensely successful "Lost Horizon", which I like to call "Lost Empire"! It is, of course, about an imaginary kingdom of Shangri-La, in a hidden part of the Tibetan plateau, in which people are totally isolated from the rest of the world, and live in perfect peace, to immense ages. See where the British were coming from here?

So, it was perfectly natural for Alfred Hitchcock to become interested in espionage in the mid-1930's as a means of creating true suspense in Britain. Or, was it? After all, everyone was totally terrified already, why try to scare them further? It's one thing to be frightened of something as a change of pace, quite another to be exposed to more of a terrifying situation you've already had quite enough of, already. What's the attraction? So, unlike his Hollywood career, or earlier British career, at this particular time, Alfread Hitchcock wasn't really creating fear, he was merely observing and analyzing fear, which is really quite different, you know. Of course, being Hitchcock, he did a very good job of it! But, really, "The 39 Steps" comes across more as almost a contemporary documentary, than as a suspense thriller! Albeit, a documentary about a terrifying, suspenseful situation.

So, instead of scaring people for fun, Hitchcock was scaring people for real here. Why? Just to make money, and a name for himself? Maybe. But, just maybe, there was a little more to it than that. Bear in mind, both Britain and France desperately wanted to avoid a repetition of WWI. If there was going to be another world war, they were perfectly happy to let Russia and Germany fight it out, with France and Britain on the sidelines, watching to see the winner.

Hitchcock undoubtedly wanted to be a rich and famous Hollywood director with starlets fawning at his feet. Supposing he could scare the British people enough of Nazi Germany, that they would simply run away from every confrontation, because they were too terrified to fight? Then the Russians and Germans would have to fight it out, the US would eventually get involved, because the war was unavoidable, they would win, and brilliant Alfred Hitchcock would be hailed as a film director war hero in Hollywood, and all his dreams would come true!

The fact is, the British did run away from every confrontation. They did nothing when Hitler occupied the Rhineland. They did nothing when Hitler invaded Austria. They betrayed and abandoned Czechoslovakia at the Munich conference. They declared war when Hitler invaded Poland, but, did little or nothing to help them. Then they ran away when Hitler's forces invaded France! Then they hunkered down in their island for the rest of the war, suffering a mere tenth the casualties they had in WWI. They let the Russians and Americans do most of the fighting for them. If they had confronted Hitler earlier, there probably would have been no WWII, at all!

To what extent was Alfred Hitchcock personally responsible for all of this? Hard to say. Almost certainly to some extent. Would Alfred Hitchcock have willingly precipitated WWII and all its disastrous consequences merely to further his personal career ambitions as a film director? You bet he would have!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzhIlFGdjeU&list=PLgGlTguenMthdLWIE-ugT16w224UcL7TH&index=15&pp=iAQB

#cinema #film #movies #classiccinema #classicfilm #classicmovies #alfredhitchcock #suspensefilms #39steps #history #wwii #adolfhitler #philosophyofhistory #suspense #psychology #psychoanalysis #philosophyofart #revisionisthistory #revisionism #britishhistory #sociology #losthorizon #geopolitics #filmdirectors

All work, no play makes Jack a dull boy. Why, exactly? I think in ...

2026-09-29T15:20:39Z

All work, no play makes Jack a dull boy. Why, exactly?

I think in the simplest possible terms, true work, in the normal and practical sense of the term, tends to almost always be rather routine, rather predictable, rather controlled. Work does not, in general, make full use of human intuition, intelligence, creativity. Work, for most people anyway, most of the time, is not an "inspirational" activity. Work is boring, so, inevitably, people who do nothing but work are themselves, also, rather boring.

Now, that doesn't mean that work doesn't need to be done sometimes, of course. However, it might well mean that practical work of most types isn't the most healthy thing for people psychologically. And, of course, most physical labor is very, very unhealthy physically when pursued over the long term, it leaves people broken up husks of men, in general. Kind of like playing football for a living!

There is also, of course, the point that not all work is particularly useful from a purely social point of view. Drug dealers work hard selling drugs, most people do not consider them to be useful members of society, at all. In fact, they frequently end up in prison! Are pharmaceutical companies and doctors any better than drug dealers, really? Well, that is a debatable point.

How about lawyers, how do people usually feel about them? Not too good? A bunch of shysters maybe?

I am very, very fond of the saying "Overfond of lawyers little wealth, overfond of doctors little health." Don't you think there's a great deal of truth to this wonderful old homily?

Karl Marx is famous for his dictum: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." This is a rather beautiful idea really, almost a perfect society. Is it practical? Not if everyone is forced to work, of course! I think the point Marx is making here, is that flexibility and creativity are much more important and valuable socially, in real terms of improving human society, than "hard work". Hard work may, actually, be rather a bad thing, usually a destructive thing, indeed.

How much good has been done for human society by work, as distinct from play? The military, soldiers, work very hard. Isn't their job, normally anyway, purely destructive? Are science and engineering best pursued as playful activity, or, as hard work? This gets into the question of the reality of the "scientific method", some "system" that guarantees progress of a real and meaningful type, that actually leads to meaningful progress, and isn't just running around in circles, or pretending to make progress, when all you are really doing is junk technology -- technology that doesn't help human beings in any meaningful way at all.

I think it's critical to determine the extent to which working as a salesman may take the place of real scientific and technical progress. Real scientific and technical progress may be more a matter of "play", of pure relaxed unstressed creativity, than "hard work". Whereas most real, actual scientific and engineering work these days may be more a matter of "hard sales work" that accomplishes nothing other than getting people's attention and monopolizing scarce resources, and money. I'm thinking specifically of Elon Musk, a "hard worker". And, a hard worker we'd all be much better off without, all he does is damage!

So, I suggest we need to consider an alternative to the "work ethic". What we really need is a "play ethic", a philosophy of relaxed contemplation and thoughtfulness, of sensitivity and receptiveness to new ideas. Hard work is bad, and destructive, most of the time, anyway!

#labor #work #play #psychology #sociology #communism #capitalism #karlmarx #marx #economics #antiwork #drugs #healthcare #doctors #crime #law #uslaw #lawyers #philosophyofscience #science #engineering #technology #markeing #massmarketing #sales #salesmanship #musk #elonmusk #ethics #moralphilosophy #metaphysics #philosophy #ethics #hardwork

BERNSTEIN Thatcher! That man was the biggest darn fool I ever ...

2026-09-28T17:16:31Z

BERNSTEIN Thatcher! That man was the biggest darn fool I ever met.
THOMPSON He made an awful lot of money.
BERNSTEIN Well, it's no trick to make a lot of money, if all you want.....is to make a lot of money. You take Mr. Kane -- it wasn’t money he wanted.

"Citizen Kane" -- Orson Welles.

America is an ultra-capitalist nation, founded on the basic principles of ultra capitalism, the notion that "classical liberalism" -- the idea that people should, quite literally, be allowed to make as much money as they want, using whatever means they want, no matter what. John Locke is largely responsible for codifying this notion, in response to the extremely lucrative predations of pirate Henry Morgan from the British colony of Jamaica, which however bloody and immoral they may have been, were nevertheless, extremely profitable for the British Crown. Adam Smith attempted to sanitize classical liberalism as "capitalism", with his absolutely ridiculous concept of an "invisible hand" that guided capitalists to do good, in pursuit of wealth, almost despite themselves. So, for Adam Smith, capitalists were quite literally all Santa Clauses, showering the world with their gifts. Anybody believe that? Anyone? Didn't think so.

So, what's Orson Welles up to in "Citizen Kane"? Well, first of all, of course, he's trying to make an extremely entertaining film by satirizing communications Mogul William Randolph Hearst. And, Welles succeeded extraordinarily in doing so, too! Now, the film is not particularly accurate, Welles himself described it as a "hatchet job", although I would be inclined to say it was more about Welles himself, than Hearst. The character of Kane is portrayed as much softer and more vulnerable and childish, than the actual William Randolph Hearst, who was actually a rather dangerous man, and quite fond of money, too. Orson Welles almost found this out the hard way himself, when, following the appearance of his film, Hearst sent an underage girl into Welles' hotel room, in an attempt to entrap him into a charge of statuatory rape. Fortunately for Welles, he had friends in the police force who tipped him off, and he never returned to that particular hotel room!

But, I think Welles isn't just playing games in this film, he does have some genuine moral in mind. Hearst is portrayed as missing his "lost childhood" -- a symbol for true human values, if you like, as distinct from mere wealth and power. In other words, Welles was not, himself, exactly a capitalist. Welles did not believe Adam Smith, he certainly did not believe in an "invisible hand" automatically guiding all capitalists to do good. Welles saw life as being about human beings, about beauty, about curiosity, about helping other people, and he didn't particularly see most capitalists as being likely to do this if they could possibly avoid it!

So, effectively then, Welles is generalizing this view of "capitalists" like Thatcher a bit, and really introducing an entire category of human beings into what I will simply call the "Stupid Rich".

Now, the notion that rich people can be very stupid indeed, is of course somewhat alien to the American mindset, which is largely based on the notion that all Great Men are rich and powerful, because, of course, all of the American Founding Fathers were, indeed, rich and powerful, and, because they wanted to become even more rich and powerful still, by overrunning the Indian Lands to the West, and the British wouldn't let them do it!

However, as we see with the continuing overwhelming influence of Karl Marx -- a very poor and unsuccessful man indeed -- money is certainly not the whole enchilada. And, as poor and unsuccessful men like Lenim, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro and the Iranian Ayatollahs have demonstrated over and over again, capitalist systems and rulers will come falling down like a house of cards when faced with important ideas and movements that effectively transcend mere financial considerations come into play, as they very often do. Then, the Stupid Rich really never knew what hit them!

You see, if you spend your entire life pursuing money, trying to "make it", as it were, you really don't and can't understand anything else. And, that can make the Stupid Rich very vulnerable to non-financial counter-attacks of a variety of types. The Stupid Rich really have no conception of anything other than money, even survival, even social progress, even social morality, none of these are really comprehended very well by money. But, the vast majority of people are actually much, much more interested in survival, social progress and social morality than they are in money, and so, all these "money geniuses", the Stupid Rich, are somewhat inclined to find themselves odd man out, and, as the Holy Bible tells us, "money will not protect you in the hour of anger"!

#capitalism #adamsmith #communism #money #wealth #business #johnlocke #piracy #philosophy #history #orsonwelles #citizenkane #classicfilm #ushistory #americanrevolution #philosophyofhistory #historyofphilosophy #history #philosophy #hearst #williamrandolphhearst #foundingfathers #iran #islam #moralphilosophy #socialprogress #bible #biblicalstudies

A hundred years ago, psychologists and psychiatrists thought they ...

2026-09-26T15:54:19Z

A hundred years ago, psychologists and psychiatrists thought they understood the concept of intelligence pretty well, that they could test it, measure it, put a number on it, and that it was a comparatively stable variable across the entire human lifespan. However, those days are long gone! While there are still professional psychometrists who will swear on a stack of bibles that intelligence can be measured with their technical rulers, no one else actually believes them anymore, at all. Those tests are acknowledged pretty universally now to be merely skills tests, and skills can be learned, and unlearned, over time, pretty much any and all skills.

So, where does that leave us exactly, with the concept of intelligence? What is it, and what is it not? Can it even be defined, at all?

Additional confusion is being introduced into this discussion and debate by the increasingly important field of AI, artificial intelligence, at least from an economic point of view. While the actual practical significance of AI is still highly debatable, there is no question whatsoever that, currently anyway, AI technology is largely driving the entire world economy, so, inevitably, it becomes a matter of considerable interest to people. Hence, AI must be brought into the picture now, I think in trying to understand what intelligence "really" is.

AI is simply a mass of data structures associated in various ways, particularly in terms of mathematical statistical analysis, with an emphasis particularly on natural language processers as a convenient human interface and indexing device. The mass of data is enormous, and, that explains its massive consumption of electricity. Enormous quantities of data must be worked through to answer even comparatively simple questions.

This is clearly not how the brain operates, although we really don't understand very well how the brain operates. Put simply, the human brain is vastly cheaper and more efficient at doing most of the things AI is now doing. So, why use AI at all? Well, while the human brain is cheap and efficient, people themselves are expensive and lazy! AI, on the other hand, given limitless energy resources, is more than happy to work 24/7, and, other than energy to keep going, it makes no demands whatsoever for anything else, at all, ever!

This leads to the fear of many, apparently anyway, that AI will take over the world, and displace human beings as the dominant "lifeform" on the planet. Actually, I have no fear whatsoever of this. For one thing, AI is incredibly stupid! AI has no insight, no sensitivity, no perspective, no intuition. None whatsoever, it can only summarize masses of input data. That's it, period. And, although this skill can be quite convenient at times, it is by no means essential, we can really do it ourselves, when we want to, albeit more slowly, because our power consumption is orders of magnitude lower than AI systems. And, in our normal human conception of true human intelligence, it is insight, sensitivity, perspective and intuition. These are what constitute true wisdom, true "intelligence".

The ancient Greek poet Homer says at the beginning of the Iliad, probably the greatest and most important poem ever written, "Sing through me, oh Muse". Now, what does he mean by that, exactly? Homer was probably a trained doctor, and a good one, we can tell that from the incredibly detailed anatomical descriptions of wounds in battle in the Iliad. Then, he went blind, and the great lords of Greece decided to let him hang around and play music and poetry for them. Homer decided to use his education and skills to redefine the Greek pantheon in simpler terms than conventional polytheism, and to frame this in the form of epic poetry. So what does this brilliant guy mean by saying "Sing through me, oh muse"?

I think what Homer means is, true intelligence is inspiration, not skill. We know not whence it comes from. And we know not where it goes.

#intelligence #iqtests #iqtesting #psychology #psychiatry #psychoanalysis #metaphysics #philosophy #neuroscience #ai #computerscience #technology #philosophyofscience #economics #homer #iliad #poetry #intuition #insight #historyofphilosophy #greekgods #ancientgreece #greekpantheon #polytheism

I'm just going to quote Wikipedia exactly here, regarding ...

2026-09-25T16:30:17Z

I'm just going to quote Wikipedia exactly here, regarding Jerome Savonarola (1452-1498), who acquired power briefly in Florence Italy: "He became known for his prophecies of civic glory, his advocacy of the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal."

Now, does this sound at all just the slightest bit familiar to anyone at the moment? Anyone at all, hmmmmmm?

Well, I think it might you know.

"I will fight for you with every breath in my body – and I will never, ever let you down.
America will start winning again, winning like never before."

"Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the golden Age of America."

“I’ve always felt that a lot of modern art is a con, and that the most successful painters are often better salesmen and promoters than they are artists.”

"...left wing cultural revolution..."

“I’m very proud to say that during my time in office, both the first four years and in particular this last year, there has been a tremendous renewal in religion, faith, Christianity and belief in God,”

These are all direct quotations from Donald Trump. And, they are all highly representative quotations from Donald Trump. Of course, we have the entire concept of the MAGA movement -- Make America Great Again!

Again, I will quote exactly from the wikipedia article on Savonarola, this from a Savonarola sermon: Florence will be "more glorious, more powerful and richer than ever, extending its wings farther than anyone can imagine".

Ultimately, what destroyed Savonarola was simply his inability to do what he claimed to be able to do. Florence did not become great again. Nothing really changed. And, when Savonarola claimed to be able to order the direct intervention of God, he failed to do so.

When Donald Trump claimed he could easily crush the Iranian regime, he failed to do so. Instead, the Iranian regime has rather easily crippled the US economy, caused runaway inflation for US consumers, and steadily expanded its influene and power in the Middle East, largely driving the US military out of the region, by attacking US bases.

Faced with universal opposition from the Pope and the Catholic clergy who he had attacked and ridiculed, and his own ineffectiveness having become obvious to everyone, Savnonarola was ultimately overthrown by the mob, arrested, tortured and executed.

Double digit advantages in the generic polling are no longer outliers for the Democrats in the upcoming November midterms in the US. They are becoming the new normal. We may be facing the most extreme electoral outcome in US history, almost certainly the most extreme in decades. What will be Donald Trump's fate next year? I don't envy him, at all.

#history #italianhistory #churchhistory #ushistory #savonarola #politics #geopolitics #trump #donaldtrump #roycohn #uselections #republicans #democrats #philosophyofhistory #maga #conservatives #conservatism #usconservatives #economics

I have a rather idiosyncratic interpretation of Thomas Mann's ...

2026-09-24T19:48:53Z

I have a rather idiosyncratic interpretation of Thomas Mann's extremely popular novella, Death in Venice. While the novel is generally attributed to Thomas Mann's own homosexual leanings and own experiences, I must demur.

Look at it this way. There was indeed an event that transpired about 20 years prior to the writing of this novella, in 1912, that paralleled precisely the events of Thomas Mann's famous work. I'm astonished that this is never referred to in association with Death in Venice. It wasn't a writer in his early fifties, it was an extremely famous composer in his early fifties, who was certainly every bit as artistically talented as Mann's protagonist, Aschenbach, and every bit as homosexual, if not more so, and every bit as intellectual. And, he died suddenly and unexpectedly of cholera in "The Venice of the North", Saint Petersburg, through failure to take proper precautions. Who might that be? Why, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, of course! He died just very shortly after completing and performing his magnificent sixth symphony, the Pathetique. What is particularly striking about this omission, is that Thomas Mann was obsessed with Peter Tchaikovsky and his music, and this obsession was transferred to his son Klaus Mann who actually wrote a biographical novel about Tchaikovsky in 1935, called "Pathetique"!

So, while everyone is seeing this work as entirely autobiographical, I am actually rather skeptical about that. Rather, I see Death in Venice as being an analysis and critique of both Russian culture in certain of its aspects, and of Tchaikovsky in certain respects, possibly with Mann seeing some of these limitations in himself at times, as well, and reflecting on them through these varied associations.

Thomas Mann of course, being a good German boy during the time of the Kaisers, was quite supportive of traditional Imperial German values -- militarism, conservatism, capitalism, traditionalism. And, associated with these, were a healthy dose of extroverted pragmatism. His protagonist Aschenbach definitely does not exemplify these characteristics, at all! An impressive man, intellectually but, in terms of Thomas Mann's philosophy of the time, a "weak" man, an ultimately self-destructive man, a man doomed to die prematurely. Too introverted, insufficiently pragmatic, too "weak", as demonstrated by his homosexual leanings, which, arguably, in the context of Death in Venice, actually destroy him. Presumably Thomas Mann felt exactly the same way about Tchaikovsky, whatever his admiration for Tchaikovsky's music.

I suspect Mann may be generalizing these concepts somewhat, seeing here a fundamental weakness in Russian culture, possibly anticipating its downfall. Russia was tortured by paralyzing strikes and instability at the time, and had never really fully recovered from the 1905 Revolution, which was only papered over by Tsar Nicholas II, leading ultimately to final downfall of the Romanovs in 1917. What Mann did not realize, was that Germany itself would collapse just a year later!

With the collapse of Imperial Germany, Thomas Mann's own politics shifted sharply to the left. Suddenly, intellectual introverts like Aschenbach became his heroes, and aggressive militarists like Bismarcck and Hitler were his bogeymen.

I think we can see in Thomas Mann's analyses in Death in Venice, and in his work in general throughout his entire life, an attempt to determine the "correct" approaches to human existence, the "safe" approaches. Are there any safe approaches? I don't think so!

#wwi #russianhistory #germanhistory #tchaikovsky #thomasmann #deathinvenice #psychology #psychoanalysis #germanhistory #geopolitics #introversion #extroversion #conservatism #liberalism #militarism #homosexuality #capitalism #communism #writing #books #literature #germanliterature #pragmatism #philosophy #metaphysics #moralphilosophy #ethics

Donald Trump has been deeply, personally involved in politics for ...

2026-09-23T20:32:05Z

Donald Trump has been deeply, personally involved in politics for well over a decade now, but, actually, I think a lot of people are still rather unclear about what exactly Donald Trump is doing in politics. He used to be a moderate Democrat, and has become a progressively farther right, even extreme right-wing Republican. In his life, he's mainly been an entertainer and a businessman -- perhaps he could be called an entertaining businessman. These days, he is often described as a far right populist politician, and that makes some sense, as far as it goes. However, as we see the Democrat lead in the generic ballot approaching levels not seen in this century, and only very rarely in the last century, one begins to wonder exactly what Donald Trump is really up to. You know, this election could be the swan song of the entire Republican Party, if the Democrats outperform their current polling by as much as has been the case in most if not all US elections in the last year and a half. They might take most of the 22 Republican Senate seats up for reelection, and 100 seats from the Republicans in the House. That isn't actually being predicted by anyone, and I don't particularly expect it myself, but, it's by no means inconceivable now. In any case, the Republicans are going to take a serious hammering in November, that is clear.

Why so bad? Well, certainly, Iran has something to do with it. The Iranians are into revenge. They destroyed Saddam Hussein, they ensured Jimmy Carter never got reelected, they threw out the Shah, they cut George Bush Junior down to size, they have the Israelis terrified of them, at all times. So, probably murdering the Iranian Supreme Leader wasn't a really brilliant move on Trump's part. Certainly, it's a problem for Donald Trump's youngest child, Barron Trump, who now has a 10 million dollar bounty on his head. He's only 20 years old, will he make it to 40? Time will tell.

The Iranians are largely controlling the outcome of the November elections by shutting down the flow of oil and other materials in the Middle East, thus massively stoking inflation, and hamstringing the US economy. But, couldn't Trump have anticipated this, particularly since everyone told him what would happen? What is Trump really up to here?

One possibility that has been rather half-heartedly suggested from time to time, is that Donald Trump actually is still a Democrat, maybe even a left-wing Democrat, and that he is actually acting as a kind of agent provocateur, a disrupter from within, and his goal is to totally destroy the Republican Party, and to shift the Democrats much further to the left than they have been in decades.

Sounds far-fetched? Well, you know, if Donald Trump were intentionally acting as an agent provocateur, trying to destroy the Republican Party from within, he couldn't possibly be doing a better job than he's doing right now, whatever his motivations are! I mean, this guy is amazing!

Of course, people's actions often have unintended consequences, particularly people who are high-powered disrupters like Trump. Napoleon and Hitler come to mind, and Trump may actually be almost at their level. Napoleon probably hadn't intended to bring about the reunfication of Italy and Germany, but, that is indeed the long term impact Napoleon had on Europe. Napoleon's long term impact on France was actually rather modest, compared to the impact he had on Italy and Germany. Was Napoleon an "agent provocateur", undermining France, but strengthening Italy and Germany? In practice, yes, in terms of his own motivations, who really knows?

What is one of the most important consequence of Hitler's reign of terror? We have the state of Israel. Effectively, and I hate to say it, but, it's true, Adolf Hitler has been the long sought Messiah of the Jewish people, finally bringing them back to their promised land, although at great cost. Prior to Hitler's genocide, there wasn't enough support for a Jewish State for it to become a reality. The Jewish Holocaust frightened the world's Jews so much, and got them so much sympathy, that they were finally able to make their dreams of the long lost promised land a reality, at last! How would Hitler feel about this? Actually, I think he would be amused and pleased about it. Really!

Are all great disrupters like Donald Trump, effectively, just agent provocateurs, disrupting anything and everything, just as an end in itself? Is that the difference between Donald Trump and his mentors Richard Nixon and Roy Cohn, that they didn't want to be defeated, but, Trump doesn't really care, because impeachment and removal mean nothing to him, as long as he achieves total destruction of the Republican Party, and possibly the entire US political system as we know it?

#politics #geopolitics #trump #donaldtrump #ushistory #uselections #impeachment #roycohn #nixon #richardnixon #politicalscience #napoleon #hitler #history #democrats #republicans #conservatives #watergate #iran #revenge #psychology #psychoanalysis #germanhistory #italianhistory #barrontrump #israel #revisionism #revisionisthistory #israel #promisedland #messiah #holocaust

As the November election approaches, and it looks more and more ...

2026-09-21T17:40:56Z

As the November election approaches, and it looks more and more likely that Democrats will do rather well, on the whole, probably retaking both House and Senate, the question arises, what about the States? OK, it looks likely the Democrats will retake power at the Federal level, to a large extent anyway, but, will the Republicans retain their power bases in the states, particularly the very large states of Texas and Florida.

Texas, in particular, has always been a conservative stronghold. It used to be a Democrat stronghold, when the Democrats were the conservatives, the slaveholders, the segregationists. For decades now, Texas has been a Republican stronghold, since Republicans have become the conservatives, anti-immigrant, racist, anti-government.

The reason this is important, is that if Texas ceases to be a Republican, conservative stronghold, really for the first time in its history, it ceases to be a source of money or good candidates for the Republican Party at any level, to a large degree anyway. And Republicans cease to have any real substantial base of operations in the entire United States. The Party may risk permanent extinction under these circumstances, and politicians do not like risking political extinction, do they now?

Now, of course, the election is still six months away, and we really don't know what exactly is going to happen. Elon Musk is spending big money there. Lately, that hasn't worked out for him too well politically, since Musk is electoral poison, almost everyone hates his guts. However, the price of oil is fluctuating wildly, and, if it's low enough by November, that may help Republicans out a fair amount, or not. Iran has its fingers on the scales of oil prices of course, now, with its control over the Strait of Hormuz, and its allies control over the rest of the Middle East. And, this gives Iran considerable influence directly over the outcome of the US elections this year, of course.

It is notable that Polymarket is now giving the Democrats a 40% chance of taking 6 or more Senate seats, something considered inconceivable just a few months ago. Odds of Trump's impeachment are 67% on Kalshi, 69% on Polymarket. Odds of Democrats taking the House are 93% on Polymarket, 91% on Kalshi.

If Texas goes Democrat in a big way, inluding a federal Senator, a Democrat governor, and a Democrat House of Representatives, combined with 6 total Senate pickups federally, and 40 or more House pickups federally, Donald Trump risks total mutiny in his own Party, impeachment, and removal. And, all his charm and dealmaking may not be enough to stop it. And, this outcome is approaching even odds, given current polling. And, Democrats have been outperforming the polls by double digits for a year and a half now!

#texas #texashistory #uselections #democrats #republicans #ushistory #conservatives #trump #donaldtrump #elonmusk #musk #geopolitics #politics #philosophyofhistory #economics #impeachment #polling #predictionmarkets #politicalscience

Why did Adam Smith decide to whitewash capitalism? Why did he ...

2026-09-18T20:17:05Z

Why did Adam Smith decide to whitewash capitalism? Why did he insist in The Wealth of Nations that capitalism was the enemy of slavery, when capitalism itself developed specifically because of slavery!?

It was the slave plantations in the New World that provided the world's first opportunity for entrepreneurs to make a fortune very quickly indeed, in sugar, tobacco or cotton! It was this capacity to generate enormous wealth very quickly that got governments interested in fostering and developing corporations and monopolies to transport slaves from Africa to man these highly profitable plantations, so said governments could generate tax revenue and wealth from them. Black African slaves were the backbone and sinews of the world's first great capitalist corporations, and that generated their wealth.

Black Africans were the perfect source of extremely cheap and controllable labor for these huge agricultural factories. They were in most cases sold from slavery in Africa itself, so, their condition was an accustomed one they were less likely to rebel against. They were accustomed to tropical diseases, so much more likely to survive in the tropical climates necessary for cotton, tobacco and sugar plantations. And, finally, their complexions made it much harder for them to escape from slavery and blend into the broader population.

So, all this open available land for the development of agricultural factories, combined with cheap black African slave labor, was an astonishing money generator for the imperial nations of Europe. Capital was generated, and could be used and exploited like never before. And this changed the entire attitude of governments to wealth, power and social control in general. People should be encouraged to generate wealth, so the government could tax wealth, and use wealth.

Now, with the development of new technologies, specifically with the industrial revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, possibilities for mass production extended well beyond the tropical plantations. And, these opportunities were not necessarily ideally suited for black African slaves. Quite aside from the awkwardness of transporting and and controlling African slaves, these new industrial opportunities were varied, might require education and skills, and could provide opportunities for advancement and wealth generation themselves. So, governments shifted their approach from slave exploitation to generate capital, to more general exploitation, control and training of the population as a whole to generate wealth.

So, what Adam Smith is really trying to rather hypocritically do, is present this new form of exploitation, as the ultimate social virtue, and the rejection of conventional slavery not as a practical necessity, but as some kind of universal virtue! Thus, the phrase "making a virtue of necessity".

Now, this gets us to Adam Smith's much quoted and abused and exaggerated concept of the invisible hand, the suggestion that capitalism can do no harm, and always magically does good! What a joke! This ridiculous concept is so absurd, that it's hard to discuss it with a straight face. Like, no one trying to make money ever did any harm, at all!

Adam Smith was a consummate liar and hypocrite, scrambling with every fiber of his being to generate propaganda to whitewash greed and stupidity and destruction with his nonsense about an "invisible hand". If there is any invisible hand of capitalism, it is a greedy, and grasping, malicious hand, and it is covered in blood, when we ever see it!

#adamsmith #thewealthofnations #invisiblehand #capitalism #hypocrisy #history #philosophy #philosophyofhistory #historyofphilosophy #americanrevolution #industrialrevolution #britishhistory #ushistory #economics #slavery #classwar #africanhistory #moralphilosophy #morality #civilwar #propaganda #ethics #disinformation #communism #socialism #politicalscience

Henry Morgan was a totally ruthless brigand pirate and criminal ...

2026-09-17T17:59:50Z

Henry Morgan was a totally ruthless brigand pirate and criminal who murdered, raped, tortured and pillaged his way across the Caribbean, thus providing a source of enormous wealth to the British Crown, and incidentally himself. He rose to be Royal Governor of Jamaica, the main base of his pirate predations, and was tolerated by the British Crown, particularly Charles II, because of his effectiveness in acquiring wealth, and defeating enemies. He was a perpetual embarrassment during his political career, his predations and extremities being largely papered over by philosophical and administrative genius John Locke, who was certainly one of the most total intellectual whores in all of human history. John Locke used his enormous intellect to rationalize the gradual transition Britain was undergoing from being a monarchy, to being a plutocracy. Locke's conceptions formed the basis for classical liberalism during the enlightenment, which basically held the view that anyone intelligent and ruthless enough to acquire great wealth should have total freedom to do whatever the hell they wanted to, no matter what, bar nothing.

Locke's approach worked pretty well for centuries of British Empire, unless of course you happened to be one of the unlucky ones -- the vast majority of course -- who weren't ruthless and intelligent enough to acquire great wealth. I suppose you could argue that the American Revolution was something of a reversal here, since on this particular occasion, the British found themselves dealing with a group of Americans who were just as ruthless and intelligent as they were -- the so called "Founding Fathers" -- but, being natives to the region, had the advantages of geography, and, certainly, massive French support, as well.

Henry Morgan of course was very ruthless indeed, and very intelligent indeed, so he could do no wrong. Quite literally! None!! And, good old John Locke was there in London busily rationalizing everything he did quite brilliantly, particularly using such concepts as "just wars", which justified the most horrific barbarities of all types, in particular the holding of slaves in eternal, and frequently lethal bondage. If you're wondering why the world is such a total mess today, maybe we should consider looking back to the seventeenth century British Empire, and those grand old pals and chums, Henry Morgan, and John Locke.

#history #philosophy #metaphysics #morality #moralphilosophy #ethics #britishhistory #ushistory #philosophyofhistory #historyofphilosophy #liberalism #britishempire #imperialism #capitalism #johnlocke #henrymorgan #politicalscience #geopolitics #usrevolution #foundingfathers #enlightenment #seventeenthcentury #jamaica #economics #pirates

I was listening to KUCO Classical Oklahoma City, A Day to ...

2026-09-16T18:14:12Z

I was listening to KUCO Classical Oklahoma City, A Day to Remember History Segment, this morning. They focus on often relatively little known historical events of significance. They described a rather important terrorist event that I'd actually never heard of, the New York City Bombing of 1920, in front of the JP Morgan Bank, in which 38 people were killed and 145 injured, right in the heart of New York's financial district. The incident was described as being related to extremist groups involved with anarchism, communism and anti-capitalism.

Actually it was about the false prosecution of Sacco and Vanzetti, who were ultimately executed for a crime they certainly didn't commit. Eventually, the judge in the case had his home bombed as well. He survived, but, he had to live in a heavily guarded bunker for the remaining rather upleasant year of his life, and his wife and housekeeper were badly injured. Authorities did get the message, and moved away from false prosecutions of immigrants. Sad to say, violence does work. Sometimes, it's the only way, I'm afraid. But, you probably see why you and I have never heard of this particular act of "terrorism" don't you?

So I do hope all Oklahomans do remember KUCO in their upcoming membership drive for the great work they're doing, won't you?

#npr #media #oklahoma #terrorism #history #newyork #wallstreet #ushistory #history #uspolitics #saccovanzetti #politicalviolence #anarchism #anarchists #politicalscience #okc #publicradio #mediabias #manufacturedconsent #galleanists #palmerraids #redscare #classwar #plebchain #grownostr #revisionisthistory

Now that it is becoming fairly clear that the Democrats are going ...

2026-09-16T16:35:10Z

Now that it is becoming fairly clear that the Democrats are going to triumph in the November elections this year, taking House and Senate, the question is, how effective they can be, with Trump as President. Can't Trump simply govern by veto, as Presidents have in the past, from the Oval Office?

The answer to that is actually fairly simple, and the answer is "no". Why, exactly? Certainly, in the past, many highly successful Presidents have indeed dealt with unruly Congresses by governing by veto. Most notably, FDR, Grover Cleaveland, Harry Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower were chronic users of their veto pen. In more recent American political history, vetoes have become rare, to some extent because the mere threat of a veto discourages legislation, and to some extent because party polarization has made it more difficul to assemble the votes required for any potential veto overrides. These two are, of course, closely related.

However, Donald Trump is a special case. Donald Trump is a convicted felon. Donald Trump has already been impeached twice in his first term of office. Donald Trump is also highly unpopoular, with strong disapproval rates of 50%, and strong approval rates of only 14%. So, any veto of popular legislation by Donald Trump, wil inevitably arouse howls of rage from most Americans, and arouse very little strong support, at all. Legislators from both parties, including his own, will no doubt hear about this. And, these legislators, particularly from his own party, will fear justified righteous retribution from their electors, and being cast out into the cold by them, of unelectable Hell.

So, all Donald Trump has to do is veto a couple of popular pieces of legislation, and, suddenly, he may well find that the Republican firewall in the Senate preventing him from not only being impeached by the House, but actually removed by the Senate, will rather magically disappear, very quickly indeed. Certainly, it is a rather likely thing to happen, isn't it?

Now, of course, many of you will say that the electorate is polarized, and Republican senators dare not antagonize Trump's loyal MAGA "base". However, with generic polling suggesting that the Democrats are currently leading the Republicans by double digits, and with Democrats outperforming their polls by double digits in most of the elections, the question is, does Trump have any significant real base left? Trump has been saying that he wants the electors to vote as if he himself were on the ballot. However, what if that's exactly what the electors have been doing lately?

And, of course, once Trump is removed from office, his electoral shield of the Presidency from criminal prosecution ceases to exist. Indeed, Congress might decide to remove some conservative justices from SCOTUS, and permanently eliminate the "presidential immunity" so recently instituted by them. Presidential immunity might go the way of the Dred Scott decision, as a direct result of the Trump presidency.

So, on the whole, I really don't think it is possible for Donald Trump to govern by veto. Not for very long, anyway.

#politics #uspolitics #uselections #trump #donaldtrump #impeachment #usconstitution #veto #maga #dredscott #presidentialimmunity #supremecourt #ushistory #politicalscience #history #scotus #republicans #democrats

While most treatments of his life tend to downplay the fact, the ...

2026-09-14T16:59:11Z

While most treatments of his life tend to downplay the fact, the great empiricist, liberal philosopher John Locke actually played a very key role in the development of the English slave trade, and the institutionalization of slavery in the British Colonies in North America, many of which would subsequently become parts of the United States, and would ultimately have a great Civil War over slavery. While advocating liberalism and tolerance in government, Locke simultaneously was personally responsible for the establishment of the absolute power of Carolina planters over their slaves, by law. Yes, you read that right. No contradiction there, eh?

So, how do we explain this little conundrum, then? What are the mental gymnastics going on in John Locke's head, that allow him to simultaneously do these two totally opposite things -- condemn slavery and oppression, and then write up a constitution that is enforced, that gives absolute tyrannical power of life and death to aristocrats in the British colonies over slaves?

Well, is this really so complicated? John Locke was a greedy, murderous, hypocritical total creepshow, a real sociopath! Freedom for me, oppression for you, my friends! A lot of people are like this, of course, now, and in the past.

#history #philosophy #historyofphilosophy #philosophyofhistory #ushistory #slavery #psychology #economics #psychoanalysis #britishempire #britishhistory #hypocrisy #johnlocke #sociopathology

Other than Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes, there are ...

2026-09-12T16:14:25Z

Other than Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes, there are remarkably few well known economists who actually manifest any particular interest in human social morality, at all There is an almost total disconnect between the social science of economics, and social morality, as we normally understand it. Why is this, exactly? The other social sciences -- sociology, history, psychology, political science -- all focus to a large extent on the differences between right and wrong in human social behaviors, although they all tend to have a profoundly ethnocentric bias in the way they do it. Social scientists from different nations and cultures tend to see morality their own way, and have their own heroes and villains, who may not correspond particularly well with those from other cultures. But, they are very interested in moral issues, issues of right and wrong. Not so, the vast majority of economists, at all. True, Adam Smith coined his ridiculous smiley face morality of the "invisible hand" to clothe capitalism in virtue, but, that metaphor has been grossly overextended so much as to amount to a reducto ad absurdam. There is no invisible hand guaranteeing capitalist goodness, I'm afraid.

Part of the problem here is Karl Marx -- the ultimate outsider -- effectively trashing all of human existence so thoroughly and not really offering much as an alternative -- only a purely speculative utopian socialist vision that he almost certainly did not even believe in, himself. So, the rest of the economics world has effectively turned tail and run from any attempt at human morality ever since Marx, with the exception of course of the Chinese communist marxist economists, who have no choice whatsoever other than to be Marxists, by law, and so are simply ignored by Western economists.

Well, maybe we should go back to good old Plato, and The Republic, then. Plato had no fear whatsoever of Karl Marx. Really! So, Plato's Republic puts strict limits on the maximum wealth of all private citizens, and forces the actual guardians of the Republic to live like homeless people in a shelter, with no wealth whatsoever, and only their basic needs modestly met by the state. And, these are the people who are supposed to be running the country, the people with the real power!

Aristotle believed that the pursuit of wealth for its own sake was purely evil, and would lead to the destruction of the state, as it had in ancient Athens.

In the European middle ages, Saint Thomas Aquinas and the his Catholic theologian friends made money lending for interest illegal, along with merchants charging any more for goods than was necessary to cover production costs and to ensure the tradesmen involved made a decent living wage.

Traditional Islamic societies required Zakat, redistribution of wealth in the form of a wealth tax. In the US currently, similar policies are being considered as we speak, in terms of a special tax on billionaires.

So, historically, morality has indeed been integrated into economics theory quite regularly. However, almost inevitably it seems, all morality in economics, looks socialist, or communistic. Isn't that interesting? So, the only way to divorce the economics of a state from socialism, and communism, is to divorce it completely from any moral basis whatsoever, and, hence, any chance whatsoever of survival. Do tell!

#ecomomics #economists #economictheory #ccp #china #capitalism #communism #philosophyofscience #history #philosophyofhistory #philosophy #academia #adamsmith #morality #moralphilosophy #politicalscience #marx #karlmarx #historyofphilosophy #ethics

The Golden Bough, of Sir James Frazier, is a powerful work of ...

2026-09-11T21:32:49Z

The Golden Bough, of Sir James Frazier, is a powerful work of cultural anthropology focusing on religious mysticism. An important chapter of it is called "Temporary Kings", and deals with the issue of religious regicide, the formal, institutionalized execution of leaders, after a time, to ensure the continuing survival of the people they represent. The idea here is that leaders, Kings, were responsible for the good of the people, so, if they themselves showed signs of weakness or illness, they must be ritually disposed of. Or, if the people were suffering some great calamity such as famine or plague or military disaster, the death of the leader might in some way alleviate this problem.

There is a kind of logic to this. A sick leader is unlikely to be an effective leader, at much of anything, might as well get rid of them. And, if the nation is plunged into disasters, one way or another, this probably does have something to do with the nation's leadership, so, changing Kings might not be too bad an idea, under the circumstances.

I think we can see, if we look rather closely, that Adolf Hitler, perhaps intentionally, actually fulfilled the role of a "temporary king" rather precisely. While many contemporary Germans attempt to scapegoat Hitler for all Germany's problems in the 1930's and 1940's, in fact, the nation was in a totally disastrous condition when he came to power, the Germans were well aware that Hitler was not the most mentally stable individual, they would never have trusted him with their destiny unless they felt absolutely desperate, and were willing to try anything. Hitler was a charismatic figurehead for the inevitable right wing military dictatorship in Germany that was going to try to redo what Otto von Bismarck did with the military in the nineteenth century -- make Germany once more the dominant military power in Europe. It failed miserably, largely because the USSR was much more powerful and effectively run than Tsarist Russia had been, something which Hitler himself expressed open shock and surprise about.

But, what Hitler did, was serve the role of the "King", the leader, the symbol of state power to rationalize the brutality and ruthlessness of the whole process, and, then, when it failed, his suicide, and subsequent denigration, have allowed the Germans to transfer their guilt and responsiblity to his person, and effectively disclaim responsibility as a nation for their failures. A true, made to order, "temporary king".

I wonder if we aren't seeing a rather similar phenomenon currently with Donald Trump, in the US. Trump has been soundly routed by the Iranians in the Middle East, leading to a catastrophic increase in oil prices, as the American military is driven out of the region by expanding Iranian power, that cannot be curtailed. His immigration policies have also led to near civil war in the US, particularly in Minnesota, but, actually throughout the country. Nevertheless, as American power in the world wanes faced with the increasing power of China in particular, Americans actually wanted to try something desperate like this, many of them anyway, rather like Germans in the 1930's. So, salesman Trump has become the American symbol for these aspirations to Make America Great Again.

But, instead, like Hitler, promising the Moon has just caused America to fall on its face, looking weak and incompetent militarily, and shaky economically. So, it appears likely at this stage, that Democrats will retake House and Senate, and will use their power at the very least to control Trump and reverse his policies, and possibly, if things look bad enough to remove him and "punish" him, for his obvious failures. So, the parallels between Trump and Hitler are not exactly death camps and the Russian Winter, but, rather, ICE detention centers and the Strait of Hormuz. A bit of stretch, perhaps, but, good enough, really.

So, the question is, what is to be done with the "Temporary King", Donald Trump, now that he has proven contrary to the nation's interest. I suppose he could be removed from office and imprisoned. Or, he could be turned over to the International Court of Justice. A low stress possibility, would simply be not to give him and his family very much secret service protection after he leaves office, and let the Iranians deal with him. I suspect that latter possibility may be exactly what happens to him. As Richard Nixon was made to pay a price, not for Watergate, but for total national failure, so will Donald Trump, one way, or another. Both disciples of the late great right wing activist lawyer Roy Cohn, who was disbarred from legal practice shortly before his death from AIDS, having made a few too many enemies in his illustrious career. Karma. Temporary Kings.

#religion #anthropology #sociology #hitler #donaldtrump #adolfhitler #history #wwii #philosophyofhistory #uspolitics #uselections #nixon #impeachment #richardhixon #watergate #roycohn #nazis #bismarck #germanhistory #maga

Karl Marx was basically just an intellectual bum, who hung out in ...

2026-09-10T15:53:21Z

Karl Marx was basically just an intellectual bum, who hung out in libraries a lot. Nothing more. How on earth has he managed to become the best known economist on the planet, and the most influential? Why and how is Karl Marx so special?

I think, first of all, we have to understand that Karl Marx wouldn't have had the slightest prospect of ever having achieved recognition, or probably even have survived, without the support and financial patronage of his young wealthy friend, Friedrich Engels. Engels financed Karl Marx and his family, and allowed Marx to hang out in the British Library for decades as a reasonably respectable intellectual for decades, and assisted in publication and promotion of his extensive writings.

What do these writings consist of, exactly? Well, they are extremely detailed, perhaps rather too detailed, in their exhaustive examination of all aspects of money, trade, work, financial exchange and services. They attempt to generalize these detailed analyses to human existence in general and all of human history, in an effort to find the true nature of existence, and how human life can be perfected. Are they successful in this endeavor? Obviously not, how could they be, that's precisely why Karl Marx said ironically "I am not a Marxist", he knew he was writing nonsensical conclusions on the basis of his extremely detailed factual analyses. But, that's OK, really. What else could he say?

What is so unique about Karl Marx? Well, beyond the astonishing detail of his writings, and the broad sweep of their implications, he was also a total failure and an outsider, which makes him rather unusual for an economist. Economists are generally team players, part of the social system, supporters of the status quo, or, in any case, only slight variations on it. Karl Marx was none of these. Marx was an outsider, an intellectual rebel, who clothed his rebellion in the guise of highly detailed scholarly analyses of economic theory. Indeed, I think it could be rather easily argued that Marx was deliberately choosing a conventionally socially conformist field, economics, in which to frame his social rebellion, to give it somewhat greater impact and appeal. So, he chose that ultimate philosophical social conformist -- Georg Whilhelm Friedrich Hegel -- as the role model for his philosophical and social analyses, basically turning Hegel's concept of dialectics on its head. Hegel's intention was to discredit Immanuel Kant's materialistic empirical conception of reality by showing how ideas alone could be used to understand reality, thus reinforcing idealistic social control through institutions like the Christian Church.

Marx decided to tie Hegel's dialectical method to material reality, as the only true reality, thus systematically attacking all conventional idealistic social structures like Christianity, Government and religion in general -- thus, "religion is the opiate of the masses".

If we want to really understand what Karl Marx was about, and what makes him so very special, I think it would probably be best to compare him to someone he was really rather like -- Diogenes the Cynic, the guy who lived in a barrel in ancient Athens during the time of Alexander the Great, and walked around with a lamp in broad daylight "trying to find an honest man". Marx was an iconoclast, a cynic, a man who was attacking everyone and everything, clothing it all in the most erudite academic guise, really, as a kind of broad joke on the system, by attacking it from within, using its very own language and control structures.

#marx #karlmarx #communism #economics #philosophy #metaphysics #history #philosophyofhistory #diogenes #hegel #historyofphilosophy #engels #capitalism #daskapital #cynicism #dialectics #dialecticalmaterialism #christianity #religion

I've no phone, no computer, for precisely the reasons ...

2026-07-10T19:55:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…xks5
_________________________

I've no phone, no computer, for precisely the reasons you've mentioned. Not that I really have anything to hide, but, you know, who knows? I use public computers at major metropolitan library sites, hard to track. Totally centrally controlled, no legal risks. Most relaxing. I'm even beginning to make my own films, totally for free using blender online tools. Most enjoyable and interesting, maybe even profitable. You really can have your cake and eat it too, with technology these days, if you don't always follow the crowd, you know.