Wednesday, January 26, 2022

are all humans insane?


by nick nelson



humans tell stories.

they tell stories in order to “make sense” of the world.

a story is a pattern the human brain imposes on the data it receives from the world outside itself.

the “sense” that the story makes seems to be necessary to the human in order to function in the world.

how accurate are stories in describing the world the human exists in?

i would say they are completely inaccurate - that they have no relation to the real world at all.

humans live in two worlds - the physical world in which they are born, survive for a while, and then die - and the mental worlds of language and stories.

“insane” and “schizophrenic” are two words that humans use to describe the mental states of some of their fellows. they are words that might be used to describe all humans, given the disconnect between their physical and mental lives.

what makes a story and how are they different from humans’ physical lives? for convenience, i will refer to humans’ physical lives as “real life”.

stories have beginnings.

stories are self-contained. everything in real life is connected to an infinity of other things, each of which is connected to an infinity of other things…

everything, or almost everything in stories is determined by motive, usually the motive of an individual human being. everything in real life is determined by circumstances, circumstances which are incalculable. and this only includes circumstances which humans can comprehend. there may be, almost certainly are, all sorts of circumstances beyond human perception or conception.

stories express the basic fantasies/dreams of humans, in which people are "free" (or not) and have "power" (or do not). and, usually, are “good” or “bad”. or “ignorant” or “enlightened”.

above all, stories have endings, resolutions. something happens “in the end”. everything in the story leads up to “the end”, and “the end” casts its light back on the events leading up to it, either justifying them, or putting them in a “tragic “ or “ironic” light.

in stories, except in a few “ironic” or “experimental” ones (which only a handful or humans compose or read) nothing “just happens”. nothing happens because of an infinite (and therefore indescribable) series of connected events.

even in stories where things “just happen” - there is often an “ironic” undercurrent - look how stupid/greedy/evil these humans are, how much better would things be if they were enlightened/generous/selfless….

in stories bad people have bad motives and they perform bad actions which have bad consequences. and they are stopped - and can only be stopped - by good people who have good motives and perform good actions that have good consequences. if goldfinger or professor moriarty are being pursued by james bond or sherlock holmes they have to be stopped by bond or holmes - they can't just slip and fall off the side of a mountain. these are the great majority of stories, that people listen to or read.

two subsets of stories that might be considered different are “romance” stories, and pornographic stories. but in both there are “winners”. in the romance stories the female protagonist “wins” (and lives happily ever after) by ensnaring and taming a desirable mate. in the simpler pornographic stories, the protagonists (usually male) win, not “ever after” but in the moment by … you get the idea…



Tuesday, January 25, 2022

notes on world government


by a thoughtful citizen

part of this appeared in slightly different form on january 17, 2017 on the blog total world socialism now!


>

in 1941, george orwell published an essay titled “wells, hitler, and the world state”. wells being h g wells, remembered today mostly for his science fiction novels, but in his lifetime world famous as a polymath, a writer of humorous and realistic novels and of popular books on history and science, and a tireless propagandist for what at the time were “progessive” and “advanced “ ideas - particularly the idea of human “progress” itself.

orwell’s essay is well known, has been reprinted in various collections of his works, and is easy enough to find on line.

the piece is generally seen as critical, even contemptuous of wells, and wells himself apparently took exception to it.

it contains the following lines:

What is the use of pointing out that a World State is desirable? … All sensible men for decades past have been substantially in agreement with what Mr Wells says…

orwell, who was highly skeptical - to put it mildly - of the chances of actually establishing a world government , nevertheless assumed that it would be a good thing if it were possible, and also assumed that “all sensible men” thought the same way. by “sensible men” he meant the kind of people who would be called “liberals” today.

that was in 1941. what about 2022?

in 2017 i decided to search amazon for books advocating the cause of world government.

my notes were as follows:

“ world government.” i.e. to spell it out, a single government - most likely the united nations but in any case a single government - which will rule the world , replacing all the separate governments - china, the united states, nauru, the republic of san marino, and the rest of them - which now exist.

as everyone knows, and has known for many years, world government is the goal of the “elites” who more or less rule the world now. notably the mainstream media, the majority of the scientists in the world (usually given as 97%) who are promoting the hoax of global warming, and the left wing academics who are brainwashing the world’s youth.

but in searching “world government” on amazon and google and a site for available library books, i could only find a single book about the idea of world government - governing the world: the history of an idea, by mark mazower. professor mazower’s book, published in 2012, concludes with the sentence “the idea of governing the world is becoming yesterday’s dream”.

i also found a number of articles denouncing the idea of world government and/or warning against it.

but i could not find anything - anything at all - actually advocating world government.

why is this? is it because

a) the advocates of world government - who include, for starters, virtually all the journalists and all the scientists in the world - are so powerful, and so entrenched, that they are able to lull the world to sleep by keeping all references to their plans off the internet and other media, and that they are so confident of success that they do not feel the need to add new recruits to their cause

or

b) there is in fact, for better or worse, no movement for world government existing in the world today?”

*

that was in 2017. i tried amazon again in 2020, and had a bit more luck. I found two books listed. one, published n 1992, was entitled passport to freedom: a guide for world citizens. by garry davis. the other was published in 2008 and titled rescue plan for planet earth: democratic world government through a global referendium, by jim stark. those who are interested can attempt to find copies of the books.

the davis book features encomiums by albert einstein and yehudi menuhin and others. they applaud the author and his intentions, but seem to stop a little short of actually endorsing world government.

the back cover of the stark book includes quotes about world government and world peace by famous persons, including einstein again, and general douglas macarthur.

i note these two virtually unknown books in a spirit of “full disclosure”, but do not think their existence affects my basic conclusion:

there is in fact, for all practical purposes, no movement for world government existing in the world today .

(later, i found a couple of wells’s books on the subject, restored to print.)

is this not strange? it is preached endlessly, by all “major religions” and has been for centuries, that “peace” is good and that war is bad. the non-religious but “enlightened”, who constitute the ruling elites over virtually the whole planet, take this even more for granted than the avowedly religious.

and yet everywhere it is taken even more for granted that patriotism - usually labeled “true patriotism” is a good thing. it is often upheld as a guarantee against war. but “world government”, if it is ever mentioned at all, is the most sinister thing that can be imagined - by the avowed radical, by the liberal, by the libertarian, and by the conservative alike, and to be accused of “globalism” is to be cast into the darkness - by all.

“globalism!” the terrible enemy of “freedom”! and who would openly oppose freedom?

but what is the purpose pf countries except to wage war - always, of course against the “invader” or against those who would violate “”our national sovereignty”. or, in the last resort “our national honor”. nations vow to protect their identities and distinct “cultures”. “culture” is good, and especially the “culture” of the “oppressed”, which is sacred.

but is not much or most of “culture”, high and low, a celebration of war? it can be argued that even most “anti-war” cultural works - books, poems, movies, songs, whatever, - or works aspiring to show the “tragedy” of war, end up glorifying it by celebrating or admiring the heroism of the participants.

such is the situation in the year 2022, where only a handful of crackpots - unknown and ignored crackpots - keep the phrase “world government” barely alive.



Friday, January 31, 2020

no fuss


by wiggly jones, "the little hippie boy"



i was walking down the road
i had no purpose and no code
everything i knew i had forgot
and nobody cared what i thought

the sky was blank, the earth was flat
i saw no human, dog, or cat
i saw no car, no truck, no bus
i had no cause to make a fuss

my brain flew back to former life
when all i knew was toil and strife
those are old-fashioned words, no doubt
but well describe what i was about

i remember highways grim
houses bleak, and schoolrooms dim
gloomy forests running from dogs
policemen looming through the fog

always running from the man
running with no goal or plan
maybe it was not a dream
and things are really what they seem

i have no cause to weep or moan
i have my trusty cell phone
with pictures, messages, and games
losing it would be a shame

everything is now connected
all the dead are resurrected
i keep walking down the road
with no purpose and no code



Monday, January 27, 2020

walk


by wiggly jones, "the little hippie boy"



i walk down the street
and i see people just like me
but i don’t talk to them
and they don’t talk to me

why is that, i wonder
is it just their way?
or is it because
they have nothing to say?

i have a lot of things
i would like to ask about
i would be polite and courteous
and not wave my arms and shout

but i know
way down deep
if i tried to talk to strangers
they would think i was a creep

am i just a creep?
who is to say?
when the sun goes down it’s night
and when it comes back up its day



Tuesday, December 17, 2019

the happy land


by wiggly jones, "the little hippie boy"



i dream of a happy land
where the woodchopper chops his wood
and the brewer brews his brew
and the brew is always good

where the cowboy ropes his cows
and the shepherd tends his flock
and the sheriff keeps law and order
solid as a rock

where the miller mills his mill
and the baker bakes his bread
and lily jones the schoolteacher
puts good thoughts in the children’s heads

where mrs johnson bakes her pies
and wins prizes on the fourth of july
and the preacher preaches his sermon
and folks listen with open eyes

where little dogs run down the street
in the rain and in the sun
and gus wilson the postman
says hello to everyone

where sally tends her garden
and chester tips his cap
and judge harris rocks in his chair on the porch
enjoying his eternal nap



Friday, December 13, 2019

birth


by wiggly jones, "the little hippie boy"



oh you who prize your human birth
in this your current stay on earth
think back on your forgotten lives
in dusty caves and buzzing hives

in windswept trees and scattered heaps
in icy rivers and ocean deeps
in drafty stables and muddy pens
in lowly lairs and desperate dens

i see a frown upon your brow
perhaps that is enough for now
and so i pause - but anyhow
remember you were once a cow

*

remember you were once a beetle
remember you were once a snail
and if you were really lucky
maybe you were a blue whale

you may think my statements silly
you may think my musings odd
but if you have a little patience
some day you may be a god

if you do, try to remember
the trillions who await their turn
see their faces in the cosmos
and know you still have much to learn