Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
"Who could change the hearts of men?"
morning everyone.
lots of good links mickey and that phil ochs line is exactly the way I have been thinking for a long time.
with regards to the religion thing i was reading an interview with philip pullman and he had this to say…
His Dark Materials seems to be against organised religion. Do you believe in God?
I don’t know whether there’s a God or not. Nobody does, no matter what they say. I think it’s perfectly possible to explain how the universe came about without bringing God into it, but I don’t know everything, and there may well be a God somewhere, hiding away.
Actually, if he is keeping out of sight, it’s because he’s ashamed of his followers and all the cruelty and ignorance they’re responsible for promoting in his name. If I were him, I’d want nothing to do with them.
-----------------------------------------------
and for all the people who write (or try to) among us…How far is inspiration a factor in the process of writing?
Less than non-writers think. If you’re going to make a living at this business - more importantly, if you’re going to write anything that will last - you have to realise that a lot of the time, you’re going to be writing without inspiration. The trick is to write just as well without it as with. Of course, you write less readily and fluently without it; but the interesting thing is to look at the private journals and letters of great writers and see how much of the time they just had to do without inspiration. Conrad, for example, groaned at the desperate emptiness of the pages he faced; and yet he managed to cover them. Amateurs think that if they were inspired all the time, they could be professionals. Professional know that if they relied on inspiration, they’d be amateurs.
Posted by michael on from scotland 05/09 at 05:19 AMand i was bored last night…
Some anagrams of the names of our illustrious leaders
Tony Blair PM
I’M TORY PLAN B
A BLIMP NO TRY
BALM I NOT PRY
PORN BAT LIMYGeorge W Bush
BUGGERS WE OH
BUGGERS WE HO
BUGGER SHE OW
BUGGER HE SOW
BREWS EGO UGH
Margaret ThatcherCATARRH TART GEM HEMP
Donald Rumsfeld
DULLARDS FOND ME
LANDLORDS DEF SUM
ADDS DULL MEN FOR
DADS OLD MEN FURL
LAMED FUND LORDS
DERMAL FOLDS DUNDick Cheney
CHICKEN DYE
DICKY HENCEJohn Howard
WAR, D’OH JOHN
Silvio Berlusconi
VINCIBLE SOILS OUR
OBSCURE I ILL VINOSStephen Harper
REHASH NET PREP
Nicolas Sarkozy
A RACK IN SLY ZOOS
A CZAR IN YOLK, SOSFavourites anyone? Or anymore?
Posted by michael on from scotland 05/09 at 06:32 AMyeah, I agree with henri miller. hopefully I will not be redundant, but human nature has not changed since the first glimmers of ‘civilization’ in the yangtze and nile deltas, but the number of people has increased exponentially till we are now in the same situation as the elephants in a famous restricted african nature preserve who grazed themselves to death because all of the greens that were available to them ran out. and the so-called barbarians are at our door, they are even amongst us. they want our color tv sets, our suvs, our prime steaks. but of course we do not want to surrender any of these luxuries, actually we want more of them. to deplore the iraq war while complaining about the price of gasoline or decrying the awful sacrifices made to facilitate us motoring about makes no sense, because the government by subsidizing energy and maintaining protectionism of agriculture which runs on this energy, made our prosperity possible. the prescient edgar allen poe caught this in his tale of the red death, and we are equally inmured with our expensive vats of amontillado as well as trying to avoid the inevitable plague virus of having to face raw reality. one can conform and live a life of dread or step out of our bonds and breathe freely, trying to accept the human condition. we should not indulge our exceptionalism as if the present misdeeds of this nation are worse than ever before, because that would be succumbing to chomsky-esque guilt. humans are predatory animals (even those who are not carniverous), normally they protect their young, till overpopulation made them careless, and they will defend their territory, even though the threats are illusionary. and I can see god only as an increasing intelligence of the universe as I believe hawkins sees it. we contribute each of us in very small increments. despite beethoven’s libretto we will never ‘become brothers’, but at least we can try to be somewhat sapiens by trying to reduce our numbers, treat our environment more wisely and do away with the capitalist system, one really cannot hope for more. in any case I am killing off wim because he gets too prolix and nobody wants to talk to him anyway, poor sod....!
Posted by wim voetpad on from 05/09 at 08:25 AMwim said “face raw reality. one can conform and live a life of dread or step out of our bonds and breathe freely, trying to accept the human condition.” my complimentary comment: Maybe its about finding a place in our own heart, rather than changing the heart of an another. I cannot give what I dont have to start with.
michael talks about amateurs and professionals. I agree...its taking note and expanding on the little things the day provides that lends inspiration. Peace is every step.
Mickey asks “who could change the hearts of men?”
http://tinyurl.com/228smu
oh no....the camera fell off the tripod and now has a scratched lens )-:Posted by Frances on from bc 05/09 at 10:05 AMhi again. michael these photos always crack me up.
http://normalize.wordpress.com/Posted by Frances on from bc 05/09 at 10:11 AMI don’t understand… I mean, she sounds good here:
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660218941,00.htmlYet I know it’s all crap, right? No matter what, “we” will be occupying Iraq, etc. for decades to come, right?
Posted by James on from work 05/09 at 10:23 AMyep all crap
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=26308
Posted by frances on from bc 05/09 at 10:28 AMHello Expendables. The weather continues to be excellent here in NYC.
James, in the link you provde, Nancy Pelosi says the war is “wrong” and adds: “I will do anything to stop it.” Bullshit. First of all, I don’t know anyone who would do anything to stop the war. Secondly, if the House Speaker was truly willing to do practically anything to stop the war, guess what? It would stop.
There’s nothing safer or easier than opposition politics.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 05/09 at 10:31 AMLoved the Radio Raheem video, Frances...and Michael, here’s an anagram for Osama bin Laden:
A lesbian nomad
Captcha sez: woman
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 05/09 at 10:34 AMAmerica hasn’t seen an opposition party in years. Pelosi and Reid want this war even more than Bush, so they can use it in the ‘08 campaigns.
Posted by Thomas McCullock on from Colorado Springs 05/09 at 10:36 AMwow...excellent post by mick and great comments by michael, wim, frances and I am sure there are more to come as usual.
these are the questions and thoughts that have driven me my whole life and though it may be an easy out for me to say this...I keep coming back to an acceptence that I will never be able to answer them. of course, I never do truly accept the fact that I do not know that there is a God, gods, a higher power or not. I never do truly accept whether there is some point to all of this or not. I think that it is possible to achieve some sort of peace within oneself...I have had brief tastes of this...but for me, it never lasts. This is obviously a problem I need to solve for myself.
Deep inside myself, however, I feel it is true that there is a god..one that has never been explained by our religions or philosophers. This god is not responsible for what we humans have brought to this Earth at this time...but I have been able to find some peace when I connect to whatever it is inside me and around me that we might call God, or the gods or a higher power. Just because we have named it, does not mean that we understand it. I surely don’t.
So, though I have often felt as Henry Miller did I have mostly tried to live my life as Ochs wrote...as my own own religion, to try an figure out the absurdity of the world and do something about it. Part of that religion is being loving to those around you...family, friends, those others that we interact with day to day...I think I have accomplished that on a fairly consistant basis (not always of course!). As for trying to change the absurd nature of our current world...time and time again I am overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite impossiblity of it all.
One more comment on Miller’s quote. I know it well. I have literally spit at God...many times. Only soon after, I realized I did not understand what I was spitting at. I thought about, if I did understand or if God did exist, was it God’s fault...the fault of some imaginary power I have created in my mind? Where do our problems come from as human beings?
Well, from us human beings ourselves...of course. There are no miracles coming to magically wipe our slate clean. No magical do-overs. Sure, we can ask this possible higher power for help...and on an individual level I have experienced what I consider to be miracles...all when I was at my lowest, and asked for help...I got it, in very mysterious ways. But on a macro level...the help has to come from the people doing the hurt. Those of us with changed hearts have to try and change more. That’s a good religion. I for one, need to be much more vigilant in following it.
Posted by JOS on from Oak Park 05/09 at 10:39 AMI wrote for so long that I missed James’, Mick’s and Thomas’ comments...hello guys.
Posted by JOS on from Oak Park 05/09 at 10:40 AMIf that’s not crap enough, so then this:
http://supervegan.com/blog/entry.php?id=816 led to this:http://www.readexpress.com/read_freeride/2007/04/fit_a_silver_spring_beefcake_but_hold_th.php
Now I mean, it’s great that veganism is being portrayed as cool or whatever, but check out the guy’s occupation… WTF? My brain just freezes up about it all. Animal cruelty-- bad, but being part of the imperialist war machine is okay.
Posted by James on from work 05/09 at 10:43 AMMickey: you said, “There’s nothing safer or easier than opposition politics.” Remember why?
Posted by dw on from Cincinnati, Ohio 05/09 at 10:48 AM7 rules of opposition politics
from enginesofmischiefYour opponent is always wrong, even when he is right.
Preposition yourself.
Your opponents are scum.
Focus.Sincerity. Find one thing you won’t ever compromise on. Never do.
Kick people when they’re down.
It’s all about you.Politics is a blood sport. A good politician is like a shark, he smells blood in the water from miles away, and once he finds his prey, he doesn’t let go till it’s good and dead and lunch is over.
Posted by frances on from bc 05/09 at 11:05 AMhello frances JOS, wim,mickey,dw,james,thomas et al
good pictures frances.
in the UK the opposition are the ‘opposition in exile’. the people in the ruling party who don’t agree with the elite of the party could stop things if they wanted to… the ‘opposition in residence’.
however, most of them don’t want to and on the rare occasions when enough of them do the people in whoever is in the opposition party who agree with whatever plan it is will back it up so they always vote it through anyway
in other words, they’ve got you every way you can think of.
that is of course, unless you are able to think of a way that our countries can be run without having to beg murderers not to be murderers or rely on effete arseholes to do it on our (ahem) behalf.
Posted by michael on from scotland 05/09 at 11:42 AMGood Morning Everyone
A. It’s not one more than another...everything is nuts. It could only be nuts under these circumstances!
2. Believing in a ‘god’, a supreme being type of character is to give in to one of the oldest forms of terrorism.
D. Acquiring advanced levels of awareness, consciousness, was put into the hands of God Inc., some know this as Jesus Christ and the Gas Co. They were not a Speed Metal band...only an ideology.Posted by joe of maine on from 05/09 at 02:19 PMGreat comments here today, as usual.
JOS...your heart and the compassion that it holds sets an example for the rest of us.About an opposition party, how about an opposition populace? If the usa citizens did not want wars, there would be none. The voters and the taxpayers are complicit. We continue to vote for dems/repubs and expect that they will do something different next time. That’s the definition of insanity. Count the yellow ribbons the next time you are out and think about what they mean. Think about the parades and celebrations that will be coming on Memorial Day and the 4th of July. It is time to stop celebrating the war machine. Maybe it is better to burn a flag instead of a hot dog.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 05/09 at 02:51 PMJeez, RMJ, I appreciate that...of course, you know how I feel about you. You’re my hero.
As two of the only Expendables left with any belief in God we will have to try hard to save the rest of them from an eternity in hell.
Just kidding!
Posted by JOS on from Oak Park 05/09 at 03:00 PMon yellow ribbons and such...I just saw a car/war propoganda commercial where some lady who founded “a Million Thanks” or something like that in order to get people to send the troops thank you letters...because “we will never be able to thank them enough, but at least we can try!” Then they boldly proclaimed that cheverolet dealers have agreed to put her little flag painted boxes in every one of their dealerships...and advertised for their latest model. I became sick and puked on my tv.
Posted by JOS on from Oak Park 05/09 at 03:05 PMJOS… #19...You can say Mass every Sunday at the Church of the Expendables, if I can hear the Confessions. Then there should be a ceremony giving Extreme Unction to the entire nation.
JOS #20… Some schools are having very young children write letters of appreciation. I call that brain-washing.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 05/09 at 03:16 PMHello again, Expendables. What did I miss?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 05/09 at 03:44 PMHello everyone.
Re: #18 - I like it RMJ!
Michael, Re: #16 - This is the way I see it over here. It’s been well chronicled that at the very beginning of the Reagan administration there was a symbiosis between the public at large and the mainstream press. Popular spirit had been worn down from the culmination of several contentious social and political situations throughout the 1970s. There was a popular perception that the collective nervous system was tattered and that things needed to lighten up. The press acquiesced to this particular public sentiment and caved on their journalistic responsibilities by selling out to the company line. The democrats immediately took advantage of this open window. It was then that the democrats assumed the role as the new truth-seeking outlet, via the media. It was up to the democrats to catch people, not the journalist. The facts would now be separate from what one side says about the other. This spawned a prolific dissemination process of the proverbial half-truth throughout every news source in the land. The political system seized the opportunity - the media jumped on board and left the public out to sea.
There were some truth-seekers before this, as few and far between as those journalists might have been. However, now, the Fourth Estate would no longer need to worry about dealing with the harsh realities of speaking truth to power. This absence of the Fourth Estate made the average American even more apathetic about being his brother’s keeper. The public began to realize, ‘Why even pick up the newspaper when all news is routinely reduced to predictable one-liners from the same two political camps?’ Why care about the truth when the scoop was always buried into oblivion?
Pandora’s Box was opened in society. Left to its own devices, the public found all sorts of new meaning in the material world. Meanwhile, the media was becoming evermore the potent propaganda tool for the power structure. Any real sense for a meaningful and grounded pursuit of the truth got lost in the presentation of news entertainment. The American public would soon be lured back into following the “news” once again, but only because the sophisticated techniques of the corporate propaganda machine had blurred all lines of what was or was not a credible and legitimate source of communication. Much like the 1950s, people buried their heads in the sand, deciding it best to go along to get along. The power structure was masterful at the way it was able to accommodate the American public at a time when we were so intensely vulnerable. I don’t think we’ve ever recovered from this conditioned authoritarian behavioral state. Even now, amidst such clear signs for change, we seem ill equipped in reconnecting to our roots of social responsibility and environmental sustainability. As cynical as we are about the US media, we remain loyal to it because we are creatures of habit. As the old saying goes, “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”
We have to almost start a new kind of religion to be able to go back and deal with the sober reality of all these charades we’ve been playing over the last 25 years.
Posted by dw on from Cincinnati, Ohio 05/09 at 03:53 PMHello RMJ #18...yes...we see the accumulation of 500 years of domination, corruption and slaughter of innocence. We see the death of water, air, soil, food. The rearrangement of the planet. The hierarchies puzzle us over how to unite and still be able to buy food to eat and have shelter. It is easier for the weak in character to obey the demands of the weak in character and the homicidal maniacs. How to transcend the isolation and fear? How can the childlike game of follow the leader be a reality?
Religion???? Truth does not require anyone following anyone else...walk hand in hand, side by side.Posted by joe of maine on from 05/09 at 04:54 PMIt would be a real boon for america and canada to lose tv reception for a few months/years. Tv is a weird drug...people would get bored, they might start talking to each other. They might start getting involved in stuff on a local level. tv land people would have to find some other job, some other way to get their miscommunication across. Not sure if that would mean losing internet as well though, that wouldnt be so good. The net is the only place I learn of whats going on and what real people from all over the world are thinking and doing.
btw, I believe in god, just not all the systems, organizations, rules, regulations, rituals, dogma, and crappiness that goes with people getting together and thinking/singing/feeling/preaching about god.
gods everywhere and everything all around and inside too. In some peoples book that probably makes me an atheist or something....oh well...the labels are a distraction as well.
Great conversation everyone…Posted by frances on from bc 05/09 at 06:01 PMjoe #24...”...Walk hand in hand, side by side.” You sound like a socialistic-anarchist and that’s why I like you so much! Recently, I attended a very frustrating meeting of some Liberals. I once again realized why I like being with my usual socialistic and anarchist friends and what a big difference there is between liberals and socialists. I know that we should not put labels on people but what can I say…
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 05/09 at 06:03 PMuh oh looks like I am also an anti-semite.
damn labels....and having a german name isnt helping.
http://tinyurl.com/23m29mPosted by frances on from bc 05/09 at 07:38 PMExcellent post, Mickey - you really have the best quotes of any blog. And as Michael rightly says: ‘lots of good links’ to boot - each and every day.
Back from Melbourne with a new car, so all the Fremlins have to do now is to repay the loan for the next 4 years.
Re the ‘religion thing’, my eyes fell on an interesting book yesterday: Michel Onfray’s ‘The Case against Christianity’
http://www.amazon.com/Atheist-Manifesto-Against-Christianity-Judaism/dp/1559708204
Ties in neatly with Henry Miller.Good morning/afternoon from an autumnal but sunny (around 70F) Daylesford to Michael, wim voetpad, Frances, JOS, James, Thomas McCullock, dw, Joe of Maine, Rosemarie - hope all is reasonably well with my fellow expendables. And thanks for all your comments and links as well!
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 05/09 at 08:18 PMTHE SON OF A LONG ISLAND SHOREMAN == WHOSE HS TEACHER TOLD HIM HE’D NEVER AMOUNT TO MUCH.... EEKED OUT HIS GRADUATION IN 1939==JOINED THE NAVY FOR THE HOPE OF SOME KIND OF FUTURE==AND WOUND UP IN CHARGE OF OTHER MEN == WHEN THE THREAT OF WAR BROKE OUT. HE SURVIVED PEARL HARBOR AND THE NAVY MADE HIM AN NCO TO ORGANIZE THE RAPID ENLISTMENT AND DRAFT OF NEW RECRUITS. HE REMAINED IN THE NAVY UNTIL AFTER THE WAR AND WENT TO NOTRE DAME ON THE GI BILL TO TAKE UP ENGINEERING, UTILIZING THE SKILLS HE HAD ACQUIRED DURING HIS 10 YR STINT...EVENTUALLY, HE SWITCHED GEARS == RECEIVED HIS PhD IN HISTORY AND TAUGHT IN THE HONORS PROGRAM AT YALE. HE BECAME THE PREMIER SCHOLAR ON TWO CONTINENTS IN HIS EXAMINATION OF THE LIFE AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. HE WAS COMMISSIONED BY THE US BI-CENTENNIAL SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE TO PRESENT HIS WORK IN BOTH FRANCE AND THE US. HE TOLD HIS STUDENTS==THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A DUMB QUESTION ==RATHER IMPATIECE OF THE LISTENER.. WHEN ASKED ABOUT THE EXISTENCE OF GOD == DR STANLEY J IDZERDA WOULD QUOTE AQUINAS AND OTHERS IN A SIMPLE RESPONSE == “HE..THE CREATOR..LOVES US SO PURELY THAT HE GIVES EACH OF US THE VERY RIGHT TO DENY HIM..” STANLEY SAW THE HEART OF THE CREATOR AS HE CLUNG WITH HIS MEN TO SHARDS OF METAL == PLEADING FOR SALVATION ON THAT DAY OF INFAMY == DECEMBER 7, 1941… HE NEVER FORGOT THOSE CRYS AND TO THIS DAY == HE SPEAKS LOVINGLY OF THE CREATOR == WHO NEVER CEASES LOVE FOR HIS CREATION.... and we complain...and scorn..and doubt..but THE LOVE IS THERE NONETHELESS..........WHAT IS YOUR DECISION ????? ........
unclerichie
Posted by richie on from st cloud/n ft myers fl 05/10 at 12:09 AM
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