How Can America Take In Immigrants?

It seems that the Attorney Generals of several states have decided that if the Federal government says they're taking in immigrants from Syria, Iraq, or any other spot on Earth, they must accommodate them. This is true. I was living in S. Florida during the Mariel boat lift and President Carter ordered the State to deal with it. We did, at great economic cost and with a huge amount of social upheaval. It was not a pleasant time, to say the least.

The Federal government does not have to accept these refugees but it is clear that they are going to, and it is an awful idea. Let's put aside, for a moment, the differences in culture, which are vast. Let's even forget the possibility that we will be admitting ISIL trained terrorists.

In case you haven't noticed, we are broke. The US owes an unthinkably large debt, trillions of dollars and growing by the second. We cannot pay the interest on this and every few months we have to go through a Congressional crisis to raise the debt ceiling just to stay operational. At that point, the Federal Reserve issues more cash and each time, that cash gets more and more worthless. In short, the US is broke and yet we still keep spending money at an astounding rate.

In spite of all this spending, much of which is wasted, flushed down the toilet, in absurd military adventures, many, many folks in this Nation are in dire straits We are determined to bring political change to nation after nation despite not being able to change our own politics to something that at least vaguely resembles reality.

In this Country, by last count, there are about 500000 homeless people. Any who still think of the homeless as a bunch of lazy bums, as winos and junkies, may find it enlightening to know that 125000 of them are children. In addition, an enormous number are veterans who served in these useless wars. Our politics has ruined their lives and we have cast them aside like yesterday's garbage.

On top of this, many of the Nations elderly and disabled are living in squalor and have little hope of improvement. One in five kids tonight will go to bed not knowing where their next meal will come from and those lucky enough to get that meal will often be stuffed with cheap carbohydrates instead of the proteins and vitamins they need to function and grow.

We do not need to take in more people who cannot care for themselves. It is that simple and I do not want to hear ever again how it is our moral duty to do so. The neighbors of these poor folks are the Saudis, the Kuwaitis, the members of the United Arab Emirates, all nations that are fantastically wealthy, yet they will not take in these people who are their fellow Muslims. I thought one of the 5 Pillars of Islam was charity. I see no such charity from those hypocritically wealthy Arab nations, and, again, I must say, we are just too broke and too overtaxed to take them in.

But, I most likely am just talking to the wind because the fools who run this country are going to do what they are going to do and the welfare of the American people be damned. It's going to be a strange few years.

The Madness of America

We are all quite mad. That's okay. I like craziness because from madness comes change and beauty. However, madness takes many forms, and the less pleasant manifestations are the most prevalent at the moment.

Americans are stuck in a weird paranoia mixed with a near catatonic reaction to the World. Everyone seems out to get us, terrorists are plotting and lone nuts are lurking everywhere, and we take two paths; we arm ourselves to the teeth with fearsome weapons and we devote our spare time to mindless shopping and even more mindless entertainment. Be honest, who really needs an automatic weapon for self defense? I am totally against gun control legislation because I don't want the government taking any more of our rights, but, seriously, unless you live in a war zone, any ordinary hand gun or shotgun will deter evil-doers and you damn sure aren't going rabbit hunting with an automatic rifle.

We shop mindlessly. I love shopping, but I believe I use a little sense, yet, year after year, folks go out and buy enormous quantities of gifts at Christmas, using plastic, and put themselves in a financial hole they will never dig their way out of. Then, throughout the year them stress themselves to the breaking point as they struggle to  keep a roof over their heads and some food on the table.

Then, one and all relax by watching idiotic shows on TV ( how many people really think Duck Dynasty, America's Got Talent, and Real Housewives are worth spending more than 5 minutes with?), or watching overpaid, steroid fed, giants beat the snot out of each other on the football field and vastly overpaid baseball players who can't field their position or run the bases as good as kids I used to play pickup games with.

So we retreat, further and further into a cocoon spun of ennui and paranoia, a less than fine madness. The solution? Well, things can go 3 ways. You can shrink and shrink, numbing yourself with inane activity and various combinations of alcohol and prescription meds, until there is nothing left but a dry husk of a corpse. You can continue to retreat, letting all the insanity build until, one fine day, you explode and find yourself joining in some irrational political terrorism or running the streets as a lone nut.

Or, you can change the course of your lunacy, put down the credit cards and TV listings, turn off the overpaid and under talented athletes and celebrities, and let your fancies blow. You want to travel, write poetry, sing opera at the top of your lungs, learn Swahili, dance in Bali or climb mountains, go for it and, as long as you're not hurting others, who gives a damn what anyone thinks. You want to walk the woods where bears still roam or visit the wolves in the Arctic? Fine. You want to seek vampires in Transylvania, dive for giant squid in the Pacific or build a receiver to listen for messages from outer space, why not?

If you 14 or 84, it does not matter. If you cannot, due to physical or economic limitations, do what you want, then let your mind roam. Read, look at pictures, listen to music, talk to travelers in the strange lands and then let your mind go free. Your daydreams are far more important than shopping at Macy's and catching up on the Kardashians. Go crazy. Nothing wrong with madness as long as it is the madness of your choice.

Aging in America

Okay, we all age, and that's not too bad. Like my Dad used to say, "consider the alternative." We have all seen programs and ads on TV about the 'golden years.' Well, that may be a bit of a stretch.

To those who think they will keep working until they are in their 70s, good luck with that. You best hang on to what ever job you have for dear life, because the days of older folks getting a nice, easy part-time job are gone. If you are older and looking for that little job to bring in some money and fill your hours, you will be competing with folks from 16 to 55 who need that bit of cash to feed their families and, guess what? You lose, and in fairness, I understand that. Why should an employer train you for a job you won't keep for more than a few years and are not likely to take seriously, when they can get a young healthy, eager, person who might stay for years.

For example, I have a lot of experience working in food service. While living in a college town, I tried to get a job, just a few hours a week, and there were openings, but I never found one and wondered why. Then, in a flash, I figured it out. The customers were mostly college kids. Given a choice between a 60 year old, gray haired, chubby man or a cute young boy or girl. who would you hire? The young person, obviously. Even though I had much more experience and could work circles around most of them, their youth was the clincher. Makes sense to me.

Also, you have insurance and workman's comp issues. It is far easier and less expensive to insure young folks. Another factor is the unwillingness of older workers to change their way of working. We do get set in our ways and it is hard to change the way you have worked for years to accommodate a new boss.

So, when you age, you have a problem when it comes to working and let me honest, those images of old folks playing golf and cards and attending dinners and shows are not realistic, unless you have much money. Even then, recreation, as a steady diet, gets damn boring.

So, what to do? Answer; re-invent yourself. Change your habits, try to find new interests, and then do something, anything. If you try something and it doesn't work, or you lose interest, try something else, or try several things. Keep your mind sharp. Turn off the TV and the Computer and get outside and move around. If something you are interested is marketable, sell, it. You won't get rich, but you likely will have fun. Or, give what you make away; folks love little gifts. Or volunteer, teach kids, help those who need help, work at an animal shelter. Whatever you want to do, go for it.

Keep going, keep changing, keep learning, and don't stop until you just can't keep going. Then, you can sit back and think about all the good you did, all the fun you had, and even then, always be ready to share, to talk with others about all you have seen and done and learned.

And, to all you younger folks. America does something inexcusable, shameful. We are the culture that has decided that youth is all that matters. Look at the ads and TV shows, the emphasis is on youth. Youth is great, but to overlook the beauty and wisdom of the elderly is a grave mistake, one that the rest of the world doesn't make. Remember, one day, if all goes well, you too will be old and what goes around, comes around.

American Conspiracies

I have touched on this before, but I would like to return to the subject of conspiracy. Across the Internet, you find page after page of conspiracy theories. As I said, if you use the truest sense of the word, I believe them all. People are constantly throwing out weird ideas and kicking them around. Sometimes, they try them out, sometimes not, but just talking constitutes a conspiracy.

Now, how many work? Few, and when they do, they seldom resemble the original plan. It would be rare  to find any conspiracy where at least one, and usually several folks, don't try to turn it to their advantage.

To those who say that conspiracies never work because humans cannot keep secrets, I say that you are right and wrong. Yes, we all have big mouths and love to brag when we pull something off, but there is a way to work things. In Robert Heinlein's classic Sci-fi novel, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, he discusses how to set up cells in a hierarchy. This way, each cell has a small part in the plot, but doesn't know the whole story. In fact they may not even know they are in a plot, and, if they do, they likely will not know that a hostile cell is really working for the same goal. In addition, the only ones who know the whole plot are the leaders, he recommends no more than three, and, if one of them weakens and talks, he doesn't know the whole structure.

So, yeah, a conspiracy can work, and they have. Usually, some one does figure things out, but not always, and usually well after it no longer matters. Only human nature, the urge to have your own way, the drive to become leader, keeps conspiracies from working more often. So, so we have conspiracies to dominate the economy, to use terrorism to tighten controls on the general population, to cripple some industries or some nations. Similarly, there are conspiracies to make certain religions dominant, to reduce the population and to control the flow of information. Yes, there are conspiracies to create a one world government.

Will such conspiracies work? No, not in the way they are planned, because you just cannot control everything. Some plans work sometimes for a while, but ultimately, they all fall apart. But, to hear many pundits, it's all a done deal and any day now, the Freemasons or the Vatican or the Nazis or the Returning Ancient Aliens or whatever group you want to make the villain will step forward and place their boots on your neck, before they herd you off to the camps. Nonsense. Oh, don't get me wrong. Attempts will be made, but the nature of conspiracies and the nature of human beings will deny the attempts.

Next time you hear or read the crap that these forecasters of doom write, ask one question. It is something almost all of them have written or spoken of: who killed JFK? You will learn that he was killed by either the Mob, Oswald, the CIA, the FBI, Cubans sent by Castro, Cubans who hated Castro, the Vatican, Mossad, the Freemasons, the Army, the KGB, LBJ, Texas oil men, European bankers, or some combination of these forces. Heck, some say that it was conspiracy of all of them. Guess what? We do not know and it is growing more and more likely that we will never know.

So, in the future, when you are confronted with mind numbing recitations of  doomsday scenarios and plots hatched by evil doers, don't worry. Oh, they are probably all true in some odd way, but they won't work, because, well, the World just does not work that way. Computer people used to say that 'information wants to be free.' Well, I'm not convinced of that, but I know that the World, the Divine Creation, wants to be free and will not long suffer the petty plots of puny men. So chill, don't worry, fight what you can and what you must, and just ride out the rest. Good days will come back.

America - The Party Continues

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, but think: there's still 2 days left until Monday, so continue to be of good cheer. Just don't get carried away.

In certain ways, we have become a bit Puritanical in recent years. Warning after warning is released by the Medical professionals warning of the dire consequences of eating this and drinking that. The White House, under the guidance of Michelle Obama, seconded those warnings and began touting health as the main issue facing the Nation.

Nonsense. We live longer now than ever, and, except for some aches and pains, live a higher quality life in our later years than royalty did a couple of hundred years ago. Guess what? The folks of my age and our parents are those people who are now old and we never paid a lot of attention to health warnings. We ate red meat, eggs. pastries, rich cheeses, and butter. We drank countless gallons of coffee. At the Holidays, we guzzled egg nog and nibbled fudge. Summer holidays meant meats cooked on grills, butter drenched corn on the cob and mayonnaise laden potato salad, and rich ice creams. And we are still here.

We drank alcohol; hell, we got down right drunk; a lot. We smoked, substances both legal and illegal and we are still here.

Do I have aches and pains? Yep, but they are all juts from the wear and tear of working too hard. Other than that, I have not had a cold in about three years and have more mental energy than most teenagers I see.

Now, I know that it is easy to get carried away. Lord knows I did quite frequently, and when you do, you will pay the Devil's price. Hangovers, upset stomachs, and a post-holiday expansion of your waistline are not fun, but, you get over them. Accident, because you were stupid enough to drive when you are loaded, are not easy to get over and I am sure you don't want to spend time in jail and the courtroom for being caught driving drunk.

So, have fun, let loose a little, and don't worry too much if you over do it a little, but remember, the key word there is little, And, always, if you intend to have more than 1 or 2 drinks, park the car. Give someone else your keys. Take a cab. Sleep over on a sofa. Do not drive. Hangovers and bulging tummies  are inconveniences. Jail cells, courtrooms, hospitals and morgues are tragedies. 

America and Christmas

It has become a sort of tradition for pundits to decry the commercialization of Christmas in America. I see the point, but why go on about it. Things are what they are and the fact that some folks go over the top during the season should not affect your enjoyment of the holiday. Besides, maybe that's how they enjoy themselves. It isn't up to me to judge.

The main thing is to enjoy yourself. There will be plenty of time in the upcoming year to bemoan the decline of the Country. Who know? Maybe if folks would just sit back for the holidays and concentrate on the positive, they would enter the next year with a new attitude. That might be what it takes to put the brakes on our Nation's woes.

I am at the age where I live in an almost timeless world. That happens when you no longer have to get up and head to the job each day, and I find myself slipping in and out of Christmas present, peeking here and there at possible future Christmases and spending a good bit of time on past ones. This is odd for me, as I am not much given to nostalgia. Still, it is nice to conjure up visions of the many wonderful holidays I have been blessed with and to envision lovely future ones.

What is my point? I have none other that to advise you to sit back for the next week at every opportunity and simply enjoy yourselves. Don't worry, stop fussing and let the World's cares roll off your back. Plenty of time for all that later; now, your only task is enjoyment, so get to it. Eat, talk, relax, watch sports, play with kids, heck, just sit and stare out the window if that's what you like to do.

In short, have a Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year. 

American Language

American English is a wonderfully expressive language, very colorful, and cursing, in the Land, used to be something of an art form. Let me first say that I have nothing against profanity when used appropriately, which usually means sparingly.

I have known many a person who could let out long strings of hilariously profane words when the situation was appropriate. I myself was once something of a master at this. When I hammered my finger to the edge of a PVC pipe with a 5 pound hammer I let fly with a string that should have been recorded to preserve its colorful brilliance, but, I did not do so at every occasion. When used rarely, such language is effective. Overuse makes it boring.

I certainly can't speak for girls, but when I was young, cursing was something of a right of passage. The first time you let out with a swear word around your Dad and he let it pass without comment, you knew you were growing up. Even more important was the first time you were allowed to continue sitting around the grown up men when the jokes got racy (do folks still even use that word?). Now,7 year olds use language in public that would have gotten me slapped and sent too my room and they probably know more about sex than I did when I was 14, and parents seem alright with this. I have ambivalent feelings. It is not a good idea to keep kids in the dark about such matters and hearing a 7 year old let loose with a curse word should not be cause for panic, but I still think that kids should be eased into adulthood. Now, it seems that they are exposed to everything at the earliest possible age and while I am not sure that this is harmful, I do believe that it costs kids in that they cannot pass through the stages of growth in an orderly manner. Then again, I don't have kids, so maybe I am just being stuffy and overly conservative.

But I do know that it is too easy to slip into frequent obscenity and when that language is over used it is boring and it robs the language of some of its beauty. English is a fine, expressive language and to use only a few words over and over is a shame. By the way, this goes for other over used words as well. Please learn to use words other than 'awesome,' 'dude,' 'bro,' and 'bitch.' Read some and learn how the language should be used. Parents, your kids learn how to speak from you more that friends or school so, tone down the cursing, use a variety of word, don't always speak in slang, and let your kids see you read every now and then. You don't have to be prudish and you don't have to sound like an English professor, but you would do your children a great favor by showing them how to use decent, expressive, and pleasant language. At the same time, if you whack your hand with a hammer and let the curses fly, you're excused.

America May Be the Big Loser in this Year's Campaign

I watched the news today and found that the main story, talked about ad nauseum, was the ridiculous controversy between Trump and Clinton, who seem hell bent to take this campaign to new lows. She's claiming that ISIL is using him as a recruiting tool. True? Who knows? I am not about to start frequenting their websites to find out, but the consensus is, no. They could, they might, but not yet. I will say that he is giving them a great target.

So the Donald has called her a liar. True? Of course; she's been caught in lies often, but, to be fair. I don't know of a politician who doesn't lie. Still. a toning down of the rhetoric may not be a bad idea. After all, we have a huge number of major issues to solve and we really need to keep these useless debates above schoolyard level.

But, the Donald, in his drive to obliterate the competition has stooped lower in using a Yiddish obscenity to describe her loss to Obama. I can honestly say that he has reached a new low. I have seen campaigns since Kennedy and Nixon competed and never have I heard a candidate use such a term. Now, profanity doesn't shock me, and, when used sparingly, doesn't offend me, but there is a time a place for everything and Trump crossed it. Of course this is a man who recently called Jeb Bush 'an embarrassment to his family.' I loathe the Bushes but engaging in such attacks does nothing to advance the dialogue needed to begin solving some of our problems.

However, our despicable media has latched onto this like a pit bull on pork roast. A dizzying array of   talking heads have already crossed the screen analyzing this juvenile display. Mind you, I am not saying I disagree with Trump, but, seriously, can't we do a bit better.

By the way, neither of these two have been nominated yet. The Donald is by no means a sure thing. So far, he is attracting attention because he is loud, entertaining, and makes a lot of valid points, but, he is something g of a novelty act. We don't know if those who support him in polls will actually turn out and vote. Clinton has her own problems since there is still a fair chance that she will be indicted for her email problems. I don't think so, but maybe. We can only hope.

If these two are the nominees, I believe that I will ignore the campaigns. I will probably vote for anyone other that Clinton, unless Jeb somehow manages, against all odds, to get the nomination. If, God forbid, it is a Clinton-Bush battle, I think I will spend the time doing something more useful, like watching cartoons.

America on Line - Part 3

The Red Queen told Alice that in her kingdom, you had to run as fast as you could, to stay in place. That is the World we are beginning to find ourselves in and the result is painfully obvious. Terrorism, enormous gaps between the rich and poor, children the World over taken captive and sold into sexual slavery, random and idiotic acts of violence are everyday events. How many times now have kids walked into school and opened fire on other kids? How many times have seemingly fairly normal people walked into their places of employment and shot the place up or driven cars into crowds. On and on it goes.

 

Much of this is driven by images on the Internet. Anyone, (don't kid yourselves, kids are better at this stuff than we are) can find, sometimes surprisingly, brutal scenes and sexual images that would shock the Marquis de Sade. Video games are brutally violent and terribly attractive and entertaining but consider this. We know, after many years of extensive and often sadistic psychological testing, that electronic signals presented to the brain, at cetain frequencies, all of those flashing lights and fiickering images punctuated by explosions and electronic noises, change the brain. They hypnotise and they open seldom touched areas of the brain and they affect behavior. Not in everyone, of course not, but in some, and those few tend to act out violently. This keeps all of us on edge.

 

As I said in ther last post, the noose keeps on tightening, especially when the disappearence of good jobs is coupled with the images of wealth and luxury broadcast constantly to the dirt poor, topped off with the constant stress of crowded urban living. I said in my last post that I think the endgame is approaching. I do, but I do not believe it will be a grand one shot thing. Instead, you will see a further erosion of our quality of life. There will be more and more incidents of little, senseless acts of violence. As people grow more and more estranged from their meighbors, you will see a steep rise in cheap drug use. In Brasil, in the poor areas, inhalents are the main source of escape, mind and body rotting hydrocarbons that are so widely used that they cannot be made illegal. We are already seeing the depraved use of kids for sexual deviants become increasingly common. Big cities are full of very young prostitutes. It is a short step from things like Ultimate Fighting to out and out blood sports. From dog fighting in death pits to humans in those same pits is not much of a leap.

 

What can be done? Resist. Use your computer, but control your use, and especially control your kid's computer usage. In fact, control all of your electronic media exposure. The content is not only frquently unsavory, the electronics themselves are unhealthy and the manipulation of frequencies of the elctromanetic signals has amazing effects on the psyche. Stay away from any man-made drugs unless you are a) absolutely sure of their purity and b) absolutely convinced of their need. Get outside, walk, socialize with real flesh and blood living beings. Talk to neighbors, call family, play with dogs and cats, watch birds and butterfies, anything to stay connected to the Earth.

 

Do not buy something if you cannot afford it and then stop and think, 'will I really use and enjoy this, or is it just more useless junk, just another silly gadget? Play games, real games with friends and family. Board games, card games, hopscotch, golf, badmitten, even just a game of catch, something involving other people, and if they won't play, get an old ball and play with the dog; they'll play until they drop.

 

Economically, do what you can. We all have to compromise our ideals to put food on the table and a roof overhead, but try not to stray too far. If you are young, consider learning a trade; computers can't fix plumbing, yet, and robots are not able to build houses, again, yet. Try to learn to do things yourself, cooking, simple repairs, easy things. Anywhere you can save money and stay out of debt.

 

And last, pay attention to the news, without wallowing in it. Watch for trends, upsurges in violence, economic tensions. You need to have an idea what's happeneing, but don't obsess over it. That will stress you even more. Especially, watch out for upturns in odd diseases or diseases that seldom show up anymore. I don't believe that biological warfare is on the doorstep because that is not necessary. Any animal population that is stressed badly enough will become diseased and start dying off. No one knows why, no one know the exact mechanism, but it is true.

 

The answer? Don't allow things to continue to deteriorate. There is time if people will begin to take responsibility for their own lives and start backing away from this dreadful game that we have been pushed into. Slow down, ease up, opt out of anything that causes too much stress. Do not allow the virtual world to become your home and stop buying every damn thing your told you need. We are still a little way from the tipping point. If we reach that point, well, get ready to run.

America on Line - Part 2

I want to reiterate. I am in no way suggesting that we abandon computers and the Internet, They are too useful as tools. Obviously, I am using them myself. But, we must control the technology and not allow it to control us. More specifically, we must not allow those who control the technology to control us.

Change is a Universal constant, but at an organic level, at the level of human consciousness, the pace is usually comfortable. We can adapt and, when catastrophic change occurs, we have some energy and some solid mental ground to stand on. The pace of the World has been changed and now we lurch forward at breakneck speed, hell bent for, well, for what, we don't know. This is the essence of stress and when you stress anything enough, be it a steel bar, a belief system, or a human being, it snaps. Why are things being driven this way?

Well, it all started as a push toward money and power. If you break a human, you control him and, if a few die along the way, from that point of view, no problem. There are plenty of people, plenty of customers, and, some would argue, there are too many, so losing some is a bonus. Humans placed under this sort of stress react two ways.

First, fight; rebel; and turn back things to a time when things were under control and your particular group was great. This is what we see in all of the various terrorist groups. Their ideology may be radically different, but that is unimportant. Their thrust, their goal is the same. Win or destroy everything, anything to stop what they perceive as unacceptable madness.

Nothing new there; Hitler wanted to return Germany to the glory days of per-Christian paganism (they weren't that glorious, but nostalgia for days that never were is a common emotion). When it became clear that no such thing was going to happen, he was content to see the nation destroyed rather than concede defeat. Blessedly, he did not develop atomic weapons and accurate delivery systems or we would all, now, be glowing in the dark This is what is happening with ISIL, Right now they are in their conquest phase, but soon, inevitably, for you cannot turn back time, they will see that they will not win and I will bet large sums of money (if I had them) that they will see to the ruin of the lands they claim to represent. Hopefully, we will keep devastating weapons out of their hands. And, we Americans should not be too smug. We still have a strong White Supremacy/ Christian Identity movement in this Country that is quiet now, but can grow dangerously active quickly.

ISIL and theses other groups are not, as they claim, reacting to immorality and decadence. Yes, they see this on the Internet and are revolted with it, but there is more. They are not even really reacting to the obscene discrepancy between the rich and poor. They are reacting to a World that is changing so fast that they cannot keep up, a World that seems to have no place for them. Many others are feeling the same and I wonder when the whole mess will boil over.

On a more individual level, we are replacing real interpersonal relations with virtual relationships. Email is fine for business, but what ever happened to writing notes and letters to friends and families. The act of putting pen to paper and guiding it with your hand transfers some of you to the writing. Making a phone call, using your voice, gives a part of you to the other party; texting gives them nothing but shorthand thoughts, transferred bits of cold information. Facebook allows you to claim as "friends" people with whom you have never shared a real moment of human contact.

Just recently, I saw a feature on the news about a very disturbing trend in Japan. People there have become captivated by robotic dogs. They want something fuzzy to hold and talk to, without the bother of relating to a real, living creature.

In this Country, when porn hit the Internet, it exploded. I guess it is still big; I don't keep track of such things. Why the boom? Because it gives the illusion of sex without the bother of a relationship. However, you also miss the great joys of the real relationship. Now, we have the very distasteful  phenomenon of sexting; having a sexual relationship by exchanging bit of electronic data. We want relationships without the bother of people.

I am convinced that we are entering a stage of cyber-Gnosticism, a rejection of the physical world for a "purer" world of the spirit. However, a mistake has been made. Spirit is more than bits of information. The old Gnostics knew that and knew that you had to live in this world to develop spirit. We are reducing ourselves to flashing, glittering pixels that spring to life when summoned, then fade back into a dark cyber-void until again called forth.

And, all the while, those who run the Internet get rich by keeping track of everything you do on line and selling the data, or using it themselves to gear marketing toward you. That marketing is so sophisticated that it becomes almost irresistible, urging us to buy more and more crap, more and more stupid gadgets that no sane person needs and that you really cannot afford.

Here, things get interesting. When you buy things you cannot afford, you go into debt and then you are controlled. Being in debt is a form of slavery. You must do as you are told or suffer dire consequences. The folks running the Internet don't care about that, but the ones who control them, the real Powers that Be, do. They use your debt and all of that other information gathered on line to tighten the noose, to create more strain, until you finally break.

At that point, when the nooses are all nice and snug, we will be reaching the end game, and next time, we will talk about that and I will offer a suggestion or two on how to resist. All is not lost, although time may be growing short

America on Line - Part 1

I stated in my last blog that I love technology, but that comes with a disclaimer. I love technology that is subjugated to human interests. More and more, I believe that we are allowing technology to dominate us.

Stephen King wrote a great story called The Tommyknockers which featured, as the villains a race of extraterrestrials who loved to tinker and build great gadgets, even though they didn't understand the science behind them and had no real purpose in building them. They just tinkered and mindlessly built a lot of junk and found uses for some of it. Of course, being a King novel, the uses were evil.

Are we much different? We build great electronic gear, but we still, if we are honest, really don't know what electricity is. We can say it is moving electrons, but, while we can describe some aspects of those electrons and use mathematics to explain some of their motions, we cannot say just what an electron is and its motions are, according to quantum mechanics, kind of sketchy. But, we build and build and a lot of the stuff we build is pretty useful.

So we have made machines of greater and greater complexity, all the while assuring ourselves that all would be to our benefit. It is not. Humans need to work, to be active, and here and there, to feel creative. We all love to complain about working but let me assure you, having recently gone through it, not having a job to go to each day is incredibly disorienting. Retirement is not easy to get used to even when you have reached the appropriate age.

Thanks to advances in technology, folks who have trained to do certain jobs, who take pride in their work, are being replaced by advances in technology. I recently read about the people who were working in Eastman Kodak's facility in Rochester, NY. The rise in digital technology which had led to the ubiquitous smart phone pictures  has put them out of work. There are those who say that they just need to retrain and get new jobs, but what is there to do? Robotics have streamlined production to the point that few real humans need to do much and, as time passes, robots will do most everything. We will become a Nation of burger servers and Uber drivers  and it will hit other, poorer countries harder. In Third World countries, folks work for next to nothing making clothes. What will happen when machines are sophisticated enough to measure, cut, and stitch material? If that cannot yet be done, hang in, it will be soon. Actually, I may be behind the times, and machines may be now making our clothes, things change so fast it is hard to keep up.

What will happen in those countries when people who are willingly working for slave wages are told they no longer will even have that? Heck, what will happen in this country? Corporations will tell you that they are responsible to investors and must find the lowest ways to produce their goods. I guess eliminating people altogether and sticking with robotics, from that view point is the way to go.

But what of the billions who are just eking by? What will they do? Well, pay attention folks, because here is where things get weird. Look up, on your computer, The Georgia Guidestones. This monument, paid for by some anonymous donor, seems to be a statement of purpose, a plan for recreating the World, and one of its goals is to limit the World's population to 500000000, a half billion. To get there would require eliminating about 6 billion humans. Now, I have trouble believing that the sponsors of this program are going to patiently wait for birth control to lower the population. And this is not just the work of some loan, rich nut. Other groups have echoed similar sentiments, many of them men and women with great power and influence. Think David Rockefeller kind of rich and influential.

How will those goals be accomplished? I don't have a clue, bur I am fairly sure that it won't be pleasant. Sometimes I think that the primary way will be to simply convince everyone that they are meaningless and let angry despair set off a wide range of disasters. This is some, not all, but some, of the driving force behind the great allure of terrorism. If someone feels worthless, the idea of pleasing some angry deity by killing themselves and others becomes a little more understandable.

So next time you think of how great all your gadgets are and how wonderful our computerized world is, think again. All things in this world are a blend of good and evil. Any thing that purports to be a great boon to man will come with a Devil's Price. What will the future bring? Who knows? Remember Frank Herbert's book, Dune. The story is set in a time when man, tired of being ruled by machines has rebelled and fought a long war against the robots, finally winning and banning thinking machines forever.

In Part 2, I will talk a bit more about what our compulsive use of technology is doing to our souls. Remember, technology is fine, as long as we remain the bosses.

What happens in America When the Lights Go Out

I love technology. I love the conveniences of modern life. But, stop and think a minute. we are now almost entirely dependent on a web of electrical connections. This morning I was in a Walmart and the registers went off line. You might have thought that the Apocalypse had just been announced, and that was just a temporary glitch.

Webs, by their very nature, are delicate things. Well, you might say, there are always backups to everything on the Internet and many ways to rout power around the electrical grids. True enough, but not foolproof.

Recently, Russian subs were seen hovering in the Atlantic near the undersea cables that link the Internet. Now, Putin is a trickster and seems to greatly enjoy tormenting us, but what if, in some kind of snit, he ordered those cables destroyed. Or worse, what if one of the many terrorist groups got hold of a sub and started hacking at those cables. How would businesses and cities cope?

Worse yet, suppose a terrorist group finally gets its hands on a nuclear device, a big one. Then suppose that they found a plane big enough to deliver it or a missile that can carry it (and that they can control). Or suppose China, which has such capabilities, decides they are just fed up with the way the World is going. The sensible thing to do with such a weapon, if you only have one, is not to hit a land target, but to detonate it in the upper atmosphere. The electromagnetic pulse would fry every circuit on Earth. No Internet, no communications, no electricity.

Or Nature may get testy. We are protected from solar flares by our electromagnetic field. From time to time, that field shifts and weakens. If our Sun releases a flare at one of those times, again, all circuits are gone (not too mention a whole lot of other problems. for now, let's stick to electrical woes).

Of course there are generators, but those will not do a lot of good if all the circuits are fried and rewiring complex systems is a lengthy process.

None of these scenarios are all that far fetched. So again I ask you, what would you do? I can guarantee that very few would be ready for that. Heck, I am not sure most people can even make change in a store without the register telling them what to do. But, there are a few basic skills that anyone can and should learn. I am not talking about becoming a hard-core survivalist, just becoming marginally competent in working without power, skills that most people had not all that long ago. In future bogs, I am going to give a few tips.

When Will America's Bubble Break?

What goes up, comes down. Nothing could be simpler, nothing is more true. At the risk of being thought overly pessimistic, let me say that this will be true in this country, just as it has proved true in every nation, every civilization, that has sought greatness. Sorry folks, that's just the way it is.

This has little to do with terrorism; that is but a symptom.  Look  at the World and you will learn, Things age, they die, and, from that, new is born. I didn't make the rules, but I see the logic. A human, or any other creature born will, over time, loose its ability to function. Civilizations are no different.

Civilizations coalesce when people get new ideas, when they find new world views and this is going to happen as long as we have life. Change is the only constant in the Cosmos. If you are not changing, you are dying. We are constantly learning about ourselves and our World and you cannot ignore what is learned. To do so, to attempt to live in a World that is dead, a World that is no longer authentic is suicide and, yet, that is what many, many attempt.

Politicians strut on the stages, spouting stale rhetoric. "We are the strongest. The rest of the World looks to us for guidance." This is nonsense, dangerous nonsense. True, we have a whole bunch of nuclear missiles and bombs but we cannot use them without destroying ourselves, Our conventional forces are depleted, our troops, while brave fighters, are burnt out, and let us for once be honest, we cannot now defeat a small army of half trained, poorly equipped lunatics hiding in the desert because we are petrified that to do so would arouse the wrath of various countries. Sorry, we have lost the will to be great. That happens with all creatures as they age and countries are no different.

As far as the rest of the World is concerned, we are a somewhat useful tool. They would love for us to waste our funds and the lives of young men in efforts to save their asses. We, seemingly are dumb enough to keep doing this. I have recently heard it suggested that we, despite being involved in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, and despite still, after almost seventy years having many troops in S. Korea and many more in Europe, that we need to do something about ISIS in Libya. What pressing business do we have in Libya? Where next? Samoa? The Canary Islands? Nepal? Maybe we should just draft every 18 year old, male and female (who, by the way, will be sent into combat) and put troops and missiles in every damn country on Earth and threaten to kill anyone who steps out of line.

Not a good idea? I agree, so let's try this. Push, and push hard, to crush the monster that is ISIS, then get out of the Mid-East, and get out of every other country. Then tell the World to handle its own affairs while we figure out just where we are going and what we want to be when we grow up. Only teenage boys, with raging testosterone want to fight everything that moves.

Our Nation is entering a new phase, hopefully a more mature one, where we stop trying to run the World. From that we will change as we age. That is natural and as it should be. There will be a time when the young, headstrong Nation we were will be gone. Make no mistake about that, and in a whole lot of ways, I will miss the hell out of that. But, what will be, will be. We have two choices. Finish what we started and then mature into something new, or , like many young people, burn out and crash in flames. The latter choice does have a certain romantic appeal but, I have seen that happen to many people and it is not nearly as exciting as it sounds.

America and Fear - Part 5

In Frank Herbert's great book Dune, an oft repeated phrase is 'Fear is the Mind Killer.' True, usually, however, fear can be used. Fear, when controlled, can bring the mind to a razor sharp edge, for awhile. If uncontrolled, or if it continues for too long, the mind buckles from stress and thought, clear thought, becomes impossible.

In the first 4 parts of this series, I have traced the mind-boggling rate of change we have seen in the last 150 years. It has been exciting and it has been draining and nothing slows down. Still, we have to cope. The fear response to such change is understandable, but we have to take a few deep breaths and get over it. In the past, change was dealt with by relying on an underlying system of thought, a world view, and these changed slowly. We no longer have that option or that crutch and far too many are looking at past views of our place in the World in hopes of finding security.

Often, such world views are bound to religions, so let's look there. Much of the World is Hindu or Buddhist and those views can be discounted because they largely view this World as unimportant. True, that might help you cope but only if you basically just want to opt out of the whole deal. Tempting, perhaps, but in the long run, unsatisfying.

Judaism is no longer a major player on the World scene. To put things quite bluntly, their insistence on following an ancient set of tribal laws is not even too appealing to most ethnic Jews. However, there traditions are being kept very alive by the insanely fanatic Moslems who are wreaking so much havoc. The fundamentalist Islamic movement does not, as has been stated, wish a return to the Middle Ages, they wish a return to the ancient days of Biblical tribalism. Sharia law is nothing more than an especially harsh, literal interpretation of Levitical law, a frightening concept given how harsh those laws are. True, they wish to re-establish the old Caliphate, but then they would turn the clock further back. Why? People who are so frightened of the present, so terror stricken at a vision of the future they cannot understand, will seek refuge in the past.

The Christian world is little better off. The Catholic Church went through centuries of trying to dominate the World and finally gave up, but today, there are still those who long for a return to a Medieval-like world in which the Church is the Law and I would not be surprised to see the Church make some sort of last effort toward those ends. The Protestant Churches, especially those teaching a literal interpretation of the bible, make clear their belief that they will one day, sit with the Lord as rulers of the World, which will, conveniently at that point, consist of nothing but Protestant Christians, since everyone else will be in Hell.

All of these religions base their beliefs around the Jewish Old Testament. The New testament and the Koran use that book as their base. One big problem, years of research by dedicated historians, archeologists and linguists have shown that the tales of the Old Testament are, for by far the most part, either total fabrications or extreme twistings of what really happened. You cannot use a book as the basis of your belief, of your world-view, and claim that you have the truth that will prevail, when that book is full of half-truths and out-and-out lies.

The more rational among us have their own problems. Many of these folks wish a return to the Enlightenment, The Age of Rationalism, and its Clockwork Universe. They wish to view the World as a great machine, humming along steadily and mechanically like a giant wind-up toy. Well, sorry folks. Einstein's Relativity and Quantum Theory put an end to all that. The Universe is unfathomably weird and we have just scratched the surface. To all those seeking comfort in the thought of a cold, mechanical world, sorry, that ship sailed about 100 years ago and you missed the boat.

Finally, a word about the so-called New Age beliefs. These are basically based on simplistic versions of science and even simpler versions of the old pagan beliefs. The key word there is simple, as in simple minded. Learn some real science and a bit of real anthropology, and learn that quantum theory does not mean that the Universe is just what you want to think it is and that some of those old pagans you want to follow were bloodthirsty monsters. Then, if you still believe in all of that New Age BS, please consult a therapist, because you need serious help.

So, to wind up this series, I guess I should offer some smooth, easy answers, some profound wisdom. Sorry, I have nothing. Until we slow down, think things through and open our minds to what we are learning, we will have these wretched wars and unwarranted sufferings. All I can say is that the way forward is not back. Look at history, learn from it, save the good, save what works and jettison the rest. You do not need to carry old baggage on a new trip. What works? That's easy. Be kind. Try not to judge your fellow humans harshly; they make mistakes, so do you. Be open minded, but not bubble headed.  Be tolerant, but do not let yourself be bullied. Have some fun, it's good for the soul, body and mind. Avoid violence in all but the most extreme cases, but fight if there is no other way. Last, think, with your head and your heart.

America and Fear - Part 4

Finally, we arrive at the era of Bush 2, George W., henceforth known in my blog as the Shrub. How this man became President is a mystery. Heck, how he graduated from Yale Law School is beyond me. The man can barely string two words together and coherent thoughts are foreign to him. I guess when your daddy is rich, ex Congress, exCIA, ex Vice President, ex President, you can get away with a lot. In my Is Paris Burning Series? on terrorism, I wrote of his disasterous Mid East policy, so for information on that I refer you there. All I need say here is that it has left us with a bunch of half decided battles, wars that will seemingly last forever, and a smear of deep red blood spread over the Mid East that is rapidly spreading to Europe. We have earned the enmity of most of the Moslem world.                                  

 

At home, he did no better. To be fair, the bank scandals that ultimately crippled the economy were not his doing. No,the Old Gipper convinced Congress that we didn't need any silly regulations hampering industries and they said a collective, "yes Sir." and dutifully repealed a lot of them. When the Shrub took office, the chickens came home to roost and we learned that some of the Nation's largest and most trusted Investment Banks were running scams that would make a common grifter blush, all the while giving themselves huge bonuses and raises.                                                 

Had it just been the wealthy who were hit when the crap hit the fan, I wouldn't care. After all, when you lie down with pigs, you ahould expect to get a might dirty, but many of the funds that failed were held by people who were just trying to get ahead in life, young couples thinking to the future of their kids and older couples hoping for a nice retirement. Gone, swindled. Again, not strictly the Shrubs fault, but when the truth became obvious, I don't recall him calling for criminal charges and prison terms. No, of course not, these were his buddies, his financial bakckers. In other words, these were the guys calling the shots and he knew not to mess with them.                                                                                 

To say I did not like him is an understatement, but, in retrospect, he almost looks good next to Obama. Almost. Our current President has less business holding that job than Elmo. He is arrogant and has come to believe that his word is law. I remember when the Government was in one of its perpetual budget crises. He threatened to block Social Security checks from being issued. When it was pointed out to him that such a move would cause great hardship for many, he made it clear tha he was unmoved by that and that he would follow that course of action if Congress did not bow to his wishes. Blessedly, they did.                                                                            

He has no comprehensive foreign policy. We are told, by him, that we have a plan, it will work, and he is sticking to it, despite great evidence to the contrary. The whole thing is a miserable failure. He is however pushing Climate control, something Americans are not as concerned about. Terrorism and the Economy, those are our basic issues right now, but Barry will have his way, and I guarantee that he will push through an agreement that will be a disaster, just like the horrible deal he made with Iran over their nuclear program.                                                                                           

Are Americans afraid? Damn right they are. They have come to see the government as the enemy and with good reason, since they have made a mess out of a great Nation.We have had years of constant, extreme change and on top of that, we have no idea where we are headed and no sign of a real, competent leader (sorry Trump, you do not inspire trust, no matter how much you try to sound like one of us). Pile stress upon stress and anyone will break. We haven't broken yet, but how much more we can take is questionable. In the next, and last part of this series, I will, attempt to throw out a few ideas. Nothing will be easy.

America and Fear - Part 3

The 70s, a mere 40 years ago were the silly age, on the surface. They did however give rise to one of the great scourges of humanity, one of the terrors of the ages, disco, a word that should strike terror into the hearts of all who have any musical taste. Other than that, folks just acted goofy and after the weirdness of the 60s,that wasn't surprising.

However, under the silliness, things got worse, and I'll deal with two incidents. First, Watergate, another of those things I have never heard a rational explanation of. Why would Nixon, assured of an easy victory over McGovern, pull something like that? I do not believe that he was worried about the Democrats having evidence of shady manipulations of campaign funds and dirty tricks. After all, the Democrats were doing the same thing and Nixon no doubt could have shown evidence of their misbehavior. No, I think that either a) they had something really nasty he had done and he was afraid of political blackmail, or b) they knew of something historically explosive ( say, something connected with the JFK Assassination), or c), Nixon was set up, that the Powers that Be wanted him gone and knew that they simply couldn't keep shooting Presidents. What could that something have been? Personally, I believe that it had to do with drugs. Nixon seemed to think that he, as President, actually ran the country, a foolish notion, and seemed serious about stopping the drug trade. Operation Intercept kept Mexican weed out for a good while much to the dismay of myself and my friends.  Keep in mind, a whole lot of money was invested in the drug trade, some of it by some very influential folks with short tempers. Mind you that is just my opinion. I have no proof. Anyway, the American people, still shell-shocked from the previous decade, were witness to a scandal the likes of which we had never seen. Day after day, the top men in the Executive branch of the Government were paraded in front of Senators and pounded with questions about their unseemly behavior. Finally, Nixon, no doubt as confused as the rest of us, did the right thing, or the sort of right thing, and resigned. People joked about the whole mess,  but trust me, Americans were devastated.

At the same time, cocaine became an increasingly popular recreation. A stupid, mind numbing drug, it was the logical next step in drug use. High on coke, you can bargain, run around, do business, and still dance the night away and we suddenly saw large number of people shoveling mounds of white powder up their noses. More and more, Americans were becoming used to buying and using illegal drugs. First marijuana and acid, then coke. Of course not everyone loved the white devil. Those of us going through a post acid hangover were more inclined toward barbiturates, valium, and alcohol. Tequila became very popular. Now remember, that the strategy and channels for the illegal distribution of drugs had been set during Prohibition. Change product and you are now dealing drugs. Then the big one hit the streets. Heroin hit the suburbs. Heroin had been dealt throughout the 40s and 50s, but as long as it went to white ne'er -do -wells and the ghettos, no one cared. In the 70s, a heroin epidemic hit middle class America, but, to be blunt, despite a lot of public wailing, no one much cared. Oh well, at least the Viet Nam mess ended.           

Oh, one more thing, picture from the jungle of SE Asia started showing up, pictures of US Special Forces and CIA agents guarding helicopters that were being loaded with opium, on its way to becoming the junk that people were sticking in their veins. To this day, people can see those pictures and still deny that happened. We call that cognitive dissonance and that, my dear readers, is a symptom of extreme fear.                  

There was one other little thing going on in the 70s. Iran overthrew the Shah and dared to pick their own leader. For further detail, I refer you to my series entitled Is Paris Burning? For now, suffice it to say, we were losing our grip on the Mid-East.        

On to the great 80s when greed was the main focus  of American life and Ronnie Reagan was our Cheerleader-in- Chief. The Old Gipper promised to fight the Commies and by God, he did. The evil Soviet Empire collapsed. Of course to do this, he ran up such deficits that we will never be out of debt. At the same time, to beat the Evil Nicaraguan Sandinistas, he and a merry crew including head boy scout Ollie North were having mountains of cocaine flown into Mena Arkansas by CIA operative Barry Seal. Surely you remember Mena, a place run by the future President and his wife, also a likely
 future President. But Slick Willie will have to wait.                                                                           

He has to wait because no visit to the 80s would be complete without a remembrance of George HW Bush, a whiny ass of a man. By the way, remember the CIA opium smuggling, remember the cocaine runs of the Reagan era? Well, George "Poppy" Bush was a big deal in the CIA during the opium days and Vice President during the coke days. That, of course, proves nothing, but, darn it all, things do seem a wee bit coincidental.For reasons unclear (have you noticed a pattern. we keep doing things that make absolutely no sense) he got us into the Gulf War against our one time puppet, Sadam Hussein. To give Poppy Bush his due, when we had humiliated Hussein's forces, an easy task since they didn't fight back a whole lot, he got us out, using a really cool exit strategy. He just said, "We win," and we left. At home, one and all cheered our victory and few bothered to ask, "Just what the hell did we win?"                                     
                                                                                                                                          
 Now, we get to the 90s and the reign of one of our most despicable Presidents, Willie Clinton and his equally loathsome spouse. These two should be sitting in jail for life, given all the crap they have pulled. I always thought fitting punishment would be to sit them in a maximum security prison, locked in the same room, 24/7, unable to see or speak to anyone else. Instead, he runs around making 10s of millions giving speeches and she is very possibly, even likely, to be our next President. One good thing during the Clinton years, the technology boom. We made all sorts of really cool new stuff. One problem. Some not so nice folks played fast and loose with the stock market and what was a bubble that made a lot of traders rich, burst and made the same traders poor again. Oh well, what goes up, comes down. The Clinton era also saw two shameful events take place. First, the slaughter of the branch Davidians in Waco. The story we have been fed does not make sense, but I guess we should be used to that by now. Whatever happened, if Federal authorities cannot put a stop to an unstable situation, without killing everyone and burning children alive, then we have reached a sorry state indeed. Also, a bit after Waco, we had the Oklahoma City bombing. I won't even mention the official explanation. By now so many holes have been pushed through that inane tale that it sinks on first glance. Someone knew something and it was the job of the President to find out the truth, not to except a half-assed bunch of crap that we were fed. When something happens on a Presidents watch, he has the responsibility to seek truth and justice. All of our recent leaders, and this goes not just for Presidents, but Congressmen, Military leaders, Diplomats, Religious leaders, local and state Government officials, and Business leaders have forgotten Harry Truman's famous motto "the buck stops here." Now, one and all try to pass the buck down the line until we just get tired of watching the whole sorry show.                                                     
                                                       

 We are now just 15 years from the present, and before we get to the recent nighmares, stop and think about all the change we've seen, and trust me, we have just hit the big stuff. Humans can deal well with change, but not constant upheaval, Put enough stress on anyone, and they break. But, enough for now. Get ready as in the next episode, the weird reaches the Outer Limits.                                                                                                      

America and Fear - Part 2

Change breeds fear; that is only natural. In the last blog, I touched on some of the silly ways technology changed, silly, but useful and important, and silly but, in odd ways, disturbing and disorenting. Now, let's get a bit more serious.                               

 Only 150 years ago, a blip in the history of humanity, we fought the Civil War. Wars, in the European tradition were almost gentlemanly affairs. The Civil War changed that. With modern equipment, battles were turned into slaughters and men were killed and crippled at a horrific rate. Anilhilation seemed the goal, as evidenced by Sherman's March to the Sea, a dispicable act in which he burned everything in site as he passed through the South.  

Afterword, Americans, understandibly lost their taste for war. The Spanish war barely counts and left many Americans embarrassed at our obvious imperialism. We did not want WW1 and were promised by President Wilson that we would stay out. However, the Powers that Be had other notions and we were manipulated into fighting, and it was far worse than the Civil War, unthinkably nightmarish. Keep in mind that this was but 100 years ago.  

Then we were subjected to a ridiculous bit of social engineering, Prohibition. No alcohol was allowed and while that didn't slow down people's drinking, it gave rise to organized crime. Until then, the Mafia was mostly into loan sharking and extortion. Prohibiton gave them a new way to make money and they made a lot. It also gave them a structure that later became the basis for the Nation's drug trafficking.       

Booze was relegalized just in time for the Great Depression. Now we are within 80 years of the present. Some who went through that are still alive. Look at the old photos from that time. Once proud, hard working men were reduced to begging and haunting soup kitchens. There was little work and if you had a job, you worked dirt cheap. Some good came out of the mess. Labor laws were tightened and Unions gained strength, so when the economy finally rebounded, the common man had actually made some gains.              

Then after again being promised by President Roosevelt that we would not fight in Eurpoe, the Powers that Be again showed that they were pulling the strings and we ended up in WW2 an affair that made WW1 look like a stroll through the park on a sunny spring afternoon. We won, but at great cost. Still, Americans showed great resolve and the newly thriving middle class went home and got busy.                                                          

That was all great, but there was one thing. Well, actually a few, but they were all linked. At the end of the war, Truman ordered the dropping of the atomic bomb, sort of a punctuation mark telling the world that, ready or nor, the war was over. But, our much mis-trusted ally, the Soviet Union was said to have developed their own bomb and was building an arsenal at an alarming rate and that, since they were dispicably evil Comminusits, that we had to be ready to fight their looming threat. We got all of this from spies. However, in a fit of lunacy, our brand new CIA had hired the old  Nazi spy ring, who were thought to have agents deep in Russia, to conductr intellighence operations. Nothing much was really going on, and the ex-Nazis knew that the only way they were going to avoid being hanged for war crimes was by producing results, so they did the logical thing, they lied. (this by the way, is not conjecture, it has been acknowledged by our government and by the ex-Nazis). They told tales of great atomic arsenals and emminent invasions and, so we were launched into the Cold War. We also had a hot war in Korea and to this day, I have never heard a rational explanation for that war. Yeah, we were opposing Communism, but we offered no alternative. We were backing an aging, cruel, corrupt, war lord who the Koreans hated, But, fight we did, until the whole mess just sort of ran out of steam and both sides went back to the way things were before we needlessly killed a bunch of their folks and got a bunch of our own kids killed.                                                                                                             

Now, we are only 60 years removed from the present and the threat of possible nuclear anihilation was held over our heads. It worked, in that we allowed the Government to spend unthinkable amounts on military build up. However, it scared the crap out of everyone. Useless and expensive backyard bomb shelters were built and kids in grade school  were taught that if we saw a sudden flash, we should duck and cover. We had drills wher we practiced ducking uder our desks and covering our eyes. We used to add a third step. Duck, cover, and kiss your ass goodbye. Funny in retrospect, but such a morbid sense of humor is not becoming in kids.     

Then in rapid order, we had the Cuban Missle Crisis, in which we almost did use those nukes, the Kennedy Assassination, the Civil Rights upheaval, the RFK Assassination, the MLK Assassination, and the debacle that was Viet Nam ( just like Korea, I have never heard a rational argument for why we had that war) and all of the accompanying student unrest, which culminated in the sight of National Guard troops shooting unarmed protestors at Kent State. No  wonder LSD seemed like a good idea, it was about the only way to get as crazy as those running the country seemed to be. Again, we are now only 50 yeras from the present.     

Many of us, by this time, didn't have much of a clue what was happening, but we, battered and bruised, hung in and staggered into the 70s, 80s and 90s, times when it seemed like some technology loving fairy had waved a magic wand over us, and we found ourselves cranking out new gadjets at a phenomenal rate. Just when you got used to something, it became obsolete. Now, that is certainly better than facing instant destruction on a minute by minute basis. Still, constant change is disorienting and folks simply couldn't find a bit of solid ground to stand on. In the next blog, I will look at those decades in more depth

America and Fear - Part1

Are Americans afraid? Short answer, yes. Of what? Everything. Everything has changed, or so it seems, and we are not reacting well. To be fair, no one could possibly handle the changes we have gone through in the last 100 years or so. When my grandparents were born, news traveled by telegraph and was then reported in the newspapers. They were amazed when regular radio broadcasts began. At that time, especially back in the country where they lived, there was no electricity in many homes. WW1 was reported by wire and in print. It was a good thing no live TV was there because it was a horrific, bloody mess, unlike anything the world had ever seen.

                                                                                                                                                                   

They moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Fl., now a major city, and, at that time, what few roads existed, were dirt. No malls, no supermarkets. a weekly newspaper, and still, a lot of horses on the road. Then, the bottom fell out and the Great Depression hit, followed by WW2. Boys who had never been more than 10 miles from home were suddenly lumped in with guys from all over the country and shipped across the planet to fight enemies they could not possibly understand.                                                                                                                                                            

 By this time, there were cars everywhere, and plane travel was increasing, although it was so costly that most still traveled by rail. Electricity was common and households were growing modernized, with ice boxes being replaced by refrigerators and brooms by vacuum cleaners. And, TV was becoming a big deal.                            

I want you to think. Not that long ago, there was not a TV in every home and when you had a set, your viewing was limited. I remeber a time when we got 2 stations and they were only on the air a few hours a day. Radios and record players were big. Records, those vinyl discs we had before tapes and CDs, were 78rpms, big heavy things that played 1 side at a time, and 33 1/3 rpms that were smaller, but had an awful sound quality. Of course the quality didn't much matter because it was all monaural. I remember my brother-in-law getting a stereo which was kind of cool, but the only stereo records were sound effects, weird things where you would hear a train and be amazed by illusion it gave of motion.                                                

                                                                                                                                                                               Telephones were clunky things with dials and, I remember when you didn't even have a dial. You picked up the receiver and an operator answered and placed the call for you. Even with dials, you, to save money, were on a party line, which meant you shared a line with neighbors. Often, you went to make a call only to find the line in use.                        

I point these somewhat trivial things out to demonstrate the remarkable changes we have gone through. The society we have built seemed like a sci-fi dream to my Grandmother and it has changed radically since her passing. Cell phones and personal computers were not even thought of not that long ago, yet that was only 25 years past.                                                                   

 Changes are a part of life. You cannot stop them, you cannot stand still, but, these changes have come incredibly fast. In some ways, more has happened in the last 100 years than in the preceding 10000, and change at that pace is impossible to cope with. So, fear set in, a natural reaction. Next time, I will discuss more current and deeper causes to the fear that has come to grip America.