Thursday, April 16, 2009

by Rudyard Kipling

http://www.britannia.com/history/docs/kipling.html

He always wrote in purple ink and invented the game of ice golf.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Undefined

Through the confines of my mind

Course wispy trails of time

Blindly searching out mankind

Sorting out what's left behind

And what is left to win


Set out looking for someone refined

Someone who'd respond in kind

Someone whose values already been assigned

Someone who'd be disinclined

To offer up his soul


On my way I got in a bind

It was a fix, I was entwined

A problem with a solution I could not find

Sure it really was a grind

Looking for minutiae


But what I got was not aligned

And all I found was not resigned

All of a sudden I was unconfined

I could finally unwind

And offer up my soul

Undefined


Tuesday, April 14, 2009

While I eat, I think of you

Crazy wormeaters in rectangular coordinates eat by the crystalline dispensers of death. They douse the squirmers in pig’s blood—or that is how it appears—and stab with distustingly tinged quadblades of gray metal in order to deceitfully drop it dangling and undeserving into each undissenting mouth, dank and warm finally inside while the outside is yet a dark December. The inveterate invertebrate droops down slithering into esophageal wonder to dethrone the daemonic determinations of an unkind machinehead.

Amateurish Spanish Poetry

Yo te diré que soy fotógrafo, y dirás

Que has visto la obra mía: es el cuerpo del muerte en el primer página de la revista

Yo te diré que soy un padre, y dirás

Que has oído que yo tengo una cosa para los niños pequeños

Yo te diré que soy un químico, y dirás

Que has tomado la droga nueva—es el mejor para la cita-violación.

Yo te diré que soy un abogado, y dirás

Que has leído sobre el criminal que yo he defendido con la defensa de Twinkie.

Yo te diré que soy un médico, y dirás

Que has mirado mientras yo no pude salvar su hermano.

Yo te diré que soy poeta, y dirás

Que realmente yo no contribuyo a la sociedad. 

Hypocrisy

A plane is a place held up by God’s feathery grasp

A plane is a place where no one talks to you for six hours

A plane is progress

A plane trip is getting progressively worse

A plane is made of plastic and wires and cold steel

But what makes it go is hot invisible air

And at the airport they sell Men’s Health across from the Bojangles.

How long, babe?

How long, babe?

Til the end of time?

Did you think it’d be all that sublime?

I’m not going to go on keeping up this mime.

I’ve got to get me some shine, Lord,

I’ve got to get some shine.

How many, hey?

A baker or a butcher’s dozen more?

Acting like a bit of a whore,

By now you got to be sore.

Sore of paths so known, Lord,

Sore of paths so known.

What’ll it take to move you out?

What’ll it take to move you?

More than the rape and murder of Mary Sue?

More than me, your dead boy scout?

I’ll be goin’ south, Lord,

I’ll be goin’ south.

You’d best move it up north, Bess

Where the winters are cold

Like your friend King Leopold

Where the nights are long, Bess

Where the nights are long.

Address Upon Eagledom, Sardonic

It is strange to me that, after all these years, I might be the one behind the podium instead of the one sitting patiently in the audience waiting for this shit to be over so that I can eat some cookies. Since you now know my sentiments, and know that I might understand yours, you will know that I intend to keep this address as brief as possible while avoiding the possibility of disrespect to the establishment—the Boy Scouts of America—which has given me the opportunity to be here today.

There were, at last count, 18, I think, youth that joined Troop ### in the same year that I did. I among them stood alone in lacking the coveted Arrow of Light, and the nakedness of that particular portion of my uniform perhaps can explain my earnestness to fill up the rest of the shirt as much as possible. At first, then, you might understand that I still saw the Boy Scouts as an achievement-driven organization. When any one of you thinks of a Boy Scout, you think of these confounded uniforms, adorned with badges and bling commemorating this or that minor accomplishment, in reality achieved with less effort than we might have you believe. So you might now see that, even if my sash suggests otherwise, I do not believe it is not all about the badges.

What I am trying to say, you see, is that there is no badge to signify that a Scout has the respect of his peers, or the trust of his friends, or the compassion to help a stranger. Scouting’s foundation lies in abstract morals—duty, honor, and morality—and the attempt to concretize such virtues is ultimately futile. Our strength comes from our fluidity, our ability to adapt the universal virtues that characterize the Eagle to the individual cases of each Troop and each Scout. I cannot help but think this; I have seen my troop fragmented and unified, small and large, in blank and—yes—in blank, but it has been my troop throughout all these permutations. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those individuals who made my experience possible: my first Scoutmaster, Mr. Blank; my guide at my first Blank, Blank; Mr. Blankety-blank, who lent me a backpack; Mr. Blink, who never was unable to help; my second and third Scoutmasters, Mr. Blunk and Mr. Blonk, whose combined efforts guided my way on this path; Mr. Blank-Blank, who introduced me into the inner workings of the Order of the Arrow, and the estimable Mr. Blynk and the kind Mrs. Blounk, who tirelessly worked on behalf of the Apanuc during my time as Apanuc Chief; Mr. Blaink, always willing to pitch in for a laugh; the numerous other adults who have always worked selflessly for the Troop; my  fearless Senior Patrol Leaders; my mother and my father, and my brother, who was gracious enough to wait until I was gone to put into motion his own coup d’etat. Most of all I thank my fellow Scouts for everything they have contributed to my experience, whether that has been pointing a loaded shotgun at someone, throwing an axe at someone, pretending to be a bear, lighting Blank on fire, breaking a window at the Clubhouse, getting altitude sickness, making me carry your shit, tenting Blank, or even tenting me: thank you, and thank you. Eat some damn cookies.

Platitudes (I)

I know nothing. I have, however, numerous suspicions.

 

Doubt exhibits exponential growth.

 

Just because you cannot win does not mean you should not play.

 

Know thyself.

 

If there is no possibility of death, there is certainly no life.

 

Life is imperfection continually striving for perfection.

 

When no mystery remains, the story ends, does it not?

 

The faithful man knows the parachute doesn’t work and jumps anyhow.

 

Love means trusting another not to scorn the deepest recesses of one’s soul. Love is trust; it is spiritual and perhaps intellectual, but not limerent.

 

There is not a place I would not go once.

Cotard's syndrome

I don't have Cotard's syndrome, exactly

Rather, I am still alive

But others are long dead


I took Kierkegaard's leap

But it's lonely on the other side

And there is a chasm between us


I need to run unbridled

Luckily for me, your guts

Stretch for miles and miles

These are the circles we ride

These are the circles we ride

Concentric, I must admit

Searching without subsiding


These are the things we lied

Vainly, I do proclaim

Hoping and never deciding


These are the men that died

Alone, I really fear

Funerals where no one cried


These are the laws we abide

Pointless, I know

Tying but not presiding


These are our girls and brides

Sold, the lot of them

Imitation or bona fide?


These are our fears inside

Silly, perchance

Yet there are homicides worldwide


These are the circles we ride

Concentric, I must admit

Searching without subsiding

Memo on splitting

Self in head and self in action are not the same thing. Maybe nirvana makes it so, but until then dissociation rules the day. I am not who I think I am? or who I want to be, and ergo, I'm that autistic kid who's friends with Denzel Washington and a snowglobe. Two worlds internal/external, should be and is,--Freud would be proud--superego and ego. For that's it, isn't it? Reconciling desire with reality. Should I desire reality? Isn't that unsettling... like a breeder reactor, making its own fuel, like Oedipal dreams realized? If you fear so much you hide in the cracks and don't get enough vitamins and die, how self-realizing it is. Where are the fora to debate such paradoxes? Decisions split split split into parallel universes there and there, and such and such goes yonder into that and somesuch by whosoever and abstraction.


Go, be merry and drink. Tomorrow never dies, even without you. 

Angst: A Bipolar Analysis, indirectly Kierkegaardian


Angst is the tearing of hair and the splitting of mind. It is most usually associated with the teenage years. I will speak in a very simplified and amateur manner, for this record is exclusively for my own benefit, and is constructed solely as a basic lens through which I may analyze some of the existential crises of my own existence, and I do not advise its application on any individual other than myself. This is because I am of the fundamental view that it is impossible for one individual to exactly relate to another—at least that is my understanding for now (these things fluctuate). I herein posit the analysis of existential crises as the result of the tension caused by the biplanar existence of the individual, fundamentally represented on the one hand by the body and on the other hand by the soul.

 

BODY                                                                                                            SOUL

 

The Body, as it is equipped with eyes for perceiving light, and ears for perceiving sound, and so on and so forth, is best equipped to perceive what may be called the material world, commonly known in science in its four dimensions. From the Body arises our Aristotelian faculties, and our tendencies to analyze reality based on sensory perception. The body has no reason to see this perception as faulty, and so tends to believe it in almost all circumstances. The Body is also home to the mind, which is the controlling entity in the body and which houses Reason, which is the governing principle of the material existence.

 

REASON,

 

The philosophy of which may be termed,

 

RATIONALISM

 

The body, when confronted with a crisis of the material world, responds in a material fashion, and Reason is the mechanism of the deduction of the response. Consider: A man must escape a cubic box. He uses reason to figure out how. He touches one side of the box, and it is prickly. He learns not to touch that side, for fear of physical pain. He touches another side of the box, and it is cold and hard. He reasons that this is metal, which he has learned to associate with things cold and hard, and reasons that he will not escape through that side. He touches a third side, and it is rough and not so hard to the touch. He reasons that it is wood, and kicks through it successfully. He is guided in the pursuit of physical freedom purely by the faculty of Reason.

 

The Soul, however, resides outside of the four dimensions of science, and is the source of irrationalities and immaterial strivings. Its governance is less perfectly understood, but is explained well by Plato. The Soul is what the poet seeks to speak to, as when Huidobro says, “(Las palabras poéticas) deben elevar al lector del plano habitual y envolverlo en una atmósfera encantada.” The Soul is concerned primarily with the way that things should be, whereas the Body has no motivation to see things in any other way than the way they are. The guiding principle of the Soul is Emotion.

 

EMOTION,

 

The philosophy of which may be termed,

 

ROMANTICISM

 

It is easy to see why the childhood is governed primarily by Emotion, and the adulthood by Reason: in childhood, one is cared for by others, and does not have to worry about survival, and so enjoys the privilege of living primarily in the sphere of emotion, and so is enveloped in dreams. In adulthood, one must fend for oneself, and so is inclined to be forced to confront the needs for sustenance and shelter, both of which lie squarely in the physical world. Most individuals seek wealth because it will offer them a respite from this constant anxiety; however, most do this only subconsciously, and end up forgetting that there is any other end aside from the pursuit of material wealth, which is a grievous sin.

One might now see why the teenage years are a time of momentous angst for many. It is the time in which Romanticism, which is like a garden of marvelous flowers that is without end, is deconstructed as children become teenagers and confront the realities of life, such as sex, which will at first be conceived of as a purely physical act (which is sinful) but in the balance of Body and Soul can become virtuous. Other realities which contribute to the deconstruction of Romanticism and the haphazard imbalance of the teenage mind include the initial confrontations with mortality, and the new willingness of parents to bring their children into cities (the centers of Rationalism) rather than to places like Disneyland (which are highly Romanticized, though they are also a very false version of Romanticism). During this period one of a few reactions may develop:

1)   The youth tends towards absolute Reason. This is manifest through a misguided affinity for material things, and a desire to attain adulthood.

2)   The youth tends towards absolute Romanticism. This is often termed regression, as the youth clings to his childhood, but is in reality no more misguided than the first response.

3)   The youth experiences angst—as the Romanticism of his childhood is destroyed, a vacuum develops in his governing philosophy, and he becomes confused and torn between the two philosophies, unsure of which is applicable in which instances (I am not yet sure whether this whole construct constitutes a zero-sum problem or not). 

A Novel Proposal

The American nation, it is often said, is a nation founded on compromises. The art of compromise, a skill adroitly applied by statesmen from Washington onwards, seems, however, to have fallen out of vogue. According to the ostensibly contemporary Wikipedia, “In the UK, Ireland and Commonwealth countries the word "compromise" has a positive meaning (as a consent, an agreement where both parties win something); in the USA it may rather have negative connotations (as both parties lose something).”

            Whatever notoriety ‘compromise’ earned as a politically weak maneuver is probably due in large part to the inflated ideologies of recent party politics. Despite the relative proximity of Democratic and Republican thought when compared on a global scale, and despite their shared inheritance of the classic liberal tradition, neither can ever seem to admit that they are more alike the other than they are different. During the recent election, liberals seemed to be fond of swearing they would ‘move to Canada’ if McCain triumphed, and one conservative I talked to spoke of buying guns in case they needed to revolt against the coming oppressive liberal regime. I speak so much of compromise because there is an arena where its calming influence is sorely needed—a significant American populace has suffered too long for their rights. I speak, yes, of the roughly 5% of Americans who are gay.

            During the recent election, perhaps the second most closely-watched result nationally was that of Proposition 8, in California—the Marriage Protection Amendment. Without bringing my personal beliefs about the question to the table, it is apparent that the fundamental crisis at stake was one of personal liberty versus popular belief. Gays would like to marry—but now they cannot (in California) due to the religious (not political) beliefs of the majority.

            What is required is a moderate dose of two of the founding principles of the United States of America: the rule of the majority with the preservation of the rights of the minority, and the separation of church and state. I propose a basic enough solution, which I hope I am not the first to have thought of, because I find it very simple, very elegant, and very obvious (and also very similar to the successful European way of dealing with this problem).

            Marriage, as a word, should be removed from the political jargon. If marriage is a religious sacrament—as most will well agree that it is—it should be governed by the individual religious entities, which may independently decide whether to approve of same-sex couplings. Do a find-and-replace on government documents, replacing ‘marriage’ with ‘civil union,’ and thereby preserve the societal rights gained by married individuals at the state level. Civil unions will be gender-blind.

            Under this proposal, conservative religious groups need not feel threatened—homosexuality will not be forced upon them. They may still preach against the sins of the flesh and so on and so forth as much as they like, until the metaphorical trumpet sounds and they are proven either right or wrong in their judgment of others. Complete separation of church and state will be achieved, insofar as that a religious institution—marriage—will be removed from the political sphere, while retaining the recognition that the union of two individuals provides important, even integral social benefits (thus the granting of civil unions). The bywords of our time—freedom and change—will be achieved. I think that both political parties can agree on the maximization of self-determination, and that is exactly what is achieved by this proposal, whilst recognizing the capacity for each congregation to decide what is acceptable in its particular religion with regards to homosexuality. Furthermore, this arrangement allows for the application of one of the central facets of conservatism: minimal governmental intrusion into the lives of its citizenry, an idea that the last administration seemingly failed to recognize at all.

            This is a change that will need to be achieved at the level of each individual state, per the 10th Amendment. It is, however, a commonsense proposal, and one that cannot be accused of being persecutory or too difficult to administrate. I recognize the aversive nature of this solution with regards to the underlying tension present; it is my intent, however, that this measure be the first step towards a more open dialogue pervaded with tolerance and understanding rather than homily and discontent. The actual resolution of this issue will take more than rhetoric or legislation, but I yet hope that others will join in conversation about this particular issue, and that reconciliation and compromise allow the American people to quell this unseemly quandary once and for all in a desirable and progressive manner.

 

 

 

Sell, R. L., Wells, J. A., & Wypij, D. (1995). The prevalence of homosexual behavior in the United States, the United Kingdom and France: Results of national population-based samples. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 24, 235–248.

Anarcho-Socialist Commentary for the Youth Intelligentsia

Hereby resolved, to probe the workings within and without in hopes of resolving the defining crisis: tension between the Cartesian spheres. Sans pretense, we move, onward and upward.