Your Guess Is as Good as Mine

I guess Kurt is right.Sad,isn’t it?

Indeed.  And as observed in “The Rise of Professional Journalism”, our toothless media are unable, even if qualified, to challenge the official guesses.  That would be too partisan.  Thus it becomes a messaging game of volume and frequency.  The guesser with the bulliest pulpit wins.

Yeah OK, so what to do?

Rebel.

Raise your kids to believe that knowledge is better than popularity. Never say “follow your heart, not your head”, and dispute those who do say that nonsense. Boycott all fortune-tellers, psychic “friends”, and faith-healing hucksters, and chide those who employ these charlatans. Cultivate a BS-detector in your mind, and speak up when it’s triggered.

Read more than you watch TV. Cancel subscriptions for those publications that you know are admixing too much BS into the info they deliver. Question your own presumptions and loyalties. Check other people’s opinions and see whether they offer data to back up their views. Be a bit skeptical.

Learn how statistics, quotes out of context, and sloganeering can be used to trick people. Resolve to put facts and confirmable data at a higher value than factional loyalty. Weed out knee-jerk political correctness, whether leftish, rightish, globalish, or anti-whatever-ish. Don’t give the people who are supposedly on your side the automatic benefit of the doubt. Don’t ascribe to those people in the other faction the automatic detriment of the doubt.

Hesitate to trust!

Use your f’n head!

Isn’t all that a rebellion? I suggest that it is. It’s a rebellion against easy, comforting ways of knowing things in favor of looking for the fuller, more detailed picture. Talk about a culture war!! Beware! The soft-heads and non-thinkers will take no prisoners, so make it a point to protect yourself and your kids. Take Vonnegut’s implied advice and don’t imagine yourself as ever being finished learning. Be elitist when it comes to your own intellectual power. Let the mental egalitarians occupy themselves with mind numbing entertainments and NEVER let them get any power over you.

Your biggest dilemma will be whether or not to exploit them for your own profit and fun. Oh yes, and how to evade their efforts to make you into a pudding-head too without provoking their collective wrath. That will be a dilemma too.

Excuse me, I have to go get the wrinkles in my palm interpreted, right after I get my weekly tarot reading. Then I need to vote the straight party ticket and make out that check to the TV ministry of my choice. Once that’s done, I’ll have time to write my new book, “The Quick And Easy Way To Financial Success.” It’s about how to write a self-help book and get wickedly rich in the process.

Oh crap, I almost forgot to subscribe to…

hehehehehehe, sorry gang, you’ll have to fill in that blank yourselves…

Guesser? 

Rabbit see’s no need to change the current label, Morons.

Morons, Guessers whatever you call them they don’t seem to be outnumbering us by 10 to 1, but maybe Rabbit is lucky, meeting about 50% Informed or at least open minded people in his daily travels, on the web and during his working week. 

Of course informed guessing is sometimes necessary, but these guys in Washington are indeed Snake Oil salesmen.

I really feel outnumbered, especially during christmas when they all come out to shop at WalMart.  Lets see, quick math, last team 17 people, 5 were informed, 1 vegan...umm 1 out 3.

When I think of this article, I feel like its attached to the War on Iraq plan.  Its like random morons stepping up, entering a guess and spinning the slots, except they always win.

Considering the people in charge are morons, what about the people on the ground?  Well, I think Canada will vote Liberal again, without even THINKING, maybe even a majority government this time?  The prized method for voting, check daily newspaper for predicted winner and place the winning bet...morons.

I disagree;

Mr. Vonnegut states that all of histories guessers “gave us the illusion that bad luck and good luck were understandable and could somehow be dealt with intelligently and effectively”. But there is no illusion. We do in fact control our destiny, and we can manage our secular affairs precisely because it has nothing to do with “luck”.

Here’s an example: If George Bush the Second decides to cut taxes for the rich, and lie to persuade the American people to invade Iraq, the following will happen: Deficits will rise because tax revenues have declined and wars cost money. The native population will resist our occupation and if they do not possess the military power to defeat us openly they will resort to guerrilla warfare.

It’s very simple really, and “luck” has nothing to do with it. The American people are not the vicitms of bad luck, but bad policy. And I would argue that the American people are not victims at all since they elected, then re-elected, that dizzy scumbag.

Where I agree with Mr. Vonnegut is his assumption that individuals are responsible for educating themselves and making up their own minds. If we do this, we can make choices, not guesses.

The Populist
http://thepopulist.typepad.com/essays/

...

actually,Bu$h has never been elected.First he was selected by the supreme court(without the popular vote).Then here was left in power by a fraudulent election,where many would be voters were disinfranchised.not to mention the computerised “vote swap” done by Diebold.Strange how the exit polls didn’t match the votes…

Frankly, I don’t know how you find the energy to live Mr. V. I am 41 and can barely take it anymore. I’m drowning.  What’s your secret? --- P&P;, Marge

I’m 25, underwater and I’m holding my breath.  I’m glad I found this site and others.

I guess free market automatic justice has indicted us both, or convicted us Vikibabu. 

Don’t count on this site to save us though. Everyone here is tenured and not getting off their asses soon for us. even if George Soros pays them to.

Best wishes Viki. You too Mr. V.  —P&P;Marge

Regarding ThePopulist’s comment ‘We do in fact control our destiny, and we can manage our secular affairs precisely because it has nothing to do with “luck”.’

(no comment on the “secular” part of that sentence)

Proceeding:

If you read Vonnegut’s passage, the bad luck and good luck he’s referring to are the following: “Crop failures, wars, plagues, eruptions of volcanoes, babies being born dead”.

What he’s saying is abstract.  He goes on, “the guessers gave us the illusion that bad luck and good luck were understandable and could somehow be dealt with intelligently and effectively.”

They guessers are trusted because they believe something that is random and objective as something to be “dealt with intelligently and effectively.” And let’s be honest, randomness, disaster and death scares the shit out of people and they want to feel comforted so they turn to the government who, with an uplifting speech, makes everything better for a little bit.

I have great respect for KV, having read a lot of the things he has published over the years and finding them to be, for the most part, well-written, sane and funny.

But it must be hard to find any humor in this, because it’s so very serious:  the fallout from the bad guesses being made now will echo, distort, intensify and riccochet around our world for generations.

Anyone who sees even a fraction of the bigger picture—there are other people in this thing, too—understands this.  Anyone with even an atrophied ability to self-reflect sees that an incorrect guess is an opportunity to learn.

But that’s the problem, isn’t it?  The people who have taken control of the United States—some above-board and legally, others not—have cropped the big picture down to their own self-interests and bought a magic mirror that only reflects complements.  That there is something or someone else out there is really beyond their imaginations, and unfortunately that’s what a good guesser needs in addition to solid facts—a good imagination.

I love Kurt Vonnegut’s voice, and I do not expect him to humor or entertain me.  He’s always been serious, even when he’s joking. Same with Twain.

Humans have always had to explain things to themselves to keep from going crazy with the brains ability to concoct an infinite number of possibilities. 

We can’t test them all.

This fear of infinite possibilities has led to some very frightening situations such as enough missiles with enough warheads to blow up the planet scores of times on hair trigger alert.

I think what is made from fear is most likely to be frightening.  That seems unfair, since sp much that is made from love is likely to be a mess as well.

At least, we live in interesting times.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is only one of the most wonderful people on the planet...and a long-lime hero of mine.  I read his books with awe and astonishment and heartfelt appreciation.  His eyes see clearly through obfuscation, spin and outright balderdash.  I am not the least bit surprised that he cannot abide the escapades of our current, blighted administration any more than I can. 

I would indeed be surprised if it were otherwise…

Marge, it isn’t reasonable to ask or expect anyone else to “get off their asses for us---whoever “us” is.

Frankly, I don’t know how you find the energy to live Mr. V. I am 41 and can barely take it anymore. I’m drowning.  What’s your secret?

The rootedness of the tenured is a float you can grab onto until the panic subsides and you remember how to tread.  They’ve done their time and payed their dues. The world could easily be worse than it is now, were it not for people of principle who worked on behalf of humanity.

Responding to M Goodwin;

Yes, there is guesswork and bad luck involved in natural disasters like hurricane Katrina. But I still stand by my statement that we are victims of bad policy, not bad luck. The war in Iraq, our trade and budget deficits, the corruption of Bush Inc, these are not the results of bad luck, or poor guesses.

And I would also like to mention that I am a huge fan of Mr. Kurt Vonnegut. My previous post to his essay is my first comment on this site and I hope no one found it offensive.

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Wiley, what on earth are you talking about? Contrary to be contrary is precisely all you have presented us in your post.

Give me a break. Pure nonsense. Absolutely pure nonsense.

You are a superstar in Plato’s cave, no doubt, which gave you the nerve and confidence to parade out here with that gut hanging out.

the only thing I am hanging onto kiddo, is myself. You didn’t get it kiddo, you didn’t get the shadows of it either

A postscript about getting off one’s a--ses. We have been complaining about the tenured press here and on moveon.org and just about everywhere, and apparently, you can’t take hearing those complaints except from, hey, the tenured press? Really, you owe a retraction.

Well, Marge, then I guess I haven’t given you us all you wanted ME to present in MY post.

That just breaks my bleeding little, heart hon.

Do you take, like special classes to learn how to sum up an entire personality with one post. Or is this just some gift you have? Maybe you could put that to work for the betterment of mankind.

Miraculously, enough, I don’t even care what it is I was supposed to get in your mind.

Get over yourself.

Uhh;

This is becoming a very strange thread for the discussion of Mr. Vonnegut’s essay.

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I went out and bought a copy of Slaughterhouse Five today, with my last eight bucks, and I just finished reading it. There are numerous references in the book to God, Jesus, the serenity Prayer ect. After reading his essay about one’s guess being as good as another, I cannot figure out if Mr. Vonnegut is secular or not.

...

Can’t figure out if Mr Vonnegut is secular or not?  Does it matter.  The secular soul can as easily identify and refer to god.  the difeernece is invariably only in the definition of that God.  Since all “guesses” about how or what God is, are probably equally many light years distant from the real deal, Rabbit doesn’t think that this then is enough to separate anyone. 

There are a number of very reasoned and interesting comments here and rabbit will get back to a few things, but he sees that his favorite Warrior Witch has crossed swords with this Marge, who didn’t say anything in her first post which bothered Rabbit, but her reply to Wiley seemed a bit over the top.  Yet to a reasonable Rabbit, it appears as if Marge, who is clearly a feisty one despite what could have been read as defeatist language in her first post, may have felt as if Wiley, was having a poke at her, which actually Rabbit didn’t see, but he can see why Marge might think so.

Now if a humble rabbit might intervene here ladies, he has a small observation to make.  Wiley was I think offering encouragement to an apparently tired soul, and many of us in that lovely vintage you mention have those days dear, Rabbit is 43.  She did actually refer to more subtle matters than Marge took it to mean, unless Rabbit is missing something, he counted himself, among others, as being those rooted in his tenure.  hmmm, that doesn’t work to good, in Aussie slang, one does not root for ones team for example unless one is a groupie.  Rooting is something which rabbit’s do, to lady rabbit’s.  Rabbit has never imagined being rooted in anything let alone his tenure, but oh well, strange language these yanks use.  We’ll use it.

So you see, Wiley is not exactly a worshipper of the MSM, as it appears Marge may have thought.  She wasn’t being mean to Marge I don’t think. 

Hopefully this helps understanding all round, we are all lefties around here at the moment, to use the crude descriptive of the laughably named “Right”.  On that note, we are of course seeing an influx of more right wing thinking folk in our circles these days, some still struggling but obviously breaking ties with the lies, and others who have made the break but retain their natural conservative tendemcies.

Neither of you two girls is one of these though.

Rabbit is a spiritual, even somewhat sorcerous, and occultically, oriented Gnostic.  Oddly enough, he would probably qualify as secular in a very real sense though.

Maybe Kurt too has evolved beyond the simple question.

Oh and by the way.

Rabbit has a few favorite minds, and GBS sure is high up that list.

George Bernard Shaw.
Oscar Wilde.
Richard Bach.

Education does not happen in the presence of teachers all the time, in fact the best for Rabbit has come from open minded curiosity applied to life.  As such, Rabbit does not feel undereducated, on the contrary he is typically over par and has a fairly lonely existence regarding mental stimulation.  This isn’t to say there are not times, often in fact, when Rabbit’s own limitations become apparent to him, there are so many clever and educated people in the world, we have some prime examples on this site. 

Even our trolls are smarter than the average.

Like The Populist said, we are responsible for our own destinies.  Luck has nothing to do with any of this.  the situation we are in, the Lunatics leading the Blind, and the few with any sight being relegated to the periphery. 

Hell, .......WE,........  US..........You,sensible reasoned people, me a sensible and reasoned rabbit, WE are the ones popularly accepted as being the crazies.  Conspiracy theorists, dreamers, idealists, lefties........Moonbats.

The idiots who have surrendered there responsibility to inform themselves, to make life and death decisions for their own, and themselves, are responsible for their destinies, and we are responsible for our own.  For Rabbit that means doing all he can to turn the tide against the insanity, whilst, preparing, mentally especially, for the time when we are going to have to jump, and start swimming.

Many will not make the other shore dears. Those who have neglected to watch the water rising, until too late, those who deny the ship is sinking, those stupid idiots who are re-arranging the deck chairs once again in a bid to make things seem alright, they are going to be in worse trouble when we hit the cold cold water dears, so pay attention, but don’t despair if we cannot save the ship from sinking.  We are most of us not even crew members.  Just learn how to swim and get ready to do so.  Keep kicking against the pricks, that may be your ticket to heaven, or at least onto the next stage of the game.

Earth and mankind is all very well for a bit of a ride, but Rabbit thinks it is high time some of us tried the next ride, this one is getting boring.

By the way.

HI there Kaw Valley Kid.

Always great to see you in town.

...............................^^......................................

On my previous comments and wiley’s response.

Humor is a good way to defuse conflict when discussing deadly serious matters.  KV recognizes this, as did Twain.  If people on opposite sides of the table in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir, Palestine, Sri Lanka and other places had found common ground in the dark humor of their predicament, how much closer to resolution do you think they would be by now?

Hello Rabbit,Likewise I’m sure! I enjoy reading your comments as well.I also post occassionally at Smirking chimp dot com,as well as alternet dot com.your should check out those sites as well.Smirking chimp is especially interesting(to me at least).Now back to the artical related posts....

I just wish to point out here that KV is one of the English language’s greatest ironists.  Irony is peculiar in that the true understanding of the ironic statement lies somewhere outside a literal exegesis.  It is as such a revolutionary challenge to the innately unimaginative conventions of accepted wisdom. 

For example:

“Life is much too important to take it seriously”
Oscar Wilde

“I’m done with seeking the Truth.  What I’m looking for now is a good fantasy”
Ashleigh Brilliant

When we laugh we confront and overcome our fears.  That said:

“Dying is easy.  Comedy is hard.”
Sir Donald Wolfit

And so on.

“Education is an admirable thing. But it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught”

“Public opinion exists only where there are no ideas”

------Oscar Wilde

Industries should be allowed to do whatever they want to do: Bribe, wreck the environment just a little, fix prices, screw dumb customers, put a stop to competition and raid the Treasury in case they go broke.

That’s correct.

(You know, now that I’ve learned html italics code, I can’t get enough of it.)

Yes, Lumens, comedy is getting harder all the time, too.  Things are getting so over the top it’s hard to exaggerate.  Irony is the new policy, apparently, and policy can be pretty dry material.

What I got out of Vonnegut’s article was that at a time when the human race has more resources and information than ever to solve its problems, the status quo is doing it’s best to keep the world flat so that it can maintain it’s power---something they couldn’t do in a society prone to thinking and researching and having the integrity to consider the possibility that the facts are the facts, even when they wish otherwise---- especially if this society doesn’t feel any particular need to be ruled.

If we didn’t have so much information, solid academic work, and brilliant minds to mingle with from any part of the planet --- the world’s libraries at our finger tips!--- it wouldn’t be so tragic. It’s painful to witness.  It’s painful to watch people settle their cognitive dissonance by saying “that’s correct” to bigotry and idolatry, and it’s maddening to see people who ought to know better spouting shibboleths.

Vonnegut wrote Slaughter-house Five to tell the story of the firebombing of Dresden. I’d bet that he wasn’t moved to write about it because he thought it was hilarious. His humor has helped me to love humanity warts and all, and to be comfortable with ambiguity. Some things you learn through osmosis.

And some things you learn from experience. Twain and Einstein gave up on the human race in their twilight years---I’m guessing that that wasn’t complacency on their parts. They give it the good, old, college try.

And so on. ("Ashleigh Brilliant”? Sounds interesting.)

Thanks for being mediatorly Rabbit.

Do you feel better now ThePopulist? Sorry if my sharp tongue made you uncomfortable.

What’s that quote from the Crow, “‘Mother’ is the name for ‘God’ on the lips of all children”.  ?

The thing about secular vs. religious is that it tends to make an unnecessarily black and white distinction---for the secular person, it leaves out the spiritual world, and awe of the universe, whatever it may actually be populated with; and for the religious person it often assumes that religious people are either haloed or brain damaged. I know this is clumsy, but to get myself to the point, I guess I’d say that few people are purely religious and saintly/sheeply or purely secular rational/hedonists.

Many people are stuck on the idea that the human race was totally unscrupulous before the founding and institutionalizing of “religion”. I think that’s silly. I think you only have to be loved as a baby and treated with care and consideration by someone who will even put the baby’s needs before their own (sacrifice) when necessary out of an appreciation of the fact that the baby is helpless and without language, and will suffer without proper care.

Growing up thinking that treating people with care is a good thing does not require a canon or an explanation for the origin of the universe, it merely requires one or more people who believe in human dignity and act accordingly.

I think it’s very important to draw a distinction between tolerance and indulgence, btw.

Kurt Vonnegut remains one of the few clear voices in our world with something to say. It is wonderful to be able to count on him to put into words many of the things that people notice and think but cannot say. thank you mr. vonnegut. did anyone else notice that with one article it was an interview with kilgore trout right before he died but, in breakfast of champions… at least i think that’s the book… he stated that trout died in the 80s of drinking drano? maybe he can come back from this death as well…

Crikey.............

Lots of Shiny people who all admire Mr Vonnegut.

Rabbit looking up.......................hmmm. 

It’s all good then.  Wiley is right of course.  Religion did not bring about love, humanity, tolerance, self sacrifice or peace.

People have the potential to be much more than they have become.  religion has acted more as a foil to seeing the Truth about life.  Making up fairytales to replace ignorance.  Never will religions admit the most basic thing that they don’t know, and yet as science and technology have progressed (Or as we have prgressed with understanding of the universe), Religion has failed more and more to be able to give any explanation for what we observe, except for our most fundamental human social problems.  In which case religions seem to be the root cause at least of the will of the people being subjugated to the will of the Masters of War.

Perhaps as a form of “therapy” for the race, we have coped with our own fears and wonderings, by means of simple religious allegories.  The time has coime now, as the race is maturing, to cast away these imaginings, like a child must learn to abandon his imaginary friend, and go out alone into the big wide playground of life.

Our Gods have been made made, imaginary.  They have no more answers for us than we wrote into the script in the long and dark night of our re-emergence from the last big crash.

We have been here before and unless we open our eyes, see the universe for what it is and stop filling in the spaces in our understanding with comfortable myths, we will soon be back to square one and ready to start back at the begginnning.

In ten thousand years, the Pyramids may be thought to have been the only remnants of US.

Rabbit sometimes has this thought. The “Matrix” movies, at least the theme, may be a more realistic and useful myth than the God ones we have all more or less grown up with.

We need to focus more upon our inner God, and our interconnectedness.  Less upon outer Gods, who have never even been photgraphed.

There are hundreds of pictures of UFOs and yet many people are sceptical of their existence.  Well why are those monkeys still believing in a God who nobody has ever photographed, even once?

wileywitch;

Your posts and arguement with marge did not offend me or make me uncomfortable, but I think those posts were off topic.

As for spiritual/religious versus rational/secular, what I’m asking is does Mr. vonnegut believe that things will work out in the end. In Slaughterhouse Five, Billy Pilgrim learns that each moment is not right or wrong, good or bad, it just IS. If that is true then why fight the good fight? What if George Bush the Second is neither good nor bad, what if he just IS?

These questions do matter Ghostrabbit.

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Have you seen the movie? I am so amazed that they pulled it off.

ANYWAY, I don’t think Rabbit is saying that what is right or wrong, or good or bad, is not important. I think he’s saying that they are very important, but that we need to deal with reality more directly and deal with what is, and learn about what is instead of relying on orders from the past, and trying to force myths into service during crises in which only letting go of the past and being open to change will allow us to transform so that we can adapt, survive, and improve our lot. That might mean asking better questions and tolerating bafflement instead of insisting that “the answer” is written. Mr. Vonnegut also said the human race is too hilariously stupid too survive. But we’re not that stupid! If “the answer” had already been revealed we wouldn’t be here trying to figure stuff out.

You’ll have to ask Mr. Vonnegut if he thinks everything will work out in the end. The “end” doesn’t exactly sound like “working out” to me, but who knows? I am getting comfortable with the surety of our extinction, but every moment counts until the game is over. Suffering is real. Joy is real.  I personally refuse to believe that the entire history of humanity means nothing if we do not replicate ourselves into infinity as is so often expressed in science fiction. 

If life is a means to an end, then the purpose of life is to die.That’s hard to work with. It seems to me to be every bit as paralyzing as trying to act as if nothing is of any consequence.

For me it does matter how we die and how we live because this may be all we’ve got and because it does matter. It seems to me that religions have a tendency to devolve into an institution that most explicitly demands that we justify our existence and do what someone else tells us to do to avoid being judged as “unworthy”. You sort of have to have an “angry God” schtick to go with that, otherwise, you’d find yourself very lonely (when you’re not being heckled).

Slaughterhouse Five is a work of art. Art and poetry are full of ambiguity, that’s what makes them especially human, we are full of ambiguities and language, knowledge, and our senses are only approximate.

Vonnegut was most certainly not suggesting that nothing matters.  When Billy Pilgrim said that everything just is, he was speaking from a telescopic viewpoint. Who, after all, can take the whole of humanity or even one whole human life and say that it is “bad” or “good”?  How would that benefit anyone?

The purpose, I think, of enlightenment, as far as I can tell, is not to be able to dissect life and judge what is good or bad, but to be able to remove that window of judgement in order to be fully in possession of one’s self and aware of others and one’s surroundings in the moment (this is not to be confused with being indiscriminate). That is why mystical teachings are rooted in the present. When we are fully in the moment on a regular basis, we can learn to act in accordance with ourselves, others, and our surroundings as they are in that moment---not how we judge them to be, which is an abstraction.  Harmony is a state that can’t be legislated. 

Does it matter to us if George W. is “good” or “bad”? He’s not a pharoah, he’s a president. Jesus may love a sinner, but that doesn’t mean he’d vote for a heartless boob to fill a position with the command of nuclear forces because he claims to be a follower. Jesus never struck me as a chump, but I think he did fail to take sociopathy into account…

If you just watched your child disappear into a pink mist, would you be asking yourself for an abstract summary so you could figure out how to feel about it and what to do next? Of course, not.

What, to you, is a good fight? If’n you don’t mind my asking.

Wow, Wiley; Ditto what you said.

“Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.”
Albert Camus

Living fully in the present is not, as one might imagine, easy passivity, nor an irresponsible submission to fate.  In fact it is very difficult, requiring all one’s powers of concentration and discrimination, imagination, resourcefulness and improvisation.  It is a constantly moving target.  When one profoundly understands that nothing else than the present moment exists and nothing in this moment is fixed, changeless or permanent then one can only act spontaneously out of selfless compassion, as selfishness is above all things, the desire for some illusory future acquisition that one presently lacks.  Ergo, mere judgment of what is good and bad is irrelevant and unnecessary.

WOW you three are on fire tonight!LB,WW,Rabbit,such wonderful insight on the human condition.Sometimes it comes through so clearly,like tonight,other times we get caught up in the illusion,nes pas?Thank you for helping me see clearly tonight,once again. :-)

Thanks, Lumens. I’m in the state you think I am, and you?

It amazes me too that what you described (Lumens) can be so clear at times, and so lost at other times, as you both say.  But you know it’s always there even if you can’t seem to recognize or shut down the maladapted defenses that get in the way and go there at will.

selfishness is above all things, the desire for some illusory future acquisition that one presently lacks.

That gives me a whole new look at selfishness. Boing.

Didn’t mean to drop your name from the post Kaw---it should read “as you and Kaw both say”.

Just south of you, Wiley.  At the foot of Mt. Shasta in a state of awe and wonder.

You’re more than welcome, dear, since you inspired me.

“Sometimes the light’s all shining on me.
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me.
What a long strange trip it’s been.”

Garcia/Hunter

Does it matter to us if George W. is “good” or “bad”? He’s not a pharoah, he’s a president. Jesus may love a sinner, but that doesn’t mean he’d vote for a heartless boob to fill a position with the command of nuclear forces because he claims to be a follower. Jesus never struck me as a chump, but I think he did fail to take sociopathy into account…

This thought interested me the way that all of our religious, moral, and creation stories always have. The message of Jesus for me will remain that true introspection and respect for self as well as all life is the soul saving way. That said, the physical visitation of this creedo is indeed the fact that nothing - no cowardice, fear, or greed (although it may be argued that he suffered all three) - could bend him away from the truth and the love for man he possessed. Our current apocalyptic world (which is no more or less virtuous or evil than any other time in the existential equinimity of all things) the parable of the crucifixtion could symbolize the willingness to carry our thoughts out to the conclusions which they lead us to (misquote), or to withstand the temptation to let our fears drive us into complacency. Speaking too loud in some places will land you in Gitmo, but it is virtuous to stand, albeit alone, without fear. To speak with a timid voice the truth to power. The world may yet be (futher[depending on which bracket you fall into]) crucified, but like Jesus, fearless virtue, uncomprimising love and compassion, and an understanding of unity shall conceive new life; new life bearing the scars of deprivation but unburdened by the trivialities of its previous incarnation. I guess my point is best assimilated in the metaphor of the forest. Life is renewed and catalysed by fire, and the grandest of the creatures, the evergreens, ONLY reproduce in times of disaster.

I must question not the content of Mr. Vonnegut’s writing but its ultiamte intent. That humanity has survived many an age of guessing cannot be disputed. My fear is that the real issue, the constructive assimilation of what we know into our cultures, gets lost in the frame of “guessers”. What we know and what wish to know has always been object oriented. In fact I would go so far as to say that not only what we think but what we feel is manipulated constantly by self interest. Just to bring this down to the ground a parable from my life… My girlfriend and I have always argued about the chores. My position has often been that I do not care as much about how tidy things are, or that I don’t notice when things are untidy. Well one day an essay helped to illuminate a flaw in my logic showing me that although I value ‘my woman’ as a person and equal, that some part of me was still relegating her to the level of maid. Here is where the lesson for me began. Having realized that I wasn’t one of the good ones, aka good male feminist supporter at heart, I first revolted against this contradiction to my previous logic. This is lesson no. 1, that intellect will mold itself to self interest and having reached its evolved (much more evolved than the mean) conclusions will reject information which works to the contrary. Lesson no. 2 is that I suffered a mental proccess which attempted to reject the new light out of pure laziness. I didn’t want to do the house work and knew that nothing less than discarding the new information as passing whim or fantasy would allow me to continue on as before without knowingly living as a hippocrite (which is one of the intelectual seven deadly sins). A very inspired example of this phenomenon (taken to a murderous extreme) is the inception of the white man’s burden. In this case a moral-political ideology was constructed to justify that which man at that time understood to be inherently evil. When we look at the work of Bartolomé de Las Casas as early as the mid 16th century we see that it was not just an era of misunderstanding, or guessing at the truth, but that policy makers of the time deliberately construct ideologies to quell any opposition to the genocide and murderous plundering. The idea that these peoples in question were better off as colonial slaves is just as ridiculous as the interpretation of the bible which justifies conquest of uncivilized peoples by right of proselytization <a href= “http://www.newadvent.org/bible/mat028.htm">(Mt. 28:19. Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
Euntes ergo docete omnes gentes baptizantes eos in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti 28:20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.
Docentes eos servare omnia quaecumque mandavi vobis et ecce ego vobiscum sum omnibus diebus usque ad consummationem saeculi).</a> This is only one of the most heinous examples of the beginnings of a doctrine which is still widely held to be correct. This was not a guess but a blatant manipulation of available information to serve an interest. My conclusion through my struggle with the truth is (all roads really do lead to Roam don’t they) that there is no self in the truth, and only through relegating the ego to the side car can truth ever drive our collective evolution.

Semper vigilans, bopfrog

For your girlfriend, (she can change the gender around) just to keep you on your toes.)

Oh, you can read out your Bible,
You can fall down on your knees, pretty mama,
And pray to the Lord
But it ain’t gonna do no good.

You’re gonna need
You’re gonna need my help someday
Well, if you can’t quit your sinnin’
Please quit your low down ways.

Well, you can run down to the White House,
You can gaze at the Capitol Dome, pretty mama,
You can pound on the President’s gate
But you oughta know by now it’s gonna be too late.

You’re gonna need
You’re gonna need my help someday
Well, if you can’t quit your sinnin’
Please quit your low down ways.

Well, you can run down to the desert,
Throw yourself on the burning sand.
You can raise up your right hand, pretty mama,
But you better understand you done lost your one good man.

You’re gonna need
You’re gonna need my help someday
Well, if you can’t quit your sinnin’
Please quit your low down ways.

And you can hitchhike on the highway,
You can stand all alone by the side of the road.
You can try to flag a ride back home, pretty mama,
But you can’t ride in my car no more.

You’re gonna need
You’re gonna need my help someday
Well, if you can’t quit your sinnin’
Please quit your low down ways.

Oh, you can read out your Bible,
You can fall down on your knees, pretty mama,
And pray to the Lord
But it ain’t gonna do no good.

You’re gonna need
You’re gonna need my help someday
Well, if you can’t quit your sinnin’
Please quit your low down ways.

Bob Dylan
Copyright © 1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music

The world may yet be (futher[depending on which bracket you fall into]) crucified, but like Jesus, fearless virtue, uncomprimising love and compassion, and an understanding of unity shall conceive new life; new life bearing the scars of deprivation but unburdened by the trivialities of its previous incarnation. I guess my point is best assimilated in the metaphor of the forest. Life is renewed and catalysed by fire, and the grandest of the creatures, the evergreens, ONLY reproduce in times of disaster.

Hmmm.....bopfrog, I’m not sure I’m getting your point here. If you’re saying that great change can occur through disaster, I’d agree, but the “great” part is a little sketchy for me.  As far as things being renewed by fire, I think that’s a dangerous metaphor when a lot of Dispensationalist have political power, the world is loaded with nuclear weapons, and the president has low ratings. Something tells me that there wouldn’t be a lot of ferns popping up after a nuclear fire and I’m thinking ‘well that’s fine for the Evergreens’, but humans don’t generally benefit from having their town burned down while they’re in it.  Sure, it leaves a heap of rubble that’s easier to bulldoze than a lot buildings, but so what? That doesn’t justify arson.

When you say “the grandest of the creatures” in this context my four your old mind thinks you worship Christmas trees or something. My adult self is thinking that man if ya got to be exactly like Christ and as “grand” as an evergreen to survive, then being prepared to die will make more sense than any self-improvement program.

I’ll confess my bias---I think the crucifixion fetish is sick. If Jesus (it just occurred to me that we’re on a first name basis) died on the cross, then it is because he was nailed to it for offending the purse-lipped priestdom. I never understood how anybody got anything but DON’T CRUCIFY PEOPLE! out of that.  Don’t support priests and congregations that are willing to have the nicest people murdered by the state for threatening their control over something as mundane or specious as a money changing market would be a nice follow-up.

Just one more tree point, if Evergreens do only produce in times of disaster it would be because they were doing just fine with the amount of space they had before and they are trees that can live to be hundreds of years old.

Could you do me a favor and tell me directly what your point is?

Wiley,

When I was a kid, I always thought the silent meaning of the bloody crucifix was ‘don’t start acting up, or this could happen to you’.  Ah, but I was so much older then…

Dang i hate these web forms!!!  You never know what actually happens to what you wrote and can never be sure whether the Back button will actually recover what you wrote last. 

As what i wrote and edited over an hour has not appeared yet, i assume ITT vets all submissions.  If so, it is the first version i submitted that i want to post.  That is an edit of the second version posted, which was an attempted Back-button recovery of the final version, but turned out to be an earlier draft.

I can’t begin to say how disappointing this feels.  It makes me want to be an anti-Net as KV Jr is himself and only reminds me too well of http://internetisshit.org/.

That ranted, thanks, sincerely to ITT for just being here.

AD Marshall,
SighGone SaiGon

Well, howdy doody, what i just wrote is already posted and it looks like what i wrote before simply disappeared. 

How delightful… not.

[Well, here i go again.  This time i wrote it in TextPad before plugging it in to this horrid little virtual box.  I only hope it’s half as good as the last draft felt.  It’s time to get back to me pain-killers… <sigh>]

I came to SaiGon in 1994 reading Mr Vonnegut’s “Hocus Pocus”.  I’ve re-read it 8 times since, over an uninterrupted decade-plus of self-exile in SighGone, exile from exactly the kind of grandiose guessing Mr Vonnegut decries.

But now i cannot believe my luck.  I am sitting here at 04:09 in the morning in SaiGon, happily ignoring the pain returning to a freshly fractured collar-bone—for over two hours now, due to a friggin’ web-form fork-up—and i am STILL grasping a chance, grabbing it whole, grappling with my literary inadequacies and grinding up the grist of my guts for this one farfetched chance, maybe the last i’ll ever get to directly express my deepest, undying gratitude directly to good ol’ “Uncle Kurt”, as i’ve personally known him.

Dang all the other posts, both great ones and grievous.  I tried to read them all but couldn’t wait.  Dang all the other info and disinfo and all the half-baked blogs on the Net that i’d normally be trolling for some sort of inspiration—albeit at more sensible hours.

For this one sweet moment or more, i’ve an opportunity i’d never hoped for before, a chance to thank the greatest of my mentors for all his illustrious, illuminating, enlivening contributions to my world, to this world—and “what a world” it is indeed, In These Times.

“Just be kind.”

“When you’re dead, you’re dead.”

“Make love when you can. It’s good for you.”

I actually made up an illustrated page of those bytes of wisdom from Mother Night and framed them while still in Hong Kong.  Now, a decade later, that page sits under a pile of the few books i’ve still got from Canadada: the COD (Concise Oxford Dictionary); Roget’s International Thesaurus; Xenophon’s Oeconomicus; Montaigne’s Essay’s; Winokur’s Writers on Writing; Slaughterhouse Five; and some others.

That page, Hocus Pocus, and all the others they’ve led me to have both saved my sanity and ruined my life in the same sense Johnny Depp attributes to Kerouac, Ginsberg, Hunter S Thompson, et al, for both saving and ruining his [01]—albeit in a hugely more righteously successful way than i’ll ever muster.

Mr Vonnegut, your insights, your wit, your grace of expression have let me live in peace for a decade and more among the incessantly prying eyes of millions among whom i am “color-coded”.

It’s been far from easy.  Being from the Great White North, i’m a bit more obsessive than most Yanks or Brits about my privacy and the basics of politeness.  Yet here, the yocals babble on out loud about any “foreigner” they see while gawking straight at them—an act that could lead to one being pounded to pulp or picked up by police back in StRatford, Ontariario.

Yet i’ve lived largely happy on my own for the last 11 years, alone amongst the herds, not “lonesome as hell”, and with no need of the 9 out of 10 of my cohorts here or back home.  Just me, the Mrs, our meows and the words and pix of me mentors, of those “10 percent… merciful, no matter what...” [02]: that’s been all i’ve really needed.

Wishing all the best to you and yours,
AD Marshall (aka Ed Ho)
HoChiMinh Linux Users Group
http://h0lug.sourceforge.net

[01] “The Night I Met Allen Ginsberg” by Johnny Depp, ROLLING STONE, 08.Jul.1999,
http://www.deppimpact.com/mags/transcripts/rollingstone_08july99.html

[02] Susan Sontag and Arthur Miller, by Kurt Vonnegut, 03.Mar.2005,
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1999/

AD.2005.Dec.17.Sat.04.35.ICT

My grandfather used to attribute his card playing wins to ‘skivinity’....I used to think that this was a reminant of his native tongue, Gaelic.

I’ve since realized that he was joking about his luck....skill and divinity are only incidental to this happy occurence, but there are so many complimentary and opposing forces at work these days that we get confused.

It becomes strange and dangerous when people we consider ‘authoritative’ abandon all hope , kindness and integrity and use their position to misled us, rather than sharing with us the benefit of their accumulated learning and working to find agreeable solutions to our basic problems and conflicts.

Maybe we need more skivinity.

The above article is obviously guesswork (although in my opinion fairly accurate) on the part of Mr. Vonnegut. I would extend what he has written even farther: in our government these days almost everything is done by guessers, and the guessers themselves are no longer informed, controlled, or even elected by educated persons but entirely by other guessers.

Though you may not have heard of me, Gregore Salmon--since my blogs have been up till now only available as filler in pornographic internet sites--my studies conclude that every bit of law in Washington is controlled by only about forty people, themselves all ignorant guessers. My research indicates that these people are currently about to implement their guessing/governing rights even more fully by placing ‘no thinking’ signs on every street corner in Washington and giving everyone free TVs (recycled from old Howard Johnson Inn rooms) with no OFF power switches, so they can exist without actually thinking at all ever again.

Even though no one but my parakeet, Moyers, and my artist friend Rabo agrees with my thoughts here, reading Mr. Vonnegut’s article and most of the (non-ignorant-guessing) comments here, has heartened and inspired me to post this, my own comment.

Gregore Salmon , I think the ‘no thinking signs’ are way over due

“What else can I say, or anybody say, but, `I love you, too’?”,, lol

Hi GregoreSalmon. Would you say the forty are all Vulcans, or is this a “bipartisan” (that adorable little assumption that we’re supposed to be limited to two parties) crap shoot ? 

I’m thinking that even their shoddy guesswork is overshadowed by the work of their accountants.

Rat bastards.

I was in D.C. for the first time in September and was really amused by the countdowns they have on their walk-signs and how completely they were ignored. I’d guess that even in Washington you would have to enforce the ‘no thinking’ signs to make it stick.

The forty are composed of an equal mixture of Earthlings, Tralfamadorians, Peacekeepers, Shadows and a strange race that propel themselves about mainly by farting. (As far as can be known at this point, there are no Vulcans amongst the forty.) So, they are probably quintapartisan, if such a term exists

Several of the forty indeed are troubled by those who continue to ignore their “no thinking” signs and have proposed a reverse-psychological approach of erecting “no guessing” signs instead.

Lumens, I never even thought of that one.  Hope you didn’t worry too much about being crucified. How awful.

My mother told me there was no Santa Claus off the bat, and regretted it later.  She might have thought crucifixion was too good for me.

It always bothered me that people who couldn’t read a map were absolutely certain of God’s will, or claimed to be anyway. I guess I’m an infidel, but it always struck me as being a bit too cheeky and even sacreligous to claim God as one’s own and knowing God’s will as one was claiming to be humble. And it seemed odd to me that the church didn’t give an omnicient, omnipotent power that gave us “free will” the option of changing “his” mind at any time. (And why on earth does the only God have genitals? Not a pleasant thought.)

...So, they are probably quintapartisan, if such a term exists...

It does now.

Reverse psychology---sneaky. Eventually, though, they’ll have to reverse it again because, no matter what, some people always start catching on. If we’re lucky they will eventually confuse themselves sufficiently to give up on social engineering and make the delicious mistake of revealing themselves as the controlling, mean-spirited, and small-minded little jerks they are. (I guess they needed hugs and got power instead. Sniff.)

Do the farting ones tapdance?  They might have to do a lot of that one day (Dance! (pa-ching)).

Hasn’t the world always been flat? I ask because I assume there has always been a struggle between the nay-sayers and the guessers (I dunno since History isn’t a priority in education)

The history of the universe arises from seemingly random perturbations out of infinite permutations. The course of society it seems is just one of these permutations, maybe the right one maybe the wrong one.  The only thing that I don’t get is that we don’t see past our actions, given all our reasoning powers and education.

I think the reason for that is we are blinded by love and fear.  A recent grist article questioned how we could bear children given the rising population.  One Man and his love for Earth vs. Another and his love for family.  Why can’t we all just get along? The repeated remarks during the climate summit that the American way of life just isn’t up for debate, or the opposing ideology of forsaking everything.  Behind all the guess work going on-I suppose are stronger emotions, clouding good judgement and foresight (greed an emotion too)

I’d like to think if we followed our gut instinct we might choose the wiser course.  But what would we choose, our loved ones and their sanctity OR our loved ones and their sanctity?

You can’t blame me for my comment, I watched Tae Guk Gi-Brotherhood of War and Star Wars III in a sitting.  Add a 3:1 blend of Scapa and Lopraig and you have one entirely frustrated guesser...Still thankful for all the knowledge garnered from ITT.

What a fascinating catch has been drawn into the net of this article.  The worthless rabbit, in his ignorance has not been much familiar with Kurt Vonnegut before, but is getting the picture that he is much admired by people a rabbit could not only empathise with but admire.

AND not a troll in sight.

But we can’t have everything.

FACT.
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply too painful to acknowledge--even to ourselves--that we’ve been so credulous.

Carl Sagan

They are waiting for all of you at Bellevue.

And I am not a troll.

I had an idea.

And you all did with it what ignorant beings always do to ideas.

as for the deck chairs rabbit referred to. That activity is wiley’s

instead of writing novels of nonsense on this board, referring to Mr. Vonnegut in the third person, as if he is not even here, you might talk to him.

As is, if I were him, I wouldn’t read past the first few posts. Too depressing. I would make a martini and jump out onto 2nd avenue.

Marge, aka Venus Annodomini (that knickname is for you rabbit. Thanks for reminding me of Wilde, Shaw)

Admarshall—How can you dump all this linux whatever garbage on the board? There is only so much space for comments and you are beyond the pale. At least Wiley thinks she/he is communicating

They are waiting for all of you at Bellevue.

Are you waiting with them, deary? Have them give you a sedative.

And I am not a troll.

How Nixonesque.

I had an idea.

How did that feel?

And you all did with it what ignorant beings always do to ideas.

At least we’re consistent.

as for the deck chairs rabbit referred to. That activity is wiley’s

Alright! I’ve never travelled by ship, and I heard it did wonders for Molly Brown’s skin.

instead of writing novels of nonsense on this board, referring to Mr. Vonnegut in the third person, as if he is not even here, you might talk to him.

Personally, for me, it’s the same reason I never called Michael Stipe after buying a new R.E.M. album. We’re not friends, and when an artist puts a piece of work out there, the work (if it has legs) has a life of its own. 

I wouldn’t mind talking to Mr. Vonnegut personaly, like if I ran into him at a bar, but so would thousands of other people. I trust he’s a busy man, and not combing these threads for support.

As is, if I were him, I wouldn’t read past the first few posts.

Well, then Marge, you’ve got a big job ahead of you. Instead of talking to us and being a reasonably sociable person, why don’t you pour your heart out to Mr. Vonnegut, tell him your idea, and wait for his approval of your idea so you can feel vindicated, and possibility get over yourself.

After this, I won’t respond to your posts because I’ll understand that you’re here for Mr. Vonnegut. (If I were him, I might have my locks changed right now, but whatever).

At least Wiley thinks she/he is communicating

It wouldn’t surprise me if no one around you ever “communicated” well enough for you, and that you never ever ever thought that that was your problem.

As to drinking and throwing yourself out the window over this thread, an intelligent person in this quandary would go for a walk to sober up, or call a hotline.

Oh, one last point Marge, since you’re so briliiant and misunderstood, why don’t you write a book? A lenghty article?  A coherent paragraph?

I have, to my credit, read all of your posts.  You should be ashamed of yourselves.  Is this what it has come to, huh?  You all must live for this.  A nemesis to test your sword against.  A witty retort to slowly type out, the one germinating inside of you since you were left dumb and shaking from your last real confrontation. 

Leftists?  Hah.  Radicals?  Hardly.  Artists?  Scholars?  Yeah, probably…

If you really want to follow the essential message of Vonnegut’s piece, do something visceral, bestial, and kind.  Those activities often take place out of doors.

Viva il cazzo duro!

Rocco, are you posting outdoors. There should be a name for the practice of posting to tell one or more posters that their posts are evidence that they have no life, blah, blah, blah. 

What exactly do you know about the lives, values, and actions of people on this thread?

How does dismissing everyone for posting (which is communicating to others if you stop and think about it) make you socially or morally superior to all other posters, even at the very moment that you are posting?

Why the sycophantic theme that we should all live our lives according to Kurt Vonnegut?

And why do you get credit for reading all the posts, while you give no one any credit for writing the posts?

If you don’t like the conversation, butt out. It’s not like someone dragged you here, is it?

admarshall, at least you have a reason. Please pardon me and post away.

Wiley, what is wrong with you? you are making us all reach for the Rolaids.

admarshall;

‘viva il cazzo duro’ is the Italian equivalent of ‘a hard man is good to find’ but more self-referential.

I see I’m gonna have to get a lot more stoned and drunk to catch up with this conversation.  Well, Merry Christmas!

Hope you don’t interpret this as ‘incorrigement’, but that one was punishment enough.

Hasn’t worked for me yet.  ;-{{ )

that must be a hoax, no?

ho! ho! ho!

Irie, mon.  Not a good idea to try live on the booze, mon.
But moderation in all things surely means in moderation as well.  Otherwise the holiday season would be damn near intolerable.

How much of this is due to illegal immigrants?

Srill it is pretty crook.  Are you sure you guys are a developed country?

Illiteracy On The
Increase In The US

About 30 million US citizens are below the basic level of education, among them, 11 million who do not know how to read and write properly in English, institutional sources reported Friday.

Seven million individuals -3.1 percent of the population- is at the lowest educational category because they are completely illiterate.

Thirteen percent of US people have barely enough literacy to sign a document, according to government research testing elementary grammar and simple arithmetic.

The National Center for Educational Statistics (CNEE) found a slightly positive change between 1992 and 2005 as far as the ability of semi-literate adults to read and understand complex phrases.

The center noted the lack of bilingual teachers in the United States, which causes a considerable increase of immigrant students leaving school before the legal age.

According to Darlene Brown, director of a program of pedagogical alternatives in Texas, between 33 and 38 percent of foreign students leave school before the legal age every year and this statistic has increased over the last 10 years.

The government is doing nothing to end this situation; on the contrary, the difficulties become greater, complained Brown.

These infernal comment boxes here at ITT will support some HTML tags.  Ya gotta watch out for breaking url lines.  Just keeping it slack.

http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/

If you’re not familiar with Gatto, Rabbit, this might interest you. “The Ten Lesson School Teacher” is the most vindicating thing I’ve ever read about our public school system.  It really is a social engineering racket to prang out consumers and drones.

As far as language goes, I think, in California they figured out that kids learned better through immersion than the bilingual approach.

I have to wonder if the immigrants drop out for social reasons. I’ve noticed a general cultural rift around here between the Mexican children (who are very well behaved, share freely, and are concerned for their siblings) and Ummericun children (with their competition and individualism).

One point in particular that Gatto makes, that I have found to be true in my own life is that it’s just not that hard to teach children how to read. He estimates around 110 hours to teach a child basic literacy. (In my experience, it really helps to tell a kid that English is “crazy”, then they stop trying to beat their brains out with phonics and the “rules” when the words don’t obey.)

I’d like to talk about what a shame it is that we aren’t taught a second language beginning in grade school, but we’re talking about being illiterate in English.

Of course, our Congressmen can read and write, but it’s easier for them and more lucrative to let the corporations and lobbiest draft our laws and to sign legislation without reading it.

Oh, by the by, i’m going to order some Kentucky Fried Chicken from Ground Zero Bird Flu before my siesta. 

How’s that for living viscerally? 

kv, junior. do it now.
;-{{=~

To not really answer your question admarshall, it seems counterintuitive to me that the Vietnamese would want to learn English, or French, or deal with IT consultants from the U.S. or France.

Admarshall is posting ads and html crap to attract search engines. Someone should remove his posts.

KV JR,

I too am munching wunching on fried chicken (home made) from another ground zero right now.

Avian flu be damned.

Late lunch. Yummy.

Go away ad marshall ... you are abusing electrons. Not nice.

David---so feisty!  Now I want some fried chicken to give me the power of the chicken. Look Ma, no terrorists!

“The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. On the whole men are more good than bad; that, however, isn’t the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance which fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. There can be no true goodness, nor true love, without the utmost clear-sightedness.”

Albert Camus

I recalled this quote in another thread, but thought it might have some currency here.  I’ve often thought Camus is Vonnegut without the jokes.

“

David in Canada, i ordered my H5N1 soul food from a KFC in SaiGon—which made it a bit cold when it got here, but still worth the experience nonetheless. 

What Ground Zero in Canadada did you get your plucky birds from?  (I used to hang in StRatford, Ontariario.)

:-{=~

Albert Camus, yet another very cool dood.  Thanks for the reminder LumiBeut.

:-{{=~

Never before in the history of ITT has a rabbit read so much without saying anything.
The Rabbit is Flabbergasted.
This thread has attracted a literal menagerie of strange and beautiful creatures.  Some fine and shiny minds among them and darned if the rabbit didn’t see a new kind of troll flit past.. 
Margey Rabbit thinks you should stop picking on Wiley, she is coherant, thoughtful and sensible as well as fun.  Marge, despite an earlier little tug on the hem from Rabbit, to point out the goose like antics, has continued to be trollish towards the Witch. Sweety we do appreciate that you were indulging in an ass kissing ceremony, Thanks Clouds, and you should be free to do this if it turns you on, but as for the most of us, we are stimulated by the words of Kurt and we admire his articulacy etc, we are yet able to get by without a pair of his old underpants under our respective pillows at night. 

Further, reasonable yet humble creatures that we mostly be, we do actually expect Mr Vonnegut to bother reading every discussion thread which is spawned by his wrods, that’s a bit like expecting a return letter from Santa when you send him your wish list.  (Sorry dear if Santa did send you a reply, Rabbit is not trying to imply anything here.)

Now Rabbit has recently been involved in dicussions about the true definition of a Troll, and whilst his definition is a bit more loose than that favoured by some of his friends, it would not seem totally out of order to point out that Marge is at least reminiscent of one.

Please don’t feel unwelcome even if this is so, in fact Rabbit who is presently “Trolless”, having lost his own Scorpy troll, would be honoured to have you as his personal troll if that is what you are, please make yourself at home anyway.  Now what else do you do apart from tell others how to behave on a thread?

If you are not a troll and are merely suffering a bad case of PMS or something, excuse the reference to those who live under bridges, and as Wiley suggested, get over yourself.

Danke shane for the defense mon witty hare. I bows 2 ya.

Now, if I can just get that image of old underpants under a pillow out of my head…

Some small hope for democracy and humanity tonight in
BOLIVIA! Viva la causa pura!

Sure to get Ms. Secretary Condi Rice’s panties in a bunch.

AdMarshall is an idiot, and this will be my last reply to one of his posts. In your retort to being accused of plying adware, you mentioned two things of interest.

1) “After two months of iMarket Research, HTML keywording and selective cross-linking to significant-other sites, we got Google, Yahoo and HotBot to list this little, laidback factory in HaNoi on their first pages of hits every time someone searched for “technical outerwear”, “technical outerwear manufacturer” or “technical outerwear manufacturers”.

HG40 couldn’t ask for more as those 3 terms described the biz exactly.  But, to my amazement at least, 5 years later, you can still plug any of those terms into Google and HG40 will be among the first page of hits.

HG40 never paid another penny for either site upgrading or further search-engine priming.  And it cost them a mere USD4,500 for some 90 days work.  In terms of what consultants charge either now or then for such work, that’s an incredible deal—one i still kick myself for not pricing better.”

Here you admit to “HTML keywording and selective cross linking”, and admit you were paid for the work. Your posts, with inserted gobblygook, only make sense if you are trying to “cross link” and attract search engines. You are a spammer admarshall, an internet pollutor. Stop it.

2) “I went to http://thepopulist.typepad.com/essays/, as your sig’ in your earlier posts suggested, and noted your interests in politics, economics and war.  Would it be correct to assume your real name is A. Scott Piraino?

I can’t say i’m really into these topics, per se, but i did note with interest your(?) essay “The End is Near” <http://thepopulist.typepad.com/essays/2004/11/the_end_is s_near.html> and hope to read it soon because i’m curious about how it differs from Mr Vonnegut’s piece, “The End is Near” on ITT at <http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1546>”.

You can assume my name is A. Scott Piraino because I put it in my first post. As for my weblog, if you post to my site I’ll have Typepad block your URL.

As for the my essay “The End is Near”, if you had bothered to read it, you would have found it completely different from Mr. Vonnegut’s piece. Although his essay with the same title preceded mine, I was not aware of his piece, did not surf this site at the time, and I would not change the title to my article if I had known.

Maybe it was serendipity, maybe great minds think alike, and maybe you should stay out of my business admarshall.

...

YEAHH!

Hey, Lumens, ITT has an article on Evo Morales (?).???---this guy.

A paraplegic friend of mine with constant pain would really be stoked to hear about this. He’s talked about chewing coca leaves and drinking coca tea as a possible form of treatment that would be superior to the pharmaceutical drugs that assault his kidneys and liver and carry the risk of overdose. A coca poultice might even help.

Villifying benign herbal remedies to sell poison is dastardly.

South America seems to be on a roll. I admire their head on determination and willingness to get straight to the heart of matters instead of making compromises that aren’t in their best interest.

(Maybe they’ll elect some ostriches.)

Just got back from lunch and have to say, wow, sheamus, your choices of which posts to keep and which to cut really surprises me. 

But not that much i suppose. Viva la sys-admin censor, yet another great US institution. 

Either way, i saved each page as it was updated to disk and this may indeed someday make an interesting critique of one censor’s judgement: those versus what not is left in this thread, including blatantly inflammatory posts from you-know-who.

That said, c’est la vie.  I had fun—and had actually hoped i’d helped others have a bit more of the same.  But i guess maybe not.  But, again, i can’t say i too was trying to serve the lowest common denominator.

I’ll only add this: i challenge you, seamus, or anyone else here to clearly show how i could have possibly profited commercially from any of my posts.  My own web work—which for some reason you still left references to (please remove, please)—is purely a non-profit gig.

Bon chance boys and girls.

Oh, just on the off-chance you might have been too rushed to notice the relevance to this thread, Seamus, or you didn’t notice ThePopulist’s petty fit of name-calling (still here) that surely justifies at least a reasoned retort, i post again the brief overview of ThePopulist and Vonnegut versions of “The End is Near” (next). 

Remove it or leave at your leisure.  I just want to really know where you stand.

Dear ThePopulist,

Re:
* “The End is Near” by Kurt Vonnegut, AD.2004.Oct.29, and
* “The End is Near” by A. Scott Piraino (you, right?), AD.2004.Nov.04.

I just finished reading these two near-Ends, Baba Vonnegut’s in ITT and yours at your blog (URLs above).  I read Baba’s near-End piece first since it came first, just before the AD.2004 US election, while yours came just after.

Mainly, I noted Baba’s piece somehow managed to make the cold hard reality of our suicidal planet-rape (no matter what happened in the US election) end up sounding funny.  In contrast, to me, your essay despaired what Georgie Jr’s crew had already gotten away with and decried the realization that the official majority of your Yankee cohorts had just asked Georgie for an encore. 

I think i got your point.  Ou non?  If so, i’d agree with it. 

But… ;) ... i’ve just a couple things i thought might build on what i think is your case. 

When i read that you saw “a global consensus that the perpetrators of those heinous [9/11] attacks must be brought to justice” and bemoaned that “… instead of fighting that war, he [Georgie] chose to invade Iraq”, a few webbies i’d recently harvested popped to mind:

* “The 9/11 WTC Collapses - Index of What Really Happened”, <http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/wtc_9-11_truth.html>.  They make a pretty hefty case there for the Saudi’s busted for 9/11 having a heck of a lot of inside US security help.  I mean, as the page and vidis provided quite eloquently depict, how the hey do a pair of huge office towers designed to withstand airplane hits fall so neatly into their footprints after having a couple passenger jets plow into the SIDES of their upper floors? 

* In a similar vein, Pentagon Strike <http://pentagonstrike.co.uk> provide a very slick Flash vidi and docs that point out one of those wonderous how-could-ive-missed-it-moments that sometimes make me think we’ve all got way too many endocannabinoids bopping about in our brains (not just me):  there was no clearly identifiable debris from the passenger jet that poked such neat little set of holes straight through several walls of reinforced concrete.  How could that be done? 

I owe these tidbits directly or indirectly to the site of J Orlin Grabbe <http://orlingrabbe.com/homepage.html>.  Grabbe was one of the (some say crooked) founders of Laissez-Faire City sovereign “micronation” in Costa Rica in the 90s, author of the leading MBA textbook International Financial Markets, the widely acclaimed essays “End of Ordinary Money” (about digital cash and laundering it) and “The Function of the Drug War” (maybe not what you thot) and he remains an apparent dabbler in cryptography, quantum physics and the mathematics of time, which he presents on his somewhat lewd site updated daily.  You might like him.

The other snippet of your near-End piece that stuck a chord was when you wrote this: “We can’t blame the Media… the press by and large reported the truth.”

I’d say: The press too can (sometimes) report the truth, yet not the whole truth.  Watching British, Australian, Canadian, French, Chinese and Vietnamese media before and after the US 9/11, it seemed both laughably and painfully obvious that we outside the US were getting a much bigger picture of what was going down than those you inside it.

Can we relate this to Y’GIAGAM (Yo’ Guess is as Good as Mine)?  Maybe when you’re afforded, or at least not prevented from, access to more attempts at the truth on some issues, you’ve got a better chance of being a bunch of better guessers about where those issues might go.  Certainly, i know few outside the US who ever even suggested much good could come of Operation Iraqi Liberation (ie, OIL). 

AD20051219Mon11h13m56ICT

ShameUs, sorry, Seamus, what could you possibly mean by “form hijacking”?

:-{{ (

Hooray for Seamus.........The hand of Web God....Did you see it everybody, Seamus has spoken and he is the boss. 

.....................................................^^......................... .......................
Rabbit bows humbly to Seamus and asks publically, in case Seamus is still noticing us, why does the Rabbit be banned?  He would rather be a Rabbit than a GhostRabbit any day?  But suddenly Rabbit cannot be Rabbit anymore.  Back to being a poor old dead rabbit, ghost.

Seamus, “What forbids us to tell the truth, laughingly?, Horace, Satires, I.24

This is as good a time as any for this ho’x to unsub…

Apropos many posts herein and Vonnegut’s Y’GIAGAM (Yo’ Guess is as Good as Mine), from the CounterPunch:

Defeated in Iraq, Bankrupt at Home, Despised Around the Globe (And That’s Just the Good News)

The Decline of the American Empire

By GABRIEL KOLKO

The dilemma the US has had for a half-century is that the priorities it must impose on its budget and its imperial plans have never guide