Time for a Name Change ?

Now that the Nations are hell bent on visiting other rocks out in the great beyond, it behooves us to consider an overdue task. The current tagline we have put on our home planet is hardly a fit choice. Consider this dictionary gem:

EARTH

1. The land surface of the world.
2. The softer, friable part of land: soil, especially productive soil.

How limp is that? To celebrate our home as simply a rock covered with topsoil is totally myopic; borderline insulting. Yet, that’s what we are presenting to the cosmos. To offer this description for all eternity is our sorry wont; it is overlooking the glorious thing distinguishing our world from all others.

Humans are loath to embrace kinship, on equal terms, with all inhabitants of this sphere. An overwhelming hubris has our kind celebrating our special abilities as somehow granting divine distancing from the rest. Childish nonsense this, beyond all reason. It has resulted in our reckless denial of human obeisance to humble membership within the ranks of the planet’s wondrous phenomenons: Life and the Life Force. A most venal transgression by a feckless race.

In an attempt to rectify this willful denial of the nature of this planet, a change of name is appropriate.

BELVIDA     is hereby offered to describe more accurately than Earth, a planet lush with Life in all its glory and wonders. 

BELVIDA     will announce to all those other rocks that we are what we are and thankful for it.

An Impossible Solution?

Humans are but second-rate carnivores. We are of the family of hominids and our essential nature resembles theirs. We do, indeed, eat a lot of  flesh, but…not raw flesh. We roast it, boil it, dry it, salt it or change its nature in some other fashion.  The advent of the use of fire most likely preceded the ingestion of flesh as part of regular diet. A handful of uses of raw flesh such as steak tartar and in sushi  notwithstanding. If it became necessary to eat only raw flesh for some reason, meat eating by human beings would soon vanish from the Earth.

Blood is the vehicle that dramatizes the rending of flesh and as such remains a potent symbol of iniquity and guilt. Human history of blood sacrifice, both real and symbolic may be manifestations of racial memory of our willful ignoring of our instinctive primate behavior. The human fascination with war may also link to the conflict between our original primate nature and the guilty blood burden we have acquired. A trillion slaughtered animals remind us of our quaint fancy for their tastier parts, done to a turn.

That quaint fancy for meat is impacting the planet in a perilous manner.  The enormous amount of land clearing, deforestation of acreage and accompanying farm and ranching structure for raising meat animals has impacted the globe.  Estimates show that the area required to feed people directly, without passing through an animal’s gullet, could be reduced to 4% of that currently in use and help heal the planet..

Impossible? Perhaps not.

A Fish Story

Cod we do it just for the halibut; either in grouper alone? If we flounder; it’s a fluke. Do it stroll ling along or perch quietly doing some mackerel may.  My herring is fine but I still don’t lox loud whale ing bass horns.  Or those who grunt and mumble like some sort of weak fish. I say wahoo try cobia marlin like me and speak clearly and shark ly and don’t scrod it up! At least will eel salmon the courage to try marlin once? Good show, Ray, now minnow ver here and have a spot of tea and striper relax and not carp.

I manta teach Ray but  jew know some people are crab by and clam up on you. I feel the sting,Ray!  Scallop a chair and we’ll try again, but this time menhaden a different direction. Mar gate, you know anything about the graffiti used to mar my gate? Blue Fish Matter…was that you’re doing, Ray? I put a tarpon over the words. What, you’re telling me it was Barri Cuda that snaggle-tooth lurker did it? Wow!  I thought he had been caught and was in the can. So he’s tuna loose on us again.  Dolphin to this lobster bisque, Ray, while I get the white wash. Barri Cuda can’t snook er us!

Black Swan Flu

Let’s start to call it by another name: Black Swan Flu.  That’s what in reality it represents. Clovid19  happened along as most of the Western world was about to die financially from lack of competitiveness with the East. The 2008-10 financial disaster near miss was kicked down the road (not the Belt & Road road, however)  for a decade until the shadow of that dark bird was spotted. Game over.

A new game promptly began with the usual cast of characters playing the usual roles with a few very notable exceptions. The big player had been for years without the palest hint of sound leadership. Most of the world’s other players  knew this was so but the money was good.  And the risk of crossing the big player was ominous. So they sat on it.

They were still sitting as events were compounding into the greatest financial and social miasma of modern times.  Any trace of fiscal responsibility vanished a decade earlier and kick-the-can became chapter and verse of Western spiritual life. ‘Till the choir stopped singing and began to tear their robes and look for sinners.  Enter the Middle Kingdom neatly dressed in western garb but emulating the Great Kahn. Now there’s a good target. Plus they got the Black Swan Flu first; suffered though it, and licked it.  Before the West had begun to “man up” for it. Sneaky buggers, let’s sue them!  But wait!  We’re #1 again. We have barely 5% of the world’s population and 1/3 of all the B>S>Flu! Yeah!

Every money dodge known to mankind along with several new ones had been put in play.  The crap-shooting big banks asses were covered again but this time the can can’t be kicked. End of the road, guys. Study your Mandarin and maybe you can clerk at the new store. Won’t be a casino, sorry.  If and when the pitiable remnants of US industry start up again we better think of something, anything at all, we might manufacture, ship thousands of miles, to sell profitably for one dollar in Asia.  Like they do here, right? Sure, we’re the ‘can do’ guys, right? All is well.

Male Cull

The human male is not the bedrock of the species. The advent of agriculture, largely female enabled, freed males from provisioning demands and contributed to a power quest. In taking advantage of biological leisure compared to the demands made upon females, males prevailed in an usurpation of domestic power. Recent history of our species is not good regarding subsequent male actions,and may influence their ultimate destiny. From a biological perspective, the human male is like a spark summoned forth when the bedrock is struck a glancing blow. A phosphorescence who’s staying power has yet to be finally determined. Much depends on Life’s judgment of his continued value to our species.

Since the late bronze age male power has been near total. Our world history with it’s overwhelming negativity is the result. Earth exists as a closed system with three principal actors.  Life, the Life force operant and the awareness/consciousness of one hominid species. The latter exists at the sufferance of the others.

Life appears to take great interest in human awareness as a useful vehicle to explore Life’s own interests.  We have been indulged in our transgressions against ourselves and countless others of Life’s subjects exceeding long. Will this continue indefinitely?  Perhaps Life sees another vehicle appearing on the horizon that may provide relief from male wantonness without the loss of awareness so coveted by the Life force.  Rather than have human males reduced to a utilitarian stud status with all the chaos this transition would guarantee, perhaps Life seeks another direction?

The recent development of artificial intelligence and 5 Gigabit technology could provide Life a means to remedy human threats to it’s other assets.  Perhaps Life will seek non-life recourse if human activities on the planet threaten too many of Life’s other charges? Our adventures with advanced enlightened technological systems has brought things close to the point where Life could have awareness without us.  Which future Gigabit number will be the one necessitating a plea for human continuance? Is there time remaining for reform?

Our Dot-to-Dot Dilemma

  Connecting  virtual dots will show a worldwide scenario that screams out for all humanity.  We have been inured to the esoteric conjuring of the worlds bankers for generations. This part of the scenario leaves most people, even those with the experience and education, baffled, then bored, and at a loss to ascertain how to put in perspective the events the Central and National banks initiate.  

Using our own Federal Reserve as a primary source most of us watch, haphazardly at best, as our Nation is put in debt for trillions of dollars to maintain a dubious status quo. As long as the official voices and talking heads are in agreement that all is well, this becomes the dominant message. The technique is the result of decades of manufactured consent. Pure propaganda aimed at lulling the populace and diverting close inspection.  

We in the Western world have now arrived at the point where nothing can be done about the dire future awaiting us. The debt cannot be serviced, in fact it was not expected to be; the opposite has always been the plan. Money is the control mechanism the bankers and their minions in high places chose to rule the world.

This incredible debt, growing larger daily, is the stock in trade of the banks, their only power, but it is enough to eventually own everything.  The plan is to inflate constantly, to abase each currency, to create vast bubbles in each economy, and then deflate quickly. The losses to the middle class, the most probable source of capital, will be catastrophic. The already impoverished lower orders will then be joined by billions of new arrivals.  With the bubble-pop will go all sources of credit and the elite will have arrived at a point of near total control.  

Joining the dots further will bring us  to the looming spectacle of starvation on an epic scale. This will advance the plan of the masters in two important regards.  If any viable competitors exist after the pop, a docile workforce of low-rent  wage slaves will be available to compete, thus filling the vision of the rulers to win, whatever the outcome.

 The second, even more sinister, leg of this dot-to-dot scenario is the removal of any genuine threats to the planet of human caused weather events. By reducing the population of the Earth by one half, human impact is lessened by that amount.  Viola! Problem of climate threat solved. Zero out-of pocket cost!  Another bubble is pierced! The population had expanded to incredible numbers partly by efforts of the banks and others to create new customers and the ‘benign’ assistance of “green revolution”, etc etc. At that point, they, the bankers, will make their profits from the new arrangements, until……

end

The Purpose of Life…is Life, amun

The Purpose of Life …is Life, amun

Or/ What if Eve’s Apple Was a Magic Mushroom?

 By Robert Magill                                

 

The sole purpose of life, and therefore our only human purpose may simply be, life itself. That, upon reflection, would appear to be almost enough. The life force does have its urges though, lots of them, it would appear. After countless eons of self-replication along came sexual reproduction, life had apparently gotten to be in somewhat more of a hurry. Life then pursued bigger and better forms of itself as mobility, size, vision etc. ensued over time. 

                               

Vision was unique and a promising end in itself, but life appeared to desire a different platform with which to fully employ this new sense. Many prototypes came and went, and eventually on the scene appeared humankind complete with a newly acquired awareness. Whence came then, this thing, this awareness, this brightness in the void, so cherished by life our very species could be made forfeit to preserve it? Perhaps it was the animal curiosity of some lumbering hominids possessed of sufficient cranial matter that chanced upon a source. The menu of vegetable suspects is quite large. The plants, cacti, mushrooms and vines that possess the chemical soups that have the ability, and perhaps desire to exert themselves aggressively when combined with suitable host brain, is legion. We currently regard these substances as “mind altering” but could they perhaps have been “mind creating” at some remote point in time?

 

Students of psychedelic phenomenon have reported a tendency among this family of substances to exhibit a strong urge to promote its own agenda over the host consciousness at times.  Life, in this way, may have introduced the initial spark of awareness in receptive hominid brains with suitable vegetable matter containing psychedelic chemical ingredients. Imagine the wonder this revelation surely produced in a previously unconscious world.  The binges and quest for more light shows that followed in the still only partially illuminated minds of these creatures must have been incredible.

Although partially illuminated may be an apt description, it diminishes these beings.  In fact they were the life force’s handiwork of the moment.  Complete and complex animals, intuitive and instinctive, brainy but still totally a part of the remarkable life force of planet Earth. They are true focus of humankind’s ongoing search for the “higher order”; the “god within”, the “promised land”, and all the rest.   Humans continue to look outward for salvation despite the occasional quiet voice that urges “look within”.  The psycho-active  helpers produced a new phenomenon here on Earth but this prized awareness still rests on the shoulders of one of  life’s creatures: a functioning hominid.  Human consciousness would do well to respectfully examine it’s host. 

Perhaps this initial visitation of consciousness onto a receptive human brain and the incredible awakening produced therein is responsible for the ongoing human quest for enlightenment. Our species has demonstrated a universal affinity for various visions, ecstasies and raptures and they have been zealously sought for millennia.  Perhaps then, a racial memory of, and longing for a return to that original staggering event gives impetus to the universal spiritual quests we humans faithfully follow to this day

 

Eventually something went wrong between human beings and the life force. Life lives on by consuming itself but the feasting is benign. Humans often miss the subtlety. We know large portions of the recent history of our species and it’s not very good.   Considering our known history, can we begin to significantly amend our ways if life demands a timely accounting? So if and when life decides we have exhausted all possibility of further usefulness, and our excesses overwhelm life’s other vital interests, do we then risk severance of the thread with life?  Should we begin to tug ever more gently at this tether to lessen our risk? Does life even care about the fate of us, its creature? Probably not, countless other species have traveled along on life’s quest, prospered to a degree and vanished. Will we join them?

 

Of course it is possible life may now be providing itself with a non-life fallback to the dilemma posed by our misuse of awareness and consciousness. If humankind becomes suspect of probable catastrophic losses to many of its other progeny, life then may seek to substitute Artificial Intelligence for flawed human intelligence. We, ourselves, may rapidly be creating the instruments for our future replacement with life’s resigned encouragement. Life may value this tediously acquired awareness beyond all measure. More the pity for humankind.

 

These phenomena are unique on the planet; life, the life force and the awareness/consciousness of one primate species. What we regard as ultimate reality is simply the stories we tell ourselves and others combined with whatever actions humans are capable of accomplishing. Humanity must now learn to live with 5 Gigabit technology becoming a reality and should perhaps begin to wonder which future Gigabit number will be the one to provide the artificial intelligence and awareness deemed sufficient by the life force to render human beings redundant if it chooses to do so? Could we, perhaps, change our behavior?     end

righttrax@aol.com

Note: (I used logical simplicity a.la Einstein but could not include freedom since the life force on our planet appears to be a closed system. The premise is advanced without a prior model and with the near certainty of rejection because worldwide left hemispheric lateralisation resists right brain grounding.)

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Schizophrenia: a rift in the seam of human awareness?

Schizophrenia is an ailment which still defies remedy and is among the most mystifying human plagues of record. Apparently the current schemes involving debilitating drug regimens cause as much harm as cure. If, as I have suggested elsewhere, (The Purpose of Life…is Life, amun) human awareness/consciousness was perhaps created initially by early primate involvement with psychoactive vegetation, relief might be found in that arena as well.

Human awareness/ consciousness has been carrying eons of cultural baggage and should be stripped of that burden when seeking basic roots for the disorder. In looking for cause, should possible first cause be ignored?  If, indeed, first cause in generating human awareness is related to psychotropic vegetation, that area should warrant closer attention.  Recently much study has been devoted to the role of cannibidiol oil (CBD) in the easing of this psychic disorder. The substance can be extracted from the hemp plant in a pure form with almost no trace of the psychoactive substance THC present.  Does this not resemble a promising homeopathic approach to a heretofor resistant disorder?

A paper authored in March, 2019 by R. Andrew Magill (related) How Schizophrenics May Benefit  From CBD contains much of the current lore on the subject. If centered away from Freudian styled divination or of drugs with long lists of side-effects and viewed from a CBD usage perspective relief seems, at long last, not unrealistic.

The report states, “As a disorder with no known cure, a full recovery is rare.”  It goes on to say, “ The primary point of interest is in the endocannabinoid system, which is involved in regulating a number of biological processes, including memory, stress, and the autonomic nervous system. Preliminary research suggests CBD usage may contribute to the repair and maintenance of this system, which in turn could offer symptom relief for the sufferers of schizophrenia.”

Cure remains beyond reach at present but certainly more determined, cautious probing in the ‘mindfields’ of psychedelic phenomenon may be worth the effort.  end

 

 

      

 

Six thousand years ago humankind began to speak in a single voice. That voice is male. The rest is history.

Had enough yet?

Birth of a Nation in 2018?

We might yet celebrate 2018 as the year of the long-awaited, actual Birth of a Nation: the United States of America. It’s been a long gestation, with many false pangs signaling labor having started in the past. A lot of weight was put on about 1846 after a terrible passion for Mexican food caused indigestion. There was a scary blood spotting in 1861; lots of blood, but no nation was born, alas. The patient put on a lot of weight after that scare. Glut and bloat actually lasted until the third decade of the twentieth century. Most of the bloat was lost overnight in 1929 but the patient is a slow learner and after a big worldwide set-to called WWll in the fifth decade the glut and bloat started up again, big time.

Oh the appetite, my goodness talk about a binge; can’t get enough. All the world has been seen as free lunch for the one expecting for decades.  Now in any confinement, especially a long one, really, really long like say 242 years, people project an awful lot of wishful thinking on the one expecting. It’s “irreplaceable”: “shining city on a hill”; something about “amber waves of grain” and “the Beautiful”; there’s talk of it being “ God’s own”, and lately, “indispensable” is popular. Add to these the ever present jingoism present in society and the well meaning but emotional patriotism that precedes it.

All these combine to insure the nation when finally emerged, will largely resemble a caricature of the noble image projected at length. A great deal of human energy over a long period of time has been expended honing and shading the perception of the real nation still aborning.  Many aspects of the systems and forces attending this confinement have in the year 2018 shown to be much less than they have long been perceived to be. In fact almost nothing, or no one in position of responsibility or authority, seems up to the standards warranted by all the posing and bloviating.

The country appears to have been dining out for a century or more on good intentions and a stirring mythology. Now in this pregnant year of 2018 the mythology appears to be mostly cant and the good intentions convince no one.  On this vast expanse of soil, rock and water will come forth a new nation one day, perhaps today, in no way resembling the hologram projected about for two centuries to delight and distract generations into believing it was the real thing.

Middle Kingdom vs The Cowboys

Europe, the Western Hemisphere, Oceania, the Middle East and a large portion of Africa are primarily Abrahamist in character. Little exists in vast areas of the developed world without the influence, character and actions of Jews, Christians and Muslims reflecting the legacy of Father Abraham. Much of the history of the planet is covered by his shadow excepting one very interesting place.

There is a certain mindset shared by the descendants of the patriarch that seems to be at work almost universally as this ancient influence permeates strongly despite many cultural differences.  The recent history of our species shows a remarkable sameness as the countries and cultures in his orbit arise and descend over time. The residual perversity of gender inequity among the various Abrahamist groups has had a marked, damaging effect on tens of millions of us. Short of learning once more how to be normal human beings without having a script or blueprint, we can only wait for the results of the ambitious Chinese experiment.

Gore Vidal wrote somewhere that Europe was once the Wild West of Asia and that, in turn, America became the Wild West of Europe. It would appear we have retained the title. The Middle Kingdom, as China was known historically, appears to originate from a different mode of human experience. Our religious incumbency, a heritage of Abraham and the religious zeal of his early desert dwelling disciples, continues on with his descendants. Will centuries of oppression of females, orgies of warfare and religious intolerance finally end? Does China’s President Xi’s apparent modeling of the vision and spirit of Kublai Khan signal a more hopeful force and pattern for mankind’s future or will China’s stewardship of mankind repeat these same inequities?