reflecting upon
#mementomori
my fault of mortality
reminds me to live
Kurt
This is a no brainer…
Pun intended.
Comparing George Orwell’s “1984″ to Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World,” Postman then added that, “What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared that the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.”
Social media offer us two choices: Orwell’s hell, or Huxley’s, MarketWatch, September 7, 2022
I’m Team Huxley all the way.
People will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. – A. H.
Anyway…
I can thank Donald Trump for at least one thing: That is, being the impetus behind my decision to abandon just about all social media and forsake you all here at my website.
For the most part I’m a better man for it because Trump and all his idiotic minions cultish worshippers political supporters were driving me on the fast track to dark, warped places I had no desire to visit.
However, two years or so on, I do miss journaling* regularly here.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to re-engage with it like I used to.
But I’m trying.
At least I think often about trying.
Anyway…
I don’t really blame social media for all our societal ills like so many do.
As I see it, we will always look to blame who/whatever we can for the ignorant/dumb things we do that only we, ourselves, can possibly be responsible for doing.
Such as hating.
Or not accepting the truth.
Or even avoiding the truth.
Et cetera.
Et cetera.
Besides, we have allowed technology to debase and dumb us down at least since the invention of the printing press.
And there’s no turning back now.
And once our A.I. Overlords are in complete control, brains will no longer be optional.
They will be unnecessary.
Superseded.
Yeah…
Pun definitely intended.
*I still cannot reconcile myself to the word “blogging”.
Literary Zen XI
There is some wisdom in taking a gloomy view, in looking upon the world as a kind of Hell, and in confining one’s efforts to securing a little room that shall not be exposed to the fire.
*Perhaps a better caption would be, Willem Defoe as Arthur Schopenhauer, which is why I shan’t give up my day job.
Oh yeah, my books will be free from 00:01 (PDST) tonight until 23:59 PDST) Friday.
✌️
If it’s not yet time to start worrying…
It’s getting awfully close.
BTW, if you’re wondering whether the creep in the video has the street cred to back up his Earth-ending bombast, he is affectionately known in Russia’s kleptocratic circle as “Putin’s mouthpiece.”
I wonder what the Vegas odds are for a Russian-induced nuclear holocaust by year’s end…
#whatmeworry
Sunday Songs to Spark the Spirit and Summon the Moves of the Dance
You probably know that Steve Earle is a world-renowned folk/country/crossover singer-songwriter…
And maybe you know that he is also an actor, having appeared on The Wire, Treme, and other productions, his characters mostly mirroring his life as a musician, as in Treme, or as a recovering heroin addict, as in The Wire.
But did you know he is also an author?
And a damn fine one at that?
Yeah…
Dude’s def got it going on, I must say. Obviously, I’m a big fan.
His book I’ll Never Get Out of this World Alive is named after a Hank William’s song. I listened to the audiobook version, of which Earle performed. It’s great. The main character is a down-and-out, disgraced doctor, and an addict, who angelically performs illegal medical services for the locals of his unruly hood, particularly for the at-risk sex workers. It is a sad, touching, funny, magical, hallucinatory/ghostly tale (Hank Williams plays a critical role… or at least his ghost/Doc’s hallucination of him does) of which I highly recommend.
Anyway, have a listen of this little ditty of Earle’s from when he was a much younger human, and tap a toe or two while you’re at it…
Does it matter if our soul* is eternal?
Leaving religion with its heavens and hells and golden-paved avenues and abiding virgins and doting angels and disinterested saints and other high-ranking, hifalutin gods and demigods aside, is there an actual evolutionary and/or functioning purpose for an eternal soul?
In other words, does the fact that our souls are eternal matter to our day-to-day struggle to survive?
Or is this concept just a necessary illusion, one that provides us with a false sense of immortality to help us deal with our debilitating fear of death?
Anyway…
I guess we won’t know until we know, you know?
And in case you’re wondering, I just read a click-bate article about the ‘Orch-OR’ theory, so it got me to wondering…
*If the word soul is a bit too new-agey and metaphysical for you, replace it with consciousness
Literary Zen X
Everyone who has ever built anywhere a new heaven first found the power thereto in his own hell.
Huzzah! The pandemic is receding so we no longer need to fear the end of humanity!
Wait! Putin said what?!
Whoever tries to hinder us, and even more so, to create threats to our country, to our people, should know that Russia’s response will be immediate. And it will lead you to such consequences that you have never encountered in your history…
Putin implies nuclear attack if West interferes in Ukraine. Why it’s not just an empty threat, CBCNews, February 25, 2022
Oh, well. Back to the bunker…
#peaceout