First was the Word, and We knew not its Meanings

The story of Babel is as old as the Bible itself.
We toss words out at others.
We "babel" word-bites back to ourselves.
We pray for insight to emerge from our constant noise making.
Do we even know what half these words mean?
No.
Because as comedian Lewis Black oft reminds us, We're F-in Idiots.

In no particular order, here are some of the bird chirp noises we make without stopping to realize we really don't know what those air vibrations mean:



1. I / me / this one for example ..........
2. "We" .......... .......... .......... .......... ..
3. You / The "You know" one .......... ..
4. Oh my God
5. Natural
6. Organic
7. Civilized
8. Common sense
9. The Government
10. Us/They
11. Technology
12. Money
13. The Economy
14. Success
15. Computers (Hardware / Software)
16. Blame / Fault / Responsibility
17. Entitlement / Deserve-i-hood
... (still under construction)


Connecting the dots: The Zombie Surge and The Them/Us Me/We Imperative


(1) Who am "I"?
The "I", the "me, myself", the "one and only".
When one speaks of one's own identity, one assumes that there is only the one and none other. The belief in a one and none other can be found even as the top of the list in the Biblical Ten Commandments.
However paradox is there when one can't make up one's mind. How is that possible? How can "a one and only" have two or more conflicting thoughts at the same time? Suddenly the facade of being a "one" begins to crumble. Or not; if the one refuses to admit that maybe it is not the one and none other. ......

(2) Are "we" who we think we are?

Often we are positive that we know who we mean when speak of the we. Is that always true? Can "we" sometimes mean only "me"? Is "we" just the two of us?

Black President Cares law Ovewhelms BooHoo Boehner

Remember this sensitive member of the US House of Representatives?
Republican House Speaker John Boehner?
Turns out he can cry at the drop of a hat, or of an elephant turd.

As he explains it: "There are some things I feel very strongly about. ... I take what I do very seriously. And when it comes to kids. When it comes to my own family. Soldiers. You know, I get, I feel very strongly that I want America to be the country that I grew up in. A country where you really do have opportunity."

One of the things he feels "strongly" about is thing called "Obama"-care; which, as some people clearly understand, is merely hide-in-plain-sight code for the Black President Cares law.

Technically it should be called the ACA or Affordable Care Act.
But hey, who needs to get technical when we're dealing with an emotional --tears jerking-- issue like there being a dark skinned fella in the "White" House and him getting laws passed that actually try to help the little guy.

Why it brings tears to one's eyes.

(Posted on the day the GOP failed to extort the American people into giving up the ACA if they wanted to see their national parks and whatnots again.)

Bedazzled by the Setting Sun

Some might say:

Brightest it is

when staring at the setting sun.

Lately we have been bedazzled
by predictions of a dawning
new age of singular abundance.

We are awash in new technologies
and in a fresh cornucopia of consumption that
these confabulations appear to bring us.

The mini-me-Phones tie me-to-me and maybe even to you.

The Fed eases our quantitatives and spurs our economy to infinity and beyond.



The Fracks crack our rocks to free the fuels yet again.
The nostalgics nuance a reframed reality to bring us back the good old days.

Ain't no doubt 'bout it.
Happy Days are here again.

Or are they?

Is the "New Normal"
not your grandfather's normal?

Is the sea
not what we see?

Is the climate change
not to our temperament?

Is the gold
not that which glitters?

Are the smiles
on super model faces
nothing but pasted-on facades?

Is stale thinking
that which buries us?

Maybe so.
But oh that parking lot.
Look at that parking lot
And the sun that sets 'ore it.

DOTE Drops Out

There are some people
who seem to have never
gotten past the High School habit
of dropping a few gratuitous F-Bombs in everything they say

One habitual F-bomb dropper
has finally grown up, tuned up
and dropped out.
But not before dropping one last "Humanity is F***ed" Bomb.

To imagine that the human condition can be summed up
in one simple "We're F***ed" line
is to have failed to grasp Cultural Biology.

It's much more complicated than that.

We are more than our biological genetics.
We are also our cultural connectomes.

We are the sum of our pre- and post-linguistic experiences,
many of them being social emotional ones.

What are our comprehensions of the "money" thing
even before we know how to speak?

What are our comprehensions of the Mommy & Daddy gods
and their quest for the "money" power
even before we know how to utter same sounds?

Return of Flat Earth Theorists

One

advantage of
having your own
"Drummed Out" blog
is that you can't be censored into
the "baby in the corner"
corner by a megalomaniacal other blogger.

Who are these megalomaniacs?
No need to mention any names directly here.

The real issue is the belief that "simple" is good enough.
Which is a slippery slope.
because it means that:
(1) Them who simplistically deny Climate Change are on the right path,
(2) Them who simplistically deny Peak Oil are on the right path,
(3) Them who simplistically deny Falsifiable Science are on the right path.

And as for the unmentioned meglomaniac blogger** not mentioned here,
(**= One who invites/ baits others to comment on his blog site and then erases their comments unless they are complete kiss ups), his "good enough" theory of the human mind is that it can be simplistically divided into the "conscious" part and the one-way communicating "unconscious" part.

And anyone who suggests his simplistic theory of the mind is too simplistic, gets kicked off the hill.

Simple is, As simple does

Bugging out Just Before TSHTF

"The Oil Drum" (TOD) has decided
to cork its barrel and go into
On the Beach mode
just before the proverbial occurrence of TSHTF

Long time contributors say their good byes


here ... (Cassandra),
here ...(Robert Rapier),
here ... (Black_Dog),
here ... (h2),
here ... (peak oil),
here ... (A. Mckay),
here ... (S. Maley),
here ... (Daily Kos),
here ... (oldfarmermac),
here ... (Ghung)
here ... (Desdemona Despair)
here ... (Ariane),
here ... (Big Gav),
here ... (George Mobus: DoomDiner)

here ..., and
here ... ((google)),

Suggestions for alternate sites:
(0) NEW! "THE" Planet Beat
(1) Energy Trends (expert columns)
(2) Resilience
(3) Boiled Frog Not
(4) Decline of Empire
(5) Peak Oil recent You-Tubes
(6) ASPO PO sites list
(7) ASPO PO News sites
(8) ...

(x) (google search) ...

Physics-"free minds" afloat in their Reality-"free markets" Gloat over demise of the Neo-Malthusian peakists

Concerns Send Oil Prices Soaring
Suddenly it just happened:

One Nation, Under-Scienced

In the Northern hemisphere, "summer"
and its associated "warm times"
comes when Earth is farthest from the Sun.

That's the science.

But them who loathe Obama march to a different truth:

CO2 has nothing to do with perceptions of anomalous climate change. The true demon here is orbital precession ... Right now, the closest point in the orbit toward the Sun takes place right after Northern Hemisphere winter solstice. That means more land is exposed to the Sun at its closest. Hence, more to warm. ... AGW is the hoax of the century

--Boehner says Obama climate change plan is ‘absolutely crazy’

One Nation, Under Surveillance, with Liberty & Justice for Them Who Can Afford It

Seeing oneself as not at the edge of the not-there cliff

Can't one have "Civilized Debate"?

What is wrong with those "others"?

How can they refuse "civilized" debate?

Indeed "one" oft wonders what in God's forsaken heaven possibly could be churning within the minds of those "others".
Especially where those others are of the non-XYZ mindset.

Here "XYZ", if you so mind,
represents "conservative"
or "liberal" or
some other such well defined
and trust-able circle of pigeon-holing.


As it so happens (click on image at right to see video)
"conservative" thinker Melanie Phillips
has shared with us her views of "one's"
place in the Universe.

One is forced you see, to live in a world
most unfortunately delineated as between the clearly rational (those who know how to engage in truth-seeking and "civilized" debate) and the "others", those who hang their hats on an "-ism", Environmentalism for example, but are not able to debate the objective facts.

Consider "Climate Change". It is a buggers' con-trick.
Surely and indeed.
All those "bio-feedbacks" in the climate will set things right
This is an "objective truth" (according to Ms. Phillips)

It is "lonely" at the top according to Ms. Phillips, to be the only journalist at her news organization still telling the "truth" in a world turned upside down.
It is lonely to be stuck there surrounded by the distortional consensus fabricated in secret cabal by the others (the Climate-Gaters), including by the gullible and unfortunately "liberal" journalists.
But be brave oh rational one. For you are not lonely among the majority of "Middle Britain", within the group that is grounded in true "reality".

Cliff?
What cliff?
I (speaking as Ms. Phillips or other conservatives) see no cliff.
But surely if there was one, "we" would see it and do the sensible thing ...

Dumbo's Feather, Inception and Collapse

"Inception" is a movie about dreams within dreams.

In Inception, a token totem spins and spins and
seems always on the edge of falling over.
What does it mean?
More importantly, in the end, the main character (Cobb) no longer hold's on to that totem.
What does that mean?

Has he let go?

"Dumbo" is a movie about a cartoon baby elephant endowed with an X-Men like mutational power which allows him to convert his flesh and blood ear flaps (used for cooling) into airplane wings (airfoils) of sufficient lift power to overcome gravity's pull on his elephant's body.

"The Feather" which Dumbo grasps

is an example of yet another held-onto totem
that has been the subject of extended focus.
What does it represent?


Before answering though ...
A first question is whether we are allowed
in a first place to ask questions or is the mere asking ...
of questions taboo? (Forbidden, Blasphemy?)

Let's assume yes ... we are allowed to ask

And then to investigate possible answers ....

In one sense, "Dumbo's Feather" represents a dream (psycho-suggestive powers) within a dream (of fly-capable elephants) within yet another dream (that of a cartoon world reflecting our reality) just as in the movie "Inception" the ploy is that of getting an audience to suspend its disbelief mechanisms to the point that they allow the movie to implant in their minds an acceptance of unreality becoming reality (of dreams seeming to come true). The notion to be grasped is that a "symbol", a "token" such as a mere feather (Dumbo's feather) can overcome the "psychological barriers" which are the only things holding us back from our "true potential" --for example, the potential of a gravity bound body (i.e. an elephant's body) to otherwise take off and fly to unlimited heights

--If only we believe hard enough. (When you wish upon a star ...)


Let's think real hard.

Where else have we been asked to hold on to tokens of belief and wish hard enough for our dreams (American dreams), for our "true potentials", to come true or to wish that those above us (our job-creationist leaders) will come to our rescue? To the rescue of Greece? To the rescue of Cyprus?

Where else have we been told
that belief alone (high self-esteem) will make us soar?


Where have we also been told ...

YES WE CAN ?  That all we need is "ingenuity"?

What manner of MAGIC FEATHER is used in each such situation?

At what points in our lives did we each mutate into being a Dumbo?


(jump forward to Table of Contents)

Run the gauntlet boy and you will be a "champ".

Peak Sapience, The Dumb-beats

Forget Peak Oil and the "Drumbeats"

We are reaching for new heights in "sound" logic used by humans --call it the 'dumb-beats'.

This is an investigatory area of unlimited scope.

Big within the taxonomical mapping of dumb-beats is the part covering our notions of "money", "debt" and "value".

How Dumbo can we be?

No number is too small.

Dare we think in the Trillions?
As in dollars?
Sure. Why not?
How about quadrillions? Only a few more zeroes!

The faster we flap (our ears,
or our mouths,
or our 'financial' and 'fiscal' neurons, etc.),
the higher we go.
Wee. This is fun!

The Wiley Coyote moment
is far away in an unfathomable future

What goes up must ....
surely keep going up.

The trend lines say so.
Trend lines never lie.
They just "inflect" every so often.

Oh no! The magic feather. The magic feather. It's disappeared. It was a mirage.

Winning is Losing, Victory is Defeat

Right? It sounds like something straight out of Orwell's "1984". Pure Double-speak.
But is it? Not so fast.
There may be truth in them there title words.

Some say, Win at "all costs".
What if "all costs" ultimately means sure-fire defeat?

A few examples
below ...

Consider the victory parade of an infectious disease (e.g. the Ebola virus).
If it wins too fast, it loses.
Because the host dies too fast.
Because the host does not then aid in proliferation of the disease.
"Total" and swift victory actually becomes defeat.

The same can apply to human endeavors ...

Consider the Industrial Age ... (the Industrial Revolution)
Yes it has "globalized" itself (taken over, infected the world)

It's victory is near total and unquestioned

And yet,we (the
victorious viral species)
begin to have a
worrisome feeling
among our ranks
that our Big Win
may be the harbinger of
Collapse (the Big Lose)

Consider sports ...
and winning at all costs

The short term gain is
... crossing the man-made
and thus artificial
"finish" line

But getting there on unsustainable
steroids?
Is that truly a "win"?

For whom?

Pour Fahvor Seniore, Excusae Whilst Mammal I Become

Republo-Captain's Log, Stardate: 2013 State of the Grand Old Party Address (SOGOPA 2013)

Yes, for one brief,
mirror-scuffing moment,
the tall and proud Latino Republican,
Marcus Biblethumpper Rubio
had to stoop low,
drop face, and drink the
de-polluted aqua
out of a Mini-Me Mousekateire bottle.

It was almost as if
he too (etu Rubio-con?)
was a lowly mammal
and not the above-it all
self-made Republocrat.

Yes, whilst bragging about how,
in a time of rising economic tides
his mother and father had raised
the family boat all by themselves
(Si Seniore, WE built it, --alone)
and how he, the Rubio-con
had crossed over
to the wealthy side of the shores,
all on his own merits;

it was then that he had to stoop low
and become an animal.
And for one humiliating moment, drink, drink
a bottle full of aqua as would any lowly Democrat.

Oh the right-winged humanity!

Now the right wing talking point pundits
stand like deer in the headlights;
not understanding why The New Water-Sip Gate
is being made such a viral media event.

What? Superman must pause and drink the ordinary man's aqua??

(If I drink anything at all, I drink Liquid Poland. Be thirsty my friend. Be the most interesting man in the world.)