Garbage & The Hero

It's the end of the year and I'm tired as shit, so let's get this thing over and done with.

Last night I saw a few disturbing things before going to bed. The main thing was this story about this huge swirling land massed sized area of plastic in the Pacific Ocean. Supposedly it's twice the size of Texas. I heard about this several months ago, but just kind of ignored it, hoping I'd see a retraction in the paper in a few months.

There's more plastic in that area than plankton. It's killing hundreds of thousands of sea creatures, up and down the food chain. Is already too big to clean up and is a growing ecological nightmare. The guy said, "Every piece of plastic ever made is still in existence. It doesn't go anywhere."

It's just getting to the point where you almost go from feeling disgusted to being impressed. We were able to bring the entire earth to its knees in a few generations. The dinosaurs ruled the earth for 185 million years, or about 184.9999997 million years longer than us. It is time for us to choose a nice warm tar pit to settle into with our time capsules? Not quite yet. Things are about to get a hell of a lot more interesting. _

What’s funny is that we actually have people that are worth billions of dollars who still believe they have to produce rubbish in order to survive. They somehow think that when shit goes belly up, they'll be able to use their considerable resources to insulate themselves above the fray like something from the movie "Zardoz". It’s a fantasy sure as any. They don't seem to get the fact that we breath the same air, drink the same water, have the same needs and are all linked together in what essentially amounts to an ever shrinking, toxic terrarium.

Is it any coincidence that Hollywood seems increasingly fascinated with Zombies? Or is it just that Zombie flicks don't require scripts and thus striking writers? Either way we're not going to have to worry about diseases turning people into Zombies. And people being chased and torn apart limb from limb. You and I are going to be the Zombies and the victims will be the hyper-rich who attempt to drive through the throng of poor, desperate and starving on their way to their hilltop gated, armed communities.

Things will get bad, inevitably one day. Whether the cause will be man made or not is a toss up. The point is that once shit does go Katrina-style, the rich will actually be able to insulate themselves somewhat for a certain period of time. They will use their considerable resources to hoard resources and try to wait it out until a few billion folks die and it'll be safe for their grandchildren's grandchildren to emerge from their hilltop gated communities.

In any event we have a few years, maybe ten at best before this scenario plays out. That having been said, the thing I don't understand about that big swirl of plastic in the Pacific Ocean, is who thought it was a good idea to dump trash in the ocean? I suspect it was someone exactly like former Treasury Secretary and Harvard University President Lawrence Summers. He and his people and people who believe his macro-economic doctrine are just the type of idealist that propagate the foundational humanity dismissing, anti-environmentalist theories that lead to municipalities tossing non-biodegradable shit into the ocean.

Lawrence Summers famous memo that was leaked to the press on the subject of pollution PRIOR to being chosen as President of Harvard was astoundingly callous and heartless. To paraphrase his statements, he said that we should dump our toxic waste, garbage, refuse and all manner of hazardous byproducts smack dab in the middle of the poorest nations of the world. The Logic? Well, poor nations don't produce that much, and poisons kill, so if anyone's going to die, it simply MAKES SENSE, to have it be poor, essentially worthless sub-humans. Now of course, there were no value judgments, it was all a strict, unbiased, objective analysis of productivity algorithms. You don't have to believe me, The exact ending quote was, "the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that" Well.... if nations of people are prime targets for toxic waste, it must be because non-peopled areas like the ocean are no longer viable dumping sites.

We actually have in our midst a monastery full of cloistered economic "monks" that worship the foundational principles of "Free Trade". But it's been my contention all along, that once we leave the marketplace to "market forces" instead of allowing human beings, and our ideals and principles to orchestrate and guide the market, then we have given up free will and control to the most callous and heartless of false gods... the invisible hand of greed, exploitation, extortion and desperation, otherwise known as "free market systems".

Free trade has a very nasty, nasty resume. In a nutshell, there used to be trade routes where spice, silk, salt, gold, ivory, jewels and all manner of treasures were exchanged. Along with this were eras of great kingdoms that roamed the world stealing treasure and slaughtering entire populations. Folks like Alexander the Great, Augustus, Attila, Charlemagne, William the Conqueror, Genghis Kahn, Napoleon, etc. Hitler was really the last in the line of world conquerors. The way he did it had been done for centuries. I could go on, but "Trade' and conquest go hand in hand and lately they joined forces.

With world conquest came the creation of the Great Plantations. Rubber, Tea, Sugar, Cotton, Coffee, Tobacco, and their slaves along with serfs who grew the grains, peasants who grew the rice and paid soldiers and mercenaries comprised the intricate complex relationships, agreements, enforcement and resources that eventually stabilized in “free markets” for commodities, and the creation of "corporations" which created, traded, transformed and sold resources…. In a nutshell at least.

I've been around the sun a few times, or at least enough times to observe that the "invisible hand" really aint that invisible. Is the hand that holds the whip, the gun, the saber, the harquebusier, the grenade, ak-47, the torch, the machine gun invisible? Perhaps it seemingly has a life of it's own, but it's in reality a cash cow that produces riches in exclusive, secluded, quarantined members-only back rooms filled with blue blooded barons that have the credentials to demonstrate inalienable rights written in indecipherable legal-ese granting them license over individual nipples.

The most we can hope for is to find a spot where perhaps we can eat the excrement of the guy that eats the excrement of the guy that eats the excrement of THE GUY on the nipple.... kind of a seventh "economic class" type scenario.

It's somewhat amazing that some deformed mutant being like Lawrence Summers (not to be confused with an actual human) is touted as "intelligent" and yet, wouldn't give a moment to contemplate that perhaps the solution to dealing with toxic waste would be to not produce it, or anything that creates it. Once again, it doesn't take much intelligence, or wisdom to know that as these poisons build up in the environment, we are all going to be affected.... even those of us who make a few million or billion dollars a year.

Granted, to know you can't shit in your own rice bowl is a complex lesson, which requires vast amounts of intellectual capacity, contemplation and of course research to substantiate and definitively arrive at as a wise conclusion.... or is it? If so, why were ALL the tribes in Africa, South America, Cultures of China, and everywhere essentially living in peace prior to being nation-jacked by the colonial forces? And when I say "living in peace,” I mean relative peace with the environment. Of course they killed one another with reckless abandon, but killing humans is the only thing humans have the right to kill. Killing humans does not endanger the lives of humanity as a whole, in fact, it preserves it and more importantly, death is to be expected. We are born to die. That's the simple fact, but must we take every other creature down with us?

Every "indigenous" and so-called "primitive" or "non-industrial, non-invisible-hand culture" knows this, preaches this, teaches this, and lives this. As we come and go in war, pestilence, disease, natural disaster, we are involved in the great cosmic play and ebb and flow of life and death, which although ruthless, can go on for centuries, millennia and geological ages. The point is the dance of life, around the bowl of ever-present death, allows humanity, and the world, to exist in some form ad infinitum. If what you mean by "primitive" means they lived in accordance with nature, and scratched out an existence in a delicate balance and their population would ebb and flow. Then yes, they are "primitive", but they were also something so much more than any individual in "modern" society could ever hope to be.

These humans weren't out just to save, comfort, indulge and enrich themselves. They were part of a legacy and a culture that taught values of a deep respect for nature, our earth, our home, our families and the roles and skills that we needed to learn to not only survive, but to serve as oracles, shaman, wise men and wise women, matriarch’s, historians, judges, negotiators, etymologist, botanist, naturopaths and keepers of the flame. In the time before libraries, humans were the libraries. Every bit of knowledge, wisdom, cultural practice, survival skill, legend, music, rhythm, was embedded within the mind, heart, soul and personality of every tribal member. The price for violating these mores and practices was either banishment or death.

Imagine that, more relevant knowledge in the art of 'living' than can be found in the library of congress within the leaders of the tribe. Wiped out with the pull of a trigger, the casting of a net, a chain, a whip and a steely will for "free market forces" and an over arching drive to find out what market will, or can bear.

The 6 nations united under the Mohawk name had the concept known as "7th generation" which is to say that if your decisions negatively impacted not only your people, but their children, their children, their children, their children, their children and their children, then you could not take that action. Only if the action did not have a negative impact upon the next seven generations could you do it.

The great empires of colonist and traders laughed at the simplicity of these people and the ease in which their cultures were destroyed; land purloined, populace enslaved and their humanity bent upon carrying out the will of the oppressor. But the philosophies of these cultures, their practices and ways are something we should have been more eager to not only study anthropologically, but culturally, economically, spiritually, organically, and how they lived and persisted within their environments.

Ultimately, we must transcend blame, and fully grieve the loss of times gone by if we are to rise to meet this challenge. For now, all of our hands are bloody. The problem with humanity is not only exemplified in "free market forces" or flawed philosophy, the "problem" with humanity is unbounded potential, limitless problem solving, sentient contemplation all wrapped up in this impulsive, prone to expedience and pleasure loving package.

"We" are the problem. You and I and the guy on the hill with a few billion dollars are different incarnations of the same soul. We control him, as he controls us. As he shouts out orders from on high, the collective harmony of our voices as we call out for cheap oil, electronics, groceries, clothes and snacks sounds to him as irresistible as the sirens’ call to Ulysses. Are we mad at him? or ourselves for not being in his position?

Our fascination with death and strange sense of self-preservation, as well as passion and drive has pushed us to the ultimate precipice.

Zombie movies are great, but ever wonder why almost all action adventures end with the hero, a beautiful lady, a world destroying device and several seconds to save humanity, against the odds before we can get back to the status quo? Stories used to not only have a plot but also a moral. Not anymore.

We love to create death and evade it. Well, now we've created it...

One day a hero will rise, to help us all evade it.

The Present is History or History is Present

Why are we in Iraq? What's going on in the Middle East? Why did the Russian military collapse in the early 80's? Why can't any of the independent nations of Africa get their shit together? Why are there so many bodies in East Timor? How come Tibet is crawling with Chinese? Why doesn't the U.S. have Universal Health care?

If you have any prayer of knowing the answer to any these questions, you need to study history, because today’s headlines will only tell you who got killed. When the next round of negotiations will begin, what the latest lists of demands are and the difficulty of transporting aid to the areas most heavily afflicted.

The catastrophe in New Orleans did not begin with Hurricane Katrina. The War in Iraq did not begin with intelligence to indicate they were manufacturing biochemical and nuclear weapons. The latest military strike into Palestine by Israel cannot be traced back to the latest intifada.

The answer to all of these questions can be found in the history books.

Increasingly I find that the news seem to be engaged in collusion with the government to not delve too deeply, or to even cover major issues fairly for fear of actually causing individuals to think and thus paving the way for them to act. Granted, the New York Time and Wall Street Journal, as two of the best newspapers do give some back story, some critical analysis and if they fail to ask a few insightful "next step" questions of their subjects, they at least as them rhetorically, AND answer them through excellent research and talking to everyone surrounding the supporting the individual or situation in question.

But most newspapers are too into sound bytes and following "hot" "sexy" stories with comprehensive "superficial" coverage. What I mean is, they cover almost everything, but almost all of it on a superficial level, such that if you didn't read all of last weeks stories, or all of the next weeks, you would only have 1/14th of the story which ultimately has nothing to do with the "real" questions about "why" "how" and "who".

If you are only interested in who lost their shirt today, or their life today, or their money today, then stick to the newspapers. But for the real questions, hit the history books.

What is the U.S. doing in Iraq? Well, what were they doing in Vietnam? What were they doing in Korea? Cuba? Mexico? The Philippines? Panama? It’s pretty much the same thing, just a different location. Whereas you can still find out what the real fuck-up is in Iraq if you are savvy, somewhat intelligent and can discern obfuscation from antecedents. Seeing as most folks can't even find the United States on a globe, I would suggest that you study up on the U.S's involvement in Korea, Cuba, Mexico, The Philippines and Panama. All of these wars and clashes which occurred 10-20-30 years ago. They are well researched, the essential government documents have been released and de-classified and are now available. As you begin to study history, you will find that the basic operations of a self-interested, colonial-based superpower has changed little since the Byzantine, Hellenic, Greek, Mongol, Moorish and Persian eras.

To illustrate a situation where the knowledge of history, or lack thereof has had catastrophic results, I quote from a Elisabeth Bumiller's recent biography on Condoleeza Rice:

“Some of Rice’s friends were stunned that she actually seemed to believe Bush’s argument in the final days of the war buildup that a liberated Iraq could spread freedom across the Middle East.” Ms. Rice also believed that “the postwar phase would be like the successful occupation of Germany after World War II, and that it would be possible to plant democracy in a shattered Iraq.” Either Ms. Rice knew less than she should have about pre- and post-1945 German history, or she was carried away by false optimism.

Hell, if you want to stick close to home and be "macrobiotic" and "organic" in your inquiry, just pick up a pamphlet on how the U.S. treated Native-Americans. See if you can count all the broken treaties, treacherous acts, murders, bribes and political double-crossings. I bet you can't!

If you can understand even one (1) thing the U.S. has done overseas, or for that matter what Britain, or France, or Spain, or Belgium, or the Dutch have done, then what's going on today, can not only be understood, but it could have been predicted, because history will show that it's inevitable.

Want to know why the Jena 6 shit blew up? Go get the manifest from the Dutch ship, "The White Lion" which brought the first 20 slaves to Colonial America in 1619. If you can understand that, and the forces that allowed that, supported that, invested in that, protected that fought for that... then Jena 6 is nothing more than a footnote in history.

In fact, everything that's happening today is a footnote.

Global Warming? Get a book on the industrial revolution, the exploitation of coal miners throughout the world, and "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith... in fact, if you want to understand everything from why you're a mixed race individual to why 90% of the shit under the Christmas tree was from China, go get yourself "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith.

See you in the History Section.

The best book (I read) in 2007: CONQUEST by Hugh Thomas

This one wasn’t even close.

If you like well researched epic adventures, larger than life personalities, timely interdiction of the gods, far away cultures clashing in life and death winner-take-all struggles, unimaginable treasures and riches, and political intrigue involving monarchy’s from one side of the world to the other, well then, have I got the book for you!

Previously, my favorite adventure tales were “Don Quixote” and J.R.R. Tokien’s “The Silmarillon". Whereas Don Quixote was at once a fabulous, incredible and fantastically funny and creative tale, The Silmarillon concerned itself with the history of Middle Earth while setting into motion the eventual backdrop from which “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” would raise their clutch like tentacles upon the imaginations of real earth.

Both tales were fantastically written, proving that the human imagination knows no bounds. But as is always the case, in the final analysis, truth is stranger than fiction. You could not come up with a tale more tragic than “Conquest”, by Hugh Thomas, winner of the 1994 New York Times Editor's Choice Award. Has there ever been a tale with more blood, tragedy, devious maneuvers and destruction? I simply doubt it, or at least hope that such is the case, although I already know that Pizarro and DeSoto probably were responsible for equal or greater numbers of dead and the Middle Passage from Africa to the New World holds greater quantities of blood within her depths. Can we also forget the complete carnage in Belgium's "Congo"? The point is, this tale belongs right up there with the worst of 'em.

To be fair, I supposed one could make the argument that compared to Ghengis Khan, Cortes was Mother Teresa. Ghengis' choice was to summarily surrender all treasures, females and resources, or face the loss of all of the above in addition to the lives of the entire population.. Luckily, this adventure has much more to it than carnage. It also chrnoicles the loss of something that can never be had back.

It is with a peculiar sense of sadness that this tale unfolds. As the Spanish run roughshod over the Aztecs, it's as if we are watching the equivalent of children shredding the only remaining copy of the new testament to make confetti.

The heart of this tale is the fall of The Aztec Ruler, Montezuma, the rise of Hernan Cortes and the end of one of the two last great civilizations in the Americas. In this tale, Hernan Cortes, a rather ordinary Spaniard, seeking wealth, fortune and a name for himself in the new world finds himself plucked from relative obscurity to lead an expedition. Not satified with this, Cortes sets about plans for a grand conquest. He sees his mission as a mandate, and seems to also have a peculiar sense of destiny and focus as he re-cast himself in the role of virtual King of the New World.

Cortes soon proves himself to be a more than able ruler. His ability to lead, deceive, con and strategize reveals a cunning rarely seen in the great rulers of the world, especially since less than a year prior to his expedition, he was little more than another "Jose Blow". Honestly, Cortes was nothing other than the 5th or 6th choice to lead what was supposed to be an exploratory expedition.

Make no mistake; from any angle the fall of the Americas was inevitable. No ruler, no matter how mighty had the wherewithal to defeat the inevitable encroachment of the worlds European powers; however, in Cortes, the Spanish found a man that was able to set that demise into motion a full 10-20years earlier than anyone had the right to hope.

The book itself is a masterpiece of research. The book does not begin with Cortes marching into Tenochtitlan, rather, it begin from the Aztec side, from their own histories with the very first sightings of Spanish ships off of their coast. Apparently Montezuma had premonitions of his own demise, and from the first reports of strange visitors and ships off his coast, he fell headlong into a panic which went unabated until he was finally put out of his pitiful, pathetic misery.

What facts are in support of this account by Hugh Thomas (author of “The Spanish Civil War”) you may ask? To name but a few sources, The Florentine Codex, The documentos Cortesianos and Juicio de residencia of 1524 (numbering 6,000 exhaustive pages on every possible detail of the conquest). Also examined in this book were writings by many of those who took part in the conquest, shoulder to shoulder with Cortes; Fr. Diego Dorian, Fr. Sahugun, Fernando Alvarado Tzozomoc and Fernando Alva Ixthixochitl…. I think you get the point.

The Spanish wrote a lot and the bloodshed by Cortes (as well as the desire to unearth all of the treasures he looted) lead to several official inquiries into his methods and actions. Somehow Hugh Thomas was able to unearth never before found archival treasures to give us a work that supplants the work of William Hickling Prescott (1796-1859), whose work was so comprehensive in sweep that it was used s a field guide by the US. in the Mexican-American war

That notwithstanding, my whole motivation in reading this book sprang forth from one small question. I had read many stories of how Europeans had defeated many a Native tribe, all over the world, from Africa to India, to the New World, to the Philippines. I wondered, how did they communicate with these tribes? How did they seemingly almost immediately upon landing, have capable and dependable translation services? I just couldn’t really get my head around it, so I bought this book.

My question was answered rather quickly, but by then, I was hooked, the translation thing seemed unimportant. The story was simply fascinating.

But to answer how the Spanish were able to get interpreters, what they would do, is land on shore, set out a quick expedition, kidnap a few natives and retreat for several months to a year. In that time, they would force the captives to learn their language, and in turn, question them as to the kingships, cultures, riches, practices, armies, etc, of their native territory. In this way, they gained valuable intelligence about all manner of important detail about heir soon-to-be defeated enemies.

Not only did Cortes have to content with numerous bloody battles with various lordships on the way to his date with destiny at Tenochtitlan, but he also had to battle Spanish authorities who suddenly recognized the vast sums of treasure, and subsequent political power to be doled out to the supreme conquistador (Cortes). ironically, the fact that Cortes had to leave the captive Montezuma with subordinates while he traveled to dispatch his Spanish brethren, is a major precipitator in the tragic events that lead to Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) being razed to the ground.

I cannot re-count the untold number slain, massacred and mutilated by the Spanish. Also, untold numbers of natives were killed by their own native captors in blood sacrifices, as well as by being eaten in cannibalistic ceremonies.

Near the end, the ruthlessness of Cortes, the needless destruction, the cruelty, the genocide and culturicide is incredibly painful to slog through. But by that point, the repercussions of this clash have already stunned you into supplication and acknowledgement that this book and the story it tells, is truly one of the most important tales ever told in the Americas.

Patsey, Solomon & The power of words.

I'm not really sure that we humans conceive of words properly. It seems strange that something that we invented to express our thoughts, in the most completely organic and natural of ways, could possibly be thought of, or conceived of improperly. The fact is there's more to language than just words.

Words are not only the expression of thoughts; they are also the expression of concepts. With words, and with skill, one is allowed the opportunity to convey all of the earthly experiences that humans engage in. Yet, at the same time, in some ways, something is lost through the use of words. At the same time, something is gained.

What is lost, even before one writes, is the original experience. And yet, the experience is resurrected back to life through words. Does the experience happen without an observer? Once the experiece is written about, is the original experience of any real value to the reader of the words? or is the experience the reader has in realation to the words that are conveyed paramount. Undoubtedly! its a cause of celebration that the original experience becomes secondary to the experience of the reader of words. Physics alreadyteaches us that the observer can never be taken out of the equation. What happens when observed may not happen if it is unobserved, and in the least, it does not happen for you if you do not read about it.

What is gained through the reading of the experience, is the personal "flavor" that the experience has upon the individual, which can in ways exceed the original. Also, the reader is allowed the ability to conceive of previously un-explored aspects of the original experience. And I'm not referring to hidden, or obscured meaning, rather, new understanding altogether.

For example, there is no doubt, that the experience of Jesus imbued the observers of his mystical works with a certain cognitive quality based upon the personal experience with the mystical experience. We could go on to say that the perspective of Mary, Jesus' mother was a very informative experience, pregnant with an untold number of vital insights, never to be revealed. Yet, as the story of Jesus has been told, there have been innumerable interpretations, some mystic, some formulaic (pertaining to religious organizations and interpretation) and also, some deeply personal. The point being, the very differences within the description of the mystical experiences as told by the disciples demonstrate the differences that can be had through one same experience, while also serving as an example of how those experiences, as read by others, has created an exponential number of subsequent cognitive experiences. All of the experiences emanating from that one act in time that was told in various summations by Jesus' apostles.

And so, words, and stories can convey much, and yet, always something slightly different to individuals.

And how do we think of words? Is it not amazing, when we read something that absorbs our being, and our minds so completely, that we are transported to another time and place? Is it not wondrous when words take on visual, tactile, geographic and time aspects, such that we are in the heart of the very experience? During these times, we no doubt conceive of words "properly". This is a good example of a "proper" experience.

And what is an "untrue" experience? When we "label" and define an experience thereby limiting it based upon our previous conceptions of the terms we use to describe the experience, then we have had something "untrue". or we could say we had an experience that was inauthenbtic. When an experience is limited, held back, not given full life due to our inability to move beyond the word, or to express the concept, or even to understand it, then we perhaps perceive of that concept improperly.

As an example, we can look at the bible in Aramaic, Greek, Latin and finally English. each translation changes the cultural significance, for each culture devises forms of expression meaningful to that particular culture. Arabic, no doubt, has been affected by the religion of Islam. Christianity, and so on and so forth have affected English, the other languages of antiquity are subject to the times and meanings and technologies of their age. And so when we translate a word that has significant cultural meaning in one culture, and less so in another, we lose those meanings, those subtleties, the cultural significance, and innumerable other aspects.

For example, take an English phrase and translate it into German using an online translation service. Take that very same translation and translate it back into English from German. What you will find is that you will not end up with what you started with. Strange grammar will appear. Different words than were first used. Different, concepts will be called forth even in the translation of a simple phrase.

Language is the expression of more than just concepts, or words, it's the expression of culture, tradition, formality, conventions, virtually every age, every evolution of a people, will change or effect the meaning of that language.

Which brings me to another example of the power of words.

Solomon Northrup wrote one of the most famous slave narratives in the history of the world. the story is simple, take a free Black man from New England, rip him from his family, transport him deep into the belly of Antebellum Louisiana and make him a slave. Now, look upon his words, read his experience... What can we learn? How do we feel? What do his words truly mean? What do we take from it?

The following passage is from Twelve Years a Slave ,is about a slave girl on Solomon's plantation and her woeful lot.

She had a genial and pleasant temper, and was faithful and obedient. Naturally, she was a joyous creature, a laughing, lighthearted girl, rejoicing in the mere sense of existence. Yet Patsey wept oftener and suffered more, than any of her companions. She had been literally excoriated. Her back bore the scars of and stripes not because she was backward in her work. Nor because she was of an unmindful and rebellious spirit, but because it had fallen to her lot to be the slave of a licentious master and a jealous mistress. She shrank before eh lustful eye of the one, and was in danger even of her life at the hands of the other, and between the two, she was indeed accursed. In the great house, for days together, there were high and angry words, pouting and estrangement, whereof she was the innocent cause. Nothing delighted the mistress so much as to see her suffer, and more than once, when Epps had refused to sell her, has she tempted me with bribes to put her secretly to death, and bury her body in some lonely place in the margin of the swamp. Gladly would Patsey have appeased this unforgiving spirit if it had been in her power, but not like Joseph, dared she escape from master Epps, leaving her garment in his hand. Patsey walked under a cloud. If she uttered a word in opposition to her master's will, the lash was resorted to at once, to bring her to subjection; if she was not watchful when about her cabin or walking in the yard, a billet of wood or a broken bottle perhaps hurled from her mistress' hand, would smite her unexpectedly in the face. The enslaved victim of lust and hate. Patsey had no comfort of her life.

Multiply this experience by the millions of Africans who died and lived in slavery and you have a different meaning altogether.

The artworld gives us another symptom of our Genius

So, it appears that the art world is hot. So what? This is the type of news that really isn’t news and yet is “totally” the news.

I’m not even sure how “selling” art even became a respectable practice. It seems to run contrary to the whole “artistic” notion.

Someone creates something, and it’s a piece of their soul, or their experience, and then, they sell it… I don’t completely get it. It seems a bit strange that the main factor in, who would get it, is who is willing to pay the price.

Back in the day, it used to be hard to get some Native-Americans, or indigenous folks to even pose for a photo. The idea being, that a piece of you, perhaps even your soul would be caught. Wouldn’t the same be the case for something you crafted with your hands, mind, heart, etc? Or at least enough of you that you would want to rely on more than just market forces to separate the artist from their creation. I don’t know. But when I read the headline about the art world further distancing itself from reality, I was a bit torn and unsure how this recent irrational run up in art prices could be understood for what it was saying about our society, or world as a whole.

On one side, you would have to think that there are a lot more worthy investments, with social value where these funds can be spent. On the other hand, I like the idea that these millionaires and billionaires are buying essentially nothing with their money, rather than investing in more world-destroying businesses, or more harmful pursuits.

But still, one has to wonder, what could be the possible maximum value of some canvas, wood and pigment? Perhaps $10? The fact that someone would spend $40,000,000 on something worth $10 perhaps means that some type of formula for actual value, vs. paid value could be deduced which could then be used as a part of an overall “divorced-from-reality measure”… I don’t know, but it seems possible that such information could be useful and that once we cross some set threshold, say, $2,000,000,000 for something worth $10, and the factor of actual vs. paid worth exceeds 200,000,000:1, we could assuredly say, we have officially proven that life is truly an irrational dream… at least for those that understand the economics of such a purchase…

In several elements in today’s society, human irrationality has reached a zenith of absurdity which seems to indicate a new pressure point can now be palpated from which we may track post-modern cognitive frailty. Granted, it's difficult to draw vast parallels to society at large based upon the irrational exuberance of a few dozen individuals; however, I believe we live in a world where everything means something... especially when it warrants front page attention and sums of money that could solve a great many social ills.

Certainly we cannot separate ourselves completely from these individuals who engage in such practices. They are humans, not at all unlike us. What it really shows is that a human who is elevated so far beyond rationality by a complete and total absorption in a token economy, is capable of any type of extreme act. Whether that individual is “we” or someone else.

The thesis is that anyone could fall victim to this psychological deficit if they become too far removed from reality and the essential meaning of life, and the subsequent pursuit of sustenance, shelter, love, security and propagation of either ideas, or life itself.

The evidence? This year an Andy Warhol painting sold for more than $71 million. A Matisse sold for $33.6 million and a limestone lion (the guennol lioness) sculpture that measures 3 1/4” sold for $57 million.

One of the reasons cited for the “strength” of the art market is rising “global wealth”, which is another way of saying that folks in China, India, Russia and Africa are now raising their appendages, not quite so sheepishly at Sotheby's and Christie's, instead of Ebay and Overstock.com. For this, we can thank the same global factors that extend back 400 years.

Starting with the colonization of the world by the world powers, to this day, the emulation of European society has continued unabated. Undoubtedly aristocracy, nobility, royalty, has existed in some form in all of the worlds cultures, but the standard, the benchmark, the hallmark of the most rarified forms of abstracted engagement in trade and commodities, has always rested in European and Middle Eastern/Asian society. The values taught by these cultures and their dogma keepers (universities) have continued to set the rules, certify individuals as well as mold and shape the opinions of the rising third world upper crust, into hybrid hunters and gatherers of a new clique-ish sort.

These new rich world groups have proven themselves to be all too eager to purchase the false gods from their masters. They perhaps read a bit too much into the fine print of their art appreciation text books. Or perhaps had a few too many glasses of champagne at some penthouse soiree's. But from my view, admittedly from far, far below, it appears that they seem to think they can purchase status, prestige and legitimacy through these investments. Perhaps the strangest thing is, that within the groups they circulate, it is absolutely true that status, prestige and legitimacy can be purchased. Such intangible elements have been on sale for the past (aforementioned) 400 years, if you believe what has been taught in school, and continually re-freshed in all forms of media.

It’s but another humbling development in the evolution of our wonderful world.