St. John's Eve

I dreamt of blood that washed ashore, of eyes that spoke of sin
The lake was smooth and deep and black, as was her scented skin.
A mask I wore as I approached, I was what I am not
And though the pattern was unclear, its meaning could be bought.
Drawn to Bacchus's abode, I sought there to conspire.
But it was in the city of the dead that I found my heart's desire....
I spoke to one who smelled of death, he gave to me his ears.
And crosses that were marked were made into a veil of tears...
The road was blocked, the truth was shunned, the white flag had been waved.
Reversal cost me all I had, and everything I'd braved...
And then the night became as day, I glimpsed nature's reddest claw!
The face of fear looked back at me as I gazed into the maw...
My last ally laid to waste, I ran towards the light
I prayed for one to change my path, to give me strength to fight...
Inside a hidden chamber where I had no right to be,
I found the wheel at last, or, could it be, the wheel found me
And then the wheel went round and round, I could not find my way
Twelve and three and turn the key, I heard the madman say
Deep in the earth I faced a fight that I could never win
The blameless and the base destroyed, and all that might have been.
-Gabriel Knight

On Growth & Capitalism

Excerpt from Jonathan Franzen's Freedom (2010):

"Mainstream economic theory, both Marxist and free-market, Walter said, took for granted that economic growth was always a positive thing. A GDP growth rate of one or two percent was considered modest, and a population growth rate of one percent was considered desirable, and yet, he said, if you compounded these rates over a hundred years, the numbers were terrible: a world population of eighteen billion and world energy consumption ten times greater than today's. And if you went another hundred years, well, the numbers were simply impossible. So the Club of Rome was seeking more rational and humane ways of putting the brakes on growth than simply destroying the planet and letting everybody starve to death or kill each other.

[The Club of Rome is] a group of people who are challenging our preoccupation with growth. I mean, everybody is so obsessed with growth, but when you think about it, for a mature organism, a growth is basically a cancer, right? If you have a growth in your moth, or a growth in your colon, it's bad news, right? So there's this small group of intellectuals and philanthropists who are trying to step outside our tunnel vision and influence government policy at the highest levels, both in Europe and the Western Hemisphere."

Walter, not seeing the little neck-slicing gesture that Patty was making, pressed on. "The whole reason we need something like the Club of Rome," he said, "is that a rational conversation about growth is going to have to begin outside of the ordinary political process. Obviously you know this yourself, Joyce. If you're trying to get elected, you can't even talk about slowing the growth rate, let alone reversing it. It's total political poison. But somebody has to talk about it, and try to influence policy, otherwise we're going to kill the planet. We're going to choke on our own multiplication."

....

Capitalism can't handle talking about limits, because the whole point of capitalism is the restless growth of capital. If you want to be heard in the capitalist media, and communicate in a capitalist culture, overpopulation can't make any sense. It's literally nonsense.

"The reason the system can't be overthrown in this country," Walter said, "is all about freedom. The reason the free market in Europe is tempered by socialism is that they're not so hung up on personal liberties there. They also have lower population growth rates, despite comparable income levels. The Europeans are all-around more rational, basically. And the conversation about rights in this country isn't rational. It's taking place on the level of emotion, and class resentments, which is why the right is so good at exploiting it."

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America, you do excess like no other. Perhaps you are rivaled only by Saudi princes in your wastefulness.

My Enlightenment Salon

"Reading from Moliere," Jean Francois de Troy c.1728

France, 1793

"But what of social occupations in America?" said Talleyrand. "Do they have salons as in England or France?"
"Once you've left Philadelphia or New York - which are full of Dutch immigrants - you'll find little more than frontier towns. The people sit by the fire at night with a book, or have a game of chess as we're doing now. There isn't much of society outside of the eastern seaboard."
--Katherine Neville, The Eight (1993)

I seem to have forgotten how to write, apart from terse business communications (We'll have that deliverable for you by Monday. Have a great weekend!) and dry, technical sales prose (I'll spare you the torture). On the other hand, I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking. Since moving to the Confederacy and former capital city of the KKK, and a very, very red state, I've been thinking a lot about capitalism, communtarianism and what it means to live life in America. After reading that bit in The Eight, I've realized that we don't have salons anymore. They've been replaced by TV, games, and other cheap entertainment. There must be more than this.

American society has denigrated since the Enlightenment. How did this happen? We developed an irresponsible consumeristic society in tandem with the Industrial Revolution. A responsible consumerism is shaped by the common good, while an irresponsible one is not. We have lost touch with the lessons of the Enlightenment, and failed to allow humanistic morals to shape our practice of capitalism. See Nicholas Kristof's recent article on how Pakistan might be representative of America's ideal model of a government with low taxes, little regulation and traditional family values. Everything is privatized. Our goals no longer line up with those of the common good, but what is best for ourselves.

Mindless consumerism affects every aspect of our life because it is a huge drain on our time. Time spent consuming products means less time spent with our loved ones, less time building relationships, less time participating in our community and serving those in need, and less time for us to become well-rounded people, to better teach us to pass on the torch of our time with the lessons of this age to the next generation. These are the things that truly matter the most.

I propose that we as a society return to a more enlightened age, a more civilized and humane time where citizens respected and valued each other and the common goals of humankind. Share your gifts with the community. Talk to your children and really get to know them, understand their motivations, peer into their souls. We would all fare much better if we had those post-dinner discussions, if we were only able to turn off the television and our manifold electronic devices, quit our addictions to shopping and awaken our minds. Quit reading the internet and read a proper book. Come to my salon.

Some Other odds and ends:
- Southern people say "like I said," Northerners say "as I said."
- Southern people pronounce insurance with the accent on the first syllable ("IN'-surance"), which annoys the bollocks out of me.
- I've gotten heckled here in 6 months more than I was ever heckled in New York City for 15 years. Long stops at red lights, and
- I'm coming to terms with the realization that I am actually enneagram 6w5, not 5w6 as I've believed for over ten years. My obsession with hegemony, hierarchies, and the evolution of state societies probably stems from that motivation. Another post to come about that....

An Enneagram Poem

The Stages of the Work

If we were to really observe ourselves,
we would become aware of our habits.

If we were to become aware of our habits,
we would let go and relax.

If we were to let go and relax,
we would be aware of sensations.

If we were to be aware of sensations,
we would receive impressions.

If we were to receive impressions,
we would awaken to the moment.

If we were to awaken to the moment,
we would experience reality.

If we were to experience reality,
we would see that we are not our personality.

If we were to see that we are not our personality,
we would remember ourselves.

If we were to remember ourselves,
we would let go of our fear and attachments.

If we were to let go of our fear and attachments,
we would be touched by God.

If we were touched by God,
we would seek union with God.

If we were to seek union with God,
we would will what God wills.

If we were to will what God wills,
we would be transformed.

If we were transformed,
the world would be transformed.

If the world were transformed,
all would return to God.

–from The Wisdom of the Enneagram

Don Richard Riso & Russ Hudson