Tannishblog

Today’s offering from Daily Zen. This is my browser’s start page at work; The quote changes daily. It’s Monday morning, the boss’ not here yet and already the work day is starting to screw up, I long for a Hermetic hide-away.

Hermits hide from mankind
Most go to the mountains to sleep
Where green vines wind through woods
And jade gorges echo unbroken
Higher and higher enraptured
On and on simply free
Free of what stains the world
Minds pure like the white lotus

- Han-shan

I’m beginning to wonder if “Truth” exists.

Despite my failed attempts at gaining knowledge through the auspices of the Chicago Public Schools system in the sixties and seventies, I did manage to glean a few disconnected facts. One was that water, when flowing through a drain, will spin differently in plumbing installed north of the equator than similar installations south of the equator. Interesting, but not very useful to a prospective employer.

But in America, it is facts themselves that do the spinning. Often they can spin both ways at once, depending on the interpretation. This, to my rudimentary knowledge, defies the laws of physics, but it happens nonetheless. There seems to be much spinning of facts lately. So much so that it’s hard for the average, poorly educated citizen like myself to distill the truth from the raw, whirling facts.

Methinks there are some who like this.

Take the Downing Street Minutes, for example. Left-minded bloggers are all over their interpretation of the memo as proof of sinister intent of our Favorite Shrubbery vis a vis Iraq. Spittle is flying. On the Right, those few who deign to notice the memo are stifling their yawns. What us truly telling is that the many lathering donkeys are just now starting to make others take notice and to formulate their denials.

My Righty friend, Leucanthemum, writes me today about one such pooh-pooh article in National Review, which underscores the old-ness of the story. An interesting point, if it is valid, is that the memo itself is “hearsay thrice-removed”. This is a spin I haven’t yet heard, but then I listen to the Left. Typically, the article continues to spin its denial that the memo has any important implication.

As Dave at electablog says, Divide and Conquer is the rule of the day. Keep the electorate bickering on non-essentials (like Howard Dean’s comments and John Kerry’s military record), and they cannot unite on the important issues (like preemptive warfare, national debt, environmentalism, social security, job security, health care, racism, unemployment – I could go on…).

It’s getting hard to know truth even when its staring at you. There’s so many ways to spin reality, it’s – well, unreal! I, for one, find it difficult to tell fact from fiction anymore.

I guess Truth is what you make of it.

So many people on this planet, and to each their own version of Truth. It’s mystifying, really, that we haven’t yet torn this planet asunder purely from the disparity of opinion. Surely, the counter-spinning vortices of thought has never reached so many so quickly, to reach both hurricane velocities and critical mass simultaneously. Maybe we will rip the fabric of space-time soon.

Meanwhile, we keep spinning, and, like Elvis, the Truth has left the building. Truth in politics or in media, it seems, is irrelevant these days. What matters more is spin itself. S/he who control the spin controls the vote, and whomever controls the vote gets the prize. That’s life in America, home of Invasive Marketing, Super-sizing, and Hostile Takeovers. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised when these concepts combine in our politics.

We spin and spin, not knowing that we do. What are the consequences of inventing truth? The first casualty is truth itself, the second reason. The third casualty is hope. What do we lose next? I think anyone with a modicum of self-reflection can agree that there is a whole in our experience, something that we long for, but cannot find. This inexplicable “something” may be unique to the individual, but we are all missing – whatever it is. This undefinable “thing” we lack is, if I may be so bold as to think I understand, a firm grounding in truthfulness. What we are missing is an anchor with which we can stabilize our existence. Perhaps a better metaphor is to say we are without a firm foundation in truthful reality on which we can build our lives. Without this foundation we cannot raise ourselves into our full potential; Without our anchor we drift.

Many say that truth is subjective. Does it logically follow that truth is illusion? I tend to listen to and believe what the Left has to say, as this best fits what I have experienced in life. No one else has the same life experiences that I do, so it follows that no one else will see truth as I do. Is what I am seeing real? Can anyone know for certain? There are whole schools of thought that say what we experience outside ourselves is a dream. Zen thinking - if I understand rightly - relates everything knowable as a construct of mind; Without the mind nothing can exist. Reality is whatever is underlying the conceptuality of experience which, being beyond concepts, cannot be explained. Therein lies the One True Thing. But you cannot know it, only experience it.

This works like a monkey-puzzle to the Western mind, involved in the minutiae of existential phenomena. Opinions, really just fluctuations of mind, take on inflated values to the point of causing harm to others of differing opinions. Viewpoint supercedes reason, often escalating to violence and warfare. Such is the Western dilemma, to value belief over reason, opinion over ethics. Truth, if it exists at all, becomes immaterial to the advancement of dogma.

Another common understanding is that truth is relative. On one level, this is just a rephrasing of the above, on another perhaps it reflects an unspoken cultural agreement regarding manipulation of truth. Is my relative truth greater that yours? Can truth be subjected to either manipulation or to valuation? To do so undermines the definition of truth: Truth just is. One truth, by definition, should fit all. As evidenced in the media, in the blogosphere, and in politics, this just isn’t the case. Therefore, is it truth? No, it can’t be.

So if what we hear is untrue, in what can we believe? Perhaps that is another essay. For now allow me to advise this: we must trust ourselves. Listen to your inner voice, to your heart. It will not steer you wrong. Truth is speaking, underneath all the noise and spinning facts, all the blustering pundits – myself included – and only by silently listening can you hear it. To do so is rational, to do so is sane.

Are you sitting down? Don’t reach for that drink just yet.

The Pentagon, our Paragon of Political Persuasiveness, is seeking to upgrade its image. Via the Washington Post, the Pentagon awarded three contracts to companies, worth a potential $300 million dollars, hoping to “inject more creativity into its psychological operations efforts to improve foreign public opinion” about the US and its military.

“We would like to be able to use cutting-edge types of media,” said Col. James A. Treadwell, director of the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element, a part of Tampa-based U.S. Special Operations Command. “If you want to influence someone, you have to touch their emotions.”

He said SYColeman Inc. of Arlington, Lincoln Group of the District, and Science Applications International Corp. will help develop ideas and prototypes for radio and television spots, documentaries, or even text messages, pop-up ads on the Internet, podcasting, billboards or novelty items.

Treadwell’s group was established last year and includes a graphic artist and videographer, he said. It assists “psyops” personnel stationed at military headquarters overseas. Col. Sam Taylor, a spokesman for the Special Operations Command, which runs the Army’s Special Forces, Navy SEALs and other elite combat units, said the contractors might help the military develop commercials in Iraq, for example, illustrating how roadside bombs meant for soldiers also harm children and other innocent civilians.

The companies declined to comment.

Silence is golden. Sometimes more is said between words than can be expressed by the most effective speakers. For some reason, David Crosby’s vocals styling are ringing in my head… “Take the money and run…”

A Government Accountability Office report in April noted that the Pentagon had been pressing initiatives on “strategic communications” to fill “the planning void left by the lack of strategic direction from the White House.” A September 2004 Defense Science Board report concluded that the “U.S. strategic communication must be transformed.”

“The department is always looking for ways to improve our communication efforts, and we are working closely with the State Department to support their public diplomacy initiatives where appropriate,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said in response to questions about how the new psyops program fits into an administration plan.

One would think at this point the Brass is finally getting it, until you add in the last quote:

“What’s changing is the realization that in this so-called war on terrorism, this is not a force multiplier; this might be the thing that wins the whole thing for you,” said Dan Kuehl, a specialist in information warfare at the National Defense University. “This gets to the importance of the war of ideas. There are a billion-plus Muslims that are undecided. How do we move them over to being more supportive of us? If we can do that, we can make progress and improve security.”

As a human being, I can proffer this humble opinion: Stop killing their children, give money to rebuild what we carpet-bombed, and let them run their own country. Perhaps this is too simple for our complicated world, but I feel this would go along way toward reparations.

I’m developing this burgeoning theory, more like wishful thinking, really:

With all the goofball antics happening in Florida recently - voter disenfranchisement, child abuse via Taser(R), hypocritical right-to-life politics, tromping on civil-rights of minorities - couldn’t all these hurricanes be nature’s way of trying to drown the whole state? As the union’s lowest state in terms of height above sea level, maybe the sea wants to reclaim some acreage. One massive mudpuddle.

I know, I’m dreaming again. Too bad Texas is too far inland.

Even when it’s handed to them, the media just don’t get it.
What am I blathering about? A Washington Post article outlines a meeting between Howard Dean, House Minority Whip Richard Durbin and Senator Harry Reid. House Staff Writers Mark Liebovich and Shailagh Murray pen the following:

“Have you had advice for Governor Dean about his most recent comments, sir?”

Reid replied that there isn’t anyone who hasn’t “misspoken” and recited an on-message litany of “important issues” that Democrats are committed to addressing, including the escalating costs of gasoline, health care and college tuition. “We’re here today to talk about the American people,” he said. But practically everyone else in the room wanted to talk about Howard Dean.

“Senator Reid, you just used the word ‘misspoke,’ ” yelled one reporter, out-shouting a half-dozen others. He asked if Reid thought that Dean had “misspoken.”

“You know,” Dean interjected, “I think a lot of this is exactly what Republicans want, and that’s a diversion.” He bemoaned the “media circus” of the last two weeks and said that he and Reid were not concerning themselves with that — only with vital things like Social Security, national defense and jobs.

“And all this other stuff is all fine and good, and we understand how exciting it all is to you,” Dean said, shaking his head.

The press chorus then devolved into a cacophony of competing screams. (And Dean knows screams!) After several seconds, a booming voice cut through the noise. It belonged to Brian Wilson, a Fox News correspondent who was standing in the middle of the crowd. He asked Dean “if people are focused on the other things that you’ve said about hating Republicans, about Republicans being dishonest and then this latest comment about the Republican Party is full of white Christians. You say you hate Republicans — does that mean you also ”hate white Christians?

Dean didn’t respond and Reid talked about having a “positive agenda.” Wilson was so insistent that at one point, Durbin asked, “Does he run the press conference?” After Reid took the one question of the morning that was not about Dean (it was about Iraq) there were a host of disjointed and semi-decipherable follow-ups (none of which was about Iraq).

Someone asked whether Dean would “change his ways,” or if he planned to be “less confrontational in the future” or whether he “regrets” anything he has said. An aide to Reid announced that the photo op was over.

“We’ll decide when we’re ready,” Wilson said. Later, Durbin would recount the scene with some exasperation. He chided the media for avoiding important issues in favor of trivial matters. “Please, for a minute, get to the substance,” he said to a group of reporters. “You guys should be ashamed of yourselves.”

Note the Fox News hack that just won’t let matters die. I mean, this is last week’s news. Howard Dean has said some pretty interesting stuff lately about the Democratic platform, but the only thing Joe Beerbelly hears is trash talk endlessly recycled in tasty little gulps. I’m reminded of Walt Disney’s depiction of the hyenas in the movie the Lion King; Clueless, sniveling morally bankrupt characters, all. So too are the average Fox News media hacks.

Has anyone noticed the preponderance of complaints against the media? Has anyone listened to how the Neocons blame the Liberal Media while the Democrats blame the administration’s so-called Media Mouthpiece? Kind of amusing, isn’t it?

Really, now, we can’t have it both ways. How can a near corporate monopoly act anyway other than as a corporation? Why should, say, Viacom care what slant a certain city’s newspaper or a network’s new show displays, when it owns other papers that slant opposite? The purpose is to sell papers that sell advertising, and if the cretins – I mean people – want to read that crap, let them. Accuracy is not important.

The people who squeal the loudest are extremists, who by their very nature can’t abide differenced of opinion. Extremists are always crying “unfair!” when they really mean, “I don’t like this.” I learned in basic psychology that fairness isn’t equal. Since media is adept at angering all sides, maybe they’re being fair after all. Just Kidding!

This is where the blogs fit in. noise is being made about us bloggers, but really, most media outlets don’t know what to think of us. No mind the slant, bloggers don’t compute: there’s no money in it, there’s no guarantee anyone will visit any particular blog, and the audience is largely made up of bloggers. Never mind that there a few million of us! Corporate mentality cannot grok blogging.

This is because what we are really doing is stealing back the dissemination of ideas. We are anti-media, non-corporate voices playing on a suddenly level field. Ignore Howard Dean if you like, ignore the Downing Street memo. They aren’t going away. Long after the two are past newsworthy (if indeed they ever will be deemed so), the Internet search engines will provide links to them just as if they’re fresh and tasty. Future searchers will be able to regurgitate facts the media and its controlling entities would rather leave in the trash.

I can’t reiterate this enough: It’s important! Information is power, and the power is shifting to the masses. This is a good thing! It’s no longer the loudest, best-funded voice that will matter, but the harmonics of like-minded millions shouting in unison. Don’t let the affluent few dictate policy, speak out with your own voice!

The News Writer has a good scoop on Howard Dean. I like her style. The important thing he says are what the media and the righties don’t quote. Funny, that.

Well, he does speak for the News Writer. He speaks for the News Writer when he says “We’re more welcoming to different folks, because that’s the kind of people we are. But that’s not enough. We do have to deliver on things: jobs and housing and business opportunities and college opportunities.’’ He speaks for her when he says, “This is one of those flaps that comes up once in awhile when I get tough. We have to be rough on the Republicans. Republicans don’t represent ordinary Americans, and they don’t have any understanding of what it is to go out and try and make ends meet.’’ And he speaks for her when he says

‘ “We’re trying to resurrect this party. We’re going to be in every state. You’re not going to see any 18-state strategies. We’re going to be in places like Mississippi and Kansas and Idaho. We’re going to be in the Republican counties of California from now on; we’re not going to try to win by getting San Francisco and Oakland and Berkeley … we’re not going to sit around anymore. We are going to fight back. We haven’t been fighting back.’‘ ‘

Huzzah!

“Step up, step up. No pushing, people. The Fires of Hell(R) are here today! That’s right, there is no awaiting the afterlife. You can get your damnation right here, right now - for free! People are awaiting your call for eternal damnation right here on earth.”

The American Taliban

No waiting. One size fits all!

I ponder the Howard Dean thing. Here’s a guy that prides himself on being a loose cannon. The DNC put him in the driver’s seat, and - no surprise to anyone - he blasts his cannon balls at random. I like the guy, more power to him, but even I’m embarrassed at some of his gaffs. Still, I wonder if they’re not as off-the-cuff as they seem.

Perhaps I give the DNC too much credit. Putting Howard out in front is like how school bus drivers deal with the known trouble makers - no better way to keep an eye (or many, many eyes) on the bad kid than setting him in the front seat. Besides, one thing he can’t do from his current position is run again for president. Returning to the cannon metaphor, the best place to stand near one is behind, no?

This I see: Let Howard enrage the left and right alike. The right already hates him, they’ll enjoy bashing him as always. It’ll keep them occupied. Those on the left whom are ambivalent to his message will find solace when (dare I say if) the DNC trot our their 2007 line-up of potentiates who, by contrast, will seem oh-so-reasonable.

Win-win? We’ll see.

This web log is capricious, in that it guides itself. Patterns are recurring, however, and one is a thread of My Favorite People I Haven’t Met. Meet David Brin: A scientist and Science Fiction author of repute, and one of the smarted people I’ve encountered, albeit briefly. He even has a blog!

I first “met” Mr. Brin at a SciFi/writers fandom convention (GENCON) in 1999. I use quotes here because it’s inaccurate to say I’ve met him when all we did was share a room at a conference. He was speaking on a panel of three published authors about the role of mythology in speculative fiction (i.e. Fantasy and Science Fiction), where David was the third speaker. Who were the other panelists? I forget. Such is the strength of his thoughts and delivery, that to this day I can recall only what he said. His fellow panel members were in the wrong place that day; David blew them away.

“Hello,” he said, “My name is Nirb Divad.” He then spoke from notes he claimed to have written on the plane, “on the fly,” which contained more thought and substance on the subject at hand that the other panelists could muster in a week. He dominated. Afterwards, there was nothing the panel could do but to open up discussion. My wife and I, already fans of his fiction, walked away fans of the man.

Read his stuff, it’s definitely thought -ful and -provoking.