Badtux, the Penguin cuts to the center of the herring with his post on fear. Fear is the greatest motivator of all. And Americans are quite full of it. Read: In the Kingdom of Fear, Only the Dead Are Free.
"Waiter, more herring over here!"
A hot day in the city yesterday. My family and I chose to spend it in an atypical way: a movie-house double header. Of course we saw the Pirate movie. We got in on the first daily showing, about 11:00 am, to find ample choice of seating. Although a fun film, it won’t leave a lasting impression - too much like any other action movie. We theatre goers can write our own, as we’ve seen all the genre can do. Besides as touch of vertigo from the roller coaster camera work, we left the theatre yawning.
After a half-hour break, we walked across the huge lobby, through the glass doors into the artsy-movie area. I was surprised to find a full bar/lounge set up there (as it was mid afternoon on a Saturday, no one worked the bar). Down the short hallway are the half-dozen intimate theatres, one of which was showing Al Gore’s documentary, our second movie choice.
It struck me how after all the years, all the evidence of escalating summer heat waves and storms of increased intensity, a topic of such global significance is relegated only to a fringe element of society, as niche market. Even in my up-scale, middle class, mostly Democratic community, An Inconvenient Truth is down played in comparison to the summer "Blockbuster" brain-candy. Yet the accumulated ratings for each (here and here) speak for themselves.
What also occurred to me is how the people who care to see, or to review this film don’t really need to. Mr. Gore is preaching to the choir to some extent. People have a tendency to only see the documentaries that support their established views. Just as people who prefer Fox News are not likely to be seen at a viewing of Fahrenheit 9/11, likewise the people who still believe Al Gore’s message to be a non-issue, are not likely to open their minds enough to sit thorough 100 minutes of contradiction to their beliefs. Those are the people who should watch. However, human nature doesn’t work that way.
I applaud Mr. Gore for "fighting the good fight" all these years. Perhaps, he can cause a critical mass of public opinion worldwide that will tip the scales toward wiser energy policies and protective environmental initiatives. As the US remains "resoloot" regarding their policy of putting the dollar before all other considerations, perhaps the other nations can exert some peer pressure on us to do the right thing regarding environmental policy. If we can’t stomach Kyoto, then let’s take our own initiative.
Perhaps the approval rating of An Inconvenient Truth will incite similar films. Opening debate to the masses, involving citizens to mull complex issues from all sides, would go a long way to shoring up public support of our politicians, hold them more accountable, and instill a greater sense of trust in our government. Perhaps the film industry would fund more such projects. I’d like to see a film giving a counter argument to Al Gore’s message hit the theatres. Let the people decide for themselves after all views are heard. Let them vote accordingly.
Tonight' excerpt is from Steve Hagen's book Buddhism Plain & Simple. It begins his chapter on Wisdom.
Seeker: "Teach me the way to liberation."
Zen Master: "Who binds you?"
Seeker: "No one binds me."
Zen Master: "Then why seek liberation?"Our prison, our dungeon, is within us. It's in our own mind, our own thinking. We strap ourselves into chains of our own making, and we do the same to each other. We train our children in the ways of bondage.
All this is based on ignorance. We don't see the way we are. We don't see our situation for what it is, nor do we see how to deal with it. As Yang Chu says, we pass by the joys of life without knowing we've missed anything.
As you read this, ponder on the many times you've become distracted, spaced out, or fallen into a reverie or daydream. The untamed mind does this repeatedly. The untrained person goes along unwitting, being dragged through emotive responses raised by rouge thoughts without knowing how to stop. In short, the mind controls the person.
Seen this way, don't you agree this is backward? Who is the master of an untrained mind, and who is the slave? Shouldn't the rolls be reversed?
Not only do we go through life senselessly emoting or reacting to mental contortions that have no basis in what is actually before us, we often miss chances to react to opportunities as life presents them. Our busy brains are filling our heads with static, as it were, drowning out the signal of our lives. A wise person would take control of the signal, reduce the static, and begin to view life with a clear and flexible, uncluttered mind. A wide person would become the mind's master.
If you think you are already master of your cognition, try sitting in a comfortable place in silence, ten or fifteen minutes would suffice, and just breathe. Don't try to think, don't try to not think, just watch the flow of brain activity while attending your breath. See if you can keep your mind upon the mechanism of respiration for the duration. If not, note where your thoughts take you. You'll be surprised at how far the mind travels while the body stays still.
I’ve commented before about the swinging of the metaphoric political pendulum. My eyes caught the beginnings of reverse movement during the Terri Schiavo fiasco. Most great weights, like a freight train, take a while to gain momentum, but the movement is clearer by the day. I’m not predicting a sweep in the fall’s elections; nothing that hasty, Pippin, but change is in the wind.
Exhibit A: the June, 29 2006 congressional speech by Texas Representative, Ron Paul
Exhibit B: the return of the Religious Left to the stage.
Boy, that breeze smells fresh!
From the Dept. of English & Comparative Literature at San Jose State University comes the 2006 winners of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, awarded to authors of bad opening sentences to imaginary novels.
All aspiring novelists take note (me, too.)
I've been quietly stewing over my compassionate-gone-wrong missive to Jeff Goldstein the other day, when I caught up with Sadly, No's character assassination of aforementioned blogger. The sheer volume of quoted bile was overwhelming, and this is only Part 1. And I apologized to this wretch? It's the gesture that counts, I tell myself. It's not like I ever read Jeff's blog.
Today, I happen across perhaps the best example of the value of Grain-Of-Salt thinking regarding bloggers. After all, anyone can blog these days ( I'm living proof.) Here's a heartfelt anti-abortion posting. I'm dumbfounded (pun intended) that this guy is serious. Read the comments, they're great! It must suck to be him right now…
UPDATE:
The Instigator
The Response
As I drive to work pondering a general lack of integrity in society, reflections upon the Jeff Goldstein affair, I have too many thoughts to express coherently.
Later, I find a CNN article with what my just be the solution to the spiritual deficit I feel is evident in most facets of modern life. We need more of this stuff:
Even two months after taking the drug… most of the volunteers said the experience had changed them in beneficial ways, such as making them more compassionate, loving, optimistic and patient. Family members and friends said they noticed a difference, too.
[…]
That experience included such things as a sense of pure awareness and a merging with ultimate reality, a transcendence of time and space, a feeling of sacredness or awe, and deeply felt positive mood like joy, peace and love. People say "they can't possibly put it into words," Griffiths said.
Two months later, 24 of the participants filled out a questionnaire. Two-thirds called their reaction to psilocybin one of the five top most meaningful experiences of their lives. On another measure, one-third called it the most spiritually significant experience of their lives, with another 40 percent ranking it in the top five.
About 80 percent said that because of the psilocybin experience, they still had a sense of well-being or life satisfaction that was raised either "moderately" or "very much."
A life-altering spiritual experience resulting in heightened feelings of joy, peace, and love… Yeah, that's the ticket!
The NY Times reports on the release of the White House midsession budget review, normally a obscure wonk-fest, which Mr. Bush is trying to turn into a coup:
But President Bush plans to preside today, with members of Congress and invited guests in attendance. By all indications, including his own in his weekly radio address last Saturday, he plans to turn this into a celebration — just in time for the fall campaign.
This is proof, if anyone still needs it, that this administration is desperate for something to boast about. On Mr. Bush’s watch, triple-digit budget surpluses have turned into annual triple-digit budget deficits. There’s no information in the midsession report to alter that utterly dispiriting fact. Yes, the report is expected to project that this year’s deficit will be somewhat less gargantuan than last year’s — probably somewhere between $280 billion and $300 billion, versus a $318 billion shortfall in 2005. That’s not much to crow about.
But Mr. Bush is likely to gloat, anyway. Earlier this year, the administration conveniently projected a highly inflated deficit of $423 billion. With that as a starting point, the actual results can be spun to look as if they’re worth cheering.
The razzle-dazzle won’t end there. As he did in his remarks on Saturday, Mr. Bush is sure to use today’s event to credit tax cuts for a projected “surge” in tax revenue. The Treasury is expected to take in about $250 billion more in 2006 than in 2005, for a total take of $2.4 trillion. Devoid of context, the number looks impressive.
In fact, it is $100 billion less than the $2.5 trillion revenue estimate the administration touted when it set out in 2001 to sell its policy of never-ending tax cuts. Even with this year’s bigger haul, real revenue growth during the Bush years will be abysmal, averaging about 0.3 percent per capita, versus an average of nearly 10 percent in all previous post-World War II business cycles. That might be excusable if the recent revenue improvements could reasonably be expected to continue. They cannot. Much of the increase in tax receipts is from corporate profits, high-income investors and super high-earning executives, sources that are just as unpredictable as the financial markets to which they’re inevitably linked.
A deficit of $280 Billion. My wife and I, thoroughly middle-class and struggling, each make about $40K per year. For the sake of illustration, if we assume this to be an average salary for an average American worker, then our tax-cut-happy administration is loosing the combined salaries of 7 million people each year! To further the analogy, if we equate the nation's expected intake of $2.4 trillion with my family's $80,000, then we can also equate the nation's projected loss of $280 billion to a theoretic family loss of of over $6800 per year. How long would my creditors put up with that kind of budgeting?
Since the projected shortfall is less than expected, we can expect pomp and fanfare. the reality is that the President's "surge" is only a lessening of losses. Notwithstanding the views of Right Blogistan, the administration is grasping at straws to find something to crow about. In a dark room, even a lit match can seem bright.
At time one reads something that makes one want to tear down the blogger shingle and close up shop. Billmon at the Whiskey Bar just walloped my muse with a beer bottle. Read: An Inconvenient Al.
Out-blogged again. I should be used to this by now…
On Sundays’s post on Karmic convergence, I attempted a reasonable missive to conservative blogger of repute Jeff Goldstein, the recipient of a one-woman flame war gone overboard. I felt so good about myself that I left a link to my post on his message board. Unfortunately, my message was undermined by two hyper-liberal hyperbolic sentences I was fool enough not to delete. As result, I enjoyed some karmic backlash of my own. I deserved it.
One guy, calling him/herself Chaos, even left a message on a different post. It’s delicious:
And you wonder why progressives are stereotyped as immature, paranoid buffoons.
Hence the title of this posting.
Regarding the karma post, some interesting things were said in response. I’d like to thank the people who took the time and thought to leave their comments. I’ve been mulling them since Sunday night. Chaos piped in to inform me that "the vast majority of you clearly don’t know better." Thank you, but that is a ping pong ball. I can lob that at you and yours just as easily. No matter who says it, it is purely opinion and therefore improvable. Meanwhile, Pablo asked:
Why can’t it just be wrong? Why does condemnation have to go both ways regarding the clear wrongdoing of just one person? … Why isn’t it enough to note that one of yours is way off the rails?
This is why we never get anywhere.
He’s dead right: that is why we never get anywhere. He’s right to take me to task, I was foolish. I apologize. CosmicConservative also berated me calling me in my hypocritical stance.
But you had to put this sentence in there too: “No doubt her army of salivating lap-dog pit bulls are Googling the perp’s address…” and this: “To be sure, the right suffers from it’s share of whackjobs, but that’s their mystique. They benefit from that, feed on it as Ms. Malkin frequently demonstrates.”
And then you have this plea to Jeff Goldstein: “Please refrain from the very human tendency to generalize all progressives by her actions.”
Yeah. what you said. Please refrain from the very human tendency to generalize all conservatives by any one conservatives actions.
CC - I stand accused and I am guilty. He wasn’t finished, though:
Is it possible you don’t understand that when liberals get together to gush over the political hit-job movie “Fahrenheit 911″ that we view that as you “feeding on the mystique” of lies, exaggerations and intentional misrepresentations?
I am unaware of that happening. I’ve never seen the movie, and none of my friends have been known to "gush" over it (sounds dirty!) Lord of the Rings, maybe, but not F 9/11.
Cosmic also had another point to make, one I have noted before. (sic)
[I]t is amazaing how startingly similar the attitudes and condescenscion is on both sides. You could take a typical post on a right-wing website, replace “moonbat” with “wingnut”, replace “Kossack” with “Dittohead”, replace “traitor” with “baby-killer” and post that on a leftwing site and it would slide right into the thread as if it were born to be there.
It’s sad, really.
Quite.
Ahh, Zen and the Art of Paranoid Buffoonery… I learned something here: Stick my neck out, the hatchet will fall. All the faster when I deserve it.