William Faulkner quits a job...
“As long as I live under the capitalistic system, I expect to have my life influenced by the demands of moneyed people. But I will be damned if I propose to be at the beck and call of every itinerant scoundrel who has two cents to invest in a postage stamp. This, sir, is my resignation.”
Faulkner's letter to the postmaster general, upon his leaving the post office.
- Details
- Category: Rejected
Joseph Campbell - The Power of Myth
Which is good, insomuch as I like the ideas of Joseph Campbell, and bad, as in the dialogue with Bill Moyers is a poor vehicle for expressing his ideas. A good book, possibly, that could have benefited greatly from a removal of the interview format and a whole lot of editing and proofreading. Not surprisingly it's an abbreviated adaptation of a documentary on Campbell by the same name. Overall, OK, not great. But inspiration in some of the quotes, for example the famous speech by Chief Seattle, which upon further research proved to be in itself a myth written by Chief Seattle's fans and admirers, fitting, perhaps.
- Details
- Category: Books
Homunculus
For a while I lived with Homunculus. A little man, older, retired and perpetually broke, he needed the money, I needed a cheap place to live.
As a condition of my living there I was treated to his opinions on everything, most, all of which weren't worth hearing and perfectly exemplifying the old adage "The unexamined life is not worth living", but he was long dead anyways, a fearful little man, waiting to corner me when I woke up to share with me some new-aged flash of insight, share worries that the government was concealing the truth, share his life's work, to warn the world's people against vaccinations, against contrails and taxes and the fluoride in the water...always something new...
He spends his days, 4:00 AM until 5:00 PM, on his computer "researching", as he calls it, miraculous resurrections, alternative medicine, government conspiracies and cover-ups, this, balanced with entire days, weeks, of defragging and fixing his computer, restoring his internet connection. He's too busy to get things done, leaving his room only to go for cigarettes. He fancies himself one of the Illuminati, his mission in life, if only he can get his computer working, to disseminate all the disinformation he's acquired, debunk the myths of evolution and science, if he saves just a single life it will all be worth it he tells me, ending with:"Think of the children..."
Once a week or so he heads on down to the food-bank, he's eligible, collects his box of groceries, takes them home, throws 90% of it away, "Not organic" he tells me, he refuses to eat anything that's not organic, he won't be poisoned by GM foods, then after lecturing me and filling the trash with the new groceries he heads off to co-op to buy himself some sausage rolls...
His kids, they avoid him, only call when they need money, a favor, he resents any intrusions upon "his work", his time sitting dazed in front of a computer screen, overwhelmed by the amount of drivel on the internet, his brain working to fit it all in, conspiracies, more conspiracies, everyone is out to get him, I should be worried too...
There is a certain Genius to his Idiocy, a life completely lived in denial, his house, a mausoleum, his perpetual avoidance of any sort of real thought or action, amusing, but sad, and I was due back in the real world...
- Details
- Category: People
Learned Helplessness
Gas now peaking at $122.9 per liter, no explanations coming, little, if any, reaction from consumers.
Here's a chart displaying historical gas VS oil prices:
The last time, you might note, gas prices came close to this was when Oil was close to $150/Barrel. (the last blue spike actually rises up to the 122.9). Now this strategy of "randomly" varying price without correlation to supply or cost, is something we could call "Learned Helplessness", where we, the consumers, are being tested for reaction, and so far we're failing badly. It can be expected, then, that prices will continue to be set without regard for cost, and, ironically, with oil companies in Canada alone making over $100 million/per day with NO OVERHEADS for staffing & extraction (we laid off everyone in the oilsands, remember? And lets face it, we can't compete with $32.00/Barrel) yet we'll be expected to accord them every tax break when production resumes.
Hmmm. It's cheaper at the moment to buy a barrel of oil than it is to fill your car with gas.
We are, of course, not helpless, but in playing and paying along we're setting a very dangerous precedent and overlooking our right, our responsibility to civil disobedience. This could be approached in a variety of ways, including demonstrations outside corporate head offices, certainly I'd not recommend sending letter bombs or Anthrax through the mail unless you were careful to take precautions and not be caught. Really, folks, it's time...
- Details
- Category: Rants
Page 625 of 997