The Western Book of the Dead

CHAPTER I 

In the beginning – i.e., before the beginning – there was NOTHING. And MATTER came out of NOTHING. And MATTER was CHAOS. 

 

CHAPTER II 

Strangely, and for no reason whatsoever, CHAOS started to change. 
Simplicity begat complexity, randomness begat order, most peculiar of all, inanimate MATTER begat organic MATTER. 

 

CHAPTER III 

Many, many, many years passed and quite by chance organic MATTER 
developed in a strange direction. It became more and more complex, and then for no apparent reason at all, it became conscious of itself. It called the consciousness MIND and it gave itself a name and that name 
was MAN. 

 

CHAPTER IV 

Now MAN equipped with MIND found that MIND played peculiar tricks on him. He found that instead of just accepting himself as part of MATTER, he had a longing for significance, a desire to live for a purpose. 
Instead of being pushed about by blind chance, he wanted to direct his own affairs. He also found that there was a state of being that was entirely satisfactory and he called it LOVE. 

 

CHAPTER V 

MAN kept on searching for purpose and meaning and after a while 
strange rumors began to spread – rumors that spoke of a creator-GOD who was LOVE, who had created MAN in his own image. Many men believed the rumors. It gave their lives meaning; it told them the universe was not purposeless after all. Inspired by hope, these BELIEVERS started to write, to paint, and to chip away at blocks of stone. Some of these craftsmen were extremely skillful. They seemed to be expressing the longings and aspirations of all men. To these exceptional pieces of craft a name was given, and that name was ART. 
And the men who wrote them, painted them, or chipped them out were called ARTISTS. And all their ART said: MAN IS SIGNIFICANT. 

 

CHAPTER VI 

It was also rumored that the son of LOVE became a MAN, showed men how to live, then died. A legend has it that the son of LOVE came back from the dead then disappeared in a cloud. In some parts of the Western World the BELIEVERS of this legend spread a very influential form of the message: MAN IS SIGNIFICANT. 

 

CHAPTER VII 

For many years this state of affairs existed, but MAN became restless. 
Was it so? Was MAN a creation of LOVE? Why should he simply believe a rumor? Had anyone used his REASON – a very special activity of MIND that had proved to be successful in understanding MATTER – to find out if the rumor was true? Did the rumor correspond to what really was? A thorough investigation began and it lasted many years. 

 

CHAPTER VIII 

After an era of investigation MAN came to certain conclusions: (1) The rumors were certainly false. REASON found no EVIDENCE to verify the GOD hypothesis. God, they said, was the result of wishful daydreams, a figment of IMAGINATION – which itself was an early aberration in primitive MAN, now happily under the control of REASON. And if the rumor of GOD was false, so surely was the complex rumor about his son. (2) MAN was not some mysterious higher being who was significant. He was, on the contrary, of no importance at all – simply a complex product of cause and effect. A meaningless piece of MATTER on a large but equally meaningless piece of MATTER called EARTH. He had emerged from primordial slime and was really neither more or less than that. 

 
 

CHAPTER IX 

At first nothing much changed. But a few years passed and a few perceptive men began to notice a difference. Music didn't seem to sound the same, painting didn't look the same, and books didn't read in the same way. Some people started to complain, but the ARTISTS – always very honest transparent people – simply said, "We are interpreting REALITY. If REALITY is meaningless, then we must imitate that meaninglessness. You must not give yourselves airs. You are nothing. You are a conscious bit of protoplasm condemned to death on this planet." At that, the critical group stopped carping and started to say how beautiful the NEW ART was. They didn't want to use the word beautiful because everybody knew it didn't mean anything, but it had been around for so long why not use it anyway? 

 

CHAPTER X 

Then, too, a few perceptive men noticed changes in the way men and women behaved. Once they had loved each other. And their LOVE was thought to be a reflection of the LOVE who was GOD. But now there was just SEX – liaisons of the moment. And families began to die as families and children were left to the whim of the courts. And men called these liaisons LOVE, though they knew the word didn't mean anything. 

 

CHAPTER XI 

All sorts of startling consequences followed. Some men said, "If MAN is only a machine caught up in the vast mechanism of nature, why not treat him accordingly? So the MANIPULATORS set to work and used men just like objects of nature. And behold there came a very efficient system called UTOPIA, and the occupants were called NECROPHILES. Of course, it was really nothing new, for the MANIPULATORS had picked up their model from the ANTS, a natural group of beings who years previously had attained the perfect state of affairs. Another group of men resisted UTOPIA. They said, "In spite of all that REASON has proved we will continue to believe that our longings and aspirations are meaningful." So they tried to forget their DESPAIR (a feeling that MAN experienced when he wanted to hope and did hope knowing it was hopeless) by taking chemicals and behaving like animals, living only for each successive moment and trying hard to make each moment pleasurable. Most of them got tired playing these games after a while and disposed of themselves in various ways. Some went to DEATH, some to PSYCHEDELIA (a beautiful country with a synaesthetic landscape), some to NIRVANA. Some even went to UTOPIA. And so nonsense was worshipped instead of sense (they called it the absurd). 
REASON was abandoned – because, you see, it couldn't give answers to the really big questions after all. In its place came UNREASON (they called it irrationality). And MORALITY was abandoned – because that particular ability to distinguish between THE GOOD and THE BAD was simply regarded as a mere matter of taste or caprice. THE GOOD and THE BAD had been popular once, but that was when rumors of GOD were rife. THE GOOD was GOD's holy character and had to be obeyed. 
THE BAD was disobedience or revolt against THE GOOD. But THE GOOD and THE BAD departed with REASON and GOD. And now there was no longer TRAGEDY – only MISERY. 

 

CHAPTER XII 

So MAN ceased to be MAN – a rational, moral creature, a being who once transcended the causality of nature. Instead he became a meaningless, enigmatic machine-like piece of MATTER. Even the MANIPULATORS who controlled UTOPIA ceased to be MAN in the old sense of the word. After denying their mannishness for so long, they finally lost it and so became the most terrifying animal on the face of the earth. 

 

POSTSCRIPT 

The old rumors still persist – found in outlying regions and small cliques of NON – CONFORMISTS in UTOPIA – that LOVE is. Some still say MAN is. But these are the same ones who say no MAN has ever really died, that even the ancients are alive (some well, some not) and living in OTHER WORLD. Such rumors are being suppressed wherever they are found. 

(Published with the kind permission of the author: John Crighton in 1997 after IV Press reverted copyright to the author.)
 

Never Forget...

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Debating Liberals

I enjoy debating liberals. They're more fun than a pull toy duck.
But sometimes while they're spouting drivel that they read in the New York Times (as though anything in that rag had real credence), I'm overwhelmed with the blizzard of commie propaganda to the point of brain freeze.
So while waiting for the sharp pain behind my right eye to subside, I try to ask some general questions to make them take a breath.
It also makes them think I really give a rat's patooty about their opinions.
Yeah, right.
Like that's gonna happen.

General questions I like to ask liberals while composing my thoughts:


1. So, did you ever learn anything in school besides hemp macrame?

2. So, what are your "crystals" telling you to feel about this?

3. So I see your yoga instructor is in the news again. I thought that girl was going to drop the charges?

4. Whoa! I guess I know who had beans and broccoli today! So does this count as part of your masters in "Aroma Therapy" dissertation?

5. Relax and breath! Did you forget how to swallow again?

Never Forget

If you are a Democrat...

...you should read this post immediately.

If you are a Democrat and don't read this post over at mean ol' meany's place, you're stupid and in danger of Hell Fire.


Disclaimer: Reading this post will not guarantee that you escape damnation, or your even growing smarter. But it could well retard the inevitable odds of you slipping into a coma and swallowing your own tongue because you were too stupid to breath. And it does happen to Democrats all the time. What? You thought that Alan Grayson has always looked that way?



P.S. Ha! Take that, Sarah Palin! I said "retard"!

Is being "moral" old fashioned ?

So I'm surfing over at iOwntheworld.com, and I come across an article about teenage girls exposing themselves, excuse me, flashing in public and a 30 something male is arrested for taking pictures of them. The question posed by an admin was: what's your opinion of this?
The arguments get hot and heavy concerning the law, whether 15 year olds are really children, etc. About 100 comments in I'm wondering why the idea of morality and "common" decency hasn't been brought up?
I made this comment:

We started this country as a nation of laws. But there was also an unwritten, but generally agreed upon standard of decency and moral obligation. For better or for worse, the laws have become relaxed, and decency and morality have been relegated to the ash-heap in favor of modernity.
Am I some kind of standard bearer for this decency?
Nope. I was a child of the 60's, and I stood warming my hands at the bonfire of "old fashioned values" like so many others.
But I think we lost something in our rush to free ourselves from antiquated notions like God, and shame, and modesty. We "progressed". We progressed to talking about 15 year old girls baring themselves in public. We're smarter, more hip, more sophisticated. We are a progressive nation.
And we are a poorer country for it.


I got mainly favorable votes for the comment, but this morning I had to ask myself: Did I come off as being a pompous ass? Am I just a kill-joy?

But I was truly bothered by the fact that no one seemed to think that this was unusual, and that no one seemed concerned about the very act of these girls, or the 30 something's response. Most were just concerned with whether the man should be charged as a sex offender. (And whether the girls had nice boobs.) Not whether the whole incident should be thought of as shameful and indecent.

I'm really feeling old today. Like a man who's time has passed...

Missouri is my home...

I’m from Missouri, and this morning to paraphrase the FLOTUS: “For the first time in my adult life I am proud of my state, because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.”

You can quote me on that.

"Missouri voters reject key provision of ObamaCare in ballot measure..." 

"We did it before, and we can do it again..."

Big hattip to BigFurHat and Iowntheworld.com

Well, I just found my new theme song...

Ruminations on an Independence Day

"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid." Matthew 5:14



So last night I was watching "Ice Station Zebra".
Yeah, I know - not exactly an Independence Day film.
But I'm a fan of John Sturges, Alistair Maclean, and the Cold War genre in general, so this movie gives me a 3 for 1.
But I digress, and this isn't a review of the film anyway.

Watching the film got me to thinking about the Cold War with the USSR.
The Cold War got me to thinking about the Reagan era and the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Pretty convoluted, eh? Try and stick with me - I ain't done yet...

That got me wondering: what was it like for people of the satellite countries, and Mother Russia herself, AFTER it all came down.
Sure, from our point of view (the USA, that is), we were happy that it was all over. Our greatest enemy had been defeated without any big mushroom clouds sprouting, no need to see if those "Duck and Cover" videos would really, really work.
Dad could turn the bomb shelter out in the back yard into a wine cellar / cigar humidor and have the boys over on the weekend so they could smoke and joke and laugh about how silly they all felt now for building one in the first place.

But what must it have been like for the average citizen of some of those little eastern European nations that were told that the new order of the day was "Root Hog, or Die"?
No more military protection from Big Momma - Momma had problems of her own. No more subsidies, no more grain shipments, and don't try to cash that check from home - insufficient funds.

Security is, to paraphrase our current VP, a "big f-ing deal". Knowing that you have a roof over your head, the ability to feed you and yours, and that you have the means to do it again tomorrow is something that for the majority of us in the USA, taken completely for granted. And I thank G-d for it.
Even if I loose my job tomorrow, I have an excellent chance of finding another one. Sure, if worse comes to worse, I may have to switch from a cushy desk job, to flipping burgers, but I have a fighting chance to not only continue, but with the proper application of "skull sweat" and "elbow grease", I can not only survive, but maybe, just maybe, I can exceed.

But what about some of those little former satellite nations? To some, no doubt, The Bombs might as well have fallen in Moscow. They were suddenly cut off from the socialist teat that they had been originally forced to feed from, and later grew to expect and depend on.
The thought of me being trapped in that situation sends my mind into panic attack mode. G-d knows what it must have been like for them...


So what does all of that have to do with me watching a cold war thriller last night?
Well, my mind is full of nasty, tricksy hobbitses sneaking their way to Mordor, and they finally led me to that dark, spider filled cave of "What If ?"

Could something happen here in the United States?
Something that could crack the very foundation of this bright and "Shining City on a Hill"?

The sad truth is: Yes.

Even this brilliant invention created by the true geniuses of our Founding Fathers is neither invulnerable or eternal.
Is it strong? Absolutely.
I think history has shown and will continue to show that this "Grand Experiment" is the closest example to a perfect society that has ever been, and ever will be created by men.

But the sad truth is that our Republic's greatest strengths have also become our greatest weakness.
That of freedom itself.
The same freedoms that made us what we are, are being used against us today.
Freedom of thought, freedom of religion, and freedom of expression have been slowly twisted into a perverse mirror of it's original intent.

Can we fix it before it's too late?
Absolutely.
But it's not going to be easy, and it's going to take strong measures to reverse the damage done.
Vigilance is hard. 


Today we celebrate Independence Day.

But the War for Independence didn't end with the defeat of the British in 1783.
It was fought then, and we continue to fight now for our Liberty every day.

May G-d grant us many, many more.


July 4, 2010


Post Script: Maybe for today, I'll sit back, give my fevered brain a rest, and just watch the musical "1776"
That ought to get my mind off this stuff...