Reductum Ad Absurdum

The Science of Rumination - "I doubt it"

    I don't really know how it all started. I suppose I was simply rebellious at birth, and never stopped to change directions. It's not that I seek out opposition of the current flow; it's more that I find the mindless acquiescence to 'commonality' offensive. I know that my rebellion is, at times, misguided, but rebellion as a way of life makes a man think about what he is doing, what he stands for and why he is willing to expend so much energies going against the grain - cultivating distrust and displeasure by most around him with that contrary stance. I've often felt that the greater majority of people are just marching to whatever beat they happen to have floating by them; that they rarely consider what is really going on around them. I know that no one can be 'totally aware of all things' - hell I am a poor observer of many phenomenon, BUT - I try to grasp what is going on, what the underlying principles of things happening turn out to be.
    Perhaps some of this stems from a childhood love of science. When I was in elementary school I knew I wanted to be a scientist. They always figured out what was Really Going On. They didn't just listen to the leaders or follow ancient text - they tested and conjectured and tested more - and were humble because most of the time their conjectures were wrong. They knew deep down that even if they developed a 'law' of physics - that it was just a good guess with some mathematical formula they built to support the guess. But they sought the TRUTH, and then tested it.
    Regardless of the genesis of the attitude, it remains in force and growing with every year that passes. I don't trust that anything is true at face value. Belief is a luxury that the incurious can more easily afford to indulge. Rabid curiosity compels one to always have a pocket half full of doubt. Self doubt, doubt about sincerity, doubt regarding full disclosure and suspicion that all is not what it seems or is presented to be. Doubt and belief seem to be at opposing ends of a polarized length - and to slide towards one, reduces the other. One who has doubt CAN believe something, but only after rigorous testing - finally concluding that his conjectures are valid, granting tentative belief to a structure of thought or perception.

War ... Against (Some)Drugs[/Freedom]

Apr 27, 2007 4:30am

War ... Against (Some)Drugs[/Freedom]

    Perhaps one of our larger looming problems of these times is our own self righteousness regarding how we are going to Fix everyone else's problems.

    This war on Terror feels almost like an extension of the War on Drugs - where we take a ('high moral ground') stance against the insidious evil that is ruining the minds and hearts of those uninformed by pursuing and capturing and torturing and abusing those uninformed until they surrender all they know and then go after those people...  ad nauseam.

    Seems almost like a perpetual wheel of karma, rolling over and over all of our liberties and freedoms in the name of some holy jihad of our own - our right to control what other people chose to indulge in, because we just know that what they are indulging in is wrong, and that if they would simply surrender; learn (as we have) to indulge in the sort of mind warping things that WE have studied and know to be far more safe and sane ( like alcohol, tobacco and cute little weapons that will fit in the palm of your hand so as to be unobtrusive until needed) - we could all just learn to get along so much better.

"Father Knows Best"

    Well.. this father realizes that often folks imagine themselves to be far more Correct and Right than they may actually be... and this brings a modicum of tolerance towards those fools who are obviously mistaken in their 'other' choices - Bad Choices, Wrong Choices... knowing that in retrospect I've been mistaken about what was best.

    However, time and again I see people in authority, people who were elected to guide, lead and weigh all of the 'right and wrong' and help steer a course through the mud - and these people keep seeing mistakes, problems, issues and wretched results ... and yet shovel more money and warm rhetoric at the "failed way" while blindly ignoring the failures and consequences that trail behind their small-minded choices.

    We created Organized Crime when we took away America's Constitutional Right to cognitive liberty (and what is freedom of speech if one can not put one's mind into the perspective they'd prefer from which this freedom to speak would be derived??? Much of our constitution ... was conceived and written in taverns where evil rum was served) during alcohol criminalization. This action led to the disaster we all know as PROHIBITION and was recognized as a stupid and foolish mistake costing many lives and splintering America along our capacity to stoically endure our suffering without those comforts of mind numbing intoxicants.

    However, at the time, there was a huge swell of righteousness that settled into the American bosom - the indignant were sure that if we just made the evil demon rum illegal, then all of the husbands would come right home after work and life would be thus elevated. This is not the way things turned out. We wound up creating death, destruction, lawlessness and corruption on a scale previously unknown in America.

    We recognized our mistake and we repealed the amendment.

    Years later, when Nixon needed something to distract the public from his disaster of Vietnam, he shook Americans awake with the dreaded scourge of "DRUG ABUSE" and how it was going to kill our children.

    Turns out that the cure for this - (locking up and torturing anyone who decides to pursue different methods of dealing with the lies, pain and madness of modern life with something other than the failed prohibition substances we have slowly realized were simply a matter of personal choice) is far worse than the disease. Our fear of the 'drug fiend' (a manufactured ghoul to insure the public was at least content with depriving choice to a group of sub-humans) has allowed the Government to slowly remove many of our rights and freedoms without much fanfare.

"Mrs Smith? you have a wart on your toe, I'm afraid we're going to have to amputate your legs."

    We are left... with a much larger, better organized, funded (and cherished - due to the protracted stubbornness that we adhere to - that of limiting cognitive liberty - for such a long time) Criminal Underground and with it - the distain and lack of faith behind the men in blue that, before the WOD [WOSD/F?], were there to help the average citizen; not fear, suspect and lock up 10% of our population for electing to stimulate parts of their brain found 'unnatural' (which is different from alcohol intoxication, right?) and morally repugnant (...somehow).

    How much longer is it going to take for us to realize that we are killing ourselves (or at least ruining the very constitution that supports our amazing way of life - in freedom!) in our fervent effort to eradicate our original goal of Independence- the pursuit of happiness. When we do things to our OWN bodies by our OWN choices... aint no bodies business but our OWN!

    There are many chemicals that effect our perception and moods - most of them are legal if you find someone with credentials to sign a piece of paper. This WOD should actually be called War on Some Drugs, because if they have been 'sanctioned' by the government as 'prescribable' then with the right 'permission slip' you can consume yourself into a legal coma.

    Does anyone imagine that if we found that coffee was Very Bad for you, morally, and we made it illegal... that there would not be an underground market for it? Nor that eventually there would be cartels, transshipping lanes guarded by willing criminals - to bring the substance to those who choose to indulge? That there would be deaths and territories and street corner transactions ... to get one's java-fix?

    Imagine for a moment - that Our Beloved Government realizes there is a huge social/health/medical problem - obesity is rampant and is overloading our hospitals with the unhealthy choices that TOO much of our nation has indulged in - and so all foods will be regulated - anyone caught with potatoe chips or chocolate cake will be arrested. All starch products strictly regulated and enforced. If you are caught with batter and mixing bowls  - anything with a microscopic amount of sugar-residue - double the incarceration! Sugarcane outlawed. "Grower's Initiatives" raided, crops burned, prisons overflowing with fat people that we can then reeducate or at least keep out of the general population where they were committing crimes against the rest of us with better [skinnier] sensibilities. I know... It sounds crazy when I say it...

    It's not supposed to be any government's duty to protect consenting adults from their own folly. Any actions a willing adult (or groups of them) chooses (through our constitutional freedoms) to undertake that simply involves themselves and/or other consenting adults should not be subjected to criminal persecution. This country was founded on the idea that we have certain unalienable rights and among these is the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

    Why is it that there are so many Americans (a larger percentage than any other country, free or otherwise) in prison for consentual crimes; - choices that harmed no one other than those choosing to participate. Yes - there are those who are committing other crimes - property crimes and even capital crimes - in order to attempt to capture that happiness that so eludes them - predominately due to the fact that those avenues are controlled [consensual] substances only available at risk to life, limb, wallet and incarceration. But any crime against others (property or capital) should simply be prosecuted as such regardless of the desire or mental state (due to intoxication of any sort!) of the individual.

    We have been so long steeped in a mindset that any substance that our government tells us is bad or wrong should not be questioned, but blithely agreed with - regardless of the potential benefits - never mind personal choices being crushed without notice.

 

    I'm not advocating lawlessness; I'm simply pointing out that our authoritarian mindset to exterminate the 'drug fiend' (a convenient method of labeling, thus sub-humanizing a group for easy dismissal) has created most of our legal and social issues that we are reaping today. Not only is it just morally wrong to dictate what someone else will chose to consume, it has created a train-wreck of a justice system glutted by more 'criminals' than we can possibly manage to process effectively - allowing rapists and robbers to be given 'time served' - weeks in a county jail - because there is no room in the prison due to mandatory sentencing Rules. We can't build prisons fast enough to keep up with all of the consensual criminals we are arresting - for nothing more than experimenting on themselves with various substances.

    Aside from the 'drug fiends' that haunt our every dirty alley - requiring removal from society - there is also a growing, vocal group of people who happen to have first hand knowledge of how beneficial certain 'non-sanctioned' (illegal) substances can be medically advantageous - allowing clarity in pain management, increasing hunger in cancer (and other) patients, nausea abatement, etc.

    The constitution states that any right not assigned to the constitution will be adjuticated by the individual states, and yet we find that many states have agreed with the value of medical marijuana and allow cultivation, selling and consuming - while the Federal Government periodically raids stores and cultivation farms with that huge entity - the DEA. State rights? hmmm

    I, for one, will forever fight towards personal freedom (so long as it does not infringe on the Rights of others) - wether or not I choose to pursue that particular avenue of potential happiness.

War... Against Terror?

a rant -

April 29, 2007 5:33am

I had a disturbing conversation with someone I consider smart, informed and versed in the ways of warfare and military mindset. He was a Lt. in a tank division - Abrams A1 tanks. He trained men to fight, maim and destroy the enemy. That was 25 years ago.  This man got out of the Army when his commission was over and traded in his experience for a stressful but good paying job as a project manager for a large corporation. A few months ago I was lamenting the political subterfuge that put all of our volunteers at risk for a (at best) mistaken purpose (WMD) and kept there, dying for some mythical goal that seems to shift when exposed to light.

I admit that I was animated when I said something like "Well, I think it's shameful that America seems to be willing to let their boys and girls fight and die over there without putting up any sort of fuss about the point and purpose, and far more importantly, a plan and an endgame to this slippery madness so many somehow still consider just." He looked at me and said "Well, they knew what they were getting into when they signed on the dotted line. They voluntEEred - they agreed to spend time fighting where ever the Commander In Chief designated them to go. They are a tool of the US Government to be used at His discretion!" I just looked at him and frowned, trying to fathom exactly what he said, and how it fitted with the issue I brought up. I said "Just because young, invincible, poor, desperate people are willing to risk harm and death for the chance to get ahead, is no reason to squander their efforts and good will on a stupid, non-winnable mission." I said "What if one of your daughters or sons were headed that way, would you feel any different? Because they are all someone's sons and daughters." He said "I would NEVER let my children join the military! It's too dangerous."

Ok. So I was not able to get through to him. Unable to show him that it wasn't ok that some other people's children were getting senselessly killed. That this all stinks of macho Texan posturing - Get out of MY town by sundown or I'll send all of my men on you and beat you till you surrender.... and then.... mill around smartly until it's no longer my town.

But surely... this can't be the myopic perspective of most of us, can it? Are we so cozy in our remote-controlled, airconditioned, super absorbent lives that we no longer think beyond our own family's comforts - callously ignoring the senseless lives of our friends brothers, uncles, nieces and cousins lost? Are we really all that comfortable that we can watch the casual glimpses of what passes for 'news' regarding what is going on over there knowing that it is baby pablum, crushed, spun and strained so as to leave little fear of choking on the sharp edges- as well as the ever increasingly apparent suspicion that the government has no idea how to proceed?

And IF... if we are not too too wrapped up in our own busy little lives of soccer practice, cancer awareness runs, which hollywood wank is mouthing this or doing that... we just might want to sit down for a bit, a brief pause, and try to figure out what in the world we are doing over there, and to what purpose. Even if we have done that and concluded "who knows, it's all a big political mystery as to exactly why we are there and what we need to accomplish to achieve 'success'?", that doesn't mean that we have to blithely accept that all we are told is all that there is, nor that what we are told is accurate or even morally sanctioned. It may be difficult to find out the truth, and the media seems snugly in bed with the military propaganda machine. That does not absolve Americans from trying to figure out why we are doing this and if that reason can be nailed down... IS it a GOOD idea!?

It didn't take Americans this long to defeat Germany during WWII.

I suspect that our top men did believe that with the right technologies we could push a few hundred buttons, fire a few million rounds and secure the oilfields for our continued consumption at our leisure, but verve and distain have proven more difficult to eradicate than the leader ever was.

This is the same stance the government has taken with the drug-wars. If they don't make a dent with all the resources thrown at the problem, they just  claim that 'the wretched scourge is obviously larger than we realized!' and demand more resources. If they take any ground, even for a day - they claim a victory for our team and beam it to the world to see how we are winning the hearts and souls....  Truth is that often the wins are short lived and the flow goes around the barricade or obstacle course towards it's relentless intentions and our efforts are in vain and often deadly - to innocent and 'involved' parties.

Is everyone looking so close at the problem that we don't see the big picture? Can't we take a step back and try to get some larger view of what is going on and why and how can we accomplish what ever it is that we want to accomplish? Can we at Least try to get our government to sit down without all the smiles and chuckles and tell us what the Goal is?  Never mind how to accomplish it, just tell us what we are doing over there!?

Is it routing a bloodthirsty madman intent on world domination and destruction? Is it securing the area so that the massive weaponry he didn't have could be safeguarded? Is it to 'bring democracy' to the unwashed masses who so sorely need it? Is it to destabilize terrorism and thereby fortify America's safety? Is it to insure that we have all the gas we need to get over to the boardwalk next Memorial day?

Just take a stance, you.. and your government... and quit slipping around on this propaganda driven spin machine that seems to be doing more and more magic tricks with smoke and mirrors and thousands of dead Americans (and hundreds of thousands of other humans, not all of which are terrorists or even 'insurgents') to try to keep America from grasping this gathering perspective.

We did not accomplish any of the goals we 'intended' - and have shuddered several fairly unpleasant considerations to the forefront. We have abandoned trying to train the Iraqi to fight the battles for them selves. We have thereby surrendered the newest goal, the infancy of democracy on those over there. We have stepped into a large pile of high speed manure and we don't seem to be able to find any sane way to leave the party for all the disturbances we've engendered.

Now they say that if we leave, we are going to cause a large political and military vacuum that may very well leave millions dead in our wake while factions struggle to obtain their 'piece of the pie'.

I think it's time for all of us, proud, diligent and right seeking Americans, to stand up and make our country accountable for their intents and their plan - and not just nod each time the Head Honcho says we just need a bit more time and resources to turn this mess around.

We need to really start giving a damn about all this death and destruction in our name.