Hey! remember when Rob Reiner's son murdered him and Trump sent out a deranged happy tweet celebrating Reiner's death and everybody was WOAH! Trump is such a repugnant turd! and a prominent NYT conservative columnist wrote a scathing anti-Trump screed calling him petty, hollow, and squalid, saying Trump "the most loathsome human being ever to occupy the White House", which surely had to be shitlord-approved? Decades ago
That's not why the headshot, this is in reaction to bloooooger changing its coding and fucking up the accretive process I use to make these shitty posts: this is the second of this one post (after multiple attempts to fix the now abandoned first). A digibud asked me a week or so ago whether I'd ever consider sabstucking and I answered no, I will never beg for money and regardless whether I have to beg for money to sabstuck or not moving to stacksub would imply a different kind of damn than I own, plus I have bloooooger tuned to work the way I post - adding daily, subtracting daily. Now that bloooooger fucked up the first draft of this post's coding (and future posts' coding), I'm still a hard no to stubsack, but fuck my free blooooooging platform. Being pushed, still won't jump. Fine metaphors abound. HEY! Bill Nelson is 78 years old today
[WHATEVER MAKES IT]
Clark Coolidge
Whatever makes it up makes up for it as a poem
the tunnel Lincoln was afraid to enter etc also
please avoid pounding the poem itself
there are dense poems and there are light poems
lung poems lapse poems and even Webster's poems
the tale of the crèche at the bottom of the lake
not a poem but an opening so to be wished
one poem that had been over for centuries
spelled wrong misspoken in arrest
nevertheless a poem to be worked in there
a land poem a strain poem a trained poem?
we established a relationship that one and us
the way laid out in sweeping volumes in turn
in exchange in alarm in nothing but reverse form
May you have a more than passable holidayish season; it's possible. It may even be possible that the year to come is not capable of being good (for all our individual lives and concerns), but Great for the population at large. I dunno; just an old dog's intuition -- but I'm also the guy that's reading 'The World Of Yesterday', who chronicled the decline and sudden end of a generations-long world of European certitude, then OD'd on Veronal as the only proper response to nazism and barbarity. So I could be all wrong. Anyway, all the happies be yours, this is the best blog, even without the tire filled with whipped cream.
ReplyDelete1/i too regard this as the best blog
Delete2/i have just read zweig's farewell letter - https://blog.nli.org.il/en/djm_zweig/
3/that was his choice - douglas rushkoff, on the other hand, is more aligned with hunter thompson's observation "when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" - a summary of his recent essay which is cited supra states:
Rushkoff argues that his turn toward “weird” and esoteric topics is not escapism, but a response to how dire and seemingly inevitable global crises have become. When standard analysis, expertise, and rational tools all point toward collapse, they can trap people in fear, paralysis, and trauma. This narrowing of perception is often reinforced by media and power structures that benefit from keeping people panicked, divided, or numb. In that state, more facts or better arguments don’t help; they just make the oncoming disaster fill the whole field of view.
Exploring “weird” ideas, for Rushkoff, is a way to loosen that mental lock. Confusion, awe, and imaginative disruption can reopen perception and restore a sense of possibility without demanding belief in any new dogma. The danger is snapping too quickly from openness into rigid religion, conspiracy, or authoritarian certainty. Against fantasies of total control and sterile escape from Earth, he insists that living reality is messier, stranger, and more resilient than any simulation. His point is simple: when everything feels inevitable and closed, deliberately suspending certainty—tilting your head and allowing not-knowing—may be the only way to sense alternatives and avoid despair.
3.1/"fantasies of total control" - palantir et alia
4/someone summarizing the agnostic, stoic, existentialist dharma of mindfulness based stress reduction pointed out that buddha's four noble truths are not a medication to end suffering - "buy this, swallow this, and your pain is gone" - but rather a diagnosis and a path to walk - a way of walking to minimize meta-suffering - yes, nibbana in the strictest sense does wait for you, but there's no hurry - be patient and some interesting things may yet happen on the way there - remember the zen strawberry
4.1/beth ann mulligan has written a book which i would describe as informative and inspiring - the dharma of modern mindfulness
5/i claim to be the author of the yogi-ism that berra never said - "you never know when something surprising might happen"
6/each wayfaring acquaintance will come to particular forks in their own personal road, of course
upon request, a non-meat-based information-processing conversational system, said to be of east asian origin and particularly energy efficient, produced the following output:
ReplyDeleteI.
A “tunnel” Lincoln was afraid to enter—
A poem that became a fevered center,
Though centuries over, spelled entirely wrong,
A lapse poem, thick and desperately long.
Nevertheless, we established the relationship strong.
II.
Some poems are dense and some are light,
A lung poem gasped into the night,
A strain poem pulled, a trained poem’s art,
The crèche that makes it up from water’s heart—
An opening so to be wished, a start.
III.
The way laid out in sweeping volumes, turn
In alarm, in nothing but reverse form,
Misspoken, in arrest, a land poem’s tale,
Pounding avoided lest the efforts fail.
Whatever makes it up makes up for it—the rail.
when i asked it to conform more closely to traditional limerick rhythm and rhyme scheme, it gave me
I.
There once was a poem quite dense, you see,
Whose words formed a crèche at the bottom of the sea.
Though spelled wrong in arrest,
It makes up for it, stressed,
By being an opening set strangely free.
II.
A light poem arrived in reverse form, they say,
With a tale of a tunnel that led far away.
In exchange, in alarm,
It shed its old charm,
And that one and us had a relationship, hey?
i'd never seen it in quite this mood before, and thought it best to terminate the conversation
more briefly
ReplyDeleteI recently read Zweig’s farewell to life,
the note he left behind. And that was his
to choose. But Douglas Rushkoff, on the other hand,
aligns with Hunter Thompson’s old remark:
“When going gets weird, then the weird turn pro.”
His recent essay argues, with good will,
that when our crises loom and seem immovable,
and expertise just points toward collapse,
it traps us in a cycle of pure fear.
This narrows our perception, and it’s worsened
by media and structures that prefer
a public that is panicked or shut down.
When we are in that state, more facts won’t help.
They just make our disaster fill the screen.
So Rushkoff says exploring “weird” ideas
can loosen up that mental lock. Confusion,
a sense of awe, a playful disruption
can crack the field of view and reintroduce
a feeling of potential, not belief.
The risk, of course, is snapping into something
as rigid as a new conspiracy,
or trading fear for authoritarian
certainty. Against the tech-bro fantasy
of total, sterile, planetary control,
he says true life is messier, and stranger,
and far more rich than any simulation.
His point is simple: when the world feels final,
deliberate uncertainty, a pause,
may be the only way to sidestep hopelessness.
Consider, too, the basics of that stress-
reduction method, rooted in the old
agnostic, stoic, existential Dharma.
The Buddha’s noble truths aren’t like a pill—
“Just buy this, take it, and your pain is gone.”
They are a diagnosis and a path
to walk, so added pain begins to fade.
Yes, perfect peace is waiting at the end,
but there is absolutely no great hurry.
Be patient. Some surprising things may happen
along the way. Recall the Zen strawberry.
There is a book I’d recommend on this—
The Dharma of Modern Mindfulness. It’s helpful.
Each one of us, while walking our own road,
will come upon a personal and different fork.
I wish you clarity and cheer at yours.
¡Próspero Año Nuevo!