I had a friend who starved himself;
he said he wanted his skin just
taut enough to see
the support structure that
keeps his softer side
fighting gravity...

I had a friend who shaved her head;
she said she needed to see that
egg shell skull
that trapped her ego,
her identity...
She had to crack it open.
she wanted the answer to that question:
"where am I?"

A New World Dawning...

Start off here, here, and here (which, it was scary enough hearing a Reaganite and some republicans make similar claims, but fuckme, when an oil company does it, you know something is up).

First, in spite of the somewhat arrogant, self-righteous, omnipotent manner I sometimes tend to project myself as, I'll be the first to admit that I am not an expert in anything, at all.

That said, I'm somewhat worried by the fact that, from what I've seen, even in essays and articles and speeches that accept the dire situation that peak oil production poses to the US...well, what I would call the "american way of life," very few have applied the consequences beyond energy and transportation headaches. Petroleum is used in just about everything, from plastics to fertilizers to the gas for our beloved automobiles.

But what is more unnerving is the extent to which our entire culture is founded on cheap oil. I cannot foresee anything other than collapse, unless there is vast reformation, now; but I cannot see any motivation, any imperative, any desire to change. We are a citizenry asleep, a nation of horses with blinders...sheep.

When comfort is stripped away from us, what is there with merit in itself, that will prevent catastrophic destruction and total social up-heavel? Where are the "ubermen?"


(I realize that globally, the impact of peak-oil will be historical, to say the least. My focus, however, is to try and figure out how it will play out in my country...granted this must take all of the rest of the hemisphere and world into consideration, but when I think of the US, I think that we have a unique cultural disposition to being especially negatively impacted. Until this happens, however, I still believe that we can advert, or at least cushion, the blow, if we only make a few changes in how we see ourselves and our environment.)

The Need for Restructuring....

Balance. Balance. Balance.

To the extent that the current form of our Government has lost its sense of balance (being kind enough to assume that it was there in theory to being with...) it is failing us. Numerous examples serve to support this claim; I personally feel that the support need not be repeated, especially since it is quite blatant, even in the mainstream wash-out that passes for news.

So, what we need are solutions.

To begin, where as our problems nationally are bureaucratic in nature, bureaucracy is not the problem. Though it's taken me many years, I have come to accept that anarchy is absurd. It cannot exist in human society, since it is, by definition, truly anti-social, regardless of the niceties that the black and red kids try to give it. Suggesting any sort of order, which is a fundament of society (again, by definition), is automatically something other than anarchy. All things that are in existence today are expressions of some sort of order.

Unfortunately, it has been characteristic of "Western" thought to be anthrocentric, to the point of forgetting that we are, in fact, animals. That said, we are a certain type of animal. We are animals who have the social complexities of our ape ancestors and relatives, combined with cognitive and technological inheritance which we have advanced, in our own right. These have allowed us a singular position in this global system, but it has not freed us from that system.

But these are not the points that I am arguing in this post...at least not explicitly...

I would argue that the changes that we need, taking as granted that government form is a reflection of the popular culture, fall essentially into two categories: structure and focus. Since these exist in a dialectic relationship, separating one from the other and the effects of one on the other is impossible. Further, perhaps this is a somewhat egomaniacal, the intention of this post is not so much to present total ideas as it is to, hopefully, spur conversation and debate with anyone that reads this (so please, comments are more than welcomed). So, I will write a brief sketch of some of my ideas.

Focus:
Socialism is not a dirty word. Game theory is showing that the only way to insure maximum success is to minimize competition; meaning that, instead of competing, we cooperate. Sounds simple.

Simple conservation laws (the physical, not legal, kind) prove that the indefinitely expansionist economic model is fiction, not to mention bad fiction at that. Finitude means exactly that; limits exist, so equations must be balanced by us or they will be balanced for us (most likely in a way that is not so kind to us humans, or more specifically, since this country is my focus, to the US). In WWII, the Nazis planned to crash the British economy by flooding the streets with counterfeit currency...and yet we make money by making money? This concept of limits and balance within those limits applies to everything from our conception of medicine to our market models to education. BUT, balance does not mean stagnation.

Okay, this may seem to be a bit more directed at our culture, but as I typed above, it applies because of that...Celebrity should reward merit (by extension, legitimacy), not the other way around.

There are others, but these will do for now...

Structure:
First and foremost, to the extent that we as US citizens desire true democracy, or something that is a close approximation to it, we should do away with the Executive branch. It is more than possible to distribute its powers, as well as the all-important checks and balances, between the Legislative and Judicial branches. (If we want consolidated power, it should be in the hands of those most qualified to lead and rule...and megalomania is not a qualification.)

Being limited by necessity (see above), the nation-state model of the US as a single entity and "its states" as sub-level entities needs to be reevaluated. In fact, I think that one of the original conceptions of the US as a federation of interdependent states should be reexamined. The central federal government should handle universals: travel, trade, healthcare, education, communication, utilities, and defense (until it can be phased-out).

For the sake of keeping this brief, I'll leave these as being some of the changes, in an abstract form, that need to be and can be made.

God is.

This is a brilliant article, well worth reading.

It seems like our culture is rapidly cycling towards that crash that nihilism warns of, when all of this is pointed out as nonsense founded on even more nonsense, leading to a possible violent crash, because common morality is proven to be bunk.

This doesn't have to happen. There is an irrefutable a priori that can serve as a foundation for a new way of embracing our old thoughts. There is reason to both embrace and question our spirituality, to pursue those paradoxes that seem to paradoxically define us.

Order. Order is a priori. For simple proof, ask yourself this question, "Can I think chaotically?"

The answer to this question doesn't quite free one from skepticism, yet. Just as Descartes didn't escape the skeptic's dilemma by proving his own existence, simply proving the order in one's own thoughts does not necessarily prove anything else, until more evidence is provided...

But that evidence does exist, I think. All one needs to do is seek it out.

There is something to found our morality on, bigger, more real, more stable than the figments, the absurdities, and abstractions that "right and wrong" are based on now. Religions have that Truth; I think it has unfortunately just been lost, in many ways, because of our own limitations of speech and reliance on cognitive short-cuts to explain things that are far beyond our ability to fully articulate. But I do not think that this limitation means that we are limited in our ability to seek and discover what it is, to accept it, embrace it, to accept our portion of it, to embrace our being a part of it...

But how is one supposed to live according to this knowledge when it's still just speculation at the moment?

a presentable revision...after about a year...

They're strong
with the forceful thousands and thousands of Blank Eyes;
and plastic flags that hang on Main Street flutter
in dead air...
so, there's no need to question them,
even to ask what the matter is, because
cartoon police patrol the city streets
leaving no room for rags
or musicians--
because
"Safety" was circumscribed into loops and downward spirals
by circular arguments
or by mutes, the Inheritor,
and a sinkhole that formed in the middle of downtown,
after de-rail-abrations
chipped off accidental crumbs from the Piecrust.

Well, the policrats still come down here
scamming us to buy bigger and bigger guns,
Threatening and robbing
those who didn't vote for the Son;
but I was too young the first time, and the second
he had the momentum of a country that'd half-lost its mind
(i voted nader)
So the deficit just keeps growing
But complaints are only heard at the pump line
shhhhh...they might hear
[but I'll ask Her for you anyway...]
"...could this really be the end?"
Oh, I'm STUCK in the wake of the American Century,
with the post-postmodern Blues, again...

though what's far worse,
my hands are smooth and clean;
and strangers claim to be familiar,
so the familiar must be strange...
and distracted by the green changed season,
i can't seem to tell time