no beginning

Pt one   Kiss Kiss Kill Kill


                        As I've stated already because of the depth and complexity of the subject and the radical nature of the conclusion I will attempt to describe it several ways.

                 It's amusing. One needs the past to describe the future and our notions of the future are so few that they must needs be be repeated several times in the hope that one or two will connect with the reader.


                       In the abstract one could say that our understanding of our perception of the compostion of the world we find around us continues to change and as is does it takes us further away form universal, eternal truths and realities  into realms of probability and the moment.

                  It is a very cold, unfamiliar world we venture forth into – none of the old signposts
are true.  Nor do the old assurances  shield us from harm.

                 Good and evil once permeated the Universe as God and the Devil, as constant time and space, as visions of same. Now there is only power in the flames of the destructive/creative energies

                 The budda describe Nirvana as only being attained through the cessation  of feeding oxygen
to being – but how can this be possible  while keeping that being we have come to live since times origin?






        The problem we will address next arises, as so many do, from confusion. An understanding began to gestate several months ago in a seemingly unrelated sentence. Speaking of the purposeless yet steady advance into World War one it was suggested that the leaders of the nations going to war had to be seen as doing something because they could no be seen as doing nothing.

         Consider that.  Remember that the agonies, starvation, suffering and deaths of millions of people  were , in the final analysis, for no reason. Nothing was achieved unless we consider paving the way to another global war an achievement. Nothing was gained, except for a few hundred champagne dinners, and nothing was learned.

        Here we are, one hundred years later and we are, if anything, further down to the road to insanity. The rapist, the thief, the demagogue , the priest, the sadistic torturer  - these at least gain from their behaviors, as the need to kill and maim is temporarily  quelled, but the sickness of man is granted no relief- like the addiction it is, each endeavor merely creates  a greater hunger for yet more.

       The notion that we punish those guilty of crimes is absurd. We punish those too weak to punish us back.   Those who have actually committed crimes are the last we would approach, since they can defend themselves most perfectly. And for those rare people who somehow avoid being sentenced by the prosecutors, they have spent years and their life savings  none of which can be returned.

           This is not to blame the prosecutor, it is a systemic artifact. By punishing MR X we are working under the assumption that MR Y will be deterred.

             Mr Y however is no fool. He understands that the possibility of apprehension has to be matched with the certainty of illicit gain.

             In short what I am saying is that a  functioning social order will never be brought about by laws. Laws are meant for those exceptional people that don't get the point a minority.  The law will not create an honest society. It is asking too much of it. In the same way  prison does not make a percen a decent person – what it does is it give people a chance to cool down.  It does not change the realities of life that the erstwhile prisoner faces.

           What is needed is a world, and a society where criminal activity is not desirable in the first place.   That is achievable only through the consent of the greater number of members of society.
         



 
            Guilt and Innocence in post relativistic society

                  Recently I was struck by the apparent naivete’ of the readers of the   Guardian. Usually they are a decisive and incisive crew but this time I feel  impelled to add a few comments.  I do so  in the interest of fulfilling  the  Tamlinmediaco’s   primary remit -  which is to provide methods of survival within the data flood.   Note that we cannot always explain things  as much as we like.  Entire parameters of the task must needs be, remain unexplained, both due to space limitations and for the simple reason that I am not omniscient.
              A large part of our research in the past concerned itself with the meanings and development of myth.   In “counter programming”, so to speak,  when we observe the  pictures and concept formulations that have succeeded in  controlling populations in the past   we then have something to compare  modern attempts to do the same with.   The difference between   ancient myth and modern propaganda may not be as great  as we assume at first blush.
            One deceptive factor is the assumption of objectivity.  We do not usually see a myth  as being the purposeful tool of a group to enforce it’s hegemony ; rather it is seen as an explanation.    In myths of “the other one”, meaning the alien race, or in practical terms the tribe next door   we invariably are reminded of the unsanitary habits of these people.   The actual message is that  “our” ritual  help us to remain in the sight and protection of  “our” God.
         Of the great panoply of beliefs that make up the structures  of human society, we are concerned with only a few  and what is more we are concerned with how these beliefs are impacted on and change via exposure.    One’s physical, emotional and intellectual development is their our concern. Our concern is the use of belief systems to  mold societies into a coherent form.  As humanity encounters  tools, or technologies, the use of same empowers segments of societies  which often grant them at least temporary ascendency over the rest of their native society.
            And it’s not always a bad thing.   I call to mind the motion picture directors of the nineteen thirties who would dress in Jodpurs  whilst carrying around a megaphone.     His motivation was to get noticed and to be listened to  and to wind up with a comprehendable motion picture. In other words his task was to take the various pieces and put them together to  tell a story.  
          It reminds me of a song the Every  Brothers sand where they look back over their lives and decide the things they did they did because of “the stories they could  tell”.

       As you can see the potential for generalization of topic here is immense. Freud saw fairy tales as sexual coming of age stories. Hans Christian Andersons tales reinforce the adherence to bourgeois values of hard work and persistence.  The  God Myths   often are juxtaposed positively or negatively with dedication to national pride.  The laws of criminal and civil behavior as well are coalesced and concretized versions of decision making processes  that previously had been customs.
           An important thing to remain aware of across all these variations and forms is that the  myths come from  conditions that are relatively stable.  That customs continue for generations suggest that the notions of right and good have at least some standards.
              Another imminently practical consideration is that the law, or myth, only works in a minority of cases. In microcosm we can say that were every  defendant to insist on a court trial instead of taking a plea bargain the system would soon break down.   Likewise is the majority of the population believes that, for instance stealing a loaf of bread is okay if you are hungry enough  then the legal system, indeed the social order, is pointless.   That is the sine qua non: the absolute requirement. Throughout history men have ignored this idea only to discover they have lost everything.
            For the most part it is easy enough to recognize such realities.  It's an interesting, and still open question as to how well the current reactionary elements in the United States  do so, but  we must agree that things would have to proceed far further into chaos  before it was  irrefutable.
           What we are speaking of is actually a two sided   equation. On one hand you have the needs and desires of  the human population, and on the other you have the apparatus of  society. It's worthwhile that both have their virtues and flaws. The simple countryman, strong and un corrupt, as a mythical figure can be traced to at least  the Gilgamesh myth.  Tax revolts, often by men making moonshine whiskey did not begin with Mr Reagan, but have been part of the US since it's inception and the beginning of the “guv'ment.”
           I hesitate to place  myself on either end of this continuum of rural verses urban life. I am apprehensive about the possibility of systems losing “the human touch” and becoming indifferent to the furtherance of human life, because that is what I know about. Considering my age and income I grew up in a world of electronics and information,  but no one aware of the history of the Twentieth Century could dare turn their backs on the potential for technologies abuse and it's seeming indifference to genocide.
           In short I am frightened of the amount of power technology gives to the few and at the same time I would not want to do without it myself.
                 If one side of the equation I speak of is the human factor, humanities needs, then the other side is the organizational factor   - the machinery of state and society, which can shape humanities needs at least as much as the other way around.
            Blake says somewhere he was born at such and such a place and had died many times since.  I sometimes wonder, considering the number of projected doomsdays  and apocalypses if the actual thing could ever happen.  In this regards the War to end all Wars plays a critical role,  for at least one reason – prior to it and including it  wars were found on battle fields  by massed armies. As in the case of  Waterloo, Getty's burg and the Somme it lead to massive carnage   but the civilian population was comparatively unscathed.   One could witness the somewhat bizarre vision of ladies in their finery, standing on hilltops, watching the battle below, much as the young woman watches two males battle it out for her sexual favors.
                Suffice to say this is no longer. In a nuclear exchange, for instance the survivors would be almost entirely military and the victims civilians.

                    This is not the place to go into it in detail but we can discern interesting parallels between mans awareness  of thought processes, epistemology and his awareness of the physical world itself. Once we believed in static   stationary world, then a world where at least some things were static, then a world where  our  apprehensions of the world are believed to have elements that can be predicted. This is , roughly speaking the three sciences, of Aristotle, Newton and Einstein.   I have not thought to elaborate this in terms of legal codes,  I'll leave that to someone else

              Likewise I hesitate to draw moral connections here – although they be the very basis allegedly of the law.  The simple fact is that experience has shown that people are not always interested in doing that which will make things better. They prefer to do that which makes them feel  good.  Thus the killer is  killed.   The thief is punished and no amount of evidence saying this is absurd  can change that.

        Essentially nothing will happen if we don't make it happen and if we grant that right to ourselves we must grant it to others.

      This has been stated before as “the golden rule”



       What I am saying in this article is we are, and always have been, threading the needle - each generation and society challenges the old notions of right and wrong and comes upon new ones. As Plato said "To be a philosopher is the highest calling of mankind, but also the most difficult  because one must call into doubt all previously help knowledge,"




          

       The existentialists in a somewhat clumsy way said the same thing  and Dante said it wordlessly best in his image of the pilgrims  emerging from the long dark nights journey to the over arching sky and stars.






          I suppose if anyone knew corruption, and had cause to despair it was him, but he did not, and so I ask of you that you also do not despair for the sins of the world are not yours and need not be.