Dear F,
Thanks for your email.
Here Is The "Letter/Essay" About Robert Kennedy Jr. Which I Promised To Send You Yesterday. In This "Letter" --- Addressed To A "Christian" '"Conservative" Friend Who LOVES "The Real Anthony Fauci" -- I Examine Kennedy's Vaccination Views; His Just-Announced Presidential Candidacy; And His No-Holds-Barred Approach To "The Common Good" By Way Of Imposing Much-Needed (And Frequently Drastic) Regulation On Ruthless, Destructive, Cowboy Capitalism
The conspiratorial side of Kennedy has gone off the deep end.
And "pal-ing around" with right-wing media celebrities has drawn him deeper into their camp.
However, The Bottom Line is that few Americans - not just few politicians, but few Americans! - hate Cowboy Capitalism as much as Robert Kennedy Jr. does.
While "a pandemic here, and a pandemic there," might kill off a few hundred million people, Cowboy Capitalism is killing the planet. (N.B. Over the course of half a century, it is estimated that The Black Plague killed one third of all Europeans. Then, 54 years later, it "burned itself out." Without ANY medical or public health intervention -- the bubonic plague "disappeared," which is to say it was no longer pandemic. https://www.
I realize that these are horrifying calculations, but I think they are substantively honest.
The abiding horror is that Cowboy Capitalism -- which is "the air we breathe, the matrix in which we are embedded" -- ALWAYS gets a free pass.
Meanwhile, we humans invest ourselves in secondary, tertiary and quaternary "distractions" which -- important as they are -- find us "watering the houseplants" while ignoring the raging fire in the kitchen... a gathering conflagration now spreading to the adjacent rooms.
Sound the alarm!
And then there is this recent realization -- or perhaps I should say "distillation" -- which may be worse than the physical havoc Cowboy Capitalism wreaks, in large part because moral degradation gives way to environmental degradation.
To paraphrase Bill Clinton: "It's the metaphysics, stupid."
Not the physical, but the metaphysical! (i.e., The "beyond the physical.")
Capitalism Is America's Invisible Propellant Of Moral Degradation
The Death Of Epistemology: Update
At this very moment, Cowboy Capitalists are raping and sodomizing each and every one of us -- around the clock.
And we - with smiling faces - pass them the K-Y, begging for more gadgets, baubles, playthings and do-dads.
"There is just enough bullshit to hold things together in this country. Bullshit is the glue, that binds us as a nation. Where would we be without our safe, familiar, American bullshit? Land of the free, home of the brave, the American dream, all men are equal, justice is blind, the press is free, your vote counts, business is honest, the good guys win, the police are on your side, god is watching you, your standard of living will never decline… and everything is going to be just fine— The official national bullshit story. I call it the American okie doke. Every one, every one of those items is provably untrue at one level or another, but we believe them because they're pounded into our heads from the time we're children. That's what they do with that kind of thing—pound it into the heads of kids, ‘cause they know the children are much too young to be able to muster an intellectual defense against a sophisticated idea like that, and they know that up to a certain age children believe everything their parents tell them. And as a result, they never learn to question things. Nobody questions things in this country anymore. Nobody questions it—everybody is too fat and happy. Everybody's got a cell phone that'll make pancakes and rub their balls now— Way too fucking prosperous for our own good. Way too fucking prosperous, Americans have been bought off and silenced by toys and gizmos. And no one learns to question things."George Carlin
"Americans are fucked. They've been bought off. And they come real cheap: a few million dirt bikes, camcorders, microwaves, cordless phones, digital watches, answering machines, jet skis and sneakers with lights in 'em. You say you want a few items back from the Bill of Rights? Just promise the doofuses new gizmos." George Carlin
"Shopping and buying - and getting and having - comprise the Great American Addiction. No one is immune. When the underclass riots in this country, they don't kill policemen and politicians, they steal merchandise. How embarrassing." George Carlin
Living in this country, you're bound to know, every time you're exposed to advertising, you realize once again that America's leading industry, America's most profitable business, is still the manufacture, packaging, distribution and marketing of bullshit. High-quality, grade-A, prime-cut, pure, American bullshit. And the sad part is, is that most people seem to have been indoctrinated to believe that bullshit only comes from certain places, certain sources: advertising, politics, salesmen – not true. Bullshit is everywhere. Bullshit is rampant. Parents are full of shit, teachers are full of shit, clergymen are full of shit, and law enforcement people are full...of...shit – this entire country. This entire country is completely full of shit, and always has been. From the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution to the Star-Spangled Banner, it's still nothing more than one big steaming pile of red, white and blue, all-American bullshit. Because, think of how we started. Think of that. This country was founded by a group of slave-owners who told us all men are created equal. Oh yeah, all men, except for Indians and niggers and women, right? I always like to use that authentic American language. This was a small group of unelected, white, male, land-holding, slave-owners who also suggested their class be the only one allowed to vote. Now, that is what's known as being stunningly and embarrass
So maybe it's not the politicians who suck; maybe it's something else. Like the public. That would be a nice realistic campaign slogan for somebody: "The public sucks. Elect me." Put the blame where it belongs: on the people. Because if everything is really the fault of politicians, where are all the bright, honest, intelligent Americans who are ready to step in and replace them? Where are these people hiding? The truth is, we don't have people like that. Everyone's at the mall, scratching his balls and buying sneakers with lights in them. And complaining about the politicians. George Carlin
"There is just enough bullshit to hold things together in this country. Bullshit is the glue, that binds us as a nation. Where would we be without our safe, familiar, American bullshit? Land of the free, home of the brave, the American dream, all men are equal, justice is blind, the press is free, your vote counts, business is honest, the good guys win, the police are on your side, god is watching you, your standard of living will never decline… and everything is going to be just fine— The official national bullshit story. I call it the American okie doke. Every one, every one of those items is provably untrue at one level or another, but we believe them because they're pounded into our heads from the time we're children. That's what they do with that kind of thing—pound it into the heads of kids, ‘cause they know the children are much too young to be able to muster an intellectual defense against a sophisticated idea like that, and they know that up to a certain age children believe everything their parents tell them. And as a result, they never learn to question things. Nobody questions things in this country anymore. Nobody questions it—everybody is too fat and happy. Everybody's got a cell phone that'll make pancakes and rub their balls now— Way too fucking prosperous for our own good. Way too fucking prosperous, Americans have been bought off and silenced by toys and gizmos. And no one learns to question things."
George Carlin
"Americans are fucked. They've been bought off. And they come real cheap: a few million dirt bikes, camcorders, microwaves, cordless phones, digital watches, answering machines, jet skis and sneakers with lights in 'em. You say you want a few items back from the Bill of Rights? Just promise the doofuses new gizmos." George Carlin
"Shopping and buying - and getting and having - comprise the Great American Addiction. No one is immune. When the underclass riots in this country, they don't kill policemen and politicians, they steal merchandise.
How embarrassing." George Carlin
George Carlin Describes America's Dumbf*ck Quandary
(Carlin sings the praises of the nuns who taught him in grammar school. He credits them with his excellent formation.)
George Carlin Is Still Tossing Out The Good Stuff
Alongside George, I think that the nuns who taught him, taught him well.
I think that the Mercy sisters who taught me for 9 years at St. Thomas the Apostle grammar school taught me well.
Excerpt (from the article above):
And then there was your time at Catholic school.
Yes, well, my mother, God bless her, she was determined that I have a good Catholic education. It appealed to her sense of upward mobility. The interesting thing is that the grade school I was sent to, Corpus Christi, was very progressive. It was run by the Sinsinawa Dominican nuns. The classes were small, and there was no grading system as such. The nuns were wonderful. They taught you to think for yourself and to discuss things. They gave me the tools to reject the very religion they wanted me to have.
The funny thing is that, in later years, when my career in entertainment took off, some of these nuns would come to my shows. I remember my mother was having a terrible time with my material. She ran into some of the nuns from Corpus Christi and voiced her concerns about the “dirty language.” They were the ones who told her, “No, what he’s doing is using those words to analyze things. To expose the hypocrisy.” Well, now my mother had to completely reevaluate her position. The nuns, who she respected, were telling her that what I was doing was okay. Once they endorsed my material, she had no choice – she had to accept it.
Carlin Still Sees Himself Showing Off For The Nuns
Carlin's Last Interview, 9 Days Before He Died
George Carlin Liked People... For Short Periods
*****
We are in a muddle, my friend.
Who ya gonna call?
Love
A
PS I am not suggesting we ignore public health concerns, and other attempts to improve measures of wellbeing. I am saying -- emphatically -- that we need to "put first thing first."
*****
... following up on Lewis' observation...
The bedrock "heresy" of modernity - a heresy fostered bigtime by Cowboy Capitalism - is the proposition that we can replace the integral value and central position of Joy with piecemeal assemblages of purchasable pleasures.
Often (perhaps routinely) pleasure derives from Joy.
But Joy never derives from the primacy of pleasure.
It is the difference between loving someone and purchasing the services of a whore.
Once Joy is displaced as the central premise of human life,sooner or later all is lost.
It's starting to look like sooner.
"What has come to an end is the distinction between the sensual and the supersensual, together with the notion, at least as old as Parmenides, that whatever is not given to the senses... is more real, more truthful, more meaningful than what appears; that it is not just beyond sense perception but above the world of the senses... In increasingly strident voices, the few defenders of metaphysics have warned us of the danger of nihilism inherent in this development. The sensual... cannot survive the death of the supersensual."
"In an ever-changing incomprehensible world, the masses had reached the point where they would... think that everything was possible and that nothing was true... Totalitarian movements conjure up a lying world of consistency which is more adequate to the needs of the human mind than reality itself." Hannah Arendt
... following up on Lewis' observation...
The bedrock "heresy" of modernity - a heresy fostered bigtime by Cowboy Capitalism - is the proposition that we can replace the integral value and central position of Joy with piecemeal assemblages of purchasable pleasures.
Often (perhaps routinely) pleasure derives from Joy.
But Joy never derives from the primacy of pleasure.
It is the difference between loving someone and purchasing the services of a whore.
Once Joy is displaced as the central premise of human life,
sooner or later all is lost.
It's starting to look like sooner.
"What has come to an end is the distinction between the sensual and the supersensual, together with the notion, at least as old as Parmenides, that whatever is not given to the senses... is more real, more truthful, more meaningful than what appears; that it is not just beyond sense perception but above the world of the senses... In increasingly strident voices, the few defenders of metaphysics have warned us of the danger of nihilism inherent in this development. The sensual... cannot survive the death of the supersensual."
"In an ever-changing incomprehensible world, the masses had reached the point where they would... think that everything was possible and that nothing was true... Totalitarian movements conjure up a lying world of consistency which is more adequate to the needs of the human mind than reality itself." Hannah Arendt
Earlier Today, I Heard A Trump Supporter Say: "You Don't Know What To Believe." Once Trump Gets You To Throw Up Your Hands, You Won't Be Able To Determine What's True. Instead, You'll Be More Willing To Accept Lies As Truth. This Is Why Trump Lies So Much And Says "Who Knows? We'll See" So Often. Hannah Arendt Has The Details
A Woman's Simple Statement At The Capitol Insurrection - "I Think Anything Is Possible" - Is The Cornerstone Of Trump Cult's Self-Righteous Sedition
A Woman's Simple Statement At The Capitol Insurrection - "I Think Anything Is Possible" - Is The Cornerstone Of Trump Cult's Self-Righteous Sedition
How Trump Trashes The Underpinnings Of Truth-And-Faith-In-Shared-
Compendium Of Best Hannah Arendt Posts
Compendium Of Best Hannah Arendt Posts
Bill Maher Describes Addlepated Trumpism As It Is. Hannah Arendt Explains "How" Trumpism Came Into Being
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