Reflections in a Petri Dish – August 10, 2009
Well, I followed the link at What Really Happened to
Curt Maynard’s blog where he talks about this new search engine and how Google slights people by comparison. He lists a variety of writers whom I expect he is fond of and noted that the top guy had around 53,000,000 hits. I then did what anyone would do (grin), I put my own name into the search engine and lo and behold,
I get 60,800,000 hits. Well, that made me feel good for about two minutes and also explained why the Guinness Records people contacted me the other day. Apparently, in my field, I make the least money with the widest exposure on the internet. Well, that made me feel bad for about two minutes and so it goes.
In any case, we’re not here to talk about me today. I actually have a blog for that with no posts of that sort resident. Let’s talk about the fall of The Empire and how uncanny it is the way it mirrors the conditions for the fall of Rome. Military adventurism is high on the list as a factor. It’s that grasp exceeding the reach thing as well as too much space between the supply wagons and so on and so forth.
They say that Rome wasn’t built in a day and it didn’t come down in a day either. Another factor in the fall of Rome was the debasement of the currency (sound familiar?) as well as high taxes on farmer’s outputs so that they stopped growing food.
It really is fascinating to see so many features mirrored in the long past and to reach the understanding that it has always been like this. That’s how it is on Planet Earth. That’s what we do. It’s as if the same reality play just repeats itself over and over and you wander into the jungle and you can see the stone heads of fallen kings whose names you never heard of covered in moss and flowering vines. A cobra hisses in the underbrush. It’s not a threat. It’s a warning of what awaits naked ambition and unbridled greed.
Every now and then someone criticizes me for being in Europe and not on the front lines in Babylon. I was on the front lines in Babylon for a long time. A warrior can retire and not have to go on and on until he fades away. A warrior can take a desk job. The thing is that I’m not big on excitement anymore. I like peace and quiet and the embrace of Nature. I’m sure it’s going to be spectacular when the whole thing implodes and crashes to the earth but I’m not interested. Some people like dangerous thrills and I’ve had my share without having to look for them all the time. Some people like the bright lights and the short dresses and the exotic mystery which you can go deeper and deeper into until it turns out to be nothing at all. Some people like to be tied up and spanked but I’ll pass on that too.
I just can’t get over the fact that so many people are pretending its all normal and it’s all going to get fixed in the mix by the usual experts who decide who gets what according to the theme of “Me first, you later… maybe.” Now, of course there are a lot of people who are upset but I suspect they are still in the minority yet. However, the dominos are rolling in slo-mo and sooner or later, critical mass is reached. It’s unavoidable. It’s in your face.
It’s got Voice of the Theater speakers and yet… apparently it’s not happening. Or… is it like that search engine where the actual outrage is far more than what is being reported by the prostitutes in the main stream press? Is the whole thing simmering under the radar? Is the radar turned off or pointed at high end residential zones?
Of course there are already barbarians at the gate (this would not be PC if I named anyone, even though I don’t know anyone) but the most dangerous barbarians are the ones already inside the gates. They are camouflaged as solid citizens enjoying the fruits of materialism under the thin veneer of civilization. They are the people that go batshit when the conveniences stop working.
America has more people in prison than any country on Earth and some of the heaviest laws around. They hand out forty years and multiple life sentences for all kinds of things now like they were M&M’s. This is one of the considerations when the system goes down and I could see huge Road Warrior gangs on death cycles sweeping across the blasted landscape with “Born to be Wild” playing in their helmets. Well… they won’t be wearing helmets will they? That’s probably retro but… what do I know?
Maybe the country will break up into factions. The gays and the lesbians will have San Francisco and parts of Massachusetts. The Hispanics will take Texas and Arizona along with Southern Kali-fornia. The blacks will take the south along the eastern seaboard and a lot of abandoned cities. The whites will head for the center of the country and various and sundry will have their little outposts somewhere out of sight… for the moment.
Cannibalism will break out here and there. A spiritual master told me once that in the last days of a civilization this becomes rampant. I can see orc-like figures roasting strange meats on old refrigerator grills over flaming 55 gallon oil drums. The fire catches the red highlights of madness in their eyes. It’s going to be Escape from New York and 28 Days rolled up into one film with that whole zombie thing happening all the way through.
I don’t know what’s going to happen to the politicians and celebrities, the rich and powerful. They will probably have these small armies of mercenaries to protect them in their fortresses but… once the thing falls then loyalty goes out the window with the rule of law and there’s no reason why the private guards wouldn’t off their employers and just head off with the swag… or stay in the fortress.
There will be people on boats and maybe even small armies on former cruise ships. They’ll be moving along the coast looking for booty; in both senses of the word. I’ll probably be navel gazing in the Himalayas but then there’s the Chinese isn’t there?
Yes, of course it can get this bad. It has before and worse. Will it? I don’t know but it doesn’t make sense to be front row in Babylon when the firework display starts going off. I’ve already seen how quick people lose that patina of civilization to reveal the beast beneath. I read a study once that said if they turned off all the power in the cities that half the people would be dead in 3 days. That sounds absurd but… as I remember; they had a pretty good argument.
The fundies are going to be bouncing up and down like pogo sticks hoping that maybe that will jump start the rapture. The nights will be an interesting time. There will be screams and predatory cries. There will be explosions and the usual special effects in real life. I don’t know how much anyone actually cares. They are already doing this in Baghdad and other places and they don’t care about that. The people of Gaza and the West Bank are being systematically butchered by the IDF and beaten by the settlers which includes young children and not too many people seem to care about that either. They would rather twitter and exchange recipes on line because why would they want to trouble their beautiful minds?
They say what goes around comes around and some things are definitely coming around while the principals responsible are packing their bags for the next looting operation which will begin to rise as this one is falling. It’s some kind of a law of physics like a slow moving herpes outbreak. An infected area goes into remission and a new one surfaces. Its cultural sarcoma is what is …in D minor by Karposi.
I’m hoping there will be somewhere by a blue sea with dolphins and I can carry on like John Lilly but I suspect I would have to keep a weather eye out or maybe some of us will have fortresses too; very different kinds of fortresses and we will form alliances over time because there are always more good people than there are bad. I think.
Well… that was just a little stroll down Dark Fantasy Lane in search of that Spartacus Road that’s not adorned with slaves this time around.
I Love Country Music
Original source: http://zippittydodah.blogspot.com/2009/08/of-cabages-and-klingons.html
Last updated 11/08/2009
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