I am going to try to do a piece on the Dinosaur Man, Jerry Carr, and his museum up on Drakes Hill. If anyone from Houlton wants to talk on tape about it, hit me up. I’ll be home in July, or would do a phone interview for anyone else.
Thanks!
For those of you saying, “what the hell are you talking about?”
http://www.lastplace.com/DinosaurMan/index.htm
http://www.bigfootencounters.com/articles/musatend.htm
http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/DinosaurManJCarr
If You Vote for Me, I Promise I Won’t Get Elected
One of my favorite things in life is a good story. It is in our nature to get swept up in them. It doesn’t matter if it is fiction or non-fiction, a good storyteller can make you listen to anything. Following McFadden’s Theorem of Tool Morality*, a story is neutral, as is all information. (Note: This is not to be confused with Grimm’s Theorem of Tool Morality, which deals more with what you will do to get a ticket.) As an American sports fan, I know that there is a certain psychology associated with being part of a team, and defining that team’s struggle as a narrative of us versus them. This is great for sports and epic fantasy quests, but terrible for public policy.
Rome is often invoked when talking about anything that ever happened anywhere. We endlessly discuss it as a comparison for anything that is going on. It is both aspirational for its achievements and cautionary tale for its fall. My opinion? Rome lasted so long that anything that could have possibly happened to it, did happen to it. Think about The Beatles. Do they sound like everyone else, or does everyone else sound like them?
Everyone loves to compare Ancient Rome to the United States. There are some similarities, among them:
- Ability to adapt
- Accidental empire (By this I mean the scope and scale of said empire was not the main goal, and the result was far bigger than intended)
- Giant melting pot (This came later for Rome, but it did happen)
- Hipsters
There is a very specific reason that much of our governmental systems echo Rome’s. Polybius wrote a book called The Histories. This book would serve as the basis of our founding documents. Polybius is an interesting writer for many reasons. He was a Greek hostage held by the Romans to solidify a treaty. Think of a smarter, less grossly bearded Theon Greyjoy, if you have been watching Game of Thrones. He was ‘employed’ as a tutor for Lucius Aemilius Paullus, twice consul of Rome and relative of the Scipio clan. The Scipio clan is important because Scipio Africanus was the man to finally defeat Hannibal at the Battle of Zama, where Rome’s accidental empire began.
If you are going to be a hostage, that is the place to be one. Not only do you get the sweet patrician digs, you get access to interviews that could really give you a great book about the Punic Wars, which is the story of how Rome took over the ‘known world’ in 53 years. Polybius decided to write a book to explain to his fellow Greeks how this all happened. He also explained to them how the Roman constitution worked and how the hybrid of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy along with some checks and balances was really working out. Polybius probably didn’t know exactly how fast this was about to break down, but the string of events leading to the end of republic was only a few decades away.
Our founders used Polybius, combined with the lessons learned in the warlord period of the late Roman republic to forge our government. Dan Carlin’s ‘Death Throes of the Republic’ is pretty great if you want to get the full narrative of all the game-changers that caused the republic to fail. Long story short, we made it so the head of the military was a civilian, and a bunch of of other stuff to try to keep the separation of powers from being gamed.
Much like Polybius did not see the manipulation of the Tribune of the Plebs, or the loyalty to general instead of state coming, our founders did not plan for one thing — Political Parties. It took awhile for them to become hugely problematic, but they will continue to be a problem. No one ever puts genies back into bottles.
Now, I imagine you are probably saying, “HEY! Now you are arguing against McFadden’s Theorem of Tool Morality!” YOU ARE WRONG. I did not say they were evil, merely destructive. Or better yet, they are not a tool, but only full of them.
At the most basic level, having two dominant political parties is bound for failure. The inevitable end-game is a system that is forces all of us to funnel all ideas into two categories. We root for political things like a fucking sports game. It is a joke. Our congress has turned into a place where things go to be stopped, not started.
Game theory has turned our elections into a farce as well. I’m not a Romney fan, but having anyone feign outrage at the etch-a-sketch comment is a bit disingenuous. We all know how the system works. Go the left and/or right for the primary, go back to the center to win. But acknowledging that is some reason to NOT vote for someone? Don’t vote for Romney because he is a bad candidate, not because he actually told the fucking truth about something.
I have literally listened to people talk about how they liked an idea until the opposition party was revealed to be the creator of said idea. I talk to people that stay in a party of their parents even though they don’t believe in the platform, or even that the party will change but people can’t leave it. They are, as they say in sports, ‘rooting for the laundry’.
The entirety of my life has been a consistent slowing of productive governance and/or American productivity. The regressive wealthy power block realized long ago that they need ways of getting people to vote against their interests. I won’t go into the list here. To fight the so-called ‘liberal bias’ of ‘factual news’, they created their own media channels. Right wing talk radio, as elevated by the gasbag named Rush Limbaugh changed the game in a big way. Instead of finding a way to better him, the left just copied the strategy. Now the entire political news world is just bloviating fools yelling at each other.
As long as we let political parties exist, they will maintain this system. The only thing they really agree on is not letting anyone else compete. It is a cartel.
American politics is all about copying ideas that work, not coming up with better ones…until now. We need a constitutional amendment to outlaw political parties. It is the only way.
Imagine a world where politicians actually have to compel voters to vote for them. Perhaps by offering solutions and ideas. This would also make most of the problems of money in American politics moot. It would take awhile for the monied interests to figure out how to game the system again. That might give us some time to make things work again. This is what Occupy should push for. One thing! It is all we have the attention span for. Much of what they are asking for is stifled by rooting for the laundry. (not a dirty hippie joke)
Dream big, America.
*Tools/Technology are, by nature, neutral, it is how humans use them that is good or evil. The best intentioned device can cause great harm and the worst intentioned can cause great good, even if by accident.
After the lonely streets, it was nice to come home and be welcomed by Sheila and spring flowers.
On the way to/from the insurance adjuster, it just seemed right to take a few snaps. It was the lonely park I have never seen anyone use the whole time I have lived here that first called out to be photographed, the rest followed from there.
LSD? Really? How Long Does it Last?
Roger Sterling is one of my favorite characters. I used to think he was just a charismatic man, living off the reputation of his father and a horrible womanizer. Those things are all true, but I didn’t think about the ramifications of his WWII Pacific Theater experience.* I also didn’t think about how the social norms of the time would not allow him to be with the woman who appears to be his soul mate. While some of Roger’s other foibles include minstrel show antics and general malaise at life passing him by. He may have only kept his name on the door because of Lucky Strike, but he certainly is socially gifted in an intuitive way.
People react strangely to those that live by intuition. I have spent a good part of my life trying to hide it or construct logic around it to sell ideas. Not a lot of folks like to hear ‘trust me’ when money is on the line. Especially not from a grumpy guy that always looks angry, even when he is not.
The paradox of humanity’s inability to accept change while having their entire life and everything they observe be predicated upon change is the basis of what I think we are on a fundamental level — RIGHT NOW. The best part is that it could change right now. The worst part is also that it could change right now. This is the history of our life, our social groups, our species, our hometown, our planet, our universe, our multiverse, our jobs, our children, even our conception of history itself.
So to answer your question, Roger: It will last both forever and for the next 8-11 hours, unless you took a saturation dose. In that case, the sky is the limit, figuratively speaking.
*Just watching The Pacific gave me PTSD. The racial hatred and realities of that part of WWII are maybe best left forgotten. I don’t know. This messes with my values in a way I have not reconciled.
All the nerdy stuff I am reading, watching, listening to, or currently obsessed with.
