I don't know what Old Dog is trying to say about knowledge being relative. Generally (all things being equal) the more knowledge you have the more powerful you are, just like being taller or better looking gives you more power. And I don't know what Old Dog has against grey areas. Aren't they the most interesting? Issues that are easily resolved into black and white are like bar arguments where some guy whips out his cell phone and five minutes later instead of having a swell old time of bragging and bullshitting and making jokes everybody is sitting there staring at whatever sport is on the tv. Aren't interminable discussions the bread and butter of The Institute? Well, I suppose it is a free country.
Maybe thirty years ago, G.L.O.W was a tv show featuring women wrestlers. These weren't the brutal women wrestlers that were an offshoot of men's wrestling. They were all hot babes in showy scanty costumes. The tv show was just wrestling. That was the show I watched. The new Glow show is a show about that show, or rather a fictionalized version of that show, or that's what I've read, I haven't seen it.
I think the word the dawgs are thinking of is class system rather than caste system. The distinguishing factors of a caste system is that you are born into it and you die in it, and there is no event that can change it. American slavery was a caste system where to be born black was to be a slave. In other forms of slavery you got into it by an unfortunate situation (debt or losing a battle, or maybe being kidnapped) and you still could buy your way out, or you could rise to prominence in society,.
Currently in America the rich look down on the poor, the learned look down on the unlearned, the glitterati look down on the Joe and Jane Shmos. It's hard but the poor can become rich, the unlearned can pick up an education, Jane Shmo can put on a glittery gown and learn to dance and become a glitterati. There may be some resentment at first in these upper classes to the newly arrived, but it fades quickly because, well, this is America. It's not a caste system.
I don't think the class system has anything to do with kids not learning stuff in school. Beagles was once a schoolboy, does he remember ever not wanting to learn geometry because it didn't come from, say, his ROTC subculture?
There is a matter where people grow up in am insular society that doesn't like outsiders so that when the outsiders try to teach them that we should love everybody this rubs them the wrong way. Actually that is the topic I was trying to wend my way to through the path of the Oogs, about knowledge being power so it should be a force for good as far as enlightening, but that power element makes it sometimes oppressive, That's what I was trying to work my way to.
Beagles grew up in Chicago but now he doesn't know what group dynamics are in big cities? Well of course he left town at a young age, so how would he know how long his neighborhood pals stuck together? In my case I have lost complete contact with my neighborhood buddies and my grade school classmates. I know a few high school chums, Beagles among them, through fb but we don't interact socially. All my really good buddies I met in Champaign. Seems to me the peak age for making friends is like maybe twenty to thirty. What is the experience of the dawgs?
One unique experience was growing up in the bungalow belt was it was a great equalizer, there were no rich and there were no poor. It seems like Old Dog grew up in a similar neighborhood, but I will let him speak for himself. My friend Ruby Dew grew up in a very small town where the rich and the poor and the middle all went to the same school, so there was a lot more elbow rubbing going on there, and the society she describes from those days seems a lot more classist than the one I grew up in. I don't know what to make of that.
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
I Ain't Got No Class
There is indeed a caste system in America, but it's just social crap, there is no force of law behind it. It seems to be a trait of human nature for people to divide themselves into groups, and to believe that our group is better than the other group. I suppose it gave a survival advantage to our pre-historic ancestors, but people still do it today, even though it has become largely unnecessary. As far as I'm concerned, life is too short to waste time on social crap like that, but that's just me.
Come to think of it, maybe that's why some kids are so resistant to learning anything in school. They have formed their own little subculture, and they want to keep it pure by excluding any information that comes from the other side. They don't seem to understand that, just because you pick some fruit, doesn't mean you have to buy the whole orchard. They don't give much thought to their future lives, all that matters is the approval of their little social group. In a small town like Cheboygan, those groups might stay pretty much intact after high school. They might end up marrying each other's sisters, working in the same factory, and living next door to each other. I don't know what it's like in the big cities.
Come to think of it, maybe that's why some kids are so resistant to learning anything in school. They have formed their own little subculture, and they want to keep it pure by excluding any information that comes from the other side. They don't seem to understand that, just because you pick some fruit, doesn't mean you have to buy the whole orchard. They don't give much thought to their future lives, all that matters is the approval of their little social group. In a small town like Cheboygan, those groups might stay pretty much intact after high school. They might end up marrying each other's sisters, working in the same factory, and living next door to each other. I don't know what it's like in the big cities.
Fight the power?
Isn't knowledge relative? I mean, it seems to me that everyone knows something about one thing or another, whether or not you may find it personally relevant. This is another one of those gray areas for me, not easily resolvable into black and white. But it's also one of those interminable discussions that I try to avoid, much to Uncle Ken's annoyance, I'm sure.
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When I think of caste system in the context of society, India springs to mind but I was unaware that such a system exists in Japan, too, and they are called Burakumin. Discrimination is not based on religion or ethnicity but on occupation, often to the extent that the Burakumin are limited in where they may live. Japan isn't quite the homogeneous society that I had thought, and makes me wonder if we, in the US, have a subconsciously defined caste system that no one talks about. The way certain groups of people are marginalized makes me think so, but I haven't put my finger on it quite yet and am not sure if the idea is worth pursuing. Do white collar workers, often liberal, look down their noses to blue collar workers, often conservative? I have that perception although it may be out of date and wrong.
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Too bad about Glow, I had heard glowing remarks.
From the way that statement was written I inferred that Uncle Ken hadn't seen the series, yet I had the impression, based on a previous post, that he had seen it. Not being sure that my mind was playing tricks on me I had to do a little digging and there it was, a post from July of last year:
I was a regular watcher of Glow when it was on tv, all the goofiness of professional wrestling and scantily clad babes to boot, what not to like?
I haven't reached a conclusion yet of what this means, could be anything or nothing.
Speaking of scantily clad babes, the one and only Stormy Daniels is making a June appearance at the Admiral Theater here in Chicago, but I suspect she won't be clad at all.
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When I think of caste system in the context of society, India springs to mind but I was unaware that such a system exists in Japan, too, and they are called Burakumin. Discrimination is not based on religion or ethnicity but on occupation, often to the extent that the Burakumin are limited in where they may live. Japan isn't quite the homogeneous society that I had thought, and makes me wonder if we, in the US, have a subconsciously defined caste system that no one talks about. The way certain groups of people are marginalized makes me think so, but I haven't put my finger on it quite yet and am not sure if the idea is worth pursuing. Do white collar workers, often liberal, look down their noses to blue collar workers, often conservative? I have that perception although it may be out of date and wrong.
-----
Too bad about Glow, I had heard glowing remarks.
From the way that statement was written I inferred that Uncle Ken hadn't seen the series, yet I had the impression, based on a previous post, that he had seen it. Not being sure that my mind was playing tricks on me I had to do a little digging and there it was, a post from July of last year:
I was a regular watcher of Glow when it was on tv, all the goofiness of professional wrestling and scantily clad babes to boot, what not to like?
I haven't reached a conclusion yet of what this means, could be anything or nothing.
Speaking of scantily clad babes, the one and only Stormy Daniels is making a June appearance at the Admiral Theater here in Chicago, but I suspect she won't be clad at all.
knowledge is power
Even though there was the usual lack of interest in the tale of Oog and Hoog and the guys inbetween, Boog, Doog, and Foog, I have, as Beagles is fond of saying, have not let that stop me before, and since I have nothing to add to Beagles tale of his encounter with Kosmos 1900 I shall proceed.
Remember Prometheus? Kind of an interesting figure, a titan who interceded on behalf of man against the gods, bringing us, way before, Arthur Brown, Fire! Wiki gives short shrift to titans, they seem to be the gods before the basic Greek gods of legend, possibly a bit more earthy which seems to go with being forebears. It always seemed to me that Prometheus gets a little short shrift from popular lore, without him no tasty charco burgers, just a handful of flesh from a carcass, But possibly that defying the gods thing makes people nervous. Nobody wants to be laughing it up with the class clown when the long arm of Teach grabs him by the collar.
Possibly Oog had figured this out because he didn't pretend that he was defying the gods,. no he was working with them. I'm thinking he went from clever guy to witch doctor to shaman to priest. There was regular knowledge like rudimentary arithmetic and more exotic stuff like spells and potions.
On the one hand knowledge is a great thing, it helps you get through the day more easily, On the other hand knowledge is power so it was taken up by the chief to control those not in power. Interesting that division of power between the prince and the priest, you wonder why the priest didn't just grab all the power for himself. Maybe the priest had to be kind of otherworldly to give credence to his knowledge, but nobody wanted some goofy guy leading them on a raid on the neighboring tribe.
Let's just jump ahead to America. That universal education, where everybody has to school which is free is pretty much an American idea, in the old country only the rich went to school and they paid for it. We had a wide open country and lots of resources, but one of things that made us top dogs was that we had great education, almost everybody could read and write and we had great schools.
But as a kid, I noticed a lot of stuff was just forced down my throat, chiefly that patriotic, wave the flag stuff, and obedience to authority in general. My ilk was against all that crapola in the 60s but maybe we were tossing out the baby with the bathwater. Just because info was sort of slanted did not mean info in general was a bad thing, just because learned men seemed to be toadies of the oppressive government doesn't mean that learning is a bad thing.
We used to be proud of education remember, nowadays teachers are marching because they need part time jobs to put food on the table, nobody wants to pay them. Used to be we listened to the voice of learning, and if we didn't agree with it we had to assemble a logical reason to oppose it. Anymore we can believe that Hillary is buggering moppets in the basement of a pizza parlor because somebody read it somewhere on the internet.
I meant for a lengthier discourse but got swept into the Handbasket to Hell superhighway. Seems to happen all the time these days.
Remember Prometheus? Kind of an interesting figure, a titan who interceded on behalf of man against the gods, bringing us, way before, Arthur Brown, Fire! Wiki gives short shrift to titans, they seem to be the gods before the basic Greek gods of legend, possibly a bit more earthy which seems to go with being forebears. It always seemed to me that Prometheus gets a little short shrift from popular lore, without him no tasty charco burgers, just a handful of flesh from a carcass, But possibly that defying the gods thing makes people nervous. Nobody wants to be laughing it up with the class clown when the long arm of Teach grabs him by the collar.
Possibly Oog had figured this out because he didn't pretend that he was defying the gods,. no he was working with them. I'm thinking he went from clever guy to witch doctor to shaman to priest. There was regular knowledge like rudimentary arithmetic and more exotic stuff like spells and potions.
On the one hand knowledge is a great thing, it helps you get through the day more easily, On the other hand knowledge is power so it was taken up by the chief to control those not in power. Interesting that division of power between the prince and the priest, you wonder why the priest didn't just grab all the power for himself. Maybe the priest had to be kind of otherworldly to give credence to his knowledge, but nobody wanted some goofy guy leading them on a raid on the neighboring tribe.
Let's just jump ahead to America. That universal education, where everybody has to school which is free is pretty much an American idea, in the old country only the rich went to school and they paid for it. We had a wide open country and lots of resources, but one of things that made us top dogs was that we had great education, almost everybody could read and write and we had great schools.
But as a kid, I noticed a lot of stuff was just forced down my throat, chiefly that patriotic, wave the flag stuff, and obedience to authority in general. My ilk was against all that crapola in the 60s but maybe we were tossing out the baby with the bathwater. Just because info was sort of slanted did not mean info in general was a bad thing, just because learned men seemed to be toadies of the oppressive government doesn't mean that learning is a bad thing.
We used to be proud of education remember, nowadays teachers are marching because they need part time jobs to put food on the table, nobody wants to pay them. Used to be we listened to the voice of learning, and if we didn't agree with it we had to assemble a logical reason to oppose it. Anymore we can believe that Hillary is buggering moppets in the basement of a pizza parlor because somebody read it somewhere on the internet.
I meant for a lengthier discourse but got swept into the Handbasket to Hell superhighway. Seems to happen all the time these days.
Monday, April 2, 2018
Was There Ever a Doubt?
Those satellites are falling out of the sky all the time. They usually burn up in the atmosphere like meteorites but, occasionally a hunk or two makes it to the surface, usually falling into the ocean. That's not surprising, since more of the Earth's surface is covered by oceans than by land. It is my understanding that there are government people who keep an eye on both natural and man made objects that are likely to impact Earth anytime soon. They can pretty much tell when and where an object is going to hit and, if it appears to represent a serious threat, they can shoot it down with a missile or something. They wouldn't have to destroy it, just whack it hard enough to alter its course.
The reason I know about this is that, in 1988, the year my daughter graduated from high school, I was awakened in the night by my dogs barking frantically. We lived next to a sheep pasture in those days, and the owner had been experiencing coyote raids, so I had agreed to help him keep an eye out. I opened the window to sweep my light across the field, but instead saw what I thought was a large flaming meteor streaking across the night sky. The dogs had seen it too, and it appeared to be what they were barking at. It made a sound, a hissing sound, which it likely what drew the attention of the dogs in the first place. It looked close, really close, and appeared to be heading for an impact in nearby Duncan Bay. "This is it", I thought, "We're all going to die.", Just before it went over the horizon, the object broke into three or four parts, which I thought was a good sign. There was no discernable impact, which surprised me. The dogs stopped barking as soon as the object passed out of view, and we all went back to sleep.
There was an article about it in our local paper a couple days later. Turned out that it wasn't a meteor at all, it was a Russian satellite, and they knew about it well in advance. It came down in Hudson Bay Canada, which was right where they had predicted. Shipping had been warned to stay out of the impact zone, so no harm was done. I don't know why it appeared to be much larger and closer to me than it really was. I understand that a lot of guys see a meteor and think it's a space ship. I, on the other hand, saw a space ship and thought it was a meteor. How weird is that?
The reason I know about this is that, in 1988, the year my daughter graduated from high school, I was awakened in the night by my dogs barking frantically. We lived next to a sheep pasture in those days, and the owner had been experiencing coyote raids, so I had agreed to help him keep an eye out. I opened the window to sweep my light across the field, but instead saw what I thought was a large flaming meteor streaking across the night sky. The dogs had seen it too, and it appeared to be what they were barking at. It made a sound, a hissing sound, which it likely what drew the attention of the dogs in the first place. It looked close, really close, and appeared to be heading for an impact in nearby Duncan Bay. "This is it", I thought, "We're all going to die.", Just before it went over the horizon, the object broke into three or four parts, which I thought was a good sign. There was no discernable impact, which surprised me. The dogs stopped barking as soon as the object passed out of view, and we all went back to sleep.
There was an article about it in our local paper a couple days later. Turned out that it wasn't a meteor at all, it was a Russian satellite, and they knew about it well in advance. It came down in Hudson Bay Canada, which was right where they had predicted. Shipping had been warned to stay out of the impact zone, so no harm was done. I don't know why it appeared to be much larger and closer to me than it really was. I understand that a lot of guys see a meteor and think it's a space ship. I, on the other hand, saw a space ship and thought it was a meteor. How weird is that?
Heavenly Palace One misses Michigan
Eight PM auppertime, isn't Beagles fashionable? I'm thinking of those European movies where they go out to the trattoria late in the evening and dine on appetizers and soups and whatnot, all the while drinking what seems like huge quantities of wine and making bon nots and profound statements, all the while Sophia Loren is rubbing knees with the befuddled American tourist just for giggles. Between the French and the Italians I pick the Italians as more fashionable. They have that whole Empire thing and they are home to the pope to be cleverly cynical about.
I didn't get time to put down my bets on the Chinese satellite, The Heavenly Palace One, which from the photos looked more like a garbage can with a couple wings. One of the google images shows it next to a school bus, which is surely done to show the size although it does put Elon Musk's sporty car to shame. Next to that is a map of the USA with all the states grey except for Michigan which is bright red which related to an article that the gov there has instituted emergency measures (everybody don thick tin foil hats?). Most of our Illinois govs just go quietly into the slammer, except for Blago, who didn't go quietly.
Too bad about Glow, I had heard glowing remarks. Saw Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing Missouri Friday night, pretty good I have to say with a lot of those madcap moments that Old Dog favors.
First Limbo goes to limbo, and I think purgatory is gone anymore too, and now hell. I think Hell was always a bit iffy. I think the bible only mentions it sporadically, except for that outlier Revelations which should probably never have been allowed into the Bible, but we'll leave it for the bible expert to speak on that. Hell was one of those things that made heaven even better because when you got bored basking in the glow of The Lord you could turn your thoughts to your enemies burning in hell and get a little thrill, I imagine heaven is a less perfect place without hell, and doesn't it have to be perfect to be heaven, so don't we have a religious issue here?
I have been reading about these Sinclair folks for maybe a year, and now they are trying to get their filthy paws (slithy toves) on the Trib and WGN. I don't think objective journalism is dead, and I certainly don't think we were delusional to think the news was ever objective. I suppose there were shadings, but if you knew the source you could adjust for the shadings. Even the politicians would limit their falsehoods to exaggerations and bending the truth a bit, skirting at the edges as it were. Nowadays it is fashionable to just make up a whopper and if the press complains call them liars and insist on your own private alternative reality. Is that not your right as an American? Didn't those Yankee Doodles freeze their doodles off in Valley Forge for your right to have that?
I didn't get time to put down my bets on the Chinese satellite, The Heavenly Palace One, which from the photos looked more like a garbage can with a couple wings. One of the google images shows it next to a school bus, which is surely done to show the size although it does put Elon Musk's sporty car to shame. Next to that is a map of the USA with all the states grey except for Michigan which is bright red which related to an article that the gov there has instituted emergency measures (everybody don thick tin foil hats?). Most of our Illinois govs just go quietly into the slammer, except for Blago, who didn't go quietly.
Too bad about Glow, I had heard glowing remarks. Saw Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing Missouri Friday night, pretty good I have to say with a lot of those madcap moments that Old Dog favors.
First Limbo goes to limbo, and I think purgatory is gone anymore too, and now hell. I think Hell was always a bit iffy. I think the bible only mentions it sporadically, except for that outlier Revelations which should probably never have been allowed into the Bible, but we'll leave it for the bible expert to speak on that. Hell was one of those things that made heaven even better because when you got bored basking in the glow of The Lord you could turn your thoughts to your enemies burning in hell and get a little thrill, I imagine heaven is a less perfect place without hell, and doesn't it have to be perfect to be heaven, so don't we have a religious issue here?
I have been reading about these Sinclair folks for maybe a year, and now they are trying to get their filthy paws (slithy toves) on the Trib and WGN. I don't think objective journalism is dead, and I certainly don't think we were delusional to think the news was ever objective. I suppose there were shadings, but if you knew the source you could adjust for the shadings. Even the politicians would limit their falsehoods to exaggerations and bending the truth a bit, skirting at the edges as it were. Nowadays it is fashionable to just make up a whopper and if the press complains call them liars and insist on your own private alternative reality. Is that not your right as an American? Didn't those Yankee Doodles freeze their doodles off in Valley Forge for your right to have that?
Sunday, April 1, 2018
Another April Fool
I don't know much about the politics in Michigan, but I have to give the governor some credit. It seems that he is the only political figure who has publicly announced a disaster plan for the impending re-entry of that Chinese satellite, Tiangong-1. But I've been following a few sites that indicate the orbit and it looks like there is no longer any threat to Michigan, or North America for that matter. We'll know more in about four hours (as I write this) when it will come crashing down. My best guess is that it will land in one of the oceans; place your bets.
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Speaking of Old Dog, he was speaking of late of The Death of Stalin which has just lately come out and is getting rave reviews, but I wonder how he was able to see it so early.
I didn't actually see it early, it's that the movie was released in the US late; it was released about six months ago in the rest of world. Why the difference in release dates, I don't know but I suspect it had to do with how the film was financed. It was filmed in England and the Ukraine with an international cast, so maybe the guys with the bucks wanted it to be released in the US at a later date. The financial aspects of film making is very screwy.
In any case, once I found out that the film was originally released last year I thought I'd give it a shot and look for it online, and there it was. I think if you look hard enough you can find a clean copy of any movie ever made, somewhere online. TV shows are much harder; once I think I've found something and try to view it I get a little notice that says "file has been removed."
Quite a while ago Uncle Ken mentioned a fondness for the Netflix show GLOW, which, by the way, has been renewed for a second season. Just when I thought I've found it there was that damned "file has been removed" message. It was driving me nuts but I finally found it and watched the first couple of episodes. Sad to say, I'm not impressed but I'll watch one or two more episodes to see if it gets going for me.
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Today is Easter Sunday, and last week Pope Francis said something about there not being a Hell. That sounds like a game changer to me, since didn't Jesus descend into Hell before being resurrected? I think one of the creeds said something about that but I'm not sure. Maybe the pope's statement lost something in the translation but it was a curious thing to say, if he really said it. Fake news out of the Vatican? I sense a power struggle in the Roman Catholic church.
And speaking of fake news, have you guys heard of Sinclair Broadcasting? It's a conservative company, owning many local stations in what is usually referred to as "the heartland," and they tell the local stations what to say. They own a lot of Fox affiliates, but also stations from ABC and CBS and they all follow the same script. I though this clip was creepy but I'm sure many folks would welcome it as an alternative to the media "elite" on the East Coast. Are the days of objective journalism long gone or were we delusional in thinking that the news was ever objective? Remember the Maine!
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Speaking of Old Dog, he was speaking of late of The Death of Stalin which has just lately come out and is getting rave reviews, but I wonder how he was able to see it so early.
I didn't actually see it early, it's that the movie was released in the US late; it was released about six months ago in the rest of world. Why the difference in release dates, I don't know but I suspect it had to do with how the film was financed. It was filmed in England and the Ukraine with an international cast, so maybe the guys with the bucks wanted it to be released in the US at a later date. The financial aspects of film making is very screwy.
In any case, once I found out that the film was originally released last year I thought I'd give it a shot and look for it online, and there it was. I think if you look hard enough you can find a clean copy of any movie ever made, somewhere online. TV shows are much harder; once I think I've found something and try to view it I get a little notice that says "file has been removed."
Quite a while ago Uncle Ken mentioned a fondness for the Netflix show GLOW, which, by the way, has been renewed for a second season. Just when I thought I've found it there was that damned "file has been removed" message. It was driving me nuts but I finally found it and watched the first couple of episodes. Sad to say, I'm not impressed but I'll watch one or two more episodes to see if it gets going for me.
-----
Today is Easter Sunday, and last week Pope Francis said something about there not being a Hell. That sounds like a game changer to me, since didn't Jesus descend into Hell before being resurrected? I think one of the creeds said something about that but I'm not sure. Maybe the pope's statement lost something in the translation but it was a curious thing to say, if he really said it. Fake news out of the Vatican? I sense a power struggle in the Roman Catholic church.
And speaking of fake news, have you guys heard of Sinclair Broadcasting? It's a conservative company, owning many local stations in what is usually referred to as "the heartland," and they tell the local stations what to say. They own a lot of Fox affiliates, but also stations from ABC and CBS and they all follow the same script. I though this clip was creepy but I'm sure many folks would welcome it as an alternative to the media "elite" on the East Coast. Are the days of objective journalism long gone or were we delusional in thinking that the news was ever objective? Remember the Maine!
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