Donnelly's Most Popular Work



Ignatius Donnelly, November 3, 1831–January 1, 1901
(A Masonic Pose?)

Populist Party Platform (1892) [Preamble]

drafted by Ignatius Donnelly of Minnesota

The conditions which surround us best justify our cooperation; we meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the Legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench. The people are demoralized; most of the States have been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling places to prevent universal intimidation and bribery. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced, business prostrated, homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished, and the land concentrating in the hands of capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right to organize for self-protection, imported pauperized labor beats down their wages, a hireling standing army, unrecognized by our laws, is established to shoot them down, and they are rapidly degenerating into European conditions. The fruits of the toil of millions are badly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind; and the possessors of these, in turn, despise the Republic and endanger liberty. From the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed the two great classes—tramps and millionaires. The national power to create money is appropriated to enrich bond-holders; a vast public debt payable in legal-tender currency has been funded into gold-bearing bonds, thereby adding millions to the burdens of the people. Silver, which has been accepted as coin since the dawn of history, has been demonetized to add to the purchasing power of gold by decreasing the value of all forms of property as well as human labor, and the supply of currency is purposely abridged to fatten usurers, bankrupt enterprise, and enslave industry. A vast conspiracy against mankind has been organized on two continents, and it is rapidly taking possession of the world. If not met and overthrown at once it forebodes terrible social convulsions, the destruction of civilization, or the establishment of an absolute despotism. We have witnessed for more than a quarter of a century the struggles of the two great political parties for power and plunder, while grievous wrongs have been inflicted upon the suffering people. We charge that the controlling influences dominating both these parties have permitted the existing dreadful conditions to develop without serious effort to prevent or restrain them. Neither do they now promise us any substantial reform. They have agreed together to ignore, in the coming campaign, ever issue but one. They propose to drown the outcries of a plundered people with the uproar of a sham battle over the tariff, so that capitalists, corporations, national banks, rings, trusts, watered stock, the demonetization of silver and the oppressions of the usurers may all be lost sight of. They propose to sacrifice our homes, lives, and children on the altar of mammon; to destroy the multitude in order to secure corruption funds from the millionaires. Assembled on the anniversary of the birthday of the nation, and filled with the spirit of the grand general and chief who established our independence, we seek to restore the government of the Republic to the hands of the ''plain people,'' with which class it originated. We assert our purposes to be identical with the purposes of the National Constitution; to form a more perfect union and establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. . . . Our country finds itself confronted by conditions for which there is not precedent in the history of the world; our annual agricultural productions amount to billions of dollars in value, which must, within a few weeks or months, be exchanged for billions of dollars' worth of commodities consumed in their production; the existing currency supply is wholly inadequate to make this exchange; the results are falling prices, the formation of combines and rings, the impoverishment of the producing class. We pledge ourselves that if given power we will labor to correct these evils by wise and reasonable legislation, in accordance with the terms of our platform. We believe that the power of government—in other words, of the people—should be expanded (as in the case of the postal service) as rapidly and as far as the good sense of an intelligent people and the teaching of experience shall justify, to the end that oppression, injustice, and poverty shall eventually cease in the land. . . .
The entire platform may be found here: (LINK)

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

"Now, as the Atlanteans carried on an immense commerce with all the countries of Europe and Western Asia, they doubtless inquired and traded for gold and silver for the adornment of their temples, and they thus produced a demand for and gave a value to the two metals otherwise comparatively useless to man--a value higher than any other commodity which the people could offer their civilized customers; and as the reverence for the great burning orb of the sun, master of all the manifestations of nature, was tenfold as great as the veneration for the smaller, weaker, and variable goddess of the night, so was the demand for the metal sacred to the sun ten times as great as for the metal sacred to the moon. This view is confirmed by the fact that the root of the word by which the Celts, the Greeks, and the Romans designated gold was the Sanscrit word karat, which means, "'the color of the sun'." Among the Assyrians gold and silver were respectively consecrated to the and moon precisely as they were in Peru. A pyramid belonging to the palace of Nineveh is referred to repeatedly in the inscriptions. It was composed of seven stages, equal in height, and each one smaller in area than the one beneath it; each stage was covered with stucco of different colors, "a different color representing each of the heavenly bodies, the least important being at the base: white (Venus); black (Saturn); purple (Jupiter); blue (Mercury); vermillion (Mars); 'silver' (the Moon); and 'gold' (the Sun)."(Lenormant's "Ancient History of the East," vol. i., p. 463.) "In England, to this day the new moon is saluted with a bow or a courtesy, as well as the curious practice of 'turning one's silver,' which seems a relic of the offering of 'the moon's proper metal'." (Tylor's "Anthropology", p. 361.) The custom of wishing, when one first sees the new moon, is probably a survival of moon-worship; the wish taking the place of the prayer.
And thus has it come to pass that, precisely as the physicians of
Europe, fifty years ago, practised bleeding, because for thousands of years their savage ancestors had used it to draw away the evil spirits out of the man, so the business of our modern civilization is dependent upon the superstition of a past civilization, and the bankers of the world are to-day perpetuating the adoration of "the tears wept by the sun" which was commenced ages since on the island of Atlantis. And it becomes a grave question--when we remember that the rapidly increasing business of the world, consequent upon an increasing population, and a civilization advancing with giant steps, is measured by the standard of a currency limited by natural laws, decreasing annually in production, and incapable of expanding proportionately to the growth of the world--whether this Atlantean superstition may not yet inflict more incalculable injuries on mankind than those which resulted from the practice of phlebotomy."
Ignatius Donnelly, The Antediluvian World, Part IV, Chapter 6,
Gold and Silver, the Sacred Metals of Atlantis

Quote of the Day:
"It is extremely difficult for a Jew to be converted, for how can he bring himself to believe in the divinity of ....another Jew?"-Heinrich Heine

"Let's go and study the primitives before they disappear."

Claude Lévi-Strauss, French anthropologist dies.
B. 28 November 1908
D. 30 October 2009

He was known for championing the position that so-called primitives are not inferior to Europeans and their societies are structurally similar. He was criticized for being more philosopher than anthropologist. (See "Claude Lévi-Strauss" by Edmund Leach for an adequate compilation of those criticisms) I only have an undergraduate degree in anthropology and therefore a too limited knowledge; However I enthusiastically embrace the rare real thinker in the field. There are far too many pedantic bean counter anthropologists who substitute meaningless observation acquired via tunnel vision for thorough holistic (I hate that word.) analysis. Indeed most anthropologists lose the forest in observing the trees. Yes, he was French and often used ten words when two might do. (Mais quels mots!) Anthropology remains for me more art than science thanks those like him (and that would certainly disappoint the old codger). His notion of 'bricolage' informs my art.

Il est le premier philosophe qui a expliqué les rouages de l'art et la science dans la culture.

Some quotes:

"There still exists among ourselves an activity which on the technical plane gives us quite a good understanding of what a science we prefer to call 'prior' rather than 'primitive', could have been on the plane of speculation. This is what is commonly called 'bricolage' in French. In its old sense the verb 'bricoler' applied to ball games and billiards, to hunting, shooting and riding. It was however always used with reference to some extraneous movement: a ball rebounding, a dog straying or a horse swerving from its direct course to avoid an obstacle. And in our own time the 'bricoleur' is still someone who works with his hands and uses devious means compared to those of a craftsman. The characteristic feature of mythical thought is that it expresses itself by means of a heterogeneous repertoire which, even if extensive, is nevertheless limited. It has to use this repertoire, however, whatever the task in hand because it has nothing else at its disposal. Mythical thought is therefore a kind of intellectual 'bricolage' - which explains the relation which can be perceived between the two.
Like 'bricolage' on the technical plane, mythical reflection can reach brilliant unforeseen results on the intellectual plane. Conversely, attention has often been drawn to the mytho-poetical nature of 'bricolage' on the plane of so-called 'raw' or 'naive' art, in architectural follies like the villa of Cheval the postman or the stage sets of Georges Méliès, or, again, in the case immortalized by Dickens in Great Expectations but no doubt originally inspired by observation, of Mr Wemmick's suburban 'castle' with its miniature drawbridge, its cannon firing at nine o'clock, its bed of salad and cucumbers, thanks to which its occupants could withstand a siege if necessary ..."- Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind (La Pensée Sauvage) Quote found (HERE) Site of Le Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval

"I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact."

"Enthusiastic partisans of the idea of progress are in danger of failing to recognize... the immense riches accumulated by the human race. By underrating the achievements of the past, they devalue all those which still remain to be accomplished."

"Language is a form of human reason, which has its internal logic of which man knows nothing."

"Since music is a language with some meaning at least for the immense majority of mankind, although only a tiny minority of people are capable of formulating a meaning in it, and since it is the only language with the contradictory attributes of being at once intelligible and untranslatable, the musical creator is a being comparable to the gods, and music itself the supreme mystery of the science of man, a mystery that all the various disciplines come up against and which holds the key to their progress."

"The paradox is irresoluble: the less one culture communicates with another, the less likely they are to be corrupted, one by the other; but, on the other hand, the less likely it is, in such conditions, that the respective emissaries of these cultures will be able to seize the richness and significance of their diversity. The alternative is inescapable: either I am a traveller in ancient times, and faced with a prodigious spectacle which would be almost entirely unintelligible to me and might, indeed, provoke me to mockery or disgust; or I am a traveller of my own day, hastening in search of a vanished reality. In either case I am the loser…for today, as I go groaning among the shadows, I miss, inevitably, the spectacle that is now taking shape."
Tristes Tropiques, this quote from Susan Sontag's 1963 New York Review Of Books essay "A Hero Of Our Time" (LINK)

The master, Alfred Hitchcock
"Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints."

Eva Marie Saint in North By Northwest
“I tend to love stories about people and not cop shows and violence, special effects. And some of the things I see, I'm not prudish, I'm not Pollyanna, but I thought North by Northwest was as sexy as you can get and we had all our clothes on.”


January Jones in Mad Men
"I choose roles that are not me."

Betty Draper Is The Perfect Hitchcock Blond

Betty Draper in the superb AMC series Mad Men played by the wonderful January Jones seems to be modeled on the Hitchcock archtype of the icy untouchable blond as exemplified by Eva Marie Saint. Don Draper had better be careful.

Songs from January Jones' iTunes Celebrity Playlist:

Pearl's Dream-Bat For Lashes
Into the Ocean-Blue October
Quelcu'un M'a Dit-Carla Bruni
Lullaby-The Cure
Cumulus-Imogen Heap
Crabbuckit-K-OS
This Woman's Work-Maxwell
Quiet Dog-Mos Def
Father and Daughter-Paul Simon
Roads-Portishead
Climbing Up the Walls-Radiohead
Break It Down Again-Tears For Fears
Ramalama (Bang Bang)-Róisín Murphy
Wildflowers-Tom Petty

Vincent D'Onofrio as "Private Pyle" in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket
"Hi Joker."

Major Nidal Malik Hasan as himself.
"Allahu Akbar!"

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/05/fort-hood-shootings-7-dea_n_347366.html&cp

words reportedly spoken by Hasan before opening fire Thursday

"If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory. Their intention is not to die because of some despair. The same can be said for the Kamikazees in Japan. They died (via crashing their planes into ships) to kill the enemies for the homeland. You can call them crazy i[f] you want but their act was not one of suicide that is despised by Islam. So the scholars main point is that “It seems as though your intention is the main issue” and Allah (SWT) knows best." Presumed posting by Major Malik Hasan May 20, 2009 (LINK)

Koran [8.39] Shakir: ...fight with them until there is no more persecution and religion should be only for Allah...



All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
-Shakespeare, Jacques, II, 7, As You Like It

Stage: from Latin stare v. to stand, through Old French estage the story of a house

Much more is going on at Fort Hood than meets the eye.

“The shooter was killed. He was a soldier. We since then have apprehended two additional soldiers who are suspects, and I would go into the point that there were eyewitness accounts that there may have been more than one shooter.”- Lieutenant General Robert Cone, November 5, 2009

Quote of the Day

"It is extremely difficult for a Jew to be converted, for how can he bring himself to believe in the divinity of ....another Jew?"-Heinrich Heine

What's With Virginia Tech?

On April 16, 2007 Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people in a two-part shooting rampage at Virginia Polytech Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. Cho's medical records were mysteriously removed from the University by Robert Miller, former head of the Cook Counseling Center at the university in 2006, when he left the employ of the school. These records were missing for over two years until July 2009 and certainly there was adequate time to scrub them of sensitive information. (LINK). If one needs to confirm that Cho was not quite in his right mind, his legacy of videos can be found on Youtube (LINK).

We may begin to raise the question of what may be going on at Virginia Tech in light of the shootings by malcontent Major Nidal Malik Hasan on November 5, 2009 at Fort Hood. Hasan graduated from Virginia Tech with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry before attending medical school at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Why did it take so long for the military to get its story straight on this one? Sgt. Munley was dead then she's not dead; Hasan is dead then he's not dead; there are two others arrested but there's no plot and they've been let go. Oh yeah, that's just the fog of war.

"Whether he became angry or something else, I don't know... What I do know is that it is impossible that he would do something like that."-Ismail Mustafa Hamad, grandfather of Nidal Malik Hasan (I know, consider the source.)

Ironically, Sgt. Kimberly Munley quickly and bravely acted to bring down Hasan using lessons learned from Cho's attack at Virginia Tech. (Correction: November 13, 2009, Munley was shot by Hasan and then Senior Sgt. Mark Todd brought down Hasan according to a report in the New York Times yesterday. I suspect this story will keep changing and changing.)

"The lesson from Virginia Tech was, don't wait for backup but move to the target and eliminate the shooter.It requires courage and it requires skill."-Chuck Medley, chief of Fort Hood's emergency services.

Now we wait to see how quickly a knee jerk Congress acts to further limit access to guns. I would rather see Congress act to more easily remove obviously disturbed and untrustworthy individuals from the military.

Cathy O'Brien, in her fantastic (and by that I mean I suspect there is a lot of fantasy in them) books TranceFormation of America (1995) and Access Denied: For Reasons of National Security (2004) stated that she had been processed at a DARPA mind control facility near Virginia Tech at Blacksburg. I suspect Cathy has some imprinted false bizarre memories in her subconscious that were inserted to discredit her story (at least I hope some of her tales are fantasy), but this claim becomes much more reasonable after the deadly antics of Cho and Hasan.

"Virginia Tech is good for two things, engineering and mind control." - Cathy O'Brien (LINK)

Dies Irae

Thou hast destroyed it, The beautiful world, With powerful fist: In ruin 'tis hurled, By the blow of a demigod shattered! The scattered Fragments into the void we carry, Deploring the beauty perished beyond restoring. Mightier for the children of men, Brightlier Build it again, IN THINE OWN BOSOM BUILD IT ANEW!
-Goethe, Faust, Chorus of Spirits


From...Rules And Regulations To Manage The Populace

"No one is to be given more true information than is needed to perform his function."
"Explanations are forbidden."
"The information that is publicly promulgated is to be distorted."


Observations

1) The Arabic word for sand is 'el raml' a curious homonym to the name of German General Erwin Rommel, the "Desert Fox".

2) On listening to Keith Hansen's conversation with Gordon Comstock (Here) I began to ruminate until my jaws hurt as follows:

O praeclarum custodem ovium lupum! - An excellent protector of sheep, the wolf!-Cicero

These days we are inundated with predictions and prophecies of doom. There isn't a month that goes by without someone informing us that martial law, alien invasion, catastrophic earth changes, nuclear explosions, armagedon, or the sounding of the last trumpet will be upon us. All one can do is soldier on and make the best of things. But many of us suspect that any or some of these unlucky occurances could happen. Wouldn't it make sense for those who may be arranging such events to put out many false alarms so that when the inevitable disaster finally is launched we will ignore the true warnings that may be leaked by those in the know? Wouldn't it be prudent for the wolves to hire little boys to falsely cry of approaching packs so that when actual danger does arrive none will pay attention to those warning cries?

Verba de Futuro (words about the future)

It seems to me (from a developing Jewish perspective and forgive me for my impertinence to comment on Christian mores) that prophecy and prediction should be irrelevant to the Christian who is saved under the magical formula of the Savior. What difference is it to him what may happen if his faith is true? His soul is certain of its fate. Why do so many Christians insist on prophesying? Did Jesus free them from the fate of false prophets under what they term the Old Testament? Or are they relying on the secular state to protect them from the implications of their false pronouncements? To the Jew who still awaits Mashiach, prophecy could still be a consideration for the conduct of his life. But, as anyone who is familiar with Tanach knows, the implications of incorrect prophecy can be most dire, and no observant Jew would lightly undertake such work. Few do. Besides, in the Messianic Age, all will be prophets. In the end, perhaps those who desperately desire to see the wondrous materialization of a prophecy are only indicating a need to see a miracle to stabilize their own shaky Faiths. I can empathize with that. I was raised a Catholic, 'though it never took, and my favorite Apostle was Thomas.

3) Control is difficult and tedious. Creation is easy and liberating.

4) One of the last things manufactured in the United States is housing. What is to prevent someone from bringing in crews of low cost foreign workers to build houses or to simply erect prefabricated homes?

5) Baseball is a game, unlike others, that is not played between parallel lines, therefore expanding to infinity.

The Good Old Days

Tit-bits and excerpts from Collier's Cyclopedia of Commercial and Social Information and Treasury of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge On Art, Science, Pastimes, Belles-Lettres, and Many Other Subjects of Interest in the American Home Circle, compiled by Nugent Robinson, 1882, New York, Peter Fenelon Collier, Publisher, revised to 1891

Interest and Usury
"Interest is a moderate profit for the use of money. In the different States the rate of interest is established by statute. In New York State six per cent is the legal rate of interest. Any excess over this, whether received directly or indirectly, will render the contract void, and is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not exceeding $1,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both. An excess of interest above the legal rate may be recovered by an action at law, if brought in one year from the time of payment.
Corporations cannot set up the defence of usury."

Marriage and Divorce
"Marriage may be entered into by any two persons, with the following exceptions: Idiots, lunatics, persons of unsound mind, persons related by blood or affinity within certain degrees prohibited by law, infants under the age of consent, which is in New York State 14 for males and 12 for females, and all persons already married and not legally divorced."

Naturalization Laws of the United States

Conditions for Citizenship: "If it shall appear to the satisfaction of the court to which the alien has applied that he has resided continuously within the United States for at least five years, and within the State or Territory where such court is at the time held one year at least; and that during that time "he has behaved as a man of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same," he will be admitted to citizenship."

an exception..

Chinese: "The naturalization of Chinamen is expressly prohibited by Section 14, Chapter 126, Laws of 1882."

1882 Principal of the Public Debt: $1,926,688,678.03

1891 Population of the Earth: 1,487,900,000
1891 Population of North America: 89,250,000
(from the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society)

Phrenology: "Feelings. Genus I.-Propensities. the propensities are common to man and the lower animals; they neither perceive nor reason, but only feel.
No.I- Amativeness.-This organ is situated immediately over the nape of the neck, and fills up the space between the ears behind, or rather between the mastoid processes, or projecting bones behind the ears. It generally forms a projection in that part, and gives a thickness to the neck when it is large, and a spareness when small."

A few English Proverbs:

A good layer-up is a good layer-out.
A pin a day is a groat a year.
Children and chickens must always be picking.
Children suck the mother when they are young, and the father when they are old.
Every herring must hang by its own head.
He that runs in the night stumbles.
It's merry in the hall when beards wag all.
The blind man's wife needs no painting.

Some Scots Proverbs:
He has licked the butter off my bread.
Ne'er marry a widow unless her first man was hanged.
Little folk are soon angry.
Keep your breath to cool your own porridge.
They speak o' my drinking, but ne'er think o' my drouth.

from Etiquette For Ladies:
"Remember in conversation that a voice "gentle and low" is, above all other extraneous acquirements, "an excellent thing in woman." There is a certain distinct but subdued tone of voice which is peculiar to only well-bred persons. A loud voice is both disagreeable and vulgar. It is better to err by the use of too low rather than too loud a tone.
Remember that all "slang" is vulgar."

"Very young ladies are never so suitably attired as in white. Ladies who dance should wear dresses of light and diaphanous materials, such as tulle, gauze, crape, net, etc., over colored silk slips. Silk dresses are not suitable for dancing. A married lady who dances only a few quadrilles may wear a décolleté silk dress with propriety."

"Perfumes should be used only in the evening, and then in moderation. Let your perfumes be of the most delicate and recherché kind. Nothing is more vulgar than a coarse, ordinary scent; and of all coarse, ordinary scents, the most objectionable are musk and patchouli."

from Golden Rules of Etiquette:

"Do not use the tablecloth to wipe your mouth."

"Never watch the dishes as they are uncovered, or cry out when you perceive something dainty."

"Guests may use the servants as if they were their own, but always within reason."

Projection

Nazi Poster, loose translation: "The Jew, War's Instigator, War's Extender"

"If people observe their own unconscious tendencies in other people, this is called a "projection." Political agitation in all countries is full of such projections, just as much as the backyard gossip of little groups and individuals. Projections of all kinds obscure our view of our fellow men, spoiling its objectivity, and thus spoiling all possibility of genuine human relationships."
-Carl Jung, Man And His Symbols

“The richer–that is, the more varied and complete–the individual’s emotional life, the less is he driven to projection, and the more will he incline to identification. His outlet and satisfaction comes in identifying himself with the emotions of the other. On the other hand, the narrower and more restricted the individual’s emotional life, the more intense will be his fewer emotions, the less will he be inclined to, and capable of, identification–the lack of which he has to compensate for by projection. Projection thus proves to be a compensatory mechanism that adjusts for an inner lack. Identification, on the other hand, is an expression of abundance, of the desire for union, for alliance, for sharing. “
– Otto Rank, “Love, Guilt and the Denial of Feelings,” 1927, American Lectures, 160

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the log in your own eye?”-Jesus, Matthew 7:3

The Haunted Tree, South Hiram, Maine, October 28, 2004, photo by John Bonanno

"O Dreamy, Gloomy, Friendly Trees" - Herbert Trench, 1907

Listen to the third take (God help us) on Aldous Huxley with myself and Vyzygoth now posted at Think Or Be Eaten Radio here.
Aldous Huxley narrates a radio broadcast version of Brave New World Here.

Sumatriptan, C14H21N3O2S 295.40

I have experienced migraine headaches for forty years. In the last decade they have somewhat lessened in severity if not in frequency. I have had days when I considered (and obviously rejected) a trip behind the barn with my shotgun. For the first several years I experienced distortions in vision (aura) at the onset of the migraine which may or may not have been followed by pain. Luckily this effect is now rare; it can get dangerous on the road and frustrating at work. For the last six or seven years I have gratefully used three medications for treatment. Maxalt, zomig, and imitrex in that order. All were effective but all seem to eventually promote more frequent migraine experiences and use of the drug.
I am now using generic imitrex, sumatriptan; this is the only prescription drug I use. I usually feel very airy when I take the drug. I decided to do a little experiment a couple of days ago. My blood pressure is normally an excellent 125/68. I tested myself last week on my handy BP machine and that is what it was. I took a sumatriptan Friday night and decided to check my BP a couple of hours later after the drug took effect. My result: 158/95. I remembered that a couple of years ago I had an annual physical and my BP was slightly elevated. I had taken an imitrex the day before. My MD wanted to put me on a drug for high BP. I demurred. I was back at the doctor's a week later for a follow up and the BP was fine. Yes, somewhere in the small print on the flyer that comes with the drug you will find that sumatriptan can elevate blood pressure. If you are hypertensive you should avoid this drug. Now I despise the notion of going on drugs. My exception is the migraine drug which I take reluctantly, but mind destroying pain can melt resistance. I average using about eight 50mg tablets a month. (Yes, I have a good health insurance plan; I pay less than 50 cents for a pill that retails for about $5. Before it went generic, sumatriptan (imitrex 50mg) retailed for an astounding $20+ a pill; but you would pay the price for relief.) I will record my BP during migraine episodes before and after use of this drug. Questions: Is it worth several days of elevated BP a month to relieve the pain of migraine? And, is it really the sumatriptan causing the hypertension? And I wonder. What is the price to be paid for long term use of this drug?


Love is a universal migraine
A bright stain on the vision
Blotting out reason
-Robert Graves

D'où venons-nous? / Qui sommes-nous? / Où allons-nous?- P. Gauguin, 1897
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, where this large painting (54 3/4 x 147 1/2 in.) may be visited


Who am I? How Did I Get Here? Where Am I Going,
Or, The Why Ask Those Existential Questions Two Step

Click the above title for the hyperlink to my story in the Summer/Fall 2009 "Inside the Grassy Knoll" ezine. It gives a little of my biographical information and an existential outlook on the world in two pages. It finishes up with two personal ghost stories: one that was there and one that wasn't.

Positive existentialism:

"If success or failure of this planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do... ... HOW WOULD I BE? WHAT WOULD I DO?"- R. Buckminster Fuller


Negative existentialism:

"Hell is other people."- Jean Paul Sartre

You need both in the broth.

"Only So" John Bonanno, 1988, Acrylic on Cardboard with mirrors, 6" x 9" (approx.), $100

Ah! The Old Days! I found this one in a trunk of old work. I remembered it fondly if faithlessly.
The words I wrote (expand the illustration and try to read it yourself if you desire):

This entrance, this passage, is the very womb, the mother of Anubis.
Here is the threshold of the palace of the company of the gods, the very lords of heaven,
The spinners of the curtains of the false infinite crypt,
Each to each and side to side,
Presenting elegant true-hued wands,
Capped with their true signs.
They alter their noble array in the slow splendrous dance of the stars.
A sweet howl shapes these words:
"Thy candle hath burnt out.
The wick is drowned in a little puddle of wax warm as blood.
Thy flickering flame hath found this portal.
Lift this hasp. Build thine hand and put thee in my grasp.
Shape thee a face and turn it to me.
Let Ptahtenen and thee to squeeze new eyes to gaze on the edges of this form,
Which emanates not.
My body is naught but nothing manifest.
I am a facile aspect of the body of Nuit.
Only so. Only so."

From the 1932 film Vampyr directed by Carl-Theodor Dreyer

"A hungry people listens not to reason, nor cares for justice, nor is bent by any prayers."
-Seneca (the Younger) De Brevitate Vitae, i. 18.

There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.
-W.H. Auden, September 1, 1939

"Hunger is the best sauce in the world."
-Cervantes, Don Quixote

"Hunger can explain many acts. It can be said that all vile acts are done to satisfy hunger."
-Maxim Gorky

"Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man's starving."
-O. Henry

"Hunger knows no friend but its feeder."
- Aristophanes

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
-Matthew 25:35-40

"Where people go hungry, to say that man does not live by bread alone is too easily misunderstood as an argument in favor or starvation."
- Theodore Roszak

“If you offer your compassion to the hungry and satisfy the famished creature, then shall your light shine in darkness.”
- Isaiah 58:10

“And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger.”
- Leviticus 19:9-10

“God says to Israel, 'My Children, whenever you give sustenance to the poor, I impute it to you as though you gave sustenance to Me.'”
- Numbers 28:2

"It is not good for all our wishes to be filled; through sickness we recognize the value of health; through evil, the value of good; through hunger, the value of food; through exertion, the value of rest."
-Dorothy Canfield Fisher

"I saw a few die of hunger, of eating, a hundred thousand."
-Benjamin Franklin

"Hunger is insolent, and will be fed."
-Homer

"Anticipate charity by preventing poverty."
-Maimonides

“In eating, a third of the stomach should be filled with food, a third with drink, and the rest left empty.”
-The Talmud

Huxley Vs. Orwell: Just a couple of irrelevant dinosaurs? (screen grab from the classic film, the Lost World, 1925, special effects by Willis O'Brien who later gave us the beloved original King Kong)

The other day, while squeezing off a few rounds at the Jesus Saves But Just In Case Church and Gun Club, I resumed ruminating on Aldous Huxley, specifically on the contrast between Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. Who was the greater prophet? Who was more accurately describing the future? Or, taking a Huxleyan approach to the question: who really cares? Orwell was brilliant in showing that the straw man enemy would be an invaluable tool of the government that wishes to indulge in infinite (or at least indefinite) war. Huxley's perception that humans, once their basic physical needs were fulfilled, would then require varied distractions, which would allow the prevailing masters to go about their nefarious business unhindered, was an essential insight into our reality. The answer is: they are both good at what they do. Orwell was a more compelling writer. He was scarier and more emotional. Huxley was intellectual, diffident, and objective. Huxley claimed Orwell was merely reflecting through a magnifying mirror recent history (Hitler's Nazi Germany and Stalin's Communist Russia) in his novel, while he (Huxley) was presenting a more accurate long range prophecy in his. If you accept the Tavistock stooge theory of Huxley, maybe he knew something. The future never is simple as long as human involvement is taken into consideration. In our time we see elements of both writers' visions jousting here and there. Brutal suppression is a handy tool to take down kids demonstrating against the G-20. But modern societies seem to be trending Huxley. Few people are even noticing.
Then I found this cartoon version, called "Amusing Ourselves To Death" by Stuart McMillen.
It's based on Neil Postman's book of the same name.  
But it must be acknowledged that the bleak world of Orwell and the vapid future of Huxley are not the only social structures that have been described in science fiction. Future posts will investigate some of these others.

"A man may be a pessimistic determinist before lunch and an optimistic believer in the will’s freedom after it."
- Aldous Huxley

Ivan Sanderson, b. January 30, 1911, Edinburgh, Scotland, d. February 19, 1973 in New Jersey, photograph found here at UFO scholar Richard Dolan's website

"This is why I am a "Fortean," and very proud to be labelled as such. I have never been able to understand why all things serious should have to be taken seriously; and, especially, all the time. Frankly, my personal approach to life, the world, the universe, existence, and all the rest, is precisely as that of this man. I think it all stinks; but I think it is all perfectly fascinating; and I also think that one should investigate it all "scientifically"-but not (invariably) in a ponderous manner. Like Fort, I do not believe a word anybody says. I don't give a damn what they say, and I simply cannot help chuckling at a lot that they do say. I am interested only in facts, and the more outrageous, annoying, or unpleasant they are, the more I am interested. Then, like Fort, I also tend sometimes to burst into roars of honest laughter. In fact, nothing makes me laugh more heartily than discovering some pompous ass who has misquoted his own book. (I have three superb cases on file; all doyens of a certain renowned establishment!).."- Ivan Sanderson, "Things" Epilogue

I devoured his book Abominable Snowmen:Legend Come To Life when I was in the eighth grade in 1962. Although I now doubt the existence of Bigfoot as a resident our our normal plane of existence (although he could well be a fleeting visitor,) this book led me to a lifetime interest in primates and anthropology.

Read more on Sanderson here by Mark A. Hall at virtuallystrange.net

"Piggies"- John Bonanno photograph, August 2009

"Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure -- one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."-David Rockefeller, Memoirs, 2002

"We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis, and the nations will accept the New World Order."-David Rockefeller, 1994 UN dinner, both quoted by Larry Flynt at Huffington Post

"I am surrounded by priests who repeat incessantly that their kingdom is not of this world, and yet they lay their hands on everything they can get."-- Napoleon Bonaparte

Random Thought, or, A Didactic Pronouncement on Baby Talk:

Talking "baby talk" to a baby is dis-functional, condescending and self-indulgent. Speak to a baby in clear and simple language as if you were speaking to a fully formed human being, for that is exactly what it is. Speak as intelligently, lovingly and as truthfully as possible. You and your child will benefit.

"Death, eternal punishment for anyone who opens this casket."
from the first scene of the 1932 horror classic, "The Mummy"
(All screen grabs via Netflix)

Karloff in makeup

I watched this short movie last night via Netflix on line. And what a wonderful service this is. The picture quality and sound is superb via cable.
I hadn't seen 'The Mummy' in almost fifty years and I was most surprised by the fact that Karloff is wrapped in mummy rags for only one scene early and one later in flashback as he is being prepared for burial alive. Predominantly Karloff appears as the ancient crackly faced Egyptian Ardath Bey (an eight hour makeup job by Jack Pierce) and, in flashback as Imhotep, cursed high priest of the Temple of the Sun at Karnak. He is literally, mesmerizing. And Zita Johann, as Helen Grosvenor, the reincarnated Princesss Ankh-es-en-Amon is an unusual Hungarian beauty whose lithe body is displayed to stunning effect in ancient and modern costume. Imhotep is cursed to eternal death for using evil magick when he was discovered attempting to resurrect the dead body of his love, Ankh-es-en-Amon using the scroll of Thoth.
I can see how this would upset the priests of Egypt. Only the gods may restore the dead to a new life. Imhotep would bring his lover back as a kind of zombie.
When archaeologists from the British Museum find his mummy 3700 years after these events one, a young Oxford chap Ralph Norton, inadvertantly restores Imhotep to a living state as a rotten corpse by reading the scroll of Thoth, which was buried with him. Why the old priests didn't destroy this powerful magick is beyond my comprehension. Immy, the mummy revives, takes the scroll, scares the young man insane, later to die, and assumes the persona of befezzed, Ardath Bey.
A few years later Bey leads some other archaeologists to the tomb of his beloved, Ankh-es-en-Amon. I couldn't figure out why later in Cairo Imhotep didn't instantly recognize the lovely Helen Grosvenor as his lost love reincarnated, but it took some effort for him to discern what is made obvious to the viewer.
All in all this is a historic film which incorporated current archaeology (at the time Tutankhamun's tomb had been recently discovered and stories of a curse were circulating in the press) in a simple, timeless plot: a man is driven to a forbidden act by despair over lost love. The chills in this film are primarily atmospheric done via makeup, lighting, Egyptian gear, and the power of Karloff's acting. Tana leaves are never mentioned in this film. They first make their appearance in 1940 in a later Universal Mummy series featuring Kharis as the mummy and lover from the land of the dead.
Imhotep's death count: young archaeologist Ralph Norton, a museum guard, archaeologist Sir Joseph Whemple, and Helen's dog Wolfram

"My pool is sometimes troubled. One sees strange fantasies in the water. But they pass like dreams."- Ardath Bey to Helen Grosvenor, 'The Mummy'

"The great gods of Egypt themselves were not exempt from the common lot. They too grew old and died. But when at a later time the discovery of the art of embalming gave a new lease of life to the souls of the dead by preserving their bodies for an indefinite time from corruption, the deities were permitted to share the benefit of an invention which held out to gods as well as to men a reasonable hope of immortality. Every province then had the tomb and mummy of its dead god. The mummy of Osiris was to be seen at Mendes; Thinis boasted of the mummy of Anhouri; and Heliopolis rejoiced in the possession of that of Toumou."-Sir James George Frazer, The Golden Bough

".....science and technology were recently mobilized to save the mummy of Ramses II, after it was left to rot for several dozen years in the depths of a museum. The West is seized with panic at the thought of not being able to save what the symbolic order had been able to conserve for forty centuries, but out of sight and far from the light of day. Ramses does not signify anything for us, only the mummy is of an inestimable worth because it is what guarantees that accumulation has meaning. Our entire linear and accumulative culture collapses if we cannot stockpile the past in plain view. To this end the pharaohs must be brought out of their tomb and the mummies out of their silence. To this end they must be exhumed and given military honors. They are prey to both science and worms. Only absolute secrecy assured them this millennial power - the mastery over putrefaction that signified the mastery of the complete cycle of exchanges with death. We only know how to place our science in service of repairing the mummy, that is to say restoring a visible order, whereas embalming was a mythical effort that strove to immortalize a hidden dimension."-Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation

mummy- c.1400, "medicine prepared from mummy tissue," from M.L. mumia, from Ar. mumiyah "embalmed body," from Pers. mumiya "asphalt," from mum "wax." Sense of "embalmed body" first recorded in Eng. 1615. Mummy wheat (1842) was said to be cultivated from grains found in mummy-cases.-Online Etymology Dictionary

The Unhappy Mainer and Unwanted Son, Edwin Arlington Robinson, b. December 22, 1869 at Head Tide, Maine – d. April 6, 1935 at New York, New York, buried in Gardner, Maine

Haunted House

Here was a place where none would ever come
For shelter, save as we did from the rain.
We saw no ghost, yet once outside again
Each wondered why the other should be so dumb;
And ruin, and to our vision it was plain
Where thrift, outshivering fear, had let remain
Some chairs that were like skeletons of home.

There were no trackless footsteps on the floor
Above us, and there were no sounds elsewhere.
But there was more than sound; and there was more
Than just an axe that once was in the air
Between us and the chimney, long before
Our time. So townsmen said who found her there.
-Edwin Arlington Robinson, from Dionysus In Doubt 1925

haunt: c.1230, from O.Fr. hanter "to frequent, resort to, be familiar with" (12c.), probably from O.N. heimta "bring home," from P.Gmc. *khaimat-janan, from *khaimaz- (see home). Use in ref. to a spirit returning to the house where it had lived perhaps was in P.Gmc., but it was reinforced by Shakespeare's plays, and it is first recorded 1590 in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The noun meaning "spirit that haunts a place, ghost" is first recorded 1843, originally in stereotypical U.S. black speech. Haunts (n.) "place or places one frequents" is c.1330, from the verb. -Online Etymology Dictionary

house: O.E. hus "dwelling, shelter, house," from P.Gmc. *khusan (cf. O.N., O.Fris. hus, Du. huis, Ger. Haus), of unknown origin, perhaps connected to the root of hide (v.). In Goth. only in gudhus "temple," lit. "god-house;" the usual word for "house" in Goth. being razn. Meaning "family, including ancestors and descendants, especially if noble" is from c.1000. The legislative sense (1541) is transferred from the building in which the body meets. Meaning "audience in a theater" is from 1921. Zodiac sense is first attested c.1391. The verb meaning "give shelter to" is O.E. husian (cognate with Ger. hausen, Du. huizen). Household is first recorded 1382; for housewife (c.1225) see hussy. To play house is from 1871; as suggestive of "have sex, shack up," 1968. House arrest first attested 1936; housewarming is from 1577; houseboat is 1790. On the house "free" is from 1889.

"And the Prophet Isaiah the sonne of Amos came to him, and saide vnto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not liue." [2 Kings xx.1, version of 1611]-Online Etymology Dictionary

Stone and Shadow, John Bonanno photograph, 2008

Anubis gives strength to my legs and I lift myself up,
Sekhet clears the way to heaven,
My wishes are known in the house of the Ka of Ptah,
I know my own heart, having mastered its passions,
My hands and arms are returned transformed and deft,
I can move with speed my feet and legs that I may go.
I do what is pleasing to my Ka.
My soul is free of the rotting corpse recently bequeathed to Anubis.
The Gates of Amenta burst open, I depart in Peace.

-a paraphrase by John Bonanno from the Egyptian Book of the Dead

This passage is about getting out of Hell, a valuable piece of knowledge.

Papaver Somniferum, John Bonanno photograph, 2009

Cushing In The Sun, Beth Bonanno photograph, 2009

"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."-Karl Marx, Capital

I believe Marx saw the varied phenomena of do-gooders as futile manifestations of a guilt complex. Conservatives usually insist on a similar analysis, which, of course, is a kind of atheistic nihilism.

"The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere."-Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto

Marx saw the fallacy of globalism before almost anyone else. Unfortunately his solution (Global Communism confronting Global Capitalism) compounded the problem. Perhaps that was the plan all along. In this case the call to arms of one global movement for battle against another global movement presents little choice at all since the desired result, hidden in plain sight and occult to the many, is Globalism. Communism and Capitalism are irrelevant distractions.

"The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man. Religion is indeed the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man, state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d’honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is therefore indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion.
Religious suffering is at one and the same time the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."-Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. Introduction

At the head of this entry, Cushing, my Boston Terrier is contemplating Marx. And so am I. Marx has been so demonized by the prevailing, recently triumphant, but rapidly declining Capitalist mode one can instantly marginalize himself by the mere admission of having perused and analyzed Marx' thinking and writing. As spiritually and functionally dead as Marxism in practice has proven itself to be, one may garner knowledge from the man Karl Marx. I have long stated that Capitalism and Communism are two sides of the same materialist coin. And this coin has been absolutely debased and its plated dross desperately attempts to simulate spiritual gold. On reading Karl's famous statement that religion 'is the opium of the people' in context, one is led by him to conclude that religion, in practice, in an oppressed world cannot provide true spirituality. (Whether Marx entertains the possibility that such a thing exists is glossed over.) This passage implies that only in a liberated world may one properly pursue what is the object of religion. I disagree, the object of religion must be attained to liberate the world; but this much repeated, truncated, and mangled quote simplifies in a most banal way Marx' essential argument: organized religion provides comfort in misery by indefinitely delaying a possibly fantastic and certainly untestable reward for the common man's endless struggles and serves the masters of the world in so doing. Opium and religion are both incredibly good at what they do to those who are susceptible. It is error to confound the goals of establishment religion and the longings of men and women for the sublime other.

A case in point:

"A Christian man is the most free lord of all and subject to none"-Martin Luther 1520

"And should the peasants prevail (which God forbid!), -- for all things are possible to God, and we know not but that he is preparing for the judgment day, which cannot be far distant, and may purpose to destroy, by means of the devil, all order and authority and throw the world into wild chaos, -- yet surely they who are found, sword in hand, shall perish in the wreck with clear consciences, leaving to the devil the kingdom of this world and receiving instead the eternal kingdom. For we are come upon such strange times that a prince may more easily win heaven by the shedding of blood than others by prayers."-Martin Luther, Against the Rioting Peasants, retitled by its publisher as Against The Murderous Thieving Hordes of Peasants, 1525

Luther admitted that the goals of his movement were now identical with the interests of those who possessed political power and that the peasants whom he had previously championed and had supported him, were shit out of luck. The peasants had the choice between Rome's Catholicism and the local nobles' Protestantism, both of which would screw them into the ground. It was a false dilemma, not even a modicum of freedom was an option for the masses, and the 'reformed' Protestant nobility of Germany killed at least a hundred thousand revolting peasants. Luther's freedom was only the freedom to be Lutheran instead of Catholic. Political freedom was out of the question.

"--People do not know how dangerous lovesongs can be, the auric egg of Russell warned occultly. The movements which work revolutions in the world are born out of the dreams and visions in a peasant's heart on the hillside. For them the earth is not an exploitable ground but the living mother. The rarefied air of the academy and the arena produce the sixshilling novel, the musichall song. France produces the finest flower of corruption in Mallarme but the desirable life is revealed only to the poor of heart, the life of Homer's Phaeacians."-James Joyce, Ulysses

Coming Soon: Marx and Hegel! The Dialectic!

"The Very Last Thing You Will Ever See" -Beth Bonanno photograph of John Bonanno in character as Frater S.V.S.

Random Scribbles
(Or, Am I Now Channeling Larry King?)

The principal job of any intelligence agency is not to gather intelligence. It is rather to make everyone too ignorant and too stupid to ask the right questions and to foment the disturbances that make it too difficult and too painful to be intelligent. It must create muddy water.
The NFL draft should be replaced by an auction system. Each team would have a fixed amount with which too bid for all the players who make themselves eligible. The money spent would go into a pot which is then used to pay the initial one year contract of the players reflecting the amount bid. (Pay beyond that point could not be negotiated until the first season was complete. Unbid upon players become free agents.) I think it would be much more exciting, require more skill, and provide more interest than the boring thing they do now.
I would like to write a book listing all the popular dances of the last hundred years. Included in this encyclopedia would be descriptions of the dance, the localities in which the dance originated, photographs, and lore.
I need to write a long article about Japanese Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum). I admire its tenaciousness.
Where have all the whippersnappers gone?
Corporate capitalism's goal is to create a virtual state of anarchy for itself so that its most powerful entities can roam the earth unchallenged. Corporate capitalism works to create exactly the opposite environment for individuals who are not in their club: repressive laws by many layers of authority, and assorted modes of taxation by those layers, confusion and fear of the policing entities that enforce those practices.
The greatest parasites on society have convinced themselves that they are the driving engines of it, and in so doing, have convinced those on whom they feed that the weakness they feel is their own fault or the fault of innocent scapegoats.
How long has it been since you were as happy as a shithouse spider?
Any magickal system, impeccably performed, is effective.
Are people whose names indicate a quality, e.g. 'Goode' or 'Goodman' any better than those whose names indicate something else, Mr. Wolfe?
If you have a large fixed interest debt, then big time inflation is good for you. You get to pay off all those dollars with much cheaper ones. You can be assured that as long as the banks are controlling the government (Hello Mr. Geithner, Mr. Paulson , Mr. Bernanke etc.) pay will fall, credit will be tight (unless you are a favored bank), and, inflation will be moderate. But, they can only keep the plates spinning for so long.
How can stock prices stay so (relatively) high? Is TARP money being used to prop up the market? It wouldn't take much in the low volume game we see on Wall Street now.
Prediction: By next year the UN will begin to take over countries designated "failed states".

"Half An Hour"-C.P. Cavafy

I never had you, nor will I ever have you
I suppose. A few words, an approach
as in the bar yesterday, and nothing more.
It is, undeniably, a pity. But we who serve Art
sometimes with intensity of mind, and of course only
for a short while, we create pleasure
which almost seems real.
So in the bar the day before yesterday -- the merciful alcohol
was also helping much --
I had a perfectly erotic half-hour.
And it seems to me that you understood,
and stayed somewhat longer on purpose.
This was very necessary. Because
for all the imagination and the wizard alcohol,
I needed to see your lips as well,
I needed to have your body close.

Polyphemus, Hellenistic head, 160 B.C.E., Boston Museum of Fine Arts, John Bonanno photograph. Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, was the man-eating cyclops of the Odyssey who was blinded by the clever Odysseus; his name means "famous" in Greek.

Charles Darwin, Monster and Racist (or, Polyphemus Long Ago)

Whatever one may think of evolutionary theory, there can be no doubt that Charles Darwin was troubled by the fecundity of the 'very poor' sorts of men and his ideas on natural selection (applied to social economics and termed by Herbert Spencer as "survival of the fittest" or "social darwinism") seemed to conflict with his Malthusian influenced notion that the 'superior' types might be overwhelmed by billions and billions of the immoral 'degraded' types. But is it really surprising that Darwin would worry about the "descent" of men and the danger of inferior types when his father was a financier and medical doctor to the upper class and his mother was a Wedgewood and he married his cousin, another Wedgewood of the fabulous porcelain fortune begun when Josiah Wedgewood was allowed by the crown to call his state of the art product, "Queen's Ware"? Darwin was concerned that his poor health was connected with inbreeding yet this and his Malthusian fear of overpopulation didn't prevent him and Emma Wedgewood from having ten children, a brood that in a lower class, non-Saxon family would have horrified him. Let Darwin's words speak for themselves:

"A most important obstacle in civilised countries to an increase in the number of men of a superior class has been strongly insisted on by Mr. Greg and Mr. Galton (19. 'Fraser's Magazine,' Sept. 1868, p. 353. 'Macmillan's Magazine,' Aug. 1865, p. 318. The Rev. F.W. Farrar ('Fraser's Magazine,' Aug. 1870, p. 264) takes a different view.), namely, the fact that the very poor and reckless, who are often degraded by vice, almost invariably marry early, whilst the careful and frugal, who are generally otherwise virtuous, marry late in life, so that they may be able to support themselves and their children in comfort. Those who marry early produce within a given period not only a greater number of generations, but, as shewn by Dr. Duncan (20. 'On the Laws of the Fertility of Women,' in 'Transactions of the Royal Society,' Edinburgh, vol. xxiv. p. 287; now published separately under the title of 'Fecundity, Fertility, and Sterility,' 1871. See, also, Mr. Galton, 'Hereditary Genius,' pp. 352-357, for observations to the above effect.), they produce many more children. The children, moreover, that are borne by mothers during the prime of life are heavier and larger, and therefore probably more vigorous, than those born at other periods. Thus the reckless, degraded, and often vicious members of society, tend to increase at a quicker rate than the provident and generally virtuous members. Or as Mr. Greg puts the case: "The careless, squalid, unaspiring Irishman multiplies like rabbits: the frugal, foreseeing, self-respecting, ambitious Scot, stern in his morality, spiritual in his faith, sagacious and disciplined in his intelligence, passes his best years in struggle and in celibacy, marries late, and leaves few behind him. Given a land originally peopled by a thousand Saxons and a thousand Celts--and in a dozen generations five-sixths of the population would be Celts, but five- sixths of the property, of the power, of the intellect, would belong to the one-sixth of Saxons that remained. In the eternal 'struggle for existence,' it would be the inferior and LESS favoured race that had prevailed--and prevailed by virtue not of its good qualities but of its faults."-Charles Darwin 1809-1882, The Descent of Man, 1871

Yes, it is all about class.

"The expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is more accurate and is sometimes equally convenient."-Charles Darwin