Four titles: "Henry V," "Falling Down," "Stranded," "Survival Under Atomic Attack"
Can you imagine a group of people perpetually maintaining the illusion of a superiour group that is outside time and not subject to any one subject except that its subjects take turns subjecting subjects to subjective analysis and rule? Yeah, then there's all the parts about them creating enmity for enemies to justify the enemy-fighting forces. Why be Don King when you can be donned king? Or chained to Cheney's LBJ-like rise to master Chen style tai chi chuan, Jack Ryan minus the Hollywood hairstyle.
A mask is still a mask. A Department of the Army pamphlet, No. 20-111, dated February 1951, is still just as informational:
"To be more specific, a modern atomic bomb can do heavy damage to houses and buildings roughly 2 miles away. But doubling its power will extend the range of damage to only about 2-1/2 miles. In the same way, if there were a bomb 100 times as powerful, it would reach out only a little more than 4-1/2, not 100 times as far.Some people call golf a good walk spoiled. Well, you can see many a situation that'll spoil a good walk. A person with a personal agenda that's unfriendly. A leader who wants to throw bodies into a bottomless pit of a firefight. A leaking spacesuit on Mars.
"And remember: All these calculations of your chances of survival assume that you have absolutely no advance warning of the attack.
"Just like fire bombs and ordinary high explosives, atomic weapons cause most of their death and damage by blast and heat. So first let's look at a few things you can do to escape these two dangers."
When I was a small boy, my parents took me to visit my grandparents down in south Florida. We'd spend part of the time with them going to an amusement park up the road. I remember the amusement park for its packet of tickets with an alphabetic order my parents'd use in conjunction with our good behaviour, rewarding us with E-ticket rides. My favourite ride was the Haunted Mansion. I was fascinated by the special effects and the thoughts of hidden passages and ways to make things that go bump in the night.
We visited the park many times in my youth and we kids'd collect souvenirs during our trips. My alltime favourite souvenir was a secret panel chest with parquet-style inlaid wood. Because of that souvenir, I collect small wooden boxes with sliding drawers visibly hidden by woodgrain cuts. I had lost the WDW chest long ago and guess I've collected the boxes in a way we all try to relive our youth, Rosebud-style.
Outside, the atmospheric turbulence of HRH Ida plays one of my favourite rusted gutter tunes. You've heard me play it once - drip, plop, pour, drop - since I'm not a musician, I won't repeat myself. I trust your imagination for recreating a cool rain, leftover yellow leaves and bare redbud limbs.
I immersed myself in the local culture to see the effect of global-level decisionmaking. I wanted to hold a multicultural plan for the people in one hand and shake the hand of someone I know who's not able to put food on the table with the other. I admit it's a matter of trust. It's the tale of "pass the whisper" at a children's party that teaches me the distrust I hold for being at the top of an ivory tower or inside a warroom and knowing what's going on.
We all come from somewhere. We're all going somewhere. We can't count to seven billion fast enough to capture all the people alive in a single moment. Death and birth crashing onto the sandy shore too fast too see the reshaped sand grain and the shifting sand dunes in one eye.
Despite what we believe, we are an ecumenopolis. We always have been. We always will be here on this planet. We effect one another and affect one another all the time. We'll continue to be who we are because we don't change overnight. Not very easily. We're social creatures who don't always socialise well enough to be socially acceptable or responsible socially.
Fear of the unknown and the thrill of danger make haunted mansions popular and titles like "Henry V," "Falling Down," "Stranded," and "Survival Under Atomic Attack" possible. Every member of our species practices life uniquely although within macrosystem categories.
We want those who can translate one style of life into subcategories without blinking an eye or revealing why. Those who practice their subcategory to perfection do not want or need to know the existence of their subcategory's translation to other lifestyles, unless we want to prevent detrimental behaviours between two subgroups (which can be within the same subcategory, two different subcategories or crossed between major categories, etc., and so on, with more complex-sounding gobbledygook/claptrap here to sound official. [insert smiley face]).
How does one take life seriously and laugh at life at the same time? One laughs at life and takes death seriously at the same time. Comedy and Tragedy. Life and Death. Friend and Enemy. Yin and Yang. Positive and negative. Health and sickness. Opposites with no opposites because opposites attract.
I hold the universe on one flake of skin on the end of my last finger. On the next finger, the Milky Way galaxy. On the next finger, the solar system. On the forefinger, the planet Earth. On my thumb, my thumbprint. I hold my hand up and make the universal sign of nonthreatening peace. I roll my fingers up and make a fist. Power. Strength. The universe connected to my oily thumbprint.
What's the old saying about it's hard to make a fist when you're shaking someone's hand? If Iran wants to try three hikers as spies, then I can find ways to retaliate without bringing the news media into the picture. If you really want to trade the lives of three people for what I have to give you, then I won't stop you. But it's a path I don't want to take. Reality is only seven letters. The truth is whatever we want to write about. I want my easy-to-transport, cheap grapes from Chile available at the local market in winter for those on a limited budget. I don't care about nuclear capabilities in part of Persia because I trust that those I trust will take care of that responsibility well while recognizing the complexities of an ecumenopolis that treats all members of our species as members of our species.
If you teach hate or practice hatred you get what you want on a personal level you never imagined. I won't tolerate your homemade megalomania. I'm not after your family or your colleagues. They have their own chance for species' preservation talk/response. One person suggested we take all those who teach hate, give them lobotomies and put them on display like the old days of empires that put their enemies' head on pikes. I'm not an eye-for-an-eye practitioner. I'm willing to see you change your ways toward getting us to other planets and galaxies as good citizens of the universe.
My goal is not specific to one subculture. My goal is specific to our species. Our species is dependent on this planet. I'll tolerate a lot to see us see the same thing. But I'm not immortal. I'm impatient even though I know my goal is relatively eternal. I trust those who'll live after I'm gone to keep us moving on. I may not reach my goal in my lifetime but my goal is not my goal. It's really yours that I'm taking care of while I'm here.
A nuclear weapon is the result of concentrated juice in the form of engineering and science. We have tested nuclear weaponry and we have put nuclear weaponry to use in times of war. Nuclear power is a diplomatic tool used wisely. How many of us are wise enough to put the power of a nuclear bomb in our thumbprint? Answer: not a single one of us. We ALL own the nuclear weaponry of our species. The responsibility belongs to the person scraping a dry desert for seeds or water. The responsibility belongs to the leader loved by billions all over the world.
And then there's those persons or that group with hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on nuclear weaponry but no land-based political entity to hold them to responsibility or fear of reprisal. The barrier to market entry is a curious phenomenon. The "too big to fail" organizations want high artificial barriers to protect their turf. We've argued and made fun of the barrier to enter the nuclear arms race.
I'm not worried about weapons of mass destruction. We've had them in one form or another all our lives. Masses of archers and flamethrowers, to name a two. I concern myself with the trigger finger owner(s).
Do you know how to play golf? Do you know anyone who's hit a hole in one? Can you figure out the percentage of hooks and slices you've made versus perfect shots down the middle of the fairway? Can you now imagine every ball you hit was the intended aim of the diplomatic policy of owning a nuclear weapon arsenal? Increasing ground troop numbers because you can't just drop an H-bomb on Afghanistan and call it a day. Sacrificing three people because you don't want to use alleged spies as playing cards in the game of who gets to claim the status of a nuclear weapon class country. Willing to play along with North Korea because China's making more profits in the commercial world.
It's okay to lose sleep playing video games because someone else is losing sleep playing simultaneous games of Life, Monopoly, poker and chess, the special "football" and security codes nearby.
We're a young species only once. We have thousands of generations to go to grow up. Sure, we have one life to live on this planet, but when you look at what we've dug up and built out of the origins of our species and truly understand that your life only matters when your species does, your importance to yourself and others grows in leaps and bounds. I'm just beginning to understand and I'm amazed at the immense difference it's made in my life. My life in one hand, including aches and pains and mistakes and triumphs, the rearrangement of a piece of the universe. The rest of the universe in the other hand, with a universe-wide, nearly-infinite time of history to be seen. I'm glad to say I've been a part of it with you.
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