Marcet P.

       A Rope Let Down From Heaven


.....Cement together, bird-fashion, by dint of continuous pressure...


.....Kisses seemed to spring from her eyes....


.....The National Anthem of their live....


.....One becomes moral as soon  as one is unhappy....


.....Pacifism often breeds wars and tolerance criminality....


.....And her hair, like a strange and fascinating plant, lay over her brow, displaying all the delicate tracery of its foliation.;  

Paul G.

How the devil could a poet, who does the best he can just to get it down as it is whispered to
him, decide whether or not to be morally or politically responsible?

It is the same dehumanization of modern times that I have been discussing throughout this book:  language is reduced to be a technology of social engineering, with a barren conception of science ad technology and a collectivist conception of community.  This tendency has been
reinforced by government grants and academic appointments, and it controls the pedagogy in primary schools.
      In this tendency, "communication" is taken to be a transfer of information from one
brain to another, and all the rest, the "expression," is noise or meaningless emotion.
     Technology is a branch of moral philosophy, but the language that is used is not the
language of moral philosophy, which is literature.
     It is the sign of a ignorant man, said Aristotle, to be more precise than the subject allows.
There is more communication in a poem of Keats than in a scientific report, said Norbert Wiener, for the poem alters the code, whereas the report merely repeats it and increases
the noise.
     Society is increasingly taken to be a kind of machine directed by a central will, and in this
structure the teaching of English is turned into social engineering. The purpose of learning
to read is no longer political freedom, clarification, appreciation, and community, but
"Functional Literacy," the ability to follow directions and be employable.  The question
whether a child can and will learn to read with such purpose is not asked.
     Thus, speech is reduced to a code to transfer information for narrow purposes.
Conversely, the expressive part of speech, emptied of meaning and of any relation to telling
the truth, is reduced to ornament or entertainment, as in the rhetorics of the Roman Empire.
Or much worse, it is something to manipulate politically to create thoughtless collective    
solidarity, like the Newspeak of George Orwell's 1984.
 

At present, the plight of a man of letters is made hard by the following state of affairs.  Those in power
"co-opt" the critics, manage them so they are rendered ineffectual. (There is little direct
censorship.)

     Nevertheless, literature is humanly important. ....
Literature is not a "linear" unrolling of printed sentences and it is not a crude code;
it is artful speech. And speech  is not merely a means of communication and expression,
as the anthropologists say, but is a chief action in our human way of being in the world.

     The ability of literature to combine memory and learning with present observation and
spontaneous impulse remarkably serves the nature of man as the animal who makes
himself; for it revives the spirit of past makings, so they are not dead weight, and yet is making that is occurring now. Put psychotherapeutically, this process alleviates "inner conflict"
and helps heal past trauma by bringing it into the public world of sharable speech.

     The materials of literature are cheap and common. This is so with all the fine arts;
they are made of mud, rock, gestures, tinkling, and babbling.  Those who hanker after multimedia and overwhelming environmental effects should consider what is lost by using
an expensive technology. Maybe only a simple and poor medium is flexible and subtle enough to lure the inward outward.


     But in fact, they themselves-- like most politicians and administrators and may parents--
seem to have forgotten the concrete reality of ideals like magnanimity, compassion, honor,
consistency, civil liberty, integrity, justice though the heavens fall, and unpalatable
truth, all of which are not gut feelings and are often not even pragmatic but are maintained
to create and re-create mankind and the possibility of the Second Coming.

     Since the mass pitch of T.V., records, and movies cuts down the possibility of using
unexpected sentences even more, finally the only way to communicate anything
particular is to rely on the various inflections of grunts and exclamations, like a doze
levels of saying "Wow," or on nonverbal means altogether.

But unless reading serves for truth and art, why bother? We have seen that it's not much
use on most jobs, except for getting hired. Radio, television, and movies give other
satisfactions more easily.

Paul G.

Paul G.

But in the reign of the Devil, as he felt it, "We walk by faith and not by sight." (2 Corinthians)

He was in the religious dilemma of Faith versus Works.

     The institutions, technology, and communications have infected even the "biological core"
so that people's sexuality and other desires are no longer genuine.  One cannot trust in their
spontaneous choices. Subliminal suggestions have invaded the unconscious, and superficial
pleasure is used as a means of social control, as in Brave New World.

     And another cause of metaphysical confusion is the sheer prevalence of the man-made,
with nothing to compare and contrast it with; everything is stamped with social messages.
It has always been the case, in the arts and rhetoric, and in technology in general, that the
medium is the message-- one cannot separate "form" and "content"; but mass
communications are uniquely swamping, all goods are styled and packaged commodities,
the medium-message is the only experience. Young people brought up among so much
artifice dare not trust the evidence of their own senses and craftsmanship unless it is
confirmed on the T.V. screen or by being on the market; but these messages, they know,
they certainly can't trust.

Administrators are hypocrites who sell out people for the smooth operation of their systems.

     Alienation is a Lutheran concept: "God has turned His face away; things have no meaning;
I am estranged in the world."

     Comte and Durkheim spoke of the weakening of social solidarity, the loss of common faith,
the contradiction among norms, so that people lost their bearings--this was anomie, an acute
form of alienation that could lead to suicide or aimless riot.

Not only all institutions but all learning had been corrupted by the Whore of Babylon, and
there was no longer ay salvation to be got from Works.

they have hit on new sacraments, physical actions to get them out of their estrangement and
break through (momentarily) into meaning.

     But it is human touch, without conquest or domination, and it obviates self-consciousness
and embarrassed speech.

.....that T.V. diminishes experience....

     With excruciating slowness, in a dehumanized society, they are recollecting that religion
has some essential relation to human beings, and humanity is in danger.

......the zenith of science as a beneficent religion. .....

     For these two reasons, explaining away the miracles and destroying the old faith, and
producing goods and wonders of its own, we can say that natural philosophy itself
eventually became the orthodox faith that everybody believed in.  Correspondingly, scientists
and inventors as a class became esteemed and were rewarded.

.....one made citizens not by growing them but by imposing laws. ....


The history of civilization, both western and oriental, has consisted of visitations of spirit,
in individuals and communities, which have then enlightened mankind.

.....it is understandable polemical spite.....

......Liberation from the Whore of Babylon and return to the pure faith.

     I need hardly point out that American society is peculiarly liable to the corruption of
inauthenticity. Busily producing phony products, it lives by public relations, abstract ideals,
front politics, show-business communications, mandarin credentials. it is pre-eminently
overtechnologized.

Without moral philosophy, people have nothing but sentiments.

It is overproduction that burdens life and the environment.

PAUL G.
 
It makes to say that the conditions of modern society are "dehumanizing".

The evidence seems to be that actual fright can lastingly alter behavior, but mere
institutional threats, conditioning, and brainwashing are ineffectual.

Social and technological conditions do determine behavior in every detail;
the way they lay out the streets is the way we must walk.

Social science deals with the tension between people and personnel,
between human powers and human institutions.

My subject is the breakdown of belief, and the emergence of new belief,
in sciences and professions, education, and civil legitimacy.

It is evident that, at present, we are not going to give up the mass faith in scientific
technology that is the religion of modern times; and yet we cannot continue with it,
as it has been perverted.

....In its fanaticism and self-righteous violence,....

....I have been sickened by the Whore of Babylon...

Their intolerance is breathtaking. Do Your Thing means do their thing.

These are the rationalizing, abstract universalizing, grading, and isolation of individuals, Phariseeism, and economism that in modern times have infected the organization of sciences, work, and society, destroying community,traditional culture, animality, and real wealth.

With science the other professions are discredited.

I do not mean that we will turn away from science. .... the question is a different one: Is it viable?
Can it be made viable?

Often it is pretty clear that a technology has been oversold, like cars. Then even though the public, seduced by advertising, wants more, technologists must balk, as any proessional does when his client wants what isn't good for him.

.....since we are technologically overcommitted.....

without moral philosophy, people have nothing but sentiments.

Bottle

I let the genie out of the bottle
And she appears in my dreams
As I drink up my tears
And wash away my fears.
While she dances to music
I drown in my pillow.

If You Gotta Go, You Gotta Go

He walked in the door
Sat on the couch
Talked politics and
Accused me of interrupting HIM.
I Threw HIM out before
He got confortable at
Making me feel unconfortable.

Beer

I've Been Drinkin' All Day Baby
And It's Startin' To Get Dark Allright
Drinkin' Drinkin' Drinkin'
Woman I Really Am A Sight.

Beer For Breakfast
Whiskey For Lunch
You Know I Done Lost Track
Let's Just Say I Had A Bunh

 I Said I Had Some Beers For Breakfast
And A Few For Lunch
I Had A Beer For A Snack
And One More For Brunch

I Had Some Wine For Appetizers
And Had Some Beer For My Soup
Had A Beer With My Beer
Don't You Be Callin' Me No Kook

Beer,Beer,Beer, Beer
I Like It In Bottles or Cans
Glasses,Mugs, Or Cups
You Know I'm A Thirsty Man

You're Lookin' Good Baby
You Know I Said You're Looking Hot
Just Gimme One More Beer
Then I'll Give It All I Got

Some Say I'm Drinkin' Too Much
I Don't Think I Drink Enough
The Way You Look Tonight Mama
I'm Gonna Call Your Bluff

I'm Stumblin' And A Mumblin'
And I Gotta Take A Piss
But Before I Go Baby
Won't You Give Me A Little Kiss