August 24, 2009 - Coffee Break - Kansas City Missouri

Sunday morning – ug-ga ug-ga, ugh – twitter twitter twip twip – eek eeek eek – all this natural stuff and that insistent motorway even on this day of rest – oh, what a headache

[Economic growth] has become the secular religion of advanced societies: the source of individual motivation, the basis of political solidarity, the ground for mobilization of society for a common purpose – Daniel Bell – The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, 1978 p237

The loudest takers are the stupidest or is it
That they are the only ones that I notice
They do, they do know a lot it seems


But in my ears it has no relevance
Which is what makes it stupid
Stupidity is after all in the mind
       Of its beholder it seems

Talking on the cell phone makes
Much less than half sense
And on the whole there may
        Have been none to begin with


The more effectively the inane
Is accomplished by the insane
The greater the stupidity


The inane is always stupid
The minutia of the world
Accomplished with so much
         Concentration


Some might argue with me
As to whether this is really a poem
          Is it about stupidity or is it just stupid


And they are trying to tell me this
In a loud and booming voice
Can’t you see, I’m talking
           On my cell phone!

When an enterprise grows beyond a certain point on a [natural] scale, it first frustrates the end for which it was originally designed, and then rapidly becomes a threat to society itself – Ivan Illich – Tools of Conviviality, 1973 pXXIII

Analyze the premises; not the symptoms – the symptoms are only the indication of a problem, not the problem itself – that would be like banging on the instrument panel at Chernobyl – who in God’s name would do such a thing!

Perversity Patriotic: Terrorism has ruined / S&M for me! //Now it just seems / like watching / the news – Elaine Equi - Ripple Effect, 2007 p49

THANKS TO Everything but the Squeal

Pigs sound like god in Cantonese

And similar to bees in Japanese

So much for onomatopoeia

What money is to the conservative economist, words are to the conservative philosopher – Owen Barfield – Poetic Diction, 1951 p61

Science is the only thing that progresses – everything else merely gets older or accumulates or rots  away

The present world is divided into those who do not have enough and those who have more than enough, those who are pushed off the road by cars and those who drive them – Ivan Illich – Tools of Conviviality, 1973 p15

Obsessions – economic growth (fear that there may not be enough), progress (fear of slipping back into the dark), health (fear that there may be an end), happiness (fear of not deserving), celebrities (fear that we won’t get what we deserve), crime (fear that we might get what we deserve), good schools (fear of mediocrity), creditworthiness (fear of not having more), death (fear that it may not be enough)

We’re trying to pay for brain surgery with bake sales – Gordan Marino

W C Field’s explanation of why he did not drink water – Fish fuck in it!

We’ve lost all sense of proportion to our relationship with the universe. We’re off the scale, we’ve ceased to be the measure of the world, we are the world – Jean-Claude Carriére – Please, Mr. Einstein, 2006 p56

Why is that crime fiction usually portrays the criminals as loners – the flashy pimp, the ruthless killer, the sulking  rapist, the neighborhood bully – rather than as member of a body polis? Is it that we as members of the community we may  share in the accountability? And after all most criminals (ignoring the pathological) are as much conformists as are middle level executives (again ignoring the pathological). The major function of a gang leader is the development economic opportunities for his members so that they will remain in his gang – it’s not unlike an entrepreneur, but instead of working with capital he is working with people. Wouldn't that make a good reality show - take gangbangers off the streets and give them major managment responsibilities (but do it on a deserted island)!

Every traditional school of thought tells us that we don’t see the world as it really is, that we must liberate our gaze from our habits, but we’re caught in the trap of our senses and consequently of our mode of speech. Words stick to the tongue. We can’t speak without them, yet they lie to us continuously – Jean-Claude Carriére – Please, Mr. Einstein, 2006 p42

I’m a duck in a wet suit

I’m a beaver that is not eager

I’m a fish who is seasick

I’m a citizen without any income
         And the IRS wants to know why
I’m an asocial javilina without an any odor

Minutes of standardized test preparation, on average that New York and Los Angeles kindergartners are given each day and the number of minutes of unstructured play respectively: 24; 25 [Harper’s Index]

Minor depression – a decline in GDP of at least 10%; Major depression - a decline in GDP of at least 25% - Robert Barro.  It’s official – the New York Times has used it as a proper name – it’s to be called The Great Recession.
‘
As the world becomes full of use and our stuff, it becomes empty of what was here ‘before’ – – Herman E Daly – Economics in a Full World (Scientific American Sept 2005) p101

The alternative to a sustainable economy, an ever growing economy is biophysical impossible. In choosing between tackling a politically impossibility and a biophysical impossibility, I would judge the later to be more possible –  Herman E Daly -  Economics in a Full World (Scientific American Sept 2005)  p102

The general concern with symptoms, distracts from the malignant expansion of ‘institutional’ health care which is at the root of rising costs and demand and the decline in well being – Ivan Illich – Tools of Conviviality, 1973 p6

An Institute of Health study – 100,000 people die in US hospitals as a result of medical errors or mistakes. But this is untrue 80,000 die as a result of cross infections which are neither the result of error or mistake but of proscribed practice. It is estimated that as many as two million patients a year become cross infected

TO DO: Never finish anything / on your to do list. // It will look as if you have nothing better to do – Elaine Equi – Ripple Effect, 2007 p39

What is learned is not to be displayed on a shelf but to be put into play

Identical tools also promote the development of the same character types. Policemen in patrol cars or accountants at computers look and act alike all over the world, while their poor cousins using nightsticks or pens are different from region to region – Ivan Illich -  Tools of Conviviality, 1973 p15

It’s time to shake up the snow globe we call the world / and see what’s happening in the near-far-middle-east-west – Elaine Equi - Ripple Effect, 2007 p39