I have two very good friends whose goodness stands a millions miles apart from the other. One is a serious, rational-minded scholar; the other an affable, emotion-guided roustabout. Both have lived a long enough life to have come to some conclusions about it. The first has this keen, scientific view that asserts, "take nothing for granted!" The second asserts nothing, but seems to believe, "there's a lot to take for granted!"
I'm still trying to make up my mind. It's something like watching a "Star Trek" episode and trying to decide if Mr Spock or Captain Kirk is my hero.
There are a great many Spocks in today's more scientifically-enlightened age. They quite properly insist upon facts and statistics and evidence before they believe. [If they were Bible-believers their role model would be the Apostle Thomas who would not believe in the risen Christ until he placed his hands into His wounds from the Cross].
I was thinking about that as I recently scanned the results of various scholarly research which reached conclusions such as: Ghettos breed crimes in our cities...letting children dress like porn stars is ill advised...leaving kids on their own in front of television is harmful...the study of comparative religions shows there are many different ways of understanding God...Social Security and Medicare are endangered because people prefer instant gratification to long-range planning.
My friend the happy roustabout shrugged when I shared these footnoted conclusions with him. His longest statement on the matter was a roll of the eyes as he stretched out his one-word commentary: "Sooooo?" I took that to mean that he didn't need the research to reach the obvious. 70 some years of intuitive instincts had already informed him of these conclusions. [Made me think of Grandma Mary who used to smile generously whenever I rushed home with a dazzling new fact that she had probably been living with for the last 50 years].
OK, so maybe this is all saying that Kirk and his flurry of passions appeals more to me than Spock's precision of premises. I'm not sure, because, well, that would be too un-scientific of me. On the other hand, that just might be true. After all, Grandma Mary never got past 8th grade, and yet I always found myself going to her for advice until the day she died, still listening to me with her generous smile of understanding...
Friday, August 6, 2010
Thursday, August 5, 2010
THE DAY DANIEL SCHORR PUT ME TO SHAME
College football teams clapping hands as they break from the huddle get it....theatre casts silently valuing each other just before the opening night curtain get it...monks in daily prayers together get it....group hugs at anniversaries and birthdays and wakes get it too.
"It" is that shadowy reality that accompanies us even in the most private rooms of our most private solitudes. Like a Dickensian spirit, it is the vigilant reminder that we are not for a moment possible in this world without others. Parents, siblings, teachers, clergy, co-workers, ER attendants, police, and yes power-line and street-cleaning teams.
No one solos in this life. No one....!
Whence then this cocksure warrior stance that speaks words like: It all starts with me! If I can dream it I can do it! I'm being all I can be! Sure, this is what sales managers and Amway speakers get their audiences to stand and chant. But they lie, and I can speak with embarrassed authority. For I accepted checks for writing some of those lies for some of those executives.
I once wrote something for Daniel Schorr, the celebrated journalist who died last week. He was the guest speaker for one of the Fortune 500 companies holding their annual sales conference in Vegas. The words were in his style and rhythms, but the message was not. Freelance writers for big corporations are usually hired to sculpt high-energy rhetoric for speakers too busy to write their own stuff.
Every speaker that day took my hired words and delivered them with varying degrees of lectern comfort. Not Dan. When he scanned my draft he said, "Look. kid, I'll just wing it up there!" And he did. Instead of the usual corporate blather about profit and progress and prosperity, Schorr lectured.
His pitch was a bit jarring for this audience of hustlers. He reminded them that no one solos in the symphony of life. Your notes make no sense without the harmonies of others to go with it. Which is why he went on to say things were very different from when he got on Richard Nixon's infamous "list." Back then, Schorr attacked a president for documentable actions. In contrast to more recent attacks by dis-informed malcontents who object simply to their vague but cocksure instant-gratification frustrations.
In other words, fellas, if you're going to fault your boss or your president, have a reason besides large doses of raw anger about how-things-just-aren't-going-right. Tea anyone....?
"It" is that shadowy reality that accompanies us even in the most private rooms of our most private solitudes. Like a Dickensian spirit, it is the vigilant reminder that we are not for a moment possible in this world without others. Parents, siblings, teachers, clergy, co-workers, ER attendants, police, and yes power-line and street-cleaning teams.
No one solos in this life. No one....!
Whence then this cocksure warrior stance that speaks words like: It all starts with me! If I can dream it I can do it! I'm being all I can be! Sure, this is what sales managers and Amway speakers get their audiences to stand and chant. But they lie, and I can speak with embarrassed authority. For I accepted checks for writing some of those lies for some of those executives.
I once wrote something for Daniel Schorr, the celebrated journalist who died last week. He was the guest speaker for one of the Fortune 500 companies holding their annual sales conference in Vegas. The words were in his style and rhythms, but the message was not. Freelance writers for big corporations are usually hired to sculpt high-energy rhetoric for speakers too busy to write their own stuff.
Every speaker that day took my hired words and delivered them with varying degrees of lectern comfort. Not Dan. When he scanned my draft he said, "Look. kid, I'll just wing it up there!" And he did. Instead of the usual corporate blather about profit and progress and prosperity, Schorr lectured.
His pitch was a bit jarring for this audience of hustlers. He reminded them that no one solos in the symphony of life. Your notes make no sense without the harmonies of others to go with it. Which is why he went on to say things were very different from when he got on Richard Nixon's infamous "list." Back then, Schorr attacked a president for documentable actions. In contrast to more recent attacks by dis-informed malcontents who object simply to their vague but cocksure instant-gratification frustrations.
In other words, fellas, if you're going to fault your boss or your president, have a reason besides large doses of raw anger about how-things-just-aren't-going-right. Tea anyone....?
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
BETTER BOTTLE ON THE MANTLE THAN BURIED IN THE GROUND
It's popular, even prestigious, to connect-the-dots. A skill that gives the connector the claim: Intellectual. The claim, of course, depends largely on which dots of history one chooses to connect.
A few totally un-connected dots that have some intellectuals writing about today: New medical hopes are growing in the HIV battle...homicide rates in most large cities are dropping...scientists are recommending flats over high heels to prevent painful thickening of tendons...traditional corner saloons and bistros are disappearing by as many l50,000 in France alone...US battle divisions in Iraq are standing down.
Where in the world is the line that connects these dots of facts into a coherent diagram of life...? Several options, but here's one that proposes a straight strong line directly to the past!
Consider say 75 years ago. There were no HIV epidemics to battle.....fewer homicide surges to drop...too many saloons & bistros for the chain restaurants to shut down...no battle forces there to stand down. [Oh, as for that high heels thing, sorry but looking good has always triumphed over being smart]
Here's the point. America admires youth and youth admires now. And yet, perhaps it's time the young not only the old say this. Say that not everything old is bad. The merits of the past serve us best on the mantle rather than buried in the ground. The good-old-days were good as well as old. This label "nostalgia" may have to be kidnapped back from the doubters and returned to the dreamers.
Not everything 75 years ago was worthy, but more people then seemed to think so. And believe so. And fight so. This is no literary delusion by a few vintage authors and Hollywood screenwriters, but right there in the history texts. The laurel Greatest Generation was not not so much bestowed as it was earned. Which is to say we just might want to do a splashy Broadway-type revival for all the disappointed cynics and disillusioned collegians to see. And maybe cheer.
Better yet -- to re-read the best pages from that old script, and see if there isn't a part in there for them....!
A few totally un-connected dots that have some intellectuals writing about today: New medical hopes are growing in the HIV battle...homicide rates in most large cities are dropping...scientists are recommending flats over high heels to prevent painful thickening of tendons...traditional corner saloons and bistros are disappearing by as many l50,000 in France alone...US battle divisions in Iraq are standing down.
Where in the world is the line that connects these dots of facts into a coherent diagram of life...? Several options, but here's one that proposes a straight strong line directly to the past!
Consider say 75 years ago. There were no HIV epidemics to battle.....fewer homicide surges to drop...too many saloons & bistros for the chain restaurants to shut down...no battle forces there to stand down. [Oh, as for that high heels thing, sorry but looking good has always triumphed over being smart]
Here's the point. America admires youth and youth admires now. And yet, perhaps it's time the young not only the old say this. Say that not everything old is bad. The merits of the past serve us best on the mantle rather than buried in the ground. The good-old-days were good as well as old. This label "nostalgia" may have to be kidnapped back from the doubters and returned to the dreamers.
Not everything 75 years ago was worthy, but more people then seemed to think so. And believe so. And fight so. This is no literary delusion by a few vintage authors and Hollywood screenwriters, but right there in the history texts. The laurel Greatest Generation was not not so much bestowed as it was earned. Which is to say we just might want to do a splashy Broadway-type revival for all the disappointed cynics and disillusioned collegians to see. And maybe cheer.
Better yet -- to re-read the best pages from that old script, and see if there isn't a part in there for them....!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
ARE YOU ONE OF THE AZAZEI?
The word Azazei isn't used in daily conversation, but its meaning is in use every day. It's the Hebrew word for "the goat sent out to bear upon him all our iniquities." More commonly understood as: A scapegoat...!
We love scapegoats, because they conveniently "bear our iniquities" rather than we having to bear them ourselves. Like the pitcher who blew the lead in the ninth...the quarterback who threw the interception ...the parent who didn't give their prisoned child enough quality-time...any sitting president who, well, who's there to be scapegoated for anything that goes wrong that we surely had nothing to do with.
There is an infinite number of scapegoats to choose from, but consider just two: Adolf Hitler and Mitch Miller.
A peculiar pairing, granted, but they do have this scapegoat thing in common. Hitler has become the premier scapegoat of modern times. The most hated, the most evil, the most death-wielding of madman tyrants. Few people -- least of all Germans -- will stand up to explain let alone defend him. Now, however, there is Hollywood's award-winning director Oliver Stone and his upcoming series on Showtime.
He recently made a Mel Gibson like remark that he's had to, as they say, clarify. Stone stated that Hitler did far more harm to the Russians than to the Jews (30 million deaths to 6 million). His math was right; his message was not. And so now Stone himself becomes a scapegoat. To all those Jews here and abroad who consider him yet another malevolent instance of global anti-Semitism.
The one thing that can be said with assurance is that everyone with strong beliefs will need a good, solid scapegoat at one time or another. To help the world better realize how their honest beliefs are under dishonest attack. One can only imagine what it would be like to have a Sunday morning network interview featuring scapegoats Oliver Stone, Mel Gibson and Eli Wiesel; sparked with remote comments from the Holocaust-denying President of Iran and Albert Speer Jr (son of Hitler's munitions minister who after the war married into my family living in another Hollywood-scapegoated narrative: Corleone, Sicily).
A digital maelstrom of Azazei all compacted into 60 of the most teratogenic minutes on network television!
There is evil fun in projecting the splash of Washington punditry following such a program. In contrast, there is no fun in reporting some of the reactions to the death of 99-year-old Mitch Miller. His popular sing-along network shows in the early 60s may have been the last time America gathered together in families to savor a mythical Norman Rockwell America. Now, often reviled as that corny hypocritical age of phony moral values which today's cool generations can rightly snicker at (see films like "Pleasantville" for snickering details).
Mitch will be remembered by some (as Hitler is by all) as the goat for the "iniquities" fellow millions at the time participated in gladly. Now, conveniently, those millions can look back with rolled eyes and say: "Me? No, not me!"
We love scapegoats, because they conveniently "bear our iniquities" rather than we having to bear them ourselves. Like the pitcher who blew the lead in the ninth...the quarterback who threw the interception ...the parent who didn't give their prisoned child enough quality-time...any sitting president who, well, who's there to be scapegoated for anything that goes wrong that we surely had nothing to do with.
There is an infinite number of scapegoats to choose from, but consider just two: Adolf Hitler and Mitch Miller.
A peculiar pairing, granted, but they do have this scapegoat thing in common. Hitler has become the premier scapegoat of modern times. The most hated, the most evil, the most death-wielding of madman tyrants. Few people -- least of all Germans -- will stand up to explain let alone defend him. Now, however, there is Hollywood's award-winning director Oliver Stone and his upcoming series on Showtime.
He recently made a Mel Gibson like remark that he's had to, as they say, clarify. Stone stated that Hitler did far more harm to the Russians than to the Jews (30 million deaths to 6 million). His math was right; his message was not. And so now Stone himself becomes a scapegoat. To all those Jews here and abroad who consider him yet another malevolent instance of global anti-Semitism.
The one thing that can be said with assurance is that everyone with strong beliefs will need a good, solid scapegoat at one time or another. To help the world better realize how their honest beliefs are under dishonest attack. One can only imagine what it would be like to have a Sunday morning network interview featuring scapegoats Oliver Stone, Mel Gibson and Eli Wiesel; sparked with remote comments from the Holocaust-denying President of Iran and Albert Speer Jr (son of Hitler's munitions minister who after the war married into my family living in another Hollywood-scapegoated narrative: Corleone, Sicily).
A digital maelstrom of Azazei all compacted into 60 of the most teratogenic minutes on network television!
There is evil fun in projecting the splash of Washington punditry following such a program. In contrast, there is no fun in reporting some of the reactions to the death of 99-year-old Mitch Miller. His popular sing-along network shows in the early 60s may have been the last time America gathered together in families to savor a mythical Norman Rockwell America. Now, often reviled as that corny hypocritical age of phony moral values which today's cool generations can rightly snicker at (see films like "Pleasantville" for snickering details).
Mitch will be remembered by some (as Hitler is by all) as the goat for the "iniquities" fellow millions at the time participated in gladly. Now, conveniently, those millions can look back with rolled eyes and say: "Me? No, not me!"
ARE YOU ONE OF THE "AZAZEI?"
There is an infinite number of scapegoats to choose from, but consider just two: Adolf Hitler and Mitch Miller.
A peculiar pairing, granted, but they do have this scapegoat thing in common. Hitler has become the premier scapegoat of modern times. The most hated, the most evil, the most death-wielding of madman tyrants. Few people -- least of all Germans -- will stand up to explain let alone defend him. Now, however, there is Hollywood's award-winning director Oliver Stone and his upcoming series on Showtime.
He recently made a Mel Gibson like remark that he's had to, as they say, clarify. Stone stated that Hitler did far more harm to the Russians than to the Jews (30 million deaths to 6 million). His math was right; his message was not. And so now Stone himself becomes a scapegoat. To all those Jews here and abroad who consider him yet another malevolent instance of global anti-Semitism.
The one thing that can be said with assurance is that everyone with strong beliefs will need a good, solid scapegoat at one time or another. To help the world better realize how their honest beliefs are under dishonest attack. One can only imagine what it would be like to have a Sunday morning network interview featuring scapegoats Oliver Stone, Mel Gibson and Eli Wiesel; sparked with remote comments from the Holocaust-denying President of Iran and Albert Speer Jr (son of Hitler's munitions minister who after the war married into my family living in another Hollywood-scapegoated narrative: Corleone, Sicily).
A digital maelstrom of Azazei all compacted into 60 of the most teratogenic minutes on network television!
There is evil fun in projecting the splash of Washington punditry following such a program. In contrast, there is no fun in reporting some of the reactions to the death of 99-year-old Mitch Miller. His popular sing-along network shows in the early 60s may have been the last time America gathered together in families to savor a mythical Norman Rockwell America. Now, often reviled as that corny hypocritical age of phony moral values which today's cool generations can rightly snicker at (see films like "Pleasantville" for snickering details).
Mitch will be remembered by some (as Hitler is by all) as the goat for the "iniquities" fellow millions at the time participated in gladly. Now, conveniently, those millions can look back with rolled eyes and say: "Me? No, not me!"
A peculiar pairing, granted, but they do have this scapegoat thing in common. Hitler has become the premier scapegoat of modern times. The most hated, the most evil, the most death-wielding of madman tyrants. Few people -- least of all Germans -- will stand up to explain let alone defend him. Now, however, there is Hollywood's award-winning director Oliver Stone and his upcoming series on Showtime.
He recently made a Mel Gibson like remark that he's had to, as they say, clarify. Stone stated that Hitler did far more harm to the Russians than to the Jews (30 million deaths to 6 million). His math was right; his message was not. And so now Stone himself becomes a scapegoat. To all those Jews here and abroad who consider him yet another malevolent instance of global anti-Semitism.
The one thing that can be said with assurance is that everyone with strong beliefs will need a good, solid scapegoat at one time or another. To help the world better realize how their honest beliefs are under dishonest attack. One can only imagine what it would be like to have a Sunday morning network interview featuring scapegoats Oliver Stone, Mel Gibson and Eli Wiesel; sparked with remote comments from the Holocaust-denying President of Iran and Albert Speer Jr (son of Hitler's munitions minister who after the war married into my family living in another Hollywood-scapegoated narrative: Corleone, Sicily).
A digital maelstrom of Azazei all compacted into 60 of the most teratogenic minutes on network television!
There is evil fun in projecting the splash of Washington punditry following such a program. In contrast, there is no fun in reporting some of the reactions to the death of 99-year-old Mitch Miller. His popular sing-along network shows in the early 60s may have been the last time America gathered together in families to savor a mythical Norman Rockwell America. Now, often reviled as that corny hypocritical age of phony moral values which today's cool generations can rightly snicker at (see films like "Pleasantville" for snickering details).
Mitch will be remembered by some (as Hitler is by all) as the goat for the "iniquities" fellow millions at the time participated in gladly. Now, conveniently, those millions can look back with rolled eyes and say: "Me? No, not me!"
Monday, August 2, 2010
THE INCREDIBLE CONSPIRACY OF ANGELINA JOLIE
Conspiracy theories today are a confused public's easiest way to find some purpose to the random purposelessness of a chaotic world. With some villains, at least the absolute terror of existing in a world in which no one is in charge is relieved a little. At least now there is some kind of explanation, and he/she/it can be identified and pursued.
This is what Oliver Stone and tell-all blogs are for....!
Not to say there are no actual conspiracies and conspirators, because there are. But lately some of them are getting more inscrutable than ever. Consider for example the newest and sneakiest -- what they've done in all those crowd scenes in Angelina Jolie's hit movie "Salt."
Oh, you hadn't noticed...? Well, conspiracy fans, here's the secret lowdown. All those people in all those crowd scenes aren't really people. That's right, they've conspiratorially used 500 inflatable dolls instead. The plot...? Well, now they can avoid hiring extras. Save a bundle. Get it? They are slowly but insidiously out to replace actors with dolls. Just like they already have replaced tollway cashiers, bank clerks, assembly line workers, and half the American labor force with computers.
Look, my friends, this is big. Very big. They are saving costs at the expense of people's earnings all in order to line their pockets with added profits. It's cowboy capitalism at its robber baron worst. You never thought about it this way? Well, we have private meetings at undisclosed locations every few weeks where we can share what each of us has gathered about these conspiracies. Including of course the on-going UFO master plot.
Who are "we" you ask? Well, we're the American people, and we're mad as hell and we're not going to take this anymore. Who are "they?" Well, they're all those invisible rich bastards who live in gated estates, drive foreign cars, own jets and yachts and overseas plantations, hob nob with fellow conspirators like that guy without a birth certificate in the White House, and in general are descendants of the ruling classes from the lost land of Atlantis!
Don't laugh...that's what they count on. And as soon as I'm released, I intend to go public with this on all the networks. Which won't be easy, because "they" own them too....!
This is what Oliver Stone and tell-all blogs are for....!
Not to say there are no actual conspiracies and conspirators, because there are. But lately some of them are getting more inscrutable than ever. Consider for example the newest and sneakiest -- what they've done in all those crowd scenes in Angelina Jolie's hit movie "Salt."
Oh, you hadn't noticed...? Well, conspiracy fans, here's the secret lowdown. All those people in all those crowd scenes aren't really people. That's right, they've conspiratorially used 500 inflatable dolls instead. The plot...? Well, now they can avoid hiring extras. Save a bundle. Get it? They are slowly but insidiously out to replace actors with dolls. Just like they already have replaced tollway cashiers, bank clerks, assembly line workers, and half the American labor force with computers.
Look, my friends, this is big. Very big. They are saving costs at the expense of people's earnings all in order to line their pockets with added profits. It's cowboy capitalism at its robber baron worst. You never thought about it this way? Well, we have private meetings at undisclosed locations every few weeks where we can share what each of us has gathered about these conspiracies. Including of course the on-going UFO master plot.
Who are "we" you ask? Well, we're the American people, and we're mad as hell and we're not going to take this anymore. Who are "they?" Well, they're all those invisible rich bastards who live in gated estates, drive foreign cars, own jets and yachts and overseas plantations, hob nob with fellow conspirators like that guy without a birth certificate in the White House, and in general are descendants of the ruling classes from the lost land of Atlantis!
Don't laugh...that's what they count on. And as soon as I'm released, I intend to go public with this on all the networks. Which won't be easy, because "they" own them too....!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
WHEN WA YOUR LAST MIRACLE?
Everyone likes a crystal ball now and then. It just seems so darn intriguing...magical...mystical...and hey maybe a chance to defy the gods and part the curtains into our future. This bone-deep curiosity is what keeps shamans, astrologers, horoscopes, mediums, Chinese fortune cookies and high-paid economic forecasters busy.
A first cousin to crystal balls are miracles. Now these are the superstars of the amazing! We are led to believe the uneducated believe in them, the educated dismiss them, and the recipients find it hard to explain them. The respected philosopher George Santayana spoke for the prosecution when he dismissed them this way: "Miracles are propitious accidents, the natural causes of which are too complicated to be readily understood."
Frankly I was more skeptical of miracles until I read his dismissive explanation. Because it is no explanation at all! Too complicated to be readily understood...? Well, yeah professor, that's precisely what both believers and recipients say. If these events were "understandable" they would not be miracles!
Science to the rescue.
Just as the highest authors of humanity were once robed priests and priestesses standing before Egyptian/ Athenian/Medieval altars...now they are jacketed neuro-biologists and cosmologists standing before Bunsen burners/petri dishes/telescopes. Different breeds and different methodologies; but the same cocksure voice of authority. One breed believed in miracles by saying they were too complicated to be understood. Today's breed doesn't believe in miracles by saying the same thing: too complicated to be understood.
Like you, I've been brushed a few times by what I felt was the miraculous. But Mr Santayana is quite correct. These experiences were far far too complicated for anyone else to understand. Actually, for me to completely understand. This much can be said. All miracles are true...and some even happened!
A first cousin to crystal balls are miracles. Now these are the superstars of the amazing! We are led to believe the uneducated believe in them, the educated dismiss them, and the recipients find it hard to explain them. The respected philosopher George Santayana spoke for the prosecution when he dismissed them this way: "Miracles are propitious accidents, the natural causes of which are too complicated to be readily understood."
Frankly I was more skeptical of miracles until I read his dismissive explanation. Because it is no explanation at all! Too complicated to be readily understood...? Well, yeah professor, that's precisely what both believers and recipients say. If these events were "understandable" they would not be miracles!
Science to the rescue.
Just as the highest authors of humanity were once robed priests and priestesses standing before Egyptian/ Athenian/Medieval altars...now they are jacketed neuro-biologists and cosmologists standing before Bunsen burners/petri dishes/telescopes. Different breeds and different methodologies; but the same cocksure voice of authority. One breed believed in miracles by saying they were too complicated to be understood. Today's breed doesn't believe in miracles by saying the same thing: too complicated to be understood.
Like you, I've been brushed a few times by what I felt was the miraculous. But Mr Santayana is quite correct. These experiences were far far too complicated for anyone else to understand. Actually, for me to completely understand. This much can be said. All miracles are true...and some even happened!
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