We will Live Forever or Die Trying

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The mariner was re-reading a few of the more interesting articles in back issues of magazines. One from The Economist (August 13 2016) provoked thoughts about how culture would change if we lived a lot longer and how the economy and international relations would change and….

To share some thoughts with the reader, part of the article is copied below:

“Humanity must avoid the trap fallen into by Tithonus, a mythical Trojan who was granted eternal life by the gods, but forgot to ask also for eternal youth. Eventually, he withered into a cicada.

The trap of Tithonus is sprung because bodies have evolved to be throwaway vessels for the carriage of genes from one generation to the next. Biologists have a phrase for it: the disposable soma. It explains not only general senescence, but also why dementia, cancer, cardiovascular problems, arthritis and many other things are guarded against in youth, but crammed into old age once reproduction is done with. These, too, must be treated if a long and healthy life is to become routine. Moreover, even a healthy brain may age badly. An organ evolved to accommodate 70 or 80 years of memories may be unable to cope when asked to store 150 years’ worth.”

There are other social points made in the article. If the reader is interested, see: http://www.economist.com/printedition/2016-08-13 Page 14.

Using these thoughts as a springboard, one can take off running in many directions. The mariner provides a few:

How will family life change? Today, children typically are born before parents are forty; later adult partnership has a few awkward adjustments which may have to be taken seriously on a cultural level and dealt with differently than the present decorum provides. Will a lifespan become two or three life spans? The Economist says having children at 100 could be possible.

Today, one of the serious issues that confront us is the economics of older workers; not just at age 65 or 70 but the prejudice against the middle-aged worker – say someone approaching 50. If workers lived healthily beyond 100 or 120, should they be bumped off the first team so younger blood can move up the ladder?

Retirement is a growing problem today. Depression, boredom, lack of personal value and raison d’être are psychological traps even if one lives only a decade into retirement. How about living 50 or 60 years?

The economic side of the retired lifestyle is an even larger issue. Is a retiree required to carry a pension for self support? Where does the money come from to live another 100 years?

Sociologists say that a neighborhood has a span of 60 years. Built in 1960 as a new, upscale neighborhood with lots of young people, new houses and streets, and a bustling social culture – in 60 years it will be old houses, old people, lots of rentals and a slip in economic class. What if the neighborhood has to remain dynamic for 100 years?

Will there be senior pro sport leagues? Where does Roger Federer go to play when he reaches 50 given medicine will keep him young enough not to lose that step most athletes lose around 30?

Will hotspots like Sandals move their fantasy advertisements out a few decades? What do healthy 120 year-olds fantasize about?

Malthus[1] would be in a frenzy if he heard people would live virtually forever. He believed that overcrowding would force humans back to primitive cultures because resources would become scarce. Well, how will we manage excessive population when people won’t die?

Presented a bit tongue in cheek, actually these questions will require immense change in H. sapiens’ arc of life.

Joseph Campbell isn’t here to help us make a new one.

Ancient Mariner

[1] — Thomas Malthus, 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population.

 

Amid the Smoke of Battle

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The mariner hasn’t returned to tracking human events. It isn’t that a return to childish daily news and tragic global news is too distasteful (which it certainly is) but that this time of the year – the first hard frost – is a busy time in the gardens. Mariner has been forced to take his shop lights outside to continue grubbing in the night for buried lily bulbs like a raccoon, moving shrubs and accent plants around to improve the garden, planting new bulbs for next year and finally addressing hardscape issues like new patio features, sidewalks, lighting, etc.

Mariner is thankful for the sympathy of readers, family and friends –most are commiserating as well. But we must, whether victor or victim, don our cultural uniform and return to the fray.

Mariner consulted with his alter ego team, Chicken Little, Prophet Amos and Guru to compile a set of questions to research as we venture back to the fray. These questions are compiled blindly since they have not been vetted by exposure to media.

 

Will Donald appoint family to significant positions of government?

Who will run whatever TRUMP business exists in the private sector?

How much policy independence will Donald grant to Mike if any? Related, how many secretary positions will Donald leave unfilled?

How many argumentative campaign issues will Donald forego to create a broker position with Congress?

For reasons of complexity and time, mariner will pass for now on international policy and economics.

Finally, for the reason that one can stomach only so much, mariner will ignore Rudy Giuliani, nothing more than a remora fish.

For those who have suffered greatly, like the democratic advocate who worked in the White House whose mother had health insurance only because of the Affordable Care Act but voted for Donald; or the typically uninformed acquaintance talking with the mariner’s wife, confessing she voted for Donald because he said Hillary was crooked: shape up and return to action – we have a Reagan Supreme Court to deal with.

Ancient Mariner

 

There is despair in life.

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If the reader hasn’t experienced it, the reader has not experienced life. All humans, to be recognized as complete souls, must experience the five stages of grief: 1. Denial and isolation; 2. Anger; 3. Bargaining; 4. Depression; 5. Acceptance.

To varying degrees of emotional strife, these five emotional reactions can be applied to many situations in life; certainly the loss of family. But these feelings emerge when a worker is fifty-five and is discharged before retirement becomes available. These emotions are felt when risk and violence emerge as a potential threat to life. And yes, these feelings emerge when one doesn’t belong and has no validating proof of personal community value. Apparently, in the election of Donald, indeed in every campaign since Bobby Kennedy, the mariner has been odd man out.

There aren’t many elections left for the mariner. Realistically, The Supreme Court will not be capable of rational decisions working in a world believed still to exist since 1985. But others must charge on. The millennials are a powerful generation. Already in their young lives they are bonded, they are not satisfied with the old fogeys. It will, however, take most of their lives to overturn a useless Supreme Court.

The mariner must press on. His mind still rebels at idiocy, racism, greed and self satisfying ignorance. Whether the ignorant accept it or not, free access to information, the sophistication required to live in an overcrowded world, and the scary environment of the Earth weighing in on survivability, will move us on whether we desire it or not. Just not today.

In an era of Donald and a Reconstructionist-minded republican government, may God have mercy on our souls.

Ancient Mariner

 

Withdrawal

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The mariner has not watched television one second since the announcement except for the weather ap. He has not listened to radio or even read the newspapers. He has not scoured the Internet for reactions – except for watching the stock market only long enough to know the daily values. He is lost in his gardens.

He is ashamed for that. Mariner considers himself a stalwart observer of gnashing reality – no matter the gnashing. Still, there is great apprehension over the state of affairs. Putting the power of a President in the hands of an insecure narcissist, totally ignorant of the required processes and nuances of the distribution of power except using it to get even with detractors (Donald will pull every string available to him to get the better of Barack Obama and Hillary because they belittled him; “Little” Marco already knows not to expect any favors for his “small hands” remark.)

Taken in a long, long perspective, Pence will be the most powerful Vice President in History – except when Donald wants to be in charge. That will occur at grossly inappropriate times and circumstances. Donald ignores timing, ignores advice taking longer than one minute, and will build that $@*&% wall just to prove he never loses.

But he is a loser. His base electorate, the wise, sophisticated and insightful among us, enjoyed the campaign season having the luxury of allowing anything he wanted to say as acceptable. But now he has won a term in the most visible, targeted job in the world. His base can’t help anymore. There is no shortage of bruised power brokers, politicians, NGOs and foreign nations eager to bring Donald down – and Donald has left a path littered with opportunities. Then there is the issue of Donald’s international policy fraught with shady relationships and profit schemes – profit schemes not for US citizens but for Donald.

However, the damage has been done. A devastating blow to a nation already fifty years behind global issues. An opportunity for advancement would have been to appoint two or three Supreme Court Justices. Deliberately appointing young conservatives will set the US back at least fifty years. Further, having the entire Congress in old fogey, irrelevant hands will stop progress dead in its tracks.

The mariner believes the first 100 days will not be easy for the nation. What lies beyond 100 days cannot be predicted. Say a prayer for members of his immediate staff.

Ancient Mariner

 

Blame it on Fire

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The mariner visited his primary care physician yesterday. He is a delightful young man – bright, well organized, efficient and knowledgeable in his thoughts as a doctor should be. But he is more than that. In our brief encounter in that small examination room, we fulfill our medical obligations in short clips of Q&A. Otherwise, the mariner has found a fellow human being who thinks about things the same way as the mariner. In the same clipped, shorthand style, we toss ideas and obscure metaphors back and forth. And the doctor said the mariner does not need to have colonoscopies anymore. What more can a patient ask for?

Yesterday, of course, the conversation largely was about Donald. Donald had not become President yet but there were ominous signs on the horizon. The doctor and the mariner, in that clipped conversation mentioned above, were speculating why H. sapiens was unable to integrate with anything meaningful in a positive way – humans seemed to be their own worst enemy.

The doctor quickly blamed fire. “The one thing humans have that no other creature has is fire.” The mariner understood his theme and responded by rattling off several societal roles fire has played over the millennia. The doctor responded in short phrases contributing similar roles and metaphors that used fire as a central feature.

What was refreshing, even therapeutic, was sharing a common perception of reality: A reality seen through ideas, science, social history, nuances of religion, government and anthropology, and inquisitiveness about the future.

The examination was over and we proceeded our separate ways.

In just fifteen or twenty minutes, the doctor and the mariner had a fully understood discussion about how fire was the turning point of human evolution; fire was the Pandora’s box fostering all subsequent Pandora Boxes. Wikipedia was not needed. The ideologies, history, touchstones, all already were in place like a ready-to-bake dessert. Just eat.

– – – –

Having returned to the mariner’s own Pandora’s Box containing among other things a disingenuous electorate who definitely needs a Wikipedia but finds no use for it and a racist narcissist as President, mariner is giving thought to what color burqa he should wear. Black would imply defeat and retreat; red may suggest belligerence; white would mistakenly propose innocence. Perhaps plaid. Yes plaid – that will reflect the mariner’s attitude.

The mariner will not live long enough to see humanity get back on track. The thought occurs that, like a malformed creature amid evolution’s procession of creatures, humans were not expected to last too long anyway. Too bad humans will unravel the planet’s ecology and take it down with them. Blame it on fire.

Ancient Mariner

 

 

 

FINI

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The silent majority has decided to participate in the government it knows nothing about. For the first time, perhaps in more than a hundred years, the silent majority decided to vote. One can’t blame them; they live in the hinterland. There is little beyond a voter’s personal physical experience to provoke thought, global reality, the subtleties of grace and compassion.

The silent majority does not include the poor, disenfranchised, inventive, socially experienced, introspective or even the plutocrats among us. The silent majority is, above all, imperialistic, self centered and judgmental of all sophistication.

Pollsters and analysts are unaccustomed to counting the silent majority because the silent majority never participates. But now we have learned who comprises the silent majority.

They are racist.

They are not collaborative.

They live in the past.

They are pragmatic to a point of failure.

They deny truths about science, society, economics, accountability, and responsibility for their species.

There was a glimmering of hope that finally we would break free of the Reconstructionist fear of change to keep up with the present. Will the silent majority ever learn that you can’t go back?

Across a lifetime of participation in the democratic philosophy, the electorate has failed the mariner – again.

Sigh.

Ancient Mariner

 

One Nation, One Race

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As the days dwindle down to a precious few the gloves are off among voters concerned about the influence of multi-racial voting. America has always been a one-race nation…. Dixie is desperately looking for ways to expunge multi-racial voters from the registered voter records. The Southwest and the conservative rust belt states make it tougher for multi-racial citizens to register. Donald’s campaign has put the racial issue at the front of his policies.

Fear not, the mariner says – once a single color nation, always a single color nation. One has only to wait until things settle down. By the Presidential Campaign of 2116, citizens again will be a single color. Color samples:

Halle Berry.jpgtrevor-noah-copyfredrica-whitfieldchris-archerlucy-liu

 jackie-chan

ariana-grande

 


 

Ancient Mariner

 

 

 

jimmy-smitsmario-lopez

The Move from Past to Future

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The mariner apologizes to readers who are confused by his mixing metaphors incoherently. It was stated in the last post that as President, Hillary will become the leader of the Establishment and eventually the Republican Party. That is, the older elected officials, lingering old school racists, plutocrats, economic conservatives, and religious malcontents will adapt. Regardless of power haggling, one by one, less conservative leaders will emerge and adopt policy positions that, over the years of Hillary’s tenure as President, will become the new center right wing of the Federal Government.

During these years, slowly, the more strident conservative policy and behavior present in 2016 will morph into a newer conservative policy that can compete in elections. This means that the Republican Party we know today has collapsed under a nation rapidly moving to more liberal policies. Viewed from the sidelines, over time, conservatism appears to look more and more like Hillary’s Establishment.

As mentioned in the former post, Hillary is a super administrator but lacks the ability to envision new values in a non-establishment environment. Why we do what we do is not as much a motivation to Hillary; what tactics and processes must be executed is her focus. Bernie is very much a why person and challenged ideas like oligarchy, an unbalanced culture suffering from bad tax law, disappearing employee rights, and crooked Federal governance. Being an opposite type to Hillary, Bernie had less interest in rewriting policy than targeting legislation that changes governance.

Statistics from the campaign indicate that millennials (under 50 more or less) were fully united behind Bernie, seeing change in governance as more important than editing existing legislation. Mariner suspects this is because millennials have grown up in a drastically changed world and the government has not changed to manage that changed world.

As Hillary improves (we hope) Congressional concern toward a kinder and wiser government, the Establishment, still grounded in the old culture, will appear to become more conservative as the millennial folks change governance to something that slowly leaves the Establishment behind.

WHILE WAITING FIVE DAYS WITH APPREHENSION SECTION

When the reader was very young, perhaps before the fourth grade, what word could not be spelled on paper? For the mariner, in the third grade, he returned from summer vacation having forgotten how to spell ‘was.’ No matter how often he sounded the word, he could not associate a set of letters to match the word ‘wuz.’

A French tennis player by the name of Poille pronounces his name Pwee. One must feel sorry for French third graders.

The Brits, by way of the Germans and Romans, gave us Wednesday; how long before you spelled Wednesday correctly? It doesn’t matter, we say ‘Wenzdee’ anyway.

Is it any wonder we are drifting to memes, emoticons, and other graphics?

Ancient Mariner

What has 2016 wrought?

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 As the United States approaches its odd 2016 election, one cannot help but be concerned the US is not handling history very well. Most of the incompetence can be laid at the feet of the electorate. What most apolitical observers, historians and futurists have observed can be assigned to peaks of change in how the Government governs and the lack of commitment and understanding by citizens of its own nation’s practices; compound this with a similar lack of commitment and understanding to what is fair and equitable to the citizens themselves.

It is obvious that whoever controls the Republic controls wealth, advantage, opportunity, power and the alternative, who will be poor, disadvantaged and denied the “inalienable rights” ingrained in the US Constitution. Given the US is the world power among nations, access to wealth, advantage, opportunity and power grants access to indescribable wealth taken even from its own fellow citizens.

One would surmise that the citizens would have learned this behavior by now and made sure that the electorate controls the government – not those who abuse it’s governance for self interest and greed. Often cited, the US has the lowest percentage voter turnout of all democratic nations. Those who govern haven’t helped by introducing gerrymandering, allowing wealth to steer politics, granting corporations rights that belong only to human beings and the vilest of practices, denying the right to vote equally, fairly and with as much ease as possible.

Given that the spirit of the nation is broken, repair requires deep introspection into the role of government and its relationship to the broad concepts, history-changing ideals, and interpretations of humanity and justice that have made the US a phenomenon of governance in its time. The spirit is so damaged that calls for revolution seem reasonable.

Combine a dissolving national precept with a lightning speed change in technology, automation, communication and huge overpopulation around the world and one is left bereft of social tools, historical value, and principled coexistence. There is no national foundation from which to conquer the future; there is no ethos that will avoid war and greed; there is no positive vision for humankind – humankind the species.

– – – –

The 2016 election will do little to begin repair. As with the last Administration, the best our Government can do is sustain hope – hope for a time when a person is again the most important entity in politics; hope for corporatism to return to the role of distribution not to include disrupting human rights and national equity; hope for that fleeting moment in time when governments work for the people and not for the power politics of the wealthy or the idolatry of “the way it was.”

The 2016 election will not produce healing or repair broken government. No one, not elected officials, racists, victims of disappearing jobs, wealth hobbyists, gun enthusiasts, and older generations lost in past virtues, are prepared to cash in the remnants of a seventy year old culture that has lived past its usefulness.

All four presidential candidates represent their visions of the past to a frightening degree. Today’s electorate is fraught with malpractice and ignorance; the old ways shroud the people’s vision of fairness and civic worth.

Donald Trump is comparable to a monster in a movie; Donald is an experiment in populism gone wrong; he is a 1945-style fascist, a racist, narcissistic, and altered by an abusive childhood into virtually having no emotional judgment. If elected, Donald will do what his base elected him to do: bring down the government – and likely the nation.

Hillary Clinton is a super achiever. She has the targeting power of a riflescope; she has persistence without distraction; she is a master of detail relating to whom, how, and what. But not why. The piece of the nation’s toolkit brought to the fray by Bernie was the why. In effect, Hillary is the new leader of the establishment. If the citizenry is fortunate, Hillary will become the new leader of the republican right but with civility and fair-mindedness while the millennials, during her eight years in office, will form the new democratic left. We voters can only hope to step up as well “to form a more perfect union.”

Ancient Mariner