Adaptive Curmudgeon

Shit’s crazy lately. The stupidity leads to weirdness. Weirdness leads to instability. Standing around wondering how completely fucked we’re going to be before stability returns… if it ever will… is making us all tense.

It’s the weekend. I invite y’all to let off a little pressure. Let’s all sit back and enjoy some sci-fi reading from back before sci-fi was colonized by whiny woke asshats.

First, a 1951 short story by Arthur C. Clarke. Click the link to see it reproduced in its entirety (I assume it’s not a copywrite infringement). I present to you Superiority:

“The ultimate cause of our failure was a simple one: despite all statements to the contrary, it was not due to lack of bravery on the part of our men, or to any fault of the Fleet’s. We were defeated by one thing only – by the inferior science of our enemies. I repeat – by the inferior science of our enemies.”

Second, another 1951 short story by C. M. Kornbluth. This is one of my absolute favorites. (It’s reproduced in its entirety by Project Gutenberg.) I present to you The Marching Morons:

“The attrition of accidents, illness, wars and such took care of that. Your intelligence was bred out. It is gone. Children that should have been born never were. The just-average, they’ll-get-along majority took over the population. The average IQ now is 45.”

Every word is linked for free just above this line. (You can’t stop the signal Mal!)

If you want to buy a copy I sure as hell won’t stop you. Please use the links below. Since they originate on my page. I’ll get a tuppence from the Bezo-collective no matter what you buy. (Amazon requires an “I get money from this” disclaimer in case there’s still a living human in 2021 hasn’t figured out how sponsored links work. If that 90 year old cloistered monk still exists, I want to meet him. I assume he’s busy cutting checks to mail order stuff from late night TV ads repeated off VHS tapes.)

You’ll find Superiority nestled in The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke.*

You can also buy The Marching Morons.*

Also, anyone who loves The Marching Morons will love the excellent documentary Idiocracy. (Seriously, if you haven’t seen Idiocracy, do it now. Its got what plants crave!)

Happy reading.

A.C.

*Note: I bought my version’s of those texts under different titles. That’s the thing with old sci-fi from periodicals, they’re available in various anthologies. If the products at one of these links is low quality, please tell me asap.

Like many (most?) employees, I was ordered to take the vaccine. I resisted. I’m not naïve. I know nobody cares about an employee. I’m probably toast.

Here’s why I didn’t comply:

If there’s a line… a needle in your vein crosses it.

I don’t care what other people do, that’s their choice. I also won’t split hairs about the exact legal definition of “coercion” or “consent”. There are degrees in all things but none of this is on the part of the spectrum labeled “willing” or “voluntary”.

I wound up drawing a line in the sand. It’s almost as if I witnessed a braver, more confident version of myself doing what I knew to be right.

Like many others, I requested a Religious Exemption. “I won’t comply. Here’s why.”

I don’t know the odds of keeping my job. Each day I wait for the other shoe to drop; a carefully phrased legalistic response: “Pursuant to policy XYZ, your heartfelt request was ignored and shredded the hour we received it. You’re denied. You’re fired.”

Like everyone, I don’t have a magical “prepper plan” that’ll save my bacon. (Though things could be worse.) Nobody is adequately prepared to lose their livelihood.

Yet I have no regrets. Society went off the rails at the spiritual level but I didn’t. Your soul comes before your paycheck. Each person is different so if it doesn’t affect you in the same way, that’s fine. As for me, it was a spiritual fork in the road. When you know what’s right, all that remains is being man enough to do it.

In the last month what has happened in my workplace? Nothing.

I’m still not fired. I’m still not vaxxed.

I’m not yet impoverished. I have not died of covid.

There has been no word. Each day is a mystery. I may be fired tomorrow. Maybe next week. Maybe after Christmas. (They’d have to be nuts to fire dozens or thousands the month before Christmas. Folks fired in the shadow of a Christmas tree will not forget that moment!)

I wonder if management is in a corner looking at paint in all directions? It feels like nobody expected things to go this far. They didn’t expect it. I didn’t expect it. Now that they’re committed to a mandate and their workforce isn’t fully compliant do they really want to fire a zillion people? You can wonder if management is bluffing but unvaxxed workers are not. They’ve already demonstrated supreme commitment. When their job was seriously threatened they said “what part of ‘I will not comply’ confuses you?” That’s not a group about to change their mind. They’ve had most of a year getting browbeaten daily. They are not “hesitant”. They are hardened.

The dam is going to break, we just don’t know how. You feel it too. The whole economy is frozen up; everyone in every workplace is waiting for… something.

Everything is uncertain but nothing has changed… save I.

What has happened to me? Something wonderful.

When I was forced to take a stand, I lost the option of evasion. Fate removed my “go to” choice. I’m all about predicting where dramatic things will happen and being somewhere else. I’ll scamper away from conflict like a little bitch. I only want to be left alone. For the last two years as cities went mad, Karens patrolled mask zones, freedoms were curtailed, and whole city blocks were burned to the ground I was safely “pre-bugged out”.

I expected to stay that way indefinitely.

Things changed on September 9th. The President made a speech which specifically targeted me for “correction”! I’ve never before heard any president of either party speak that way about Americans! I wouldn’t speak that way to an errant child! Any man who talks like that in a bar will wind up bloodied in the parking lot. We all just know that! His  tantrum lit a fuse when he should have been trying to smooth things out.

The bastard made it personal. He came for my livelihood. Why target my job? I’m pretty sure it’s because that’s the greatest damage he can do. If Biden had enough power to drag me out of my own home in handcuffs he would. (Ask Australia about that.)

After the speech (outburst?), I was forced to accept what is and what is not. Any conciliatory middle ground had been burned flat. I was forced to take a side… clearly. I sent my Religious justification to a callous and uncaring HR. What a goat rodeo! HR spent decades bitching at anyone who mentions God in the workplace. Now they demand I and countless others expound about God’s role in their life? They wanted it. They got it. Someone in HR is probably getting PTSD reading my religious views.

I was forced into it. I wrote it all down. I signed my name on the dotted line. Then something interesting happened. It felt like God smiled; “About time you did that Curmudgeon! You needed it.” A wave of peace came to me.

What a gift! Maybe that was the plan. Biden’s little hissy fit coaxed my reticent self to reaffirm and solidify the spiritual focus I might very well need in the coming winter.

Writing it all out made all the difference. If I once wrestled with doubt, I do no more. I made a choice. My choice is done. The die is cast, the Rubicon crossed; it feels good!

Does this mean I’m free and clear? Heck no! I still don’t know if I’ll keep my job or not. I might be fiscally screwed.

Strangely, it’s hard to care. I don’t control the job situation; which means I bear no responsibility. They will do what they will. I don’t care if they burn the whole economy down; it’s not my fault.

What a relief! It’s one thing to sail the seas of whatever happens. I can do that. It’s another to feel responsible for the gale. That was too much. I didn’t realize how much weight had settled on me until it was lifted from my shoulders.

All things have a purpose. Fate, or God, or chance; or whatever you want to call it, got me to take the next step. I have freewill. I had the opportunity to wimp out. I could choose subjugation. It would have been easy. I would have been applauded.

What would have been my reward for wimping out? A steady paycheck that’s a personal jail cell. A trap where the walls would move in by increments. A short break but then another moment of spiritual degradation. There’s always another step on the path to hell. If two shots aren’t enough to break a man, how about three? Four is already on the horizon. If a third or fourth shot doesn’t do it, then what? Submit my DNA to HR? Blood tests at work? Tattoo my employee number on my ass? Mandatory transfer to Newark? Daily affirmation that my boss is the one true God? Who knows?

Better to do the right thing today when it’s clear and obvious and spiritually right for me than endure a lifetime of wondering what new stupid unworkable degrading mandate they’ll shove up my ass next week. I picked this hill for my career to die on. I’m almost happy about it.

I don’t know if this whole mandate thing was for the best but it might have been a necessary step for me. The world told me to fold… and I remembered this isn’t the only world. It felt good.

If our mad world is getting to you, just do the right thing. The rest will follow. After that you’ll feel lighter. You’ll be able to smile for the ones still in the scrum and say this:

Not my circus, not my monkeys.

I wish you all the best. Always remember; even if you’re the last person standing, you’re never alone.

[Warning: Forgive me for philosophizing. Recently, I feel like I can almost but not quite grasp the infinite. Skip today’s post (and tomorrow’s) if you wish.]

A month ago I mentioned my job was in jeopardy:

“Today I told my supervisor I have not gotten the vaccine and that I will not get the vaccine.”

I don’t share this lightly. It’s a private matter. I would have preferred to keep it that way. Alas, I don’t get to choose the intellectual health of the society in which I live.

I reluctantly shared my situation to give hope to those who need it. People need to know their pain is not borne in isolation. Pain shared hurts, pain in isolation kills.

Propaganda is meant to isolate us. “News” reports only a handful of knuckle dragging, illiterate, dolts are “hesitant”. This, of course, is false. As with all things human, there are infinite and varied reasons for individuals to make infinite and varied life choices. Each adult must consider their specific circumstances; anathema to those who would manipulate us en masse. “Fake News” reduces the infinite to “those who disagree are few, evil, and stupid”. It’s propaganda.

Here’s what’s true. Centralized bureaucratic powers always seek to dominate. This is true with every bureaucracy (government or otherwise). It is true when a public school uses a six year old as fiscal feedstock. It is true when a college encourages young adults to accept debt for a useless degree. It is true when Silicon Valley software spies on you. It is true when a hospital calculates rate of return on your deathbed.

To be fully human, you must make decisions for you… not for the bureaucracy. They attempt to thwart this. You are told, as if in an old sci-fi plot, “resistance is futile.” Your defeat is guaranteed; you have no hope to prevail.

This is not true. The human spirit matters. Your loss is not inevitable. Their win is not certain.

They know this. Whenever we remove ourselves from propaganda, we know it too. Centralized power appears to have the upper hand but appearance isn’t reality. They seek oppression with a system built to serve. In so doing they’ve overextended and ground to a halt. They can’t do much of anything. They can’t deliver food to Des Moines. They can’t keep the power grid stable in California. The military can’t win; it couldn’t even arrange an orderly retreat. Congress creates inflation it can’t counteract. States can’t maintain civil peace when their cities erupt in chaos.

Consider two small failures; they can’t remove the trash in New York and they can’t teach kids fractions in Virginia without a shitstorm of indoctrination. How incompetent can you get? Anyone with a truck can haul trash. Anyone with an average IQ can teach fractions without adding Marx. The collective might of bureaucracy fails on both counts.

That’s why everything is unstable. The wheels are falling off. Panic is palpable. Egomaniacs would rule rather than serve. They’re walking caricatures of failure.

Another limitation; they’ve no idea how to change course. Witness how desperately they cling to “Armageddon by pandemic”. It’s two years into the “black death with a 99.7% survival rate” and only the true Kool-Aid drinkers are still worried. The Amish never noticed but the woke are terrorized (then again they’re always terrorized). The sane middle relaxed and began behaving like normal people. They went to football games where they started chanting Let’s Go Brandon.

Meanwhile various bureaucracies and government layers are whipping the dead horse. They seem to think this it will help them. It won’t. Bludgeoning Americans to line up like cattle at the inoculation chute will do… what exactly? Balance the budget? Rescue people from Afghanistan? Control inflation? Find someone to work at McDonalds? Restore supply chains? Control lawless cities? Generate heating fuel?

If the President had a magic wand to make us all vaccinated on Tuesday… he’d still be losing control on Wednesday.

He missed a beautiful moment where a humble man could enjoy a big win. By June, everyone who wanted the vaccination had it. Yay team! The government turned “we happily provide you with what you want” to “we’re going to forcefully shove it up your ass if you don’t take it”. A noble accomplishment became divisive chaos. Instead of uniting behind a voluntary triumph we’re now in a mandatory knife fight. Dumbass!

Damn! I was trying to stay mellow and failed. What I wrote sounded overwrought didn’t it?

Oh well, it’s truth. When the times are mad, an honest assessment sounds crazy.

Don’t let normalcy bias rob you of your senses. You are on the cusp of change as much as a Jew in Germany. 1938 was not a fluke… it’s a historic pattern.

Here’s the good news, we’re not going quietly into that dark night… at least not all of us.

What’s next? I have no clue. The future is not yet written, especially yours. All that matters is this; if you seek to remain whole, you are not alone. Even if you’re the last person standing, you’re never alone.

I’d like to thank society for (barely) holding it’s shit together. I took a week and a half (mostly) off grid holiday. The word was already on fire. It wasn’t completely reduced to ash while I was gone. Yay.

A silly but true story:

I no longer take for granted that I can step away from society and it’ll manage to stay sane while I’m gone. Back in 2007 I was shocked when everything true went to false and vice versa in a single week.

I paddled away from a constitutional Republic with a nominally capitalist economic system. Nothing is perfect but it was at least more or less stable.

I spent a week fishing and canoe camping. I had no contact with the outside world for a week. I returned to a nation that had totally rejected markets. It had shut down the stock exchange to thwart markets changing prices lower. It was busily hurling money at entities that had profited for many years but might otherwise lose money during the current “crisis”.

I remember thinking “I was gone a week and the stock exchange is down? How can that be?” I tried to figure out what was happening and the discussions were like this:

AC: “WTF is going on?”

Everyone (trying to explain): “You see some people didn’t pay their subprime loans…”

AC: “Yes, that’s why they’re subprime.”

Everyone: “… so anyway everyone thought shitty risky loans would get paid back in full. When they weren’t, this company you’ve never heard of was out of money.”

AC: “When you give money to people who are risky you take on risk. It gets expensive to deny risk.”

Everyone: “…stop talking Poindexter! So there was a bailout of this company.”

AC: “That seems unwise.”

Everyone: “…and so everyone calmed down. But then this other company also wanted a bailout but it didn’t get a bailout.”

AC: “You can’t always get what you want. Mick Jagger says so.”

Everyone: “…so everyone’s stock price went to shit.”

AC: “The stock prices adjusted to reflect the financial health of the underlying company.”

Everyone: “NO! Shut up, this is serious. When prices go down it’s bad. So they shut down the stock market to keep the prices from dropping.”

AC: “Like closing your eyes so you become invisible?”

Everyone: “Don’t make jokes! It’s real. Everything was horrible. When the company nobody cares about went belly up, suddenly all the banks were fucked. So now the government is giving money to banks.”

AC: “Um…”

Everyone: “You don’t understand, you had to be there. According to the people on TV it was the end of the world.”

AC: “I was on the world. It’s still there. The fishing is great.”

Everyone: “Don’t be an asshole. Anyone who disagrees is a jerk.”

AC: “So, in addition to shutting down the stock market. What else did they do. Are there tanks on the streets?”

Everyone: “Right now they’re negotiating an incredibly unpopular banking bailout. It will be bigger than anything ever before. They’re trying to decide if it’ll be monumentally large or stupendously large.”

AC: “That would encourage bad decisions in the future.”

Everyone: “No, using government debt to invent money to give it to banks is the only possible thing to to. It makes sense if you were in the middle of it.”

AC: “I have a telegram from the future. In 2021 the Federal Debt will be 28 trillion.”

Everyone: “It’s necessary.”

AC: “The debt now is 8 trillion.”

Everyone: “If we don’t do it the banks will be screwed.”

AC: “The debt will increase by 350%.”

Everyone: “I’m telling you. Everything was destroyed!”

AC: “Buildings? Roads? What was destroyed?”

Everyone: “Everything. The value that doesn’t exist was found to not exist. We had to do this!”

AC (Backing away slowly): “Ok, well I’ve got to go now. I’m sure this will all work out fine and we won’t be facing inflation and shortages of consumer goods 14 years from now.”

The point is, distance gives you perspective. Right now, the 23rd month of 2020 is just another step in cascading disasters that began long ago. Also, I’ve almost come to expect the jolt of checking off of and back onto society’s runaway train of decline can be jarring. The thing about society losing it’s shit, is that you don’t as easily see it if you never pull your head out of the matrix*.

Since things suck so bad lately, I’ve lowered my expectations. This means I’m delighted that the bare minimum has held up. The power grid is still running, President Potato and his Chinese Handlers haven’t created a war in Taiwan, and jack booted thugs beating unvaccinated people is still (mostly) limited a hazy future and far away places like Australia. Also, I think the McRib is still available!

Well done to one and all. Of course, the long decline is still evident. The giant miasma of stupidity snuffing out freedom everywhere hasn’t dissipated. The rule of law remains divided into two viewpoints with one being de facto illegal and the other being de facto exempt. The universal tendency of egomaniacs to grab the wheel remains unchecked.

More deeply rooted, perhaps the heart of the whole thing: great swaths of the population still see free will and self determination as a burden. They seek to shift the burden of life’s choices to someone else, who invariably fucks it all up. But it’s the 23rd month of 2020 and I can only hope for so much.

It wasn’t just nice to leave, it was necessary. I’m more or less happy to have returned. What more can one ask?

Here’s a neat video of an iceberg flipping over.

*Perhaps “the matrix” isn’t a simulation? Maybe it’s the ass end of social media?

Also read this.

This was all baked into the cake back in March 2020 when governors started deciding if restaurants could be open and how workplaces would operate. It was unavoidable from that moment. It took a while for the effects to become obvious but they were present instantly. It will get more obvious with time. Furthermore, none of this will resolve until the government takes its hands off the wheel and there’s not the slightest hint they’ve got the intelligence or humility to do so.

Get used to it.

Update: The whole point of the video is that immensely complex endeavors “self organize” among free and economically interested people planet wide and that no single person can understand or control it all. President Potato lacks the humility to allow a system to operate on its own. So, he ordered the docks in California to work harder, like any clueless boss would do.

Every employee has at least once watched a boss wade into a complex situation, bitch at the people in the vicinity to work harder, and then run away with the smug condescending air of someone who has no clue how anything gets done but feels like they control it all. Admit it, you’ve seen this in just about every workplace you’ve experienced.  Every shitty boss in creation thinks bitching at employees will make the whole system more productive. After all, pouring over spreadsheets and figuring out to invest more in forklift maintenance or whatever would require a lot more effort… so bitching at employees is the default.

Predictably, Biden’s simple obvious solution sounded great and did no good at all. Things have gotten worse. Anyone who has thought about a simple pencil already knew that would be the result.

menticide (n): the systematic effort to undermine and destroy a person’s values and beliefs, as by the use of prolonged interrogation, drugs, torture, etc., and to induce radically different ideas.

Yesterday I wandered in the weeds. I added a spare paragraph to a perfectly adequate post. I don’t know why I added it. We already know it’s true. Why bother to state the obvious?

…Unless you’re Amish, you don’t have a society free of propaganda in which to take refuge. You’ll be surrounded by people in the thrall of electronic “media” and they’re hooked deeply. They’re junkies. They can’t quit.

The addiction merits attention. It must be addressed. It cannot be endured or ignored. Because our world is awash in propaganda, we need to attend to our mental health. It’s vital we withdraw from the avalanche of lies to the extent we can; at a minimum one must periodically come up for air and become reacquainted with reality. Few know such an option exists. Even fewer try it. Compared to just a few years ago, possibly even compared to Soviet Russia, propaganda has reached vast proportions.

Z-Man fleshed out the concept better than I have:

Whether by design or by accident, mass media is a form of menticide, a systematic destruction of the conscious mind of the people. Instead of the quiet predictability of familiar routines, the modern mind is a riot of chaos, doubt, and outrage. The natural human desire to live a peaceful life is drowned out by a riot in the head, triggered by the constant stream of insanity from the mass media.

Menticide. Precisely.

One thing menticide robs from us is connection. I’m as much a loner as anyone and yet even I seek connection with my fellow human. This is almost impossible now. Two people cannot connect unless both are free of the spell.

When you talk to a person steeped in mass media you are not connecting with that person at all. Whatever unique personality might have been there is submerged. Layers of training defend it against true interaction. If they’re a lefty, they’ll quote from the many media sources that instruct them on what to say. If they’re the opposite, they’ll still tell you a narrative. It’ll be what they heard on Gab or a meme they liked or some scrap from whatever slivers of media the censored Deplorables can unearth.

When I try to mention some thought I had that doesn’t come from “approved sources”, it’s literally unintelligible. Perhaps an idea is digested from my imperfect reading of history, or arrived at from personal experience, or even through some revelatory thought while hunting grouse. If it didn’t originate on a screen, it goes nowhere. My idea might be dumb or wise, but it’s not evaluated. Because it’s unique, it won’t be considered. It can’t be considered. The programmed follow a pattern. An idea that breaks the pattern doesn’t exist.

When a nerd like me says “you know, Marcus Aurelius had some ideas about…” or “when I was hunting I thought…” or “this one time in band camp I did this thing…” it’s doomed. Ideas from the media are evaluated in light of the media by avatars of the media. I might as well talk to my woodsplitter.

Most concepts cannot be communicated in any depth greater than Crimethink.

What to do? Z-Man offers the same prescription I offer:

…those who seek to survive it will need to find a way to silence the riot of the modern mind. Ironically, that means going back to where it started and taking a page from the cultural radicals. To quiet the mind, to break free of the narcotic of media menticide, it means you must turn off, tune out, and drop out.

This doesn’t mean you’ve got to go Amish and spend your days plowing potato hills behind a Percheron. But it does acknowledge that’s one way to go. The Amish, who live in close proximity to madness, have not themselves gone mad. (If they’d open a sanatorium for us overwrought English I’d gladly pay.)

A personal note: My temporary salve in 2021 was camping (sometimes with my little motorcycle parked next to my tent and sometimes with a homemade sailboat beached nearby). It was good clean fun. I basked in the timeless simple joy of it all.

I hadn’t realized it, but I’ve become dependent. As 2020 (now entering it’s 23rd month) lumbered forward, each new week brings more manufactured chaos into my world. My banked and stored “chill” is dangerously depleted. In a world gone mad, I crave nights lying in a sleeping bag, listening to owls and voices on the wind, with a thirst bordering on desperation.

I shouldn’t have painted myself into a corner. It’s better to have many outlets instead of one. But it happened and the next step is up to me. Logistics is now an enemy. Winter is nigh and camping in winter is less fun than it once was. (I used to love winter camping. I would love to do it again. However, sleeping on the ground in a snowdrift is from a time I have passed. Age is not a curse, but it will not be denied.)

I was idly pondering the acquisition of a hot tent. I hadn’t made the buy. I failed to act with proper dispatch. While I considered an expensive “luxury”, President Potato yanked the rug out from under me. He decided to actively undercut my income; because of course no life is too remote or unimportant to evade the Governmental edict. The Eye of Sauron sees all and have opinions on everything. Captain Droolcup has put my job on the chopping block of his Utopian world of mandatory medicine. He may succeed or he may not. I’m too chicken to risk unnecessary expense until I know.

The snow is not deep. I think I’ll try a week of day hikes and low key hunting. I may lack a suitable tent but I have boots. We’ll see if that calms the soul.

In the meantime, take care of yourself. Keep the media at bay. Do it for your own health. Don’t give up. 2020 isn’t done with us but there’s hope. Recreational panic is wearing thin in the zeitgeist. In the long run, we may emerge sane.

If you learn nothing else from 2020 (a year which is now 23 months long) it’s this:

Propaganda works on you even if you know it’s propaganda.

We’ve all experienced it. You spend all day in a world where the sky is blue and gravity points down. Everything seems normal.

Then the folks in power squat over your house and dump propaganda through electronic devices* into your mind. It’s a brutal assault!

Some pinhead on TV says that virtually every voter in creation wants free shit from the government and they’ll burn their own neighborhood to get it. You’re reminded that this is a good thing. Your vote is important, unless you vote wrong, in which case it’s bad. Morality is outdated. God is dead. Earning things is bad. Having them granted to you is good.

Ads feature lesbian plumbers, black fly fishermen, and everyone who doesn’t buy a particular product is racist. Subarus are made of love and electric cars run on magic. Every corporation loves you. Every fictional CEO is a white male amoral monster. Every actual CEO wants to fix your bad mentality. The former spends his spare time tying widows to train tracks and and the latter is saving dolphins from climate change. Politicians accused of sexually assaulting empowered women who are completely helpless is sorted based on party. Believe all women, unless they accuse a Clinton.

Your sports team is taking a knee for… you have no idea. Their name is racist, millionaire players are victims, and they play in a stadium named by a corporation that’s morally superior to you.

The president announces a huge infrastructure bill is “free”. The “press” nods in agreement like they actually believe it. If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. Enjoy your $2100 savings.

Facebook labels any doubt about any pronouncement by any bureaucracy “misinformation”. Nobody’s fat on Instagram.

Your kid’s homework would make RuPaul queasy. You examine closely and realize your kid’s teacher is nearly illiterate. Any kid that takes this shit seriously is going to become a basket case and your kid will be there for 13 years. You start to panic and you’re called a domestic terrorist because you questioned the numbskull education majors that march in great herds.

Arson is peaceful protest. Speech you might agree with is violence. Violence against someone like you is free speech.

“News” tells you that inflation doesn’t exist, store shelves are not empty, the climate is affected by tax policy, a zillion illegal immigrants is going to improve your life, and worrying about your winter heating bill means you hate nature.

You’re told that printing unlimited money is just fine. You’re told that parking a $60,000 car in front of a $400,000 house is completely normal. You’re told that it’s completely normal that you’ve financed them all.

Then… the clock ticks and it’s minute two.

It’s relentless. It never ends. Each glimmer of truth comes with a truckload of lies.

The whole situation was designed. It serves a purpose. It’s targeted and delivered by the truckload. Lies this pervasive and endless are almost irresistible. They percolate through the most armored mind and take root in a weary soul.

Soon you feel despondent. Everything is hopeless. This is the new normal. It’ll never get better. You’ve become demoralized… as was intended.

The miasma of failure is a dense fog. It interferes with your thinking. From within, you cannot navigate out. As was also intended.

The best solution to this is a great big laugh. It’s all ridiculous. Quit taking any of it seriously because not a damn part is true or real. Once you step out of the onslaught you see how dumb it is. Under the earth’s true sun, you see the horizon again. Up is once again up. Down is once again down. Anytime you laugh it breaks the spell.

The defeat for evil is not hate… it is mockery.

The thing bullies and tyrants fear most is being made fun of. They don’t fear war, famine, and death… they fear being ridiculed. They fear it because it exposes them as what they are… empty failures.

Which brings me to this:

“I must admit it. I must come clean. I try turning myself over to the better angels of my nature, but I don’t know if they will have any luck, because I am 100%, prime time, on board the “Let’s Go Brandon!” bandwagon.”

When I’m feeling down, nothing warms my heart more than a good loud round of Fuck You Biden (or the PG version, Lets Go Brandon). That’s not the sound of crass misery, it’s the sound of American Citizens acting with the irreverence and spirit that marks a free people. Humor, as much as guns and laws, is what made our nation free. Without it, we are already in chains.

The power of humor to defeat asinine bastards is as old as time. Remember this?

I’ll also point you to one of my favorite blogs, The Ultimate Answer To Kings:

“It finally came to me – and that’s when I abandoned the city and most of my stuff, and gave all that was behind me a good stiff Randian Shrug.

The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.”

Also, I’m working on my contribution to humor. I’m 3/4 of the way through a book. It’s a combination satirical allegory and my unified field theory of the most powerful force in the universe: bullshit. Feel free to read the as yet unfinished but definitely not forgotten Attack Of The Lesbian Activist Squirrels.

Whenever modern politics gets you down, just chuckle and say “Let’s Go Brandon”.

A.C.

*While 99% of propaganda is delivered by electronic devices, it’s harder to dodge them than you think. I will go days and weeks without media or internet only to get nuked by society the instant I make contact. Unless you’re Amish, you don’t have a society free of propaganda in which to take refuge. You’ll be surrounded by people in the thrall of electronic “media” and they’re hooked deeply. They’re junkies. They can’t quit. When a junkie meets a person who’s “clean” (like yours truly at times) they are programmed to download everything… and they will… instantly! They literally cannot help themselves. If there’s a popular show they’ll turn into a Meat Tivo and tell you the plot… as if you somehow don’t have the ability to watch TV if you want. They’ll repeat CNN talking points or what they heard on NPR as if it’s vitally important you know the same bullshit that was crammed onto their tiny little hard drive. This isn’t by accident and it’s very distinctive behavior. One example; I could not avoid listening to a dozen recounts of “Game Of Thrones” from HBO. I don’t have HBO and I didn’t want some yo-yo’s rendition. I’d read the fucking books. It didn’t help. I couldn’t stop them. They couldn’t stop themselves.

(P.S. This post’s title is in honor of the American Revolutionary War’s Continental Navy captain John Paul Jones. During a pitched sea battle, he was taunted by British Captain Richard Pearson. Pearson asked “Has your ship struck?” Jones replied “I have not yet begun to fight!” As banter goes I’ll give that 3 out of 4 Klingons, an honorary Churchill cigar, and a Viking seal of approval. Within 12 hours, after a desperate battle, Pearson surrendered. Jones took Pearson’s ship. This is fortunate because the American’s ship was mortally wounded and sunk before it could be repaired.)

The Forty-Five has an interesting observation:

”I have learned silence because I have come to accept the twin facts that I have no power to change a person’s mind and that events are much farther along the path than what people believe them to be.”

I too have had such a change in my demeanor. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one. I’m not perfect. I fail to keep quiet at times (I’m a blogger after all) but I’ve generally intended to do so.

For example, earlier eras on my blog included discussion of economic issues which interested me. Now, years later, I see vignettes of brewing coffee by a campfire as more “important”. Why? Because the die is cast. The choice is in the rear view mirror and all that’s left is to adapt to the inevitable effects. If adaptation takes the form of a grouse hunt or campfire coffee who is to say that’s the incorrect path?

Thus, it’s the second part of Forty-Five’s observation that resonates with me. There was a time when this or that policy threatened bad outcomes. That time is over. The policy has been done. What “might” result from unwise potential choices now “must” result from unwise concrete actions.

There’s no point bemoaning the inevitable, unavoidable, obvious,  clear, deserved results at hand. Faffing about in 2021 that shortages or inflation “might” be an “unexpected” occurrence is just displaying one’s deliberate (and often feigned) ignorance. Folks that somehow missed the cause are either unreceptive to a discussion about causes or absolutely livid at the suggestion we make our own fate.

Shortages and whatnot were more or less intentionally created. They’re already in evidence. Why discuss it with folks that are still trying to deny that which they created?

That is not to say we’re all doomed. Only that it’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness. Do the right thing for your soul and those you love, even if the world burns. I hope to emphasize camping and squirrel stories in the future. It seems so much saner than emulating CNN or Facebook as they fret over newly discovered reasons why shelves are “unexpectedly” empty.

Cliffs Notes Version: Hollywood Didn’t Fuck Up: The new Dune movie is good. I know! I’m as surprised at you! I didn’t expect anything good from the wretched hive of scum and villainy (or woke and stupid) that Hollywood has become.

Somehow a miracle happened. Hollywood pulled it’s head out of its ass! It managed to make a movie that wasn’t stupid, trite, preachy, woke, repetitive, or retarded. Honestly, I’m shocked. I’d resigned myself to never seeing decent movies as an art form ever again. Dune rekindled a bit of hope. It’s the first Hollywood production in years that didn’t leave me feeling intellectually insulted and almost violated in it’s failure to deliver.

It’s a good movie. It’s actually a great movie. It’s art. It was nice to see art again!

Slightly Longer Version: The Source Material Is Superlative: Frank Herbert’s Dune is one of my favorite books. It’s excellent! I read the book back when normal people (or at least nerds like me) read books. This summer, I read it again. It had all the magic it had before. A timeless book, well written, by an author who knew his craft.

Dune is so good that it would never get published in our current dipshit world. In case you haven’t noticed, science fiction went full retard decades ago. Censored, trite, woke, groupthink held the entire genre underwater until it stopped kicking. Then it took a shit on the corpse. All that remains is stupid derivative insulting shit. Even as I reflect on the spectacular success that is this new movie, I see that its excellence is because it closely followed a book written in 1965. That’s 56 years ago! Are there equally excellent books in 2021? NO!

Like all good books, it’s a better book than a movie… and always will be. Why? Because books are better than movies. You may have a different opinion. If so, you’re wrong.

If you haven’t read the book, drop what you’re doing and read it. Yes, read. It won’t hurt you. It might do you some good. As the wise man said, “Read a book, read a book, read a  motherfucking book!”

Here’s the link to the book. >>>READ THIS BOOK<<< (Amazon requires me to point out that I get a haypenny if you buy from the link. They might think my link to a 56 year old book is part of my clever plan for massive financial gain through duplicity? Now that  you’ve been informed of my fiscal biases, you can evaluate if I’m recommending it as a great book or because I’m a shitty marketer.)

Warning: Dune is meant for intelligent people. It has world building that’s epic and thoughtful. It has great arcs of time and space. It has character development. It grapples with everything from the nature of God to predestination. It’s more nuanced than “Fifty Shades of Harry Potter’s Hunger Games” or whatever other drivel publishers are currently excreting from their nether regions onto the virtual page.

Buy the book. Sit in a comfy chair. Read.

Some Minor Commentary About The Movie: Movie criticism is not my gig and I’m deliberately avoiding spoilers for those unfortunate souls who haven’t read the book (losers!). I’ll just mention a few things:

1. It’s slow: Not slow as in plodding but slow as in proper depth for a true work of art. It’s meant to be watched by thoughtful adults. It’s going to be a hill to climb for generations who’ve been warped into chimps with the attention span of a gnat. The main characters ponder their fate, they stare off into the gorgeous landscape, the plot is given time to unfold. It’s wonderful! It’s not a 90 minute “twits in tights” superhero retread. Adjust your expectations to bask in a movie that takes its time. (As a practical note, if you see it in the theaters, don’t drink a kidney buster extra large soda in the first few minutes.)
2. It demonstrates why CGI exists: I’m sick of special effects made for the purpose of making special effects. If I wanted to see a video game, I’d get a video game. It’s refreshing to see a movie that uses effects to enhance storytelling and not cover up the lack of plot.
3. You should have read the book but if you didn’t it’s OK: If you read the book, you’ll better appreciate the movie. However, the movie is perfectly understandable to a person who didn’t read the book. I’m impressed they managed that. One of many failings of the Lynch Dune movie of 1984 is that David Lynch tried to cover too much. I liked it well enough but viewers of the ignorant and sad variety who hadn’t read the source material (losers!) were completely baffled. They probably focused on Sting prancing around like a skinny gay weirdo and dismissed the rest. The modern effort benefits from years of Hollywood generating “series”. They took half the book and ditched it. Lynch didn’t have that option. Thus, the new movie has time to properly explore the first half rather than a race to check all the boxes in a very deep plot.
4. It just ends: The book is huge. It covers massive arcs or time, plot, worldbuilding, and thoughtfully staring at sand wondering what it all means. One movie to cover it all would be either abridged or confusing. (Sorry Lynch, you tried.) There’s no perfect place to stop, so they did their best. It’s fine. It couldn’t go on forever and I like where they stopped. It’s a bit jarring if you thought need a conclusion that wraps it all up with a bow. I like it. Life doesn’t wrap up with a bow either. Well done!
5. The soyboy did well: Paul Atreides is a young man still developing his skills but also a Duke’s son and a Bene Gesserit genetic timebomb. Destined, trained, and literally bred for a vicious society, he is an spiritual, physical, and mental warrior. Paul is written as if he can beat you at chess while sliding a knife in your back. He can kick your ass in a fight using the Weirding Way or simply because he was raised for a world where the son of a Duke may be assassinated on any given Tuesday. He can pilot a craft, manipulate minds, probe the future, and fight like a spell casting death machine. The plot foreshadows his ultimate fate as the Kwisatz Haderach; tragically destined to unleash war upon all living things. For this mighty role, they cast Timothée Hal Chalamet. Chalamet looks as imposing as a newborn kitten. I’ve taken shits that look tougher than that boy! I expected the worst. However, Mr. Chalamet somehow pulled it off. It had to be acting because it sure wasn’t physical presence. Well done sir! (Note: The movie doesn’t mention Paul’s Mentat abilities. A wise choice as it was unnecessary to the story in this form.)
6. Chani was miscast but didn’t ruin the movie: Keep a muzzle on her! Chani Kynes is supposed to be a fully realized Fremen; a night stalking, worm riding, desert dwelling, killer nomad. She’s meant to be so awesome that she can be the future concubine of the Kwisatz Haderach. For this weighty role, they cast some dipshit called Zendaya. Zendaya has one name; like Cher, or Oprah, or dogshit. She’s beautiful and can stare with smoky intensity… which is all she seems capable of doing. Thank God, they only gave her a few lines! Because she did so little, she was adequate. When they make Part 2, they need to hire a team of acting coaches and outfit Zendaya with a shock collar set on electrocute. By keeping keeping her screen time more on the level of a model than an actor, they kept the movie solid. For Part 2, they’ll have to stick with it. Zendaya won’t level up in screen presence. If they give her too much work she’s going to be a trash can painted in the background of the Mona Lisa.
7. Big screen? Meh: Everyone says “watch it on the big screen to experience the full glory”. I think they’re repeating an old wisdom that has faded. It made sense when people were trying to watch Laurence of Arabia on a 15″ RCA with color washout. Times have changed. Your household TV is better than what a millionaire would have in 1980. Also, you can pause to take a leak if you were dumb enough to drink a big gulp in the opening credits.
8. The score was excellent: It was weird and gorgeous. I have no idea who did the music but they went all out. It’s like they bred a bagpipe with a Theremin, fed an opera singer some LSD, and then dropped them both out of a plane. They probably recorded the whole thing backwards and underwater. It was eerie when it needed to be eerie, resplendent when it need to be resplendent, and imposing when it needed to smack the visuals down a bit. Perfect!
9. I have nothing more to say: Stop reading my dumb blog and go watch it. Also, READ THE BOOK!

Filthie (who I read every day and you should too) recently mentioned his desire for a coffee percolator. This is one of my favorite topics! I’m sick of bullshit and pearl clutching Covid ninnies, so I decided to riff off of Filthie’s coffee meanderings. I hope he doesn’t mind.

I have a percolator so my life is complete. You can have one too. Here’s the Curmudgeon way to find your coffee happy place.

Step 1: Completely abandon society.

Just say “fuck it”. Take a good look at every dumb thing out there and mutter “not my circus, not my monkeys”.

Then fire up whatever vehicle you’ve got and go to where you need to be. Trucks, motorcycles, ATVs, horses, snowmobiles, reindeer, hovercraft, boats, canoes, and teleportation are all reasonable ways to get there. Walk if you have to.

It’s a proven fact. Coffee tastes better while camping.

Step 2: Gather wood.

This is recreation coffee! This is not “slurp it on your way to the rat race” coffee. Therefore, it must be heated on something that puts soot on the percolator. That means “no propane, no electricity”. Say it with the tone Leon uses to say “no women, no kids.”

Ideally, use a Sequoia you felled with a stone axe. In the interest of reasonableness we must allow exceptions. If I’m in a State Park, I use pallet wood. I always carry a trash can of pallet wood in my truck. I’m that classy!

Step 3: Light (and contain!) a fire.

Ideally you’d make a 6′ diameter bonfire surrounded by a self built mini-Stonehenge. However, campgrounds frown on it. Also this whole summer had ridiculously high fire danger and nuking nature through carelessness is poor form.

I use and recommend a Redcamp Wood Burning Folding Camp Stove. (The cretins at Amazon require I explicitly state that I get a tiny kickback if you buy from this link. I have no idea how any human made it this far without knowing how Amazon links work but it is what it is. Yes, I get a tuppence if you buy from the link. However, it’s a product I like and recommend because I’ve used the hell out of mine and been pleased. I also promise to squander my massive theoretical profits on more campouts.)

Ideally the folding firebox got there while strapped to the front of a motorcycle. I’m a reasonable man, so a Dodge will do in a pinch.

Step 4: Spend hours relaxing.

Park your ass in nature and enjoy. Pretend that coating the percolator in soot is your calling in life. (Maybe it is!) Brew several pots of coffee. If possible, mix it with whiskey. (Skip that last step if you’re going to be sailing, hunting, trail riding, or doing advanced math in the near future.)

Here’s a photo from a campout this summer. Is that not a vision of heaven?