This one is mainly for Maxine and Tee as per the animals and for Brian Downey as per the physics. But others should like it as well.
I’m always struck by how this thing we call CONSCIOUSNESS is so UNCONSCIOUS of SO MUCH. My working hypothesis is that HUMANCONSCIOUSNESS is at the very SHARP TIP of an ENORMOUS UNCONSCIOUS ICEBERG.
The phenomena that allow animals to find their way suggests to me that the study of FIELD THEORY PHYSICS may have a FIELD THEORY AWARENESS component that could lead to a deeper understanding of both PHYSICS and AWARENESS.
And, of course, a greater understanding of their PROBABLE INTERLOCKING RELATIONSHIP would be PROFOUND. I can see the MONOGRAPH now. FIELDS OF AWARENESS.
In the meantime, check this one out. It’s an INSTRUCTIVE, EYE-OPENING READ.
In Church
The severed sermon's
Sanctity,
The coughing priest's regret,
The congregation's
Empathy,
The ones who haven't left,
The martyrdom of
Misery,
The boredom in the pews,
The bloodied Christ of
Christendom,
The God I once refused.
The women in their
Flowered hats,
The shock of thick perfume,
A nagging sense of
Tedium,
The ushers nicely groomed,
The angled light through
Colored glass,
In pieces joined with lead,
My father in his
Bluest suit,
My mother home in bed.
The random reach of
Happenstance,
The wage of idle sin,
The levered weight of
Circumstance,
The rage that burns within,
The fervent hearts of
Immigrants,
The soul too long abused,
The seldom missed
Confessional,
The God I still refuse.
JAD, 2021
Drained
COVID-Christmas cadences
Confined to hollow chants,
To verses all but
Colorless
Beneath this hail of germs –
Are taunting me with
Spinning sounds
That have no need of words;
Haunting claims I lack the nerve –
The grace – to grasp good will.
I’ve woken lately,
Flayed in sleep,
By syllables run riot,
Where sitting up
Risked vertigo,
Yet stopped the ruckus cold.
What of Christmas quarantined;
Of mulling death, not wine;
Of symbols drained of meaning;
Of Christmas yet to come?
JAD, 2021
A professor at the University of California-Riverside tweeted in January 2021 claiming that Zionism has “politically toxified our schools.”
Dylan Rodriguez tweeted, “most California public education administrators don’t understand how Zionism politically toxified our schools and curricula. It prevents us from teaching historical material about entire populations. This must not continue.”
TUDOR PLACE:COMPLETE NONSENSE. SAY WHAT YOU WILL ABOUT ZIONISM ONE WAY OR THE OTHER, IT HASN’T POLTICALLY TOXIFIED ANYTHING. YOU CAN BE FOR IT, AGAINST IT OR IGNORE IT. IN NO CASE, ARE YOU IN DANGER OF BEING POISONED BY IT.
A professor at Iowa State University allegedly tweeted in February 2021 that she limits her interactions “with yt people as much as possible.”
Rita Mookerjee tweeted “Lately, I try to limit my interactions with yt people as much as possible. I can’t with the self-importance and performance esp during Black History Month.”
TUDOR PLACE: GEE, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO INCLUSIVENESS? IS IT MERELY A ONE WAY STREET? YOU GET TO COME IN AND HAVE THE RUN OF MY HOUSE, BUT YOUR HOUSE IS OFF LIMITS TO ME? A LITTLE SELF-SERVING, NO?
The dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University tweeted in June 2021 celebrating Bill Cosby’s release from a Pennsylvania prison.
Phylicia Rashad, who is also an actress, said in a since-deleted tweet, “FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!”
Rashad, who played Cosby’s fictional wife on The Cosby Show, immediately received criticism for her “insensitive and disrespectful” comments.
Rashad then tweeted “I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth. Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing.”
TUDOR PLACE: RASHAD SHOULD TEACH A COURSE IN TALKING OUT OF BOTH SIDES OF HER MOUTH. YOU CAN’T ALWAYS BE A WOKE ANTI-RACIST AND A WOKE FEMINIST AT THE SAME TIME, CAN YOU PHYLICIA? NOT TO BE TOO POINTED HERE, BUT IN THIS INSTANCE, IT MAKES YOU A HYPOCRITE.
A professor at the University of Massachusetts tweeted in April 2021 claiming that higher education institutions have “too many conservatives” on campus.
Asheesh Kapur Siddique tweeted “The problem with academia today is that it has too many conservatives. They run the university. They sit in admin & on university boards enforcing manufactured austerity, combating unionization, & casualizing most of the professoriate.”
He also added that “those who think that the ideological character of the university can be discerned by the political leanings of its faculty betray a fundamental misunderstanding of how institutions work. You have to look at management, not labor.”
TUDOR PLACE: MY SUGGESTION TO PROFESSOR SIDDIQUE IS THAT HE FIRST LEARN HOW TO LOOK, PERIOD. THE WOKE POLICIES BEING IMPLEMENTED IN UNIVERSITIES IN THE US AND CANADA ARE ALL FORMULATED BY ADMINISTRATORS. AS FOR CONSERVATIVES ON CAMPUSES, THEY’RE AN ENDANGERED SPECIES.
A professor at Riverside City College tweeted in June 2021 defending Joseph Stalin and saying he was one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century, citing the dictator’s contributions to Marxism.
Asatar Bair tweeted, “People say I ‘idolize’ Stalin. Not true, I hold a fair and balanced view. The man was neither savior nor saint, but he was, at once, a very successful revolutionary, a great contributor to Marxist theory, and said to be a great listener and collaborator during discussions.”
Bair also added that he “would certainly conclude that he is one of the great leaders of the 20th century] though.”
TUDOR PLACE: HARD TO BEAT THIS ONE FOR SHEER IDIOCY. STALIN LIKELY WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATHS OF MORE PEOPLE THAN HITLER, INCLUDING MUCH OF BOTH THE SOVIET SENIOR BUREAUCRACY AND THE MILITARY’S OFFICER CLASS. HE RANKS WITH HITLER, MAO AND POL POT AS ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST MURDEROUS LEADERS. WHERE IS THE “BALANCE” IN THAT, PROFESSOR BAIR?
An adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa and a Canadian Lawyer tweeted in June 2021 endorsing sex work for “young people” calling it “the best thing” they can do early in their careers.
Naomi Sayers tweeted, “unpopular opinion: the best thing young people can do early in their careers is do #SexWork on the side because your early career prospects will be unstable, unpredictable, low pay, likely contract work and very much exploitative.”
She then addressed the idea of sex work being exploitative by comparing it to capitalism.
“That’s how capitalism works… People out here saying young people can be exploited in sex work. Literally, that’s capitalism. Lol. And quite literally, that’s any kind of work.”
TUDOR PLACE: MS. SAYERS SHOULD NOT GO INTO CAREER COUNSELING. REALLY, “THE BEST THING YOUNG PEOPLE CAN DO EARLY IN THEIR CAREERS” IS SEX WORK? NO ISSUES WITH STD’S, AIDS, ABUSE, PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE AND/OR INTENSIFICATION OF ALREADY EXISTING PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES? AND IF MS. SAYERS IS OR WERE A PARENT, IS THIS THE ADVICE SHE GIVES OR WOULD GIVE HER OWN CHILDREN? THIS WOMAN HASN’T LEFT ADOLESCENCE HERSELF.
HONESTLY, CAN YOU BELIEVE THESE CLOWNS? AND THAT THEY’RE ON THE ACADEMIC FRONT LINES MOLDING THE MINDS OF OUR ALREADY NAIVE AND VULNERABLY UNDEREDCUATED YOUNG PEOPLE?
Pet Shop Boys was, no question, the premier pop duo of the 80’s and 90’s. But they were also much more. I saw them, in fact — and still do — as legitimate postmodern social critics. And their artistry as a form of LITERATURE.
Their blending of words and music has been CONSISTENTLY CAPTIVATING, while their stage performances — one of which I saw in New York — are RENOWNED for their inventiveness and irony.
What’s always come through is their LOVE OF BOTH THE WORLD and the PEOPLE IN IT — even as they’ve never shrunk from depicting both our failings and the often twisted conditions we either fall victim to or cause.
There is irony, joy, compassion, humanity, banality, lust, resignation and even tragedy in these videos, the musical and lyrical quality of which speak for themselves.
Like any body of work, Pet Shop Boys’ is a journey through a society over time. A society you, in fact, may better understand after viewing these videos. It’s certainly been the case for me. And, after all, I haven’t missed much.
How free is YOUR economy? As free as those of the ANGLOSPHERE?
Many have questioned why I’m so big a proponent of the ANGLOSPHERE. Besides its accounting for about 50% of my GENETIC MAKEUP — if you count ALL of Ireland which one should — it’s STILL the FREESEST ECONOMIC GROUP OF COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD. Even the NORDICS CAN’T TOUCH IT.
Why IS this? Simple. The ANGLO-AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM, the whole POINT of which is to FACILITATE FREEDOM, TRADE and ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. And it’s been an ONGOING PROJECT since MAGNA CARTA in 1215.
And, yes, it’s also the reason for over a century of ANGLOSPHERIC FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC DOMINANCE.
NO MEAN FEAT.
To help illustrate this, first, check out this GLOBAL ECONOMIC FREEDOM GRAPHIC:
Now, here are the ANGLOSPHERE vs. NORDIC RANKINGS:
Anglosphere
New Zealand 83.9
Australia — 82.4
Ireland — 81.4
United Kingdom — 78.4
Canada — 77.9
US — 74.8
Nordics
Denmark — 77.8
Iceland (not shown) — 77.4
Finland — 76.1
Sweden — 74.7
Norway — 73.4
And even if one includes almost-Nordic but still Baltic Estonia with its impressive 78.2, the Anglosphere still wins HANDILY.
Next, to a) how all of this is MEASURED and b) how the rest of the world shapes up:
MEASURES OF ECONOMIC FREEDOM
Size of Government
Legal System and Property Rights
Sound Money
Freedom to Trade Internationally
Regulation
ECONOMIC FREEDOM BY REGION
The three most economically free countries in the Western Hemisphere are Canada, Chile and the US. Sadly, the US has slipped a bit.
Leading the way in Europe are Switzerland, the ANGLOSPHERIC UK & Ireland, the Baltics, the Nordics, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Bulgaria and Belgium.
In Africa, Rwanda’s 68.3 is as good as it gets on the mainland; while tiny offshore Mauritius logs in with an impressive 77.0. That’s better, by the way, than the US and a host of other developed first-world countries.
In this perennially most fractious part of the world, there are both the usual winners and states that have difficulty functioning. The former include Georgia, U.A.E., Israel, Qatar, Armenia, Cyprus, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
East Asia is on par with Europe and as such comprises one of the world’s two FREEST ECONOMIC ZONES. And it’s still the case even if you leave out Oceania which consists of the Anglosphere’s Australia and New Zealand.
Singapore with its startling 89.7 leads the parade followed by Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea.
CONCLUSION
The world is continuing to develop — and in an ever more multipolar way. Will this continue given the precarious frailty of the LARGELY MAKE-BELIEVE FINANCIAL SYSTEM and the PREMATURE PUSH into “GREEN ENERGY?” Honestly, I CAN’T SEE HOW.
So, enjoy what WE HAVE NOW for however longer WE HAVE IT. We may very well be on a steep DOWNSLOPE and moving at DIZZYING SPEED.
With that in mind, HAVE A HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR!
This song commemorates those who perished in the AIDS pandemic.
We’re at that point again. Those who perish, those who survive. But then, WE’RE ALWAYS AT THAT POINT. Too bad we only notice when the LIFE/DEATH CYCLE accelerates.
But no worries. This anthemic piece by a duo probably more anthemic than any pop act in history reflects more wisdom than most of us have encountered in a VERY LONG TIME.
Listen to the words. Listen to the music. It’s as appropriate a song for THIS HOLIDAY SEASON as I could find.
Tudor Place 