Category: Uncategorized

We are not in accord with those, exasperated, fellow Americans, who feel that all possible questions have been asked,  regarding the unprecedented, “storming of the Bastille,” on January 6, at the Washington Capitol Building. Popularly known inquiry has dealt with: the invitation to the violent protesters by the defeated Trump, the manufactured belief in purported election fraud, the eternal pathology of ignorant reductionism and racial and religious prejudice, the perennial existence of an ignorant, poorly educated and discontented citizen underbelly, the bizarre inclination to indulge in paranoidal and irrational conspiracy theory, the subject of the neurotic need for participation in tribalism and “groupthink,” religious and political extremism, personal self-interest, the inspired illusion of faux patriotism, general disappointment with personal life, hooliganism and anti-social motivations, and conceivably, other personally nuanced subjects, presently in the realm of popular discussion.

The matters listed above are worthy of consideration and comprehension to the extent that they address the various possibile motivations of the insurrectionists. However, we do apprehend useful, but unraised, questions relating to the reactive private impact on the individual participants, of the mob’s adoption of  “The Big Lie,” its avowed disrespect for demonstrated and objective truth and its ready inclination to easy acceptance of paranoidal conspiracy theories. The miscreant mob, itself, has been the subject of socio-political study since the violent event; nevertheless, we have fundamental, unexplored questions on the routine life and daily social relationships, of its unruly participants.

In our view, the most intriguing questions relate to the accepted, existentially important element of “truth.”  Early human society could not have survived without truthful communication, and neither can contemporary society.  Paleolithic reliance upon accurate information, concerning danger, food and water sources and, as well, on newly developing skills, has historically kept man singly, and as a conjoined tribe, both alive and progressive. It is an empirical fact that the implied assumption of truthfulness, has eternally and universally, been a fundamental axiom in the dynamics of society and an existential ingredient of its interpersonal speech.

General societal mores, like “truthfulness,” have been traditionally reinforced by tales and legend. The following are summaries of two such  tales, on the vital significance of truthfulness and moral behavior:

[American] “The Cherry Tree.”  [Truth] This apocryphal legend concerned our first President, George Washington. The story is that G.W., when but a youngster, impulsively, committed the egregious act of chopping down his family’s beloved cherry tree.  Despite his expectation of a sound thrashing and perhaps other punitive treatment, he fearfully, and honestly approached his father and said: “Father, I cannot tell a lie, I chopped down the cherry tree.” The tale relates that, rather than being punished for his thoughtless deed, his father rewarded him for his honesty.

[International] Pinocchio [ Falsehood]. The wooden protagonist, a puppet named Pinocchio, as retribution for the venal sin of telling an intentional falsehood, to his puppet-making father, Geppetto, suffers the ignominious punishment of a greatly extended wooden nose.

There is little question but that the bearers of the directional, avion-like title, “The Right Wing,” known and acknowledged to be apt practitioners of false conspiracy theories and “alternate facts,” are familiar with such traditional children’s morality tales and their expressions of societal reproval of mendacity.  Yet, any generous measure of  rationality, militates against credibility in their irrational constructs and faith in conspiracies, such as: that Israel is shooting laser beams at Planet Earth from Outer Space, that both American latitudinal coasts are inhabited by socialistic hippies, that the Founders intended to create a ”Christian” Democracy, that Columbus first discovered America, that Jews, funded by Soros, are out to dominate the world, that Chinese people are responsible for the Covid-19 outbreak, that liberals are in the child slave trade and are child molesters, that[ like Hitler] the pure white race is being “mongrelized” by darker skin races, that immigration is a dangerous invasion of disreputable people,[ despite the fact that our successful Nation is composed 100% of  immigrants and their descendants] that the Trump elective loss to Biden was fraudulent, despite several accredited audit reports to the contrary, that Anglo Saxon citizens and their descendants are the American elite [despite the fact that relatively few, if any,“ Anglo-Saxons” populate our Nation], that government programs of assistance and compassionate capitalism are in actuality, “dreaded socialism,” [despite the fact that they, happily, accept the benefits of such programs], that the entire population of coastal America is elitist, left-wing intellectual snobs, that the teaching of American History, should expunge its past history of cruel treatment of Black People and Native Americans, that the popular American vote should be racially culled, and so on, ad nauseum, into the dense mist of  bedlam-grade lunacy.

What, thematically, puzzles us, is the query as to what extent, far right Trump sycophants, readily inclined to displace empirical reality with “alternative facts,” and to construe “sci-fi” conspiracies to serve their personal dogma, utilize such tactical practices in their private lives? Or, alternatively, do they have a compartmental mindset or some non-computerized “App.” to switch to standards of societal acceptability, at home, with their family and friends. The most intriguing of all the unasked questions, referred to, is: are such phenomena, the product of innate nuance of the persona, or is it a volitional dynamic of convenient choice?

If we were permitted to hazard a guess, our best assumption would be that, at instances when these practitioners of “alt facts ” and far-fetched conspiracy delusions, are at home, en famille, or with relatives and friends, there is an intentional morphing, or transmogrification of [elsewhere] avowed delusional belief and tactical portrayal of persona, which, in a non-political context, is more centered and credibly, mainstream. One assumes that family members do not programmatically exchange intentionally false, alternate facts, nor expect the same of other family members, co-workers, or friends. A self-indulgent child is expected to honestly own up to having eaten all the chocolate donuts, the mother’s information concerning the price of seafood or her new dress is accepted as truthful. No fictional conspiracy theories are necessary to maintain that teachers are underpaid, or professional athletes, by comparison, overpaid, or explain a sudden change in the local school bus route, a new admission cost of movies, or the rising price of good bread. When complete reliance is not possible, family and civilized society are empirically impossible.

Upon the practical, but generous, assumption that many Republican legislators and citizens have sufficient personal sanity, to privately, recognize the acceptability of three professional audits certifying the accuracy and propriety of Biden’s win [or more to the point, Trump’s loss] or that inconvenient facts, in reality, do not become, ipso facto, false, decry the pathological inaccuracy of assertions that Israel is shooting laser beams from outer space down at Earth, that liberals are child abusers and engage in the child slave trade.

The unaddressed questions refer to the arcane dynamics of individual Jekyll-Hyde transformation, when in non-public, familial, or mundane setting. Does one change theatrical masks, as in ancient Greek or Japanese drama, or, as in Marvel comics, remove the Super-Hero costume in a telephone booth when not pursuing villains in Gotham City, or conveniently shed his skin like a snake? If our supposition of duality is correct, the schizophrenic morphing must be inconvenient and injurious to the self- image of the tactical “shape shifter.” Questions as to its dynamics and the extent of its cost to the persona of this tactical duality have yet to be raised and pursued.

-p.

        

At this time of disquiet and unprecedented threats to democracy, radical right-wing insurgency, and National discord, it might be a respite to consider man’s eternally tranquil but often bypassed, treasure trove of poetry. An eternally available oasis of meditative pleasure, poetry has been readily accessible to every citizen, irrespective of diverse stripe, and solely demanding the requirement of literacy. We can guarantee the singular virtues and rare pleasure derived from the reading of authentic poetry [as opposed to its faux presentations.] We will list the defining and fundamental criteria of authentic poetry, which we derived, and personally adhere to, from our studies of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, colored by the structural influence of the more contemporary, Walt Whitman.

Poetry in its simplest terms is often defined as a literary work in which special interest is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of structure, style and rhythm. Another proffered description describes it as a concentrated, imaginative description of experience or emotional response, employing sensitively employed language, arranged for meaning, sound and style. We would prefer to describe it more descriptively and functionally, as the distillation or refinement of the poet’s experience or emotional reaction to the ambient content of reality [like the derivation of the essential mineral from its ambient ore]. It is a private, microscopic experience in concentration as effectively and functionally revelatory as, a held lantern in a darkened room.

As devotees and, veritable poetic evangelists, of Coleridge, we would instructively restate his basic premise or essential criteria, regarding poetry, which we consider no less than, definitional. Coleridge prescribed as the salient [and mandatory] features of poetry “word imagery and “economy of speech.” Most often, but not exclusively, these criteria are successfully accomplished by the artistic choice of metaphor, communicating the fundamental essence of the described subject by a familiar abstraction. We would offer the following example in illustration: In lieu of the expression of several lines of emotionally worded description of a beautiful young granddaughter, one might, economically and descriptively,[ i.e., poetically] refer to her as a “red rosebud on a pile of newly fallen snow.”

Structurally, in aid of procuring the intended response, important considerations, in addition to the thematic and sensitive choice of strategically evocative words, are the important considerations of length of line and impactful meter [rhythm] in the conveying of  the intended sentiment, [ viz., Henry Longfellow’s, “Song of Hiawatha,” Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade.”]   

Regrettably, we have been dismayed at the publication of far too many examples of faux poetry, in today’s print, shockingly, at times, in publications that deservedly enjoy reputations as well-written and erudite. Nevertheless, such offerings, wherever they may appear, in our respectful determination, fall below the most generous standards applicable to legitimate poetics. The use of irregular or bizarre lines of print, or the misleading employment of archaic or obtuse vocabulary, or like, exotic and misleading, alternatives to the legitimate skills of poetry, are inadequate and merely sham. Such writings despite their unexplained appearance, on the pages of estimable publications, thereby purporting to be “gold” [poetry], qualify merely as “fool’s gold” [faux poetry, doggerel].

It is our view that the intimate experience of rare aesthetic  beauty, metaphysical understanding, and, as well, the salutary diversion from the rancorous ambiance of the day, is attainable, only by indulging in authentic verse. The latter, functions effectively, in switching our dormant, sensory perceptions to “On,” and then relevantly focuses the mind’s broad searchlight on matters, aesthetically and intimately expressed, regarding fundamental and metaphysical truth, only expressible through true poetics.

-p.

We confess to an incessant rumination on the frailty and vulnerability of our Democratic Republic, as was once more, demonstrated by recent National events. The success and continued existence of a polity, or government, such as The United States, which desirably incorporates citizen liberty and basic freedoms would be, logically and necessarily, dependent upon the acceptable quality and nature of its citizens. From our historical perspective, [the rare occurrence of] democratic government, has never, itself failed, it appears, rather, to have been the people who failed the government. A most telling example is found in the mega- consequential fall of Germany’s Weimar Republic in the 1930s.

Immediately preceding the catastrophic Nazi take-over in the 1930s, Germany, like America, was a representative democracy, with Executive  [“Chancellor”] Legislative [“Reichstag”] and Judiciary branches. It is illuminating and alarming, to consider the determinative factors which led to the collapse of the short-lived [15 years] German Democratic Republic and its moral and political decline to Nazism. Inasmuch as this writing is specifically concerned with our concern about the frailty and vulnerability of the American Democratic Republic, we will merely list some of the cogent factors which are ascribed by noted historians and political scientists, for said tragic demise of the German Republic,  for the purpose of enlightenment as to analogous hazards, extant in our contemporaneous Nation.

• Hostility towards, and within, Parliament permitting the bypassing of legislation.
• Right-wing undermining of trust in democracy in general, and specifically, in the Weimar government.
•  Significant prevalence of irrational conspiracy theories [viz., losing the war, socialism, liberal and Jewish secret plots, minority degradation, spurious causes for economic depression.]
•  Acceptability of former right-wing leaders’ military leaders retaining power and influence.
• Self-interested financial support of rich and powerful industrialists.
• The rise of an unprincipled and immoral demagogue, having great appeal to the discontented.
• Burning of the Reichstag so that blame could be falsely cast on others in opposition to Nazism.

It is no less exigent than a Hospital’s Code-Blue alarm, to observe and consider the clear, ominous analogy, between the listed factors and our Nation’s present vulnerability. The psychotic nightmare of Hitler’s victory over rationality and morality, are capable of eventual realization by the existence and actions of perverse White Nationalist groups,  the ignorant, wild conspiracy lunatics, the continuing influence of the defeated, autocratic Trump on his numerous and deluded sycophants, including a plethora of self-interested, elected officials [Federal and State], the ugly persistence of bigotry against Black and Jewish communities, disrespect for the vote and other basic institutions of democracy.

Not to be omitted from our grave concern, is the violent insurrection on January 6, 2021, at the United States Capitol in Washington. The unprecedented and ominous attack by several of the nefarious groups of White Christian Supremacists, Trump sycophantic revolutionaries and other deluded reductionists, to, at his express invitation, attempt to overturn Trump’s elective defeat by preventing the joint session of Congress from the delivering of the electoral victory to Joseph Biden. The revolutionary rancor was created by false and tactical conspiratorial claims, [despite three audits confirming its regularity and accuracy] that the election was, as in Trump’s deluded and groundless assertion, “stolen” from him.

Domestic irrational conspiracy theorists, seem to incessantly promote anti-democratic fiction which,  despite the fact that such inclination can be clinically diagnosed as paranoid or schizophrenic, are incredibly unbelievably accepted, by many inadequately informed and poorly educated Trump supporters. It is terrifying to observe this disturbing inclination to irrational mythmaking, in lieu of factual reality, daily reported in the reputable press. The predictable result of the ready acceptance of such Trump-inspired formulation of [delusional] reality is extremely dangerous. Unfortunately, it would appear that the Republican Party, in general, seems, strangely, complicit in this nightmare.

What we find the most maddeningly insupportable is the bizarre realization that the opponents of democracy, like the devious Weimar Nazis, are, insidiously and tactically, using the accepted institutions of our constitutional democracy, to undermine the Democratic Republic.  These miscreants are not  dangerous merely because they pose a potential threat to the existence of our Democratic Republic; indeed, they pose such an existential threat at this very moment.

With the same alacrity required to acknowledge and react to the recognizable symptoms of a heart attack, informed citizens, believing in the principles of American liberty and democracy, are charged by existential necessity and moral responsibility, to acknowledge and sufficiently react to this  forewarning of imminent danger; lest we unwittingly reprise, in our Nation, the evil, 1930’s Nazi program of destruction of the German Weimar Republic.  We see this urgency and existential necessity for immediate action, as fully analogous to the zeal, which would be called fr in the emergency removal of an old, leaky, hazmat tanker truck from the parking space of a Maternity Hospital.

-p.

* Apologies, for the similarity of title, to Charles Dickens, celebrated author of “ A Tale of Two Cities.”

In a past essay, we raised the troubling question: “What do we tell our children?” referring to the existence of the dark periods in American history, like slavery and the ”Trail of Tears” episode relating to Native Americans. We as parents of young schoolchildren found ourselves uncomfortably stuck on the sharp horns of a uniquely troubling, three-horned parental dilemma; the need to be truthful, the need to reinforce the lessons learned at school, and third, our knowledge of the dark periods of American history; the latter, not part of any school curriculum

The history of our Nation has, eternally and exclusively, been presented to young students in a rosy, “Golden Books,” or “Hallmark Cards” context, completely excising the dark periods. It is in later years that many children become aware that America has a less than a perfect score in its morally acceptable history;  the reaction to such new awareness empirically varying with the moral component of the informational source and that of its socialized recipient.

In our case, as parents, we dealt with the uncomfortable dilemma, by simply telling our children, that the United States of America, despite its earned history of moral World leadership, experienced these specific dark periods in its past, which it would not, and legally could never, repeat; regarding which it has been continuously engaged in the ongoing process of amelioration.

A great deal of ignorant hot air has been circulated, by the Trump supporting, bigoted right-wing regarding the inartful named subject of “Critical Race Education,” to the alleged effect that such educational courses will promote further divisiveness, will paint the white race as shamefully bigoted, and will cause unrest resulting in black retaliative violence; none of which is logically supportable.

In order to develop a vaccination against Covid, the dangerous virus, initially, had to be recognized and scientifically understood. By applicable analogy, the recognition and objective study of the existence and nature of black enslavement is vital to its extinction. Right-thinking Americans will not be divided, rather, they will welcome such education; just as they would have ardently supported abolition and now efforts for universal equality. Only hard, obdurate bigots will be in opposition to such a program of enlightenment, intended upon the goal of universal equality and peace. Such teachings may prove to be a way for our Nation to atone for its past mistakes and express assurance of their permanent extinction.

It is possible that the term, “Critical Race Education,” was a somewhat foolish choice. The word “Critical” seems to suggest, ultimate accusation [and perhaps, shame and retribution] which is far from its true purposes viz., understanding and reconciliation. There are many less inciting names like, American Agriculture in  1700 to 1819, The Candid History of early America Agriculture, Racial Relations in Early America, or perhaps, a far better title, which omits reactive words of accusation.

Furthermore, the entire issue surrounding the inclusion of the subject “Critical Race Relations,” [or some more diplomatic name] has not been presented in the proper context. The inclusion of such studies, inarguably, would not entail the “addition” of a new subject to the High School or College teaching curriculum; more accurately presented, it would amount to the “restoration” of a significant subject which had been politically omitted from instruction in American History. To study history for the purpose of not repeating its mistakes, we must deal in reality and avoid the creation of fiction.

It is compellingly instructive, to us, that the Nation of South Africa has successfully undergone an Official Nationwide period of confession and reconciliation, relevant to its past institution of Apartheid, and likewise, the German Republic has officially recognized and admitted its Nation’s past atrocities during the Holocaust [in fact, it has enacted criminal legislation regarding the public expression of related bigotry]. The United States of America, the self-appointed and internationally recognized, avatar and guardian of liberty, could only further enhance its image, by doing likewise.

-p.

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Readers of the celebrated 19^th Century Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen would be familiar with his classic, internationally acclaimed play, “An Enemy of the People.” The play brilliantly and instructively deals with the difficulty of costly, unpopular, and ethical choice over its popular facile, and profitable alternative. In the play, the protagonist, a physician, discovers that the large bathhouse complex, upon which the town derives much of its revenue, is polluted and unhealthy and alerts the local authorities. The town officials, in their overriding interest in the financial impact of closing the important facility, attempt in vain to induce the recalcitrant physician to withdraw his finding.

Ibsen’s play aesthetically deals with the eternal dilemma between moral, but unpopular and costly, choices and the practical impact of their compliance. The principled physician, heroically defying the officials, advocating for the benefit of his fellow townsfolk, is seen as a pariah, or enemy of the people.

In common with all great writers, Ibsen’s message is eternal. His empirical observation as portrayed, concerns mankind’s usual and disappointing tendency, to sidestep moral, uncomfortable, choices, in favor of their facile avoidance.

The Founders of our Democratic Republic chose to eschew the immoral and unjust European history of autocratic rule, inheritance of privilege and an underclass, and create an innovatively just polity in which the citizens were participants, viz., a Democratic Republic. They construed a tri-partite governmental architecture and a federal Constitution protecting the citizens and against interference with their enunciated rights while preserving the sovereignty of the incorporated States. In keeping with the moral consistency of their philosophy, the citizens were given the right to express their will by majority vote and were protective of the rights of the minority. It is indisputable that the definitional essence of the democracy was the franchise of each citizen to vote.

In the interest of historical accuracy, the right of women and black citizens to vote was not established until two decades later. Empirically, the  Nation is still progressing, albeit slowly, after its past nightmare of the enslavement of black people, toward the goal of universal equality. Today, all Americans over the age of eighteen, have the right to vote, for the candidate or law of their choice, thereby implementing the historically intended, “rule by and for the people.”

Revisiting our previous reference to the distinguished playwright, Ibsen and his work, “Enemy of the People,” we have disappointingly observed, in many of our elected officials, the analogous operation of the classic dynamic of tactically avoiding the choice of moral responsibility and suitable action, in favor of the facile alternative of personal benefit. We will explain.

Since the election of Donald J. Trump, and most visibly, since his merciful defeat, [after one disastrous four-year term], the human [flawed] inclination, theatrically portrayed by Ibsen, has grown from being fearfully perceptible to a tragically encompassing full metastasis. The unexpected Presidential victory of this ignorant, ego-neurotic miscreant had been brought about by three factors. The apparent dislike of the democratic opponent, the unprecedented support of what we have denominated, “the underbelly of the Nation” [the semi-literate, ignorant, bigoted, discontented], perceiving a responsive identity to him, and vulnerable to his snake-oil demagoguery, and third, the financial support of rich, sociopathic, industrialists who value the immense profits from their air polluting industry, over human life and health, and who, like Trump, oppose government health regulations.

We have, in the past, amply written about Trump’s thoroughly incapable and unprincipled, four years in office, so that repetition would now be unnecessary. Such immoral and disgraceful term of office, however, was endorsed by his tribally loyal base, delighted with their commonality with his ignorance, scorn for learning and science, and his obvious bigotry, and like the colloquial “cockroaches coming out of the woodwork,” grew in formidable number.

Trump’s horrific rule, appropriately, led to his democratic defeat after serving an unprecedented, singularly dystopic first term. A definitional feature of democratic polity is that the Office of Presidency is peacefully handed over to the [winning] successor. Trump, however, in his egocentric pathology, refused to accept the loss and, without inquiry or any factual basis, [and contrary to the approved certification of three independent audits], declared that the victory was fraudulently “stolen” from him. His enlarged stable of underbelly cultish supporters, like Trump,  picked up the battle cry that the election was stolen, absorbing the lesson from their cult leader, Donald Trump, that facts, however incontrovertible, which are contrary to your interest, are ipso-facto, false and fraudulent. Paranoid recounts, charges, propaganda, and, unimaginably worse, a violent insurrection by hundreds of Trump terrorists at the Washington Capitol Building, January 6, 2021; the event constituting no less than an unprecedented and existential threat to the continuance of our against democracy.

It is disappointing and worrisome that, in addition to the cultish “flat earth” worshipers of the current latter-day deity, Donald J. Trump, so many of our elected officials in Congress and elsewhere in the Nation, are fearful of offending Trump’s large miscreant voting base and thus losing their position. Like the financially self-interested townspeople in “Enemy of the People,” they exalt their self-interest in retaining their office, to the point that, like lemmings, they irresponsibly support the Trump agenda, shamefully casting aside any apparent offense to moral, empathic, and logical principles, and like him, seeking to selectively undermine voting rights. [The service that such people render to America’s joyful enemies is a material subject for a future essay.]

It would seem logical, that the most efficiently dangerous weapon against a democracy is the weakening of the institutions that sustain it; such as an unlimited and universally accessible, elective system and the foundational, peaceful transfer of office. The irresponsible actions of many Congressmen and other elected officials [some of whom, undoubtedly possess the sense and (subdued) moral instincts to know better], have the ominous potential, just as the selfish townspeople in the Ibsen play did, regarding their bathhouse, to pollute and sicken our unique and priceless American democracy. 

-p.    

The Nation’s bizarre pandemic of paranoid conspiracies and widespread denial of empirical reality, [markedly, on the political right]  constitutes no less than an appalling and disgraceful response to the evolutionary gift to homo sapiens, of an evolved, rational mind. In earlier writings we have opined the logical existence of an apparent nexus between man’s inclination to conceive irrational conspiracy, and his ability to discern Bona Fidus in atavistic religious dogma. The intrinsic dynamics of “Faith” are derived, exclusively, by social inheritance or irrational “inspiration.” By salient contrast, our foundational [Lockean] observation, is that all man’s knowledge is acquired from his sense (empirical) experience. 

Our reading on the subject, reveals that a 14^th Century Jewish philosopher, Levi ben Gerson, famously stated, that the Torah [Bible] cannot prevent man from considering as true, that which his own reason urges him to believe. Accordingly, we would predict that any free-thinking individual, reading the Biblical account of Noah and the Flood, would realize that no boat could be built, sufficient to house[in pairs] every animal, which would, thereafter, migrate to its respective place of origin. Rationalists maintain that the Universe is an empirically understandable place, potentially attainable by the human mind.

The eternal debate, between factual and experienced reality, and societally inherited worship of a superhuman agency, the latter belief, randomly acquired by inheritance or alleged “inspiration,” appears to us as conclusively weighted in favor of empirical [demonstrable]  factual reality.

For purposes of clarity, we would remind the reader of a caveat, sincerely expressed by us in  earlier writing. “We affirmatively and earnestly encourage the perpetuation of culturally inherited traditions, and historical observances, acquired by each of us at birth”; long may they continue. We would earnestly not approbate any desire for dystopian, colorless uniformity. What we do object to, as useless and potentially harmful, is the substitution of empirical fact, by irrational or superstitious belief.

Covid-19, polio, diphtheria, yellow fever, and countless other toxic diseases were not conquered by faith. The Moon Landing, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, Open Heart Surgery, Braille, Penicillin and Antibiotics, the heliocentric theory of the Solar System, the discovery of Psychiatry and Nuclear Fission, as a few random examples, were not realized by means of faith, but by diligent, rational research.

It is the absence of reason that promotes primitive and counterproductive belief in, anti-vaccine phobias, societal dread of gay marriage, fear of morphing into a Socialistic government, belief that the thrice certified, recent Presidential Election count was fraudulent, that battery operated smart phones cause brain cancer, that Global Warming is a liberal hoax, that America was established as a “Christian Country,” that Israel fires lasers from outer space, that 9/11 was an American ploy, that Donald Trump is still President, that immigrants are despoiling America, and so on, ad finitum, and, verily, ad nauseum.

Without any wish to offend, we, at plinyblog, find most deplorable, the meme that all babies are born with sin [“Original Sin”]. The accusation of such universal and eternally inherited sin, arises from the act of the first woman, “Eve,”  in her enticement of the first man “Adam” to eat an apple from the “Forbidden Tree of Knowledge.” Using the mythical verbiage of the apocryphal tale, Eve’s causing Adam to eat of the Tree of Knowledge [after which, he “discovered his nakedness”] can too easily be read, in accordance with the story’s linguistic symbolism)  that Adam, thereby, acquired an awareness of self, and the revelation that homo sapiens is a rational being. We would evaluate the same as awarding credit to the female of our species for the ignition of man’s evolutionary potential for rational thought and experiential advancement.

As contextual supplementation, the snake [“serpent”] coiled up in the proverbial “Tree of Knowledge,” appears to have been eternally used by early man, as a deistic symbol of fertility. What we can ultimately conceive as accurately intended to be expressed and symbolized, was the advent of mankind’s existential ability to reason.  Rationality [fertility] is hardly a “sin;” unless there was, at some time in written religious literature, an atavistic motive, to keep [the common] man compliantly ignorant. Furthermore, sin is not, legally, or factually, an inheritable or transferable legacy; little babies are born with immediate, urgent needs, not derivative and attributable criminal records.

Mankind’s uniquely defining significance is indisputably found in his capacity for rational thought and personal advancement. Irrational, mythical thinking is useless and vestigial, like the persistent presence of the potentially troublesome appendix; it can serve no desirable or aspirational service.

-p.

Question from Ms. Anna Flaxis, Des Moines, Iowa:

Dear Editor:

Q.:  Why do you people stubbornly reject the belief in “Intelligent Design”? Isn’t evolution just a theory?

Ans.: So is gravity [theory of gravity], the orbit of the Earth around the Moon [heliocentric theory], the atomic theory, and the theories of thermodynamics and buoyancy. Incidentally, how can the belief that the World, including, all its fauna and flora were created by a Deity in six days, just in time for the Sunday Sabbath be considered intelligent? Lastly, what is it that would, sufficiently qualify you, as a mere mortal, to adjudge a Deity’s work, as intelligent or not.

Question from Ms. Sarah Tonin, Brentwood, Long Island:

Q.: Why should we teach critical race theory to our children, instead of the eternal righteousness represented by their America?

Ans.: Our Nation and its children can only advance, sociologically and morally, by the candid revelation of its history, inclusive of its dark periods, in the context of truth and in sincere resolve for its continuing improvement. Children are suitably inclined to respect their parents and country when they are advised of the empirical truth, good and bad.

Question from Billy Goethe, Intercourse, Pa.

Q.: Shouldn’t homosexuals be barred from teaching children to protect young students from being subtly inculcated in non-traditional sexuality?

Ans.: People are straight or homosexual, depending on their innate hormonal inheritance, and not upon their volitional choice or through social interaction with teachers or anyone else. You can take no especial credit for being randomly born with hormones, consistent with your visible gender, nor ought the minority of individuals be judged harshly, who are randomly born with diverse hormones.

Question from Mrs. Igna Ramos, of Bronx, N.Y.

Q.: Why does plinyblog always come down so hard on the “Right to Life” movement; don’t they agree that human babies have a right to live?

Ans.: Of course, all babies, without exception, have the universal right to live; no one disputes this basic  assertion which, frankly speaking, is entirely irrelevant to the issue. The assertively false choice of name, “Right to Life,” is a tactically misleading and a cynically false propaganda device, chosen by this tribe of pseudo- religious, cynically manipulative zealots, far more interested in political power than candid decency and humane empathy. We consistently deride these fraudulent and insensitive people because they perniciously cling to a false guise of morality but promote acts and policies contrary to any minimal conception of empathy or respect for human rights.

The fetus at a very early developing stage in a women’s uterus is a scientific and medical entity, viz., a potential baby. The mother, for  subjectively valid reasons, may feel the need to halt its full progression to babyhood. At the earliest ontological stages, the entity still remains part of the mother’s own physiology. Her deliberated, ultimate decision, in cases of rape, unintended pregnancy, extreme privation or other subjectively significant reason, psychiatric or otherwise, to terminate the early, ongoing process, should be personal and inviolate.

In addition to the employment of its tactically misleading name, the professed, ”Right to Life” organization, publicly expresses the pseudo-religious assertion, that such termination, albeit, at an early nascent, formative stage, is homicide. To emphasize the sincerity of such public assertions of moral rectitude, they have, knowledgeably, committed premeditated and intentional murder of physicians and nurses, engaged in abortion procedures. Their flagrant hypocrisy is as well, clearly disclosed by their eternal disposition, after the event of the birth of the child, to vigorously oppose programs of its desperately needed food, health or other assistance. They irrationally aspire only to protect the fetus. 

Members  of “Right to Life” generally support unregulated gun ownership and the atavistic institution of the death penalty [capital punishment]. It is demonstrably apparent that their basic intent is the  acquisition of political influence; evidently, they could not possibly care less about “life.”

Question from Bill O’Lading, Shreveport, La.

Q.: Why has plinyblog.com, been so intense in its  hatred of Donald J. Trump?

Ans.: The sentiments expressed, have been intimately analogous to our eternal abhorrence of termites,  that eat away and undermine the foundations of our family home.

*[Editor’s note: Readers are encouraged to send comments or questions to: pliny36@gmail.com for prompt and attentive response.]

-p.

It is conceivable that American citizens, normally accustomed to rational thinking and empirical consistency, have struggled with the accordance of the wholehearted support by Christian Evangelicals, who nominally espouse the law apocryphally inscribed in the Ten Commandments, to the extent of inquisitional mandate, on one hand, with their bedrock support of Donald Trump on the other. The latter, is not Biblically, or in any measure, compliant with the strictures, of moral decency or spiritual belief. During the Trump Presidency, the Evangelical Christians voted for him in two elections and essentially composed the bedrock of Trump’s strength. There is a bizarre complexity to these “strange bedfellows,” and a dose of historical and political fact may aid its credibility, if not, its acceptability.

The historical realignment of the Southern [Jim Crow, Segregationist] wing of the Democratic Party, [“The “Dixiecrats,”] to the Republican Party, in large measure, led to that Party’s perpetuation of the right-wing, Christian fear of social integration and a growing idealization of “Anglo Saxon” supremacy. The latter belief is one of the features in common with the newly expanded and segregationist, Republican Party, shared by Donald Trump. The latter was never known for his abiding religious faith, acceptable morality nor extensive breadth of knowledge; but rather, for his demagogic skills in communicating the memes of the Christian right, and his apparent agency in having judges appointed, whose views are in accord with the tenets of Christian White Supremacy.

Other such atavistic and prejudicial tenets are exemplified by nativism, racism, attacks on liberalism, political correctness, government programs of compassionate capitalism, abortion and birth control, environmentalism and global warming, immigration, separation of church and state, universal right to vote, equality of racial, gender and sexual identity, scientific preeminence over faith, liberal opposition to school prayer, evolutionary theory, sex education, critical race education, homosexuality and same-sex marriage, inter-racial marriage and secularism.

Because of Trump’s verbal espousal, or at least, the empirical utility, of his promotion of the above [un-American] tenets, and his apparent empirical success in having like-minded people appointed to the Judiciary, the otherwise, intractable right-wing religious devotees, have chosen to unprincipledly, exalt their political self-interest, over their fundamentally and constantly avowed, moral principles.

It is painfully obvious, that said Religious Right shamefully ignores the publicized, basic tenets of their avowed Christianity, which, apophatically, preaches universal brotherhood and empathic charity.

-p.   

In muted hours of reflective solitude
The two-pronged streams, fact, and fantasy
As twin tributaries to a woodland pond,
Meet up to flow in free mélange.

The outer self dutifully performs
The licensed day, just as man approves,
In dress, act, and verbal exchange, which
May vary from his inner bent.

To go along, to get along,
He dances to the common tune.
But, when at home base, alone
He dreams of golden immortality.

Leonard N. Shapiro 6/21

-p.

There are some occasions where the solution to a presenting problem, or, alternatively, the wisest choice in an empirical dilemma, would appear to be discernably apparent, despite one’s lack of the normally required expertise in the relevant subject. We would candidly disclaim any expertise or experience regarding the arcane subject of taxes and governmental revenue-raising, but by simple deduction [pardon the pun], do envision a useful solution to the Nation’s existing conundrum in which, inequitably, billionaires pay less taxes than do bakers or shoemakers. Yet, indisputably, however, it would seem just, that everyone pays his fair share of government support.

This problem, as we see it, as it happens, is a readily apparent one. By the clear terms and legislative intent of our Tax Code, the amount of taxes payable varies with the citizen’s net [taxable] income. The higher the salary or the net profit, the higher the rate and the resultant tax.  The U.S. Tax Code thus expresses the legislative intention to achieve equity and fairness by virtue of a graduated rate, viz., you earn more, you pay more, to support the operations of government. How then can it be empirically and inequitably possible, that, reportedly, America’s millionaires and billionaires pay less income tax than bus drivers and letter carriers? The answer is deceptively simple and uncomplicated; but first, in aid of its understanding, we would first offer a contextually necessary comment on the nuanced financial life of the very richest citizens in America.

The very rich, by definition, own immense asset portfolios and, factually, do not live on earned income. They borrow money for their needs and nuanced lifestyles, by way of loans taken against their impressive assets, and permissibly take the interest paid on such loans as tax deductions. The maintained assets, not being sold, [for profit or loss] are, accordingly, not relevant to the present tax code; which exclusively deals with earned income or gains and losses on capital asset sale or transfer.

In the furtherance of equity and moral fairness, we would suggest that the identified problem can properly and effectively be resolved by a categoric addition to the present sole criteria or basis [viz., income or loss] upon which taxes are calculated and payable. We would suggest that the presently defined taxable incident be enlarged and adjusted, to include taxes payable, calculated and based upon the determination of value of stagnant i.e., longtime held assets,[ or their[ tactical] replacements] held for a specified period of years, by the super-wealthy. We are confident that such a change can easily be construed, by amendment to the relevant provisions of the Tax Code.

In the interim, there continues to be manifest inequity and injustice in the persistence of Congress in the continued imposition of a substantial tax burden on the more modest earnings of the middle and working classes for the support of governmental operations, while simultaneously, permitting the mega-wealthy category of Americans [who obtained their unbounded success, as citizens of the Nation] to eternally be exempt from their moral and patriotic obligation to pay its equitable tax share.  

-p.