Category Archives: …and other stuff

miscellaneous postings by Lawrence R. Spencer

DOWNTON ABBEY: AN EGALITARIAN OVERVIEW

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DowntonAbbey

DOWNTON ABBEYan egalitarian overview for viewers of “public” television, financed by “charitable contributions” from the Mega-wealthy, who want you to think you deserve their pity:

Pretentious, self-indulgent vulgarity, greed, gluttony, disdain for the peasant class, grotesque extravagances of the Imperial British social / economic establishment in England, flaunting the arrogance of myopia of assholes who arduously grunt through an incessant utter waste of creative resources lavished upon the self-appointed royalty,  who murder innocent wildlife for amusement, pontificate with gratuitous condescension their disdain for humanity, while pretending piety, by the  murderous thieves who stole the wealth of many continents by brutal force of arms so they can stuff their flaccid faces full of culinary delicacies five times a day while attired in evening dress and catered to by Caucasian slaves — without regard to the Karmic consequences of their criminal decadence!  This tedious ordeal is made to appear “civil” through the cinematic ruse of elaborately aesthetic costumes, quarters and cutlery and a synthetic English countryside where it never, ever rains…. (it’s not a Reality Show, but then, Reality Shows are not “real” either….)

COMFORTABLY NUMB

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The greatest concert ever staged, and the greatest guitar solo every played.

This is the summary statement of Western Civilization in the 21st Century: Comfortably Numb.

“Comfortably Numb” Lyrics

“Hello,
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone at home?
Come on now
I hear you’re feeling down.
I can ease your pain
And get you on your feet again.
Relax.
I’ll need some information first,
Just the basic facts:
Can you show me where it hurts?

There is no pain, you are receding.
A distant ship smoke on the horizon…
You are only coming through in waves…
Your lips move but I can’t hear what you’re saying.
When I was a child I had a fever.
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I’ve got that feeling once again.
I can’t explain, you would not understand.
This is not how I am.
I have become comfortably numb.

O.K.
Just a little pin prick;
There’ll be no more aaaaaaaah!
But you may feel a little sick….
Can you stand up?
I do believe it’s working, good.
That’ll keep you going through the show.
Come on it’s time to go.

There is no pain you are receding;
A distant ship smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can’t hear what you’re saying.
When I was a child,
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone.
I cannot put my finger on it now.
The child is grown,
The dream is gone.
And I have become
Comfortably numb”

DISEMBODIED

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NOT BODIES

“The English word spirit (from Latin spiritus “breath“) has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body. The word spirit is often used metaphysically to refer to the consciousness or personality. The notions of a person’s spirit and soul often also overlap, as both contrast with body and both are understood as surviving the bodily death in religion and occultism, and “spirit” can also have the sense of “ghost“, i.e. a manifestation of the spirit of a deceased person.

Noun 1. disembodied spirit – any incorporeal supernatural being that can become visible (or audible) to human beings

spiritual beingsupernatural being – an incorporeal being believed to have powers to affect the course of human events
control – a spiritual agency that is assumed to assist the medium during a seance
evil spirit – a spirit tending to cause harm
bansheebanshie – (Irish folklore) a female spirit who wails to warn of impending death
djinndjinnidjinnygeniejinneejinni – (Islam) an invisible spirit mentioned in the Koran and believed by Muslims to inhabit the earth and influence mankind by appearing in the form of humans or animals
familiar spiritfamiliar – a spirit (usually in animal form) that acts as an assistant to a witch or wizard
peri – (Persian folklore) a supernatural being descended from fallen angels and excluded from paradise until penance is done
apparitionfantasmphantasmphantasmaphantomspectrespecter – a ghostly appearing figure; “we were unprepared for the apparition that confronted us”
presence – an invisible spiritual being felt to be nearby
kachina – a deified spirit of the Pueblo people
numen – a spirit believed to inhabit an object or preside over a place (especially in ancient Roman religion)
python – a soothsaying spirit or a person who is possessed by such a spirit
silvansylvan – a spirit that lives in or frequents the woods”

Definitions from TheFreeDictionary.com and Wikipedia.org

HIEROGLYPHIC TATTOO

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A hieroglyph (Greek for “sacred carving”) is a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Partially pictographic logographic scripts reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called “hieroglyphs”. In Neoplatonism, especially of the Renaissance, a hieroglyph was an artistic representation of an esoteric idea, which actual Egyptian hieroglyphs seemed to the Neoplatonists to be.

A tattoo is a form of body modification, made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. The first written reference to the word, “tattoo” (or Samoan “Tatau”) appears in the journal of Joseph Banks, the naturalist aboard Captain Cook’s ship the HMS Endeavour in 1769: “I shall now mention the way they mark themselves indelibly, each of them is so marked by their humor or disposition“.

MEN ARE PIGS

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Most human beings are human beings because they are prejudiced toward the human race.  But, the fact is that the human race, collectively, has impounded, destroyed and enslaved millions of species of life who inhabited this planet for millions of years before our species was injected into the ecosystem of Earth from the stars.  If I inhabited the body of another species — or none at all — my opinion would be the same as the pigs in Animal Farm“…all the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings”. — Lawrence R. Spencer. 2012

CLICK THIS LINK TO READ THE BOOK ON LINE FOR FREE

animalthumbAnimal Farm (1945) is a satirical novella (which can also be understood as a modern fable or allegory) by George Orwell, ostensibly about a group of animals who oust the humans from the farm on which they live. They run the farm themselves, only to have it degenerate into a brutal tyranny of its own.  Here is a quote from the book:

“Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty. No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth. animalfarm5Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen from us by human beings. There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a single word–Man. Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever.  Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself. Our labour tills the soil, our dung fertilises it, and yet there is not one of us that owns more than his bare skin.

Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades, that all the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings? Only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labour would be our own. Almost overnight we could become rich and free. What then must we do? Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race!”

(Illustration by Igor Morski)