The influence of gaslight or electric light on the growth of paraheliotropic trees

The perfect pitch. 

I am a Firstborn Son, born of a Maiden of Israel. At the time of my birth, my Father had not yet joined the People of Israel. Later, once the knowledge of the world transcended into lightning and was weaved together by latter-day magicians in a great collective electric dreamspace, we learned the roots of his provenance, but in short, his is the mingled blood of Germans and Celts. In short, an Indo-European. 

Thus, I share no blood (other than the blood of Israel) with the Ancient Egyptians who it is said enslaved my mother’s fathers three and a half thousand years ago. Nevertheless, any historicity to the Exodus is unknowable — it was perhaps a culture tale of certain of the Josephian Nomads or the Levite Tribesmen, who had perhaps mingled with or been subjugated in some manner by the Great House of Egypt, before some crisis led them forth —

The story, however, is not three and a half thousand years old, but comes down to us in written form from a thousand years later, from the Exile of the Judeans in Babylonia, five and half centuries before the birth of Christ, from the J Source. Later, it was revised and redacted in the Post-Exile period by the P source. 

The story is this, however, Maggid, the Preaching of Stories: 

We were a clan of shepherds, twelve brothers, and one of the brothers was sold into slavery by the others and sent to the Great Kingdom of the River; there, he found wealth, and favor, living in a land whose plenty was as regular and natural as the flooding of the river — and in a time of distress, the other brothers and their families went down, and dwelled therein, and were reconciled with the stone which had been forgotten, and the shepherd-folk lived in the Great Kingdom as Guests of the King for long centuries —

until a new dynasty arose, that looked upon the shepherds as enemies, not friends, and subjugated them, and then enslaved them, and then decided to root them out, taking their children and slaying them in the river —

And who can imagine the travail of the Shepherd-Wives who prayed for girl-children instead of boys, who tried to hide their boys, to give them away —

and of the babes themselves — innocent — killed before they had a chance to live — an entire generation —

And the Shepherds became a People without Sons — and their daughters were going to be given to Strangers, and the sons of their Daughters would have Strange Names, and know not the Names of the Old Fathers — and the names of the Shepherd’s Fathers — Highfather, Laughter, and Godwrestler, and their God — would be forgotten.

But one child lived, though he was given to the Great Kingdom, and was given one of their Names, and they say he dwelled even in the house of the Great King, until he learned of whence he came, and, committing murder in the name of justice, fled into the Eastern Wilderness, until at his great extremity, found other shepherds, and took up the family business —

and wandering, alone, as shepherds do, a vision came to him, of a low tree on fire, but the fire did not consume the tree, and out of the Fire and the Tree, a Voice spoke, the Voice of God, and made the man a prophet, and told him to go back to the Great Kingdom, and bring forth His People, as had been promised, long before —

And the Prophet went, and found his brother, and went with his brother before the Great King, to beg the release of his people, the Kingdom’s slaves, but the Great King hardened his heart and refused, and the Prophet warned the Great King, but the Great King remained unmoved, and then God of the Fire and the Tree, through the arm of the Prophet, unleashed Ten Plagues against the Great Kingdom —

First, the life of the Kingdom, the great river, was turned from water into blood — but still the king did not relent; 
Next, creeping things came from the river, and teemed across the land, but still the king did not relent;
Next, biting insects appeared from the dust, and inflicted the people of the Kingdom, but still —
Next, greater insects came, attacking the people and their livestock, but still –
Next, the livestock of the People of the Kingdom died, but still –
Next, skin diseases appeared on the People of the Kingdom, but still –
Next, storms of fire fell across the Land, but still –
Next, swarms of locusts came and devoured all good things that grew, but still –
Next, a plague of darkness fell across the land, so deep and thick that the People could feel it — but still

still, the Great King would not release the Shepherd-Folk.
Until finally, the Prophet was told that a Great Plague would come against the Kingdom, and slay all the firstborn, all except those of the Shepherd-People who made sacrificed and adorned the lintel of their doors with the blood of the lamb —

and on that night, after the sacrifice, the God himself came down to Egypt, and slew the Firstborn Children of the Great Kingdom, young and old, man and beast, all except the Children of the Shepherds —

and after, finally, bearing the body of his own son, the Great King relented, and freed the Slaves, and they left, and went into the wilderness, to worship their own God as they would —

———-

 thus is the story told; thus and thus and thus and thus; thus is it told; my people were born in blood, our blood, and the blood of our oppressors, and we believe in a God who visits retribution on the child for the crimes of the father, in which, though he can be a god of mercy, he is also a god of justice —

the Justice of God cannot be the Justice of Man. It is not for man to slay the children for the sins of the father — we are children of the mind, and law, and we are given to pursue goodness, and morality, and to build a New Kingdom — 

but God is the Creator of the World, and the Judge of All, and the Maker of Darkness and Light, of Good and Evil, and He is an Angry God, and He has placed us in the World of Storms, in the Wound of Time, in the Tree that Grows, and in the Fire that burns but does not Consume — 

and he exists not as Saint but as the Reason behind All, as Endless and Infinite Necessity, and our worship-fear-love for Him is inevitable — we cannot not worship, we can only believe we do not worship — 

ones and zeroes matrixvision the curving diagrams of the human sexual response curve | the third derivative – the rate of change of the rate of change of the rate of change | jerk | change in acceleration | felt; felt; felt; | maximum jerk 

Criticism has been leveled at True Detective for 2-dimensional portrayals of women, children, side characters. Emily Nussbaum of the New Yorker asks: how can a show that condemns the objectification of women and children so blatantly objectify women and children — 

or as Marty says “what’s scented meat?” 

The point is that women are objectified because True Detective’s thesis is that humans are objects; not just women — all of us are automatons, robots, sand castles — 

Men looked at women and instead of looking into them and seeing their humanity, their core, their reality, the deep-seated selves that are independent, active agents worthy of dignity, saw objects, goals, the World to encounter – I and the World – 

and this is what is meant by objectification of women — they are object-pawns in a desire-satisfaction game by men — 

and the cruel horror of that objectification is perhaps a source of evil, though it is unclear if that is the source of evil in True Detective. What is Carcosa, is the question? Who is the Yellow King? 

Rust Cohle respects women, as any ought to, as humans. Any strongly gendered & sexual human, who possesses that drive, may well be overcome by the mystification and the goal-searching of sexual-objectification to objectify the object of desire — Cohle, master of his desires, suspicious of his desires, knowing that his desires are the marionette strings that make him dance, stands above that form of objectification. He sees women as they are, which is just humans who are shaped different, with wombs instead of worms. 

But, in seeing past their sexual mystiques, or their mother mystiques, daughter mystiques, Rust Cohle still necessarily objectifies these women, even as he objectifies men, even as he objectifies himself. 

What does it mean to be an object? 

Rust said in episode one, which is that Nature made a mistake, and a part of nature found itself seeing itself as separate from nature, and in that initial misconception, that cognitive illusion, invented the narrative of the self and, with that narrative, all that that implies — Man, God, Heaven. 

But Rust, seeing that the narrative is false, cannot see men, women, or children, as true agents, as worthy subjects. Rather, they are all sentient meat. The Body must be protected, pain should be avoided, but the passing nature of our reality and the tricks, fools, lies, and mindgames we put ourselves through deprives us of the right to claim the essential dignity of being a Subject — 

Though, he is softened by age, and by his death, and by his harrowing of hell, and he realizes that Man’s lack of “subject” makes us in fact coterminous with the World, which is the Great Subject, and even more so, the World is divided, and there is darkness, but there is another darkness, a warmer darkness, beneath it, and, of course, warm darkness is simply the name that the blind give to Light — 

That we are not Subjects is our great redemption — A False Subject will live in madness, will create false-worlds, will act out stories, pass judgment, create narratives of its own will, and be Nature acting on Nature —

The Subjectless will see the Body as the Body, the Light as the Light, True Being, Pure Being, All Being, Bathed in Warm Darkness, and slipping in the darkness at the end of Time with nothing other than love —

Death is not the end, because the Light continues, even if our eyes can no longer see it —

The edge of awareness —

Take off your mask, Childress says, and Childress, Monster in the Dark, the Great Abyss, the Void, says that what was done to him will be done to the all the Sons and Daughter of Man — and what is Rape but Plowing, the Plowing of the Object, the Plowing of the Earth — Other Music, dischordant with the Great Song because the Singer is Deaf to It — 

Looking out at the Stars. The Great Stars. Pursue them.

The answer is among the Stars. The light in the darkness. 

That an amnesiac will forget that he is in love with his wife — and that I remember, sometimes, that I am love with her, or her, says something about the way that an emotion is also a memory —

or is it? 

would the amnesiac feel the love he feels but simply not know its object — 

————–

to be in love is to submit to a full and overpowering wave of emotion and to become what feels to you like a more and better self 

and then to lose love, and to return to the loneliness of the sole ego, the audience of one, it feels like such diminution of being — and changing of being — who you were is gone — 

Every time I’ve lost love, it is the Me I Was I miss the most. We are made by others. The singers have it right. Without an audience, I am — not nothing — but, something else. 

——

after first love, I felt that Old Me, Striving Me, Questioning/Curious What is It Like Me, was gone. Did not return when she left. Left only sadness and heartache. 

And then second love, and something like first love, but it wasn’t, it was different — 

if time were deeper, not wider, we would never die 

with your past and the future precisely divided,
am I at that moment? I haven’t decided. 

My cousin’s memory remains strong. He remembers my graduation from high school. He remembers the morning, when I read my graduation speech to him, my mother, and my brother, and then he went with us to graduation, early, and he had nothing to do, while we got ready — I remember none of this, really — I remember flashes only — I remember general nervousness — I remember being on the stage, and starting the speech — I remember one line — 

Amos once said I am neither the prophet, nor the son of the prophet. Which was sort of ironic, because he was a prophet. That crazy Bible. 

That got a big laugh, I remember the line, I remember general laughter, and I remember how I delivered the line, the pause I took.

I remember how I got that speech, how I reminded everybody that I was a great writer, which was our Senior Shabbaton, where we went to some camp in the woods, Ramah, or something, it was fun, and Harold Messenger was there, with his guitar, and we had a campfire, and he played the Joker, by Steve Miller, and the fire reflected in the wood of the guitar, and I wrote a little thing about Lech Lecha, about the reflexive tense of the Hebrew that we were taught meant Go for Yourself, and how we were getting pretty close to that time when we would all Go For Ourselves, out of the cradle, as it were. 

I remember that, and the fire in the guitar, and probably if I had to guess, something about holding on to these moments as they pass. Though that’s just conjecture, because I obviously didn’t, my memory of high school is poor. Those moments, I let go of. 

And then we took a vote on who would give our graduation speech, and I won it, my first election (that I won), and I worked with Mrs. Weisgrau on it, and my first theme was how Graduation was like death, but I was rightly talked out of that one, and then decided to use as a theme Life is Like A Box of Chocolates. 

The speech was something about the uncertainty of the future, but the certainty that we were leaving our old lives behind, and those times, with those friends, was deeply important, that we had journeyed together for years — and five or six jokes. Some of us, I said, will write our names in the history books. I said it, and I meant me. Others will — and I forget the phrase, but it was something about living a quiet life of equal and great happiness. 

And it seems I’ve chosen the second, not the first. Because the first is vanity, it happens to someone else, while personal happiness, that — that matters. That’s real. 

I didn’t know much about reality back then. Like DFW says, what’s water? 

I was going to get a crash course right around Days 7022-7100, but back then, around Days 6300-6600, who knew about such things. I had gone to Israel, first time leaving home, around Day 5900, came back around Day 6050, in the Year of Our Lord 1999, and began to drive, and go to parties, and then that Summer what did I do, I think I worked at the library, with Fred, dearly departed, and had some money in my pocket, and hanging out at Z’s house, smoked grass for the first time that Summer, maybe not, first time I really got high was down the shore, with Z and F.S. and her boyfriend Scott, and we went to see American Beauty, and I got pop tarts and I was both faking my high and wasn’t faking my high, but that movie came out in September 1999, and it was coldish, Fall of Senior year — 

I remember a party at K.G.’s house, where I got sick and vomited, and A.L., who may or may not have liked me just a little (I never wanted to be part of any club that would have me is one way of putting it, but another way is by saying that I thought myself too good for the girls who were at a similar level of social capital as myself), was nearby, but I’m like, take a hike, I got this — was that in the winter? Or was that Adrianne’s house? I remember the basement, and smoking outside, and leaving with Farrah or someone to get a bong from a car and then smoking said bong out back — that must have been the winter — after the new year? For NYE 1999-2000, Senior Year, I went with many people to J.A.’s cabin in the Pocono’s. I believe. Unless that was after high school. But doubtful. Matt and Claire were together, Claire kissed me on the cheek. Y.B. was there. Knowledge. 

I was a jerk sometimes, for sure. Jerk to Y.B. as we passed the Afikoman that spring — who knows what I said — but the punch line — So I gave it back to Chaim – was hilarious but horrible — unexpected — delivery. It is all about the delivery. 

After graduation, we went down the shore and stayed at F.S.’s beach house for a few days. Our graduation trip sucked — we went to the Shining Hotel in the Catskills, where there was, literally, nothing to do. I don’t remember anything from that trip except getting Elly to sign my yearbook — Elly was the girl I pined for that year, and the year before — and she liked someone else — who was dating someone else — etc. etc. 

Classes, do I remember classes? I had some writing class with Weisgrau, called Voice — and there was some thing I did that she liked, some poem about I wants — some def comedy jam type thing — I want, I want, I want — I forget what it is that I wanted — probably to be famous — and there was AP Government, which I liked. And AP Environmental Science, where we learned about Global Warming from Phil Patelmo, now gone. 

Other classes? Not really. I think we read Jane Eyre first semester in English. What’d we learn in History? Not sure. Modern American History? 

I was in a play with my sister in the winter. Arsenic and Old Lace. Got a crush on J.L., sort of from a time I gave her a flower and she put it in her hair. Sophomore year, maybe? Or Freshman I think. I was mad, mad, mad. That was Ninth Grade, I think. Embarrassing. Never spoke about that ever. That was my mother’s idea. 

But asked J.L. to promenade senior year. Prom was at Rittenhouse Square, in a hotel that no longer exists and is now Parc. Then went to J.Jaffe’s house for postprom, maybe? Strange choice, out in Northern Boondocks. Did not get drunk. Did not dance with El. Let that one go. I was angry. I was mad. 

That summer, worked at camp, and had a crush on some girl, but her friend, who was larger, liked me, and I went along with it, to get some experience, etc., but didn’t like it, didn’t like the whole thing, she was fine, fine, but I was not attracted to her — we saw American Pie, we played pool one time, I kissed her in my car, she leaned over and unlocked my car door, which I hate and think is stupid — AG does that every now and again — do not like it — 

and then went off to Penn, where I hoped for everything to be different and amazing and it was, but not in the way I expected — and made friends with Jay early on, and Jacob, and Evan, and Christy, and Barrie, and Regi, and flirted with a girl like night one or two who had a boyfriend but never followed up and damn it, I was a child, I was smoking more and more, which made me more and more childish, I was cutting class, Jay and I went down to Baltimore in the fall to see the String Cheese Incident, and I think I did nothing that New Years, and then second semester, I uncomfortably rushed frats with Jay, and vomited and peaced out, and that was that, and I didn’t get it, and Jay didn’t really want to do it either, and I wasn’t that sure about it regardless // but that was that // and others did their own thing and we saw music, hung with Jay and George and Evan and Jacob and second semester, Mitch — 

and then summer came, and I went to Memphis to visit Jay, and worked at camp, and did not have friends, really, but hung out with Zach, and went to shows, and smoked pot, and thought about the future, and philosophy, and time, and Phish, and Gamehendge, and Power, and the Power to see clearly, to move quicker, to act upon the world, to fill a cognitive niche, to see what others wanted, and the way that this Power was Truth, and the way that Drugs might make us feel like we see the Truth, but leaves us dependent, about how we are in a City, constrained, but with Power, we can bring ourselves to Leave the City — 

And thought about death, and what it might be, and how to escape it, and wondered if I could sink sideways into a deeper experience of the present — this was upon returning to school my second year — free, wonderful, fun, Zach and I ate mushrooms, and saw visions early that Fall, right when school was starting, in August — and I practiced wearing my sane face versus my insane face, and I sat on a tree outside HRN like Buddha did, and talked with George, and George had brought his square friend, and we walked around campus, but I had no visuals, and I looked at the wood, and said I liked it, but it is not moving or anything, 

and Sarah was dating Mitch, and we were going out to goodbye dinner at White Dog Cafe, in the back, and I told them this at that dinner, that if life were deeper and not longer we would never die and then later that night, Sarah called Mitch and told him my Uncle Michael had Cancer — that was Saturday or Sunday maybe, and then Monday was Screenwriting class, maybe 1st Screenwriting class, maybe 2nd, and Monday night I went home thinking maybe I could use my uncle’s story somehow (and I did) and talked to my mother that night, and she told me that Michael was going to fly to the Mayo Clinic the next day, and college was still pretty happy go-lucky, and I went to bed thinking HOW CAN THE WORLD BE SO HAPPY AND ME BE SO SAD? and the next morning of course was 9/11, Day 7022 in my life till then. 

From March 17, 2012

Dreamed we were playing trivia by a pool, where I was asked to name the justices, and then to watch a baby, in the pool, and then wanted to walk around the wasteland where we were and my great grand mother Rose asked to join me and we walked and talked past houses and stores and came to a series of open art galleries around a pool, and we walked up and she walked into the pool, and she was so old she’d surely drown, so I jumped in immediately and grabbed her and held her up, head above water, and she said “should we swim or drown” and I said “not drown”

I think, therefore the world is. 

A building is more useful. 

Difference is not the labor (because a different pile is not worth more than the original pile) but the results of the labor — i.e., a more useful pile. 

Socially useful labor. 

What goes into it?

(Architect) > Plans — useful plans; 

(Landowner) > Spot — a useful spot; 

(Capitalist) > Money — useful funding; 

(Laborer) > Labor — useful labor; 

(Coordinator) > Coordination — useful coordination; 

—

Plans + Land + Money + Coordinator + Laborer = PRODUCT

Divide the returns among the inputs according to supply/demand curve for each input. 

———

Question is not LTV, but why is the S/D curve for Labor so much worse than for the other functions? 

1. CAPITALISTS & CAPITAL are not concerned about subsistence; they can pay people now for future returns; Guy who brings lunch gets the gold. 

{ INFORMATIONAL ASSYMETRIES } and { POWER ASSYMETRIES } { VETO }; 

PLANNER/COORDINATOR knows how to appropriate slightly more wealth than the others; In other words, the IDEA-MAN keeps extra; But, by keeping extra, the IDEA-MAN becomes a CAPITAL-MAN, and in exchange for his capital to a new IDEA-MAN, CAPITAL-MAN demands a) IDEA-MAN shares information and b) CAPITAL-MAN gets an extra share; 

why are IDEA-MAN and CAPITAL-MAN trying to get more than an equal share? Because this is not a game, this is a war, and one rule is that YOU SHOULD NOT DIE FOR SOMEONE ELSE’S WAR, and the first rule is TRY NOT TO DIE IN YOUR WAR. 

(And because we never know what tomorrow will bring, and because in this world, money buys future subsistence, we want to accumulate as much as possible as insurance against death for us and ours.)

——
however, the Goal of Society is to End the War. 

The Slave Revolts

Improving the lives of slaves is in interest of masters as to minimize slave revolts. However, that interest would only extend to the amount of bread, circuses, and monopolization of violence necessary to minimize slave revolts to acceptable levels. 

The Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages, and before, Exploitation & Domination were the explicit violent domination of bodies — life & death. Populations were at the mercy of military leaders who would rape, pillage & murder, and were dependent on like-members of militant class to protect from said raid, pillage, & murder. Wealth, privilege, and prestige flowed accordingly to the militant class. However, complete & total exploitation could not take place b/c ultimately, king could be killed. 

In a society based on violence, the threat of the underclass’ violence required that the underclass not be exploited into nothingness; again, however, the underclass would be given just enough bread, circuses, and deprived of just enough access to violence to minimize threat of revolution to acceptable levels;  

—

The Rise of Capitalist Society

capitalist society has lessened significantly the role of violence — the state has usurped a monopoly of violence. That peace has allowed for more productive projects. In these productive projects, POWER and PRESTIGE flows to those who can monopolize the means of production; 

—–

The Rise of Automation

Automation is labor that has abstracted the human — it is capital that behaves like labor. Accordingly, labor’s position has weakened even further. 

—————

THE ANSWER: 

First, what is the goal? Equality of Outcomes? 

Best goal would be for Man to be free from the War for Survival — enough food, enough leisure, enough health, enough happiness; a Post-Scarcity Society; 

why will Man continue to work in a post-scarcity society? Well, he likely won’t, but that’s ok; 

Basic Food is grown by machines and distributed free to all; 
Healthcare is provided free to all by doctors who are given the highest rewards in society [A GUARDIAN CLASS]; 
Homes are built by machines; 
Clothes are made by machines; 

Who builds the machines? Other machines; who makes sure the machines keep working? Engineers, who are given the highest rewards in society [A GUARDIAN CLASS] 

And who makes sure everything is coordinated and works? Coordinators. [A GUARDIAN CLASS]; 

the problem is of course that elites want to perpetuate their privileges for their children;

LOCAL-GOVERNMENTS should step in to coordinate to deal with supply shocks; otherwise, let the free-market appear to function. The Coordinators they hire to resolve this problem should be elevated into the GUARDIAN-CLASS and given all rewards; A SOCIAL MINIMUM is distributed to all CITIZENS & PERMANENT RESIDENTS. Immigrants can work, but are not eligible for SOCIAL WELFARE unless and until they can prove ASYLUM. NON-RESIDENTS’ social welfare costs will be billed to ORIGIN COUNTRY. SOCIAL-MINIMUM POLICY should be handled by lowest-competent government/ngo unit; 

Four child policy. Add’l children result in a ADD’L USE CHARGE. FREE CONTRACEPTION. Social Minimum just that, Social Minimum. Can’t go on vacation to Hawaii, etc., but can afford food, shelter, etc., occasional movie or restaurant or toy; WORK-LIFE IMPROVEMENT REQUIREMENTS. DRUG-TESTING, though failure to pass drug test results only in small fines. [Test showing that Small-Fines work better than large consequences]; 

SCHOOLS are computer-assisted; EQUAL; EXCELLENT; SAFE; children are taught MORALS, SKILLS, and INTELLECTUAL SUBJECTS. Older children are given work training, apprenticeships. 

GOVERNMENT should act as an EPISTEMO-NORMATIVE COORDINATOR/ENFORCER, discerning norms, enforcing proscriptions, and coordinating positive goal-seeking. 

–

Philosophy should be that all humans should be given the opportunity and abilities to pursue their own Reasonable/Respectful Conception of the Good, and being asked to contribute no more than is necessary to ensure that other humans are given the opportunity and abilities to do likewise. “ALL MEN MUST WORK TOGETHER TO BUILD THE DAM” // Weekday/Weekend Split — Common Pursuits vs Individual Pursuits; 

if we are in a war of all against all, why should we pursue Utopia? 

A) Because it is better/nicer to live in a world of justice than a world of injustice; (easier to enjoy your things if you know others are not suffering) (THE PARABLE OF THE CRONUT)

B) Because it is safer to live in a world of justice than a world of injustice; 

C) Because we can afford such a world; 

—

how do we get there?

Social Democracy or Revolution? 

likely, social democracy w/ tools of revolution/direct action to a) decommodify and b) marginalize, punish, and shame the exploiters