All Roads Lead to Cornithaca – Page 15

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Find the three identical balloons”

There is similar, much alike, and identical. “Lenses” can be used to select a set of things that are “similar” and “much alike” – but “identical” transcends these subjective judgements.

“Made with” and “made from” on a product may seem similar in the eyes of to a consumer; but are quite dissimilar through the legal “lens” of regulators.

It’s tough to keep your bearings on the “slippery slope” of words, meaning, and intent that comprise [and compromise] today’s social policies — so the best procedure is to compare their words and actions with those figures of equality, compassion, and human worth we most respect.

When you hear phrases like; “fighting for the same thing” – watch out – it means that those beliefs and actions have been adulterated — and there is no telling with what; and how much of it is inert . . . or toxic.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Follow the arrows home”

While it’s simple to follow the arrows; it’s confusing to have so many arrows to follow. The old truism; “the best way to make a million dollars is to write a book about how to do it, and sell a million copies” – has been carried to extremes in today’s advice giving landscape.

Political advice, social advice, health advice, financial advice, cooking advice — all vying for your attention [and money] — and all adding up to more than a lifetime of reading, comparing, preparing, and consuming.

The conclusion is self-evident: if you don’t have some of your own arrows to follow – you’ll never find your way home.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Stones”

There is a knowledge you can only acquire when you don’t spend all your time with machines and plodding categorizations.

Our society is not the glue that hold us together – it’s the bars that keep us apart. When you think in terms of “people”; everything is understandable – there is no human convention in place or time that does not answer to our desire to find our place in the world; both within us and without.

Stop bending under the ceiling of those who would limit our growth to their understandings of use and control — it’s time to stand up and stretch.

There is no limit to the imagination that has not been placed there for that purpose.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Knots Too Much”

With more twists, turns, and dead ends than modern governance: these policy projecting pieces of rope could be used to replicate resident’s paths in our Kafkaesque bureaucracy. It’s as difficult [and as useful] as tracing skate-marks in the ice – but I hope it’s perceptually invigorating and fun.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Irreversible consequence technologies” Bumper sticker

“Is there anybody approving the use of irreversible consequence technologies; who does not plan to profit from them?

Bumpers are intended to protect us from serious harm in the event of a collision – but this bumper sticker argues for a more proactive solution: not having a fatal accident.

In the movie “Forbidden Planet”: Krell Super-Science gave the inhabitants of that planet the power to do anything their minds could imagine — but when they slept, and their conscious minds were no longer in control — that power resulted in their extinction.

Are we poised on the same precipice?

We are gambling the future of all life on earth; on the assurances of people who have fame, fortune, the realization of a dream, and great political ambition in the balance — and with no way to reverse the damage or make restitution.

All the equational delusions and statistical status quos are beside the point. I may not have studied science and politics — but I have studied scientists and politicians. And “deep shit” – is deep shit.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Un-titled” Road signs

End of Days? A little stocktaking might be appropriate. It’s tough to quibble your way out of death. And complaints about bed bugs and mold will certainly fall on deaf ears — no matter what kind of afterlife we get.

We’re in for Big Changes. BIG CHANGES. Why aren’t you being told this? Get Real. It would cause problems. And there are responsibilities. And they’ll justify those actions in their memoirs – from the space colony.

We are living in a point of history where there is no “everybody” – just “everybody else” — and everybody is someone else’s “everybody else.”

Maybe I should start smoking again? I can give it up when I give everything up. Or everything else.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Environmental Merchandising” Road signs

Environmental Merchandising serves a need – the need to sell products. Most people are happy just to have the stigma removed [or at least the appearance of it] and will buy without looking too hard for the unvarnished truth. A Ramen Noodle cup with “35% Less Sodium!” still has more salt than the Dead Sea – and slowing down the destabilizing increase means less than little in our runaway environmental system.

How good is our corporate environmental stewardship these days? In a word: Pathetic, Minimal, or in a word I prefer: Disastrous.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Reasonable Rhymes XII” Road signs

Wouldn’t it be nice to have some reinforcing “Burma Shave” style road signs back on our highways? Like the “eatery” exit signs — food for thought.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “I’d like a second opinion” Bumper sticker

“You have to remove my heart to save my life? I’d like a second opinion.”

Not only are today’s social policies radical; they’re radically irrational – and it would be smart to get a second opinion from some trusted sources:

Abraham Lincoln:

“Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.”

Frederick Douglass:

“Right is of no sex, Truth is of no color”

I think I’ll go with them.

What about the “Greater Good”?

“How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” — Abraham Lincoln

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Scientists are from Pluto” Bumper sticker

“Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus. Scientists are from Pluto. Is it even a planet?” These days: people they don’t ask; “What is your sign?” – They ask: “What is your category?” And those who create the categories have great power — the new alchemists who will reconstitute the perfect society from base metals of discrimination and oppression.

The power of Doctrine to put people in their place . . . from now on.