All Roads Lead to Cornithaca – Page 19

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Dare to Debate” Bumper sticker

“Dare to Debate” – of course I mean a real debate – not a dog-and-pony-show showcase for pre-decided election blurbs. The kind of debate that makes you think, and discuss, and decide together – not stand on both edges of a chasm; throwing packages of hate at each other: where every fact is a barb intended to hurt – not an understanding intended to heal.

Maybe you could have public meetings for debate and reconciliation at the local and neighborhood level. How could this be a waste of time? Aren’t people all we really have in this life?

Debate the issues in a public forum? What a radical idea! Next they’ll be having the people participating in government!

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “You can’t see the reality for the statistics” Bumper sticker

Using small facts to obscure a larger issue has been around for ages – but modern technology has turned a drizzle into a deluge.

The word processor changed the book world: churning out sequels as fast as fingers could type – with salability as the constant goal. Books blossomed in size – 350, 400, 500 pages – published as fast as stamped foil covers could be produced: “Another ‘!!!’ novel in the ‘$$$’ series.” The best sellers became almost the entire book market.

Equally overwhelming changes were overtaking the world of research and statistics – historical and scientific “facts” received pride of place because they were endlessly cited and repeated – not because of any verifiable roots.

The best place to hide unpleasant facts; is with a sea of conforming facts – a SEO flood that will saturate popularity driven searches: muddying the waters against all but the most diligent research — and who these days takes the trouble to do diligent research to inform their opinions?

Tompkins County uses these facts as barriers to separate the people from the reality of the issues that most affect their lives. What is the perceived reality? That their government is corrupt — they haven’t stopped the people from looking through the bars. Not yet.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Chernobyl wasn’t an accident” Bumper sticker

“Chernobyl wasn’t an accident: It was a safety test.” Leaving aside other interpretations: If the reactions of authorities to the Chernobyl disaster is a test of our future safety – How safe are we?

Let’s look at the “fallout” — in spite of the willful disregard, and deliberate subordination of safety; to monetary, political, and personal agendas – both before and after the “incident”: nuclear proponents insist on labeling it an “accident” – implying that on one is to blame.

The very fact that such a thing can happen; shows that it can happen again — unless you can change human nature.

Some scientists now believe they should contemplate the possible risks from advancing a technology: “wherein slight permutations of initial conditions can lead to unforeseen and profoundly negative downstream effects, for which the technologist and the new technology’s proponents must be held accountable.”

In their worst-case scenario: all life on earth may be extinguished; but someone will be held accountable afterward? — Is that the best that science logic can do?

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Everything in Science in is clear cut” Bumper sticker

“Everything in Science is clear cut: Until you get to their mistakes.” Like just about everything nowadays; Science is shamelessly self-promoting – which makes “spin-doctoring” part of the Scientific Method.

The defects in their “Creators of the Universe” persona are patched with “unexpected,” “complicated,” and “unforeseen” modeling tools — using human lives as the material.

And the credit grabbing “science” and “scientist” word choices; quickly change into a generalized “us,” “we” or “people” whenever mistakes appear as outliers on the bell-shaped profile of Scientific Progress.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Rise of the Evil Ones” – Doctrinal “THEM!” Pressbook – page 4

Doctrine is everything – Everything is Doctrine. The advertisements and text on this page; merely make a more overt display of the hate self-interest that lies just below the surface of almost everything you see and touch these days. Sometime soon – they’ll just pull off the tarp, open up the box, and raise the curtains on the Final Show . . . the End of Days.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Rise of the Evil Ones” – Doctrinal “THEM!” Pressbook – page 3

“You can’t make a dictatorship; without breaking bones” – and “page 3” makes no bones about indoctrinating the public to do it for them.

Giving up your children for school and activities – is still giving up your children. Few parents have any idea of the conforming patterns and attitudes that are being taught to their children.

The COVID Pandemic showed a remarkable lack of compassion for the elderly victims; and marked lack of interest by our government and media.

Maybe the real diversity today resides in the many different pathways we are racing along toward our dissolution: Social, Political, Scientific, Environmental – way too much arrogance and greed, and way too little humility and compassion.

There has been a popular culture of “Post-Apocalyptic” visions — but what are the odds of there being a “Post”? Less every day we wait.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Rise of the Evil Ones” – Doctrinal “THEM!” Pressbook Cover

A target — like many others in today’s Doctrinal Demagoguery. It’s interesting that the “One Thought” doctrine holders have aggressively claimed to have debunked the “No Irish need apply” belief – only to have their own claim debunked through a simple internet research of period reference material. In addition to the negative “No Irish” declaration – a number of want ads preferred to use a “Protestant only” affirmative – like an early form of today’s discriminatory “Affirmative” techniques.

You could write a book on the number of truisms that are no longer spoken of, the wisdom turned to face the wall, the back-door bigotry that has been given the run of the house.

The ongoing academic “replication crisis” finds that more than a third of the studies in some fields cannot even be reproduced by independent researchers: many are due to contemporary incompetence; but a growing number of studies are deliberately made up to support a political agenda.

There’s a pretty good chance that the “study” Doctrine holders are citing is just a lie they want you to buy — damaged goods; selling damaged goods.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Rise of the Evil Ones” – Doctrinal “THEM!” Pressbook – page 2

The names have been changed to “THEM!” to protect the innocent. Names? If you can only think of one; then you are ripe to be one of the mob.

The form is based on the 1954 movie pressbook – with the “kitchen sink” Type Direction that adds an element of exploitation publicity fun to the graphics. I know my graphic senses will be itching to redesign the “paste in the blank space” pre-press, board style; but it’s nostalgic too.

How many remember “mechanicals”? I worked for a magazine that was too cheap to pay for proofreading the Galleys – so I had to correct it on the drawing board with a razor blade and a T-square: but then; my current budget only allows for Photoshop CS5 – when InDesign would be more fine.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “The Crime Machine” Movie Poster

What is Science Fiction? If I were to go by the billboards and TV spots; the threats of global warming, drug addiction, and violent crime are nothing compared to the evils of tobacco — if you’re not robbed, killed, or struck down by an unprecedentedly large hailstone on your way to buy a pack of cigarettes.

The victim is the lie that you’ve gotten away with. The victim is only a walk-on part. The victim is only the wrapper; the criminal is the candy, the product.

People used to gasp at the irrational logic of “no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops”: welcome to 2022 . . . and the future.

“All Roads Lead to Cornithaca” – “Rise of the Evil Ones” – Sanitizing Corruption

Saying corruption is cosmopolitan is like saying “may you live in interesting times” – it mellows with distance: a lot of distance. Corruption is dangerous because it attacks the foundations of ethics like a virus; replicating and replacing precepts with profit. While you could argue that a little corruption can make doing some good possible; it makes “goodness” impossible. Corruption is not selfless; and the easy answer is all too often the handle end of a knife. Would you kill this person to save this one? Would you destroy one person to profit another one? Would you kill a million people to profit this one? Corruption always has the same easy answer: “As long as I’m the one.”