Archive for the ‘ History ’ Category

Windylane

Windylane was the name of what was supposed to be our family homestead – two acres in my Mother’s home town of Nauvoo, Illinois right on the Mississippi River.

I was born in my Father’s home town of Ft. Madison, Iowa – just across the river. It was an industrial town, typical of many in the Midwest at the time – where many of the world’s goods were then manufactured. It has since become part of the American Rust Belt – but this happened much later.

The West End of town, where my Father’s family lived, was built to serve the Santa Fe Railroad – because it operated a large depot there, called Shopton, for repairing its Steam Locomotives. My Father’s family had been impoverished itinerant farmers, moving from farm to farm in Iowa, Nebraska, and Missouri. The Railroad was a god-send for them – steady jobs for unskilled workers!

A shanty town quickly sprang up around the Railroad – with cheap houses and cheap women to gladden the hearts of the working man. It was a rough, dirty place. The presence of so many stream locomotives meant that the air was filthy. And on top of that a paper mill – that turned straw into paper – would open its vats every so often – and then the stench was overwhelming. The place stunk – literally. But for the working man, that was the smell of money – the sweetest smell on earth.

I was a sensitive boy, and the place made me sick. My Brother ran away from home twice. My parents knew something was wrong, and in 1947, when I was 11, we moved to Nauvoo – which saved my life. It was a beautiful, fruit-growing village of 1000 people that shipped table grapes to the large cities and was full of apple orchards also. Plenty of cider was available (both hard and soft).

We were told that Windylane would last forever – and would be a place where we could always come home - like any other homestead.

But instead our parents went completely crazy, and spent their money wildly – moving an old house on to our property that looked impressive, but had no insulation – and was therefore always cold in the long, bitter winters. Father made big money during the War – and assumed it would continue. But in fact his Photographic studio back in Ft. Madison made less and less money – and eventually none at all.

We were broke in a house that made no sense, inside or out. This was not unusual. The family farms, such as the one our relatives, the Ourths, bought just down the river – were going broke too. City people, who had made the fruit business possible, were no longer interested in fresh fruit. Small businesses, the backbone of every city, large and small, were disappearing everywhere.

In this period of crisis, my parents decided to go into the whole wheat flour business. A stupid decision if ever there was one. Dad built a strange mill full of strange machinery that attracted a lot of visitors – but few buyers of his flour. People did not want to bake their own bread – it was too much work.

So they built a bakery – and Dad (who was an excellent cook and baker) developed some tasty products. Business started picking up, and they hired a couple of local women to help with the work.

Then abruptly, the folks abandoned Windylane entirely (and my youngest sister) – to become part of a religious mission in Mexico – that eventually faded also.

Our family had lived a lie all that time. And no one thought that unusual – everyone else was doing the same thing.

America was going down the drain – but nobody realized it at the time.

2013
06/02
CATEGORY
Family
History
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To Be Somebody, You Got to Be a Monster

This was one lesson I learned from my severely dysfunctional – and very religious family. We have become accustomed to associating religion with goodness – except for Islam, of course. But I am here to tell you that the weird combination of the different forms of Christianity I grew up with back in the Midwest was one of the worst imaginable.

It was a breeding ground for monsters. And I was determined to be one of them – in my own high-tech way. The unholy combination of religion and technology and business is the subject of this posting. This combination yielded a mix that was explosive. And the end result was a culture that blew itself apart. We now live in a world where pieces of that world are still falling from the sky.

Let’s start with religion first, since it is clearly the craziest part of the mix – and is the basis for the rest. Human beings are religious beings – and we should never underestimate the power of it. My family were Mormons – but a minor Midwestern variety – and we spent a lot of energy telling people “We are not like them,” (the Utah Mormons).

Mormonism should be called Joseph Smithism – because they believe in him, and his various writings – including the Book of Mormon. And I might as well make it clear that Joseph Smith, in my opinion, was a monster, a religious sociopath. One of many in the field. And I hardly need point out that his followers loved him – for just that reason.

People are often attracted to unscrupulous people like this. Probably because they know other people will be attracted too. And people are always attracted to power in any form. As any politician knows.

In case you missed the point – religion can (and often does) create monsters. This is obvious in the case of organized religion – but it is also true in its more subtle forms. Even in Science – which has created many monsters – real and imaginary, such as Dracula.

The soft science of psychology has discovered the sociopath – one of its most useful findings. A subject that fascinates me – because I am a borderline sociopath myself.

To go back to my childhood (about sixty-some years ago) what I learned, most emphatically, was that to get ahead – and everyone was focused on that – you had to be a monster. Indeed, our whole society had to be monstrous – and therefore war-mongering.

This was not a good time to be alive – believe me. And I was lucky to have survived it.

And to do that I had to give up being a monster – and I hate being a failure at anything.

2013
06/01
CATEGORY
Family
History
Psychology
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Steam and Steel

Historic Pictures Restored

This site has a large number of restored photographs dating from 1860s – but mostly  from the 1910s. I found looking at them to be a disturbing experience – like looking at people from another planet.

The main difference between then and now was the technologies that defined them – the Steam Engine and Steel. The two went together to make the steam-powered ships of the age (which were magnificent) and the Railroads (which completely dominated the economy and the labor market). This was also an era of bridge-building – which were impressive, even by today’s standards. Hardly noticed were the horses which still did most of the work and transportation.

The most disturbing effect of the coal-fired steam engine was how dirty it was. The death rate due to the mining and use of coal must have been awesome. But the medical community overlooked this – not completely, but nearly so. There was a huge supply of labor (mainly due to massive immigration) and there was not much interest in protecting them. People were fast becoming like the machines they served so faithfully – used, then discarded.

These people were over-dressed and under-washed by today’s standards – they seldom bathed, and didn’t consider that important. The hats of the women were fantastic (and expensive) creations. The men’s hats were more modest – but they were never without them.

Urban life at the beginning of the century was at its peak. An incredible mixture of the slums and the sublime. No one was interested in photographing the slums – with the exception of colored parts of the South. The only rural areas shown were in Florida – also a different world entirely.

2013
05/30
CATEGORY
History
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What Is Going On?

I am obsessed with this question, in its broadest sense. What is going on in the world? The human world, of course.

Is this some kind of megalomania of mine – that I think I can answer such a huge question? Perhaps, but I am convinced that I (and anyone else, who wants to) can detect some basic trends that are going on everywhere. Even though we cannot be everywhere to check things out on the spot.

We live in a global culture and a global economy. I think most people would agree with that – but they have never thought through just what that implies. In my own feeble way, I want to do that this morning.

One thing about this global culture is the universal command not to recognize what is going on. The exact opposite of what we were told a few hundred years ago – when we told to be informed and intelligent. Because that way we could have some control of our world.

But ever since the Industrial Revolution we have been learning that something else is in control – something we have never defined – and indeed, something we have been forbidden to define, or think about. It is sometimes called Progress – something that must be obeyed.

But what it amounts to, in aggregate, is a return to the Middle Ages – with a different Power Structure. This is what we are forbidden to see. But once he gets the nerve to start looking around – anyone can see it.

This sounds like paranoia, pure and simple – I must admit. Perhaps I am seeing things that do not exist. But paranoia can also be realistic – and can help people to cope with some very disagreeable situations.

For example, I once knew of a Jewish family who got out of Germany, right away, when the Nazis came into power – and spent the war comfortably in South America – then returned to Germany when things cooled down. The other Jewish families told each other that things could not be all that bad – and stayed.

I am even an example myself – although not a very bright one. I discovered I could no longer live in the States – for a variety of reasons – but mainly because I could not live on a Social Security income up there. So I got out. I knew it was possible for an American to live overseas – so that is what I did. My friends back in the States find this incomprehensible – but it seemed like a simple enough thing to do for me.

In their own way, Americans are just as foolish as the Germans were. They cannot see how bad things have become – and on a personal level – how to cope with them. They just assume, if they stay in the center of the crowd, they will be safe. That the crowd itself is doomed – they cannot imagine. But such is the case.

Any large organization – any country or an empire – goes through the same overall rise and fall pattern. A gradual rise, a flat peak, and then a swift decline. There are all kinds of variations, but that is the overall pattern.

And at no time, has any of them (with the exception of an observant few) been aware of its decline. Which always takes them by complete surprise.

When I was traveling in England, back in the Seventies, I noticed this for the survivors of the British Empire. They were in shock. They had gone from the richest country on the earth to one of the poorest – in only thirty years.

The same thing is happening, I believe, to America. We were the most powerful nation in history after WWII – but this power has declined badly. Americans are in shock too – but are not aware of it.

One result of this shock is a greatly reduced intelligence – just when we most need it most.

2013
05/28
CATEGORY
History
Philosophy
Psychology
Sociology
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People Want to be Stupid

We have bought into the Enlightenment idea that people want to develop themselves fully. To live up to their potential. Who can argue with that?

But we can see clearly that just the opposite is true for many people – at least in our time. And since this is the time we are living in – that is the only thing that counts – what is going on right now. Admittedly not the best of times.

A short historical review is in order. We came from the Middle Ages – which resulted from the Fall of the Roman Empire. After a thousand years or so of this – things began to look up. Just what happened next, we have not wanted to think about much – but something did happen, and the Modern World resulted. Part of this development was a renewed interest in the Classical World – Greece and Rome – Humanism.

In short, we began to believe that people were important. That they had rights, and they had to be respected – as individuals.

This belief has never been repudiated formally – but, as a practical matter, it no longer has much credence. What is important now, we are not sure – but it is definitely not people.

In this atmosphere, people have become – as always – what they are supposed to be – nothing worth bothering about. Which meant, among other things – that they had become stupid.

2013
05/26
CATEGORY
History
Philosophy
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Crazy Religious

My family was this way – and still is. I have little contact with them anymore, but my past is still my past – and I struggle to understand it.

The sensible thing to do about it would to forget it – but that would be a mistake, because my childhood was when my personality was formed and I still have to live with myself. My strange self was formed back then.

One thing I keep realizing is that we were obsessed with being wonderful – and we worshiped people in the church who we thought were that way. There was terrific competition to see who was most wonderful. And these people made sure they were continually on display – just like any politician. To put this another way – these people were their image – and everything depended on that.

Now that I have put that down in so many words – I am relieved to see that I do have some understanding of how we were. Usually I have despaired at explaining it. We were crazy, but our craziness was not all that different. This insight of mine would have shocked my parents – who thought they were the most unusual (and wonderful) people in the world.

They didn’t say that in so many words – but they clearly felt that. To use another word – they suffered from grandiosity – and they loved it.

They (that is, the church) got away with this for over a hundred years. But it came to a sudden end in the Fifties. Other Americans were asking them “If you are so wonderful, how come you are not rich!” The ultimate test of worth was wealth. And our little church did not have that.

This was when I had my personal revelation about the church. I was at the University of Illinois – a huge place full of all kinds of other social pressures – exactly the kind of place our church feared. That is why I went to its college in Lamoni, Iowa for two years before going to the University. I was protected there, but at the University I was not.

I realized, all of a sudden, that the church was unimportant. The only one in my extended family to realize this. All the rest are still firm in the faith – even if they are not active in the church. How they can be so stupid, I do not know – but that is the way they are.

I have worked hard at not considering religion as insanity – and I will continue to work at it. But I cannot deny that in some ways it certainly is. I can only recognize that insanity is part of the human condition. And we were definitely insane back then.

It only remains to explain how we were insane. And that will take some explaining. It would help if we recognize that business (for example) has now become a religion.

And Americans have fallen prey to many other insanities – especially in their attitude towards the rest of the world – especially Islam – which has taken the place of Communism as the religion of the Devil. We are still fighting religious wars – even if we steadfastly deny it.

2013
05/26
CATEGORY
History
Religion
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The Big Switch from Many Small Organizations to One BIG Organization

This happened after WWII, the big event that changed the world forever. The final trauma that destroyed the world – without the world knowing it at all.

I lived through this – but just barely – and now in my sunset years I can reflect on it. I am not a very bright person – but I do seem to have the special ability to notice what is going on – not that it has done me any good. No one wants this kind of person around – noticing how incompetent they are.

WWII taught us an important lesson – Bigness Matters. America won the war not because it was better – but because it was bigger – much bigger.

The rest of the world took note – and set about doing the same thing. Europe became the EU and China set about being the next big thing. But more importantly – the rich and powerful everywhere set about consolidating themselves across international boundaries. Enabled by the Internet.

They are the new power structure (the de facto world government) – and everybody obeys them instinctively. Without having the slightest idea of what is going on. They aren’t supposed to know – and therefore they do not.

In fact, they have identified with their oppressors, and have joined with them to make sure no one else is different. In what Sheldon S. Wolin calls Inverted Totalitarianism. Otherwise known as Globalization.

2013
05/24
CATEGORY
Business
Economy
History
Philosophy
Sociology
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The Origins of Christianity

I am hardly an expert here – but I have studied this some. And it seems to me that the outlines are fairly simple – Christianity was a blend of Jewish and Greek cultures – with some Zoroastrianism thrown in on the side (that is why Christian angels have wings, and the Holy Ghost is represented as a bird).

The history behind this is straight-forward. The Jewish nation was destroyed by the Jewish-Roman War. And the only Jews left were in the Diaspora – in the regions around the Holy Land in the Eastern Mediterranean. This is where Paul was active. He himself was a strange blend of Jewish, Greek, and Roman cultures. He had little interest in the historical Jesus – but was preoccupied with his own version of Jesus as an international figure. A new idea for its time.

This area was dominated by the Greeks, where Koine Greek was the language spoken. From Wikipedia:

Koine (from κοινή ”common”, also known as Alexandrian dialect, common Attic or Hellenistic Greek) was the common supra-regional form ofGreek spoken and written during hellenistic and Roman antiquity. It developed through the spread of Greek following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC, and served as the common lingua franca of much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East during the following centuries. Based mainly on Attic and related Ionic speech forms, with various admixtures brought about through dialect levelling with other varieties,[1]Koiné Greek displayed a wide spectrum of different styles, ranging from more conservative literary forms to the spoken vernaculars of the time.[2] As the dominant language of the Byzantine Empire it developed further into Medieval Greek, the main ancestor of Modern Greek,[3] with about the year 600 marking the boundary between the two.

Literary Koiné was the medium of much of post-classical Greek literary and scholarly writing, such as the works of Plutarch and Polybius.[1] Koiné is also the language of the Christian New Testament, of the Septuagint (the 3rd-century BC Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), and of most early Christian theological writing by the Church Fathers. In this context, Koiné Greek is also known as “Biblical”, “New Testament” or “patristic Greek”.[4]

The idea of sexual intercourse between male gods and female humans – with tragic consequences – is common in Greek mythology. And it is not surprising that it was included in Christian mythology – slightly sanitized as the Immaculate Conception. Nothing could be further from Jewish beliefs – or later, Islamic beliefs.

But this does not explain the Crucifixion and the Resurrection – both key Christian concepts – and the core of Paul’s beliefs. And of every other early Christian sect - of which there were many. Why on earth was this (the suffering god) so important to them?

Here is where living in Latin America is useful – because I am living in what is basically a late-Medieval world. Where bloody images of the Crucifixion are common.

Protestantism (the religion of the North) has downplayed this part of its Christian heritage. And preferred to concentrate on improving things. Suffering still exists in the North (and very much so) but it is not acknowledged officially – as it is in the South.

But to get back to the beginning of the Christian Era – the suffering then (caused by the Roman Empire) was comparable to that caused by WWII – much later. Christianity expressed this suffering – in the person of Jesus Christ himself. An extremely clever idea.

Here I am influenced by Slavoj Zizek (of Slovenia, for God’s sake) and his book The Puppet and the Dwarf – subtitled: The perverse core of Christianity. This guy is extremely familiar with Western thought – and takes it apart with gusto. Not surprisingly, Americans are not interested in what he has to say.

I live in a strange time – where I have access to nearly everything – but where most people are not interested in anything. And are not interested in being anything either.

2013
05/23
CATEGORY
History
Religion
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Machines Controlled by Their Emotions

This is what a consumer is. He buys what he is supposed to buy, and does what he is supposed to do. His emotions are controlled from the outside – they are how the rest of the world controls him. He has no individual control of himself – and doesn’t want any.

He doesn’t like to think of himself this way – but he is in fact a machine. One with strong emotions – but still a machine that is part of a larger machine.

Medieval man was religious – and saw himself as part of religious universe. Contemporary man sees himself as part of a global economy – which operates as a giant machine, which he does not understand in the least, but which he must obey completely.

It is not clear to me that we are any better off.

We should have been more careful of what happened in the last five hundred years, or so (in what we now call the Modern World). But things got quickly out of control, and our machines took over.

What on earth do I mean by “Our machines took over?” How can machines do anything? This will take a little explaining. But it is nothing very complicated. And goes back to the Industrial Revolution.

Which was part of a bigger revolution we have never named or understood adequately – the one that produced the Developed World. Which, in retrospect, was when we allowed our machines to take over.

We didn’t see it that way, of course. We thought we had just found the path to instant riches – for a few, at least. What developed very quickly – in the next hundred years or so, and mainly in the North – was Industrialization.

Which included a close integration with our machines. Beginning, as I have said, with the Sailing Ship. Which was followed by the Steam Engine. And then an never-ending series of new technologies, such as the automobile, that took over completely.

This created a new class of people – the workers, that had never existed before. They were completely dependent of their jobs – which had never existed before either. And an economy that had never existed before either.

But the most amazing thing was this – almost no one noticed this was happening! For the simple  reason that it had never happened before – and was so amazing no one could believe it was going on.

And didn’t really want to, since it was all so thrilling. They felt they had become new beings – much better than before.

When in fact, they had become machines – much less than what they had been before.

2013
05/22
CATEGORY
History
Philosophy
Technology
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Superior People are Above the Law

Morality has always been a difficult business – but with the collapse of the Modern world, at the end of the 19th Century, we decided it was too difficult to bother with – and decided to do without it.

Society is now composed of special interest groups, each of which has the right to determine what is right for it – and the rest of the world too. In one hundred years (in the 20th Century) we have regressed back to a morality of the Middle Ages. And we feel this has been a big improvement.

As an American child of the second half of that century, I was right in the middle of this mess – and could not figure out what was going on. Now that I have the time, and the distance, to think it over – I can only marvel at what happened. And marvel at how ignorant we continue to be.

The closest parallel I can think of was the Fall of the Roman Empire two thousand years ago. But the parallel is not very exact because the decline this time was covered up by the rampant innovation of technology after technology – which cleverly covered up what was really going on. Which was a moral, as well as a social – collapse.

This is best illustrated by an industry I know very well – since I worked in it for twenty years – what we now call the Computer industry – which is really a complex consisting of hardware, software – and the Internet and the Wireless networks. Bear with me as I go into this.

As I said, I was part of that industry – and I suffered from it. Which was strange, because no one else seemed to be suffering. They were happily destroying destroying whatever company they were in – and seemed to be intent on destroying everything else.

This can be seen most clearly in the fastest-growing part of the industry – what they call the mobile part – hand-held devices. It is turning out junk at an incredible rate. And their customers (which have included me) are unable to tell the difference.

But now that I have a number of their useless products cluttering up my desk – I have decided to revolt. My latest purchase – which was downloadable software, would not install, and I complained to the seller. They said they were only distributors for the product, and I would have to complain to the manufacturer – which I did – and got no response from their customer support, which seemed to be turned off.

Now I am demanding my money back – and reminding them that, since it was a credit card purchase, I can get my bank to make a refund for me. This will be a hassle, and take time – and they are banking (literally) on my not going to the trouble. But this time they are wrong – I am going to get my money back from the bastards if it takes me all year.

But for a lot of their stuff, customers have no defense against inadequate products or services. They take the money and run – leaving the customer holding the bag. And the Internet has made this much easier, since it has made them invisible.

Now, after that long digression, I can return to the subject I started on – how Superior People are above the law. How entire industries – all kinds of special interest groups – the rich and the powerful – are now above the Law. And this is helped by our latest technology (including TV and the Internet) – which seem to encourage immorality.

Now I want to go back to WWII in America. The event that made America the most powerful nation in history – and, as it turned out, one of the most immoral – although that immorality was rather complicated – as I have indicated.

My parents, which were typical of their generation, considered themselves superior people – in fact, they were obsessed with this. Which meant, in plain language, that they were terrible parents – and lied to their children in all kinds of ways.

I ended up being an engineer and an integral part of this bed of lies. And thoroughly miserable.

I will be writing more about this – especially how my parents brought this on.

2013
05/18
CATEGORY
History
Morality
Technology
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