Tragedy: the Prince of Lago

When, in the year 1600, a London audience first witnessed the theatrical presentation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy, a scene was presented to them in which a young Prince of Denmark, Hamlet, sees a vision (or hallucination?) of his father, the slain King. The ghost compels Hamlet to avenge his death. Hamlet’s reaction to this terrible request becomes setting for a classic tragedy in which Hamlet imposes a litany of accusations against his Queen mother and her love, the now-King, Claudius. Hamlet’s character is self-tortured with this diabolical task, which he does not fully understand. He makes himself miserable with consternation over how he should go about exacting vengeance for the murder of his father. Among the many complexities of a Shakespearean tragedy plot, a troupe of actors arrives to present a play, ostensibly having been commissioned by Claudius and his courtiers to distract the infuriated Prince Hamlet. The scheming prince, however, approaches the actors with a different play, with which they are familiar. The plot that Hamlet convinces them to perform presents a scenario in which a king is murdered. . . thus raising, in a theatrical manner that only Shakespeare could have arranged, a situation in which Claudius the king and the queen (previously married to Hamlet’s dead father) are implicated, even accused, of murder. At one point in the drama, Hamlet steps aside to deliver this soliloquy: “the spirit I have seen may be the devil, and the devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape, yea. . . The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” In our 21st-centuary of mediaized drama, we have witnessed a tragic drama that echoes the dilemma that faced Hamlet, four centuries ago. A former president of our USA was torturing himself because he had lost, by the tabulated votes of the American people, his position of Oval Office power. He, like Hamlet, could not rest until he had made an attempt to recover, by hook or by crook, for himself the the hyped-up Oval ring of power, which he had lost to a regular Joe. So the Prince of Lago chose a treacherous course of confounding his people with a twisted plot, a plot in which he thought, after signaling to his proud boy minions, to “stand back and stand by” until, once again, he would surface from the depths of Electoral politics to apprehend, once again, the contested Ring of Oval Power for himself. So he instigated a gathering of his confederates whose riotous offense against the American people would obfuscate, for an illigitimate second term, the coveted Oval Ring of Power for the prince of Lago. At that moment in time, that coerced moment in which the insurrection’s the thing in which he would, once again make himself, again, a king! he would grasp, once again, the Oval Ring of Power. But his plan did not work. A classic document, the US Constitution, and We, the citizens of our USA, foiled his plot to purloin power and thus banish him from the Oval and render him, once again, a haunting presence in Lago and 5th Avenue, and wherever else in America, magamania strives to obfuscate and gerrymander the Spirit of Liberty that was assured to us by President Lincoln and the men who, by his determination and sacrifice, ended slavery and ensured us a government Of the People, By the People, For the People. E Pluribus Unum thus recovers the governance of our United States for We the People. In God We Trust. Glass half-Full

The Ultimate Dialectic

In the 1800's a Middle-aged Europe became a New Age, powered by industrialization and mass production. The landed gentry, or aristocracy had run the show, for ages and ages. since ancient history. By 19th century industrialism changed all that. Population patterns were changing. More and more previously-rural folk became urban-dwellers as they moved into the cities to take industrial and mercantile jobs. Those societal shifts shook the very foundations of human enterprise and culture. A previously agrarian farm-labor class morphed into an urban working class. In about the middle of that 19th-century, Karl Marx and his associate Frederick Engels noticed the changing societal trends. They began making notes, gathering information - what we now call statistics and/or data. And when they analyzed the data they noticed some trends. Eventually, Marx and Engels presented their observations, along with some new theories about some of the societal changes they were identifying in human civilization. Marx and Engels coined some new terminology to describe what their research had revealed about the progress of civilization. You may heard some old saying about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Marx and Engels noticed that those people who owned the factories had more wealth, which is to say, more money, assets and property. But most important about what those upper-class owners owned was that they owned the "means of production." They owned and operated the mills and factories. So the theorizing intellectuals,Karl and Fred, came up with an academic name for the people who were running the show: the bourgeoisie. It's a French word, because they were living and studying in Paris at that time, ~1830's-'40's. And the name they chose for the workers was proletariat. Noticing the wealth gap between those two classes, they theorized that, in the long run, probabably some of the proletariat would get tired of being on the short end of the stick all they time, and that, after awhile they would rebel. Because, you know, those feisty Americans had changed the historical scenario when they kicked the Brits out of America and decided to write their new set of rules, which they had called the Constitution. And then, a decade after the Americans had so boldly acted to take their destiny into their own hands, the French had caught wind of that revolutionary spirit and kicked their king and queen off their thrones. So, as the 19th century rolled along, the winds of change were blowing, very strong. There was a Revolutionary spirit taking hold of Europe, even as it had done in the new world of America. And then, sure enough, in the second decade of the 20th-century, some Russian dissidents caught the Revolution wind. They amped it up with Marx's revolutionary theory and generated a revolution in which the proletariat did, indeed, take control of the means of production. They murdered the Russian Czar and his family. They forged a new way of doing things in Russia, called it the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It rolled along, up there in the far north, apart from the rest of Europe during most of the 20th-century. Ultimately, however, the dictatorship of the proletariat fizzled. In the 1980's, the USSR ended when a workers' rebellion in Poland and other Soviet-controlled Euro countries ignited a revolutionary spirit that totally ejected USSR dominion and brought a new wind of capitalistic reform to those formerly communistic countries. Now, that said, I am presenting to you a fresh theory, about what will happen next. Observation #1: Many people have noticed: all this industrialization that has transformed our world in the last two hundred years. It has changed the planet itself, and our Earth's ecosystem. The short term for this planetary shifting is "global warming". The euphemistic term is "climate change". Now. . . all that to say, here is my main point. In the onslaught of climate change, global warming, and the variable changes - perhaps catastrophic - some observers and activists, such as Marx and Engels were during their time, will theorize, improvise and propose - perhaps insist upon - changes in the way we humans do things on this planet. They will compel the powers-that-be to modify the "means of production", which includes our proliferaion polluting industries and their effluents, what was initially called "pollution" but is now more strategically called "carbon emission". And nowadays the monitors of emissions will the world wide web My feeling about this is that, however it all plays out - the "Greens" and there widespread citizen-supporters will ultimately propose, insist upon, and maybe even demand some authoritative stewardship to monitor and/or limit - the means of production, the carbon-spewing industries which is to say the factories and the generators and the vehicles that cast so much carbon and other pollutants into our atmosphere. And guess what. They may be right, although they are generally known as "the left." Now this world wide web enables them to keep the spotlight on a critical global situation. As for me, I'm just sayin', 'cuz I'm expecting John's Revelation on Patmos to be revealed as the ultimate indicator of how this planet's destiny pans out, a series of world-changing events that will culminate in the return of the One man who died a criminal death and then lived to tell about it. Glass half-Full

Christian Correctionalism

Here are words spoken by Jesus Christ, who lived two thousand years ago, who walked on this earth, in this life, among men and women. . . who spoke words of wisdom, correction, faith and prophecy to the people of his era and also to all people who are willing to hear his message of truth, grace and salvation, and who was willing to be executed on a cross rather than subdue his eternal purpose by seeking worldly or political power: (I have chosen these particular quotes from gospel history, specifically for our attention in this time and this situation in America, 2024.) “. . . for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.” “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” “Blessed are them who are merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” “In everything, treat people the same way them to treat you.” “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.” “Every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.” “You will know them (who are true) by their fruits” (the results of their deeds.) “I will declare to them who practice lawlessness: ‘I never knew you.’ “ “Come, you who are blessed, and inherit what has been prepared for you, for you gave me something to eat when I was hungry. . . you gave me something to drink when I was thirsty, you gave me provisions and shelter when I was a homeless stranger. . . To the extent that you gave to one of my people—even the least important ones—you gave it to me.” “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who exalts himself will be humbled.”

Also relevent to out present situation in America are these proverbs from the ancient writings: “These things the Lord hates: a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that are swift in running to mischief (or rioting), a false witness that speaks lies, and anyone who spreads discord among his people.” “He that is void of wisdom despises his neighbor (or fellow citizen), but a man of understanding holds his peace.” “Go away from a foolish man when you realize he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” “The wisdom of a prudent person is understand where he is headed, but the folly of fools is deceit.” “A wise person departs from evil, but the fool is proud in his raging.” “A wrathful man stirs up strife (or insurrection), but whoever is slow to anger quells riotous strife.” “An ungodly man stirs up evil; in his lips there is destructive fire.” “A violent man entices his neighbor, and leads him into a way that is not good.” Blessed are the peacemakers. . .

Ballad of Brett 'n Blasey

Lindsey and Mitchey were getti’n kinda itchy just to leave Judiciary hearings behind. Chuck with his committee, workin’ toward a ditty trying to get Brett’s nomination on time. On committee fence Jeff Flake sat ‘cause victims’ rantings knocked him flat. Lindsey and Mitchey still a-pushin’ forward in the Senate, you know where that’s at and no one’s getting Tweet ‘xept Blasey Ford Lindsey said to Grassley we need to go so fastly just to push this nomination on through (let’s go fast) But Flake said to Grassley, we just cant pass it until we truly know what to do. On committe fence Jeff Flake sat ‘cause elevator tirades knocked him flat. Lindsey and Mitchey still a pushin’ forward in the Senate, you know where that’s at and no one’s getting Tweet ‘xept Blasey Ford. When Blasey was in high school, accosted by a drunk fool. She said it was the nominee. In Committee testifyin’, implied the nominee be lyin’ And stop his nomination immediately. Cuz he was drunk’n crazy, back in the school days, she said Brett had accosted in a drunken haze. Lindsey and Mitchey still a pushin’ forward in the Senate, you know where that’s at. and no one’s getting Tweet ‘xept Blasey Ford. Old schools, Senate rules, smart fools, America drools, the escalating hype is so strong. Tweet up, Face up, everything is hype up to make trauma and drama prolong. In a last-minute surprise Jeff proposed a compromise Lindsey and Mitchey still a pushin’ forward in the Senate, you know where that’s at. and no one’s getting Tweet ‘xept Blasey Ford. Broke busted Blasey can’t be trusted and Mitchey wants it to go to the Floor. Diane cant take it; she says she’ll have to shake it We knew she’d wanna shut that door. Slidin’ on procedures and rules; You know its lowball, but politics is old-school. Blasey’s ‘criminations and sad accusations cant go on indefinitely, so Brett’s nomination was becoming a reality. Listen to the Ballad: For more on this topic, watch: Glass half-Full

Talking to Hal and AI

I was a senior in high school in 1968, working part-time at A&P supermarket, when a movie theatre across the parking lot featured Stanley Kubrick’s classic movie, 2001: A Space Oddyssey, so I went to see the movie. I don’t remember much about the flick, except that an astronaut (this was the year before Neil and Buzz walked on the moon) was out in space and he had a computer onboard to help guide the ship and make decisions and there was a scene where HAL was telling the astronaut that that he (the captain of the spacecraft) could not—or should not— do this, that, or the other task that the captain had commanded.

That was my earliest memory of a human arguing with a computer. And now, 56 years later, we have an actual Hal, or should I say?. . . HAIL, implying that what Stanley Kubrick depicted as HAL has now been actualized as AI, artificial intelligence, a grandchild of HAL. Now lately, in 2024, I have noticed that my laptop does not hesitate to make suggestions about what choices I should make in my clicks. The computer can, it seems, read my mind. It may not know what choice I will make in my next, say, YouTube click, but it knows my preferences. So there you have it: what an old baby boomer noticed about AI. I write about this, having been enlightened, about an hour ago, by an explanation that I read about in The New Atlantis, a journal of Technology and Society, in which Professor Brian J. A. Boyd explains the dynamics and implications of AI in this fast-morphing online world in which we live and move and have our clicking. There’s a lot to be said, and yet to be written, about this AI topic—that’s A (eye) not Al as in Al Capone. In his timely and fascinating analysis of the challenges that this technology presents to our online generation and the next generation, Professor Boyd from Loyola University of New Orleans examines the challenges of entering into this brave new world—or perhaps knave new world— of artificial intelligence, and the next generation of kids who may or may not have phone obsessions. There’s a lot to be said about this topic. You can look it up in The New Atlantis. But I conclude this blog with a quote from his explanation of Amistics, which he defines as “the set choices we make as intentional cultures and subcultures, about the kinds of technologies we are willing to include in our lives.” In his analysis, Professor Boyd raises some important points and questions, most notable among them this one: “Is a teen who shifts from using AI as a tool. . . to thinking of it as a friend and confidant . . . at risk of subtle harm?” And furthermore, is the AI phenom forming a generation of youngsters who may become “Centaur” hybrids— using AI for enhancing their academic challenges . . . or a generation of “Cyborgs” who completely delegate some (academic) tasks to AI? Something to think about as we contemplate what kind of world we are now inhabiting, as AI manages more and more of our online choices. Just sayin’. Glass Chimera

Songs of the Folk Persuasion

Woody Guthrie blazed a trail of American folk song in the 1930’s. His bold adventures established a beaten path for other songsters to follow. My earliest musical memories were spun on a 12-inch turntable with the voices of Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez and Judy Collins, singing songs of the people. All the commercial stuff was filling 1950’s-early-’60’s radio airwaves with Elvis and James Brown and Fats Domino and crooners like Bobby Darrin and Ricky Nelson, but the folkies struck a deeper nerve with me. In the ’50’s, the Kingston Trio came along, the Brothers Four. Post-world-war 1950’s America was a cornacopia of comfort, convenience and cars. But the European detritus of the Great War had provoked a double-edged paranoia between us yanks who treasured democracy and capitalism, stacked up against the Soviet Russians who, at that time, were determined, along with the Maoist Chinese, to impose communism on the world. So when the 1960’s got cranked up, we found ourselves in a bloody Asian war, trying to keep the Commies out of Vietnam. What had been the Cold War turned hot as our Pentagon and our drafted troops strove to lead Vietnamese soldiers into a war campaign to keep the VietCong commies out of South Vietnam. In our United States, a very energetic anti-war movement took hold of our baby boomer generation. Along with draft resistance, a vigorous protest was mounted with a lot of help from the new, boomer wave of folk singers. Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Peter Paul and Mary, and many other troubadors took inspiration from Ole Woody and his trail-blazing folk-song protests. They spun the peacenik impulse into a vigorous war-resistance movement. In Cambridge Mass, as in Greenwich Village NY and San Francisco and other places across USA, the counter-culturing folkies sang songs of peace and pacifism. After those fabled 1960’s of anti-war activism, hippiedom and protest, America settled into a sedate ’70’s recovery when all the anti-communist paranoia had relaxed into a late 20th-century cornucopia of comfort, entertainment and prosperity. As I ambled through Cambridge this morning, I stopped to snap a pic of the reknown folkie 47 Club, where Joan and Bob and many others had lifted their voices into anthems of historical folk music. But, by and by, as 20th-century angst spun down to 21st-century twitterism and facebook frivolity, the times were. . . as Dylan had sung. . ”a-changin’“ Now the once-and-future 47 Club moved around the corner. The old place is now a grocery.

And that, my friends, is life as we know it in the good ole USA. Activism settles into consumerism. As time passes, whatever happens, I say, God Bless America! . . . although Kate Smith is no longer with us to lead us in that rousing chorus. King of Soul

A Tree of Life

Once, upon that thing called Time, there was a world that showed up. And there were people who lived in that world. As people wandered around, trying to figure out what the heaven or hell was going on, they noticed a few things. One thing they noticed was there was a big sea that seemed to be in the middle of the world they knew, or thought they knew. So they named it tithe Mediterranean Sea, which means, I think, the Sea that’s in the middle of everything. In one of the lands that was shored upon that sea, enterprising smart people built great structures, incredibly impressive pyramids, which they knew would really impress everybody. Meanwhile, on the opposite shore, a different group of people put their heads together and tried to figure out where all this stuff had come from and why was it here and what should we do to make it all better. Not too far away from both of those places, on the eastern shore of the Sea, another group of people decided that only a God could have made all these arrangements that we call “the world”, because we are not really smart enough to figure it all out. So they asked God to show them what to do and how to live. And God accommodated them with a list of Laws and a priestly caste who would guide the people friom the darkness of ignorance into the light of living rightly. Meanwhile, back at the tranche, in other parts of the world, there were other people groups who were figuring it all out in their own way, and they had their part to play in the scheme of things to figure out how to best live and so forth and so on. In all these developments, one principle seemed to be true everywhere: Those people who controlled the resources and the assets seemed to have the run of things. And that was true, pretty much everywhere. Meanwhile, back at the American ranch, on the other side of the world, during what was called the 20th century, which was probably really the 20-millionth century, a singing group came along, composing songs to inspire a certain generation, my g-g-generation, the so-called baby boomers. And so they sang an old song—a song that goes way back in time—a song of profound truth, with a trace of tragic observation. The song was “All My Trials.” Here’s a clip of Peter, Paul and Mary, singing it, back in the day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMZJ950t8nc “If religion were a thing that money could buy, the rich would live and the poor would die. . . All my trials, Lord, soon be over.” In the realm of religion, there’s a lot going on. . . always has been. But one thing is true about the plight of our human race; the rich are still trying to claim the tree of Life for themselves by buying up all the religion they can get their hands on.

And this is what has happened in America in recent years. The trumpy magamaniacs tried to manhandle religion into doing their dirty work for them. But I got news for them, Donnie; It ain’t gonna happen. Devout Faith is to be directed toward the Lord alone, not toward any loud-mouthed billionaire who comes along and thinks he can manhandle his way into controlling this shit heap of heatlth and wealth that used to be called America. Because, I’m here to tell y’all. The true Lord says the meek shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the humble people who do not think they can call the shots. What’s really important is that folks help each other to get by in this world. Feed hungry people. Provide homes or shelter for homeless people. Visit the prisoners. Let the rich folks run their casinos and their their golden towers. But don’t let them just go out and shoot anybody who happens to be walking on 5th avenue, or on Main Street, or anywhere else. Glass half-Full

Wired to Aired to Weird

Edison and Tesla and subsequent pioneers in electricity put together a new world in which electrons would travel through wires. At about the same time, Marconi and subsequent radio pioneers put together a newer world in which electromagnetic impulses would travel through air. Between and among the new techno frontiers that were emerging as these technologies grabbed our attentions and our daily habits. . . we humans morphed into a new species. . . humanus electriconus What had come to be known as natural selection during the Darwin era evolved into post-natural selection, whereby natural influences such as chromosomes and genes and genetic codes were displaced, or merged, with electric and electronic impulses, messages and images. These phenomena imposed a different kind of mutation upon the human species, pertaining to, especially, sensory and mental characteristics and post-biological traits. In the latter years, when the internet laid its cables and trends and threads and impulses upon us, innovators and opportunists detected nodes into which they could insert media: information media, entertainment media, political media, and blah blah and spam and whatever else captures the attentions and imaginations of the newly-evolved species, humanus interneticus. This evolved species is fundamentally different from the original creature, homo erectus. As the new critter evolves in response to the world wide stimuli and intense media interventions, we establish a new path of evolutionary development, homo weirdo. The biological and cultural manifestation of this phenom produces a new arrangement of personal identity, whereby individuals are driven by cultural and media influences to take sides on issues of political and planetary gravity. Thus the homo weirdo species separates itself into two sub-species: weirdo democraticus and weirdo magamaniacus. As time ticks by, we shall see how this plays out, as we transition from wired to weird. Whatever happens and however this plays out, one thing is for sure, we ain’t in Kansas any more.

Glass Chimera