Bloomburg Democrat

Hard Scrabble

1969-12-31T16:33:30+0000

Hard Scrabble - Observations on a Patch of Land

By John Graves, 1974, 271 pages, Southern Methodist University Press , $14.95

This is my first encounter with John Graves and he goes on a very short list of favorite authors that I can count on one hand.

This book in my opinion is in fact scripture; at least Texas scripture. One might object because it is written by man, but what’s new in that respect. He explores a physical world with metaphysical clarity. It is as if God said to him, “Give them light.” His definition of ownership is of evolutionary significance.

Now I suspect John would disagree with all of the above and that is another reason I find him a good source of important truths.

I am not sure if this book is meaningful to the fairer sex, but don’t let that observation prevent the distaff members of Texas from reading this book. I suspect the enlightenment will be universal no matter the sex or nationality of the reader.

Nothing Is Free

1969-12-31T16:33:30+0000

It is still hot in East Texas, however there was a bit of Northwest wind this morning that portends a change of the seasons.

I was working in the garden and sweating heavily by 9AM. I felt a breeze and as I raised my face into the wind and closed my eyes I had a most glorious feeling of the coming fall weather. A blissful peace came over me and I thought to myself "the best things in life are free". Then it dawned on me that if I hadn't worked up such a sweat, I would have never been able to enjoy this seminal event. This feeling of joy and happiness. It made me recall the same joy felt as a child when a small cloud blocked the summer sun while baling hay in the heat of a summer afternoon.

Somehow in this same instant, I came to the conclusion that freedom of religion, as guaranteed by the First Amendment also extrapolates to the conclusion of freedom from religion. Just think how important this idea is concerning the firestorm about the mosque near the 9/11 site. If we want freedom of religion there is a cost. The cost in a righteous democracy is the racemate freedom from religion.

Only by pride cometh contention.(Proverbs 13:10)

Americans are infected with a severe case of pride that causes them to think only they have the right pathway to whatever constitutes their idea of salvation; forgetting nothing is free.

Freedom's Orator

1969-12-31T16:33:30+0000

Freedom’s Orator - Mario Savio and the Radical Legacy of the 1960’s

By Robert Cohen , Oxford University Press , 2009, 512 pages, $27.50

To use an old Aggie term, I was totally gobbled up in the 1960’s with the official government establishment’s propaganda. I considered Mario Savio a communistic beatnik and thought someone needed to throw him under the police car on which he was standing when giving his “Bodies Upon The Gears” oration.

I guess the old German proverb surely applies to me (Too soon old and too late smart). Savio was so far ahead of me in understanding the world situation and especially the corruption of our democratic process. I had already become a cynic concerning most official endeavors, but this book gives me a better understanding of why the governing process is a exercise in smoke and mirrors. Power corrupts and all men once they get power become corrupted. A look at our political establishment is proven evidence that this is true.

Even if I had understood the facts, I am not sure I would have had the nerve to take the stand that Savio took. I consider him a patriot of the first order.

Robert Cohen paints Savio as a saint and I think he is only slightly hyperbolic.

Smith Family History Letter

1969-12-31T16:33:30+0000

The following is a letter dated August 18, 1852 that was written by Jane Darbyshire Smith to her cousin William Pearson Barrett of McComb, McDonough County, Illinois.

Sowell’s Creek, Guadalupe Co. Texas

August 18^th, 1852

Dear Cousin,

We received a letter from you dated June 20. Also a newspaper for which we send you one from San Antonio. In it you will find some account of the Examination held in Seguin. We have no printing office yet in the town but almost everything else. They are putting up some fine large buildings; some of stone, others of a mixture composed of and, lime, and small stones forming a cement. The town & country is improving rapid. We live too far from town to give our children much schooling on account of boarding being so very expensive. We want you if you will when you get here, to teach our children. They learn a little at home. We send you also a little book giving an account of the school. After we had written to you we had some fine rains which made fine good crops. Corn yields from 30 to 50 bushels to the acre and is worth from 25 to 37 ½ cts per bushel. There is also a good prospect fro a good pecan. Most they will be worth is 50 cts per bushel in Seguin. Wheat averages about 15 bushels per acre. It is the spring wheat the cause of flour being so high here is the distance that it comes say from St. Louis and Cincinnatia. Apples have not been tried. I think some ground would suit. Fetch some good seed with you. Peaches do well. We had plenty very fine ones to eat and preserve. Sold a good many, say 25 dol worth. We have eight young trees. This was the second year of bearing. They could not have been any fuller. Plumbs and cherries would do well here. Watermelons are fine. They last a long time; say from 1^st of July till Nov or till frost comes; some years last till Christmas. We have had some very warm weather but we do not feel the heat so oppresive as it is with you, on account of the wind. Sometimes women wish it was not so strong on account of it blowing their work away. This is a slave country but not one half of the people own them. We do not own them. You can save your money to buy land and cattle if you rather. We have been pulling fodder to feed our calves that we keep up in the winter. Butter will then be worth double what it is now. We sell near about 15 lbs per week, woth 12 ½ cts per lb; eggs 12 ½ doz Hens lay all winter. The grass is good. No ague. Some few have chills through exposure or bad management. There is no cause for sickness. We have good preaching every Sunday. Had good preaching every day for 2 weeks. Several got religion. The Presbeterians intend having a camp meeting 2 miles above Seguin the 3^rd Sunday in next month. The Methodist will have one the last Sunday in Oct.

Two weeks back we received a letter from Mother. Father tried to write a little. How changed he must be since we saw him last. I wish he was hear. That country is too cold. But, you know old country people dislike moving so much. Father is so industrious. He could work so much better in the country without being exposed. I hope Samuel will come and see us this fall. We are sorry to think you cannot some till next year. Your furniture would cost you a great deal to fetch them and perhaps get broke. Fetch all kinds of seeds with you. When you write to England give my kind love to all of them. I have never written but once to Aunt Mary soon after we came to Texas. But, I cannot forget any of them. We are sorry to hear you brother is so afflicted. He must be a great deal of trouble to your Mother. She must be getting quite old. Tell me more about them all when you write; where your Mother, Aunt Celia and Mary live. I trust we shall meet some day before long and that you will be pleased with the country. Mr Smith’s back is paining him bad. 3 of the children have bad colds. The rest are well. Hoping these lines will find you all enjoying good health and good spirits for Texas.

I remain your affectionate cousin.

Jane F. Smith

Peter D. Smith

Write soon when you get this . I will try and answer it.

Peter D. Smith is the brother of Charles Alexander Smith ( my gggrandfather) and son of Ezekiel Smith.

An Absolute Truth

1969-12-31T16:33:30+0000

Absolutes are hard to find, but I believe that Bertrand Russell’s succinct statement is one such truth.

“There is nothing accidental about the difference between a church and its founder. As soon as absolute truth is supposed to be contained in the sayings of a certain man, there is a body of experts to interpret his sayings, and these experts infallibly acquire power, since they hold the key to truth. Like any privileged caste, they use their power for their own advantage. They are, however, in one respect worse than any other privileged caste, since it is their business to expound an unchanging truth, revealed once for all in utter perfection, so that they become necessarily opponents of all intellectual and moral progress.”

This privileged group of men are burdened with the effort of trying to protect an absolute that is not absolute. This monkey on their back gets heavier by the day as new information is discovered. Since the founder professes his close relationship to an omniscient being that reveals absolute truths, the privileged group is forever trying to explain the ever changing history.

Their primary protection from these changes is to protest any doubt in their authority as apostasy. Accusing the doubter of sin seems to be the next step in protecting their dominion. The last line of defense is a metaphysical testimony. Nothing is sillier than using a metaphysical testimony as proven fact. “I know” becomes an infliction rather than an asset.

Raising Pyrrhonists

1969-12-31T16:33:30+0000

Raising children in a fable immersed society opens the door to skepticism and can lead them on a life long search for reality. The search can end in a Pyrrhic victory of which there are long term repercussions.

The tooth fairy and Santa Claus are rather minor dubious characters in the lives of most American children. Parents have continued these fables as a means of both reward and reproof. Religious fables have a much more serious context; yet still are based on the reward and reproof scenario. Words such as sin, salvation, redemption, commandments, forgiveness and exaltation are followed by archaic rules that have been passed down through the ages. By attributing these rules to an all-knowing God, the effect is to limit any thought of error. Accepting these rules as being given by an omniscient being has the effect of stifling any discussion of the matter. When discrepancies arise, the common response is to eliminate all questioning with such statements as: God’s ways are not man’s ways - God uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise - and other such terms or word play that are, in fact, not answers. Questioning is often linked to unworthiness and apostasy. Guilt is a powerful inhibitor and often prevents further investigation.

As children mature they are confronted with evidence that indicates there are questions concerning these unquestionable facts. Their journey then requires either a blind faith in the information they have received from those most trusted individuals in their life or a questioning that, with little effort, shows the flaws in the fabled facts. If the individual comes to the conclusion that they have not been told the truth or that their parents/teachers are in fact mistaken, the effect is to cause doubt in all things and this can lead to a life long cynicism.

The Pyrrhic victory occurs when the former believer loses all respect for convention - both good and bad. Having lost trust , it then becomes a matter of relying on personal standards that are devoid of historical knowledge. In other words, the individual lives for now. Happiness is a fleeting entity because the evolutionary need for God has been ruptured and replaced with an empty cynicism.

What is a parent to do?

I think it is important to teach children the benefits of wanting to believe in concepts that are impossible to know for fact or proven in a Koch based postulate. Wanting to believe satisfies an inner need for stability and has a calming effect on the stress of unknowing.

Flash In The Pan

1969-12-31T16:33:30+0000

You can make this sure bet in Vegas and take the money to the bank. Obama is going to be a one term fizzle.

We voted for a visionary man and he has now proven that he has been a pragmatist all along.

He has failed to realize that truth is not a process to those that put him into office. His blatant decision to conduct healthcare debate in private, reneging on the promise to demand price negtiations on drugs, dropping the idea of reimportation of cheaper drugs and the bailing out of his banking friends on Wall Street are bales and not straws that broke the very backs of those that carried him into office.

I am not saying that McCain would have been a better president, but I am saying that Obama has been naive to think that he can accommodate the power factions in Congress and still bring change to American politics.

Where do we go from here? Let's start by making sure that not one member of Congress is reelected.

Know When To Hold'em And Know When To Fold'em

1969-12-31T16:33:30+0000

Haiti is a disaster that happen in 1791 and has gone down hill ever since.

Nothing in the country worked before the earthquake. Nothing will work in the future. The country is a failed experiment in government by a culture that is unmanageable.

If Harvard wanted a model for study about a failed state, Haiti would be the mother of all failure. If one looks at any category to define the situation in Haiti - vital statistics - national economy - foreign trade - transportation - communications - education - health - environment - in every instance there is no place in the world any worse.

President Obama is making a colossal mistake by saying that the United States will take responsibility to correct the situation in Haiti. Throwing money at this catastrophe is a fool’s errand.

This is not the first disaster to inflict this country and will not be the last.

It appears to me that the only solution for this debacle is to depopulate the country and give the land a thousand years to recover.

A Circle Is Still A Circle

1969-12-31T16:33:29+0000

Every diverse religion claims God’s unique acceptance. If that were not the case , then why even consider joining such a society? It is this religious primogeniture that seals the fate of trying to understand a supernatural relationship with a higher being. If there were truly a difference in a sect’s relationship with deity, then that deity would be less than omnipotent, because it would limit it’s ability to conserve it’s creation.

Custom is a habitual practice that is accepted without reasoning. Practicing religion requires one to be unreasonable.

If religion is primarily a custom, when you compare one to another , they are all the same. Yet each claims a unique status. If one draws a circle a million times, no matter how large or small, it is always a circle. How is it then possible to see one religion/circle as being unique?

Is it acceptable to accept custom without reasoning?

A Philosophical Look At Decisions - Part II

1969-12-31T16:33:29+0000

Voluntary – reaction decisions are subject to external influences that occur in our daily lives. The eighteenth century philosopher David Hume described these reactions decisions in an essay ~ An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding – 1777 edition. His concept of decision making is based on ideas. He divided the process of idea decision making into three idea scenarios

resemblance
cause and effect
contiguity

He does suggest there may be a fourth source of ideas – contrast or contrariety – but basically seems to think this fourth source is a combination of causation and resemblance,

Forming ideas by resemblance is a process of seeing something and then having an idea of a similar nature. This is the most common source of reactive “new ideas”. Abraham Lincoln implied the same notion by stating “Books serve to shows a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all.”

Cause and effect ideas tend to be largely of a more physical nature – pleasure and pain – and this is true even when the idea originates in the thought process. Touch a hot stove and it hurts; see a hot stove and we visualize the hurt.

Contiguity ideas are based on the logical progression of A is followed by B. This is a deductive process that requires more thought than does resemblance or cause and effect.

Because decision making is first controlled by the involuntary action lower brain stem, we are subject to more base desires. It requires conscious voluntary reaction thinking to overcome these animalistic decisions.

Acts of moral turpitude are based on biological principles of survival and / or gratification. It is only in higher biological beings that the concept of moral consequences voluntary reaction is active. Just how far down the evolutionary tree are moral principles considered is unknown. It requires a conscious effort to institute the reactive idea-making process. This higher-being consideration is based on the Hume-described principles of resemblance, cause and effect and contiguity.

The societal standard of family happiness is a long established guideline based on the concept that ideas can trump biological urges. This learned standard is supported in many advanced civilizations. Though religion may be considered suspect due to its inherent metaphysical nature, family happiness has been shown to be based on voluntary – reaction decisions supported by religious ethics. An excellent text to evaluate these voluntary – reaction decisions is Stephen Covey’s ~ Spiritual Roots of Human Relationships. For believers and non-believers alike the Judeo-Christian ethic of the “thou shall not” and “Sermon on the Mount” is civilized mankind’s best guidelines for controlling the inner beast. Belief in a god is not necessary to live these guidelines, but it does make it easier. The first thinking humans needed something outside of self to deal with the unknown. That unknown vacuum was filled by two near equal powers – one for good and one for evil. Modern man still finds it easier to live with that arrangement. It is easier because trying to deal with the T. Rex DNA which we all contain must be suppressed by a cognitive voluntary-reaction decision otherwise we will eat our young.

Life is about relationships: Relationships with others and maybe even more important relationship with self. A negative self-image is very corrosive and allows the beast to arise which leads to poor relationships. The beast is self-centered and considers only two options, survival and gratification, and no voluntary – reaction decision is necessary. The failure to consider cause and effect leads to destruction of the family unit.