Question Authority Part Two
This is a repost from 2023. … The facebook thread that produced the meme discussed yesterday had a tasteful photo comment. “Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” Albert Einstein The sans serif text was illustrated with a photograph of an thoughtful Dr. Einstein. Since I was already on a debunking rampage, google was the logical next stop.
The short version is that young Albert said something similar in a letter, which was possibly mistranslated in the meme. “It comes from a letter he wrote to Jost Winteler, with whom he had boarded while at school in Aarau, Switzerland. In the letter, written on July 8th, 1901 (when he was aged 22), Einstein complained about German physicist Paul Drude, editor of Annelen der Physik, who had dismissed EInstein’s criticism of his electron theory of metals (now known as the Drude Model).”
“Was Sie über die deutschen Professoren gesagt haben, ist gar nicht über-trieben. Ich habe wieder ein trauriges Subjekt dieser Art kennen gelernt – einen derersten Physiker Deutschlands. Auf zwei sachliche Einwände, welche ich ihm gegen eine seiner Theorien anführte, und die einen direkten Defekt seiner Schlüsse darthun, antwortet er mir mit dem Hinweis, daß ein anderer (unfehlbarer) Kollege von ihm der selben Meinung sei. Ich werde dem Mann demnächst mit einer tüchtigen Veröffentlichung ein heizen. Autoritätsdusel ist der größte Feind der Wahrheit.”
“What you have said about German professors is not exaggerated. I have got to know another sad specimen of this kind – one of the foremost physicists of Germany. To two pertinent objections which I raised against one of his theories and which demonstrate a direct defect in his conclusions, he responds by pointing out that another (infallible) colleague of his shares his opinion. I’ll soon make it hot for the man with a masterly publication. Autoritätsdusel is the greatest enemy of truth.”
“I’ve left the word “autoritätsdusel” untranslated, since this is the key to the quote. Princeton translates it as “authority gone to one’s head”, and in a paper published in Science and Engineering Ethics, it is translated as “the stupor of authority” (“dusel” meaning “stupor or daze”).”
The Science and Engineering Ethics document promises more cheap thrills. Suppression of Scientific Research:Bahramdipity and Nulltiple Scientific Discoveries “Just as Horace Walpole coined serendipity, so can the term bahramdipity be … defined as the cruel suppression of a serendipitous discovery. Suppressed, unpublished discoveries are designated nulltiples. Several examples are presented to make the case that bahramdipity is an existent aspect of scientific discovery.” A recent example might be the suppression of ivermectin, in favor of more profitable vaccines.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the featured picture in June 1940. “Building a new house for Mr. Craig, first citizen. Pie Town, New Mexico.”
Little Bird Poems
What follows is a telephone dictation of notes from the February little 5 poetry bash. … Down at the Java Lord’s emporium, waiting at 7:20 on the 9th of the first Monday of this February. I’m here for the Java bash. This is going to be a hell of an editing job once I get started with it.
Well it’s a little bit closer to closing time, or opening time. People are sitting around talking, and there’s all sorts of conversation going on, and a couple people that I know, but everybody seems to be busy talking to everybody else, and that’s fine. They’ve got this pole here, it’s a column, it’s about about five inches square and it’s covered with stickers. Someone was standing behind it, acting like he was going to be gesturing with it. I thought of using that as a dancer’s pole. That’s not not going to happen. None of these people need to be pole dancing. I would probably break something if I tried.
I’m one of the least dressed up people here. I’m wearing my boots, and some clunky old jeans and a white dockers shirt. I’m wearing a t-shirt but I can’t remember what it says I’ll have to look at it but Rosser’s setting up the show. I’m supposed to be opening this thing. I can’t imagine what I owe this honor to. This guy, Dennis, who’s a very entertaining person, he’s going to be the feature.
Rosser’s wearing a fleece vest, a day glow green long sleeve shirt, some flowered pants and some silver Lame’ sneakers. He’s the MC tonight, and he’s going around he’s negotiating with people about who’s going to be performing when and I’m just I’m just here, just here taking up space, not really knowing what I’m doing, but that’s how that’s how you know little 5 poetry bash works.
There’s this Aroma that I always seem to notice when I come to L5P. I was walking past this one of the theaters … they are having a concert, and there’s all these hipster type looking people competing with the security for attention. And there is this L5P odor … a combination of cigarettes and old barroom smell and Old Hippie smell and something else but I can’t really describe it that well I probably wouldn’t want to. You wouldn’t want to wear it as a cologne but this is peculiar to L5P and I smell that it smell every time I come down here.
The show was great. Dennis brought a couple of his pals, and they were all good. Of course it was live, so even bad poets are fun to listen to in person. Something called little bird poems kept coming up, which may necessitate further inquiry. … I googled little bird poems, and did not see any of the groovy violence I heard tonight. This one is typical: “Once I saw a little bird, Coming hop, hop, hop. So I cried out, “Little bird, Will you stop, stop, stop?” I was going to the window To say, “How are you?” But he shook his little tail, And away he flew.” … “TO THE TEACHER Read the poem aloud. Make the children repeat it along with you.”
Finally came the ride home, and the search for junk food. Since the taco bell on buford hiway is closed, the one on North Druid Hills will have to do. Unfortunately, this means an interminable wait at the drive through, and food that is cold when I finally arrives. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the featured photgraph in June 1940. “Group at the literary society. Pie Town, New Mexico”
Throw Biden Under The Bus
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make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you
From Benjamin Franklin to Jane Mecom, 1 November 1773 Dear Sister, I received your …
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This is what I looked at last week. The grafiti enabled meters of L5P and EAV are timeless · until a couple of days ago I hadn’t heard of Greg Palast in years, the man who claims to have been pursuing me with questions for two months. He has never phoned, written, emailed or made any other contact with me, which is curiously reminiscent of the behavior of the US Senate committee. Having now forced myself to look at his pernicious writing, it seems like the deranged ramblings you might expect to find pushed out from under the door of a locked ward. He claims to be a journalist. He clearly doesn’t get much work. · Crawl back under your rock, Mr Palast! · The Library of Congress Russell Lee took the featured photograph in July 1941. “Putting samples of wheat into sack of central sampling office. Walla Walla, Washington.” · There is a video on youtube, claiming that the 2024 election was stolen, using Jim Crow voter suppression. I was not convinced. … The pictures today have more truth. “Putting samples of wheat into sack of central sampling office. Walla Walla, Washington.” · “these things are so horrifying they’re almost hard to say he’s saying that there’s so many dead bodies in Gaza that cannot especially in Northern Gaza that are not even buried that literally the dogs are obese” · “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy” · Tom Waits on Fernwood 2 Night August 1, 1977 … The yt transcript rendered lobotomy as “the bottom of me” · Somebody dumped a futon on the path, across from Ashford Park Elementary. I dragged it to the curb. … First phone call to Dekalb County: The english challenged man, after being asked to speak up 25 times, gave me a phone number to call. I called the number. After ringing twelve times, someone picked up, and said they were for City of Atlanta, not Brookhaven. … Second phone call to Dekalb County: The lady said they don’t handle this, I should call “Keep Dekalb Beautiful”, and gave me a number. KDF does not provide this service, but gave me a number with the City of Brookhaven. The lady I talked to there said that Dekalb county picks up the trash in Brookhaven. … Third phone call to Dekalb County: I ask for bulk pickup, and give them the nearest address to the path. The lady said it might take ten business days. … Later, I sent an email to Dekalb Sanitation … Greetings, Please visit Dekalb Sanitation and select roll cart request for replacement, damaged repairs, upgrades, returns etc. · “law banning U.S. · mean fortunate President · solution” is what you see of the featured reduction on bluesky/facebook/X. To see the rest of the story, you will have to see the commentary. Unless you are on X, in which you case you see it now, and have to go in the comments for the link · the spell check for ordo amortis is odor amortizes · It is not everyday that a meme quote turns out to be legitimate. Today is that day. @angrywaterman.bsky.social posted a drawing of Benjamin Franklin, with “Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you.” When you type the phrase … you cannot copy text off an image … and feed this to google, you learn that Mr. Franklin wrote a letter to his sister Jane Mecom, on November 1, 1773. BF was in London on some business or another, and making people angry with his words. The revolution was coming, and BF was encouraging resistance to the empire. · “Peggy Caserta whose candid revelations about her romantic relationship with rock star Janis Joplin were revealed in a groundbreaking if often sordid 1973 tell-all book that she later disavowed as ghostwritten exploitation, died Thursday, November 21, 2024, of natural causes at her cabin on the Tillamook River on the Oregon Coast. She was 84. … Her first memoir, written she later said for the sole purpose of funding the ferocious heroin habit that would dog her for decades, has over the years been both reviled as a tawdry invasion of privacy and revered as an LGBTQ souvenir from an era and milieu that offered few.” · Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Charles R. Rees took the featured photograph in 1862. ‘Captain James H.M. Neblett of Neblett’s-Coleman’s Virginia Heavy Artillery Battery” · This is a repost from 2017. John B. Cooke passed away September 3, 2017. … · I don’t know which was worse. Hearing Peggy Caserta had died, or learning that “Going down with Janis” was ghost-written trash, fueling a heroin habit. The picture: ‘Captain James H.M. Neblett of Neblett’s-Coleman’s Virginia Heavy Artillery Battery.” · October 21, 1965 “Allstate Insurance Company office party” LBSCB01-050f · gsu · there was a poem in MAD magazine. “Tigers Tigers fighting bright/In the ballparks of the night /Your pitchings fair, your fields adroit/So why no pennant for Detroit.” I was surprised forty years later to read “The Tyger” by William Blake. · The photographs are from The Library of Congress The featured photograph was taken by Charles R. Rees between 1861 and 1865. “Unidentified soldier in Confederate uniform and Craig’s Rifles, or 28th Virginia Infantry Regiment” · selah
On The Road With Janis Joplin
This is a repost from 2017. John Cooke passed away September 3, 2017. … John Byrne Cooke, the son of public television star Alistair Cooke, had gotten a liberal arts degree from Harvard. He stumbled into a job filming the Monterrey Pop Festival. Like the rest of America, he was impressed by Janis Joplin. Soon, Mr. Cooke got a job as the road manager for Big Brother and the Holding Company. One result is a book, On the Road with Janis Joplin.
The management of Big Brother did not want the band filmed at Monterrey. After their saturday afternoon show, the film makers realized that Miss Joplin was important to the film. A second show was arranged for sunday night. This show was filmed. When you see Cass Elliot saying oh wow, that was saturday afternoon. The film crew filmed the crowd during that show.
Mr. Cooke arrived in San Francisco as the summer of love was playing out. Many old timers on the scene were already getting out. At first it was an uneasy fit with the band … the eastern bluegrass player, and the hippies. There was one meeting, where Mr. Cooke thought he was going to be fired. Things were patched up, and the show went on.
There were a lot of people who knew each other. Mr. Cooke had been trying to romance a California girl. It turns out she was a friend of someone, possibly Linda Gravenites, the roommate, and close friend, of Miss Joplin.
Peggy Caserta was another connection. Supposedly Miss Caserta had a lesbian thing going with Miss Joplin. Whatever did, or did not, happen, Miss Caserta wrote an awesomely trashly book, Going Down With Janis. The opening line: “I was stark naked, stoned out of my mind on heroin, and between my legs giving me head was Janis Joplin.”
“Peggy Caserta whose candid revelations about her romantic relationship with rock star Janis Joplin were revealed in a groundbreaking if often sordid 1973 tell-all book that she later disavowed as ghostwritten exploitation, died Thursday, November 21, 2024, of natural causes at her cabin on the Tillamook River on the Oregon Coast. She was 84. … Her first memoir, written she later said for the sole purpose of funding the ferocious heroin habit that would dog her for decades, has over the years been both reviled as a tawdry invasion of privacy and revered as an LGBTQ souvenir from an era and milieu that offered few.”
The year spent with Big Brother was 1968. Miss Joplin was staying in an apartment on Noe Street. Robert Kennedy made a campaign appearance on nearby Castro Street, with Miss Joplin in the crowd. When Mr. Kennedy was killed, after winning the California primary, the band was in Los Angeles. Mr. Cooke sought solace with Judy Collins that night.
Around this time, some people convinced Miss Joplin that she should leave Big Brother. There was three weeks between the last Big Brother show, and the first show as a solo artist. The Kozmic Blues band never really worked. Miss Joplin felt she was a failure. Miss Joplin started to use heroin frequently. Except for a European tour, 1969 was a bad year.
In 1970, Miss Joplin quit using heroin, and started to play with Fult Tilt Boogie. Things wer going well. The band was in Los Angeles recording an album. One night, Miss Joplin got some extra strong heroin. Mr. Cooke found the body.
This book report leaves a great deal of the story out. Miss Joplin broke a whiskey bottle over Jim Morrison’s head, and got into a fist fight with Jerry Lee Lewis. There were three appearances on the Dick Cavett show, 1969, 06-25-70, and 08-03-70. At 1:12 in this video, Miss Joplin observes “you’re a real swinger I can tell by your shoes man.” (Here is a screen shot from 1969, with heroin, next to another from clean 1970.)
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Charles R. Rees took the featured photograph in 1862. ‘Captain James H.M. Neblett of Neblett’s-Coleman’s Virginia Heavy Artillery Battery.”
Poverty, Inc.
Poverty, Inc. is a 2014 documentary about the do-good industrial complex. Governments, agencies, celebrities, and just plain folks are the players. They see a need in the third world, and rush in to help. Often, they do more harm than good. As the person in tsunami-hit Thailand, said to the man in earthquaked Haiti… you survived the disaster. Now lets see if you can survive the aid.
P,I was part of a documentary discussion series. The group used to meet in a church, watch the show together, and break into groups to talk. Now, the group sees the movie on their own, and meet on zoom. When asked how he likes to “give back,” PG says that he mutes his microphone when he is not speaking. This is also true of real life … mute yourself when it is not your time to speak.
One story is about rice in Haiti. The island nation used to have an indigenous food industry. Then big brother flooded the island with subsidized rice. The native industries could not compete, and faded away. The cycle of dependency moves on.
Someone (most of the Africans on camera spoke English) gave the analogy of a bonsai. One tree is outside, and grows very tall. The inside tree has a similar seed, but only grows to a meter tall. It cannot get taller, because the small pot cannot support a large tree.
What this analogy does not mention is the 99.9% of seeds that never get to germinate. Even if they do become a plant, the forest is a competitive place. Most trees never get to grow tall. The bonsai is in a controlled environment, with limited growth opportunities. Even at a meter tall, it does get to live. That seed did better than almost all the rest.
A viewing service was used to view P,I. The movie was supported by advertising. These commercials seem to be inserted at random, sometimes in the middle of a sentence. It is jarring to be watching a first world/third world story, and then be interrupted by a flashy sales pitch for auto insurance. There is an irony of using third world suffering, to draw eyeballs to 21st century capitalism.
The old story of the emperor’s new clothes comes to mind. Many of the people in the poverty industrial complex work for the emperor’s tailor. The travel the world, and make a good living. It is in their best interest to keep the racket going.
Bill Clinton makes an appearance. He says, in effect, that he tried to help, and wound up creating more problems. We cannot expect to hear anything like that from Donald J. Trump. P,I was filmed in 2014, when Mr. Trump was a reality tv star. Perhaps by doing little to help the do-good industrial complex, Mr. Trump wound up doing less harm.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
The Problem With Greg Palast Part Two
“Until a couple of days ago I hadn’t heard of Greg Palast in years … Having now forced myself to look at his pernicious writing, it seems like the deranged ramblings you might expect to find pushed out from under the door of a locked ward. … Crawl back under your rock, Mr Palast!”
It all started on the way to Picadilly cafeteria. My Sunday Dinner Buddy saw a youtube video. Thom Hartman told of voter suppression in the 2024, primarily against voters of color. If these people had been allowed to vote, there is no doubt that Kamala Harris would have won. It sounded fishy to me, but I made a mental note to check it out later.
When I got home, I did a youtube search for Thom Hartman. A video came up, “DID TRUMP LOSE? Shocking Proof Trump Rigged 2024 Election w/ Greg Palast.” When I saw that Mr. Palast was the source, I knew this was nonsense.
In 2018, Stacey Abrams lost to Brian Kemp in the race for Governor. Voter Suppression was her main issue. After Stacey’s non-concession, the devil Greg Palast went down to Georgia. The claims Mr. Palast make now are similar to the claims he made in 2018. The Palast style … the hyperbole laced text, the high octane personality, the nasty hat … is just as obnoxious today as it was six years ago.
I sent SDB a text. “I looked for t.hartman … greg palast said same thing about stacey … he is full of shit” I included a link to the text report. SDB replied, asking if I had read the report.
“TRUMP LOST. Vote Suppression Won. Here are the numbers from investigative reporter Greg Palast…” is the text report. I noticed right away that there are no links to support the claims. You have to take Greg Palast at his word. That is a red flag right there. If your claims are legitimate, you should have the receipts. Greg Palast does not have the receipts.
“4,776,706 voters were wrongly purged from voter rolls according to US Elections Assistance Commission data.” This is the central claim to this narrative. If you go to EAC.gov you see that it appears to be devoted to helping elections run smoothly. A quick look at the site does not show any data. Distributing data about voter suppression does not appear to be the job of EAC. Of course, Mr. Palast did not supply a link to support his assertion.
“There are also the uncountable effects of the explosive growth of voter intimidation tactics including the bomb threats that closed 31 polling stations in Atlanta on Election Day.” This is a bit easier to investigate. “Voting hours were extended at multiple locations in Georgia’s Fulton County and DeKalb County after hoax bomb threats that officials tied to Russian sources. … Fulton County officials said that 32 bomb threats via phone and email targeted polling locations in the county, while DeKalb police said they checked six polling locations for bombs. The polling locations were all cleared and no bombs were found. Voting re-opened and hours were extended in both counties.”
The Palast report made numerous claims, none of which were backed up with links. There were some mumbo-jumbo calculations, and claims of how many votes were suppressed, and how many of them would have voted for Kamala. The claim was made repeatedly that this suppression was racially motivated. This race baiting impresses many “progressives.”
Ultimately, the individual has to make up their own mind what to think. It is feasible that there was some electoral malfeasance, and that some of the claims are correct. It is also possible that someone is paying Greg Palast to make these claims. Since the election is certified, and the winner installed in office, these tales of a stolen election are conjecture. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the featured photograph in July 1941. “Putting samples of wheat into sack of central sampling office. Walla Walla, Washington.”
I’ll Furnish The War
This is a repost. The telegram incident was included in Citizen Kane … “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” – WR Hearst, January 25, 1898 It is part of the Hearst legend. “Frederic Sackrider Remington, the famous artist who brought to life American images of the west, was hired by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst to illustrate the revolution erupting in Cuba. He wrote back to Hearst one day in January 1897: “Everything is quiet. There is no trouble. There will be no war. I wish to return.” Hearst sent back a note: “Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” Chamblee54 readers should know where this is going to go.
Mr. Remington was sent to Cuba, along with correspondent Richard Harding Davis, to cover the rebellion against the Spanish colonial government. At the time of this purported exchange, the conflict between Spain, and the Cuban rebels, was rather lively. This is at odds with the initial comment by Mr. Remington. One item which modern observers will find odd is the fact that Mr. Remington drew pictures. He was not a photographer. Apparently, in 1897 journalism, a hand drawing was acceptable evidence of a conflict.
Not likely sent: The Remington-Hearst “telegrams” is a thorough debunking of this legend. The source of the legend is “James Creelman, On the Great Highway: The Wanderings and Adventures of a Special Correspondent. (Boston: Lothrop Publishing, 1901), 177-178.” “Creelman does not … describe how or when he learned about the supposed Remington-Hearst exchange. In any case, it had to have been second-hand because Creelman was in Europe in early 1897, as the Journal’s “special commissioner” on the Continent.”
“It is improbable that such an exchange of telegrams would have been cleared by Spanish censors in Havana. So strict were the censors that dispatches from American correspondents reporting the war in Cuba often were taken by ship to Florida and transmitted from there.”
… correspondence of Richard Harding Davis — the war correspondent with whom Remington traveled on the assignment to Cuba — contains no reference to Remington’s wanting to leave because “there will be no war.” Rather, Davis in his letters gave several other reasons for Remington’s departure, including the artist’s reluctance to travel through Spanish lines to reach the Cuban insurgents. … Davis’ letters show that he had little regard for the rotund, slow-moving Remington, whom he called “a large blundering bear.”
The purported Remington-Hearst exchange, moreover, appears not to have been particularly important or newsworthy at the time … the anecdote seems to have provoked almost no discussion or controversy until a correspondent for the Times of London mentioned it in a dispatch from New York in 1907. He wrote: “Is the Press of the United States going insane? . . . A letter from William Randolph Hearst is in existence and was printed in a magazine not long ago. It was to an artist he had sent to Cuba, and who reported no likelihood of war. —You provide the pictures, I’ll provide the war.'”
“Hearst, indignant about the report, replied in a letter to the Times. He described as “frankly false” and “ingeniously idiotic” the claim “that there was a letter in existence from Mr. W. R. Hearst in which Mr. Hearst said to a correspondent in Cuba: —You provide the pictures and I will provide the war,’ and the intimation that Mr. Hearst was chiefly responsible for the Spanish war. … “This kind of clotted nonsense could only be generally circulated and generally believed in England, where newspapers claiming to be conservative and reliable are the most utterly untrustworthy of any on earth. In apology for these newspapers it may be said that their untrustworthiness is not always to intention but more frequently to ignorance and prejudice.”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Bernienomics
This is a repost from 2016. The national debt is now $36.2t. … @BernieSanders “I got into politics not to figure out how to become President. I got into politics because I give a damn.” The old tweeter sent this message December 11, 2015, at 4:42 pm Sanders Standard Time. At last glance, it was retweeted 25,901 times, and liked 44,263 times.
What exactly is a damn? When you give one, do you gift wrap it? The dictionary says that damn is a verb, meaning “condemn to a punishment or fate; especially : to condemn to hell.” Giving a verb is not good grammar. Damn is considered a mild profanity, which adds polemic punch.
History gives us a second opinion. “In 1665, Aurangzeb, or Abul Muzaffar Muhi-ud-Din Mohammad Aurangzeb. (A real mouthful of a name!) was the emperor of the Mughal empire. He ruled from 1658 until his death in 1707. Aurangzeb had coins minted in precious metals as well as copper. The copper denominations were one Dam and one half Dam.”
At some point after the invention of the copper dam, Great Britain conquered the Mughal empire. By this time, the dam was worth twice as much as a half dam. According to some unverified sources, British soldiers would say that something was not worth a dam. Some said they would not give a dam. The profaning n was added, and a saying for apathy entered the english language.
How much is a dam/damn worth? To people living downhill from the lake, a dam is valuable. As for the numismatic value of an ancient copper coin: “By looking at both catalog values for copper Dams minted in the Mughal calendar year of 1075 (Western date 1665) … we can provide the following very approximate values for copper half-Dams and Dams minted in the name of Aurangzeb: worn: $4, average circulated: $7, well preserved: $30.”
Getting back to BS, he probably used the conventional meaning of GAD, which is that he cares. Or maybe, he meant that he gives a dollar. If current economic trends hold up, the dollar might not be worth a dam. The welfare state proposals of BS, according to the admittedly biased Wall Street Journal, would cost $18 Trillion. This would effectively double the national debt. If we get mixed up in another war, or if a nuclear power plant blows up, another few trillion might go down the tubes.
Only the most deluded Bernoids expect college tuition to be free in 2018. BS is talking a good game, but most people know his pants are on fire. One person who is offended because BS won’t step up the lies is Ta-Nehisi Coates. If reparations are added onto free college tuition, then the value of the dollar might go below a half dam.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The featured image is Dr. Edmund Lewis Massie of Trans-Mississippi Department, Medical Staff Confederate States Infantry Regiment. Charles R. Rees was the photographer. Notations on manuscript behind photo in case: “Doctor E.L. Massie, Surgeon on Genl, A. Pike’s staff, C.S. Army 1862, affiliated with Genls Van Corn & Hindman, Trans Miss Dept.”
Civil Disobedience
One morning, while shaking the cobwebs out of my head, I stumbled onto a meme. “CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE BECOMES A SACRED DUTY WHEN THE STATE HAS BECOME LAWLESS OR CORRUPT. Mahatma Gandhi” Shouting is not civil.
I was in an ornery mood, and decided to investigate. When I searched wikiquotes for “civil,” a festive item turned up right away. “It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr. Gandhi, a seditious middle temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the east, striding half-naked up the steps of the viceregal palace, while he is still organizing and conducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal terms with the representative of the king-emperor.” Winston Churchill addressing the Council of the West Essex Unionist Association (23 February 1931); as quoted in “Mr Churchill on India” in The Times (24 February 1931)
Chamblee54 has written about MK Gandhi before. 050415 020521 042222 010723 There is a large archive of his words. If a quote is genuine there should be a source available. Unfortunately, if you read the context, Mr. Gandhi will often contradict, and counter-contradict, himself. MK Gandhi was a lawyer, and could crank out a word count. Those words often do not fit your agenda.
The search for “civil” yielded three quotes by Mr. Gandhi. While none of them match the meme verbatim, they send much the same message. The genuine quotes place an emphasis on civility, which is often decried today as “tone policing.” These items are found in Young India … “an English weekly journal, started by Mahatma Gandhi. It was in circulation from 1919-1931.”
“I hold the opinion firmly that Civil Disobedience is the purest type of constitutional agitation. Of course, it becomes degrading and despicable if its civil, i.e. non-violent character is a mere camouflage.” (15 December 1921) · “Disobedience without civility, discipline, discrimination, non-violence, is certain destruction. Disobedience combined with love is the living water of life. Civil disobedience is a beautiful variant to signify growth, it is not discordance which spells death.” (1 May 1922) · “Disobedience is a right that belongs to every human being, and it becomes a sacred duty when it springs from civility.” (4 January 1926)
There is one more quote to ponder today. On the surface, it might raise eyebrows. … “Kaffirs are as a rule uncivilised—the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, very dirty and live almost like animals.” “My Experience in Gaol”, Indian Opinion (7 March 1908). Also: Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, op cit., Vol. 8, p. 199.
There is a bit more to the story. “In jail in South Africa in January 1908, Mahatma Gandhi was served a South African breakfast staple known as mealie pap. Gandhi associated mealie pap with black South Africans and rejected it as unsuitable for Indians. One year later, however, he revised his opinion and actively encouraged Indians to eat mealie pap. Tracing Gandhi’s evolving approach to mealie pap reveals a profound shift in Gandhi’s views on race and diet.”
A google search for “My Experience in Gaol” yielded an AI overview. “My Experience in Gaol” is an article written by Mahatma Gandhi and published in the South African newspaper “Indian Opinion” on March 7, 1908, detailing his personal experiences while imprisoned in a South African jail, where he was incarcerated due to his activism against racial segregation during the Apartheid era.”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress Arthur Rothstein took the featured photograph in September 1939. “Farmers on main street, Saturday night. Iowa Falls, Iowa”
The Days of Anna Madrigal
If I don’t start dictating this thing now I never will. This is a book report about the The Days of Anna Madrigal, the last book in the Tales of the City cycle. DOAM was written by Armistead Jones Maupin, Jr. There might be a spoiler alert in this book report; that’s what book reports are for. DOAM is a wonderful book. However, like all of AJM books, you have to have a suspension of disbelief, because some of these things are just too weird to be true..
One way to prepare for a book report is to listen to videos of the author. I saw an AJM event, at the Decatur First Baptist Church in pre-pandemic 2018. Finally, I found a lovely quote.
The DOAM characters all go to Burning Man. I’ve never been to BM, and probably never will. I’ve been to many faerie gatherings, so I have a slight taste for intentional community. From all indications BM is much much, much, more intense. The BM aura is a bit off-putting. I could probably get into it but I’d have to I’d have to be prepared, and that probably is not going to happen. Fortunately, AJM had a younger husband, that dragged him there kicking and screaming.
When you make YouTube clips, you have to guess when it starts, and when it finishes. This entertainment does not have a transcript, or a cis-script. After consultation with the law firm of Trial and Error, I made this clip. It starts at 1970 seconds, and it ends at 2100 seconds. There’s a synchronicity to 1970 – 2100. These 130 seconds start with the acknowledgement that it was autobiographical. We’ve always suspected that Michael was really AJM. So he goes to BM. The last words of this clip are there would be rules.
DOAM ended much too soon for my taste. It goes into a bit of the back story for Anna Madrigal. For those who are new here, AM is the landlady at the house where the TOTC players lived. It seems like AM was raised in a cathouse in Winnemucca, NV. There was a real family named Madrigal. Part of the DOAM story is how Anna goes back to Winnemucca, and meets a player in this narrative. It’s a of a tearjerker, but most AJM stories are from time to time.
As for the fantasy of being raised in a brothel … when I was a young man I had this friend going by the name of Raven (not Wolfdancer.) He later went through several other names in the time that I knew him, and I never did find out his real name. This makes looking for him on facebook difficult. I first met Raven, his story was that he was raised in a brothel at the end of Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Being the naive young idiot that I was, I believed him. Once, we went to a house on McLendon Avenue, where this old lady was introduced as being his grandmother. I said something about the business you were in, which went over her head. Anyway, Raven … then known as Harry Bowers … moved to New York in 1983, and was never heard from again.
There will be no more TOTC books, and probably little more of the characters. DOAM was set in 2012, when AM is 92. The “boomer” characters are starting to draw social security. Since Mouse is a stand in for AJM, it is safe to assume that he is alive. It is tempting to re-read some of the TOTC books, but there are so many other books to read. The current selection is Hollywood by Charles Bukowski. It will be fun, until it is done. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
Drinking From A Firehose
This is a repost from January 2020. Many of the youtube links no longer work. Sam Harris continues to get mixed up in controversy. … “You’re drinking from a firehose of bullshit.” Someone is talking. They are full of confidence. The speech gets faster, and faster. They have lots of data points that support their point of view. You suspect there is something wrong with what they are saying. The logic just follows too quickly. If you stop to think about point one, you will miss points two through eleven. It is persuasion, by intellectual bullying.
Sometimes, a good phrase used to support a not-so-good cause. The FOB quote is from Sam Harris. He was on the Joe Rogan Experience, talking with Abby Martin. (The opening clip is from this compilation.) Mr. Harris says the Iraqi casualties, after Operation Iraqi Freedom, were around 200,000. Ms. Martin says the casualties are closer to 2,000,000. Either figure is too high. Mr. Harris displays a certain heartlessness in his argument.
JRE #1419 – Daryl Davis washed up on the digital shore yesterday. Mr. Davis is a black man, who somehow befriended KKK members, and showed them the error of their ways. Here is an npr segment, How One Man Convinced 200 Ku Klux Klan Members To Give Up Their Robes.
Yesterday’s appearance came at an synchronistic time for Mr. Rogan. Last week, Bernie Sanders tweeted a clip from Mr. Rogan, along with a comment. “I think I’ll probably vote for Bernie…” Joe Rogan There was a reaction. @CNN “Bernie Sanders is facing a backlash from some Democrats after his campaign trumpeted an endorsement from comedian Joe Rogan, a popular podcast and YouTube talk show host with a history of making racist, homophobic and transphobic comments”
As Rogan listeners know, Joe is all over the place. The Sanders quote is from JRE #1415 – Bari Weiss. During that show, Ms. Weiss unleashed an FOB in support of Israel. This contrasts with Abby Martin, and other JRE guests, who severely criticize Israel.
The Davis show was an FOB. There were history lectures, that leave discerning heads shaking. (The term white supremacist was first used in 1896.) The firehose kept gushing, until there was one comment that could be easily checked out. “President Warren G. Harding was sworn into the ku klux klan in the green room of the White House”
Warren Gamaliel Harding is known, with some justification, as one of our worst Presidents. “One aspect of the Harding administration that is not well known is his attitude about race. In the years after World War I, America was engulfed in race hatred. The Ku Klux Klan had a revival. “In a speech on October 26, 1921, given in segregated Birmingham, Alabama Harding advocated civil rights for African Americans; the first President to openly advocate black political, educational, and economic equality during the 20th century.” Mr. Harding supported an anti lynching bill, which a Democratic filibuster kept from passing.” (This 2012 quote is based on a wikipedia article, that has been edited.)
“Not only was Harding’s alleged membership in the KKK never mentioned in the contemporary records of anybody who knew him, his public opposition to anti-Catholic agitation and his vehement support for anti-lynching laws, make him seem like an unlikely recruit. In fact, the only evidence that Harding was a Klansman comes from the deathbed confession of a former Grand Wizard, who may have made the whole thing up to get even with Harding for the late President’s anti-racist public stance.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
M.K. Gandhi And Truth
I identify as human @pixfiber “Truth never damages a cause that is just.” · Mohandas K. Gandhi. This item appeared in my twitter feed on January 6. Being an unreconstructed pedant, I went to the Gandhi Wikiquote. “Truth” had too many search results, so I went to “just.” I found a doozy: “I have always held that social justice, even to the least and lowliest, is impossible of attainment by force.” Harijan (20 April 1940) p. 97 This is a repost.
Harijan was another word for the untouchable caste in India. “… Gandhi conducted an intensive crusade against untouchability …” “Harijan was also a newspaper that started on 11 February 1933, brought out by Gandhi from Yerwada Jail during the British rule in India. Gandhi popularized the term Harijan across the states of India but he was not the first person to use it.”
Archive.org has much of Harijan available online, including the quote above. The quote is in a tsunami of text. Gandhiji was trained as a lawyer, and could crank out a word count. His positions are well thought out and complicated. This material is more complicated than the motivational Mahatma we are familiar with.
If don’t mind wading through a pile of results, a search for “truth” on the Gandhi Wikiquotes will yield some good thoughts. Bear in mind that these quotes are without context. If you are willing to do the work, and google the source, you might find that the meaning of these thoughts is different from what you might think. The first three quotes in this list are from An Autobiography Or The Story of My Experiments With Truth By: M. K. Gandhi.
“A man of truth must also be a man of care.” Part I, Chapter 5, At the High School
“But all my life though, the very insistence on truth has taught me to appreciate the beauty of compromise. I saw in later life that this spirit was an essential part of Satyagraha. It has often meant endangering my life and incurring the displeasure of friends. But truth is hard as adamant and tender as a blossom.” Part II, Chapter 18, Colour Bar
“My uniform experience has convinced me that there is no other God than Truth.” p. 453
“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.” Young India 1924-1926 (1927), p. 1285 (context below)
“A seeker after Truth cannot afford to indulge in generalisation.”
“Generalisation”, Harijan (6 July 1940).
“If you want to give a message again to the West, it must be a message of ‘Love’, it must be a message of ‘Truth’. There must be a conquest — [audience claps] — please, please, please. That will interfere with my speech, and that will interfere with your understanding also. I want to capture your hearts and don’t want to receive your claps. Let your hearts clap in unison with what I’m saying, and I think, I shall have finished my work.”
Speech in New Delhi to the Inter-Asian Relations Conference (2 April 1947)
“Impure means result in an impure end… One cannot reach truth by untruthfulness. Truthful conduct alone can reach Truth.” Harijan (13 July 1947) p. 232
“[Government] control gives rise to fraud, suppression of truth, intensification of the black market and artificial scarcity. Above all, it unmans the people and deprives them of initiative, it undoes the teaching of self-help…It makes them spoon-fed.” Delhi Diary (3 November 1947 entry)
“It is no use trying to fight these forces [of materialism] without giving up the idea of conversion, which I assure you is the deadliest poison which ever sapped the fountain of truth.”
Mahatma Gandhi The Collected Works Vol 46, p. 203
Wikiquotes has a lively section devoted to quotes that are Disputed and Misattributed. One Disputed entry is especially festive: “Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” “The earliest attribution of this to Gandhi … is in a T-shirt advertisement in Mother Jones, Vol. 8, No. 5 (June 1983), p. 46”
Several much loved Gandhisms have a shaky history. “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.” “God has no religion.” “We need to be the change we wish to see in the world.”
Young India supplied one of the quotes above. Here is page 1285. “Some Posers: — ‘A well wisher’ sends these lines for my meditation: ‘The Bible can be read in 566 languages. In how many can the Upanishads and the Gita? How many leper asylums and institutions for the depressed and the distressed have the missionaries? How many have you?’ It is usual for me to receive such posers. ‘A well wisher’ deserves an answer, I have great regard for the missionaries for their zeal and self-sacrifice. But I have not hesitated to point out to them that both are often misplaced. What though the Bible were translated in every tongue in the world? Is a patent medicine better than the Upanishads for being advertised in more languages than the Upanishads? An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody will see it. The Bible was a greater power when the early fathers preached it than it is today. ‘A well wisher’ has little conception of the way truth works, if he thinks that the translation of the Bible in more languages than the Upanishads is any test of its superiority. Truth has to be lived if it is to fructify. But if it is any satisfaction to ‘A well wisher’ to have my answer I may gladly tell him that the Upanishads and the Gita have been translated into far fewer languages than the Bible. I have never been curious enough to know in how many languages they are translated.”
“As for the second question, too, I must own that the missionaries have founded many leper asylums and the like. I have founded none. But I stand unmoved. I am not competing with the missionaries or any body else in such matters. I am trying humbly to serve humanity as God leads me. The founding of leper asylums etc. is only one of the ways, and perhaps not the best, of serving humanity. But even such noble service loses much of its nobility when conversion is the motive behind it. That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own sake. But let me not be misunderstood. The missionaries that selflessly work away in such asylums command my respect. I am ashamed to have to confess that Hindus have become so callous as to care little for the waifs and strays of India, let alone the world.”
Chamblee54 has written about M.K. Gandhi. one two three Pictures are from Library of Congress.
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