Warm Fuzzy World

essaysbysean.blogspot.com

Blog note: During these COVID days, with shuttered wi-fi cafes, I am posting on Tuesday mornings.

Hello Reader,

Got warm fuzzies?

I first encountered the terms “warm fuzzies,” —not to mention “cold pricklies” and the “hip woman,” who had big hips— in an allegory, obviously from the ‘safe-to-be-creative’ late 1960’s. (Here’s the story)

The wee story was a warning against “zero sum” thinking, or “fixed pie” thinking, or “not enough human worth to go around for all the common people” thinking, a warning badly needed because such crazy thinking was so prevalent in certain less functional families, communities and work sites. I’m glad things have gotten better since the 1950’s.

(Note: Even today, some males don’t want to allow equal rights to females, out of some wimpy fear of getting less of the respect pie) 

In the real world, of course, while we can’t all have a special first place blue ribbon, we can all receive ordinary compliments, hugs and smiles. Why not? Why not be bountiful with giving warm fuzzies? When reading the allegory of warm fuzzies for the very first time I thought, “Wha-what? Wow! What a concept!” 

Since I grew up on an emotional ice burg, and then initially found employment in frozen toxic places, I was surprised by the hip woman’s message. But it sunk in, and since then I have tried to be bountiful with my appreciation for all God’s children, and lavish in my praise.

In fact, several store clerks have said I was their favorite customer. To me, being positive to clerks, besides the joy of giving warm fuzzies, offers a way of feeling like “I am paying my way on the human scene…” I don’t mean “pay,” rather, I mean I am crew not passenger, host not guest, giver not beggar, while feeling gracious in my bounty. It’s a lifestyle choice. 

Last month I was with millionaire blogger Derek Sivers. As he checked out of his luxury hotel it was natural to him to compliment a desk clerk on her spectacles. As did I. Then she said she liked mine too. A week later, during an e-mail, when I referenced this incident as being like in my Kind to Clerks essay, Derek had forgotten about his compliment. Because his appreciative lifestyle was so natural to him.

(By the way, Derek liked my Clerks essay, archived November 2019)

Parting thought: Of course I still have my bad hair—I mean, bad heart days when I am feeling witchy, or small, or ungiving, or waiting for someone else to smile first… I’m only human.

Sean Crawford

Chestermere,

made in March, 

released in May, 

2020

Sidebar: 

Speaking of “being kind,” I am proud that (link) Canada is kindly pushing for Taiwan to be allowed observer status with the World Health Organization. Especially since Taiwan, with only six—count ‘em, six— COVID-19 deaths, has something to teach the world… if allowed freedom to speak. (Now at seven)

If the United Nation’s WHO is reluctant to grant observer status, when doing so is surely a “no-brainer,” then it can only be because the WHO is under secret orders from communist officials in Beijing, lest Taiwan then desire “freedom from China.” Canada needs warm fuzzy allies to help push for justice for Taiwan, over in the Asian corner of the world, because the communist officials no longer believe in their doctrine of equality. Instead, it’s as if “‘All countries are equal,’ but China is more equal than others.”

If I would say that, “Yes, China morally deserves to rule Taiwan,” then I would have to face up to explaining why there have been not just days, not even weeks, but in fact months of demonstrations by so many idealistic young and old men and women on the streets of Hong Kong… I can face facts: China is not even morally fit to rule China, let alone a democracy like Canada or Taiwan. 

See my essay China Molests Canada archived May 2020.

Blog Administrator’s Note:

President Ronald Reagan asked for, “a kinder, gentler America.” 

Doctor Who said, “Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind.” 

I said, “Inspired by Peter Capaldi’s Doctor Who… I could simply add “kind” to my blog site labels…” 

(Labels are on the right, that people can click on) 

So I did add “kind,” putting three posts under that label. 

Mind you, just as the label “humor” is for those few blog posts that advise, in part, on how to be funny, not simply for posts that have jokes, so too will the label“kind” be used for essays that advise, in part, on how to be kind.

As Reagan said, God bless America.

China Molests Canada

essaysbysean.blogspot.com 

New up to the minute  “now generation” quotations

An adult: 

“Taiwan (population 24 million, Chinese-speaking) has had only six COVID-19 deaths. SIX! But we are censored from knowing how they did it, and when they started doing it. This while their COVID progress graph line is never included on world graphs in the media, not like South Korea’s line, because the World Health Organization is ordered by China not to recognize Taiwan as existing.”

(National Post story with fun video of reporter quizzing the WHO)

A child in Canada (not Taiwan): 

“How come when fascists lie, we stop believing what they say, but when communists lie, we always hit the reset button and go back to believing?”

Someone on twitter: 

“China lied, people died.”

Hello Reader,

Got “shelter in place?”

I suppose I really should attempt a COVID-length post: long and leisurely, complete with music and art reviews.

But no. So here is only part one,  with links to THIS WEEK’S JAW-DROPPING NEWS. (see below)

Part One:

Old rerun

China and Communism

Next week:

Beauty and the New Art of War

Art and Music Of Japan and Germany

Old Rerun

China is on my mind, being twice in the media "this week" (in 2015) I will review The Art of War, but first:

China and communism

As a baby boomer, I still think of students as being longhaired idealistic “peace and love” types. At Harvard University’s model-United Nations this week the students from China were not peaceful, just hateful. They truly didn’t like Taiwan being called a free country. Their belief that Taiwan, covering the island of Formosa, “belongs” to China is, of course, part of their cradle-to-grave communist propaganda they are so used to hearing.

(In the dystopian Asia of the movie Cloud Atlas, the propaganda was “womb to tomb”)

We forget how powerful propaganda is, especially in a controlled environment, as do the students. For example, my buddy Blair once had a Chinese student, here on a student visa, tell him the followers of Falun Gong kill their parents. Blair paused for thought, and then pointed out that Canada doesn’t allow violators of human rights, such as parent killers, into the country as refugees. “But Falun Gong refugees are allowed in, right?” (Right) 

“Your government,” Blair said, “has been lying to you!” Blair told me this “really stopped him in his tracks.” 

As for Taiwan, never mind what Chinese schoolchildren are told, I have a Canadian viewpoint: A baby boy can come to Canada in 1919 from Germany or Japan and when he grows up, he will love Canada and then, if he becomes an adult during World War II, he will go off to fight against those fascists. Perhaps alongside my dad who advanced from the beaches of Normandy to Bremen.

Later, when Canadian troops fought and died in Korea, in the Commonwealth Division, my father was not pressured to rejoin: He remained a civilian, raising preschool children. From that war, I have an idea why China so fiercely resents Taiwan. 

I will tell you what I know: You may recall that during the Korean War China did not declare war on South Korea. The Chinese armies in Korea were not sent by China, at least not officially, but instead were officially "volunteers" from the People’s Liberation Army." These official volunteers, as prisoners of war, while being held behind barbed wire by the United Nations forces, told the UN they did not want to go “home.” No, they simply wanted to be released from the wire, set free, as soon as the war was over. Perhaps to make their way to Taiwan. 

To the UN this sounded fair but… No! Nay! Never!—peace negotiations dragged on, casualties mounted, the war prolonged—because the Chinese rulers insisted the volunteers be forcibly repatriated against their will… This would have been a few years after the western communists had built the Berlin Wall as part of an iron curtain across Europe. 

At last, to make peace, the UN agreed to force those innocent soldiers to disappear forever behind the bamboo curtain. A win for China… but I guess the Chinese Communist Party officials have never forgiven Taiwan for existing.

I am reminded of South Africa, back during my student years, when we might hypothetically say that “guest workers” are not citizens, AND we would surely say that any of their babies born and raised to adulthood in South Africa must given full rights and responsibilities to vote and love their country. 

In Taiwan the hopeful soldiers and idealistic young students who had escaped the communist takeover of the mainland in the late 1940’s would today be as old as my father—in their nineties. Their children, (baby boomers) and their children’s children, (Generation X, Generation Y and millennials) would have grown up loving the green hills of Taiwan, without any belief in communism.

(Writer’s note: My father, born 1919, who came to Canada when he was five, has since died)

Taiwan grandparents my age may, like me, own the Quotations of Chairman Mao, AND they relish their golden safety. Meaning: Safe to read the Common Sense of Tomas Paine, safe to think about the republican Sun Yat-Sen, and safe to speak with any Falun Gong… as I have. Near the British Museum, the Falun Gong handed out information brochures not just about their sunny religion, but also the dark oppression by the Chinese Communist Party/the regime/ Beijing—call it what you will. 

Late breaking news: From April 25 2020, comes this story of an imprisoned Hong Kong bookseller who escaped from China and safely opened a bookstore in Taiwan: A happy ending for folks who want life to be fair. 

Back in Canada, where my writer’s group meets at the old King Edward school, there were big beautiful paintings of gentle angels looking down as the communists harvest organs from the Falun Gong.

The other mention of China this week is in Maclean’s magazine (February 16, 2011?, p 74) where book reviewer notes a man “offers a rather frightful look into the mindset of China’s rulers.” The book is The Hundred Year Marathon by Michael Pillsbury. 

“His book would appear to be his attempt to make up for the neglectful advice he offered America’s leaders over the years. It concludes with a number of straightforward recommendations for the U.S. to adopt.” 

I read Michael Pillsbury’s Chinese quote: 

“Don’t let the enemy know you’re a rival until it’s too late for him to stop you,” Then I immediately thought of similar advice in The Art of War.

—WHOAH! Late breaking news MY GOD! 

This week, the Chinese quote is:

“Don’t let the Canadians know there will be a pandemic until it is too late for them to stop you from buying up all their Canadian PPE, while also accepting a donation from them of quote tons unquote of PPE.” (personal protective equipment, such as gowns and masks)

When China did that, they molested Canada..

Here is a link from Canada’s Global News for April 30. There are other links in cyberspace too.

If, dear reader, just like Canada’s Liberal Party folks who are Members of Parliament, you cannot “take in” this shocking news, and instead you just have to close your eyes and instantly forget, then I forgive you… Too bad the liberal MPs in positions of responsibility won’t exert themselves to keep their conscience-eyes open, won’t STOP believing in China. 

I feel like it’s again the 1930’s, my dad sees Adolph Hitler on the cover of Time Magazine as “man of the year,” and no one’s brain will retain anything bad about the Nazis. So I forgive you and me. Just as back when we bully-worshipped the Germans, I know in advance that (Hello to anyone reading this in some future year) this story of Chinese immorality will be as forgotten as a nightmare from yesterday morning. And for that, I am sorry.

Sean Crawford

Alberta,

May, 

2020 

Cloud Atlas movie review, 4 stars, “…a repeated motif is that all lives are connected by a thirst for freedom.”

Footnote for liberals: The patriots of Taiwan are just as much members of the Mongolian race as people in China: While trusting the one nation and distrusting the other, don’t let your local Liberal Party MP escape his conscience by calling you racist, not if he or she flatly refuses to watch this Global TV news report by an investigative journalist. Never mind the liberal party, the price of freedom is the rest of us having eternal vigilance.

You know what? The Chinese can keep their thought police. It’s time to recognize Taiwan.

Guilt and Toronto

essaysbysean.blogspot.com

Hello Reader,

Got annoyance at Toronto snobs?

Preface 

Audre Lorde, down in the U.S.A., taught a college English class:

“…I wish I had recorded some of it. Like the young white cop in the class saying, “Yeah, but everybody needs someone to look down on, don’t they?””

Your Silence Will Not Protect You, page 75.

… I am writing this in Toronto, under the spell of Audre Lorde, a member of several minority groups: Black, and a woman too, “but a traitor” with a nonBlack partner, raising children, but “without a  family values marriage,” lesbian, and speaker of truth to hands-on-ears fellow feminists… 

Grrr, those elitist Toronto people—who do they think they are? I mean, they go around feeling like “guilty white liberal middle class” types.  

Not me. I’m a westerner, I own two cowboy hats, and I don’t do guilt. For one thing, my middle class “membership” is rather honorary, the result of getting a university degree. I’m still poor, not  rich. My big family (Dad had eight siblings) is solidly blue collar working class. (I have five siblings) I still retain our old-world fear of impulse buying, let alone going into debt.

Today, as a regular guy, I refuse to criticize minorities for things they can’t help… It logically follows I feel no guilt when I can’t help being born white and male. As for my various privileges, including being born into the biggest country in the free world, well, what the heck can I do about it, to avoid guilt? Besides, that is, virtuously saying, “Women and children and oppressed people first!” Hard to say with a straight face, I know, easier to look serious if I am yelling it.

Guilt, to my eyes, is useless. It adds no energy for the good fight, no political empowerment, no spring to my step. What it does do, out east in Toronto, is something yucky: I keep reading that guilty white liberal females are disempowering their white Arab sisters by wearing islamic hijabs “in solidarity,” forgetting that not all Arabs are religious-and-conservative. 

In fact, some Arabs are atheists, just like some Israelis, while others are religious-and-liberal. Some of my white Muslim sisters are born right here, smack dab in the First World, where just as I do they disagree with those parts of religion that supposedly call for Iran to murder protesters in the streets, and maintain a big infamous torture prison. Let’s speak truth to middle-class power: Our Muslim sisters are against war, holy or otherwise, against oppression of women, and against domestic abuse. Me too. This as guilty Christian liberals would “help” their sisters by wearing the tools of the oppressor.

Regular people, back west where I live, can only know about liberal guilt in Toronto if we read the newspapers, reading about poor and non-guilty women desperately pleading, begging, trying to reason with the rich middle class liberal women that no, the burka (big tent with eye holes) and hijab (hides the hair) are not in the Islamic scriptures. I am sure Lorde would agree with me on this: Throughout time and space, every patriarchal culture, no matter how “religious,” manages to physically hobble its women in ways the culture just doesn’t use to hobble its men. (And has invisible hobbles too) Because that’s what “patriarchy” does, of course, feeling entitled to do so.

Naturally, I could be wrong about Toronto, since it’s so far away. At my Toastmasters club two different people who came here from out east told us of having misconceptions about the west, and one of them was especially embarrassed: She was a retired schoolteacher, and had been teaching western history wrong for years. To be charitable, maybe distance does that—or maybe Toronto people are just racist, geographically and culturally racist.

I am still chuckling from the time I left Alberta, and crossed several mountain ranges to go further west into another time zone, visiting my sister up in cattle country in central British Columbia. In the kitchen my niece asked, “Uncle Sean, are you a red neck?” Her father answered for me. “He’s an intellectual red neck.” 

Meanwhile, in Toronto—the only city in Canada which can, bizarrely, hold the Grey Cup game with only sports fans caring, without any citywide buzz of excitement—the rich liberal racists probably don’t grasp that you can have a degree, be artistic, and also have dear friends and relations who are blue collar. I think Toronto racists won’t grasp that you can live back west and still be a world class artist.

Am I angry? How can you tell? Here’s what burns my neck red: A fellow writer endured a negative and utterly rude book review by a Toronto elitist, a rudeness my friend is convinced she would not have endured had she lived within the city of Toronto, or even in the greater Toronto area. As for Audre Lorde, she had her own mighty frustrations with white feminist racists, just as I surely would in Toronto. Reading  Lorde, I scrutinize her word “entitled,” and her definition of “racism”: It is nourished by, motivated by, and produces… a sense of entitlement.

If the artsy elite, entitled to be snobs, who avoid the Grey Cup, are racist against westerners and their Muslim sisters, then maybe their entitlement produces… a passive sense of guilt. A guilt where a “liberal” member of parliament (Justin) disagreed with anyone who would call genital mutilation, here in Canada, “barbaric.” Really Justin? Please STOP your misplaced guilt—If it’s not barbaric, here in the 21st century, then tell me: What exactly is it?…  “Grotesque?” 

(Not a good word for immigrants with English as a second language)

Like playing rock paper scissors, the action of “giving up entitlement” beats guilt. Simple. But out east in Ontario it’s very hard for a liberal rich man to do so, standing there beside his camel and needle.

Too bad I can’t ask anyone here what’s going on between Toronto ears, since nobody I know back west—and hey, some of my best friends are liberals—feels guilty. Here on the prairies I haven’t seen the wind, but I have seen my friends and I taking action against injustice and oppression. 

As for Toronto folks, for the sake of my artist friends back west, I sure wish they would stop feeling entitled to snobbery. More importantly: I wish the middle class ladies out there would drop their guilty support for domestic violence and inequality.

Sean Crawford

In the Toronto airport, 

and 

In the fuselage of a 

Westjet,

March

2020

Footnotes:

~Joke: The graphic Mad Magazine once proved how it is possible to get a camel through the eye of a needle. You tie a rope around the camel’s belly, lift it up with a helicopter, and fly through a giant needle. “Nobody said how big the needle had to be.”

~ In Canada, soon after Star Trek ended its run, we de-cloaked our invisible hobbles by using consciousness raising circles. …But in our new century those pesky Romulans have cloaked again.

~A self-defensive note: (In a tired voice, after mentioning white Arabs) Yes, my politically correct friends, I do know there are Black Muslims, and Pacific Muslims, with millions in the city of Jakarta alone; yes, I know one can do holy terror without being Arab, with the worst country for “global reach” into Europe being Pakistan…. But many of my readers, as in that country song, “don’t know Iraq from Iran,” and so I concentrated on Arabs. …Besides, experts on the vanished Indo-European language say Arabs are part of the Aryan nations, from Eire (Ireland) to Iran, so that makes them white to me, and why can’t racists see that?

Sidebar 

Audre Lorde’s World

Long before 9/11 raised our consciousness  about the existence of Islamic family violence, Audre Lorde visited the Second World and quoted a woman feeling triumphant against hijabs and honour killings. I quoted them both in As Epilogue a Feminist Regards Muslim Uzbekistan archived October 2017.

As for Audre, it’s a small world: The last time I was in London, at the Tate Modern Art Museum, 

(the most visited London attraction, according to a recent BBC News article)

I bought a green book of her essays. This time around, in a Bloomsbury store, I bought a pink book that has her essays and poems. Many of her poems are referenced in her essays,
 (including A Conversation with Adrienne Riche) 
which is delightful because Lorde thinks by using poetry first, not by using words. 

(Other ways of thinking are in my essay How You Learn, archived February 2020)

The Tate exhibit was of U.S. Black political art, and it was so very sad for me to see some old black and white TV sets, outside in the lobby, each showing a person speaking, all of whom were dead except for Angela Davis. I think she survived because she was in prison during the police killings. When they took her away, Black writer James Baldwin said (I forget) something like, “Dear Angela, if they come for you in the morning, they will come for me in the evening.” 

I had already known about police shooting up a Black Panther headquarters in a surprise attack, but the exhibit included a door of someone’s home with many police bullet holes: Shot while soundly sleeping. I do believe I once read about a third such door too.

For any readers who still wonder why U.S. Blacks, including sweet gentle sisters, gave their brother, O.J. Simpson, the benefit of the doubt after his arrest, a memory has popped in: 

Back in the 20th century, perhaps from submarines mysteriously going missing in remote waters, we had a saying: Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.

Russian Trolls Meet Social Media

essaysbysean.blogspot.com 

Note: As you know, Karl Marx invented communism, or Marxism, while writing in the library of the British Museum. These days the library door, across from the main entrance, is blocked off—I checked.

Does social media have a soul? I ask because when Doctor Frankenstein created a soulless creature he cried, “I have created a monster!” But (in the book) no one else realized the monster existed—How lonely.

Hello Reader,

Got Russian trolls?

Question: What do the evil of communism, the troll farms of Russia, and the devil from hell have in common? 

Easily Answered: Their main strength, historically, has been people not believing they exist.

Vladimir Lenin (the first marxist-communist leader of Russia) referred to “useful idiots.” He meant individuals in the western democracies who, not knowing the evil of communism, would support it.

Did you know Russians (Soviets) caused the Six Day War?

I was a boy during the horrible, un-glorious, Six Day War between the democracy of Israel and the the folks who believed in dictatorships, folks surrounding Israel in the Middle East. There’s a reason (besides it being their watershed) why Israel still refuses to give up the Golan Heights, formerly Syrian, along the Syrian border. Here are two paragraphs from when Canada had been a state for a hundred years, 1967.

(Incidentally, Arab belief in dictatorship made it hard during World War II to persuade them to ally against Hitler and the Axis)

QUOTE

A consulting Soviet delegation met with Egyptian leaders on May 13, revealing that Israel had concentrated eleven to thirteen brigades in preparation for an imminent assault along the Syrian border. 

When the Soviet claims came to light, Israel denied any military buildup or aggressive intent. Middle East peacekeeping forces, the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, stationed on the Syrian border to safeguard Israel from Arab terrorist attacks, also denied the Soviet claims. 

Days later, Syrian troops lined the Golan Heights, ready to respond to Israel’s imminent attack. Battle-ready, Nasser announced, “The Jews threaten to make war. I reply: Welcome! We are ready for war.” Jordan’s King Hussein signed on May 30, joining… the Iraqi president… His army then joined…

No longer waiting for the Israeli invasion, later revealed to be Soviet disinformation meant to destabilize the region…(bolding mine)

UNQUOTE

In those days, back before social media, the Russians (Soviets) used work-of-mouth for their disinformation.

What happened next was: After the Soviets propagated their fake news, the army buildup went on to include almost everybody in the region: 

QUOTE “Algerian, Saudi Arabian, Iraqi, and Kuwaiti armies set station on the Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian fronts. A combined air force of 810 planes, 2, 880 tanks, and nearly half a million troops prepared for the battle of all battles…”  UNQUOTE

Israel still exists as a state. She survived (footnote) by having her armed forces focus on only one front at a time, in an operation code named Moked, in English, “focus.” 

Such a hellish waste of lives, that need not have happened. But at least the Russians and everyone else learned a lesson—or did they?

Today I see the Russian leopard hasn’t changed its spots. I accidentally read a little obscure line the other day, in web article on some North Americans being against vaccination: The Russians are using social media to put out fake news to encourage the antivax movement here in the west.

When I read that little line I was shocked awake—wow!—while realizing others would read it too, but then stay sleepy, and surely have forgotten it by the next day. Forgive me, for I’m awfully skeptical about my neighbors. I would say to them: Forget “big pharma,” worry about “big troll farms.” 

The Russians can put a man in space; their computer nerds surely know their science; therefore to me it’s obvious: 

if computer nerds under Vladimir Putin put out stuff in English to give credence to the antivaxers, 

then that is to help destabilize the democracies.

Why? Besides not liking our freedom? Probably for reasons of economic competition. After all, they destabilized the middle east in 1967 because they hoped to profit by selling arms.

Am I a conspiracy nut? About Russian efforts to destabilize? No, not unless you think the whole nation of Finland is nuts. They have a national effort, as reported on the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) website, to inform their people about the existence of big Russian troll farms. (footnote) Despite that BBC story, I suspect the average person over in Britain is still as unaware, and as trusting of social media, as we are over here.

In conclusion, I have—

Don’t touch that mouse! 

After a pause for blog identification, I will tell more:

• a professor, and why people want him fired 
• The Finns, and their national efforts against Russian troll farms
• The anti-vax study, the original one that kicked off the modern anti-vax belief

—I have Three Points, consisting of Two don’ts and One do:

First: Unless you are dealing with traditional media having journalism ethics, don’t believe “It must be true or they wouldn’t have printed it.”

Second: If you are reading social media, don’t believe “It must be true or my brother-in-law wouldn’t have forwarded it.” 

(as they still believe in India, despite government efforts to get village mobs to stop killing complete strangers. Have you heard? Some troll started a post about child abduction by strangers, and it is now going viral, unstoppable by anyone with common sense—mobs even killed a young government man who went to a village to warn them to please stop killing, stop believing forwarded social media.)

Third: Do believe the Russians are using big troll farms to destabilize the rest of us. After all, “X million Finns can’t all be wrong.”

Pause for blog identification:

Your are reading

Sean Crawford

Edmonton

December

2019

Part Two, (but do feel free to get a Second Cup first) 

On the importance of PAX and VAX

PRAY FOR PAX 

(peace)

Some “useful idiots,’” as Lenin called them, still refuse to believe: In Canada there is now resistance to erecting a national memorial to victims of communism.

In my province last month, a Canadian professor, at the University of Alberta, who had recently run for election on the ideals of the Marxist-Leninist party ticket, which, by definition, means HE BELIEVES in the Russian party line, 

(I remember the Soviet ambassador publishing a letter to my student newspaper to say the Ukraine famine was solely from bad weather) 

denied on his social media (not in class) that there was any Ukrainian holocaust, or holodomor, (man-made famine) by Joseph Stalin. This made a lot of people upset, partly because, for the sake of having a jolly good outrage, the first social reactors (pun intended) did not mention that the prof was a Marxist.

I know for sure an idiot can achieve a Ph.D…. yet continue being a “useful idiot.” I wrote about Marxist professors, the “Regina 16,” back in April 2010, archived as Socialists Reject Soldiers. They didn’t want poor children of soldiers killed in action to be eligible for special financial help to attend university.

Forewarned is forearmed

Finland

Got useful idiots? From Russian-speaking areas of Europe, folks allegedly “believed” what they saw spread on social media, and then they viciously launched assaults on the mental health and reputation of a journalist, Jessikka Aro. She told her experience in a BBC interview. How bad are the Russian assaults? You would have to read it to believe it—because hey, those troll farms won’t defend themselves.

I realize that some people, proud to members of a ‘new improved’ digital generation, believe in “the joy of having outrage,” but as for me, I still like Jessika more than I do her attackers: She had journalism ethics, and she had won a prize for her reporting about Russia’s state sponsored social media. 

This web story interviewing her is in prose.

Regarding Finland’s national effort, this web story is in video form, 

with speaking parts by the Finnish prime minister, Jessikka and the communications minister.

VAX

~As an adult, during my military service, I was immunized against lockjaw, also called tetanus.

As a boy I saw a  television commercial, a cartoon, advising vaccinations to protect against three characters: Dippy Diphtheria, who was foolish, Locky lockjaw, who couldn’t talk because his jaw was stiffened shut, and Rolly Polio, a mean guy in a wheelchair holding a crutch to smash people… characters who would not be politically correct to show today.

By the time I saw those commercials, I had already caught mumps, measles and chickenpox—but at least I had never caught smallpox or German measles, also called rubella. 

Catching these “childhood diseases” gave me, just like my mother and brother before me, an immunization against ever getting those diseases again. Happily, no one in my family suffered complications. I wonder if anti-vaxxers would deny such immunity can happen? 

Luckily, when I saw those cartoons, I was young enough, praise the Lord, to have already been vaccinated against poliomyelitis… Very, very lucky. 

And hey, do you know about that notorious FAMOUS STUDY that set off the original panic storm, the one that linked vaccinations to autism? That study could NOT be replicated; there was a sample size of ONLY 12—count ‘em, 12—AND the researcher had not disclosed that he had a financial vested interest. (link) He has since been kicked out of the medical community.

A baby born when that discredited study was published would be 21 years old now. Time enough for straight citizens to check with reality and continue getting their blessed vaccinations. 

Footnotes:

~How to Lose a Battle subtitled Foolish plans and great military blunders, edited by Bill Fawcett, Harper, 2006, specifically from the chapter The Six Day War by Edward E. Kramer, page 307.

~Here’s a very lengthy N.Y.Times think-piece interviewing experts on the future of social media.

Brass Cannons Smash Reality

www.essaysbysean.blogspot.com

Hello Reader,

Got reality?

"Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it."

George Santayana.

Preface

Clive James died last week. 

He was an Australian philosopher and broadcaster. 

The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) aired an old interview with him, and the BBC posted three links, including linking to an obituary.

As I'm sure James has, down the year I have wondered: Are tomorrow's war criminals already living among us, as children? Are we doomed to more wars and holocausts? Surely our safest path to avoid such things—although I know Vladimer Putin would disagree, as would the average guy in the street in China (They also disagree with justice for Hong Kong)—is to pursue "liberal democracy."

Clive James had a lifetime project: He wrote a tome, Cultural Amnesia, as part of his enthusiasm for democracy. His book excited me enough to indirectly lead to this essay that I first posted as The Brass Cannon back in December of 2010. I present it as my second re-run of 2019; the quotes that bookend it are from Clive's book.

Prologue

“… the liberal believes in the permanence of humanity’s imperfection, he resigns himself to a regime in which the good will be the result of numberless actions, and never the object of conscious choice. Finally, he subscribes to the pessimism that sees, in politics, the art of creating the conditions in which the vices of men will contribute to the good of the state.”

Raymond Aron, L’Opium Des Intellectuals p. 292

The Brass Cannon

The Brass Cannon. …Such a simple title, for such a big concept.

In the lengthy novel, the title object suddenly appears in the middle, is seen only for a paragraph, yet the shadow remains to the final page. 

The setting is an age when transport is so expensive that you generally bring only the clothes on your back. Hence the young viewpoint character is quietly amazed at the behavior of his traveling companion, his old professor. The prof doesn’t know if he will arrive alive, or, instead, suffer a heart attack from the escape of Earth’s vicious gravity. Yet, next to his body, Professor Bernardo de da Paz places a little brass cannon that he purchased on Earth. 

I sometimes wonder what would have been the affect if, on coffee tables scattered over America, that title had been there since the mid1960’s, glaring in mute accusation. The title of another novel from the same author, Stranger in a Strange Land, had been on the table at the house of the “idealistic” organizers of the tragic Kent State riot. “…Four dead in O-hi-o.” At the time I remember a few students quoting Mao: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” (or rifle or cannon)

The idealistic title The Brass Cannon, chosen by Robert Heinlein was, alas, changed by the editor, who apparently thought fans of sf wouldn’t recognize it as science fiction. (Idiot!) As for the actual title, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, it’s such a mouthful that I can’t bring myself to be critical of anyone who “disrespects” the book by calling it “Moon.”

An earlier version of Professor de la Paz would be the town doctor in Heinlein’s 1949  Red Planet subtitled A Colonial Boy on Mars. Like the Lunar doctor of philosophy, the Martian doctor of medicine was also a philosopher of simple things beyond the “biggies” like democracy and revolution. Once he reminisced about what television sets were originally intended for: His grandfather had witnessed TV sets in bars being used to show wrestling matches. I thought of this when the big expensive HD TV’s first came out: too expensive to be seen anywhere but in bars.

Another memorable line of the doctor’s, because he had been involved in local politics back on Earth, was (from memory) “Every law that was ever written opened up a new way to graft.” 

Perhaps he’s right. Perhaps graft is as practical as a cannon. When my hometown of Calgary, Alberta was considering a “number of bags” limit on weekly garbage collection, an alderman disparaged the idea saying, “People will come out with bags the size of (the town of) Cochrane.” Money and practicality, not idealism, was again the deciding issue when City Hall considered the idea of changing all the residential speed limits from 50 kilometers per hour to 40 kph. I don’t recall whether the morality of subverting the integrity, the honest calculations, of the professionals of road engineering was even mentioned. What I do recall is that changing all those signs would cost one or more million dollars, and that, anyway, many drivers practically ignore their speedometers. The idea was dropped. (But got revived in 2019)

I enjoy driving. When I go cruising along in the good old U.S. of A. I am mindful of how, for an awake citizenry, the Constitution is a practical force: Hence I drive the “Military and Interstate Highway System” often shortened to “the interstate,” a road that, according to a professor, needed the plea of “military” use to get around the law, written generations before Hitler’s autobahn, against ever building any such road systems in the US.

After opening the sunroof and singing “Do you know the way to San Jose?” I might try a 1960’s advertising jingle from the Saturday morning cartoons of my youth: 

You can eat them on the run; eat them just for fun,

Eat them when you have a party,

When you want a snack, you can eat them from the pack,

Or warm and crispy, good and hearty,

Pop tarts, great new treat,

New-ew-ew from Kellog's,

Pop tarts.

Except they weren’t new. 

And they weren’t from Kellog's. 

Whoever had first started producing the tarts has gone the way of all unpersons. 

Kellog's saw, copied, and then, to quote a confederate cavalry officer, got there “first-est with the most-est.” Maybe "That’s not fair!" not ideal, but that’s how things work in this world of Saturday morning tarts and toy cannons. As my friend, a religious fundamentalist small-business owner put it, “As long as you are within the letter of the law you are morally OK.” The executives at Enron did break the law, and were prosecuted. The men on Wall Street who plunged our entire planet into a recession didn’t, and weren’t. (One chuckles at the term which assigns agency, "Wall Street meltdown," being glossed over, and replaced by the no-fault term "recession")

It should come as no surprise that what happens within a practical democratic nation also happens between groups of nations. When I was with NATO I often went mountaineering in Switzerland. Along the mountain roads, quite blatantly, were inset rusty brown tank traps, still operational, these being a big part of the reason why Hitler’s autobahns were never extended into Switzerland. The point is not that the Swiss diplomats would sing songs of peace, in sweet harmony, with their cultured German counterparts, but, rather, the Swiss could give a sober accounting of the tank traps, steel cannons and so forth. It must have taken several days of diplomatic meetings to recite the entire military inventory.

As for the earliest brass or iron cannons, according to legend they often were inscribed with: “The final argument of kings.”

Any colony, whether on Mars or Luna, that builds their own cannons to enable them to safely open up their minds to be able to think, and then to argue “in favor of revolt,” is a colony that includes “dirty traitors” against the king. Unless they succeed. Then the former colony includes “founding fathers.” And the new state receives diplomatic recognition.

(Here in town a college stand up comic noticed that many a young student has had his father give recognition to having one’s “own roof.” He asked: What’s so magical about a roof?)

Sometimes cannons are set along the coast. My brother’s university dormitory, at UBC, “Fort Camp,” was an old barracks for the shore defense gunners. (Against the Japanese) Back in the old days of sailing ships the distance a shore cannon could project force was 3 miles. It is most assuredly not coincidence that for so many years the legal International Limit for territorial waters was also 3 miles. 

Meanwhile, from the age of sail and on through the steam age, one of the best navies has always been the Royal Navy. I remember as a youth, back when the limit was usually 3 or 12 (depending on the country) miles, reading a British navy book where all of the ship-to-ship missiles, and shore to ship,  had a range of 200 miles. While I was reading the book, world diplomats were meeting to discuss extending the International Limit.

I like cannons, and in writing this all too brief essay I don’t mean to discourage the idealism of any young students at Kent State or UBC. If the mass of men and women, unlike you and me, don’t voluntarily restrain themselves unless they are forced to, well, "it’s no biggie." In my own lifetime I have cherished seeing a goodly spreading of democracy and the furthering of international cooperation. For me, knowing the Rules of Human Behavior is like having rules for the writing of sonnets: it just makes things more fun. The Rules mean that good laws, whether in Calgary or internationally, will be practical, enforceable, and suggest a side effect of graft. “A force in motion continues until it meets an opposite motion.” 

It all starts with taking people as they are: They mean well, of course, and, like my dear religious friend, they need forces both judicial and physical, even brass cannons, to help guide them to stay safely on the road. From a distance I can watch generations of people passing by as they keep trudging along the low road to morality. 

The high road, lost in the misty uplands, is only for the angels.

Epilogue 

“In the course of the last forty years, the only part of the world that has enjoyed peace is the continent divided between two zones of political civilization both of them armed with atomic bombs.”

Raymond Aron, Les Dernieres Annees Du Siecle (The Last Years of the Century), p. 68



Sean Crawford

Calgary, at the ending of

The first decade of the second millennium

Footnotes

 ~ The man quoted above would be pleased to know that the European Union, instead of  an individual, was awarded the 2012 nobel peace prize

~The two quotes are from James Clive’s essay on Raymond Aron, from pages 32 and 39, quoted in Cultural Amnesia. ( a really exciting book)

~William Shakespeare did not invent the phrase “pot calling the kettle black” but he used the concept in one of his comedies, and he used a “cannon equivalent” in (I think) the comedy Twelfth Night. In Will’s day there was a problem with cannons: as they aged they weakened, and you never knew if one was going to burst into dangerous shards. So I laughed when a character retorted, “That was ill shot with elder cannon.”