Skeptical Surrealist

Real Anarchy is not an Ideal. It is making do when the house we have built falls in upon us.

Skeptical Surrealist — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:04:13 +0000

I am trying to see things in context of an Empire in accelerating decline. The Communist Chinese have out-done the Capitalists, and the Wehrmacht fer Fraydum cannot roll if the Chinese bankers say no. Sure, they are happy to see it exhaust itself in fruitless wars far from them. But THEY want Iran’s oil, so they are not going to ‘let’ the US go to war there. They are exercising the power of the purse far more effectively than the House of Representatives ever did, though the Constitution Framers thought that’d give the People the power to shut down any war any time. Clock is ticking, and each day the US’s whole approach to global domination seems more and more last-century. All these superweapons belong to whichever side has the other side better hacked at the beginning of hostilities. What good is an aircraft carrier if it cannot be sure its secure channels are secure? The side with better hackers will send it driving in circles, or even order it to strike a target against its own side. Ditto cruise missile, drone, any of it.
So as the Power collapses there is a scramble for a shrinking pot and things get ugly. People turn mean. Class consciousness is just a reality as people get shoe-horned in with either those going up or those going down. Patronage networks, family and otherwise, are emerging. I predict mutual help networks connected by smartphone to become more of a reality filling the gap left by institutions that can’t meet basic needs such as government and the conventional economy.
Real anarchy is not an ideal, it is making do when the house we have built falls in upon us.

I Know You, Rider, additional Lyrics

Skeptical Surrealist — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 03:29:05 +0000

Here are most of the lyrics that the Grateful Dead use of this Traditional (no need to pay for permission to use) song. What follows are two additional verses I have written that you may also use, but I want credit.

I know you, rider, gonna miss me when Im gone;
I know you, rider, gonna miss me when Im gone;
Gonna miss your baby, from rolling in your arms.

Laid down last night, lord, I could not take my rest;
Laid down last night, lord, I could not take my rest;
My mind was wandering like the wild geese in the west.

The sun will shine in my back door someday.
The sun will shine in my back door someday.
March winds will blow all my troubles away.

I wish I was a headlight, on a north bound train;
I wish I was a headlight, on a north bound train;
Id shine my light through cool colorado rain.

I know you, rider, gonna miss me when Im gone;
I know you, rider, gonna miss me when Im gone;
Gonna miss your baby, from rolling in your arms.

Storm has gathered, It’s time to leave this town;
Storm has gathered, It’s time to leave the big towns.
Homeland police got checkpoints all around

Cling to the mountain while the Winds blow the old ways out
Cling to the mountain while the Winds of Change blow round
Even the Cattle are looking for higher ground

Closed For Earth Day. Go Outside.

Skeptical Surrealist — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 23:59:24 +0000

The Duke

Skeptical Surrealist — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:49:33 +0000

Image Borrowed. Click image or link for audio.

29 hstprojfx

Double-Talk

Skeptical Surrealist — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 16:55:40 +0000

So what the hey. A generation is used to reading bottom to top anyhow….

11:39 AM - 9 Feb 13 · Details

">

Skeptical Surrealist ‏@mntnwzrd66 ‘We are not allowed to say’ is an official answer that always leaves you knowing less than before you asked & feeling more insecure about it
11:37 AM - 9 Feb 13 · Details

">

Skeptical Surrealist ‏@mntnwzrd66 #Doubletalk. Parent: So should i have kid tested for ADD? Teacher: ‘We are not allowed to tell you you should.’ Way to play on uncertainty!
11:37 AM - 9 Feb 13 · Details

">

Skeptical Surrealist ‏@mntnwzrd66 All false dichotomy is #Doubletalk, but not all Doubletalk is dichotomy.
11:35 AM - 9 Feb 13 · Details

">

Skeptical Surrealist ‏@mntnwzrd66 End the Tyranny of #Doubletalk, and the whole Prison collapses, to the dismay of both inmates and guards.
11:33 AM - 9 Feb 13 · Details

">

Skeptical Surrealist ‏@mntnwzrd66 Rule 2 is Never mention Rule 1. This is the Beginning of Doubletalk. #Doubletalk is the Basis of Civilization, Core of all Religion.
11:32 AM - 9 Feb 13 · Details

">

Skeptical Surrealist ‏@mntnwzrd66 In all abusive homes, Rule 1 is Don’t Offend the Monster. Rule 2 is Never Mention Rule 1. This is the beginning of Doubletalk.
11:30 AM - 9 Feb 13 · Details

">

Skeptical Surrealist ‏@mntnwzrd66 Tyranny of actual force is a terrible thing, but without first the Tyranny of Doubletalk, it never really gets going.
11:17 AM - 9 Feb 13 · Details

">

Skeptical Surrealist ‏@mntnwzrd66 Fight the Tyranny of Doubletalk. Bitch Slap a Bureaucrat Today. Your World Depends on it. The Life you save could be your own.

Erotic D&D Optional Additional Rules for Role Playing Games

Skeptical Surrealist — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 01:12:24 +0000

Erotic D&D.
Additional die rolls that each player may do when character meets another character, non-player character, or maybe monster. In theory this ‘game’ should co-exist with your favorite role playing games, whether all story or live action, if the players and ‘DM’s’ agree to it.
roll 2d6 when yr character meets another
2 Your character may Not have sex wtih that character, ever, on pain of death, will violently resist.
3 Your character may have sex with that character but will LOSE 3 sex points if it happens.
4-7, no special attraction or repulsion. Sex optional. No points.
8 2 sex points if your character has sex with that character within 3 days game time, double if doubles
9 3 sex points if your character has sex with that character, Ever.
10 4 sex points if your character has sex with that character within 1 day game time, double if doubles
11 Smitten. No points, but character experiences powerful compulsion to have sex with other character. Opposite of a 2. Character loses 1/4 their wisdom and intelligence and feels Compelled to try to have sex with this person, and can do little else till they have sex at least once. If the object of ths roll rolls a 2, chances are good one of them will end up dead.
12 12 sex points if your character has sex with that character within 1 hour game time.

To clarify, when two characters meet, a die roll is done for each, and it establishes the dynamic of attraction/repulsion/obsession for those two characters for the remainder of the game or till there is some reason to think it has worn off. Each player should know the numbers of their character(s) toward all the other characters and behave accordingly, without interfering (Ha!) with the normal play of the game. (Just like in real life. Not.) Some characters may be more driven by their sexual agenda than others, but the amount should not be out of character… unless highly sexually warped characters is what you want. This is almost a ‘side game.’ It can be as hot or as inept as the storytellers involved, and that is what makes it fun. How exactly is the gnome thief going to come on to the female paladin? And how exactly is she going to play it so it’s a yes? The visuals of various fantasy characters suddenly dropping from action adventure mode to improv porn mode have a certain appeal too. Some particularly wide open groups may include monsters in the rolls and rape of or by monsters as part of the game, while other more tame groups may decide that characters of the same gender should not roll the dice for each other. (Or that each player has an orientation that determines exactly who they roll for and how much it affects them…. that complication is for someone else. Send me a link.) It depends on the game, the room, the character, and the player.
Hey, comments are closed on this blog but that isnt quite true. Anything said on Twitter that references the link where you are seeing this appears here as a comment. So just tweet your comments.

What was I thinking in 2007?

Skeptical Surrealist — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:06:45 +0000

11-14-07
Sooner or later, there will be no oil left to fuel the world’s armies, and the machines of war that now exist will be obsolete. Warfare then will be more about information and less about tanks and planes. But in the meantime, humans have invested much in petroleum-based war machines, and they are going to use them to make war for the last of the petroleum. As it happens, the US has more invested in war machines than any other group on Earth, and people in the US have a culture that allows them to bomb cities full of innocent people and then feel righteous about it afterward. So, rather than slip quietly into irrelevance, or get up and do something positive, the US will make war for the remaining oil until the oil is gone, or all its machines are destroyed, whichever comes first. At the end of the ‘game,’ (the end of the current phase of the ‘game’) the last oil wells and refineries will dry up, still surrounded by fairy rings of quiet rusting tanks, trucks, and jets, most of them stamped ‘made in USA.’
Nations, networks, or groups that want to be players in the next round will need to find a way to project their power that does not rely on petroleum. The internet and digital communications technology seem like an obvious route for the smart but oil-poor to project power. It may be that the flowering of industrial democracy was set in motion by the printing press, which meant de facto press freedom by its very existence. (See Marshall McLuhan Understanding the Media 1964.) It may also be that the newer communications tech will lead even more quickly to a less oligarchic and more transparent democracy.*

* Often there has been fear that computer technology would mainly favor the forces of oppression. But on balance, I think networking benefits the individual. Networking technology allows a more direct route to the benefits of organization than conventional structures.

**Networked individuals in themselves present a corrosive influence on all government power. In theory one can see that if the ‘government’ represents the ‘collective,’ as it used to, then all of our human conformity impulses work in favor of our doing what they expect us to do. But networks make alternative collectives possible, and the immediacy of the contact may have people more loyal to their voluntary networks of peers than to the government.

** It’s easy to see how an email list or calling circle works faster and better than a monthly
meeting at the schoolhouse, but what does that say about representative government?
Networked individuals can run around the world before a congress or a committee can get its boots on. Presumably, in a fight for relevance, Congress will network itself; members will appear live via teleconference at first, but eventually, all ‘debate’ will consist of dueling holograms beamed in from Rancho Rico. It won’t be enough for Congressmen to all look like lawyers. When the projected holograms gather to mug for pictures they will resemble The Village People, as each seek to project his or her message in an increasingly bizarre and clown-like display of caricature. Some will beam in their feeds with lead-in lines and theme music, wear shades and vamp like pseudo movie stars. Others may find that the newly available portrait software is helpful, which takes the holo-feed and filters it, making the subject conventionally younger, thinner, with a stronger chin, and eyes that could be dialed from ‘CEO’ to ‘sex kitten.’

Karma = Carmen

Skeptical Surrealist — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 16:33:14 +0000

Karma = Carmen.

Your Life, your Story, (Karma, Dharma) equals your Song (Carmen)

And there are no wrong notes, only unresolved tonal structures.

Sing. Play. Live.

Spaghetti Western Surf

Skeptical Surrealist — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 13:05:14 +0000

Spaghtti Western Surf

12 20 12

Skeptical Surrealist — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 08:15:02 +0000

Things that are happening are too personal and too inner-mythic to relate without being overcome by the seeming narcissism of the exercise, and yet that really is what is important, it seems. Fish net knots and truck lines are only the stuff of a time but the Human Drama, the reality of Karma, they are the real Stuff of a given age.

Do I think this is so great?

No, but it is authentically mine, and I seem to live at the cusp of an age where on one side the authentic self means nothing and on the other side it means everything. Again that sounds like narcissism, but in our times, anyone who says torture is wrong puts their personal morality ahead of the national imperative. So you have to be willing to stand against the Nation (group, collective, Other) if you are to stand with Humanity or Spirit. I know, everyone but me has a clever way to parse this. They say ‘America is the Last Best Hope For Humanity.’ which sounds good. And if you accept that it means anything done in service to America must be OK. I can’t accept that. Rightness or wrongness is in the structure of the action in its own context, not what club it represents.

(I always type ‘menas’ and maybe that is My Own Word that -means- what I want it to -mean- because there is a concept I mean to communicate which does not have a suitable name.)

I remember a Jr Hi Pep Rally where I thought, So these are the Heroes that are going to bring victory. The Bullies. The guys they are playing against are probably the bullies at their own school. What do I care who wins? Actually, it’s better for -me- if they all hurt each other really bad. A knee goes the wrong way, and there is one less jock asshole in the world. I was a meanie.