Neon Neptune Apocalypse

    We suffocate our oceans, not just with plastic, but the unpardonable waste of our march through industry. It is also by sound, excruciating and violent, that buries our aquatic friends in nightmares of motor-tainted misery. Imagine if there was non-stop jack-hammering in our homes and you might get a sense of the kind of desperation they are feeling as a result of our increasing reliance on shipping, supplemented by fishing, tourism, etc. For sound in the ocean is worse on the ears by tenfold compared to those adapted to the air. It's as if an advanced aquatic civilization were to blast millions of megaphones of sonic material into the atmosphere simultaneously. How it would scatter us, how we would scurry to bury our heads in the sand, leaving yet another geological trace of the Anthropocene. Ships and boats are polluting the oceans at an alarming frequency. Every animal that relies on sound to survive has a life in jeopardy, including the whale, the fish, the myriad crustaceans. Dear Neptune, the underwater apocalypse is upon us, which thought it was safe from the garbage floating on your surface, that other heinous intrusion from man. Now you must promote new species selected for plastic filtering and oral retardation, for the gyres are spinning and there is no end in sight. The blue bastion of your biosphere, sunken by lords of thunder, raining hell from above, no different from an angry god that casts thunder and lightning to destroy his creation, so that new models can take their place. Who will our new friends be, the ones we couldn't possibly betray because they will have evolved to resist us? And once their defenses are hardened, will they fight back?

Ahab of the Andes

A poem based on Aguirre, the Wrath of God.

 

There's a place far away

At the end of the world

Where light gives way to gold,

Pure illusion frosted by the Andes,

Crisp illumination of terraces,

Holy choir beseeching the path,

Emblem of empire crowing the mist,

A stray river of men marching

For the colossus of El Dorado

Laced with jewels upon a cloud forest.

He parts the jungle sea

That leadeth to the Amazon,

Trajectory of vastness, a yearning

Replete with madness, eyes of cobalt,

Blessed by artillery, cursed by betrayal,

Mutiny forging the unreachable dream,

The unredeemable demon

Urging him forth, leaning into the dawn

At the middle of nowhere,

The men starving, the natives conspiring,

Phantom regret leaking into the raft,

Grandiose heart broken by heaven,

Reaching for bliss in the ambient fog.

That destination, he could taste it,

A paradise forgotten, a New World cosmology

Dethroning the old, enthroning the bold,

White stellar milk of manna

Funneling down the mountains

Penetrating his silver armor,

A summons to explore what was never conquered,

There for the taking of anyone but

The strong and the chosen, advanced,

Bleeding savages who thought them friendly,

Burning land that thought them wise,

Only to leave them stranded

In the deepest of Earth's labyrinths.

At the end of this life,

Instead of the golden palaces,

All he could see was the blindness,

The monkeys of chance repealing his doctrines,

Arias of the wilderness casting him out.

Haiti's Double Blow Fits the West's Formula for Exploiting Underdeveloped Nations

    The story of Haiti will help you realize why there is so much backlash against the West. It is one of the harshest examples of a nation founded on the deceit of colonizers. In the early 19th century, the French demanded a ransom for Haiti's independence through military extortion. Haiti accepted, but that isn't what created a sinkhole of debt it would never escape from. The French pushed loans on the government to pay off the ransom, dealing a double below to a nation struggling to get off the ground, similar to the way the US and other Western nations "funded" the development of liberated countries in Africa and elsewhere after colonialism collapsed during the 20th century. The loans that Western banks push on underdeveloped nations have a way of stifling their development, often through military intervention, terrorism, or Western-backed coups. I suspect Papa Doc Duvalier, the Haitian dictator who overthrew its democracy once it got going, was trained by the CIA to keep Haiti in poverty by allocating labor to US firms. Little known is the fact that during World War I, as allies of the French, we invaded Haiti to assist in their exploitation. Once we got involved, the formula became eerily evident as Cuba and other nations in Latin America held quasi-elections making it seem like they were liberated, only to be overthrown by dictators who facilitated foreign debt because they were offered weapons, power, and wealth by the aggressors. Papa Doc fits the trend considering he was educated in the US, disappeared for some time, and de-legitimized elections to implement authoritarianism and terror at about the same time many other colonized nations were gaining their "freedom".

Source: New York Times.  The Ransom.  May 22, 2022. Catherine Porter, Constant Meheut, Matt Apuzo, Selam Gebrekidam.

How the Christians Won Rome and Conquered the West

    In the early first millennium, Jews and Christians were evenly persecuted by the Roman Empire. A question I am asking myself is why or how Christians took the mantle of religious authority in the 4th Century AD. It wasn't just the decision of Constantine to instate Christianity as the state religion of Rome; for centuries Christianity had been gaining momentum and followers at what was likely a much faster rate than the Jews. What is it about the Christian faith that accounts for this? They were well organized, but so were the Jews. Unlike the Jews though, Christians have always been more inclusive and activist; recruiting and missionary services did more to spread the word of Jesus then his story itself. And this was likely no less applicable in ancient times as it is now, as Jesus told his disciples to "spread the word". There was no such commandment from a Jewish leader that I'm aware. 
    Yet possibly an even more powerful phenomenon accelerated its rise from fanatic martyrdom, and that is the power of myth. The Jesus story strikes a chord with all who suffer from social circumstances implanted by an oppressive regime. And that's what the Roman Empire resembled to many people at the time. The scale of bloodletting and suffering the early cults and martyrs faced- who were evidently inspired by their savior's crucifixion - appealed to those masses who suffered by their social parameters, something the Jews never attempted to snatch believers with. There was never a powerful enough myth in Jewish culture to appeal to large groups of minorities shunned by a wealthy protectorate, who ironically endorsed the religion centuries later. 
    It's difficult to say whether the story or the missionary strength won the empire for Christians. I am inclined to think it was a little of both. Without the missionaries to spread the story, it would not have been remembered. Without the power of the story the missionaries would have been taken less seriously.

The Goldbach Conjecture

    In number theory, a mathematical axiom is that every even number greater than two is the sum of two prime numbers, also known as the Goldbach Conjecture. This doesn't mean they are the sum of only two primes, but that they are the sum of at least one pair. For example, 20 is the sum of 17 + 3 or 13 + 7. 

    The converse with odd numbers is that every odd integer greater than 5 is the sum of three primes. 

    How fascinating the hidden order of mathematics is. These axioms are like divine laws of our universal language, math. There's been a lot of research on prime numbers and number theory. It is something I would like to learn more about in future readings, as I attempt to uncover all the mysteries of our universe.

Duchess

    This is a poem about Duchess, a character from Amor Towles' new novel The Lincoln Highway.  Duchess plays a villian, but is completely unaware of his harmful behavior.  Only at the very end did I feel sorry for him.

 

When your time came,

Sneaking through the cylinders,

Catapulting you east, to the source,

Remembrance reprieved,

Grudges suspended,

Reconciling nothing, only the steal,

Abuses projected on the unwitting,

Betrayal inevitable with every twist

You sewed, weaving through the illusions,

Tasteless distortions that brought friends

To their knees, without choices left,

The terrible greed binding your knuckles to fate,

Lost since the horror,

His face, that watch, ticking away the years,

The corrosive belief that you are on your own,

Left to rot in the halls of abandonment,

That unbearable pain submerged,

The shock concealed

In burdens of mischief

That tied you to a boat, out on a lake,

Left for dead by those you loved,

Nowhere to go but the dream beneath,

Where they wait for you, in another world,

The seconds ticking, a life expired,

Still carefree, holding on in vain,

Pleased to see them with their hollow eyes,

Their faces smiling, his face absent,

Replaced by the watch from your pocket,

And that's when it happens,

When the ticking hands melt away the present, 

When all familiarity recoils, the ghost escapes,

Your face in its glassy reflection,

The seconds ticking away,

The shock, the horror,

No, only now do you understand,

What he did, no, what your father did,

It ruined your life.

Conservatism Reduces Technology: How Islamic and Chinese Societies Traded Places with the West During the Renaissance

    During medieval Europe, Islamic and Chinese societies were primarily responsible for any advances in science. Technology facilitated this because these societies borrowed heavily from the invention of paper. In an ironic twist of fate, technology was also these scientific societies' downfall, for the reaction against the invention of the printing press in the late 1400s was so conservative that new ideas became relatively stifled compared to Europe, where the Church was surprisingly more liberal. The triumph of conservatism in the Islamic world opened a path for European expansion in the Indian Ocean and beyond, due to advantages and technology, mapping, weaponry, trade, etc. That is why globalization was born in Europe and not there. The printing press was truly the most pivotal invention of modern history; the world would be far different if the Islamic authorities didn't call it devilry.
    The isolationist political philosophy of China also contributed to the West's advantage in globalization starting in the 15th century. Prior to the Ming Dynasty, China had been every bit as scientifically advanced as the Islamic world. Paper, gunpowder, orrries, and seismographs are among the many inventions that came from that civilization. (Interestingly, gunpowder came as a result of alchemy experiments, and was initially used to ward off evil spirits instead of weaponry.) The Ming dynasty's isolationism had the effect of contracting trade and expansion, allowing more avenues for the West to exploit east of Africa. Other things worked in the West's favor; such as a more efficient alphabet to print, which the Chinese were less able to optimize, even after inventing the movable type centuries before the printing press; and easier access to lands rich in resources that hosted egalitarian societies, like those in the Americas. These were easier to conquer due to relative proximity, less consolidation of native alliances, and their higher susceptibility to disease - in some circles thought to be caused by the decreased immune functionality of people who consume less meat.
    America's recent experiment in isolationist politics was doomed to fail. History shows that both spheres of the Eastern world, at about the same time, favored conservatism over liberal education and experimentation in the sciences. Ironically it was the Church that generated this separation, for it hosted the first universities that bred scientists in the West during the Renaissance. By the time it rejected science, it was too late; the values and norms of Western society had already changed too dramatically thanks to the printing press, spearheading the agendas of capitalists and globalists, no doubt reinforced by the Protestant worth work ethic, which would not have been as robust without printing. America would be wise to continue rejecting the forces of contraction, lest we become the ones who start falling behind.
Source:
McClellan, James, Dorn, Harold. 1999.  Science and Technology in World History.  John Hopkins University  Press: Baltimore and London

Plato's Forms Perfect the Social Sciences

    Plato's forms are limitless. Each of them have ladders leading to a divine essence of what the Form is about. Think of an object, idea, moment, any noun really. All of them have ideal representations in the collective conscience, archetypes of human cognition. They are mapped on a three-dimensional plane, upheld by the infinite ladders leading from earth to heaven. The ladder of love is only the beginning. As reality is connected by scientific theories that rationalize our observations - intangible reductions that derive from the math- a map of the Forms permits a kind of social perfection where the best possible, most aesthetic society is one where the most probable structure that leads to the most happiness and least suffering is the correct one. It is a perfect philosophy for the social sciences, which must rely more on intangible evidence and physical science. Empiricism alone cannot propel a better world, only a holistic approach can.

The Gnostic Gospels: The Truth About the Resurrection

    My initial view of the Gnostic Gospels dispels any notion that the resurrection of Jesus was an actual event, more of a mystical power struggle among Mary Magdalene and the apostles. The apostles may have been motivated by Mary's dreams or visions to profess their own witness of his rebirth, as Peter, leader of the Apostles and accordingly the first Pope, initially did not believe her, holding an orthodox, skeptical view like Doubting Thomas. Summarily, the witnessing of Jesus's resurrection became a holy mandate for the apostles, who took advantage of the authority this myth would bless them with. It took over 300 years for that authority to bloom, with the institution of the Church sanctioned by the Roman Emperor Constantine. Any alternative interpretations of the resurrection- likely more based on reality - were flushed out of the way, including the Gnostic one, which saw the resurrection as a personal revelation, endowed with inner power, not external. It also provided an Eastern interpretation of the Jesus myth, probably resulting from Thomas's journey to India. This was also deemed heresy by Orthodox literalists like Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons and influential writer. Holistic gospels that challenged the Orthodox ones were kept hidden for centuries because they risked being confiscated by the Church. These gospels include those of Thomas, Philip, Mary, the Gospel of Truth, the Gospel of the Egyptians, the secret book of James, The Apocalypse of Paul, the letter of Peter to Philip, and The Apocalypse of Peter (Pagels, xvi). 
    I am looking forward to reading more about the secrets of Christ, and why the Church found it advantageous to keep them hidden. My hypothesis is that they were a threat to the Church and its Authority because they were based on a Jesus that did not strike fear, awe, and wonder to its readers. I've read the New Testament and that was my initial reaction to the words of Jesus that were selected for instruction.

Bagels, Elaine. 1979. The Gnostic Gospels. Random House Inc: New York