Another quote to meditate on from The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. For some reason the last part of this sentence keeps echoing in my mind, that part of the definition of a sovereign state is that the state has sole proprietorship of legitimate violence within its boundaries. It is something I knew before, but I had never articulated in quite that manner.
“…is confident that an objective statistical analysis, shorn of sentiment, will show us to be living in an age of unprecedented peace and security. And this, he suggests, is the logical outcome of living in sovereign states, each with a monopoly over the legitimate use of violence within its borders…“
Well…not an earwig, but definitely a mental perseveration.
Luisito Comunica is a Mexican YouTuber who is SUPER popular in in Latin America with almost 40,000,000 followers. He travels around the world making YouTube videos of the various countries he visits. Occasionally you will also see his girlfriend (may be ex now) in the videos. She is a very hot Venezuelan model. Talk about a couple of opposites. Go figure!
I watch his videos to have another channel of Spanish input into my old brain, plus he is VERY entertaining. Most of the time his videos are on the lighter side or pointing out cultural oddities. Occasionally he gets serious as he has done in this video.
In early 2017, Qatar’s total population was 2.6 million, with 313,000 of them Qatari citizens. Basically you have millions of imported workers supporting the Qatari few. I wonder what Mohamed would think about that situation in light of the squalid living conditions?
Since his audience is Latin America, English subtitles are not available, but I think a few minutes watching this video and you will get the idea… even if you do not understand him.
This is his third video in Qatar. The first two were of the side of Qatar the powers to be there would like you to see. I sincerely hope that he has left Qatar before posting this one.
I am still in the process of listening to the audio book of The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. This book is a reexamination of the current narrative of how our civilization, culture, social institutions, etc evolved in the light of new evidence and new interpretations. I came across another passage that really spoke to me.
“Those who aspired to a role on the council of Tlaxcala, far from being expected to demonstrate personal charisma or the ability to outdo rivals, did so in a spirit of self-deprecation – even shame. They were required to subordinate themselves to the people of the city. To ensure that this subordination was no mere show, each was subject to trials, starting with mandatory exposure to public abuse, regarded as the proper reward of ambition, and then – with one’s ego in tatters – a long period of seclusion, in which the aspiring politician suffered ordeals of fasting, sleep deprivation, bloodletting and a strict regime of moral instruction. The initiation ended with a ‘coming out’ of the newly constituted public servant, amid feasting and celebration. Clearly, taking up office in this indigenous democracy required personality traits very different to those we take for granted in modern electoral politics.”
I only infrequently post “memes”, but I really like this one! I don’t quite understand why THE MEDIA spends so much time on the utterances of billionaires such of Elon Musk. They generally do not add anything positive to our political or economic discussions. So many of them seem to think they are geniuses in all areas since they managed to make a boat load of money…one way or the other.
One of the issues I have as a “writer”… well a blogger is that occasionally I have the urge to write a posting that may offend or hurt another person. Most of the time I let the urge pass as my reasons for blogging do not include embarrassing or hurting folks around me. I am smart enough, after two marriages, to ask for a blessing from Señora on posts that involve her. The Wee Dog can just suck it up. Besides, it is rumored that she cannot read anyway, but I am not sure I believe it.
I could not resist the urge this time to share this anecdote as it brings home an important point in the current cultural wars that are dividing my beloved country.
“William Meaney, the CEO of Iron Mountain (a data storage and management company with a current market capitalization of $12 billion) told Wall Street analysts in late September, high levels of inflation helped the company increase its margins — and that for that reason he had long been “doing my inflation dance praying for inflation.” A few years before, Meaney explained “I pray for inflation every day I come to work because … our top line is really driven by inflation. … Every point of inflation expands our margins.”
While the rest of us stand in the supermarket aisle gasping for breath at the price of food… among other places and other things.
Books can talk to you in different ways at different stages of your life. This is especially true of great books, such as George Orwell’s 1984 which I have read at least 3 times. I recently watched a Wondrium class George Orwell: A Sage for All Seasonsthat was utterly fascinating. I would wholeheartedly recommend this class to anyone with an interest in literature or history. Watching the class inspired me to reread both Animal Farm and 1984.
The Guardian in 2007 proclaimed 1984 ‘is definitive book of the 20th century’. The Atlantic in 2019 declared that “No novel of the past century has had more influence than George Orwell’s 1984.” In my world view Orwell’s book would be required reading for all high school students, and most certainly for college students.
I generally agree with Bill Maher, but I find him so self-righteous that at times I find him hard to take.
I find myself between a rock and hard place shopping these days for all things except groceries. In full disclosure (smiley face) Señora takes care of that. I really do not like buying from Amazon because 1) I find Jeff Bezos obnoxious beyond words 2) I do not see Amazon’s business model good for anyone except Jeff Bezos and maybe Amazon shareholders 3) they like many of these big tech companies went over to the dark side long ago.
Where is Luke Skywalker when you need him?
Yet I keep buying from Amazon. When I try to buy locally I generally cannot find what I want. I say locally, most the stores anymore are really part of huge corporations. And these huge corporations continue to eat into many businesses that have traditionally been local mom and pop operations. Have you tried to find an independent barber shop lately?
So then I try to buy online, but not from Amazon. But somehow Amazon always beats everyone else to death price wise. I thought I found a good source for used books that was not Amazon, Abebooks. Guess what. Amazon owns them.
Where is Teddy Roosevelt when you need him?
If you are sensitive to “colorful” language… you might want to avoid Mr. Maher and this video.
After Bezos rode into space on Blue Origin’s maiden voyage, he famously said this in a news conference.
“I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all this.”
To me ears that was one rankest statements of hubris I have ever heard, given Amazon’s reputation for overworking and underpaying employees, given how their business model has changed the American landscape – and not for the better.
One more video of a song we heard performed at the Woodyfest in Okemah, OK. Grant Peeples was a last minute replacement for an act that became sick. His claim to fame is that he opened for Dan Berns one time at a famous venue in Atlanta, GA. The singer-songwriter career path is a strange and frequently a not-for-profit journey. But there does seem to be a lot of these troubadours out there, struggle though it may be.
