A Cognitive Insult

 The depth of execration directed towards elected politicians in our time is explicable by the fact that they are the visible embodiment of the viability of a cognitive model that threatens the credibility of the model of the other side. In that sense, their continued existence is an insult, even traumatic, to the other side’s cognitive model and psychology. The two models are mutually exclusive.

Exhibition After Browning's 'My Last Duchess'

 

The Exhibition

After Browning’s ‘My Last Duchess’

I fashioned this exhibit from a black

I found in York. He’d guessed he was held back

by light-skinned guys, resentful of his skill.

He showed my indignation – how it will

burst forth, to best advantage, for a cause.

The female piece beside it drew applause

for such unselfish dedication to

a sex that isn’t mine, revealed how true

my understanding of predicaments

like theirs, the championing and keen defence

of rights too long denied. A cripple served

me best as centrepiece. It was observed

how delicate my sensitivity  -

indeed, some branded it my ‘love’  - can be.

Regrettable all that – you know he died?  -

but the response I made’s my perfect pride.

Let’s pass beyond the Palestinian suite

to where an inspiration had me treat

the homosexual crew  - a chive crostini?  -

the subjects purged from Navy posts so meanly

provided my sad theme. My future plans? -

the gender freaks excite me and the bans

they’ve placed on their shenanigans – a vein

that’s ripe for exploitation. I remain

alert to all the goldmines and rely  

on those especially that might supply

injustices that I can care about.

When is your tribute programme coming out?

Voyelles - Arthur Rimbaud

 Vowels

A Black, E White, I Red, U Green, O Blue - Vowel Sounds,

Some day I shall disclose your secret parturitions:

A - bodice bristled black by shimmering flies’ ignitions 

Around the noisesome evil; fizzing Legion drowned 

In shadows; E - bleached tents and ashen steam’s emissions,

White kings and shivered lilies, ice-fields ironbound;

 I - Tyrian blood like spat contumely that redounds

 From gorgeous, mocking lips with wine-infused contritions;

U -  rehearsing seas’ veridian shudders, clear, divine.

The peace in greensward specked with livestock; peace in lines

Alchemic training draws on brows that books made wise; 

O - highest Clarion thronged with alien stridencies,

 A silence crossed by [Thrones and Principalities]

- O that Òmega, amethyst ray of [His] Eyes!

Voyelles 

A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu: voyelles, 
Je dirai quelque jour vos naissances latentes: 

A, noir corset velu des mouches éclatantes 
Qui bombinent autour des puanteurs cruelles, 

Golfes d'ombre; E, candeurs des vapeurs et des tentes, 
Lances des glaciers fiers, rois blancs, frissons d'ombelles; 
I, pourpres, sang craché, rire des lèvres belles 
Dans la colère ou les ivresses pénitentes; 

U, cycles, vibrements divins des mers virides, 
Paix des pâtis semés d'animaux, paix des rides 
Que l'alchimie imprime aux grands fronts studieux; 

O, suprême Clairon plein des strideurs étranges, 
Silences traversés des [Mondes et des Anges]: 
—O l'Oméga, rayon violet de [Ses] Yeux!

D’après Apollinaire

Papa François Premier, crucifixe métallurgique, 

Marteau scintillant des conservateurs partout et du caramel au beurre 

Qui se recroqueville devant votre fléau!

Némésis expert des voitures électriques

Qui croisent les grandes places accablées de la capitale.

Gravez vos antiphones d’intelligence artificielle

Sur les entablatures des temples à la modernité,

Seuls réfuges de la Croyance.

The Biggest Big Pharma Conspiracy?

It is notable in the West that a great deal of money is spent on expensive medical and pharmaceutical treatment right up to the end of life, often when it is strictly pointless. Relatives will expect, demand this or even litigate if it is refused. As a result the legal world may be set up as if the dying have a *right* to more and more useless treatment. The medical world will speak as if there is always another fix and health obsessives will behave as if more and more fitness can stave off mortality interminably. Doctors will sign off the drugs for fear of litigation and, of course, Big Pharma will be delighted to go along with us as the money this generates is precisely what its business machine is geared up for. Even in cases of pain (the opioids scandal) and depression (the over-prescription of SSSIs) we *demand* technological ‘solutions’ to ‘problems’ just as we demand consumer solutions to the biggest problem of all - mortality.

But, in all of this, is it a comforting question of perp and victim where we have the high moral ground of victim or are we, rather, talking about a collusion or a conspiracy in wilfully blinking at a mortality we no longer know how to deal with however much it costs us. And won’t all the Pharma execs and their families be blinking just the same and taking the pointless drugs when their turn comes so that they are conspirators on both sides of the fence, also lacking the ability to cope with the ‘problems’? Is this phenomenon entirely driven by the rapacious venality of demons or is that just a simplification that makes the complicated moral ground here easier to navigate?

Deconstructing a Road Sign

For the first 50 years of my life no-one thought of closing off the seafront road in storms. It was just your lookout if you were foolish enough to drive along it in those rare moments when pebbles were actually being hurled off the beach by a wild sea. The sign below shows a degree of masquerading behind a busybody concern for our welfare in the name of which all sorts of things are justified. What is more likely to be truly behind the masquerade is the Council’s fear of litigation in the event of someone’s Hyundai being dented by a stone. What is even more interesting is the elision this causes between the legal mind and the technocratic mind that likes to give the illusion of the ability to control nature and reality down to the level of a knowing and solicitous Laplace’s Demon. Law can have this new status In a technocracy so that it becomes the written expression of an anally controlling, illiberal mind. It becomes the over-mastering fabric of that mind in which we are all enclosed. This has happened almost by accident because the logic behind it is hard to challenge. It should be challenged though…..

A Definition of Wokeism

 Wokeism is a hunger for power based on perceived moral authority. That authority hinges on embracing the perverse idea that the good things that nature, history and culture produce are actually evil. It’s a form of absurd top-trumping of normal perceptions in the name of ‘humility.’ Uriah Heep comes to mind.  The Pharisees too in their power being based on a perceived moral superiority.