To thine own self be true

Big Brother/Yeats’ rough beast in “The Second Coming” is entrenched for good in Washington. (He’s even threatening again to stay in the White House if he is voted out in November!)

America has completely failed and succumbed. Canada killed itself by not having anyone better than Justin. Alberta shot itself with UCP which is now preparing to dismantle education and health.

The plague is coming. The world’s ecosystem long unaddressed after Rachel Carson stopped the chemical industry briefly. Nothing significant happened after the initial ’60s-’70s legislation. (And Trump has started to undo all of it.)

When systems fail and masses of people do it to themselves via government, there’s only the long fall and another Dark Ages left to come. I have never trusted systems and The Machine. (More on this in an upcoming entry.) It is /they are not conducive to sanity, common sense, and smart moves, only corruption, abuses, mindless exploitation, manipulating individuals, and hanging on to power. Nothing else.

With the demise of America, decency, democracy, law and order, justice, and common sense, I think 1984 is fully here. There are no beacons and any of those good folks in Yeats’ poem lack all conviction. You can see this trend reflected everywhere including Brexit, elsewhere in the world, the foods we eat, ubiquitous advertising, mainstream movies, online, and the mass dumbing down.

I return, yet again, to that which I have some/most control over: my life and supporting those around me. Bunker time. Pull-up-the-drawbridge time. Head-for-cover time. Where sanity, common sense, decency, fairness, safety, and immediate control still reside. Where focus and being true to one’s own self first and foremost are the main priorities. Where madness, frenzy, and absurdity are outside the personal gates and gatekeeper.

Same old. Do something one moment and the universe sends it back to you in an uncanny “pay attention to me, to the connection” with the usual attached questions “What does this mean? What are the odds, frankly?”

On a whim yesterday, I pulled out my deceased father-in-law’s hockey game from the late 1950s most likely, and the visiting 8-year-old grandson was totally hooked, dragging me back to the basement two more times to play yet another endless game.

This morning, I missed it on the editorial page in the Journal initially, but my wife caught it and drew it to my attention and I remark, “But, of course, the universe answers back. All is known. The patterns are everywhere for the seeing. Did you catch this uncanny out-of-the-blue, not-so-arbitrary message from out of the apparent chaos and mess of the morning? Are you really awake and fully conscious? Did you twig to this morning’s test? the umpteenth one directed your way? Do you see the underlying patterns and patterning of all thing? Do you this morning’s six degrees of separation? this morning’s synchronicity you missed earlier on? Do you have your wits about you? Why has this happened just for you and your wife? Do you notice any other patterns to this coincidence and all the other ones we’ve been sending you? What do you think this one and all the others add up to and mean? Is there some great epiphany waiting for you to be made about the world or narrow sphere you live in?”

(First things first sometimes; another cold winter day several years ago for the Bird Man of Mill Woods: takin’ care of business; looking out for Nature has long been a priority even in the coldest conditions; though I am no longer able to dress like this to make my morning move for Stumpy the Reigning Squirrel and the ever-hungry birds)

Put out the garbage in time out front and fed the squirrel/birds in back. Then a quick retreat from the cold and pulled up the drawbridge. Still works.

Always been, always will be as long as it’s spelled that way.
Another sign of ignorance much like “eck-cetera”.

Whenever I hear those mispronounced words, I think “Here’s someone whose schooling and education was incomplete” and if they emphasize the mistaken pronunciation, then I think “Oh they are ignorant” or they have less credibility.

(transitory fame vs. significant family connection)

…………………………………………………………………….

cannot be trusted. Many good, fine individuals are simply not remembered, appreciated, or revered enough. Welles speaks of France’s forgetting Anatole France and Andre Malraux as well as Americans forgetting F. Scott Fitzgerald (whose books were out of print when he was still alive in his last 5 years) and William Faulkner (who was once world-famous). Long-term fame is fickle except for a relatively handful of greats.

In Canadian literature, I would predict that, after their deaths, only Atwood and Cohen will be remembered long-term (along with Alice Munro for a shorter time).

In any case, posterity per se is a limted ego thing. It is far more important to lead a good, honest life being true to oneself and family. That is much more satisfying and fulfilling in any case.

(The most dangerous unconventional individual is the fearless, self-actualized individual who is not afraid to speak out or speak his mind.)

…………………………..

…it’s fear that recurrently and often rules and buggers up our lives, attitudes, and personal choices. To wit, the GOP senators in the impeachment trial frightened to anger Trump and his predictable revengeful wrath and bullying nicknames. And so the GOP senators line up and march mindlessly in lemming-like formation off the cliff of the party’s imminent demise.

Locally here, fear motivates a principal to assume that an Asian parent returning from a trip automatically must be returning from coronavirus-stricken China. Absolutely, without question, most prejudice and discrimination is based on fear.

And I must admit, that in my long life and career that I have seen myriads of individuals, groups, and companies cower to fear and cowardice rather than doing what might have been best or better for situations and individuals. Fear: the ultimate destroyer and limiter of human potential and possibilities. As I have often remarked and written: We just do it to ourselves (and others) over and over and over and….

After 3 days, some poor missing schmoe is found dead with signs of violence in his vehicle in a busy neighborhood. Think of all the unattentive pedestrians and drivers that passed him by and were so distracted that it took 3 days to realize that someone had been killed in the midst of so many. Pretty sad comment on our city.

after the bogus, rigged impeachment ‘trial’ aided and abetted by the totally corrupt GOPs.
Yeats inspires the last word on all of this:
“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Washington to be re-elected.”

The folk songs that charted on the top 20:
(highest chart ratings, other than by the Kingston Trio)

“Greenfields”, Brothers Four, #2, May 1960
“Michael”, The Highwaymen, #1, Sept. 1961
“If I Had a Hammer, Peter, Paul and Mary, #12, Oct. 1962
“Walk Right In”, Rooftop Singers, #2, Feb. 1963
“Puff the Magic Dragon”, Peter Paul and Mary, #3, May 1963
“Blowin’ in the Wind”,Peter, Paul and Mary, #2, Aug. 1963
“If I Had a Hammer”, Trini Lopez, #3, Sept. 1963
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”, Peter, Paul and Mary, #12, Oct. 1963
“Dominique”, The Singing Nun, #1, Dec. 1963
“Don’t Let the Rain Come Down”, Serendipity Singers, #10, May 1964
“Baby the Rain Must Fall”, Glenn Yarbrough, #15, May 1965
“Mr. Tambourine Man”, The Byrds, #5, July 1965
“Like a Rolling Stone”, Bob Dylan, #2, Sept. 1965
“Eve of Destruction”, #3, Sept. 1965
“You Were on My Mind”, We Five, #4, Sept. 1965
“The Sounds of Silence”, Simon and Garfunkle, #2, Jan. 1966
“The Ballad of the Green Berets”, SSgt. Barry Sadler, #1, Mar. 1966
“Elusive Butterfly”, Bob Lind, #6, Mar. 1966
“Homeward Bound”, Simon and Garfunkle, #8, Mar. 1966
“I Am a Rock”, Simon and Garfunkle, #3, June 1966
“Guantanamera”, Sandpipers, #11, Sept. 1966
“If I Were a Carpenter”, Bobby Darin, # 9, Nov. 1966
“A Hazy Shade of Winter”, Simon and Garfunkle, #19, Dec. 1966

up to 1967

source: The All Music Book of Hit Singles

…………………..

Songs written by Dylan: 4

Songs written by Paul Simon: 4

Edm. city council is grasping at dumb-ass straws again with the proposed swimming hole at Hawrelak Park.
Another potential failure to go along with all the other harebrained schemes: gondola, funicular, expanded LRT with no rider parking, bridges that crumple, et al.