Re-Ermgence of the Lizard Brain - Donald Trump and the New Old GOP

Donald Trump is claiming to be in the 2012 Presidential Race. I don’t know what to think about that. Trish tells me he can’t be serious – that between his well-documented philandering, multiple wives, and potentially controversial financial wheeling and dealings, there is no way he would be willing to be dragged through the proverbial mud. She suspects it is all a big publicity stunt, another opportunity for the Donald to stand in front of cameras, and a boost for his popular Celebrity Apprentice series on television. She’s pretty smart, and probably right; but still, the announcement by the Donald, and some of his ensuing interviews, leave me troubled.

What bothers me more than any of Trump’s personal shenanigans is the world view that he holds. It is an old-school, reptilian mentality – eat or be eaten, kill or be killed, screw the other guy before he screws you first. He avows a philosophy of greed and materialism, and holds that his financial successes mean that he is, by extension, a successful person, a worthwhile human being, a “winner” in the game of life.

I don’t share the Donald’s shallow, harmful view of human-kind. I’m sure in his day to day life that he saunas with other reptiles and they all slither and dither and enforce one another’s vicious perception of the world around them. People are so good at seeing what they want to see, and filtering out any information that counters our established world view; or that reflects badly on our persons.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

You know if we look back on the 2008 election, we had a President, and especially a Vice-President, that synched up more closely with the beliefs Trump is espousing, and we, as a country, didn’t like the direction they took us in. We elected a man who was more willing to compromise. The right has done their damnedest to paint Obama as a radical leftist – but he isn’t. If there is a complaint to be made against Obama, it is that he capitulates too often to the demands of the right. But that’s who we wanted, and that’s who we got. Now people want to go backwards and try the path of the lizard again? No thanks.

If the Republican Party is leaning towards the lizard brain, the Democrats are in full monkey-brain mode – scattering and chattering, unable to stay on task or in focus. The positive for the Republicans is that they have a plan. This puts them ahead of the Democrats. The problem is that the Republican’s plan is a shitty one that funnels all the wealth up the corporate chain to the top reptiles.

We are entering into a crucial era wherein we need to leave behind the monkey brain, and the lizard brain, and tap into the new emerging human brain. I don’t think we can look to Washington for the human brain – the job descriptions of Federal politicians won’t allow for it to emerge. The government can’t help us on this count. We’re going to have to get there ourselves.

Madbob@madbob.com

Damn the Word - Is it Enough?

Another long week. I'm away now – out here on our small compound, a half hour north of the fertile mid-sized berg that is Chico. I'm away and out of the loop. I try and keep track of the goings on there by reading the various newspapers and tuning into assorted social media sites. I see that the Chikoko fashion collectives' springtime Bizarre Bazaar will be taking place in the near future. Those ladies are pure, positive creative energy and fun – the collective is a perfect synergy of the high-minded affectations of the fashion world combined with local charm and welcoming. The Bizarre Bazaars attract like-minded vendors hawking some of the most clever and unique wares: clothing, dolls, whimsies, art, craft, etc. etc. - that you could ever hope to see in one place.

A Hundred Years Ago

The train is going by right now – it nicks the back corner of our parcel. In fact this piece of land used to belong to the Union Pacific Railroad. They turned it over to the city of Los Molinos almost a hundred years ago. There are long, tall berms of earth running through the property. Railroad tracks used to run along those berms. Now they are grown over with grass, and valley oaks dot the land. Walking along the old railroad beds affords a view of the surrounding areas.

Rome is Burning

The politicians in D.C. are squabbling about the budget now. It is a funny system we have set up – this idea of a Republic. It is a great system in relative good times – but I have my doubts about the ability of the system to act with enough haste when times really call for action. It is a system set up and administered primarily by attorneys. Attorneys are great at impeding progress – not so when it comes to fostering change. Anyway, that's the system we have – we will live and die by that sword, I suppose.

14 Million Years Old and Counting

Myself I have been wrestling with questions of love, faith, and meaning. Born under no particular God and raised with no religion, I have come to a point where I struggle to relate meaning to events. For so long I have leaned on the art, the writing, the music – tried to persuade myself that the work was enough, that the words had meaning, and that the collective communication fostered by arts and music would generate its own sort of faith. It hasn't held up. I'm thinking about giving up and giving into the concept of meaninglessness, randomness, chaos. I may end up becoming what the theists fear the most from the atheists – the godless, immoral, lost non-soul – adrift in this spinning cosmos of ancient stardust and dark matter. Here we are, hurtling through space, spinning around some unimaginably massive, dense, sucking hole in the sky. My nose is running, moles are sprouting hairs, ticks are crawling into my increasingly hairy ears. This is life – I am another particle of matter, a piece of a greater whole, or at least a larger whole. This separation I am feeling is false – simply a manifestation of a treacherous ego.

Like I said, it's been a long week.

madbob@madbob.com

Bob Parsons, The CEO Culture, and Therapy

Bob Parsons is a Fucking Idiot

There are really no better words to describe the guy. It's the year 2011 and everyone is Tweeting or Facebooking, or what have you; and this asshole decides it would be a good idea to a. ambush and kill an elephant, and b. post the video of said elephant-slaughter as a “vacation log” on his hugely popular, domain providing website. It is almost as though Parsons actually hates his own company, and all who work for him. If the blogosphere is any indication, there is presently an exodus of website owners who are moving their domains from GoDaddy to wherever the hell else.

I've heard Parsons' explanation of the affair and there is a sort of twisted logic to it; but it is so wrong. Parsons claims he was acting at the behest of the local tribal elders, who needed to be rid of an elephant, because it was destroying the village crops. This is a very valid concern, as an elephant can destroy an entire season's worth of crops in a single go. So yes, I will grant Parsons that simple point – that, for the sake of the villagers, the elephant had to be kept away from the crops. But that is where our agreement ends. Now, of course, to a relatively austere tribe, the most feasible way to get rid of a rampaging elephant is to destroy that animal. But Bob Parsons is not a member of an austere tribe – he is one of the richest men on the face of the planet. He is capable of gathering numerous resources that could be used to, oh, I don't know, BUILD A FUCKING FENCE. Jesus. All it takes is an electrified fence and the elephant is not going to get to the crops. Heck, Parsons has enough dough he could have flown the elephant first class to the San Diego Wildlife Reserve. I don't know, but I do know that killing the elephant and bragging about it on-line was not a great way to boost business. If I were a GoDaddy employee I would be royally pissed; particularly if I worked in customer service.

It really makes me wonder about these assorted CEOs living in their ivory towers. I mean, you get your Tony Hayward crying about how he “wants his life back” in the midst of a catastrophe that has left 11 men dead and thousands out of work – the guy is still pulling down millions and yachting to boot! Do these people have anyone around them who is even remotely grounded in reality? Aw whatever, it's enough to drive you into...

Therapy

That's right, yours truly has started seeing a therapist (I can hear a collective “about time!” out there). So far I am digging it – for an hour a week this poor man is forced to listen to me talk about myself. Really though, it is good. Left to my own devices, my thought patterns can get very circular – the therapy helps me straighten some of those paths out a little bit. If you're thinking about doing it, go for it – the stigma is long gone on this one. Happy sailing!

madbob@madbob.com