The World of 1987

Tonight I Learned Walt Disney's original Tomorrowland was promoted as "The World of 1987." Love it. Pulled it outta this ASTOUNDINGLY GORGEOUS BOOK >>> Charles Phoenix ~ Southern Californialand: Mid-Century Culture in Kodachrome : "In 1969, when I was six, I watched man's first steps on the moon live on a big-screen monitor in Tomorrowland. Then I rode the Flight to the Moon afterwards. That made a big impression on me." Right on, Charles Phoenix.

Jefferson's Slavery Paragraph

Can't say he didn't try!

He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobium of INFIDEL Powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the LIBERTIES of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the LIVES of another.

Ka-POW!

Callin' out the British monarchical system as inherently hurtful and morally corrupt, he naturally thought to establish the true across-the-board declaration of personal independence. It wasn't to be ~ axed by Them Guys -- or we ain't gon' bee gettin' that nation we ended up gettin. Our almost-ideal is built on faultlines of ugly compromise, and a worse-off negative virus. I just didn't know TJ was on the full delivery at this point. He seemed to have been following the reasonable course of thought as passed to him through Natural Philosophy. To include ALL men. The Rights of Man! Les Droits Des l'Homme! Thomas Paine! Voltaire! David Hume! El Shaddai! Francis Bacon! Knowledge is Power!

Here's some o'that LC Flavor, including some sweet close-up parchment shots. PBS Africans in America good stuff here right on. Even General Powell brings a little somethin' round. And a quick rundown of DEISM to round out the TJ stroll.

Socrates the Secular Martyr

"The unexamined life is not worth living. Doing what is right is the only path to goodness, and introspection and self-awareness are the ways to learn what is right." Socrates drank Hemlock and died in 399 BC. He died a hero's death because we can see how his government sentenced him to die for refusing to acknowledge their gods. He was enormously popular with the Athens people, but ruffled feathers up top with his strolling about town, willing to converse with anyone on any matters. He often made self-proclaimed smart guys look and feel stupid, just by peppering them with ordered, reasoned questions, getting them to show their errors in laying weak premises. He claimed to do this as a means of revealing Truth. He never accepted money (like the Sophists) and maintained his right to speak for the Self, even when directly threatened by heads of state (the temporary rulers, Thirty Tyrants). His Apology (as preserved by follower Plato) was not what his accusers had in mind. In Ancient Greek the word "apology" was more accurately defined as "defense" and this is indeed what he delivered. There was a trial and Socrates called it a success because he was convinced that he was a virtuous man, so nothing his enemies did to him could truly harm him, as long as he stuck to his moral guns. Socrates also expressed no fear of death. Why fear an eternity in Paradise, and why fear nothingness? He chose suicide amongst friends over execution.
Famous last words?
"Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?"

Madison & Liberty

Today I was learnding about Herr Madison and his dedication to building and preserving a rational structure of liberty, anchored by a true freedom of religion -- taking it one step further than John Locke's toleration of religious choice. Thomas Paine wrote, "Toleration is not the opposite of intolerance, but it is the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms. The one assumes to itself the right of withholding Liberty of Conscience, and the other of granting it." Madison was a member of this critical club. He was guided in his studies @ The College of New Jersey (Princeton) by Dr. John Witherspoon, who earlier in his life studied with Adam Smith, Thomas Reid, and the great David Hume, so you know he was down for some serious talk on Reason >> "Common Sense Realism" they called it. That's some hardcore Scottish Enlightenment action right there! Anyway, all through his coming up young in Virginia government, Madison worked on protections of religious freedom. Then, as the stage moved to the new national level, he remained firm in keeping others like Patrick Henry at bay, while championing the concept of vigorous separation of church and state at every level of government. Jefferson arrived at similar understandings, although through an independently different path, and this was partially why they became fast friends. These guys consciously -- rigorously -- built our government with this distinction of separation in mind.

Them Business Guys

There's this stuff goin' on about the recent gargantuan Oil Profits co-newsing it with the price spikes, and defending them business guys with Supply & Demand. Talkin'bout "If executives of ExxonMobil had anything to do with these circumstances, they are the most powerful people on Earth, and perhaps Congress really should try to prevail on them to create harmony in the Middle East and less cyclonic activity in the Atlantic Ocean." Smartass. As it happens though, I've just been reading about Teddy Roosevelt comin' in as prez when Big Bill went down and TR taking stock of his situation with his conservative cabinet and all their ties to the --- no, not big --- HUGE money corporate folks. This from Edmund Morris' Theodore Rex :::

"They were prepared, in return, to give trust lords such as J. P. Morgan their favorable support in disputes between capital and labor, or local and interstate commerce. They tacitly acknowledged that Wall Street, rather than the White House, had executive control of the economy, with the legislative cooperation of Congress and the judicial backing of the Supreme Court. This conservative alliance, forged after the Civil War, was intended to last well into the new century, if not forever."

Yeah, forever. Also, the same Edmund Morris just wrote a book on Beethoven, and spoke @ The Library of Congress last week. He talked about the beginning of the 9th and how it was like straining to hear -- the willing of sounds into a Cohesion of Sound. The rolling background of the deaf has a tone, and this static ^^ this ... white noise ^^ is conjured at the symphony's introduction.

Big Bam Böhm

Today I learned about the conductor Karl Böhm and all his badassness. First of all, the Strauss in Kubrick's 2001 was conducted by Böhm. Stanley loved his versions and used to play them in those sections while waiting for Alex North to finish the soundtrack. Of course, they ended up using all the old originals, and scrapped the North score -- although I hear it ended up being pretty damn amazing itself. Böhm is a Mozartian's favorite. They love him doing pretty Mozart things, and even Wagnerians bow down to his versions of Die Zauberflöte and Così Fan Tutte. The Mozartians love Böhm so much, they adore his versions of stuff by the dudes they usually loathe: Bruckner, Wagner, Mahler ... He's often known as Mr. Mozart, but he's equally known as Mr. Strauss cuz he did loads with Richard. They were, in fact, pals. Strauss respected Böhm so much he wrote an opera FOR him! Yep. Daphne! Anytime Karl Böhm is conducting the Vienna Symphony it's forever. He ROCKED the Brahms cycle and BOOMED out Lil Bruckner (4 ft. 10!) Also I'd like to mention I just learned Igor Stravinsky's favorite piece of music was Beethoven's Grosse Fuge. He even preferred it to all of his own! My favorite Grosse Fuge: 1960 @ The Library of Congress: yowzer. Straight-up essential set right there.

Anticonstruction & the 90-yr-old Man

Today I learned there was no "Reconstruction" ... there was deliberate, systematic anti-construction, and the Reconstruction Era is a lie. Sure, like most history is filtered and we're only piecing scraps together, but this is bigger. This goes back to the founding of our basic laws: the Constizzitution. When people say something is unconstitutional, it doesn't hold logically cuz slavery is constitutional. You can't start out with an exception. Our Constitution is unconstitutional. It's states rights and power concerns all the way til it got amended and amended. It remains imperfect, yet with enough heart to keep idealism alive and legitimate. Today I also learned more about what it means to be a man. I digested yesterday's event: John Hope Franklin speaks the truth as naturally as breathing. He rocked the house last night up in the Montpelier Room on the 6th floor of the James Madison Building. Yes it was nice to see large framed paintings of Jemmy & Dolley cuz I am a dork, but it was way sweeter to hear one of the great Americans of the 20th Century speak ... and see him smile. The place was standing room only and everyone was touched. He knows the big secrets and he demands those who learn them SPEAK. He also said the reason we're sinking is cuz as a people we do not actually care about history. Give it up to the mighty Dr. John Hope Franklin.