Look Again

Yeah, Tell-Me-All-About-It-Department continued:

Why is a good humor truck never as punctual as a dentist?

Who never ran, never tripped;
who never swam, never sank;
who never climbed, never fell,
and thus the armchair nerds DO have the final laugh.

‘Tis noted that, “It is not good to have everything that one wants,” but this is actually only true on alternate days.  (Don’t ever forget this while you’re on a trip.)

There are lessons to be learned at the feet of so-called holy men, such as to recognize the smell of toe sweat.

Just because you never found anything there before is no reason not to look again.

A puffy looking general once remarked, “They conquer who believe they can conquer.”  And especially so, I might add, in regards to those who believe they are to BE conquered.  (And those who see the first type coming and say to themselves, “Boy, they sure look like conquerors to me.”)

J.

Unemployed Uncle

The more powerful and feared the man, the less profit there is in questioning him regarding his humility.  (Trust me on this.)

It may well be better to “bend than break,” but if you got a bad back it may be better to just avoid this whole axiomatic area.

Don’t ever excuse yourself until you see their fingers go for their nose.

The greater the sight, the smaller should be the tongue.

‘Tis said, “When knowledge arrives sorrow lingers,” but hell, so does an unemployed uncle.

The one singing so buoyantly in the street below is either bearing good news, or is drunk…(or is bearing the good news that he’s drunk).

J.

Better When New

An upright, two legged philosopher once said, “The love of wisdom comes to no one by chance,” and how about that, he was two words…okay, two words off.

The Real Revolutionist should remind the recruits to never accept anything from anyone you don’t like.  It sounds simple enough if you don’t start analyzing words such as “accept,” “anything” and “don’t like.”

Yesterday I read in one of your little human books the following statement:

“The greatest obstacle to progress is prejudice.” 

But to that I think I’ll add, “epigram makers” and “axiom mongers.”

Prevention may be “cheaper than a cure,” but only so long as latex costs less than mold. 

(Think about it.)

Everything seems better when new, but people.

J.

A Car with No Squeaks

Big nose, little respect: 
Big mouth, big troubles. 
Big “I’s,” little “you’s”. 
(Yes, there is one more verse, and No, this is not a sing along.)

It could be, as some have mused, that “One’s natural manner is one’s best suit,” except that most people spend their lives in apparent search for just their wardrobe closet.  (Why I’ve seen many a full life quest just for one’s proper shirt size.)

You sure ain’t gonna accomplish much by prefacing the unveiling of your art by assuring the crowd that they’re not going to understand it.

He who seeks a car with no squeaks is forever doomed to ride the bus.

And lo, it was said, “Tis a good man who never stumble,” and I might add, one with cast iron ankles.

J.

A Palace or The Bushes

Would he be worthy of the name “Revolutionist” who would act, or think differently, in a palace rather than the bushes?

An ole sorehead writer once writ that, “Eight percent of mankind is just stuff to fill graves with.”  I wonder where he thinks the other twenty percent are going later.

And one Revolutionist looked intently into the Bushes at his own wayward recruits and exclaimed, “You bastards, would you live forever?”

Only the People, and I do mean the COMMON People, believe in the “inanimate.”

Only the People believe in the inanimate, AND its power-and-impotence.

J.

If Mozart Were Alive

The People’s philosophers have forever debated, “Does Man’s destiny lie in his past, or in his future?”  And only the Revolutionist knows the correct answer to lie at right angles to even the place from whence such questions are asked.

(If Mozart were alive today I’m sure HE would agree.)

The People have been called many un-fine things: Rude, crude, lame and barbaric, which may all be so, but you should remember, my friend, you too are a People.

Regarding again, that ever-popular subject:

Can you conceive of reaching a position in relationship to death that is not a matter of you dreading to leave Life, but of Life dreading for you to leave it.

The Church had an opportunity to newly describe god three hundred years ago, but missed it.  They could have simply used the General Laws of Motion.

J.

Preggers

Hats-off to the past; coats-off to the future, and pants-off to the erotic present tense.

Second verse:  Roll out your respect for the past; roll up your sleeves for the future, and roll up your trousers for the rising tide of epigrammatic slush and shit.

At one time I thought some religiously inclined men were going to get close to something when they speculated on a kind of “transcendental knowledge arising from the deep-silence-of-god,” but then as usual, they soon talked it into oblivion.

The People have for consolation the remembrance of the “Two Passing Graces,” what might-have-been and what might-have-been.

After too long in the Bushes, the Real Revolutionist can taste the terror of the tepid.

When you get right down to it, the only real difference between the Many and the Few is that the Many don’t realize it.

The Real Revolutionist STAYS pregnant.

J.

Nothing Left to Lose

One day a mean-I asked a loose-I, “If you were without any guilt, what form of fear could you then experience?”

A well respected mortal pundit once writ, “He who never thinks can never be wise.”  Now it’s just that kinda insight gives me continued hope for Man’s future.

The People have this saying that, “It takes two to start an argument,” but the Revolutionist knows that such an arrangement is merely a beginner’s kit when it comes to real hostilities.

Only the King is always right, (and he’s not, really).

It is cautioned that, “He who has lost his freedom has nothing more to lose,” and this sounds weighty indeed until you realize that he who has lost his mind doesn’t even have the initial warning to lose.

J.

A Secret Word

The recruits must quickly learn that the Ruling Powers treat polite requests as a short-lived virus that will soon be gone and forgotten.  A real tyrant accepts a shouted demand as a minimal, civilized request.  If you’re gonna hand around power, you gotta learn to speak the language.

Can there be “words without thoughts” – “acts without awareness” – “consciousness without will”?  Can words “be” before the apparent, appropriate coordinating thought? 

(Hint Number 19:  Only routine mental operations find this question outré.)

Just so that you can hear it here first, remember: Neither the man in the gutter, nor in the grave, has much to fear from a recession.

There is a certain secret word which I do not yet feel free to tell you, but I believe it safe to give you its definition.  The word means,
“Ridiculous, even if true;
while may be valid, is still silly.”

Tis’ said, “The greatest remedy for anger is delay.”  (And I might add, unless you’re the delivery boy to an impatient High Grand Executioner.)

J.

Compliments

Remember, it was the Ruling Powers who gave people the proverb, “If God be for you, who can be against you”…who indeed.

Everyone should always be complimented (just in case you’ve mistaken your betters for your inferiors AGAIN).

Real anger is either temporary lunacy, or brief lucidity; it’s all a matter of the difference between the fat-happy-many, and the lean-mean-few who don’t give a damn for truth, the state, or propriety.

Just remember:  You’re never too old to be taken alive.

One human writer noted that, “Every man is a son of his own handiwork.”  Which may, or may not, be very significant, but at least it’s better than what my second cousin used to say, that “Every man is a son-of-a-bitch.”

Eventually, eventually, I said, time teaches EVERYBODY a lesson.

J.

Big Sentences

Once heard a famous inventor say that “Religion is bunk.”  Also heard a priest on the beach say that he felt the same about all those “Edison’s, Ford’s and Westinghouse’s.”  So, it just goes to show you, again.

Ordinary desires for self-improvement can be described as a man serenading his genes with that old tune, “Why do you do me like you do, do, do?”

The Real Revolutionist knows that the passions of the People have no lasting loyalty.

Big sentences
require Big periods.

There are those speeches and utterances of Man that strike wonder and joy in the hearts of the hearers.  But if talk in general were of any particular merit, let’s face it, even your brother-in-law would be revered and famous.

If it is, as I have heard, that, “A good example is a living picture of a good sermon,” then a hand grenade would be a fucking masterpiece.

J.

Collusion

The dress required for life-among-the-greedy makes a mere hair shirt look like a silk lounger.

I once met a human who was so attentive to, and appreciative of, himself, that he confided, “I’m like the father I never had.”

With whom might the Real Revolutionist be in collusion?

I once heard a Prime Minister proclaim, “Public opinion wins wars,” and a General muttered, “And bullets help a lot.”

Only the “People,” I mean the real bourgeoisie, we’re talking “common man” here, can forever be controlled by ordinary fear of punishment and routine hope of reward.  (If you ever have times when you wonder if you really are “all that common,” just remember this.)

J.

Blenders into Bazookas

And lo, behold the very first appearance of a truly ingenuous political creature; He cried out to the People, “Elect me, and I will steal all I can, betray every trust, misuse every power, abuse every foe, and stay always just out of your reach–smiling.”  He might also be the one to bring out the power of the bullet-over-the ballot, and point out the supremacy of “I-and-Me” over neurological democracies.  (What else is a Ruling Official-I good for except to show the folly of trusting anyone?)

From a certain bourgeois view, the People could conclude that Real Revolutionists are the natural adversaries of the gods, (but note here the possibility of a most peculiar collusion wherein one party is not even fully informed of the situation).

And the day came that a certain would-be revolutionist decided that his knowledge was such that not only was he beyond the hold of criticism, but that he should cease even thinking about such things.  Being pleased with this decision, later that day he added "gods and religions" to his list of “things not to think about.”  Then, as evening approached, he tacked on “politics and business,” and even later that night he added “sex and literature," and the next morning he...

As one rather “plump” monarch explained, “Look at it this way:  For every gun and bomb we produce, it's one less pound of butter that will be available.”  Hammering blenders into  bazookas, hot-plates into hand grenades.  (And the regal tailor gingerly cried out, “Better dead than dumpy.”)

J.

Tactics

The Real Revolutionist knows that the only permanent ally is his own Aim.

From one ordinary view, the Real Revolutionist can appear single-minded and inflexible, but from another level, his power and aptitude for compromise would seem infinite.

I once heard a mortal philosopher referred to as, “He who sometimes skates dangerously close to the edge of significance.”

The Real Revolutionist does not see human conflicts as being between good-and-evil, but between interests, and his aim is no longer to somehow show-the-truth to others, but is to implement the correct in himself.

The Ruling Power’s generals all believe that the manner and execution of battles are irrelevant, and that only the outcome is meaningful.  The Real Revolutionist is not so sure.

J.

I AM the Picture

One day the People found a broadside posted near the boundary-signs which they immediately assumed was from a Revolutionist.  It said:  “I do not seek victory over evil, or triumph over ignorance, only the conquest of my own ignorance.  I do not seek the destruction of your existing structures, just mine, so STAND BACK!”

While a member of the Military Establishment was crying out for ever greater armament expenditures, a Social Critic countered by declaring, “For every missile produced, and for every bomb constructed, a hungry one goes unfed and a homeless one unsheltered.”  The surprised General pondered this interruption for a moment, then said, “Ah, but this will all work out:  we can all be seen to.  We'll simply turn some of the new weapons on the hungry and homeless.”  (And some still wonder where our new Red Circuit philosophers will come from.)

I once finally agreed to furnish a certain person with a three-dimensional photograph of myself, but when they saw it they said, “It looks like an aerial view of a mob scene, or two armies  clashing.”  Then, pointing intently at the photo, they demanded, “Which one is you?” “No, no,” replied I, “I'm not IN the picture, I AM the picture.” 

Amongst the legion of horrors in wartime, there is, perhaps, no scene more frightening, more detestable, than that of enemy frogmen in our harbor; some with land mines, others with clarinets.

J.

Rule or Ruin

Knowledge may come and go, but ignorance is forever.

The Real Revolutionist would be he who might shout, “Okay, reality, do your worst!”

It is the duty of all right-thinking men and women to apply themselves to serious physical disciplines and diets, and to take whatever strenuous measures may be necessary to see that health-wise, they bring themselves up to that grand level of feeling “Okay” and “Pretty good.”

The Real Revolutionist's attitude could be summed up as being: 

Rule or ruin;
Correct or corrupt;
Deploy or destroy.

To the Real Revolutionist, the infinite health of the bourgeoisie is a breathing example of the term, “The Calm before the Calm”...(the quiet just before the stupor.)

J.

Phone Home (Not)

Limited or controlled reaction to criticism could be seen as one measure of a recruit's potential value to the cause, but the Revolutionist himself must be far beyond its very call.  When it comes down to such matters, the Real Revolutionist does not simply have an unlisted number, he has no phone.

The Ruling Powers love to proclaim that, “The very idea of freedom is the living strength of our People and their Government,” which is always a Top-40-Hit with tyrants and submission-loving listeners.

If it's mere decency you want then, by god, it is decency you shall have! 

(But don't ever speak to me again about getting out of the charity ward.)

Once you realize that something is correct, it is no longer of any consequence whether it's true, or not.  The very idea of “truth” is but a three-dimensional, disposable yellow-diaper, and a verbal concept the Real Revolutionist should simply abandon to the wind.

It is not simply that the Real Revolutionist is “immoral,” rather it is that he has no time for mere “mortal sins.”

J.

Train Tracks

The Real Revolutionist should assure the People that what is ultimately necessary and correct will also prove to be safe and convenient.

I once heard a man mumble something to the effect that “Disingenuous historians wrong the dead.”  Which sounds like a pretty shoddy affair until you ask yourself, “Well, how have the 

dead treated me?”  There.

In a certain, peculiar lateral-sense, the Real Revolutionist doesn't particularly “like, or dislike” anyone, but is rather clinical, and impersonal...not unlike Life's own stance toward Man.

I sure hate to anytime, much less, too “oft-times” sound discouraging in my notations regarding mortal affairs, but I must mention to you this...for your own good:  You can't tell which way the train went by studying the tracks, and you can't tell the final score by looking at the ticket stubs.  (Now that wasn't so hard, was it...)

Can there really be “reasonable” new information—revolutionary rhetoric—radical enough to immediately attract, yet still sounding sufficiently routine as to not seriously frighten the children and bankers?

J.

Eight Hour Shift

Out in the populace, anyone who sincerely says, “Now I'm beginning to catch on!” ain’t.

Perhaps not the world's most pressing question, but still a question is:  Who is entitled to the security deposit when you leave your old chemical neighborhood?

And-Yet-Another-Example-Of-3-D-Progress, (or something): 

A palace guard announced that he “neither saw, nor experienced anything” during his previous night's eight hour shift, but that he was able to accomplish the same this evening in only five hours.

After two years of heated discussions and far-reaching proposals, and after eighteen months of intense investigation by three “blue ribbon committees,” The State's Intellectuals have firmly announced the specific and official location of dirt.

If special perception was the spice of human consciousness, just think what bland dishes most brains would be.

In a certain small town, the local sage (or at least the closest the poor folks could afford), believed himself to be grossly unappreciated, and swore he would leave them forever if they did not collect for him a thousand dollars within the week.  After seven days had passed, he solemnly repeated his demand to the mayor who said, “We've only been able to get a dollar forty-nine.”  And the sage said, “Close enough.”

The one thing an ordinary person cannot do is apparently tell what they truly seem to be inside.  (And of course, an extraordinary person never tries.)

J.

Nothing in Particular

Rather than too hastily condemning everything in one category, such as booze, perhaps different kinds of alcohol DO exist, producing varying forms of behavior.  For instance:  Why do you only see beer bottles by the side of the road, never empty magnums of champagne?

There was once a respected King who continually did the unexpected, and never even offered any explanations after-the-fact.  A neighboring Prince thought he could surely learn something of value if he could ascertain the King's inner thoughts and motivations.  So he sought out the monarch's most trusted Prime Minister, but when queried he replied, “HAH, he NEVER tells me anything,” and all of the other little inner ministers said, “Same here, us either.”

While everyone else remains engaged in a staged, mock battle, only the Real Revolutionist takes the struggle seriously, and thus treats it as nothing-in-particular.

I once happened to hear a well-reputed mortal philosopher state that Man could “reason his way to peaceful existence inasmuch as aggression is, in the first place, an invention of the human mind.”  I would not like to be locked-up in his head over the weekend.  A further example of how distorted things can become in Man's 3-D-reflective-world.  Here you have one who appears to be the paradigm of civility, but also one in whom the lower, baser forces have apparently escaped and now exert some control over higher circuitry.  Would be frightening indeed, if it were correct…

Truism Update Number Seventeen:
 

Those who do not clean the past are doomed to re-paint it. 
Those who do not un-hem the past are doomed to re-weave it. 
Those who do not un-chart the past are doomed to re-sail it. 

And finally:  Those who do not, are doomed.

J.