Alpha Males and Political Trials (and Tribulations)
Dear Subscriber,
I know what an “Alpha Male” looks like. God knows, it’s rammed into your consciousness every day in this economy.
But what does a “Zeta Male” look like? I think I’m getting close. And, if I don’t shape up, I’ll be judged as inferior. Although, when I look at the politicians who sell “strength and power,” they don’t impress me too much. They always seem to need an “equalizer,” like a gun, or some other weapon, to make them even more protective of what they really care about: material possessions and a family that reflects them and their ideals.
And they then like to stay in their little cliques and tribes because they can reinforce their common biases and judgement of others. And I’m not talking about teenagers. I’m talking about alleged “grownups.”
When I was in early sobriety, Stuart Smalley used to kind of piss me off. As if Saturday Night Live and Al Franken were disdaining a clean and sober lifestyle by having a character who had all the addictions put together.
Then, after over five years sober (I now have 38), I realized the truth behind this caricature. Addictive behaviors are politically motivated, in many cases, as the entire Capitalistic framework is based on feeding addicts, of one sort or another, so when that addiction is broken you can finally begin to work on yourself, as Stuart does, and still be ignored, as politicians feed off addictive folks to create more divisiveness and haters, which distracts from what they’re really doing behind the scenes.
And we all know about Clinton’s addiction.
The seven last sayings of Jesus on the Cross:
Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Woman, behold, thy son! Behold, thy mother!
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
I thirst.
It is finished.
Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
Whoever witnessed this and took down his words, certainly didn’t want the guy to go out quietly.
Please note #7 and the mention of “spirit.” In those folks who believe in such stuff, such as yours truly, spirit is quite different than the “soul.” The spirit is the unexplainable, to this day, life force that makes us thinking human beings, or “consciousness.” The soul, on the other hand, is the unexplainable and eternal reality that remains forever, anchoring sentient beings on one planet or other Maya.
As one of my fave old time gurus used to say, “There is no objective anger or fear. You are anger and fear. Be conscious of what you are.”
He was one of those “serious as fuck” guys with a “kick your ass, if you’re not paying attention” looks. Not one of the blissful, preaching voices that was full of catchy philosophical bullshit.
Nope. J. Krishnamurti was like the Marine Corps drill sergeant teaching you how to survive under fire, man!
God? Here’s what he said about the “big guy,” or what Hindus might call Brahman: “God is not a thing of the mind, it does not come through self-projection, it comes only when there is virtue, which is freedom.”
His final words before he died? Ha, ha. Typical J.K.: “I have wasted my life. People were listening to me as if I am an entertainment.”
I need a new body! Give us what we want!
Finally, as if you weren’t bored enough on a Sunday, Here’s the latest on AI and, specifically, ChatGPT, about which I’m writing a textbook for users, ChatGPT Unmasked!
As we used to say back in the 1980s at Caltech, “garbage in, garbage out.“
What I found interesting in this Washington Post article were the database sources they used concerning “religions.” Almost no mention of any of the Buddhist, Hindu, or other Eastern religions, and not much Jewish or Islamic either. I’m not saying that you can’t “scrape” interesting content from mainly Christian websites, but I now know why no so-called “literary” website likes my stories that deal with Vedanta and Buddhist perspectives on the totality of life and the Cosmos.
Despite the billions of websites out there, each one, if you analyze it carefully, will have a bias of some kind. Why? Because website content is written by humans, who are, by nature, self-centered, opinionated, and judgemental. Computers only mirror that subjectivity, so I don’t really blame them.
The danger, however, as any prescient thinker can see, is that a computer often mixes different content and processes it, confusing the humans who read it. This happens because computers will always and eternally be processors of information and not creators of it based on subjectivity, which is what we create constantly: subjective words that are supposed to be reflective of “reality,” but can never actually begin to describe the authentic and miraculous terror and bliss that it contains eternally.
Thanks, and keep reading, writing, and doing your own research. Don’t rely on AI, or any single source, for anything.
