patrick.net

I lived in a very small town in Wisconsin for a few years. I used to get haircuts in WalMart located outside the town. There was a young woman I used to prefer because she was polite. Her husband worked in the automotive section of that WalMart. One day, as she was cutting my hair, she says, we adopted a girl. She already had a child of her own. I was stunned to hear that, the courage and the kindness it takes to commit to the responsibility to raise someone else's child. Hope she is doing well.

The 9 year old in the above post is Remi Bateman from Utah.

DOGEWontAmountToShit says

That was a common tactic during the Depression.

Waddya supposed to 'learn' from fake history?

Ideology is not our friend. Where is it writ in adamantine that semi-carnivorous monkeys can or should be capable ot understanding reality?

That seems to me one of the first illusions, and one of the more prideful illusions of human culture. Better to try and frame questions which can do it and leave off searching for answers, because answers are like operating systems; they are being upgraded faster than you can keep up with it. If we go back a long ways in time, the universe is a very simple place. There are no cultures, there are no animals, there are no plants. Indeed, if we go far enough back in time, there are no stars and planets. The universe is simply a swarming ocean of energy.

But as we approach the present it’s as though the universe has undergone a series of crystallizations out of itself of higher and higher forms of organization. And this is what I call novelty. Now, there is a retardant force, and I call it habit—to keep it away from concepts like thermodynamic entropy. Habit. And so, in my model of the way things work—gleaned from observation; stoned and unstoned—is that the cosmos, your life, the politics of this city, the history of Western civilization, is a struggle between habit and novelty.

Habit is also an intuitively graspable concept. It means conservatism, recidivism, doing things the traditional way, not taking chances. And these things are not moral values. Sometimes the right move is habitual, sometimes the right move is novel. But the universe, as a system, is what I call a novelty-conserving engine. In other words, where novelty is produced it tends to be tenaciously hung onto. It can’t always be hung onto, but it is tenaciously hung onto.

Well, why should culture imprison us and somehow place a barrier between ourselves and our true humanness? Well, I think I said at the beginning of this thing: culture and ideology are not your friends. They are not your friends. This is a hard thing to come to terms with, because a certain kind of alienation lies at the end of this thought process. On the other hand, you can’t live in the cradle forever. You can’t be clueless forever. So somebody might as well just lay it out for you and say culture is for the convenience of culture, not you. How many times have your sexual desires, career aspirations, financial dealings, and aesthetic inclinations been squashed, twisted, rejected, and minimized by cultural values? And if you don’t think culture is your enemy, ask the 18-year-old kid who is given a rifle and sent to the other side of the world to murder strangers if culture is his friend. These extreme examples should bring it home to us that it’s a kind of a con game.

It is, in fact, strangely enough, a kind of virtual reality. We have been led to think of virtual realities as something on the screen of a computer, or presented through a headset, but that’s an electronic virtual reality. The primary technology for the building of virtual realities is language. Once you start talking about race pride, loyalty, our destiny, our God, our mission, it’s like building virtual realities. And people begin to treat these things as though they had the substantiality of real objects, and to build their lives as though these things were real.

And what is this? It’s a diminution of humanness. You’re choosing to limit yourself to a cultural reality—whether it’s the reality of being Witoto, or Orthodox Jewish, or whatever it is. It’s a smaller world than the simple hardware you were born into this universe with. And the substances—the drugs, the plants, the things which perturb consciousness—they don’t address cultural values, they blast through them. They address the animal body, the mammalian brain. They perturb these information fields outside of the relativistic set of values that culture is giving you.

- Terrence McKenna, Culture and Ideology Are Not Your Friends, April, 1999

gabbar says

Where is it writ in adamantine that semi-carnivorous monkeys can or should be capable ot understanding reality?

Not a good start for a lecture on reality. Humans are apes, not monkeys.

Gabbar. You pulled an Ohomen here. Not trying to be negative, but paragraph breaks are nice for ease of reading.

WookieMan says

Gabbar. You pulled an Ohomen here. Not trying to be negative, but paragraph breaks are nice for ease of reading.

You are correct. I tried to fix it. I collect quotes, I have nearly 1000 pages of them so far. Just copied and pasted it instead of dividing into paragraphs.

@gabbar

“Well, why should culture imprison us and somehow place a barrier between ourselves and our true humanness? Well, I think I said at the beginning of this thing: culture and ideology are not your friends. They are not your friends. This is a hard thing to come to terms with, because a certain kind of alienation lies at the end of this thought process. On the other hand, you can’t live in the cradle forever. You can’t be clueless forever. So somebody might as well just lay it out for you and say culture is for the convenience of culture, not you. […]

Once you start talking about race pride, loyalty, our destiny, our God, our mission, it’s like building virtual realities. And people begin to treat these things as though they had the substantiality of real objects, and to build their lives as though these things were real. And what is this? It’s a diminution of humanness. You’re choosing to limit yourself to a cultural reality—[…] It’s a smaller world than the simple hardware you were born into this universe with.”

Yes, I would have agreed with this general sense of overcoming cultures to seek truth, humanness, and oneness back when it was written. The past is a foreign country in a way, and the culture Terrence McKenna was immersed ca 1999 was under no external threat. Not from war and especially not from replacement levels of immigration, coupled with hostile media. He’s right — stoics and mystics have thrown off culture to seek higher truths since the first writings of the Greeks, and almost certainly before.

However we’re also chained to our biology. We yearn for truth, but we also yearn on a biological level for a continuation of our genetic legacy. Culture helps us do that, until it’s hijacked (as ours has been the last 15 years) into teaching that trannies are women, white children are a sign of racist parents, and replacement immigration is necessary. It turns out, the culture of McKenna’s 1990’s (and before) was far more positive for family formation and continuation of genetics than whatever we have now. A benign culture enables the higher seeking. A hostile culture keeps us focused on the venal.

goofus says

Culture helps us do that, until it’s hijacked (as ours has been the last 15 years) into teaching that trannies are women, white children are a sign of racist parents, and replacement immigration is necessary. It turns out, the culture of McKenna’s 1990’s (and before) was far more positive for family formation and continuation of genetics than whatever we have now. A benign culture enables the higher seeking. A hostile culture keeps us focused on the venal.

Why are our countrymen doing to this? Is it because they want to stay in power by destabilizing our society?

https://x.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1883981748251554218

Cats were donated to a prison for the inmates instead of being euthanized. Good idea.

Nursing homes should all have dogs as well. When my mother was in a nursing home dying from a brain tumor, I noticed that someone brought in a dog and all the elderly patients really cheered up. Dog liked it too.

gabbar says

Travel is big for kids and educational. I'd take the plane out of that meme. The other things I'd agree with.

https://philbak.substack.com/p/things-that-matter

Family. One or two friends who are the same as family. Spirituality. These are the Things That Matter.

And if organized religion is the only way to recapture it, then so be it.

I am hopeful for the future, and I am confident in our ability to course-correct. If that means we embrace organized religion and revive the church, then revive the church we must.

Our culture is dying. We’ve lost sight of Things That Matter. And we better start talking about it before it is too late.

Invite your family over for a meal.

Go to church.

Put in the effort for those Things That Matter.

I took this picture yesterday, at Gannon University, a Catholic University in Erie, PA. Its a sculpture dedicated by a son (student at Gannon in 1970s) to his nurturing parents. I don't believe in religion but I still found this inspirational and moving because of that family. Whether you believe in God or not; may God bless you.

Thank you Patrick. I tried to find that scene from The Wire...I will keep looking.

gabbar says

I don't believe in religion but I still found this inspirational and moving because of that family. Whether you believe in God or not; may God bless you.

Religion is good. But there are still bad actors unfortunately in every religion. I know of a few including family. Uncle used it for contracting leads. Then screwed the people over. Has probably $90M in cash and assets. We all know the catholic church as well.

Not trying to be negative, but I'd guess religion is 60% good and 40% bad unfortunately. They launder money as well. They definitely shouldn't be tax except either on property of tithing.

WookieMan says

Religion is good. But there are still bad actors unfortunately in every religion. I know of a few including family. Uncle used it for contracting leads. Then screwed the people over. Has probably $90M in cash and assets. We all know the catholic church as well. Not trying to be negative, but I'd guess religion is 60% good and 40% bad unfortunately. They launder money as well. They definitely shouldn't be tax except either on property of tithing.

Its a profession, business, I reckon and its important to see it this way.

https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/power-law-normal-distribution-democracy-tension

On a micro level, we must optimize what we can control for. In an age of artificial intelligence, authentic humanity will matter more than ever. Raise families that will value building and beauty instead of destroying and ugliness. Have fun in real life with them and your friends. Forge high trust communities. Keep your mind and body strong. Support local craftsmanship of unique, high quality items. Adapt with agency and motivation to create a unique skill stack and network. Become irreplaceable and ungovernable. That is the key to happiness.

Children learn the fundamental principles of natural law at a very early age. Thus they very early understand that one child must not, without just cause, strike, or otherwise hurt, another; that one child must not assume any arbitrary control or domination over another; that one child must not, either by force, deceit, or stealth, obtain possession of anything that belongs to another; that if one child commits any of these wrongs against another, it is not only the right of the injured child to resist, and, if need be, punish the wrongdoer, and compel him to make reparation, but that it is also the right, and the moral duty, of all other children, and all other persons, to assist the injured party in defending his rights, and redressing his wrongs. These are fundamental principles of natural law, which govern the most important transactions of man with man. Yet children learn them earlier than they learn that three and three are six, or five and five ten. Their childish plays, even, could not be carried on without a constant regard to them; and it is equally impossible for persons of any age to live together in peace on any other conditions. It would be no extravagance to say that, in most cases, if not in all, mankind at large, young and old, learn this natural law long before they have learned the meanings of the words by which we describe it. In truth, it would be impossible to make them understand the real meanings of the words, if they did not first understand the nature of the thing itself.

—Lysander Spooner, The Science of Justice

Patrick says

Children learn the fundamental principles of natural law at a very early age. Thus they very early understand that one child must not, without just cause, strike, or otherwise hurt, another; that one child must not assume any arbitrary control or domination over another; that one child must not, either by force, deceit, or stealth, obtain possession of anything that belongs to another; that if one child commits any of these wrongs against another, it is not only the right of the injured child to resist, and, if need be, punish the wrongdoer, and compel him to make reparation, but that it is also the right, and the moral duty, of all other children, and all other persons, to assist the injured party in defending his rights, and redressing his wrongs. These are fundamental principles of natural law, which govern the most important transactions of man with man. Yet children learn them earlier than they learn that three and three are six, or five and five ten. Their childish plays, even, could not be carried on without a constant regard to them; and it is equally impossible for persons of any age to live together in peace on any other conditions. It would be no extravagance to say that, in most cases, if not in all, mankind at large, young and old, learn this natural law long before they have learned the meanings of the words by which we describe it. In truth, it would be impossible to make them understand the real meanings of the words, if they did not first understand the nature of the thing itself.

—Lysander Spooner, The Science of Justice

My son went to Montessori school until he was 8 years old. It was a college town, and many of the children at the school were highly intelligent, and others displayed dark triad characteristics.

The younger children adopted a method for dealing with bullies among the older children. They called it "The mommy game," and it involved mass young'uns swarming the bully and hugging him until he toppled over under a pile of 20 or more children. The school had a strict "no hitting" policy, but hugs were allowed.

Fiendishly creative - I was impressed.