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THE ABSURD TIMES
Illustration: Latuff and Hollande
WISDOM GRATIS
In these difficult times, we've asked our resident philosopher, Dr. Ellis Dea, for some advice. He says: "Never hold a cat when you turn on a vacuum cleaner." So there it is. You have to apply it to the current situation.
PARIS
During the attacks and the immediate aftermath, it was almost impossible to communicate via social media, especially Twitter, but I did manage to post the English Language site for French-TV: http://www.france24.com/en/livefeed . Still up if you are interested.
Now, of course, our worse expectations have become reality: every single politician is making his or her own political point about it and our Bernie Sanders is the only one who is sane enough to listen to. Almost all the others are screaming out how they will destroy ISIS and lock our borders. The real point, here, is that ISIS is not a state, even though they claim to be
ISIL is closer to being a religion than anything else, but it is not Islam. It is not even Wahabbi (which is strange and retrograde enough all by itself). I propose we call it Isilanity (izlanuhti). We have not yet deciphered its tenents, but they are basically a celebration of death and destruction and a rejection of culture and art. Self-immolation is also a central aspect.
Once we realize this, and accept it as such, then we can go about and devise ways to stop and destroy it. In the meantime, of course, killing as many of the maniacs as possible is a move in the right direction. We have actually progressed over the last two or three years as we used to call them "rebels," with all the glory that seems to attach itself to the word. The sight of them eating the raw organs of people they have killed began to change their mainstream image along with cutting off people's heads and burning people alive. Isilanity is fairly attractive to a younger, disaffected, powerless faction of the population, mainly those of lower IQs, and it will continue to be so long as we think of it as a version of a reputable religion and then attack that religion.
No, our focus must be on Isilanity, not Islam, Christianity, or Judaism -- it is not even Wahabism or Baptism or Scientology.
I enjoyed the Place of the Republic in Paris and stayed there once for several days. It was much more peaceful and less crowded than it is today and there was more time to contemplate the statue. The stores around were quite varied, and one was not even surprised to see a McDonald's there selling hamburgers for $75 each. For that amount, one could get an enormous amount of food at a Tai Restaurant there. Now in Germany almost everybody speaks better English than I speak German, but the same is not true in France. Attempting to use German in France is not at all advisable. I managed with a few words in French and the use of France's second language -- mime.
At any rate, no amount of ranting and bombing will be of much use until the basic tenets of Isilanity are understood and exposed. Above all, it is most important not to think of it as a state as such thought will only be confusing.
RACISM AND MU (MISSOURI UNIVERSITY)
This started out in good faith to explain the racial situation in Columbia, MO. I know the place very well, much more than they would want anyone to know, but it is actually a mere symptom of our system at work. I could hardly be called Capitalism as Adam Smith called it, nor would it fit Kapitalism as Karl Marx defined it. If I think of a word for it, I'll put it here: ______.
One of the most salient things one should know about Missouri is that it is two states, one called Missouri, and the other called Muzzuruh. The former is somewhat Democratic in its political sentiments and the other Republican. The former is mainly comprised of the 1-70 corridor, including Kansas City, Columbia, and St. Louis, but not their suburbs. The fact is most clearly defined in Columbia. Many of the students, however, come from Mizzurah, white, rural, and socially retarded. There was one Republican U.S. Representative in Columbia, but he was a real politician, actually listening to his constituents, and was therefore challenged by a tea party candidate in a primary and has not been heard from since.
Another issue is that University Presidents nationwide are today nothing more than glorified fund-raisers and have been for a few decades. There are no Maynard Hutchinson's who would abolish the football team altogether left.
One of the first publicized aspect of the unrest, as they call it, is that someone called the student president the "N" word as we are supposed to call it since we are so nice and liberal, after all. The trouble is, at what point did it ever occur to anyone that the President of the student body was actually a person of color in the middle of Missouri? The University was established as a land-grant university (first west of the Mississippi River) during slavery, so guess who built the buildings?
More important, none of the protests, demonstrations, and discussions made any difference until the football team refused to play until the President of the UM system resigned. He made $500,000/year. The head football coach makes 4 million/year. Obviously, he won that battle. It also illustrates why college football teams are not allowed to unionize. These players, for the most part, have absolutely no interest in academics, but are really a part of professional football's minor league system. If they were simply hired and paid a salary and not enrolled in the University, and I speak from experience, an enormous percentage of the faculty there would be overwhelmingly gratified. I have even attempted to tell the coach, Dan Devine when he was there, that I would gladly give his players any grade they wanted provide I did not have them enrolled in my classes. At least I would not have to read any idiotic papers written by hired hands and submitted in the name of the players. The trouble is, our system does not want unions to exist. They caused too much trouble in the 20s and 30s.
So much for Missouri. It has now named a retired professor who started as a black leader in the late 60s as his replacement.
Other universities seem to get to more productive issues such as free tuition for all public university students, forgiveness of all student debt, and so on.
