Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Glass Bead Game...adapted*

"He hoped to arrange and sum up all the knowledge of his time, symmetrically and synoptically, around a central idea. That is precisely what the Glass Bead Game does: pursue the encyclopedic idea...not just a juxtaposition of the fields of knowledge and research, but an interrelationship, an organic denominator."

He was alone in this pursuit, which was universally loathed and considered a philosophical perversion. His efforts were thwarted at every step though at times he felt he had found this organic denominator (which was quixotically related to his own quest) and had cause to celebrate. With no one to share his findings he turned to debauchery, whoring, drinking, drugs, depression and lastly a lonely death in a urine scented cabin. His notes were illegible and were cremated with his emaciated body. And those closest to him nodded proudly that they had foreseen this self-destructive end, had attempted to guide the disturbed philosopher to a path of life insurance premiums and regular weed whacking, but had ultimately failed to add another obedient drone to the mob of 7 billion waiting to fill their car up with gas. Instead of contributing to the holistic understanding of man, his life became an exhibit in favor of conformity.

*apologies to Hermann Hesse

wet flue gas desulfurization technology

"Using wet flue gas desulfurization technology—a “scrubber” system—the project is expected to capture at least 80 percent of the mercury in the coal and reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by more than 90 percent. By law the project must be operating no later than July 2013. The Clean Air Project will supplement more than $50 million in previous investments at Merrimack Station to reduce particulate emissions and nitrogen oxides."


How much more complicated are our lives going to become? For me, this is all heading in the wrong direction. It's getting insanely complicated to maintain a lifestyle that isn't destroying everything. It's like we're already living on the moon. I guess we're really determined to dominate or destroy our environment. It's one or the other. Maybe both. The idea of harmony is like a joke now. Thoreau will probably be classified as a terrorist one day. This paradigm is very hard for me to accept even if I can understand the philosophical underpinnings of it. At some point I start to question if it is just reckless Americans being reckless Americans and wonder if it is actually diabolical inventors securing their wealth at the cost of our health. You know? It wouldn't be the first time that's happened. Look at asbestos.
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Man in the Van by Oggy Bleacher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.