The Loop (Centuries of War)

[mnaz]

(Revised from road scribbling posted quite a few years ago.)

First rule of the loop:
freedom is blood sacrifice.

Sentence the young, the wise.
Honor and glory are untouchable.
Dissent is the devil in God’s exhaust.
Defeat enemies unseen, real, imagined.

Europe threw a mustard gas brawl.
A thousand Hemingways jumped,
threw punches at enemy flags,
melted fabric, fists and earth.

I saw the greatness, the courage,
victory staked in borrowed blood.
I saw its clear moral purpose,
its megaton sermon of will.

I built a box around me.
I hum like an air conditioner.
My desert is a perfect 72 degrees.
Cable on dish, flag pins on lapels.

I experienced the heat.
I pray to it from my bunker.
I worship the staggering cost,
still triumphantly confident.

What matters is the loop,
and the loop is closed.

[saw]

https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/joe-bide ... -war-hawks


the loop keeps a loopin'

[zero_hero]

You must be a genius even if you might not be stable
I have read (Murakami) that there is no perfect writing but I think The Loop a perfect poem

[mnaz]

Thanks Jack. Originally written in a dilapidated tin trailer I rented for awhile in the desert, during the Iraq war. I think I posted it from a library on S. Las Vegas Blvd. I cleaned it up a bit.

And Steve: No shit. We ain't out of the woods, not by a long shot, even if Trump gets evicted. I'll be all over Biden if he goes all in on the Military Complex. Evolution is in order at some point.

[zero_hero]

My first thought after reading your poem was
"Yes we know that."

I am not sure if you have a grip on evolution? I mean I don't know if you mean cultural evolution or biological evolution, if you mean biological evolution not to worry because we are sure f****** with our genome

White's law, named after Leslie White and published in 1943, states that, other factors remaining constant, "culture evolves as the amount of energy harnessed per capita per year is increased, or as the efficiency of the instrumental means of putting the energy to work is increased".

Leslie White
American anthropologist

Cultural evolution, in a Marxian sense, is the idea that “cultural changes occur through the accumulation of small, quantitative increments that lead, once a certain point is reached, to a qualitative transformation” (Carneiro 1981:216). Leslie White is usually given credit for developing and refining the concept of general cultural evolution and was heavily influenced by Marxian economic theory as well as Darwinian evolutionary theory

. source

just say Hi Jack

[mnaz]

I'd say 'culture' is overrated at this point, given all the 'culture wars' of the last ten or thirty centuries. I meant another kind of evolution, like maybe human in general. And it needs to happen fast, to match the general acceleration of everything..

[saw]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... SYQAvD_BwE

this is a fascinating analysis ....I have been searching for answers to out great divide.....the country split in half

crazy stuff was happening too....like nurses reporting that patients were dying of covid and refused to believe they had it rather clinging to the position it was a liberal hoax.....so instead of using Facetime to say goodbye to their families, they maintained to their final breath, " I don't have covid !".....it was more important to be true to the group they identified with...their political tribe.....I found that absurd

One encouraging bit of new info was that after watching Leah Remini's documentary on Scientology......members of that cult were leaving after 28 and 32 years because of her efforts to expose that this was by no means a church, but a hateful business that ruined many lives....so my take was it took a scientologist ( Leah Remini ) to get them to listen....so it will likely take prominent Republicans exposing the problem of having one man, Mitch Mcconnell jamming up the works.....we have to fix this.....one man gets to decide our fates ?.....and if the two main political groupings continue to bicker like children both sides remain impotent......while we weren't paying attention btw....more billionaires and millionaires were created....Amazon and Google and Facebook, Warren Buffet are doing quite well.....what a simple ploy get the country to divide in half and keep them fighting each other....while they steal all the remaining wealth

anyway the article was helpful

[stilltrucking]

I found that absurd

I found it human.

All too...

Yes I thought it very interesting too

Another interesting factoid from Scientific American article I read about 50 years ago.
<link here when I find it> :
They bribed college sophomores to lie, and found that smaller bribes bought the most enthusiastic liars. That was due to cognitive dissonance and bad conscience, they said.

just say hi jack
Nietzsche and lsd burned me a new ass hole now I have twice the fun

[stilltrucking]

I was curious to see the original version of The Loop.
I searched S8 for:
mnaz the loop

[mtmynd]

Does not the observation of both sides of any discussion, argument or fight require an open mind?

Open minds tend to be more pacified than the results of hatred towards a side that provokes such dislike... ie, hatred at war with dislike is a war of egos which is the essence of any turmoil... my side against "their" side only results to a longer war that soon tires until the strength to continue gathers more a bigger war.

Who has the bigger amount of war tools tends to be the winner before any battle starts? That always ends as a result of war... mankind's continuing fight over who is the most powerful? Who commands the books of history? Who makes the answers to the end of conflicts? These questions never end with answers that quell the mind, but only ask for answers to weaken the powerful to another more powerful.

War is change itself, perpetual, like the clouds above; war is an endless endevour that lies in the Heart of Life itself.

[note: war is the semi-conclusion of argument that has no answer]

~cecilism~

Life
consumes
Life
to sustain
Life

[mnaz]

War robs us of our power. Of our relationship to earth.

Oh sure sure, it's part of the Circle and all, but ...

Well, I mean, unless you're of the Warrior Class of course. Then you feed off it. Centuries of War don't lie. It's in our dna by now, isn't it?

Never mind.