Cultural Appropriation

There can be no movement, no progress, without appropriation. In fact, all learning and evolution is based on the accommodation and assimilation of new and "foreign" information, the synthesis and use of an ever-expanding base of knowledge. So how can we account for the demonization of cultural appropriation?

Two Trillion Galaxies in Our Universe

According to the latest estimates from all of the current telescopic data retrieval mechanisms available to us, there are over 200 trillion galaxies in our Universe. According to our religions (esp. The Bible), they're all present for our (Earth-born homo sapiens sapiens) benefit and use. 

... and we can't even get to Mars.

No Kings?! No CAPITALISM!!

 Why don't I attend these anti-government protest rallies? First of all, it's because I've been a proponent of a form of peaceful anarchism since the early 1980s. Second of all, it's because I see politicians, politics, and government as mere symptoms of the problem. The problem is the religion of "capitalism" that the monied aristocrats have masterfully forced upon us, everything else is just window dressing, distractions (and entertainment) from the real issues. The real issues come from our unwitting acquiescence to the system of enslavement that the capitalist "Captains of Industry" and their loyal (well-paid and maintained) minions and clever experimental social-psychologists have tricked us into not only accepting and endorsing but of vociferously perpetuating--as if there are no other ways! 

My signs for the anti-government rallies would read:

You're All Slaves to Capitalism!

and 

Until you Grow Your Own Food,

Make Your Own Clothes,

and

Care for Your Own Horses

SHUT THE FUCK UP!

Trump and his lackeys are just as much slaves to the Puppet Masters as we are; so long as his actions and policies serve as harmless to their money and power (capitalism), the Ultra-Wealthy will turn a blind eye. Make any overtures to mess with their money and power streams and you'll meet with the same fates as Lincoln, McKinley, the Kennedy brothers, M.L. King, Jr., Epstein, et al. 

  

Alkebulan

A name that indigenous Africans used to refer to their land, their continent (or, at least, part of it), before the Greeks and Romans imposed their will on world history through their conquests and empires. This piece of information that I was just exposed to (whether truthful, accurate, or not) was just the nudge to provoke another wave of disgust at the unfortunate power and arrogance of xenocentricity. Since my first trip to Europe at the still-impressionable age of 20, I have found no little rise of ire whenever I encounter an indigenous name of a non-Anglo-American-occupied place that runs counter to that which I was instructed and conditioned with through the bias of my Anglo-American media and educational brainwashing. "Florence" in place of that which the locals have called "Firenze" far longer than Europeans have occupied the Americas. "Munich" in place of "München." "Brittany" in place of "Bretagne." "Ireland" in place of "Eire." "Danzing" in place of "Gdansk." "Constantinople" in place of "Istanbul." "Carthage" in place of "Qart-Ḥadašt." "Vienna" in place of "Wien." "Rhodesia" in place of "Zimbabwe." "Mexico City" in place of "Ciudad de Mexico" (which replaced "Tenochtitlan"). "Peking" in place of "Beijing." "Saigon" in place of "Gia Định" (which has now been replaced by "Ho Chi Minh City.") "Moscow" in place of "Moskva." "Indonesia" in place of "Dutch East Indies" which replaced a vast area of thousands of islands housing numerous fragmented kingdoms. "Indians," "Iroquois," "Creek," "Comanche," "Ottawa," "Chippewa," and thousands of other indigenous names in place of the numerous names of self-identification these peoples had for themselves. 

Why? What gives us the right? (Power? Conquest? "Might makes right"?) Who gave us permission? Why do autonomous nations, states, municipalities, and people not assert their identities? Why don't our individual consciences prompt or allow us to accept a local inhabitant's right to have his/her name for his/her home location to take place of the arrogantly (or "conveniently") re-named moniker we were brainwashed with? What is it in human nature (or human social psychology--or even human linguistics) that makes it so difficult for us to listen, hear, and respect others--to always occupy a position of dominance, control, and/or rightness? I mean, we can't even conjure up enough respect and gratitude to capitalize the names of the very places that give us life--like Earth, Sun, Galaxy, Universe, and Cosmos--can't even admit to our dependence upon external locations for our very existence--so how can we ever expect to learn to respect cultures, people, and ideas that are not our own?

Define your terms

My mother is fond of recounting the single most important lesson in her education as being learning to define one's terms when in the course of discussion, discourse, or argument. Here are some terms from the English language that I consider important to define when communicating in more than a cursory/superficial fashion with another human being. 

reality

life

energy

matter

power

force

science

numinous

sacrifice

objectivity

good

bad

original

consciousness

mind

brain

body

senses

Where is science's proof?

 . . . of the existence and makeup of matter?

 . . . of the existence and makeup of energy?

 . . . of the speed of light?

 . . . of the Earth and Sun being only 12,000 years old?

 . . . that "reality" exists?

 . . . that I exist? Because je pense?

 . . . that thoughts are real? Where is the empirical proof?

 . . . that thoughts aren't real? 

 . . . that matter is real?

 . . . that gravity and unconditional love aren't two names for the same thing?  

 . . . that thought, thoughts, and consciousness don't create matter? 

 . . . that reality would exist if there were no one there to view/experience it?

 . . . of "dark" energy?

 . . . of "dark" matter?

 . . . of infinity?

 . . . that there is no Universal (or Cosmic) Life Force?

 . . . that the universe has an end/limits/boundaries?

 . . . thoughts and consciousness don't create form?

 . . . that thoughts don't have form?

 . . . the soul doesn't exist?

 . . . of location and locality?

 . . . 

 . . . 

 . . . 

 . . . 

 . . . 

 . . . 

 . . . 

 . . . 

 . . . 

 . . . 

 . . . 

How does science explain . . .

 . . . the pre-existence of the universe?

 . . . human consciousness?

 . . . how light is both a particle and a "packet" of energy?

 . . . how the pyramids were built?

 . . . how Machu Picchu was built?

 . . . why the pyramids were built?

 . . . thoughts?

 . . . love?

 . . . energy?

 . . . miracles?

 . . . the dismantling of "irrefutable laws"?

 . . . need?

 . . . desire?

 . . . preference?

 . . . the origin of thoughts?

 . . . emotion?

 . . . intuition?

 . . . synchronicity?

 . . . imagination?

 . . . dreams?

 . . . language?

 . . . memory?

 . . . the Copernican solar system?

 . . . the speed of light?

 . . . how "physical" "reality" is possible when space is 99.99999% "empty" space and 0.000001% energy--when matter does not, in fact, "physically" exist? (What does "empty" mean?)

 . . . numinosity?

the stories from near-death experiences?

the reasons humans value oral tradition?

 . . . why homo sapiens sapiens and its genetic lineage are the only viable options for the creation of human history? 

 . . . why suicide is a less-condoned option to sacrificing/casting off/discarding one's commitment to one's own human life than soldiering or police corps, farming, commercial fishing, or working in a mine or in the forestry/logging industry? 

 . . . morals and morality?

 . . . objectivity versus subjectivity?