In the End of all this, this searching, this wondering, and all this learning of life-lessons (in the University of Life), I feel that I will be in a certain place.
The details are only just becoming clear to me, however, I know THIS NOW:::
The job that I end up in will not be a job that concerns itself with money, making money, or has money as its ultimate goal and end.
My job will have a fulfilling value, will be important for what it means for me when I do it.
My job will be what I do each day, and I will do it with a passion and a verve and zest to ACCOMPLISH something, great things.
My next steps after Ayers Rock will be in situating myself in jobs and a lifestyle that does not concern itself with the acquisition of money. All I will want Money for is as the Universal Medium. The law of the Universla Medium is a law that has come into being, and subsequently agreed upon, by the overwhelming mass of humanity and civilisation. But its usefulness in achieving certain ends in the real world will be the only usefulness it has for me.
I no longer concern myself with Money.
After all, Money is God, and a god requires a man to be beholden to it.
I am beholden to no man, nor any god.
From The Tominator
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
American Democracy
In my time here in the Middle of Nowhere, I've had to rely on my own brain as a primary source of entertainment. In this, I mean to say that in lieu of the Information Age and its enabling to access information and knowledge instantly on the internet, or on a varied range of TV channels, I have put much more thought into my points of interest.
And of course, knowing me, I have focused largely on the political side of most things.
Immediately before coming here, I purchased the DVD set of HBO's "John Adams". I'd witnessed scenes on YouTube, and heard great reviews. The show itself centres on John Adams, the second President of the USA. Being a Founding Father of the USA, it also focuses on the ideas that first brought the USA into being.
Rather than give you a closed-in review of the DVD, I want to ponder with you the subject matter of it all.
The USA was born, officially, on July 4th, 1776. July 4th is a well-known date in the world, not just the USA. However, I have to write that last sentence because I feel that a smothering sense of malaise and indifference in the present age is threatening to erase the true meanings of dates and celebrations like the 4th of July.
John Adams, along with the rest of the 'Founding Fathers', was a wealthy, educated white male of British descent. Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, all those fo the Continental Congress (pre-Independence) were of the same class in society.
Stories of the beginning of the American Revolutionary War tell us of a man named Paul Revere, whom, upon spotting a fleet of British ships approaching the New England coast, rode his horse around through several towns and yelled out "The British are Coming! The British are Coming!".
I have to start out here by saying that these stories are bullshit. Not the whole thing - I'm sure Paul Revere did run around yelling his warnings, but the words he used would not have been as we are led to believe.
In the decade of the 1770s, the men and women living in New England were white, and of anglo-saxon or other northern European heritage. The majority had family roots sunk deep in the British Empire. Indeed, New England was a crucial part of the British Empire, not in the least for its abundant swathes of fertile land and other resources buried beneath the surface. The people living there considered themselves, if not 'British', then certainly subjects of the British Empire.
I myself was born in Australia, and it wasn't until the 1950s that Australians stopped considering themselves likewise! A national identity is inextricably linked with the homes of one's forefathers and foremothers.
The meaning of all this is that the people living and toiling in New England considered themselves English, and therefore for Paul Revere to yell out "The British ar Coming!" would be redundant - they were already there, and he was one of them. He likely said "The Red-Coats are Coming!" or "The King's Men are Coming!".
Revere's message has been subject to modificaiton for reasons which you will find in the following discussion.
The inhabitants of the original 13 colonies were British.
Why would Paul Revere be so worried, then?
The King of England sent over his troops (as well as many Hessian mercenaries) because the subjects living in the colonies were worrying him.
The Subjects in the colonies (the proto-Americans) were British people who were growing tired of their king.
Generally speaking, the British Empire, in its hey-day, ran things pretty well. In fact, for almost 200 years, it ran at least half the world. The key to this longevity in such a mammoth task was to allow distant colonies a certain level of autonomy, all the while offering them a symbol to unite behind and find comfort in should things go wrong. The symbol, of course, was the Monarch, and the brotherhood of colonies and nations that had all been started or developed by the British people.
However, America was Britain's first attempt, and if only they knew then what the Revolution finally taught them in the end, the USA today could well still be a subject of Great Britain.
In the continental North America, there were 13 established colonies by 1776. As a matter of necessity, these colonies did enjoy a level of autonomy. They even had their own Continental Congress, a special place in Philadelphia where representatives of each colony would gather and meet for a chat and a bitch-session.
Sadly, though, bring the first and primary colony of the British Empire, Mother Britain kept a close eye on New England, and a close hand, too. With the wealth of resources, including tea, tobacco, pinapples, sugar and all the other stuff that grew in America, Britain was very eager to milk it all for all it was worth. If not directly taking profits from the New England farmers, Britain was imposing heavy taxes and tariffs on imports from the Americas. Taxes and tariffs make doing business very difficult, and the New England business leaders were not happy.
Given the Pre-Democractic stage of Societal Evolution that Britain was in at the time, the land-owners and businessmen of New England sought to counter their exploitation by the Motherland, by asking for democratic representation in the Parliament at Westminster, in London.
The King and Westminster laughed a bit, and replied to the Americans that such a thing was not going to happen.
The New Englanders asked again, and again, but each time met derision and negativity.
For a while, Britain was happy to continue taking taxes, and the men and women of New England decided that they didn't like their situation. They saw their King not as a monarch or leader, but as an imposition. They saw their produce and resources not as integral to the strength of some great trans-Atlantic empire, but as the fruit of their own labour. They saw the British imposition of taxation to be a completely unfair and unnecessary depressor on everyday life. Most of the population of New England quickly lost its desire to affiliate itself with the selfish brutes back in the motherland. They felt they needed a change.
The Continental Congress, somewhat unofficial in its existence, formed the focus point of the reformists. At one bitch session in summer of 1776, after many, many hours of very hot weather and debate, the men of the Continental Congress, in an epic bitch session, voted unanimously (New York abstained) to divorce the thirteen colonies from the grip of mother England. By saying only words, a new country was born. The United States of America.
Words are the means by which humans share their ideas with one another. Therefore, when I say "only words", what I really mean is that spoken words were used to convey ideas of immense importance. It is these ideas, upon which the United States was founded, that are critical to the understanding of what happened in 1776, and to everything else that has happened to the USA since then.
And of course, knowing me, I have focused largely on the political side of most things.
Immediately before coming here, I purchased the DVD set of HBO's "John Adams". I'd witnessed scenes on YouTube, and heard great reviews. The show itself centres on John Adams, the second President of the USA. Being a Founding Father of the USA, it also focuses on the ideas that first brought the USA into being.
Rather than give you a closed-in review of the DVD, I want to ponder with you the subject matter of it all.
The USA was born, officially, on July 4th, 1776. July 4th is a well-known date in the world, not just the USA. However, I have to write that last sentence because I feel that a smothering sense of malaise and indifference in the present age is threatening to erase the true meanings of dates and celebrations like the 4th of July.
John Adams, along with the rest of the 'Founding Fathers', was a wealthy, educated white male of British descent. Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, all those fo the Continental Congress (pre-Independence) were of the same class in society.
Stories of the beginning of the American Revolutionary War tell us of a man named Paul Revere, whom, upon spotting a fleet of British ships approaching the New England coast, rode his horse around through several towns and yelled out "The British are Coming! The British are Coming!".
I have to start out here by saying that these stories are bullshit. Not the whole thing - I'm sure Paul Revere did run around yelling his warnings, but the words he used would not have been as we are led to believe.
In the decade of the 1770s, the men and women living in New England were white, and of anglo-saxon or other northern European heritage. The majority had family roots sunk deep in the British Empire. Indeed, New England was a crucial part of the British Empire, not in the least for its abundant swathes of fertile land and other resources buried beneath the surface. The people living there considered themselves, if not 'British', then certainly subjects of the British Empire.
I myself was born in Australia, and it wasn't until the 1950s that Australians stopped considering themselves likewise! A national identity is inextricably linked with the homes of one's forefathers and foremothers.
The meaning of all this is that the people living and toiling in New England considered themselves English, and therefore for Paul Revere to yell out "The British ar Coming!" would be redundant - they were already there, and he was one of them. He likely said "The Red-Coats are Coming!" or "The King's Men are Coming!".
Revere's message has been subject to modificaiton for reasons which you will find in the following discussion.
The inhabitants of the original 13 colonies were British.
Why would Paul Revere be so worried, then?
The King of England sent over his troops (as well as many Hessian mercenaries) because the subjects living in the colonies were worrying him.
The Subjects in the colonies (the proto-Americans) were British people who were growing tired of their king.
Generally speaking, the British Empire, in its hey-day, ran things pretty well. In fact, for almost 200 years, it ran at least half the world. The key to this longevity in such a mammoth task was to allow distant colonies a certain level of autonomy, all the while offering them a symbol to unite behind and find comfort in should things go wrong. The symbol, of course, was the Monarch, and the brotherhood of colonies and nations that had all been started or developed by the British people.
However, America was Britain's first attempt, and if only they knew then what the Revolution finally taught them in the end, the USA today could well still be a subject of Great Britain.
In the continental North America, there were 13 established colonies by 1776. As a matter of necessity, these colonies did enjoy a level of autonomy. They even had their own Continental Congress, a special place in Philadelphia where representatives of each colony would gather and meet for a chat and a bitch-session.
Sadly, though, bring the first and primary colony of the British Empire, Mother Britain kept a close eye on New England, and a close hand, too. With the wealth of resources, including tea, tobacco, pinapples, sugar and all the other stuff that grew in America, Britain was very eager to milk it all for all it was worth. If not directly taking profits from the New England farmers, Britain was imposing heavy taxes and tariffs on imports from the Americas. Taxes and tariffs make doing business very difficult, and the New England business leaders were not happy.
Given the Pre-Democractic stage of Societal Evolution that Britain was in at the time, the land-owners and businessmen of New England sought to counter their exploitation by the Motherland, by asking for democratic representation in the Parliament at Westminster, in London.
The King and Westminster laughed a bit, and replied to the Americans that such a thing was not going to happen.
The New Englanders asked again, and again, but each time met derision and negativity.
For a while, Britain was happy to continue taking taxes, and the men and women of New England decided that they didn't like their situation. They saw their King not as a monarch or leader, but as an imposition. They saw their produce and resources not as integral to the strength of some great trans-Atlantic empire, but as the fruit of their own labour. They saw the British imposition of taxation to be a completely unfair and unnecessary depressor on everyday life. Most of the population of New England quickly lost its desire to affiliate itself with the selfish brutes back in the motherland. They felt they needed a change.
The Continental Congress, somewhat unofficial in its existence, formed the focus point of the reformists. At one bitch session in summer of 1776, after many, many hours of very hot weather and debate, the men of the Continental Congress, in an epic bitch session, voted unanimously (New York abstained) to divorce the thirteen colonies from the grip of mother England. By saying only words, a new country was born. The United States of America.
Words are the means by which humans share their ideas with one another. Therefore, when I say "only words", what I really mean is that spoken words were used to convey ideas of immense importance. It is these ideas, upon which the United States was founded, that are critical to the understanding of what happened in 1776, and to everything else that has happened to the USA since then.
Red Centre Calling
My Peoples,
Good Day, fellow thinkers!
There are not many of you, and for a while I have been away from you. I am currently residing in Ayers Rock. Ayers Rock is a big ol' red-coloured rock that sticks out of the ground in the dead centre of the Australian continent. Perhaps you have seen countless calendars or postcards or TV ads with said rock inside it.
I am in the middle of nowhere, quite literally. Hoever, it is an interesting place, for reasons that I will hopefully tell you all about one day.
For now, know that after a very long and pain-staking trial, I have re-gained access to the Information Age, with wireless broadband internet. I'm back, baby, I BACK!
One thing I will say now is that the solitude here, unavoidable as it can be, has afforeded me MUCH time for thinking. And for the first two months here, I had only a four-channel TV and some DVDs to occupy my time. In short, I've been forced to use my remaining resource fo mental stimulation - my mind itself. Some wacky things have been cooked up, and I will share some of them with you throughout the rest of my time here.
So,
From the Red Centre, this is The Tominator; I said I'd be back!
Good Day, fellow thinkers!
There are not many of you, and for a while I have been away from you. I am currently residing in Ayers Rock. Ayers Rock is a big ol' red-coloured rock that sticks out of the ground in the dead centre of the Australian continent. Perhaps you have seen countless calendars or postcards or TV ads with said rock inside it.
I am in the middle of nowhere, quite literally. Hoever, it is an interesting place, for reasons that I will hopefully tell you all about one day.
For now, know that after a very long and pain-staking trial, I have re-gained access to the Information Age, with wireless broadband internet. I'm back, baby, I BACK!
One thing I will say now is that the solitude here, unavoidable as it can be, has afforeded me MUCH time for thinking. And for the first two months here, I had only a four-channel TV and some DVDs to occupy my time. In short, I've been forced to use my remaining resource fo mental stimulation - my mind itself. Some wacky things have been cooked up, and I will share some of them with you throughout the rest of my time here.
So,
From the Red Centre, this is The Tominator; I said I'd be back!
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