The Episode Where We Escape From Freedom

I have been reading Erich Fromm's Escape from Freedom recently, and to fill in some blanks I went looking for some background on Fromm on the Internet.

Nice Quote

Fromm identified deep feelings of anxiety and powerlessness upon which Hitler had been able to capitalize. His sadomasochistic message of love for the strong and hatred for the weak — not to mention a racial program that raised “true-born” Germans to the pinnacle of the evolutionary ladder — provided a means of escape from intolerable psychological burdens experienced on a mass basis.

Escape From Freedom was not merely an analysis of Nazism. At the heart of its thesis was the notion that capitalism — particularly in its monopolistic phase — fostered “the development of a personality which feels powerless and alone, anxious and insecure,” and which is therefore tempted to surrender its freedom to strongman leaders.

 

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/08/erich-fromm-frankfurt-school-marxism-weimar-germany

Where fiction affects facts

In the conversation with my self my self points out that money and race and nations are quite real to most people. In the horror show of a year it is alarmingly clear that race and money affect people’s lives and sometimes with deadly consequences.

Good point!

In fact I am glad you brought that up. (what a helpful fellow that sell guy is)

I may or may not have demonstrated the fiction of money by holding up a $100 dollar and a $1 dollar bill and asked why one is much more desired than the other. If I have not done that bit then the gist is they are both on the same kind of paper of the same quality of design and such stuff. Obvious we all just agree that when we see $100 we will give and get more stuff than the $1. In the part of my act I go deeper to say even IF there was a pure gold standard where the 100 meant there where 100 units of gold for each dollar the $100 bill represents, it is STILL just “belief” that those gold pieces mean anything. Why do thing gold is the “gold standard” or money? What the hell is gold to a human, it is a crappy metal for building plows or steamships. It has “value” only because we humans declare it has value.

The point is it is just a piece of paper in front of you and even it was a chest of gold on your door step it is only valuable for the same reason paper currency is...because we believe it has value

HOWEVER, if you don’t have money it sure makes paying your bills REALLY difficult. And while you are explaining to some racist that biologically there is such thing as a “race” culture is even less tied to DNA...if you are explaining this while a some A-hole racist is threatening you the consequences of these fictions are quite

. And that makes it all the more absurd. People and groups define themselves by these fictions and because of it people die. People are tortured. People suffer. Dying and suffering are for sure real and all driven by a lie.

Ain’t that a kick in the pants?

We Are at the Place We Find Ourselves - Finally

Our story so far…(a work in progress)

NOW
There is only now
There is no past there is no future
Just now
NOW

To uselessly elaborate a little, when you think of past sorrows, embarrassments, joys or victories, as well as future fears or plans… you are doing all that NOW.

Existence is not a VHS tape where if we could only learn to rewind or fast forward the tape of time THEN we could visit that solid event in the past or the solidified future experience. Whatever you are planning or remembering it is all in your head and everything is happening NOW.

And even more astonishingly it is all the same for ALL of us, for ALL sentient beings, for ALL inanimate objects. ALL existence is connected NOW.

WE are ALL in this together, whether we know it or not.
:
Tell me a story.
In this century, and moment, of mania,
Tell me a story.
Make it a story of great distances, and starlight.
The name of the story will be Time,
But you must not pronounce its name.
Tell me a story of deep delight.
- Robert Penn Warren
:
The bit from Robert Penn Warren’s poem may speak to this, and this is just my interpretation, but when you are captured but a story you experience it right THEN. And yes we frame our outlook on the world through the conceptual lens of Time. But that is not how we experience life.

PART II
Assign value, to assign blame and glory
:

And so ends today’s sermon

Another Marker is Passed

Birthday yesterday

Now 63
Wow 63
Take stock? Maybe sell stock?

I will try to throw out my half-assed world view in posts to come. If anybody makes a virtual stumble and lands here, these thoughts are only worth the virtual paper they are written on.

To everybody, Be Well

TO B. -RESCUE DOG : A Poem

A poem from and old friend TO B. -RESCUE DOG

When I learned the true extent
Of misfortune in your tale,
I knew then I must consent,
And that mercy must prevail.
Consent to bring you home at last,
Your family finally found,
Never more to be out cast
Your anguish run to ground.
I hear you snuffle in your sleep
And I wonder what you dream
I trust you know I’ll always keep
The promise I made to you.
Peculiar tastes, this little guy
Like french fries off the street
Or nasty bones we might pass by
Not slowed by missing teeth.
Yes, I know, you are a little fat-
They say I spoil you rotten-
But for everything I do for you-
So much more have I gotten.
Those cloudy eyes, you’re older now
But the gaze still love-driven
You’ve taught me well, the why and how
Of devotion freely given.
And devoted will I stay to you-
Companions till the end
Daily rites of mutual need
God, to me, did you send.

W.S.H. -3/1/2020

Starting a GUI app on startup with a RaspberryPi

I got a new Raspberry PI4 and I set it up to record some over the air TV and the app I was using allowed to set a schedule much like old school VHS recorders would. BUT you have to have the application running all the time so if you forget to start it the recording is missed. Most all the search results for Raspbery Pi or Linux about autostart a program just would not work.

Finally I found somebody who said if it had a GUI it would not load under traditional methods since the came into play before the Graphical Interface. Anyway I was having no luck. And finally under some lucky combination of search words I found this site.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Autostart-a-Program-When-Raspberry-Pi-Boots-Newbie/

Here is the gist with a few changes for my situation

You only need to do this part once, but you need to do it first. Click on Applications -> Preferences -> Main Menu Editor on your Pi desktop.

In the Main Menu Editor window click on Preferences in the first column. Check the box for Default applications for LXSession in the second column. Click Okay.

Now when you click on your Applications -> Preferences menu you should see Default applications for LXSession listed. You don't need to click on it yet, but you'll need it after the next step.

Find out the command to start the GUI program which for me was the path to the program and supposedly by adding -m afterwards would start it minimized (it didn't). But anyway /usr/bin/Kaffeine -m

Now that you have the command syntax you need to add it to the autostart sequence. Choose Applications -> Preferences -> Default applications for LXSession from your Pi desktop. Select the Autostart tab.

In the Manual autostarted applications section enter the text of your command in the box next to the Add button. Then click the Add button and your new command should be added to the list. When your Pi boots (or reboots) these commands should run.

You can temporarily disable a command by unchecking the box in front of it. This will add # in front of the command and it will be ignored until you go back and check it. And obviously you can remove a command from the sequence completely by clicking the Remove button beside it. (There is no undo for this)

Posting just to Post

I think I posted it years ago and for some reason thought of it again today. Google tells me it is from the webcomic Slow Wave

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Wave

Interesting interview here : http://www.tcj.com/the-jesse-reklaw-interview/

A New find of an Early Cartoonist - Cliff Sterret

I happened up a book of this guy's cartoons and to conserve money I will just make not of him here rather than buy the book

He has such and interesting look

https://animationresources.org/category/cliff-sterrett/