There's this thing called flash imagery, it's those fractional second pictures and sounds they use on the news, tv shows, movies. They throw something up at you, say a few key words and then, "poof", it's gone. It's a take off on the old subliminal suggestion thing from the movie theaters. But it's evolved into a science now.
     Now before you jump up and poo poo the idea, follow along.
     Would you agree or not, advertising works? If it didn't work, then there's a whole bunch of corporations, companies, businesses and organizations spending billions of dollars on something that don't. You might be of the opinion that most people just ignore the commercials. But they really don't. They think to themselves, "It's just a commercial," then run off to the frig for another beer. Or how about all those inserts in the newspapers, along with ads on every page? A glance at the page and then on to the next one. Gotcha anyway.
     And then there's the music videos, imagery going on in the background along with the lyrics. Or movie scenes that jump from one angle to another, or to a several different scenes within a few seconds. They all are doing the same thing. Putting thoughts, emotions into the mind. Sometimes at split second rates then others they hang onto for a few seconds.
     I suppose most everyone in the consumer business has noticed this. The company goes on an advertising campaign, suddenly theirs more business than usual. I've seen it happen at the pizza place.
     So, Flash Imagery works.

     I use to not believe in such a thing as psychic energy, the collective thinking type that is. I still don't believe in the more extreme things, like bending spoons, reading minds, seeing the future. Those are parlor tricks.
     But this collective thinking, I've sometimes called Collective Human Thought, it's becoming more apparent.
     This is just a simple case. Some nights at the pizza place a particular order will become the most called in order for that night. It may be a pizza with all the toppings one night, a larger pepperonia another night, a sandwich order on still a different night.
     I suppose in other businesses, it would be some product that suddenly has a run on it. And it not because of advertising either. That would be to easy to explain.
     But anyway, all that is just a for instance. It's this Collective Human Thought that is important.

     About two year ago, Summer 1997, I hung out in the religion chat room at Yahoo. After reading all the talk there, mostly it was fighting and arguing, I started to develop this concept that all the different religions and belief systems were just the collective human religion.
     There's common things among them all, both good and bad. Seperately, they are the religions of a particular culture or ethnic group or history. Yet, they have much the same rules and objectives. It is that commonality in thinking that makes the Collective Human Thought.
     Now I know that all of humanity shares a common history. These religious concepts and beliefs have gotten passed around over tens of milleniums. It may be just natural that a civilization would develop common beliefs. But what happens when this Collective Human Thought develops a conscience of its own?

     I suppose when most people see the "scam" word they think of some ripoff scheme to make someone rich. But think again.
     A few elections ago, early '90s I think, there was one politican who was running for an office. His campaign manager thought it smart to play to the different cultures in the different parts of the state. There were at least two tv ads that I saw.
     In one he was dressed up in a nice suit with white shirt and tie, very business like. He talked the talk of the business types, even had the Charlestonian accent. In the other he was dressed in cover-alls, casual shirt, straw hat. He talked the sterotype, hill folk talk. The message was the same in both.
     So there's another kind of scam.
     Even back in the late '70s or early '80s, it was when subliminal suggestion advertising was in the news. There was another politician who had his face marked up with not-so-subtle words. Seems like "sex" was one of them. But anyway, it was another scam, or at least a poor attempt at one.
     But think again.
     What does it tell us about some politicians? That they believe the common folk are easily fooled. Throw up a some flash imagery, look the look and talk the talk, poof, the common folk's vote is mine.
     But that's not all. It reveals in them a streak of dishonesty, deception, un-trustworthiness. Oh yeah, I forgot, that's politicians.

     There's flash imagery and then there's brainwashing repetition.
     Every day, early morning, morning, noon, evening, late evening, all night... it's news, weather, sports... news, weather, sports... news, weather, sports. It not only the same pattern but the same news, weather, sports... news, weather, sports.
     News is most anything related to death, disease, distruction, disaster and other depressing details. It's as if the news people have a really sick sense of what's interesting in life. If an individual exhibited such a fixation on these same topics, they'd be assigned to a mental health agency.
     They were, have been since journalism began I suppose, to think that bad news sells. Brainwashed themselves realy, by Journalism College. What happens to a person's mind when it's been bombarded by the same negative aspects of life for decades? The same question applies to society as well.
     Elsewhere at this website I've talked about news media before. "LoneHawk's Farewell Thoughts" has a section in it.
     It's all a mis-representation of the real world. But why?
     There is also their "tease" and "self-promotional" imagery. Like they spend more time telling about what's coming up next on the program than the actual telling of the news. And it's always, "Hey watch us, we bring you more of the worst of humanity, better, faster than any other." Then they "tease" it out a bit and byte at a time over 90 minutes.
     But what is the antidote to this? Overly simple, just turn them off and cancel them out. Let their sponsors and advertisers know you're not going to watch or read the trash they pay for. Get out and talk with the neighbors, friends and relatives, see what's happening your small part of the world.

     Law began when the first nomads made the first taboo rule. There may have been a peak in law theory somewhere between then and now, maybe not. Maybe it's just been going down hill ever since. Perhaps it started with, "Stay in the trees, don't roam around on the ground, there're strange things down there." Probably reached it's peak about the time the "Don't kill each other" rule came along. That one never worked. So it's been going down hill every since.
     But just what is law theory? Or, what is law? It's a substitute for lack of morals, ethics, honesty, good character, and other such qualities. Admit it, laws are for immoral, unethical, dishonest, honorabless people. But since they have just those kinds of qualities, they're going to find a way around, over, under the laws anyway. Or just ignore them.
     So what's the point of law theory? Keep those marginal dishonest characters honest? That isn't much different than saying, "If it ain't illegal, it's ok." Which lead to many of the wealthy making their wealth based on such a philosophy.
     Then there is the aspect of law theory that leads to using the law for immoral, unethical, dishonest ends. Make a law ... Find a way to use for profit. It's illegal to follow to close behind another vehicle, obviously for safety reasons. ---> Do a quick lane change in front of another vehicle and slow down, crash, sue, it's his fault for following to close, get rich.
     Or, find a way to use the law to make one's self feel powerful. It's against the law to not show up in court for your own trial. ---> Some judge in some courtroom makes a habit of watching people who are there for a hearing, they leave the room to go to the restroom, he calls for their case, they're not there, bang goes the gavel, "Contempt of court!" Now some poor, common folk type has more charges against them.
     Or, it's against the law to bring or drink alcohol in school. ---> The school's police officer watches a kid take a bottle of mouthwash out of his locker, rinses, doesn't have a place to spit so swallows it, "You're busted kid, for drinking on school property", off to the principal's office, kicked out of school and into court. Probably gets contempt of court charges added on when he goes to pee the mouthwash out.
     Yep, law theory, definitely going downhill fast. Wonder if there'll ever be a law against the lack of common sense?

     Symbols are interesting, rather it is their interpertation that has become more interesting. It's "the flag" issue again in South Carolina. And "that broken cross" symbol still gets attention too. And there is that third one which is still active and flying.
     Did you know the broken cross has its orgins in many aborginal cultures? It usually means peace, tranquility, harmony and other such things. There is some difference which depends on the direction the ends point, but I've forgotten which is which. That doesn't matter though, neither meaning is understood anymore.
     Three flags, three different designs, multitudes of different meanings and yet much is the same too. It all depends on who's doing the looking and interperting; who's doing the flag waving and marching.
     The first had an offical active lifespan of about 3 years, the second one about a decade and a half, and there's that third one, still active and flying. This is about one of the three, you guess which one.
     It represents the attempted extermination of an ethnic group, enslavement of another group, corruption, greed and scandal. It flew over massacres, forced marches of death, un-justified interments, over schools of segeregation, in legislative chambers of racial division. It lead the way toward the destruction of cities and regions of the country. It justified the oppression of a defeated people. It stood in the corner of every courtroom where prejudice presided. It was at the head of marches promoting hatred, waved before the flames of burning crosses.

     Adults resent the fact that Youths are living the kind of life they once only dreamed of living themselves. This happens in each generation, or is it between the generations?
     There's always been the rebels, always young, always exploring life according to just exactly what is opposite from what they're not to be exploring, according to the Adults. That's what being a rebel is, rebellious.
     It's the driving force that moves society, ever so slowly into the future. The Youth push forward when young against the Adults pushing backwards when old. Then the Youth become Adults and it is they inturn who begin to push backwards against the new generation of Youth.
     It's not that the Adults think the Youth more wild and out of control. It's not that they think the old days and ways better, wanting their own young to experience Youth the way they did. It's not any of the usual arguements concerning the conflict between Adults and Youth.
     It's just plain resentment. It's resentment that they see the Youth having the great times they themselves never had.
     But the Youth are young, vigirous, lively and the Adults are old, weak, dieing. Progress is made toward the future. Whatever it may become.

     "I'll make them an offer they can't refused."
     It really depends on what's worth doing a boycott. It could have been boycott the businesses that do video gambling. It could have been boycott the handgun and assualt weapons makers. It could have been boycott the companies and industries that lobby, aka buy, congress. It could have been boycott ... well just about anything that's causing real problems in society.
     It's just a dream, but it would be nice for everyone to boycott everything for a day or two or three. Just plain and simply shut down the whole country's economy. Maybe that would get the right people's attention and make a real difference for a better future.
     Charles Stewart Parnell originated the concept in 1880 when peasants ostracized Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott to protest land evictions. The harvest was bad in Ireland the year before and the peasants wanted a 25% reduction in teanant rent. He decided to evict them instead.
     Typical, isn't it. The rich and powerful against the poor and helpless. Now boycotts are used by the rich and powerful put the poor and helpless out of work.

     The planet is a really big place, then again it isn't. It has a maximum load carrying capacity. The fossil fuels peak out during the next century, so does the population. These are in direct opposition to each other. The demand increases in proportion to population at the same time the supply begins to decrease. It is the formula for disaster.
     Include the apparent apathy over the approaching reality, there's really nothing that can be done to stop it.
     Population denisty is a factor too, or it's more like a localized example of what the whole will be like. The mega-cities can not exist without input from the rural areas, everything is transport in, the resources of elsewhere are being used to support an entity that can not support itself. Eventually, the rural areas will begin to withhold those dwindling resources for their own support.
     But for the whole of the planet, there's is no elsewhere for resources and support. One might want to look for them on other planets, but that is not reality. The resources used to do space exploration and exploitation exceed the return.
     There is a peak load capacity and it will happen within the next hundred years or so.

Musings for the 'twixt and 'tween days.
The beginning of the last year
of the Twentith Century
and Second Millenium.

     I've spent most of my life looking and studing the faces of youth; peering into not only their future but their grandchildren's future; wondering how they might remember forgotten, old people's faces of the here and now. I've spent as much time it seems, looking into other faces, young and old, peering back at me from faded photographs, tin-types, old-old newsprint.
     What was it truely like way back then; what is it really like now; what will it truely be like in their future? We are at an equal-distant in time 'twist and 'tween their own thens; a hundred and thirty years past, a hundred and thirty years future. They will be the ones who study our faces in faded photographs, scratched-up home videos, pic-files on a computer screen.
     We look backward at times when politics, economics and issues lead to war among our own ancestors but still do not see the greater injustices by them all against the native peoples. We look backward at more recent times and see the strife and struggle to make things right but still do not see
....
     A wise-man friend once told me, "We all find exactly what we look for, choose wisely what you seek."

Plan A.
The talk of an appropriate place on the state grounds for things associated with the Confederacy, War Between the States and otherwise objectionable by anyone is interesting, but not for the surface reasons. It does suggest that it might be appropraite for the whole of the state grounds, State House, Governor's Mansion, be made into a museum. I find it satisfing to envision the legislators conducting the state's business from the auditorium and classrooms of the most neglected school houses in the state. The governor can walk the streets, live in and out of one the state's homeless people shelters.

For plans B thru Z, see Plan A.

Lost Hope:
     So, when is it time to give up hope? Like what is there left in the future except more of the same?
     I've tried everything I know to change, but it's always the same end result: ingnored, silenced, shunned, abandoned,....
     Anything of significance has been rejected, I'm not the one to achieve any recognition, but others do.
     Where is that invisible line which seperates perception from reality? For years, decades, I've sensed that I'm being used and abused. Important phone calls never returned, letters unanswered, email elicits no responses, it's as if any attempt at contact with the outside is being purposely intercepted.
     Yeah, I know I've written letters to newspapers, I critize the news media and politicians, probably made enemies of people in high places by speaking my mind and the truth.
     Learnt the other day even the local church people have their influence, unspoken of but it's there. If they don't want acholol served at a business, they silently don't do business there.
     Can it be that I'm being blacklisted? Contacts for employment seem to fade away, "pssss, I don't think you should hire him" someone whispers.
     Yeah that's what I sense and feel. It's not suppose to be this difficult to get a job.
     What else are they whispering about me? Don't go to church, don't belong to any inside group, don't have a wife or kids or grandkids, don't socialize, don't talk much. Just who and what do they think I am? "He's different, he's strange, he's weird, he's not one of us, ...."

     Mine's just a general feeling of the un-reasonability and un-sensibility I see in so called news issues.
     Even this confederate flag flap thing has been the lack sound reasons and common sense decisions on both sides. Whether or not it stays up or brought down doesn't really matter to me. I had pretty much forgotten and ignored what flags were up there till '94 when this issue was brought back into the news. Sometimes I'd like to see both sides be childlishly stubborn just to see how far they both would go in causing un-neccessary havack among us common folk.
     There was a news report about zero-tolerance for weapons in schools recently. Some boy learned one of his friends was suicidial and even had a knife with her. He talked the girl into giving it to him and he put it in his locker. Some other student saw or heard about it and told the school people. Now he's been suspended for 4 months, reduced from a year, and both his parents and the girls parents are upset over the punishment. Like here's a kid who saved another kid's life and what do the authorities do? Punish him. It's like one of the parents said, zero-tolereance means zero-common sense.
     I see that kind of stuff in lots of society, official society. Some people can't even agree on when one century ends and another begins or what a millenium is anymore. But I learned from January's issue of Scientific American that even that debate is old. In their 50-100-150 year ago section they had the same debate in 1900. Ha, I guess the new year really begins with getting the next month's issue of Sci-Am in mid December.

     Did everyone enjoy their holiday? Did you wave your US flags and celebrate? What is it again that the States celebrate? Independance? Freedom? Liberty? "I don't think so Tim."
     Did you parade and march along the Trail of Tears? Did you shoot fireworks at Wounded Knee on Pine Ridge? Or Sand Creek in Colorado? Was it the hunt for savages in a native land you remember within your cherished heritage symbol? "I don't think so Tim."

     1. Wars are fought by governments, and the influencial people in them, for economic, territorial, and political power gains. It's doubtful any has ever been fought for moral or ethical causes.
     2. There's no such thing as "free slave labor" only a minimum expense source of labor. The present day migrant farm labor in the States is one example. That's the poor dude who harvests grapes at a furish rate under a hot sun for minimum wages so some rich dude can drop $250 for a bottle of wine at lunch and not give it a second's thought.
     3. Ignoring the offensiveness of some symbols into non-existence works the Federal flag. It's to bad the same couldn't have been done for that other flag.
     4. It use to be said, "To the victor goes the spoils of war." It was later amended to include the right to re-write history. Now history is being re-written by those who do the best at propagating their version of it.
     5. Does anyone ever look toward the real future? The news media can only see as far as the next broadcast, politicians to the next election, businesses to the next quarter's profit, special interest groups to the next threat to their causes. Does anyone in a position of influence ever ask, "How will what we do today affect the next 2 or 3 generations?" "Will it be worth the effort, make a constructive difference?" (I don't think so Tim.)
     6. It's never been a question of "How far have we come" with respect to relations between the different groups in the States. It's always been a question of "Where is it all leading for future generations." Not just 5 or 10 years, but 25, 50 and 75 years into the future.
     It's not even with respect to the so-called race issues, but with respect to how those race issues interact with other future events.
     Two or three devastating growing seasons will cause food shortages. Hubbert's peak (world oil reserves) indicates a deminishing supply over the next 50 to 75 years. Think of all that is dependant on petroleum products.
     Will it lead to more conflict and fighting among the races or cooporation among them to struggle through the hard times?

     There are only two things I've constructively gained from years (gessh! decades) of going to movies and watching tv shows. The first is picking up some phrase, sentence or statement that just seems to stick with me. One of those profound insights type of things. The other was escapism from reality, but that's another story in itself.
     "That's faulty thinking," said by some science type character trying to reason the way out of a twilight zone kind of troubles. It was a tv movie, Landiers, Lagidiers or something like that.
     I suppose faulty thinking leads to more tension among the different peoples of the human race than any other factor. Of course, I'm of the opinion that the mass news media just propagates faulty thinking faster, which itself is a major factor.
     Take for example the use of the words "black" and "white". Pooof. Images of racism, supremacism, hatred, slavery, conflict, murder and whatever else probably comes to mind. A "white" man did thus and so. A "black" man did thus and so. "Whites" are this way. "Blacks" are that way.
     It's really just basically faulty thinking.
     I would wager that most of these 12,000 + messages on this board would read more accurately if "an individual", "some individuals", "some people" was substituted for the words "white" and "black".
     A bad attitude is a bad attitude is a bad attitude ... don't make no diff if it's cloaked in white, black, red, yellow, or green with pink pokadots skin.

     After the war was over and done with, there were two Confederate solidiers making their way back to their home states. As they trugged along, war weary, hungry, tired, they talked about the battles they've been in, the death and destruction, the what ifs of battle strategy. There was a thoughtful pause of several miles along the dirt roads. One finally commented in a profound kind of way to the other, "You know Bobby Joe, I've been cogitating. It's really all just the South's bad luck that cotton wasn't one of them there northern climate plants."
     Bobby Joe pondered over that for a moment or two and then came back, "Nah I don't think so, Billy John. We'd be going back home the victors but it'd be our butts what got whipped at Manasses."
     It's really all kind of amazing isn't it? Just move one cash crop and the whole of history would have been both much the same and different.

     Billy John IV clicks through the news websites glancing over the headlines. The ones about repirations to the slave descendants catches his eye. Congress passed the legislation the day before to make payments. He flips on his cellphone headset, clicks through the family phone numbers and places the call. "Yo, cuz, it's a done deal let's go get in line."
     About two hours later Billy John IV meets up with his cousin Bobby Joe V outside some federal building. It's already a long line, actually the building the line leads to is some 13 blocks away. They stand around and talk like everyone else. "How much you think we're getting?" "Why's it taking so long for this line to move?"
     Billy John IV looks at his cousin, "You wanna know something Bobby Joe, I think you need to ask for the money, you're more black looking." Bobby Joe V thinks for a moment then replies, "Yeah whitey, but you've got two slave ancestors and I've only got one. Besides one of my other g-g-great granddads was slave owner."
     Billy John IV adds another thought after the line moves about a two blocks. "Our great grandma did the marching thing back in the 1960s, you think that's worth something? She got jailed too." "There you go not thinking again whitey," Bobby Joe V replied. "Took them 200 years to pay us for the slave thing. You think they going pay for something that just happened 100 years ago?"
     Billy John IV gets to wondering again how much they'll get and calls out to the line, "Anyone know how much yet?" Someone shouts back, "Two hundred fifty dollars." Billy's heart sinks, "Is that all? Geesh." Bobby Joe V's heart sinks too then he gets mad at his cousin Billy John IV. "You dragged my black butt down here just so you white butt can get $250. I make that much an hour on my dot com business. Tell you what, I'll give you $250 for my slave owner ancestor one of our other slave ancestors and we'll call it even. Let's go get drunk."
     They start walking pass all the others in line, half checking to see if any of their other black-white cousins are still waiting. Up near the front, outside the building where the line leads to, they meet up with their granduncle, Red Cloud XXI. He's walking hard like a raging bull out of the building.
     "Ho Unc!" Bobby calls out. Red Cloud snarls back, "Oh great, more immigrant nephews, that Atlantic Ocean should have been as wide as the Pacific. Keep your both your white devil butts and black zuzu butts out of my backyard." Billy grins, "Now now unc the red, you know you like us. Why so mad?"
     Red Cloud XXI tells them, "I got here in line first. Told those beauro-technocrats they owe me for the Manhatten Island swindle. They said that was a British affair and their Embassy was two block over. Then I mentioned Wounded Knee in 1890 and Trail of Tears in 1838. They just sat there looking dumb like rabbit in front of a fox. Didn't know what I was talking about. Then I gave them a list of all the broken promises made by their snake tongue bearuo-technocrat ancestors. Same dumb look till one of them thought of that Constitution paper and remembered it doesn't even mention my people being counted among all men being equal. Told me I didn't exist and to get out of line."
     Cousins Billy John IV and Bobby Joe V look at each other, nod in agreement without really saying anything. "k, unc, you win. Here's our $250 each. Let's all go drink some firewater now."

     Wrath is the wrong word, to mild and easy. It's going to be more like nature's vendictive retailation, I think. It's the heading of one of the discussion boards on the net and mostly has to do with the hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes, tornados and the like. But it'll be more sutle in nature.
     Back up in Element #15, part 6, paragraph 3 there was mention of devistating growing seasons and oil reserves depletion. It's going to be more along these lines that Nature gets her revenge.
     We, in some parts of the world, can sit and watch drought and famine happen to others, in other parts of the world. But do we really think that's there and can't happen here? What does happen when the industrial world looses 2 or 3 growing seasons? What happens to a country armed to the teeth with guns, rifles, shotguns when the food disappears? Where do the people in the megacities go to hunt for food? Do the farmers who know how to grow food get displaced by the city dwellers who don't?
     It's not only oil, but the coal, forests, water, and other resources that get depleted. Turn the water off to New York city, Chicago, Los Angeles and then watch what happens. It ain't going to be no astroid or comet or meteor what brings about armagoddean. It's be us humans what do it to ourselves.
     People talk about the changing climate, the Summers are hotter and drier, the Winters milder and still drier. But somewhere else it's just the opposite, cooler and wetter Summers, colder and wetter Winters. Drought in one place, floods in another. Yep, there's some change in the wind these days.
     Nature's Wrath, Vendictive Retaliation will be to drown the coastal cities in rising oceans. Turn the growing fields into deserts and lakes. Put humans in the deep freeze or broiling oven. Then in another 100,000 years or so, Nature will have rid herself of an annoying parisite.
     There has probably been more than 100,000 years of humans as hunters, gatherers, farmers in the past. Even up to 150 years ago when the so called industrial revolution happened. And then 200 or 250 years of that will have been all it took for the humans to do themselves in.
     Nature yawns, keeps on rotating and revolving, spirialing through the long drift around the galaxy. Dreams about it being a mistake to let the monkeys climb down out of the trees.