25 May 2016

Flat, aimless pondering

Can you imagine listening to someone talk for more than seven hours straight? How much would you remember of what they had said? I just saw an ad for a speaking event that’s scheduled to last through all the live-long day, that’s why this topic is bristling me.

Lectures. Are they as popular as they were in the good old days? When exactly did the good old days happen? And how did I miss them? Schoolteachers still lecture, don’t they? And preachers and pastors of churches still lecture, I think.

When radio was invented, did it increase or decrease the demand for seven-hour lectures? & I’d like to ask the same question with regard to the advent of sound-recording equipment.

Why didn’t the printing press cause the art of lecturing to go extinct? Did television, telephone, or the internet affect the realm of books?

If we had to choose just one of the following options, which would we be better off with: (a) security cameras everywhere or (b) all humans toting firearms?

What if you had to earn your first name (in my case, “Bryan”), as you have to earn a degree in college? How would people refer to you, if you had no name?

What if all children were owned and raised by the state, so that anyone who is pregnant simply goes to the state’s clinic, gives birth, and then leaves their baby with the official caretakers; and anyone who wants to work as a state-certified “mother” can do the training and become one, while those who just want to bear more young can contribute to the population without having to act as a parent?

What if there were a law that prohibited all but the wealthiest people (however you want to define that class) from joining the military? And what if all countries of the globe agreed to abide by this same law? What kind of wars would be fought; and how many; and for what cause?

Say a divine being appears on Earth and proves to humankind that it is far more powerful and wise than any of us, furthermore it assures us that it loves us and desires to please us; however, the name that it calls itself does not match any of our established names for God. Would people be skeptical or trusting? What if the being consented to endure any test that we wanted to put it through? At what point would everyone be satisfied that…

Is it possible for all humans to agree on any one thing?—I mean, all at the exact same time? My guess is that there will always be a few naysayers, no matter how incredible their stance seems to be. (Flat Earth.) Occasionally, after time passes, this minor faction accords with futurity’s consensus; and occasionally it turns out otherwise. The only sure bet is that the most perceptive idea is always ignored.

Why leave this diary non-monetized? Because if I were to write for money, I could never be sure that what I had written was what the best part of me wanted to write.

But remember back in the days when it was normal for citizens to walk around in public sporting swords in their belts! I think we’ve made progress as a people in the meantime, since most of us don’t carry weapons on the regular. But we all live in tiny boxes now. And why should I presume that the absence of visible weaponry equals social progress? Back in the USA’s “Wild West” period (so I’ve heard) even the mail carriers carried more than mail. And things were idyllic then. Instead of car exhaust, they had horse manure.

Awaking to an overcast sky puts me at once into the best of humors. The reason is this: I know that our era is gloomy on the inside; so, when the sun is shining bright and the sky is clear, it is an insult to the reality of our existence; whereas, if the atmosphere is gray, it matches the mood of our truth: in that case, at least we have a type of harmony; and we can begin to rise up together.

But have I developed a sweet tooth because I find myself wanting to add triple sec to everything? I’d even serve it as an apéritif at our ice-cream party. Its color is clear, golden, blue. Its flavor is orange.

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