Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. The measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns. The very meaning and significance of our lives today expressed in consumptive terms. The greater the pressures upon the individual to conform to safe and accepted social standards, the more does he tend to express his aspirations and his individuality in terms of what he wears, drives, eats- his home, his car, his pattern of food serving, his hobbies.

These commodities and services must be offered to the consumer with a special urgency. We require not only “forced draft” consumption, but “expensive” consumption as well. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing pace. We need to have people eat, drink, dress, ride, live, with ever more complicated and, therefore, constantly more expensive consumption. The home power tools and the whole “do-it-yourself” movement are excellent examples of “expensive” consumption.

-- Victor Lebow

kyped from keith418.
Who got it from Josh.

Heathen Harvest posted a link to Hypnotic Dirge Records third compilation on Facebook. I just started listening, but it seems to be Atmospheric/Ambient Black Metal. Included are photos (some rather nice), a video (boring) and some text screeds.

I have a soft spot for this sort of multimedia compilation as they were really big in the late 80s & early 90s.

One of the files (in RTF format) is titled "We have to be disgusted" and is by the (a?) guy involved with Hypnotic Dirge. Unsurprisingly, it is a litany of complaints against society that are so severe that we must be disgusted. It is rather standard class warfare diatribe, however a few lines struck me as especially amusing.

We have to be disgusted when we hear religion masquerading as morals.

We have to be disgusted when we hear the same talking points  and "buzz words" instead of actual science.

We have to be disgusted that we have still not evolved.

The first one is backwards. Religion is a source of morality. One could argue that imbuing morality into society is a primary purpose for religion. As religion becomes less and less tenable, the need for a value system forces us to adopt religion surrogates such as Humanism, Communism, Anti-communism, Fascism, Anti-fascism, Environmentalism, Atheism, etc, ad nauseam. 

The second is one that I agree with, even though I am pretty sure I am guilty of abusing science on occasion. When I hear people misusing scientific terms to bolster their religious or political viewpoints, often in opposition to what reality & science actually say, I become highly annoyed.

Finally, we have the cherry. After stressing his disdain for repetition and the misuse of scientific terms, he then pulls out the moralistic and unscientific conception of evolution. We have not evolved? Why? Oh because of all these other things that upset you, because the world doesn't match up to your moral vision. Evolution is not a process of becoming 'better.' Evolution does not cause us to become more understanding, compassionate or caring -- unless those traits have some incidental value at propagating the species.

These things amuse me to no end.

(compilation at http://www.hypnoticdirgerecords.com/download020-hdrcomp3.php )

3. Enlightenment and Baking Bread

In Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind we read, “Buddha was not interested in metaphysical theories of existence. He was more concerned about how he himself existed in this moment. . . . How we become enlightened was his main interest. . . . In order to find out how dough became perfect bread, he made it over and over again, until he became quite successful. . . . Actual practice is repeating over and over again until you find out how to become bread. There is no secret in our way.” (Suzuki 56-7)

In this quote, we have two exhortations. The first is to live in the moment. Time itself is an illusion. The dough becoming bread is only appreciable due to our captivity to the world of illusion. We are trapped in a world of duality and so we see the flour, dough and bread as separate and distinct units. There was never a moment when the flour was not the dough and the dough was not the bread. By living in the moment we destroy the past and the future. The moment thus becomes eternity. When we break our memory of the previous state and our expectations of the next state we, in a sense, overcome the illusion which creates a sense of separation. Secondly, we are exhorted to repeat again and again in our quest for perfection. By making “bread” over and over, one repeats the eternal moment. Since there is no distinction between any one moment and any other moment, the first moment and the 100th moment must be the same.

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I received another Campus Crime Alert regarding a sexual assault today. The first was delivered on Nov 13th.

On Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011, at approximately midnight, a University of Oregon Housing staff member received a report that a UO student had been a victim of a sexual assault. The person who reported the incident stated that a student left a party in the area of West 18th Avenue and Kincaid Street on foot and was followed, grabbed and sexually assaulted. The assault took place in the area of the Pioneer Cemetery, located at West 18th Avenue and University Street.  

The assailant is reported as a white male, about 6' tall, medium build, with light brown hair.

Compare this to today's message.

On Saturday, Nov. 19th, 2011 at approximately 5:45 p.m., a female University of Oregon student reported that she was sexually assaulted after leaving the football game at Autzen Stadium on foot. The female entered a vehicle with two or more males and was reportedly assaulted while inside the vehicle.  The female was then dropped off near Autzen Stadium.

The involved vehicle is a dark-colored sport-utility type, possibly a Chevrolet Tahoe.

Notice any difference? Why is there no description of the perpetrators in the second notice? I would hope that the victim is smart enough to not get into a care of guys wearing full body suits, gloves & ski masks. Since she entered the vehicle, she should have seen the criminals.

Since I use Gmail so extensively, when the notice came, I had to leave Google+ rather than risk losing my primary email. Oh Well.

It was saying "the handle around which I have built many interesting and rewarding relationships."

I just realized that I never bothered to post these. On the 21st of August, I rode the JR line from Yokosuka through Kamakura and exited at Ofuna in Yokohama. Actually, I got on the wrong train and rode to the end of the line (just a few stops), then I got on the correct train and rode through Kamakura to Ofuna station.

Rather than risk missing my stop while riding a bus, I decided to take a taxi. After asking a smiling attendent at the station, I exited the station. Sadly, I saw no taxis. I did see a police box & asked for directions. The officer didn't understand English, but he did understand "Taya no Dookutsu" and "taxi." He tried to be helpful by detailing how to get to the less expensive bus. After a bit he did send me to the Taxi queue. The trip cost about 1200 yen.



The temple grounds were quite small, being little more than a few small out-buildings, a small graveyard (it was probably very rude of me to take pictures of the tombstones) and a place to buy the tickets to enter the cavern.

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Flying on the government's dime is always interesting. First, they fly to San Francisco to catch a flight to Japan. This ignores the fact that there is a direct flight from Portland to Tokyo. It also ignores the fact that the flight from San Francisco follows the same basic path as the flight from Seattle. The flight to SF is also longer. I spend 2 hours flying to a location that adds two hours to my flight.

Anyway, the flight itself was rather uneventful. I think that buying an extended life battery fro my laptop would be a good idea, but other than that all went well until we landed. A Thunder storm had struck Narita. Our flight arrived about 10-15 minutes early, however the ground crews would not venture forth, probably in fear of their navels. We sat on the plane on the runway for an hour. I was ecstatic.

We left the plane at about 5:10p (1710). The bus to Yokosuka runs on a 2 hour schedule, 1530, 1730 and 1930. Despite getting through customs in record time, I still arrived at the counter at 1745. Other people who had flown through Seattle then arrived, having been kept on the runway just as I had. At 1930, we caught the bus to Yokosuka (about 2 hours).

This year, they schedule only gives us Saturday off, so I am going to wait until next weekend to visit the caverns.






.

While out today, I decided to stop at a restaurant called "Holy Cow" or some such. I walked in and looked at the menu. After a bit, I got tired of looking and just asked, "Do you have any dishes with meat?" I easily found the "we have vegetarian dishes and many are vegan" line, but nothing to indicate that actual food was present. The showed me three dishes, two of chicken and one of fish. Forgetting a cardinal rule, I ordered one of the chicken dishes.

The cardinal rule is: Vegetarians Cannot Cook.

Seriously, its as if the lack of meat in their diet has filled them with such despair that they inflict their pain on those of us who have not succumbed to their delusion. If the primary focus of a place is Vegetarian, just leave and find a place that has real food.

Anyway, the meal was served. I borrowed the key to use the bathroom. At the sink was a plastic bottle, the kind you push down on to cause it to dispense soap (like the liquid soap dispensers you see for sale in the store, but the kind meant for re-use). I push down on the dispenser and the soap shoots out, not downward into my hand but horizontally/slightly upward onto my jacket. Thankfully, I could not find my Naval Officer Bridge Coat, a below-the-knee woolen jacket that is dry clean only, and instead was wearing my rain coat. I brought the situation to the attention of the restaurant staff.

On one hand, I am amused by the fact that a soap dispenser at a fairly busy restaurant in Eugene could go undetected (dirty hippies). On the other hand, I am mortified by the idea that the staff may not have been washing their hands. Shouldn't they have found this out. Admittedly there were two bathrooms, maybe they all had used the other one. Perhaps they had washed their hands at a sink in the kitchen area.

To top it off, the soap was scented with some yuppie/hippie flowery scent which would not rinse off no matter how much water I ran over it.

"We have already mentioned the fact that the messianic-Galilean doctrine, in its original nature, did not aim to create a new form of social life or even of religion. It had a purely anarchist, antisocial, defeatist character, subversive of every rational order of things. A unique concern pervaded it, obsessively: the salvation of the soul of the individual in the face of the supposedly imminent coming of the 'Kingdom of God.'

"But when the prospect of this 'Kingdom' decayed and finally disappeared, the forces focused on this hope fell back into themselves, and from its individualistic aspect, the Semitic religion passed to its socialistic aspect. The ecclesia, the community of the faithful, understood as an impersonal and mystic medium made out of reciprocal need -- need for love, need to serve, need to communicate, need for reciprocal confirmation, reciprocal dependence of lives insufficient to itself -- replaced in each soul the vanishing reality of the 'Kingdom of God.'

Julius Evola. Heathen Imperialism. p38 [Bolding added]