Back on the bike today - I was biking on level terrain to get my legs in shape - it turn out they were OK - it was my butt that needed work. I have started biking on rolling terrain and I can feel it in my legs and lungs - more work to do before the Tour de France. What I have found out is downhill is good - uphill is bad. Oh well - we'll just keep at it - because there is no easy way - right - well wait a minute in baseball, you could juice it - and in biking there is blood doping plus a few pharmaceutical cocktails that help you recover quickly - in cross country skiing, I think they were blood doping - oh yeah, in football they were juicing it - track and field they use a sophisticated cocktail of steroids and drugs - let's see weight lifting ... OK there is an easy way. You know figure skating and synchronized swimming may be the only clean sports left - well that's not true - the judges are juicing it!!
Let's have a competition where you can ingest, shoot, snort, inhale, anything you want - whoever finishes first - that's it - they win. Only objective sports - no diving, no floor exercise, no trampoline, no figure skating, no synchronized swimming, etc.
You know - Ben Johnson - it was worth it just to see that 'what the f@#k' look on Carl Lewis' face when Johnson left him in his dust in Seoul - I'll never forget it.
But none of this even compares to the 'game of politics'. Politics is a 'judged sport' - the voters judge - the talking heads referee - and then we as judges decide (vote) which talking heads are 'right' - or 'left'. There are no rules in politics - it's the perfect competition - we don't have to worry about anything. Well - like most great games - it's not quite that simple - judges sometimes aggregate consciously to try and get what they want - or judges who don't even know each other - are brought together under an umbrella of a common philosophy.
But it gets better - corporations sometimes want what they want and they can't judge (vote) - but what they can do is back someone who is playing the game of politics - in return all they ask is that if the person backed wins - they agree to play the political game by the corporations rules - why not - there are no rules in politics anyway - so here's some of our rules.
But it gets better yet - those folks who have a common philosophy - they don't have a leader to coalesce around - this is simply the way they are. There are people out there however, who claim to speak for these folks - if the person is eloquent enough - energetic enough - ambitious enough and receives enough money from within this group of common thinking folk - he or she will become their self anointed spokesperson (judge) - when they speak, they speak for the group. This person can't vote for all these common thinking folks - but this person can back someone who is playing the game of politics - promising not money, but votes - votes necessary to get elected - in return all they ask is that if the person backed wins - they agree to play the political game by the 'rules of the common thinking folk' - as interpreted by their self appointed spokesperson.
So far the game of politics is simple - here's where it get's close to chess level - when a person playing the game of politics is supported by - let's say - five corporations and five self appointed spokespersons - and let's say, that person wins. Well now - on any given issue - who do you listen to and how do you act. The answer my friends is blowing in the wind - you listen to everybody and do nothing. The most successful elected officials seem extremely busy, concerned and empathetic - they are excellent public speakers - they can respond to the same question 100 times in a row and give a different answer each time - they no longer recognize 'truth or lie' - only the immediate response to a question and the sound bite. Their personal lives are the same - they are but actors on a stage ....
But some times - every generation - someone new comes along who doesn't play the game normally - and they decide to play once - just for the heck of it and 'they win'. Having won - without the usual backing of corporations and self appointed spokespersons - all of a sudden they can try to do something that normally can't be done - basically anything - because nothing normally ever gets done. This type of person causes issues to all sides - everything was predictable before - now, he or she, says things that offend 3 of the corporate backers and 2 of the self appointed spokespersons - it wasn't supposed to be that way - now the folks who have been playing this game for a long time might have to do something - and they have never done that before - that means pissing somebody, probably everybody, off.
There's only two outcomes here - do something and mess up the current game - which means we might have to start a new one - and there's no way, there is too much invested in the current game - or, neutralize, marginalize or remove the newcomer - to preserve the present game - which seems to be a hell of a lot easier.
But to preserve the game, the people in the game will need the help of the corporations, the self appointed spokespersons and the talking heads .... it'll be a mess, the messages will all be negative but for every different reason imaginable .... and it will be non-stop ... every day .....
I don't know about you - but I lose interest in games that never end - like Monopoly - you know what I mean ......
To quote verse 117 of the Krome Koan,
'The world is run by those who show up'
Here's Hunter S. 'not losing interest', but something else, on something that is bugging him ...
I went into Canyonlands National Park for the first time yesterday and hung out at the Green River overlook. This is like standing on top of another canyon above the Grand Canyon - if you can imagine that - I am not happy with the photos so I will have to return and try again.
Oh yeah - the raven crow beast is now getting brazen - just sitting there behind me and 'cawing' like crazy. I am going to have to silence that thing soon - maybe a gag order - maybe he'll choke on something ... like my fist rapped around his scrawny neck ...
More later,
Phil
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