The Critical Velocity of the Death Spiral

[indigobusiness]

...has been achieved. What an accomplishment!

Forget all the happy talk of how sanity will regroup and thwart the madness. All is lost. Anyone telling you anything different suffers equivalent delusionality as the architects of our catastrophic course.



Fundamentalism has successfully navigated from the warm, far left seas of of William Jennings Bryant, to the icy arctic, far right chill of Jerry Falwell. Guernica is reborn in Fallujah. Global warming not only has been recognized, but has been recognized to have doubled its pace as we ignored it. Coral reefs are dying at a gallop, with seas growing vast dead areas where nothing can live. The cosmos appears to have grown weary of our nonsense as asteroids, meteors and comets zero in on us...forget about space junk. Even the sun seems angry.


http://www.spaceweather.com/

The inescapable centripetal force of our folly has us in its sway and we are one big family on this ship of doom. So, accept the apocalypse, hug your brothers and sisters, sing Kumbaya, and kiss your sweet ass goodbye.

On the positive side, there are spectacular Aurorae.

Have a nice day.



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x11611#16352

[Webster Green]

1. Great pics!

Thanks!

[indigobusiness]

3. Glad you liked them ...

the spaceweather link has more.

[indigobusiness]

42. One more aurora pic

[Dhalgren]

2. Great words, thanks...

[indigobusiness]

4. Thanks, but I expected to be lit into or something

yet this thread seems to have landed with a thud.

[Dhalgren]

6. It's landing may have been thud-like,

but your words were poetry. It is odd, sometimes, the affect that some little thing one does has on those experiencing it. I enjoyed your post and will show it to others. Buck up - you did good...

[indigobusiness]

8. You are too kind...

thank you.

I'm no defeatist, but the handwriting on the wall is no longer fine-print.

[htuttle]

5. Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

[indigobusiness]

7. I guessed Yeats

but I had to check to be sure.
I wish I were more certain of such things.
Thank you very much.


The Second Coming

By William Butler Yeats


Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

17. One line --

"A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun"

That does describe Bush's gaze perfectly, strangely enough.

[indigobusiness]

18. Oddly...

it does.

[orwell]

13. I love that poem...

it always gives me chills.

Thanks.

BTW...nice piece indigo

[indigobusiness]

20. Thanks, Orwell ( I've always wanted to say that.)

Where are the poets?

[Beam Me Up]

9. The end of the world?

You think so?

Not for a while yet. We haven't suffered anywhere NEAR enough for our ignorance.

There is one thing: It is inside us and appears occasionally. Mostly it is powerless because we do not recognize it for what it is. But it is there and it is the real meaning of Faith--which is not blind but full of light and love and a hope based on deep knowledge and wisdom, not ignorance.

It can be found but it must be sought. It can change the course of history.

Do we want to change the course of history? Are we willing to pay the price? Those who do move beyond the questions to certainty and become what they already are.

[Terran]

10. Agreed

We have barely begun to suffer. I hate being so pessimistic, but I think it's an inescapable conclusion. I had some slight hope that a Kerry presidency might send us down a different path, but now...Bush and his heirs will fiddle while Rome burns.

[indigobusiness]

11. The point I was shooting for

is that, perhaps, there is a point of no return...and, perhaps, we've passed it.

Sort of like peak-oil.

Denial strikes deep, and requires no paranoia.

If History has taught us anything, it is that few of us are good at reading the tea leaves. We are often caught unawares. Ask the
Romans.

[donsu]

14. yes, we have passed the point of no return

devising ways to survive the future is all that's left to do.

the smell of death rising from Iraq into the atmosphere will poison us all.

[indigobusiness]

16. Nobody survives the future.

That is guaranteed.

[indigobusiness]

12. I agree we have the potential.

Believe it or not, I'm a screaming idealist/romantic...hardly a cynic.
But potential is squandered more than realized at our current level of collective wisdom.

[indigobusiness]

15. Hey, Beam Me Up? Why didn't you say you were a painter?

I would've tempered my disagreableness in deference to these



etc.

Very nice.

http://www.rawpaint.com/RPdocs/samples01.html

[Beam Me Up]

25. Not sure whether to blush or what. Thank you for your appreciation!

We have to be ready to walk on wather; and then turn it to intoxicating wine.

[indigobusiness]

28. Not at all. Wish I had bumped into you

when I was stumbling around the Bay area, vainly searching for the pulse of its art.

Your work resonates.

[indigobusiness]

19. I reread your post, more carefully,

and realized that was precisely how I feel on good days. Lately, I've been having more bad days than good.

[Beam Me Up]

27. What is a day, good or bad, in the face of eternity?

Understanding that "eternity" isn't "a long time".

Someone said: "The Christian prayer is for the end of the world; that it may come quickly. The only question is *how*. A mistake here could prove quite costly. ...The 'Second Coming' exists for those whose expectations lie in linear time and literal meaning. The true meaning is *Pentacost*: 'The Moon shall turn to blood. Your young men shall dream dreams and your old men shall see visions. And these are not drunken as ye suppose." *Pentacost* The FIRE this time. The world burnt up. LIES BURN UP WHEN MEN SEE THEM FOR WHAT THEY ARE."

Walk on water. Drink the wine. We are not *of* THIS world.

And that is the truth.

Fear not little children for it is the last hour. But every hour is the last for there is none but now.

[indigobusiness]

29. But the sadness lies in allowing an immaculate gift

to spoil.

Not fear, shame.

[indigobusiness]

33. Where did you get this?

"Fear not little children for it is the last hour. But every hour is the last for there is none but now."

Powerful stuff.

[Beam Me Up]

37. Hehe. Where do thoughts and words come from?

The first phrase of the first sentence is from Joseph Smith, the second phrase is Edgar Allan Poe. The second sentence is 'all mine' but its doubtful it would have appeared without having read Alan Watts, Norman O. Brown, and such.

I guess you could say I'm a bit of a mystic.

[indigobusiness]

40. That rang

a mixed set of bells.

[G_j]

21. not much to say but

you are right! :-( :cry:

[indigobusiness]

22. Man, I hope you're wrong...

but, I fear you're not.

[G_j]

23. I receive most every news story on climate change in

my E-box. I am far too aware of the issue.
Never mind the collapse of justice, human rights and peace in the world led by the PNAC, Bush and the fraudulent "Christians".

IF humanity had the WILL to turn things around we MIGHT be able to do it. BUT the leaders and power brokers have no desire to meet the responsibilities necessary. I hate to say it but, I think this planet and the life upon it is screwed.

[indigobusiness]

24. The problem is, they won't...

I'm watching a conference on arctic warming, on c-span, as I type this. It is dire.

[indigobusiness]

26. Ohio Aurora Photo (with meteor) 11/07/04

[RegexReader]

36. found me a new desktop!

:D

[indigobusiness]

38. cool

That's some pic. You in Ohio?

[indigobusiness]

30. Aurora Gallery - link (lots of current pics...look up, tonight.)

http://www.spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery_01nov04.htm

[DrZeeLit]

31. Wow...this whole thread is mind boggling! All this and Yeats, too!

I am without words.
Agreed.
Art is the only way to answer any of this insanity.
Art in all forms.
Watch for more art censorship...because... "they" know that art is the only frontier.
Every other avenue has been squandered.
Eveyone can be an artist; few know that; many fear us.

Hey... I have a book of poems out there somewhere....

[indigobusiness]

32. Yep, art is the lynch pin.

It's what holds the muscle to the bone - culturally.

Everyone is certainly an artist in my book. Opening the creative mind of the masses might be the key to slaying this dragon.

We need to pump up the poetry in our collective soul.

[Karenina]

34. Artfully refuse to allow

the EC to certify this FRAUD of an "election." Please. Even if you succeed at that Mo Nature has to be appeased. She's downright PISSED beyond any cute kid distraction and it will NOT be pretty in any case.
Sometimes I dunno. Maybe it doesn't even matter anymore...

[indigobusiness]

35. I know what you mean.

Thanks for weighing in.

[indigobusiness]

41. Hey, Professor...?

How about adding one of your poems here?

[indigobusiness]

39. I can't believe I didn't notice the double of.

Too late now...damn.