Ironwood Rhubarb #1

Rhubarb about Peace, Bacon, and Eggs: How might propaganda cultivate a more just world?
by Howard W.Campbell, III

(editor's note: rhubarb is  slang term for an argument or heated discussion)

"Peace is more profitable."
1622 Propaganda, Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide

Now, in [2015], propaganda is hardly ever a word used to describe human rights, or cultivating a more just world. How might propaganda cultivate a more just world? In 1622, some accountants for Pope Gregory XV took a sideways approach to ending the holy wars. Mathematically, they proved peace is more profitable than waging holy wars Their proof coined the word propaganda, meaning the propagation of ideas that served the Holy Roman Empire.

Arguably, Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide [SCPF] saved millions of lives, and helped cultivate a more just world. It still sucked to be an invaded population who would be tortured if they resisted being ruled. The word propaganda was created in a proposal to kill fewer people, with the financial argument made in mathematics that peace was more profitable than war.

Propaganda said that if you seize the mind, a valuable body will emerge. Prior to propaganda, a population of alternative religionists usually required extermination or enslavement. Orson Scott Card, an author best known for his book Ender's Game, makes a point in his book The Redemption of Christopher Columbus about how slavery lead to human rights in what we now call South America. In something similar to the SCPF, accountants in the roles of priests convinced gods on Earth that slaves were valuable, and he needed them alive, which led to rules of treatment which led to rights. Again, an argument to keep people alive because they have productive value. Today, many say we should keep people alive because we have an immeasurable value, others don't think we're that special, and yet others hold that while we are special, life extension is not necessarily a moral compulsion. From a learned discussion of math and value, emerged a word propaganda, which changed the structure of society, and placed new-found value on education as indoctrination, and delivered us into a new state of thinkism.

Some say propaganda ended the Inquisition. Others will point out that the Inquisition never ended. In 1965, Pope Paul VI rebranded the Office of Inquisition to the Office of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, which is active at the time of this publishing.

Some say it took the capitalistic agenda of the United States during World War I to vilify the word propaganda. Can we all agree that the meme "propaganda" is a negatively charged meme? When people point to government persuasion media and call it propaganda, I wish they might more accurately say Bernaysian, from Edward Bernays, the man who wrote the book Propaganda.

When you hear an ad saying " 4 out of 5 doctors recommend . . ." you are hearing the echo of  Edward Bernays' advertising headline: 4 out of 5 doctors recommend a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs. People still say "bacon and eggs" but virtually nobody today remembers the ad for the pork industry. Edward Bernays was a genius at promoting categories, so he often got hired by an industry association, or by the market leader of an industry. If you own the company that sells the greatest quantity of cigarettes, then getting more people to smoke will help you the most because you are the market leader.

In 1948, when this ad ran, folks were already eating eggs for breakfast. Occasionally, folks would eat pork with eggs for special occasions. What Bernays did eloquently was give folks a reason to do something more often that felt like an indulgence, and to make it seem healthy.

Bernays appears to me as a dark, misguided magician, applying sleight-of-mind for man made ends. The "Bacon & Eggs" trick here was a magician's forced choice among doctors. When Bernays surveyed doctors, the survey asked [something like] would you recommend your patients skip breakfast or have a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs? Then he wrote an ad headline: 4 out of 5 doctors recommend a hearty breakfast of bacon an eggs.

The "4 out of 5 doctors" sleight-of-mind  is perceived by some to have cost hundreds of millions of Americans many years off their lives.Looking at the cost of lives appears to me as a process of evaluating what our current mempool is taxing its inhabitants. Arguing for a more life/livingry agenda appears to me as [an application]  of propaganda's persuasiveness in creating positive changes in public health This concept is outlined in 50 Ways To Yes, written by an articulate humanitarian named Dr. Robert Cialdini.

It is because of this that--when in a restaurant you will hear me order eggs and bacon. :-)

[Edited and retyped on February 3, 2015 by Mickbic]

Schuyler County's Wendell Berry

Sam Argetsinger (1952-2014) was the Wendell Berry of Schuyler County in upstate New York. Like Berry, Sam was a philosopher, poet, essayist, farmer,and social activist. I enjoyed co-editing the student newspaper at Watkins Glen, NY with Sam our senior year there, 1969-1970. One of the most impressive things about Sam was his knowledge of a couple of Native American languages.

The following quote by Wendell could have easily been written by Sam. "Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a stronger sense of justice than we do." RIP, Sam!

Christmas 1983--Poem from Raphael entitled DRIFTERS

To Tim, the one special person who understands

We are bloodbrothers of all drifting things
That ride the winds and tides, or on swift wings
Cry down the pathless blackness of the nights,
Guided by restlessness and phantom lights,
Of will-o-the wisps borne by lost frantic souls,
Futile seekers of far shifting goals.
We see strange sights, learn curious truths,
Find lotus lands and taste fruit that soothes
Our fretted spirits for a blissful while
In vague enchantment on an idle dreaming isle,
But leaves us craving, seeking once again
Veiled distances. We know the stabbing pain
That makes the desolation-haunting loon
Fling manic laughter to the silent moon,
For once, god-cursed, it saw the monstrous joke
Life plays on life; its terrored reason broke
And so its mocking mirth congeals our blood.
We are riders of the aimless flood,
Strayed human driftwood watching with wise weary eyes
The brassy tropic suns and shallow empty skies
Of chartless seas. One day is like another day,
And we happy, unhappy.......only we know for sure
We know not what strange port shall be our last,
Nor care. Today we feast, tomorrow we fast.
The treasure found is less to us than treasure sought,
And we dearly treasure trifles dearly bought,
While all those tender things, friendship, love, home
That haunt the dreams of us who drift and roam
We trade for worthless star-dust which we vainly seek
In nameless valleys lost behind some mist-enshrouded peak.

Different Religious Viewpoints

"If an Emerson were forced to be a Wesley, or a Moody forced to be a Whitman, the total human consciousness of the divine would suffer."  William James--The Varieties of Religious Experience.

William James uses the phrase "twice born" quite a bit in his book. I see people moving through a revolving door, often rejecting the worldview they have when younger for something different. We must learn to accept the fact that others may differ from us in many facets of their and our life experiences and perspectives.

Friends Welcome Anytime--Family By Appointment Only

"A man's foes shall be they of his own household." (Jesus)

"The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life/[lives]. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof." (Richard Bach)

I love you--Don't Harsh My Vibe

April 8th, 2005. Friday. I took a left hand turn out of Maestro Fates Florist's horseshoe shaped driveway onto East Brainerd Road to deliver several floral arrangements. The front right passenger door would not latch. I don't know what the problem was. I steered the van with my left hand and held the door shut with my right hand.I did but I did what I had to do.

Arriving back at the shop--with one time sensitive delivery not happening because the intended recipient had the day off--I told one of my five self appointed bosses about the car latch problem. She solved it somehow by wiggling a screwdriver--Every April 8th when blondes think you get the impression that they are high functioning asperger aliens channeling from Sirius, the Dog Star.(Robert Anton Wilson's Coincidence Control Center.) Then she when back inside the shop and exploded/really had a cow, man. Definitely more than a hissy fit. She directed her wrath in the general direction of  her mother but I knew her anger was meant for me. Then she decided to do the last two deliveries of the day herself. I gave her the keys to the delivery van and took the bus home to Highland Park.

The next few days I was a total wreck, lots of insomnia and fatigue. Did Blondie commit a civil tort--negligent infliction of emotional distress? Waiting for Godot to show up and tell me what's what.

About 10:30 a.m. on Friday April 15th the telephone rang at my home. It was one of my five self appointed bosses wondering why I had not shown up for work. I told him I was behind on my sleep. I don't think I said I was running a sleep deficit. He replied "you might as well not come in to work anymore." Pink slipped via a Southern Bell landline. What is the frequency, Kenneth. Dan Rather does not know.

I did not tell him that I thought it was Thursday. I only worked Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays.  I was too embarrassed to tell him that I had lost track of days. It was five years later that I learned the word zietgebers--inputs that affect circadian rhythms.

A few days I sent an email to my favorite Hoosier from the computer at Poindexter Library. I entitled it *36 Wheels.* Two 18 wheelers in a head on collision at the flower shop. No more tip toe through the tulips. Joreena asked me about the damage to the flower shop, bless her heart. Actually my son is my favorite Hoosier, but he only spent the first 17 months of his life there.  In 1997, we visited the family living in the house he was conceived in and born in. He was 15 years old.

  A few days before arriving in Indiana with me in June 1997 my son threaded a small worm on a fish hook and caught a small fish.We were at a campground not to far from the Corvette factory in Kentucky. Later we checked out some limestone caves and he made some remark about a cute girl on duty there at Mammoth Cave. "Hormones," as Will B Dunn liked to say.

Back to the small worm catching a small fish.  "He [that] soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly." (2 Corinthians 9:6 KJV)  I might have read The Magic of Thinking Big at some point, but then I never drove an 18 wheeler through Tiny Tim's timorous tulips before. Tip toe through labia majora or you might end up paying child support until you can send a photocopy of Junior's high school diploma to Child Support
enforcement.

Exactly fifty years before that Friday in 2005, Americans began facing a new deadline. April 15th became the deadline for filing Federal tax returns.The man who became my high school biology teacher turned nineteen years old that day. I suppose preparing tax returns must be something like preserving frogs in formaldehyde so teenagers  can cut them up and hope for a B plus and look forward to taking chemistry next fall with Mr. Cook the baseball coach. Maybe cutting up pickled frogs is less gruesome then threading wiggly nightcrawlers onto a fish hook bass ackwards. Toad the wet sprocket.

On April 15th 1862 Emily Dickinson sent a letter and four poems to Thomas Wentworth Higginson--after reading a  recent issue of The Atlantic Monthly featured something Thomas wrote entitled Letter to a Young Contributor.

Events  did not go turn out well. Emily was devastated by Higginson's response to her letter and 4 poems. Higginson felt that her poems lacked form and were technically inept. She took to bed for a week and then responded to his critique.

My devastation took during the seven days preceding April 15th --after Tina Simpson uberscrewed the doorlatch van/doorlock and volcanoed her Grand slam Homer Simpson seriously having a cow and milking it too.One tit for whole, one for 2%, one for skim, and one for buttermilk. Emily, on the other hand was devastated for seven days after April 15th because Higginson did  not pot latch with her but probably pulled a 420 friendly with some Boston Brahman. . Or maybe he was sucking some other lollipop.and neighing after his neighbor's wife a la Jeremiah 5:8 KJV. I think he lived in Philadelphia.

Emily had miscalculated. Nonetheless, she and Thomas developed a long lasting friendship, although she seldom followed the advice he gave her. I bet in that seven day purgatory she might have consoled herself that Higginson Thomas Wentworth was worthless even as my Hoosier friend probably considered her former boyfriend as worthless, and his surname of Hayworth to be God's way of saying don't believe sweet talk on April Fool's Day.

1865......2005.....143 Years. /// 11 times 13 ///    I   IV   III   ///  ONE--FOUR--THREE  ///  In the online Urban Dictionary defined as *I love you.*  Etiology--(One letter, four letters, three letters)---[December 2017 insertion herewith---I have heard that when people had beepers----before cell phones that 143 meant I love you.]

A few days ago I received a message from a woman who had a profile on an internet dating site. I read her profile after reading her message. In the profile she stated that she was looking for a church .Being a Unitarian Universalist since 1992 when aliens crashed in Area 51 in Roswell, Georgia, I directed her to Holston Valley UU Church near Johnson City, Tennessee, the Northeast Passage where LBJ announced he was not running for reelection back in the 20th century. According to the Holston Valley UU Church's website they have 143 members.There's the good old 143 again--I love you.

I love you.

 Whatchagonnado?

Whatchawantme to do?

Help you determine what your standing will be with the Inferno Revenue Service next April? Tell you which frogs to kiss, which ones to consume, which ones to put in formaldehyde?

After Otis Lord's wife died Emily Dickinson sent him a note. [I]  confess that I love you.

Even cowgirls get the blues. Don't harsh my vibe.

Morning Glory Zell Ravenheart (1948-2014)

I was not expecting to see an obituary in the New York Times for MGZR who died on May 13th, two weeks before her 66th birthday. Huffington Post ended up publishing a tribute to her.

MGZR coined the word polyamory in 1990. I first saw the word when I was browsing through an Asheville NC bookstore, perhaps in 1998 or 1999. I purchased a copy of LOVING MORE, a magazine devoted to polyamory. My study in the past of alternatives to monogamy entered a new phase. I subscribed for one year and enjoyed reading ads such as a couple with one child looking for a father for a second child and a man who wanted seven wives. Must have read Isaiah 4:1 and felt he had a mandate for polygyny. (As Lewis Grizzard used to say, that's in the Bible somewhere.)

Morning Glory really opened a Pandora's box with her new word. Then other words and acronyms came along, compersion, metamours, polyfidelity, NRE. FMF, MFM....you get the idea.

Stanley Kurtz of the Hoover Institution weighed in on the subject. The Unitarian Universalist Association allowed poly folk to move a little closer to the campfire, sing cumbayah with the LGBTQI community, but it has not been too quick to give an endorsement.  Too busy trying to affirm gays, bi's, and transexxuals. Would they also have to affirm beastiality, pedophelia (sp?) and incest? UUA is also making a home for the BDSM community.

Two commentators about the 1960s quoted something from a 1930s author "you can't have both sexual freedom and greatness for more than one generation." Will Durant wrote that as a young man he liked the notion of freedom, but when he became an old man he felt that you had to have order if you wanted to have freedom. So those who wished to love more than one at a time, must seek to remove disorder from their lives, no easy task, n'est-ce pas?.

Too Much of a Gentleman

I like what Will Durant wrote about Pietro Bembo: "He was too much of a gentleman to disturb the consolations of the faithful." Bembo lived from 1470 until 1547. I primarily think Bembo was very sensitive to the spiritual sensibilities of the people of his time. We too need to be sensitive to the various perspectives of our contemporaries.

I Contain Multitudes

Walt Whitman: "Do I contradict myself? Very well then. I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes." I can relate to this. I have acquaintances that believe that unless you have accepted Jesus Christ as your saviour you will burn in hell after you die. I also have acquaintances who are agnostic or atheist. I can accept all unreservedly.

Mayan Calender

Well December 21, 2012 has passed with no earth shattering events posted. Now we can breathe easier for a few more years.

Walking dogs

I found something new to do: walking dogs for Brother Wolf Animal Rescue.  I do not have any interest in owning a dog at the present time, but I do enjoy interacting with dogs.

Three Female Grandchildren

All three were born in 1974. One in France in June. The next was born in Ontario in July. The last one came along in October in Tennessee. They grew up. One became a mother. One liked to sew. One liked to play guitar. I don't know if they communicate much being cousins and all. You would probably have to ask them.

Liberal as Conservative

"Times of sweeping change are difficult for religious institutions, since religions, even the most liberal, are conservative at heart, eager to find and hold on to valued patterns. Unitarian Universalism was no exception." David E. Bumbaugh wrote these words in his book *Unitarian Universalism: A Narrative History* concerning the turbulent late 1960s and 1970s.

If liberals are for change, they become more conservative when any of their dreams come true.

The Press

How shall I speak thee or thy power address Thou God of our idolatry, the Press....Like Eden's dread probationary tree, knowledge of good and evil is from thee. [William Cowper in Progress of Error]

I saw this quote on a trade publication front cover in the late 1970s.

721DIDEROT798

 

As,If--Cannibals: If you don't like how my friends taste, try the mashed potatoes with Gravy

Southern Baptist Last Rites some oyster crackers and non alky grape juice. Even for Hunter S Thompson Chardonnay on Day of the Dead. Richard Holbrooke is gone, as is William Coblentz who noshed with Donald Rumsfeld and the Jefferson Airplane. Who of four ith the mudder of Mitzi Edourson's two chillen. Late fifties became a mommy in southern india on Memorable day to honor fallen soldiers. Previous sons all dead needed male hair. And I be dat age once and rowed canoe indy rain next to small wankers big digs built more french broads. Free world wide egg sperm donation plantation with local greyhound taxed patdown. Abortions wong Jesus and Mahomo don we now our gay apparel tra la la la la la la la la. walking in a winter wonderland seven maids a milking seamen drinking in your local small box refurbisher. Free Gore Vidal Mim Tick Veigh almost Bojangles Chicken and Biscuits. Foggy luna eclipsed. *It's ten p.m. do you know where your sperm is?* Two couples one condom guessing bout the three men dey admired the most taking southwest airlines to the coast if Rudy Valee rose from the gravy. He's coming again bringing the tarter sauce for 153 fish on Omaha Beached in Saint John's Godspell.

http://www.theparisreview.org/


Seven final lines Paris Review 195 p. 131 Albert Goldbarth///her special focus is minnows,darters,sturgeon./They're noisy, it turns out,when you have/the proper equipment....thundering booms/ and drawn-out kiss-squeak figure prominently/in these fierce displays of territoriality/and sexual welcome underneath/the still and quiet surface.

Thank you for coming to the RiverLink Labyrinth dedication. Hope you are well.We have to talk soon. How are the kids doing. Jerry has a girlfriend that has a four year old daughter and Agnes and husband divorced. I was so shocked I broke out in shingles. Have ulserative colitus of the colon and just heard yesterday that Sharon has high blood pressure and colestral. What else can go wrong. *And Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior Luke one verses 46,47. May your spirit rejoice in all the blessings of this beautiful season; and I heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight, Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night* Drink Clausthaler non alcoholic beer if you hafta. Feinsliebchen, my love, Du hast ja Ehr' und Treue noch, with truer love I've never met. (Three Folk Songs, Brahms, International Music Company New York) Hard to stay warm here-heard it was cold in Kentucky too. I'll have to move to Edmonton in January.

Andy says guaranteed not to be regifted. Knock on Wood.

Lauretta Grenier Guest Book: sign their guest book, share your condolences, or read their obituary at Ottawa Citizen

Lauretta Grenier Guest Book: sign her guest book, share your condolences, or read their obituary at Ottawa Citizen

Knew some hospitable Good Samaritan type GRENIERs in Ottawa in 1974. They is good people as some would say. Lauretta passed on the first anniversary of my nephew Daniel Pasquale's death.

M

Abstaining From the Eucharist

In recent months I have thought of attending an overtly Christian church in contrast to my regular practice of attending services of churches affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association. I have been a Unitarian Universalist since 1992.

This morning I attended a church affiliated with the United Church of Christ. When it was time to arise and proceed to the center aisle to partake of the Eucharist, I remained seated. The facial expression of the only other person sitting in my pew indicated that she personally was welcoming me to proceed ahead of her to the center aisle. (During Children's Story time, we sang "all are welcome at God's table.")

I have considered myself a Christian since about 1959. This morning was the first time I felt I should abstain from the Eucharist. I have felt that remarks that those who believe in abortion rights should abstain or be forbidden the Eucharist has weakened the sacrament. First Corinthians 11:27-29 is largely about self examination for worthiness to participate in the Eucharist. Now perhaps one should examine the worthiness of those institutions and individuals who conduct the Eucharist and decide whether or not one should participate at all. Hats off to the late Ted Kennedy who chose not to receive the sacraments at the Papal Mass in April 2008. I am fairly certain he had a female sibling with different views of abortion than his own.

The abortion issue is a real nasty can of worms and I do not feel qualified to offer any remarks on it at the present time.

An Evening With Dallas Willard

I only attended Tennessee Temple College one year before making the decision to become a Children of God Jesus Freak in August 1971.

My oldest sister handed me a brochure about Dallas Willard in the spring of 2006. He had earned a degree at Tennessee Temple in the 1950s.

I attended one of the speaking engagements featuring Willard in 2006 on the campus of Tennessee Temple. In his extemporaneous, sonorous speech he juxtaposed the phrase "the good" with the phrase "the right perfume." I later offered written commentary of his speech to a Tennessee Temple professor who had heard his speech that spring evening. I pointed out that the phrases "God saw that it was good" and "God saw that it was very good" were both mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis. On the subject of perfume I mentioned the story of Esther preparing herself--did she use perfume?--for an appointment with a king who would eventually help the Hebrew people as a result of his time with Esther. In my commentary to the professor I also mentioned the company Arcade Encapsulated Products, which manufactures fragrance sampling product to help women chose "the right perfume." The company is located on Main Street in Chattanooga, not far from the campus of Tennessee Temple. I also cited two examples of "the good" for 2006. The professor's home state won the Miss America pageant that year and my daughter's alma mater beat UCLA to win the men's division of the NCAA Basketball tournament.

At the lecture I purchased a copy of Willard's book THE DIVINE CONSPIRACY, which I believe was recognized as CHRISTIANITY TODAY'S book of the year, perhaps for 1999. I was delighted to find the word good in the book. Willard used the phrase "the good homosexual."

I am fairly certain Willard was one of the signers of the Evangelical Manifesto a few years back.

Willard's speech on the good also reminded me of Robert Persig's notions on quality as expressed in his books ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE and LILA.

Eventually I hope to investigate Willard's ideas about the late Edmund Husserl.

If I live long enough to do so that is. It is on my bucket list. :-)

Cinco de Mayo Death

To kill a living creature of any specie can be a cause of anguish. The last day of eleventh grade I killed a baby fawn with a Willys Jeep not far from my childhood home. It was lying in my path in a meadow I was driving in. I saw it too late to swerve. This morning I was in a half awake half asleep state on the floor in my attic loft bedroom when a large cockroach decided to bother me. That really got my goat and I attempted to kill him/her but he/she scurried along the floor near the dresser and hid behind a small waste basket. I turned on the light and quickly made an end of him with the fingers of my right hand. My brother in law was puzzled to see me come downstairs and wash my hands.

Apparently some feel that cockroaches are able to commit suicide. The late Pedro Pietri wrote a poem enitled A SUICIDE NOTE FROM A COCKROACH. I am fairly certain there has been a play written and produced of the same name. I think it is about an immigrant who eventually becomes a cockroach.

Generally I usually do not feel empathy for cockroaches, but today I wonder about their overall intelligence. Why bother someone much bigger than you when they are trying to sleep? Hopefully there is a heaven for cockroaches where they are treated like first class citizens. When googling suicidal cockroaches I got an ad for a pest control company. Can't let the creatures take over.