The Music Of the Primes

A guitar can be considered both, a musical instrument as well as percussion. Therefore a man alone with a guitar can often make credible music. Percussion came first - the big bang - then another, and another (echoes)… Then came a more gentle sound, probably in the form of wailing. When the wailing adapted itself to the beat, music was born. Finally, there was the ‘word’ and history began in earnest.

Similarly, harmony is a blend of the secular and the spirit. For the spirit to soar, it needs the discipline of a steady pulse. There has been undue emphasis on just pulse lately. Sound has been allowed to become discordant - the din of people expressing disparate agonies - every nation divided, pulling both ways. Voices shouting slogans in short, bumper sticker bursts mimic the staccato of an incomplete drum set. It has become a lingering sign of our times - 'The WHO' destroying their instruments at the end of the set. Drumsticks tossed into the audience. What are they going to do with them except clobber each other?

We are regressing. The drums of war are heard all around. Even God has been roused from his lofty abode and is seen hurling lightning bolts mindlessly here and there. The ground under Haiti trembles, and over a year later we still cannot cope. Iran threatens, and we shrink from our duty to stop it. And today, Japan stands helplessly while watching a wall of water advancing.

America too watches helplessly as it is being consumed by a tsunami of debt. In New York, the most expensive musical ever is being kept off-line while the bodies drop from the wires.

Curious about Spiderman: The day before Glenn Beck quit the airwaves in New York, he delivered and impassioned endorsement of Spiderman. He claimed that it represents a huge step forward in live theater, akin (perhaps) to switching from watching black and white to color TV. He spent a full half hour praising this show, saying (and I paraphrase) it is definitely worth the price of an over-inflated ticket and even the added cost of a flight from anywhere.

I remember thinking that Beck might simply be honoring some contractual obligation. Or, did he really believed what he was saying? I was torn, but leaning towards the latter. For one thing, he had high praise for the script (and music). He warned that liberals - especially New York liberals - would not like the story. Ticket sales spiked immediately after Beck’s show. Then, other reviews started filtering in. These, as expected, were overwhelmingly negative.

It is entirely possible that a conservative narrative cannot survive on Broadway. In today’s hyper-partisan climate, even the skeletal music of Bono, it seems, cannot endure the drumming of the ideological fist.

While in many ways the staccato bursts of gunfire in the Middle East seem to dominate our own narratives, 'The WHO’s classic coda to “My Generation” comes immediately to mind. And with it, the final scene of smashed guitars and sparking amplifiers.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Cowering In Egypt

Egypt is in the grip of a classic revolution. It begins with chaos and ends in tyranny. This is not to say that Mubarak represented anything other than tyranny. He knew that it was the only way he could keep his country together - that is, to keep it from descending into the even deeper hell of Tehran’s sadistic hordes. In his particular neighborhood, Mubarak knew, he was essentially spitting into the wind. Not much use in pretending that he would not eventually succumb either to death by natural causes or to go down swinging. He held up his end as long as he could.

When the Left decided to join up with the Muslim Brotherhood, he knew it was over. When the West - and, especially, the United States - turned its back on Israel, he knew it was twice finished. He sent his successor son and his family to safety. He himself would stay and fight and, if need be, go down with the ship.

Not much help from Obama who would pepper his stammering response to the chaos with “the people” to the point where it became embarrassing to listen.

In the past, the U.S. could always be counted on to intervene. It was Mubarak’s reward for making peace with Israel. With Obama’s rise to power, the contract became null and void. Mubarak would have to go it alone.

The plague haunting the world remains anti-Semitism. It’s what unites all the players in the Middle East. Once it became apparent that no one would be spared, the faint-hearted veered to the dark side. Israel was declared a pariah nation and even the West would follow suit.

Israel reminds of an Islamic woman who has sinned. Her fate is determined by shariah. They will want to dig a pit for her. And the bloodlust of their god will be satisfied (now that the secularists have also joined in the clamor).

Besides the Israelis, the secularists will also be losers. They confuse secularism with a total ban of religion. They think that this would help them escape the twin burdens of guilt and duty, not realizing that these, in the hands of men, would become even more oppressive and arbitrary. They further delude themselves in that their 'secular humanism' is much different from religion. It is as crude and intolerant as Islam itself. And its high priests are every bit as extreme as the most radical jihadist.

If you want true 'secular humanism', you need only look to India where it is not unusual for an extremely competent high-tech worker to stop at a temple on his way home to circumambulate the idol of his choosing (always keeping it to the right of him) three times before receiving the priest’s blessing and be sent on his way; or, a humble rickshaw driver inviting his priest to bless his brand new vehicle; or the bus driver stopping at a temple to have his upcoming journey blessed… Religion is woven into daily life. No one mocks it. No one feels slighted. No one is cursed, even if they choose to shun ritual.

The Muslim Brotherhood is not like that. They insist on shariah (for everyone). Atheists are not like that. They insist on religious ritual being hid under a bushel. Communists are not like that. They ban any religion, not understanding the concept of ‘giving unto Caesar…’

Islam is not celebrated for being enlightened or tolerant. It is fear that spreads it. It gives off the illusion of power. Who can resist cowering before madmen after the doors of the asylum are thrown wide open and it becomes no longer possible to avoid them?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

In Fear of the Druids

No need to worry. As religion is hard-wired into the human condition, it will prevail (no matter what secularists say). Christianity has done a piss-poor job of protecting its flanks. Ditto, Judaism; Hinduism; Buddhism; Jainism; Taoism. All are on the ropes, threatened by Islam and the Left.

Critics of Druidry will mention it and Christianity in the same breath. They are the ones one needs to fear. They would happily deny an important aspect of what it is that makes us human. But that’s only a start. These same people are working hard to deny us liberty as well.

The revival of Druidry is a response to Islam and, at the same time, the non-response of all the other religions put together. Never mind that it’s a more primitive form of worship, a throwback to the days of Kali, the Earth Mother. But at least she had the balls (in one of her infinite incarnations) to fight and win against the demon. And she never polluted her resolve by imagining that the demon was us.