Death of Hypatia®

Category: WIBCI

  • WIBCI Post #88

    WIBCI we has less adult anxieties?

    Remember when you were a kid and you worried basically about nothing?!

    When I was a kid if I lost something (which was not rare) and actually realized it whilst still out and about (which was rare), I may have experienced a momentary feeling of loss and/or feigned a glance or two about my immediate location, but I would quickly move on and play in a puddle.

    Remember how mittens were connected by a string that would go inside your snowsuit sleeve, across your back and out the other sleeve? This allowed you to throw off mittens with abandon when  barehands were needed, like for making really good snowballs, itching, picking, pinching, or flicking.

    I wish we had these mitten-connectors for adults. I would like to shake off my gloves on impulse without having to shove them somewhere or inevitably drop one, never to be seen again. I don’t need the anxiety or the puffy pockets.

    Coolest thing for me about being a kid was being a kid. I think we need more things that we know are going to be there so we can get back to being.

     … more “WIBCI Post #88”

  • WIBCI Post #87

    WIBCI politicians agreed on whom we honor?

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If: the same politicians who feel honor bound to memorialize a conservative political speaker, also found it necessary in 2020 to memorialize a woman who spent 27 years of her life on the Supreme Court fighting for the rights of ALL Americans?

    WIBCI our government venerated civil servants who revered all people?… more “WIBCI Post #87”

  • WIBCI Post #86

    WIBCI ‘Stars’ of the big and little screens weren’t such sellouts?

    Per The Urban Dictionary: In the words of zefrank, a sellout “doesn’t have to do with actually having money, it has to do with the perception that your pursuit of popularity and potentially making money has caused you to sacrifice your core values.”

    Why is it that I’m seeing more and more successful actors hawking the wares of online streaming services, internet providers, and games?

    Are they starving for attention or do they need the money? Because, if people who have been in movies find it fiscally necessary to make embarrassing ads that damage their reputations as artists, what position do they think the average American finds themselves?

    When ‘Actors’ have jumped the shark:

    • If you say the phrase ‘no ads’ in an ad
    • If you are singing and/or dancing in an ad
    • You won an Academy Award
    • If your presence in an ad causes an eeesh reaction in its viewers and conjures up concern for how you have invested

    WIBCI those who have made millions found it irresponsible to promote things that waste the time and money of lay people worse off than themselves?… more “WIBCI Post #86”

  • WIBCI Post #85

    WIBCI we learned from HISTORY and LITERATURE?

    In 1778 Pierre Beaumarchais wrote the play, The Marriage of Figaro. At this time in France, the theatre was THE political space for critical public opinion. This play mocked and ridiculed the old aristocratic value system of France and per the lecture: Living the French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon S1 E2 Privilege: Old Regime Society: ‘(the play) gives us ‘insight into the mood of public opinion in the 1780’s.’

    King Louis XVI was shown this play by royal censors and stated: ‘This shall never be played. It would be necessary to destroy the Bastille itself before this play would be without dangerous consequences. This man mocks at everything in the Government which should be respected.’

    Déjà vu …. no?

    The play was banned, but underground, in private salons, performances of the play were ‘secretly popular’, and in 1784 royal censors allowed it to be publicly performed. So popular was opening night that reportedly a few people were crushed to death when the doors opened. The Marriage of Figaro was about a then debunked tradition of noblemen having the right to replace the groom in bed with new brides on their wedding nights. The servant who was constantly one-upping his master is the main character whose main concern is that his fiancé will meet this fate. The servant angered by the state of hierarchy states:

    ‘Because you are a great nobleman, you think you are a great genius… Nobility, fortune, rank, position! How proud they make a man feel! What have you done to deserve such advantages? Whereas I, lost among the obscure crowd, have had to deploy more knowledge, more calculation and skill merely to survive than has sufficed to rule all the provinces of Spain {France} for a century!’

    -Pierre Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro

    This struck a nerve in France and started the public thinking about the morality of its leaders. Oh and if you don’t know how King Louis XVI ended his reign….look it up.

    WIBCI we started thinking about the morality, or lack of it, in politics? WIBCI we were talking about inequality today?… more “WIBCI Post #85”

  • WIBCI Post #84

    WIBCI: Paying Taxes wasn’t considered Plebeian?

    In an explanation as to why the Danish people rank among the happiest people in the world year after year:

    To many, it is quite the mystery, as besides the horrific weather, Danes are also subject to some of the highest tax rates in the world. 

    Interestingly, there is wide support for the welfare state. The support stems from an awareness of the fact that the welfare model turns our collective wealth into well-being. We are not paying taxes, we are investing in our society. We are purchasing quality of life. The key to understanding the high levels of well-being in Denmark is the welfare model’s ability to reduce risk, uncertainty, and anxiety among its citizens and to prevent extreme unhappiness.

    –Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge

    I feel like we are ‘off’ with how we think about our country as a whole. We are doing away with the programs that taxes pay for, yet the only people really paying taxes are those that would benefit from the programs. And why are we so down on immigrants, if we gave them citizenship, they could work for decent wages, sneaky employees would be forced to declare their existence and get them insurance and benefits, licenses, and money to spend/reinvest in the community. And you know one thing a newly made citizen is most certainly going to do?……………………

    Pay taxes.… more “WIBCI Post #84”

  • WIBCI Post #83

    WIBCI: Justice were more justifiable?

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If there were more satisfactory justice per the rich and powerful who get wrist slaps for obliterating lives? You know the Diddi’s, Dr. Huxtabulls, and Harvy BeerSteins of the world? Per Diddi a handful of months in resort prison seems a bit unjust, no? Dr. Huxtabullshit has been a free man since 2021! He is sitting on his couch getting royalty checks, cause his  show airs EVERY DAY?!  People should have listened to Courtney Love in 2005 but instead careers and money have proven way more important in show-business/Hollywood/the world than the dozens Harvey the Hutt destroyed.

    Maybe we need to create a new criminal charge, one that actually considers the level of mindf@#$ing that victims suffer, will continue to suffer for the rest of their lives, and make the guilty sentencing minimums and maximums just.

    The charge kinda exists (Abuse of power or abuse of authority, in the form of “malfeasance in office”) but I can’t find instances of guilty verdicts or examples of sentencing. So I propose a new offense/criminal act to which do-badders could be charged: Gross Abuse of Position. Under this ‘offense’, offenders could be charged if they systematically abuse others through one or more of the following:

    • Mind Control tactics (popular with cults, Gooogle it and you will quickly find many, many ‘lists’ of successful manipulation techniques) like social isolation and conditioning, created group dynamics/language/hierarchy/rituals, punishment, banishment, peer pressure and shaming.
    • Financial control/manipulation in the form of unfair wages, working hours, or responsibilities and/or control of housing, transportation, and financial independence.
    • Non-Professional Personal Life control/manipulation including: determining cadence with pre-existing friends and family, romantic relationships, sexual relationships, access to information, physical appearance, free time, social interactions, blackmail, threats, and retribution.

    Sentencing should be equal to the number of years it will take to un#$%^ each person and financial retribution. Just need to figure out how to create a new criminal charge…..… more “WIBCI Post #83”

  • WIBCI Post #82

    WIBCI those on-line were EMPOWERED?

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If we used Catfishing techniques against the Catfishers?

    According to Wikipedia, Catfishing refers to: the creation of a fictitious online persona, or fake identity, with the intent of deception, usually to mislead a victim into an online romantic relationship or to commit financial fraud, such as the pig butchering scam. Perpetrators, usually referred to as catfish, generally use fake photos and lie about their personal lives to present themselves as more attractive for financial gain, personal satisfaction, evasion of legal consequences, or to troll.

    Having watched many episodes of Catfish, there seemed to be learning on the part of the ‘victims’, and little to no repercussions for the ‘perpetrators’.

    But….it seems like a precaution exists in the act itself. Step one in every episode of Catfish includes running the pictures through an image search. Why is that on us to see if people are fake if the platform could do that itself? Why doesn’t the platform that is allowing for the fake profiles to exist have some skin in the game? Why not include an image search before any image is approved for upload? If the image is found to already exist somewhere else, you aren’t allowed to upload it. And why not create a page of the most catfished images so people can recognize if they are being scammed by professionals? Seems win/win no?… more “WIBCI Post #82”

  • WIBCI Post #81

    WIBCI we exhibited more SOLIDARITY as a populace?:

    Wikipedia defines Solidarity or Solidarism as: an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. True solidarity means moving beyond individual identities and single-issue politics. Still, solidarity does not reject individuals and sees individuals as the basis of society.  It refers to the ties in a society that bind people together as one.

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool if all journalists walked out when the AP could no longer report from the White House? WIBCI other Higher Education institutions backed Harvard when Harvard was sued? WIBCI States banded together when support for its residents was taken away.

    We are stronger together.… more “WIBCI Post #81”

  • WIBCI Post #80

    WIBCI we had roasts instead of debates before elections?

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If when choosing between candidates, you could base it on how well they performed in, reacted to, and came off in their own roast?

    Think about it:

    • You would be able to find out if the candidates had a sense a humor?
    • You would get to see how they handled being purposely insulted by the best, professional comics of the day, live on camera, and to be rebroadcast relentlessly.
    • You would get to see if they could laugh at themselves.
    • You could judge whether the on-camera reaction was genuine or differed greatly from that which you imagine happened off-camera. Aka are they phony?
    • When they spoke, you could tell if they were in touch with pop culture, current events, and public opinion.
    • You could judge how articulate, smooth, quick, and witty they were?
    • Most importantly, you could see if they were funny.

    To me, that information is of more valuable than canned campaign promises and mud-slinging.

     

    Pick someone in government, alive or dead, and imagine how they would perform/react in their own televised roast.

    Gandhi and Honest Abe would slay…..Hitler, not so much.

     … more “WIBCI Post #80”

  • WIBCI Post #79

    WIBCI we supported FREE PRESS?

    On 10/1 all Federal funding will end for Public Broadcasting.

    We are better because of PBS.

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If our government thought so?

    Maybe millions of people with little wallets and/or hundreds of people with big wallets will pick up the slack, but it would be cooler if we didn’t have to.… more “WIBCI Post #79”

  • WIBCI Post #78

    WIBCI Questions were more honest?

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If instead of someone asking you a question as if they wished to know what you thought on the subject, when they were really goading you into saying something they are prepared to dismiss with great flourish, they actually gave insight into what they really thought?

    Like if Person A, instead of baiting Person B said: ‘I hear this argument all the time that _____ is _____ but I believe this argument is flawed because of _____. What do you think?

    Person A has jumped to the punchline and it may not be as rewarding as a contradictory and/or condescending retort, but Person A might actually learn something about what Person B thinks and this could add to Person A’s knowledge on the subject. If Person A didn’t want to learn, don’t ask.… more “WIBCI Post #78”

  • WIBCI Post #77

    WIBCI we noticed acts of POLITICS?:

    COWARD (Webster): /kou-erd/n/: a person who lacks courage in facing danger, difficulty, opposition, pain, etc.; a timid or easily intimidated person.

    DICTATOR (Wikipedia):/dik-tey-ter/n/: In modern usage, the term dictator is generally used to describe a leader who holds or abuses an extraordinary amount of personal power.

    CULT of PERSONALITY: /kuhlt/uv/pur-suh–nal-I-tee/n/: is the result of an effort which is made to create an idealized and heroic image of an admirable leader, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Historically, it has been developed through techniques such as the manipulation of the mass media, the dissemination of propaganda, the staging of spectacles, the manipulation of the arts, the instilling of patriotism, and government-organized demonstrations and rallies. A cult of personality is similar to apotheosis, except that it is established through the use of modern social engineering techniques, it is usually established by the state or the party in one-party states and dominant-party states. Cults of personality often accompany the leaders of totalitarian or authoritarian governments. They can also be seen in some monarchies, theocracies, failed democracies, and even in liberal democracies.

    • Juan Peron, 3 time elected President and arguably, dictator, of Argentina, built a personality cult around he and his wife, whose effects are still felt in Argentinian culture today. This dictator should his cowardice, in part, best put by Wikipedia: He often showed contempt for any opponents, regularly characterizing them as traitors and agents of foreign powers. Those who did not fall in line or were perceived as a threat to Perón’s political power were subject to losing their jobs, threats, violence and harassment.
    • Mussolini exhibited his cowardice by instructing the press what to write and what not to write about the fascist.
    • One of Hitler’s initial task of cowardice after assuming power in Germany was to extinguish all rights of the German Press.
    • US government showed its when it defunded PBS and pressured TV networks to silence….. comics?!
    … more “WIBCI Post #77”

  • WIBCI Post #76

    WIBCI we knew more of our LITERARY HISTORY?

    In Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller there was the following quote that struck me. It struck me because it made me realize I didn’t know anything about Walt Whitman which started this cool stream of consciousness/domino effect which I will continue after the quote…

    Often we sat by the fire drinking hot toddies and discussing the life back there in The States. We talked about it as if we never expected to go back there again. Filmore had a map of New York City which he had tacked on the wall. We used to spend whole evenings discussing the relative virtues of Paris and New York. And inevitably, there always crept into our discussions the figure of Whitman. That one lone figure that America has produced in the course of her brief life. In Whitman the whole American scene comes to life; her past and her future, her birth and her death. Whatever there is of value in America, Whitman has expressed; and there is nothing more to be said. The future belongs to the machine, to the robots. He was the poet of the body, and the soul, Whitman. The first and the last poet. He is almost undecipherable today; a monument covered with crude hieroglyphs for which there is no key. It seems strange to almost mention his name over here; there is no equivalent here in the languages of Europe for the spirit which he immortalized.

    So the realization ‘I don’t know anything about Whitman’ started me off…..

    Here is what I learned:

    1. I don’t know anything about Walt Whitman
    2. I should get over my ill founded dread of poetry and try to read Leaves of Grass
    3. Whitman wrote a novel in 1852 called The Life and Adventures of Jack Engle. BUT according to the Audible title description: No one laid eyes on it until 2016, when literary scholar Zachary Turpin, at the University of Houston, followed a paper trail deep into the Library of Congress, where the sole surviving copy of Jack Engle has lain waiting for generations.
    4. He was pro-temperance and anti-slavery
    5. He believed that Shakespeare did NOT write all that is attributed to Shakespeare
    6. (Wikipedia) Whitman’s poem “I Sing the Body Electric” (1855) was used by Ray Bradbury as the title of a short story and a short story collection. Bradbury’s story was adapted for the Twilight Zone episode of May 18, 1962, in which a bereaved family buys a made-to-order robot grandmother to forever love and serve the family.
    7. He was a ‘major figure’ in Transcendentalism which according to Wikipedia is on the first philosophical currents that emerged in the US and is considered: a philosophical, spiritual, and literary movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the New England region of the United States. A core belief is in the inherent goodness of people and nature, and while society and its institutions have corrupted the purity of the individual, people are at their best when truly “self-reliant” and independent. Transcendentalists saw divine experience inherent in the everyday. They thought of physical and spiritual phenomena as part of dynamic processes rather than discrete entities.

    I kinda dig when something I don’t know, begets something, that begets something, that begets something.… more “WIBCI Post #76”

  • WIBCI Post #75

    Wouldn’t It Be Cool If: WIBCI: we learned from LITERATURE?:

    Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray follows the lives of the anti-heroine Becky Sharp and milky vanilla Amelia Sedley  during and after the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. This biting portrayal of early 19th century British society only sits in the backseat to the snarky presence of the omniscient author, and the titillating immorality of almost all its characters.
    Below comes from Vanity Fair  and is a line I initially blew off as filler, but after I thought about it, I believe Thackeray meant more:

    When a traveler talks to you perpetually about the splendor of his luggage, which he does not happen to have with him, my son, beware of that traveler, he is, 10 to 1, an imposter.

     

    At first I thought this was literally about traveling and luggage. But now I think it is more like this: if you communicate with someone whom persistently talks about the wonderful things they have and do, wonderful things that are never present, a person who says a lot of pretty words with no substance, no proof – ask yourself if they are compensating for something. Good people are just good people and often don’t need to lead with this, or pre-empt any discovery of such a personality trait that you might make on your own.  I think it is a cautionary tale, telling us to be wary of people who talk as though they are marvelous rather than showing you they are marvelous by just being marvelous.

    What do YOU think?… more “WIBCI Post #75”

  • WIBCI Post #74

    WIBCI if we learned from LITERATURE?

    I re-watched the 2016 movie Love and Friendship staring Kate Beckinsale recently. This movie is based on Jane Austen’s epistolary novel Lady Susan. An epistolary novel is a story solely consisting of letters between characters, and this one is basically an 18th century satirical rom/com. In the movie, at the end there was the particular mention 0f one of the 10 Commandments; Thou shall not bear false witness. Why was this in the script? I like when there is a little unformed seeds that are dropped in movies, a thin Ariadne’s thread that not everyone notices.

    Wikipedia describes the 10 Commandments as: ‘religious and ethical directives. The canon ‘To Bear False Witness’ in particular, is described as ‘widely understood as (a) moral imperative in Judaism and Christianity‘. This is the commandment against false testimony, and further defined as:

    ‘Offenses against the truth express(ed) by word or deed, a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness: they are fundamental infidelities to God, and in this sense, they undermine the foundations of (the) covenant with God.’

    Further down under the heading: ‘Ancient Understanding’ it says:

    ‘You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.’

    — Exodus 23:1-

    This explanation seems to make this commandment much broader than I first thought. The shall-not part about – ‘spreading a false report’, aka, voluntarily lying…. like almost everything on the internet? Spoiler alert for those that wish to get ahead in politics, breaking this one may be unavoidable. The shall-not part about – ‘join hands with a wicked man’….. for those that wish to get ahead in many appendages of the business world, breaking this one may be unavoidable. Don’t ‘join an evil group’, like what? A cult, most religions, or maybe upper management of any corporation? And no lying in the law?! I mean come on, this was obviously written a long time ago, lying seemingly happens all the time in courtrooms with little to no repercussions. You don’t even have to pay fines when found guilty anymore right?! Let me clarify; you don’t have to pay if you’re rich and/or infamous anymore right?!

    It seems rather difficult to not do this shall not…. So why was this Commandment so prominent in the film? The woman asking the priest about it at the end particularly disliked the woman to whom this question seemed to be concerning – Lady Susan (who was pregnant and the baby is NOT new husband’s). So…..was she asking because SHE wanted/did not want to spread a rumor about Lady Susan if it is offensive to God, OR, does she wish to know if she is beholden by this commandment to commit oneself to moral uprightness and therefore expose Lady Susan, OR, does she feel that some of her own conniving, albeit well intentioned, has broken this Commandment? I really don’t know which it is…what do YOU think?

     … more “WIBCI Post #74”

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