Hurricanes destroying everything in their path, washing homes out to sea, while flooding the rest, is god's vengeance against southern, white, bubba-headed, climate change denying, Trumpies. Exactly as AIDS was god's vengeance against gays. As Iraq was god's vengeance against Muslims. As poverty is god's punishment against brown immigrants. And so on and so on and so on.
How does it feel bubba?
Allahu Akbar
That's 6.9 miles per second. Pretty fast. 13.4 times faster than a bullet.
Traveling at 25,000 mph it would take Artemis 115,000 years to get to the nearest star 4.3 light years away.
There are trillions of stars.
Why yes, they do. And so do women, children, boys, girls, men - white, black, brown, red, yellow.
Barney wore them once - but he was a devoted, purple, nudist.
I've seen Levis on a chimp, on a pimp, on a man with a limp.
I've seen them short, long, and on people's arms.
I've seen them as dresses - maxi, mini, and in betweeny.
I've seen them on a Gox.
I've seen them in a Box.
I've even seen them used as Gox Box Socks.
But I have never ever seen faggots spit tobacco juice.
Faggots and all real men don't spit.
Spitting, is for texans.
'The House of God' by Samuel Shem (Stephen Bergman), published in 1978, is a satirical novel written to call attention to the abuse and dehumanization of physician trainees. It is incredibly sexist, oversexed, and over the top, things one can begin to forgive when it's put in historical perspective - the 1970's. Nevertheless, it is an incredibly immature, self-indulgent, and two-dimensional novel, that its author and millions of physicians and physician trainees thought hilariously clever.
It wasn't clever, not really. And in the end the book just served to contribute to medicines long, proud, tradition of self-aggrandizement, pomp, showmanship, and arrogance.
Whereas the book sets out to expose the effect medical training has on its trainees - abusing them until they become dehumanized and two dimensional - exactly as their trainers had become with their training - all in an attempt to properly numb them to the abuse heaped on to their patients by western medicine's fundamental approaches to illness. But despite the authors original intent, the book somehow manages to do the opposite - evoking the sort of legend heard in frat houses and basic training camps - thank you sir may I have another?
In the end it serves to lionize America's ridiculous approach to medical training and to care - making it legend, instead of indicting it. Whereas it is true training is different today, perhaps in part due to this book, doctors are nevertheless no more humane, no less callous, no less arrogant and certain in the face of ignorance, and no less two-dimensional, than ever before. Long hours and disrespect were never the issue. It was and still is medicines fundamental approach to patients that dehumanizes its trainees - something the book failed miserably at pointing out.
At the time of its publication giggles and laughter emanated from call rooms all across the country as medical students and interns read it's pages with glee - wow I'm a part of this insanity and that's cool, learning along the way that being clever, stuffing your brain with facts, and towing the party line was much more important than humaneness, wisdom, or compassion - all the while learning to ignore the dehumanizing effects western medicine's approach has on patients. It made them more famous in a funny and clever way - despite the book revealing their collective sociopathy.
Black humor has to be a part of medical care if one is to hang on to even a shred of humanity, but 'The House of God' used it to glorify a band of brothers (and one female) traumatized to callousness, serving to encourage an underlying dictum seen even today in the halls of academia - that clinical medicine is nasty and beneath 'real' academics. That patients really are gomers, obesity and most chronic illness is to be ridiculed, that doing is the go-to when the talentless meet suffering humanity - testing, operating, just one more round of chemo, one more course of antibiotics - all much more important than quality of life or often, even dignity.
The House of God never really taught us anything new. It lionized black humor, pedigree, arrogance, and heartlessness, in medicine, and helped to cement a culture of inhumanity in the delivery of medical care while enshrouding it in legend. But arrogance, certainty in the face of ignorance, callousness, and an approach that involves treating the disease not the patient is a long sorted one, well-established for millennia in medicine - nothing new - and if anything, the book just made it worse.
Science is truth.
Religion is faith - divisive, limiting, ignorant, and used as justification to act on our worst impulses.
Art resonates and reflects the relationships found in frequencies, colors, textures, and media, as determined by the physical laws of our universe.
Nation is imaginary. Make believe, infantile, empty human construct.
Music is mathematical - resonate with the universe's periods, cycles, and patterns.
Money, wealth, consumerism, power, prestige, 'success' - all empty human construct leading to isolated lives, harshness, and soul sucking ignorance.
There is an ancient, grand, and glorious universe rich with the truth of you to be discovered, explored, and experienced.
To do so all you need do is look away from the shallow human constructs that have so shaped your life, all your life, and come to know, really know your universe. Art and music, mathematics and physics, good places to start.
As I have worked across the US these last 8 years, I have discovered some interesting things about its people:
1. The smaller the town the meaner and more ignorant the people.
2. The uglier and harsher the environment the uglier and harsher the people.
3. At the heart of conservatism lies fear - of nearly everything.
a. Fear of change from imagined historical norms.
b. Fear of the unfamiliar - people of color number one.
c. Fear that their way of life will be taken from them.
d. Fear that their stuff will be taken from them.
e. Fear of their own failings.
f. Fear that they will fail even more when faced with change.
4. There are good people everywhere - there are just more of them in the more urban, or the prettier and/or more educated areas of the country.
5. Conservatives tend to be mean and more likely to:
a. Cut you off in traffic.
b. Tailgate.
c. Gawk but keep moving at accidents - not the ones who get out of their cars and help.
d. Lie
e. Feign religiosity to cover heartlessness and to empower their selfishness.
f. Mistreat people when they perceive little risk of blow back.
g. Lack a sense of social responsibility - denying climate change even when they know it's real, refusing to help those in need - immigrants, refugees, the poor, the traumatized. Ignoring the suffering of others. Using 'fierce independence' to cover for selfishness and a lack of empathy.
6. Major corporations in this country are obsessed with profit, do not really care about their customers except as to keep them coming back, and lack a sense of social responsibility. Think of how badly the airlines treat you now, and how much worse they would treat you were they not so heavily regulated as just one example.
7. People are more than willing to exchange richness of life, intimacy, uniqueness, and soul - for convenience, cost, and to avoid the unfamiliar. Chain restaurants and coffee shops, strip malls, and cookie cutter homes, come to mind.
8. Americans love war, violence, violent competition, and all things military.
9. Americans hate 'losers', old people, and anyone too different from themselves.
10. 'Justice' predicates for the most part on the almighty dollar and that's ok.
