Fizzer
What do you think western culture is Bic, inquired Gut.
It is not a Hollywood cowboy film, Gut. Well, that is not entirely true, a Hollywood cowboy film is definitely a significant reflection of western culture.
To some degree, I believe western culture is a slow developing appropriation of, whatever preceded the current dominating empire.
Sorry Bic, that flew straight pass me, you left me back at the cowboy film. I did feel a slight breeze between the ears, but that’s it.
I should be the one apologising, Gut.
Western culture is a vast subject that has been twisted, stretched and generally misrepresented by people like myself for a long time. I can say only one thing with complete honesty. I have an opinion.
That opinion is based on what I have read. What I have read is mainly written by other people that have opinions.
To top that off, I have a memory of what I have read. Memories sometimes get a bit tangled up. Are you still interested, Gut?
Your memory can be interesting Bic and sometimes funny.
Why thank you, said Elvis.
The longest surviving empire in western history was the Byzantium Empire centred in Constantinople, roughly, the centuries from four hundred to twelve hundred, common era. No other Western Empire has even come close to that.
Empires never reinvent the wheel. They appropriate from what preceded them and claim it all to be their original thoughts on matters. They rename historical figures sometimes and generally rename everything else in the language that they adopt.
When Rome fell into to ruin, rather than rebuild once again, the dominant group, in Rome’s case, the military, packed up and moved east and established the Byzantium Empire. They became comfortable and generally forgot about the rest of the known world.
Which is not really true, they simply did not keep up the Roman war tradition. At the present time, I would say that is the pinnacle of western culture, because they also wrote a book in the Greek language called the Christian Bible. A big selling book after it was translated into lots of other languages about eight hundred years later.
The Greek language precedes all of this by thousands of years. The stories written in Greek make modern day Hollywood look ordinary, well I am being kind, look absolutely terrible. Technology is no substitute for a good story. Good stories go on and on, technology goes out of fashion. Many of the Greek stories form the basis of the Christian bible. Some of those stories were also popular in ancient Egypt.
This is the really interesting part now. While Byzantium was living the high life on cheap slave labour and generally ignoring all that lay beyond it and producing beautiful icons and monuments to their new God, this period became known in Western Culture as the Dark Ages.
Dark Ages; it was not. A new group emerged with a different prophet and spread quickly across large parts of what was formerly the western Roman empire. The epi-centre of this culture became known as the Moors of Iberia, now commonly known as Spain. They had a different book of social rules in a different language, but they preserved the Greek language of science and mathematics. The eastern Romans may have also done this, but there is little sign that they held it in high regard.
These Moors freely transferred their knowledge to their more primitive neighbours to the north, firstly to Charlemagne, who is recognized as the father of France, previously known as the Franks. The result of this was to become know as the Renascence. End of the Dark Ages, push that to one side, but don’t ignore it.
The relatively new smart city states of what is now Northern Italy, started trading with wealthy Byzantium. These city states became very wealthy from this trade. They then organized several armies to go and liberate Jerusalem.
They took the long route through Constantinople and decided to pillage it. That could have been the plan from the outset. Byzantium became so weaken by this, that another group came along and took it over, the Ottoman. Today Constantinople is Istanbul and it has been that way for six hundred years so far. The last of the Greeks were basically moved on at the end of the first world war when the Ottoman empire fell by the wayside.
Gut said, slow down Bic, that is a lot for my little mind to absorb.
Mainly opinion Gut, not because it may not be true, but because of what I have emphasized and how I related it.
So, you are saying that is how our minds work, Bic?
Not really, I would say that, it is how our minds are WORKED by the culture we exist in, said a contemplative Bic.
The powers that be, the controllers of the culture for better or worse are selective in what is promoted by the education system and who is a recognized authority on any matter.
Some of this filtering can be of great benefit to the population and a long-standing stable society can be the result.
The trouble happens when a group within a culture get wealthy and powerful from military means. They then promote lots of fear about the guys that don’t speak the same language, so no one really knows what other cultures are on about. These military people believe they have to justify themselves, so they go around provoking these other guys in hope of a war breaking out.
They encourage violent behaviour through certain sports, movies and now computer games. The easy minds to manipulate are young males with lots of testosterone in their system. That is most of the history of western culture, military campaigns waged for economic benefits. All the excuses for these campaigns from religious beliefs to freeing slaves and now liberating females are mainly cynical. I believe there are much better ways to go about achieving these highly desirable results, without having to kill and maim the innocent.
Gut said with great excitement, Bic, I have it!
Say for instance, there is a country in the world today that has a military bigger than almost every other country’s military combined. Whenever there is a war on, they are usually involved in it. They promote a violent military style society by pledging allegiance to their flag and have lots of guns in the community. Lots of young males are incarcerated to try and keep social violence lower and also provide some slave labour. Still, lots of shooting murders go on a daily basis.
Bic interrupted; they did not have guns in ancient Rome.
No, this is some fictious modern country, nothing so grotesque could happen today, could it, Gut said inquiringly.
I suppose not, said Bic.
Okay, all the really wealthy people of this fictitious country are led by a golfing leader, who says, lets relocate to such and such desert, that nobody wants and with our wealth we build the best golf courses and giant huge really big walls surrounding us to keep out the bad guys.
Then all the frightened citizens who believe that their turn to be wealthy and famous is only a stroke of luck away, are given permanent residency on self-sustaining luxury cruise ships that stay at sea.
Then, all the young males full of testosterone are provided with endless amounts of free substances. These substances help them to believe in very kind fairies that guide them through their days in a peace-loving colourful manner. Gut was very proud of the adaption to his idea of how to save the species.
Bic said, my friend, I believe you have found a solution to save a fictitious country from its demise. If the ancient Romans could achieve it, I am sure the genius of today’s world will see the light.
I am not
Watt does not outwardly appear to be a curious person, but as the old saying goes, a book cover can be misleading, this applies to Watt. He is a camouflage expert, someone, many people tend to overlook, probably because he is not a self-promoting twit. (In some cultures, a twit is regarded as a fool)
Some of these history books I have been reading, Bic, clearly state that Western Culture has a long history of slavery.
Bic sat up from the book he was reading and said, Western Culture continues to practice slavery, only the methods have changed.
Watt, slavery is the ownership of a human, by another human. It is not hard to expand that definition of an owner, being, say a bank holding a lifelong mortgage over some poor soul. Corporate culture marketing consumer products, creates consumer slaves, because people can live perfectly worthwhile lives without these useless goods and services. These mortgages and consumers, need finance and this creates the wage slave.
What I find interesting Bic, is how slavery is presented as an opportunity to be free. Where it is a total contradiction to freedom, well, freedom as I understand it. Once again, it is all about how something is defined, I suppose.
Bic said, when someone goes around saying I am free all the time, it really raises a lot of doubt about what they are raving about. I have never heard anyone ever say, I want my freedom from that Monster Truck, it costs a fortune to sit in gridlocked traffic and by the time it is paid off, it will be worthless. I spend twenty percent of my working day commuting in it and twenty percent of my after-tax income running it. I am a slave to the Monster Truck.
Watt said, have mercy on you my poor slave, you will be richly rewarded when you go to the recycle depot.
Bic started chuckling, I hope there are no councillors within earshot of us, we could be deemed to have mental health issues. When you are not on the straight and narrow, you obviously have issues. To not totally believe in this glorious culture, is to be a traitor. Judging a citizen’s sanity, could be seen as culture control.
Watt said, more like sanitary controls.
Watt and Bic were having a wonderful time with their banter, when Bic said. When the Vikings were at their peak selling slaves to the Byzantium Empire, they were supplying so many at one stage, that, a human slave did not cost as much as a goat.
Watt said, What!
Bic went on, Dublin, Bristol and the Seine River delta were Viking slave trading hubs. They sold those slaves to the Moors of Spain as well as Byzantium. Slavery has always been an integral part of western culture. When the aristocrats displaced the peasants in the highlands of Scotland so they could graze sheep there, many of those displaced Scots sold themselves into slavery to survive. There are millions doing that right at this very moment. So much of life is down to luck, Watt, yet the media of the culture never seem to mention these things.
Watt said, do you think if you could read every book in the library and be able to reproduce everything on call, would you be an authority?
Bic was back to laughing and Watt looked confused.
Bic apologized to Watt and said, Sorry Watt, I am not laughing at what you said, but what it made me think.
Authority is power, that can be executed within or by a State. Knowledge for its own sake is laughed at now, in Western Culture. Unless there is an economic gain, it is all meaningless. So, what my silly thought was, is this. The dominant media message is, the Western Media has, the authority to invent the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Authority has no relationship to knowledge, none, what so ever.
Watt said, my grandfather said to me often, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Maybe, he should have said, the sleazy wheel stole the oil.
They were both chuckling again and Watt said, sometimes, I wonder why we laugh at our own stupidity.
Bic said, often I get totally out of my depth about somethings, but still, I try to make sense of it. That is my warning to you Watt for what I am about to say.
Bic went on, I wonder how some people go through their lives, living complicitly in some form of slavery. While others, have absolutely no problem with exploiting others.
Bic said, is this behaviour something that is learnt and can be changed through our lives, or is it a DNA type of thing, set for life?
Watt was slow to respond, Bic, I understand your question, I have absolutely no idea about the answer. I would guess that the slave group far outweigh the exploiters though.
Bic said, in a perfect world, if it is a DNA thing, wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could implement Gut’s idea of the self-contained cruise ships and encourage all the exploiters to become permanent residents and all the rest, get on with having peaceful, uncomplicated lives.
A ship full of wheels within wheels of sleazy oil thieves, now that would be something to avoid, chuckled Watt.
I would not have a clue
Bawd would always ride on public transport when he did not have to move equipment. The van was a tin box for him and if he had to ride in a tin box, he preferred a larger one without stress.
The public library was beside a railway station and if he had some spare time he would sometimes go to the library. Bawd enjoyed catching up with Bic and he is still taken by the idea that as a member of the public, the public library is his place to share with other members of the public.
I hope you are taking good care of my library he said to Bic, when he entered the reading room.
I certainly am Bawd, replied Bic, how are you Bawd?
Stress free for a couple of hours, said Bawd.
Bic said, Bawd I have been wanting to ask you a question for a while.
Go ahead, said Bawd.
Talking with you fellas lately, I have been wondering where the entertainment industry stops and the advertising industry begins?
I have never considered that before Bic. It is all the same industry to me. Being a musician, I see little difference. With adverts, the pay is all set rates with the studio sessions, because you are working for the studio. Corporate functions are similar because it is through an agent. Theatre jobs are the same, an agent. The pickup jobs are pay up front. We do some band jobs, but that is only for fun and if we get a good commission, good, but it is not the reason we are playing.
Bawd sat there for a short time and said, musically it is not really that much different. We prefer some studios to others, especially engineers.
Bawd was considering carefully what he was saying. It is really about the people you have to deal with. The older commercial people are all good. When they have survived for more than, a few years, it is because they are good at what they do and they are respectful of everyone else who knows what they are doing.
Some of the theatre and agency people are much better actors than the talent, time it not always kind.
That is a big factor Bic, the look. Music is only for mood, the support. The look is far more important. You wouldn’t believe what the makeup and lighting people do, they are really good artist some of them.
I would say, as long as the music is tight, then, entertainment and advertising are mainly focused on the look.
Being a drummer, sitting behind the kit with a hat on, I can get away with an awful lot, Bawd said with a reflective smile.
Your view is very interesting for me Bawd. For it is all straight forward, it is how you earn a living. You see it from the inside out.
Until I met you fellas, I had no idea about the day to day working of either industry. I am a simple consumer of it all. Because of that, I have a very different perspective of it all.
I rarely ever take any notice of advertising, in fact, I find it annoying most of the time, said Bic.
Join the club, said Bawd, it is really brainwashing, marketing that is. Some of the health adverts are important, but I often wonder if they are a waste of time, because, I think a lot of people are totally switched off.
We rarely come in contact with marketing people, however the agency people we deal with do. They described what they do as something between spies and mind controllers.
These marketing people collect information about lots people in under handed ways. Almost everything anyone does that has a financial transaction involved in it. The details of that transaction will be packaged up and sold on. Experiments and tests will be then conducted with unwitting subjects to test how far these marketing people can push the envelope, what they really should say is, how far they can push the poor unsuspecting public.
One of the agency people told me about the overall plan of an advert I was playing on.
It involved instructing children how to pester their parents to get them to purchase a product. The children are unaware of what is going on, they are simple information sponges. The parents are unaware and the product was, an automobile.
Another time, one of the agency people told me that the banks are so good at analysing the information they collect, they can tell when a relationship is going to break up, before the couple know. This is a result of how money is being spent by one partner.
When I see people waving flags claiming they are free, what they are really doing is, waving flags and saying look how dumb I am. Some creep in a bank knows more about me than I do and my children are being manipulated to make me purchase junk.
Outside of my working world, I do not get the chance to talk about what I am aware of Bic. I am glad I can tell someone about how much we are compromised in this world and really, we are all complicit in some way, that is how the system keeps going.
Bic had a lot to think about after what Bawd had told him, not so much about the machinations, but how well Bawd understood how the system operated through compromising people. The more compromised someone is, the easier they are manipulated. Bic had read that so many times in history books.
Five percent reality, ninety five percent activity of the mind. Bic had absolutely no idea why he said that, it seemed to come out of its own accord.
Bawd said, I don’t know if your percentages are accurate, but I do understand where you are coming from Bic. A little bit of reality and the rest of it, only exists in the minds of people.
Dagge’s doubts
Yit and Bic were sitting outside having some lunch. Yit said, it is a pity we cannot eat inside the library, the exhaust fumes from the traffic really stinks.
I wonder how long it will be before people start wearing ventilators around. You know Bic, I am surprized that a corporation hasn’t started selling clean air filter respirators to the smog breathing city residents.
I can imagine their campaign, Bawd plays a big crash intro, Watt takes over with some spacey chords and a video of butterflies and beautiful girls run through heavenly long grass. Then, I sign in a light meaningful way.
You will get much, much more,
After you rise with the dawn,
By breathing through,
Freedom Airs, Respirators.
Bic stopped eating and looked into a far off nothing and started laughing.
Yit continued, they will be very stylish, an essential accessory for the well informed.
Bic said, Yit, after Dagge claimed we are not really real, but only characters in some story, I have been having doubts about a lot of things.
When I stand back from myself and consider what my life is about, it is fairly narrow. I am not complaining by any means. I appreciate being able to read numerous books about history and whatever.
I have never been beyond this city and don’t care much about that. I have never had a close relationship beyond my own parents, don’t feel any need to. The most social contact I have in years has been my fairly recent contact with you fellows. This has been very good in many ways and I hope it continues for however long.
But, this is becoming a really big BUT for me, why have I been so isolated through a large part of my life?
Yit was trying hard to take off his silly hat and respect Bic’s concerned question, when he said. Sorry Bic, the author hasn’t bestowed much insight onto my character. Hang on, a thought is coming through.
Ah yes, when you are exposed to something that is new to you, then, you start questioning what is really, your habits in your habitat.
Bic started laughing so much his posture was being noticeably contorted.
You are a witty Yit, Bic finally managed to say.
Why thank you, said Elvis.
Bic said, that is an interesting take on human behaviour. It makes me feel like some little hairy creature that lives in a burrow and has learnt how to survive there, as long as I stay within the borders of my little world, I am safe.
Yit said, well, my little furry friend, join the club, I mean the species. When you boil your behaviour down, it is fairly restrictive compared to the big exciting world that is fabricated and promoted to be our culture.
Bic said, lately for me, what is tangible in my life is becoming easier and easier to separate from the fabrications of culture. I suppose I am lucky to be able to sit here and think about such things.
Yit said, look Bic, I cope by not taking too much too seriously. I believe the reasons why you can see yourself as a furry little creature and I can sit here and make light of most things is we are not sucked into the competitive consumption culture.
Yit went on, we don’t have big monster trucks to pay for, we don’t have monster mortgages to protect. You can go into the library and be at peace with the world reading about what some people have written about people. I go around singing what a wonderful world and believing it.
Trouble in a wealthy society starts, when people believe the propaganda about how the bad guys want to go to an enormous amount of effort and change the habits in the habitat, Yit said again.
For me Yit, I really don’t have great expectations, in fact my expectations are relatively modest. I think that is why I sometimes feel like a stranger in a strange land. The brave new world is not as interesting as, Bic paused for some time and Yit said, as yesterday.
Yes, said Bic, yesterday.
Yit went on, at one time I became preoccupied with the notion that it all starts with this deliriously happy couple copulating for nothing other than pleasure. Then, a couple of eggs hit the jackpot and a little parcel of happiness begins to develop. One day a message comes down from the control centre, your time is up, you will be ejected through the birth canal shortly. Good luck, have a nice day.
Although that bubbly little creature is not aware of it at this point, it is hopefully going to be a reasonably happy adventure as it travels through its existence and back to star dust.
Now what amazes me Bic, it is that simple, but what happens is, there are nutters who cannot grasp that it can be a wonderful ride back to star dust. They want to turn it all into some sort of nightmare. They are probably so stupid, they are bored.
Yit went on a bit more, that is why I believe, I do not really believe much and tend to suspect that this culture we are a part of, is not to be taken too seriously.
Here, here said Bic, a trouble-free happy journey back to star dust.
Yit said, that would make a good song Bic, my journey ends in star dust.
Bic said, I will have a chat to Watt about it.
What star dust
Watt said to Bic, once I was a strong believer. I doubt whether I would have questioned much at all.
Now, one of the great things about being a self-confessed ignoramus is, you are bound to ask lots of questions about almost everything. The more you ask, the more interesting answers you get.
My grandfather sometimes said, an ignorant man is often a happy man. I never understood what he meant then Bic, but I am finding out now. People committed to strong beliefs about almost everything, have a heavy burden to carry.
I have been lucky Watt, said Bic, I have always assumed that I am ignorant and reading has always confirmed this belief.
Watt said, I have started to notice in entertainment media, how much human behaviour is attributed to animals and inanimate objects.
I wonder if that could be reversed and still be interesting to a human audience, what do you think Bic?
I can sort of think of one case, where it applies. Sculpture and paintings, said Bic. The human aspect is frozen. Some of the scoundrels that are represented in statues, should be frozen, and a plaque could clearly state, try an avoid the tyranny of this fool being repeated.
Humans are animals and I would guess we have an awful lot in common with all other animals, said Bic.
Watt started smiling and appeared to see something in front of him, but it was really all happening inside his own head. Ah Bic, he said, that is it. We are, we are animals and especially living in a city, we are not very well connected with much else, other than, other human animals.
Maybe I should get a dog, it might help me to relate better with what is happening around me, said Watt.
Bic said, I would like to have a dog for a friend, but there is a big commitment with a dog and I don’t know whether I am up to that.
Watt returned to his normal behavioural expression and said, Bic, I think that this current way we so call, live, is so different to our evolutionary development, that, a lot of our problems are a direct result of it.
For example, we have spent millions of years developing how to be bipeds, in one generation, bang, we are monster truck prisoners. Poisoning our very own world with the emissions.
So much for being clever, said Bic.
Bic said, sorry to digress a bit Watt, but it has occurred to me how powerful cultures over the centuries have gained surplus wealth in order to gain power and dominate others. A part of that surplus gained was through oil. The romans used olive oil for lighting and more recently, whale oil was used for lighting. Now fossil oil has made this current human madness possible.
Still, with all the fossil fuel used, slave labour is still used to gain surplus value, humans are definitely strange creatures.
Back at the creatures of a non-human type, Bic said, it would be extremely interesting to listen to an interview with a pig that is in a pork meat breeding factory. I wonder how much of an idea it would have of what was happening to it.
I ask this question Watt, for a specific reason.
Bic went on, I have read an awful lot about ancient Rome, which was powered by slave labour. There were definitely slave revolts. A lot of slaves were captured people who were enslaved and I would imagine they had developed ideas about, what is what before being enslaved.
The ones that I have wondered about more often are the poor souls that were born into slavery and knew nothing else. More than likely raised and treated much the same as domesticated animals. Bic paused and said, did they exist in their surrounding only in relation to the other slaves, or did they see themselves as a part of the human species. They, more than likely would have been able to communicate effectively.
Watt sat in silence for some time with a lot of neural processing going on behind his stunned expression. Finally, he said, I have a factory sow, juxtaposed with a scanty clad human washing machine pictured in my mind’s eye Bic, the image is all black and white. Really weird, why is it in black and white.
After more silence, Watt said, maybe, humans have not evolved as much with our minds, as we have with our bodies.
It was Bic’s turn to sit in stunned silence and he did for a long time. When he finally spoke, he had gone off on another tangent.
Watt, he said, let’s go get some lunch, but, definitely no meat, I don’t want to be a cannibal.