The Price You Pay: The Boneyard
Something like 117 billion human beings have ever lived. It’s a little dark but indisputably true that the vast majority of them are now dead…and the people alive today will one day join them. And what of all the animals that preceded them by millions of years? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh…
In Larry McMurty’s epic novel Lonesome Dove (grab at The Painted Porch), Augustus McRae stares out of the wide expanse of the Texas plains and ponders what has come and gone and been buried eon after eon. “I'm told that over in the Old Country you can't dig six feet without uncovering skulls and leg bones and such. People have been living there since the beginning, and their bones have kinda filled up the ground. It's interesting to think about, all the bones in the ground.”
McRae’s observation is undoubtedly macabre. But there is also something beautiful, even reassuring about it. “The earth is mostly just a boneyard,” he says, completing his rumination. “But pretty in sunlight.”
Life is tragic. The human condition is fatal. The earth is insatiable. But it’s still pretty in sunlight, isn’t it?
Ryan Holiday
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Latency. Magnificent.
A naïve faith in the goodness of his fellow man had led to nothing but trouble.
There had been a change of personnel amongst the Watchers on the Watch, the randy young military trainees replaced by someone, or others, older. Gone, too, was the ardent 12th Stepper who had been lecturing him for God knew how long. A Chinese man, into S&M, although he didn't tell his colleagues that bit. These were the strange drifts, the filling in of dots, and he had no idea how true, or how deceptive, any of it was. You listen to the humans way too much, that same voice, at least, kept recurring.
The ennui that had gripped the nation, that was what he wanted to pin down. That feeling when you know you're done for, and there's nothing you can do about it. Those who had lined up to be jabbed, and jeered at anyone who dared to disagree, were now in deep stages of regret, of an internal horror, and there was nowhere to go but into abstinence, into a kind of non-thinking non-feeling state, for some things, the damage you had done to yourself and to your children, and indeed to others, as a Pied Piper of discontent, arrogance, an in perpetuity grasping for belief, all of it proved a sham. And made you a sham. And now they had to face their own terrible mistakes.
The disconnect was real and vast. A population now deeply suspicious, if not disbelieving, of their own government, having been gaslighted so often over so many subjects.
The current gaslighting, well there were so many areas of treachery and deceit coming from yet another appalling government led by yet another hopelessly self-interested group of politicians, had turned so-called "democracy", that is government captured by special interests whose true motives, money, power and self-aggrandisement, were concealed from the public under numerous sleights of hand and social justice rhetoric, well the current deceit focused on energy. A suite of deranged, ludicrous policies which in their entirety had the ability to destroy the country. And so it would be. And so it would become.
And this strange inching into a blighted future that could have been so easily avoided, that was it. Pure derangement, and yes, an evil idiocy.
HEADLINES
'Teal-style' Muslim political group to target Labor seats, open to working with Fatima Payman
In short: A Muslim community group plans to run a political campaign supporting candidates in key Labor seats, seeking to mobilise anger over the government's Gaza stance.
Senior Labor sources believe Senator Payman may join the group or form a related party, but the group says it has no had discussions about that.
What's next? Senator Payman is indefinitely suspended from the federal Labor caucus.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-01/teal-style-muslim-political-group-to-target-labor-seats-payman/104043742
Fatima Payman enlists minor party specialist as Labor braces for backlash
In short: Labor senator Fatima Payman has been advised by minor party "whisperer" Glenn Druery, who says he has also advised Muslim community groups on election strategy.
Senior Labor figures believe Senator Payman plans to quit the party following her permanent suspension and her claim she has been "exiled".
What's next? Labor party members warn of a grassroots backlash over Senator Payman's treatment.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-02/fatima-payman-enlists-minor-party-specialist-glenn-druery/104050230?
Influence of the Muslim vote in British elections.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/18/muslim-voters-swing-marginal-seats-research