Medieval Mayhem!

Well! That was the most out there birthday weekend I've experienced in quite a while!

A hundred kilometer run through the hills and forests of the deep south west to Balingup. The first 40k away from the coast at Margaret River is a leisurely cruise on a sealed road through undulating remnant bush and pasture.

Then comes the shortcut: Another 40 of gravel through solid redgum forest. 20k into it the road is traversing steep gullies, where platoons of potholes lie hidden in the shadows dappling the road. Beating the ambush with some creative road use, we emerge onto the highway at Nannup. Nannup's going off with the annual Tulip Festival and the weekend's live Nannup Idol competition (!) - but we're on our way to the girls' Middle Eastern Dance gig at Balingup's Medieval Carnivale.

Check it out...













This is my first visit to a festival founded in 1998 and it's quite an experience. Many folks travel as far as 300Km to participate and there's a huge degree of local community involvement - the cast of characters is mesmerising. Some I recognise from Margaret River. There's the wild philosopher for example. Wild philosopher looks like Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho) except he's over 2m tall, lithe and muscled. He's dressed in animal skins and wanders the ground with dog and staff, bearing on his back a hand lettered sign on torn cardboard: "Human desires are like the world of the dead - there's always room for more..."

Several people at the carnivale captivate me, suspending my disbelief - this isn't dressup! They're living it. These men and women make their own clothing, armour and chainmail. Banner and staff. Trebuchet and pike. They appear to me as characters from history...

the English King on a French battlefield...



a Prince of the Medici....



a veteran of Caesar's Gallic Wars (losing side)...



a defender against the Normans in 1066...



and Charlotte...



I can't get a photo of Charlotte - at least, not as I see her...

I can't stop looking at her. She sits with a handsome breeding pair of pit bulls. Her shaman's staff bears bright yellow and black tiger snake skin and intertwined snake skeletons, complete with heads and fangs. Emu feather, strips of hide and bones. She is a vision and she emanates conviction and primal reality. I hear later that Charlotte is from Walpole and has been either "locked on" or aloft on a platform at every forest rally staged over the past years.


Day 2. Sunday.
Happy birthday to me! And to Bean!
(I knew there'd be a reason I like your style so much Yamba!)


6.30am: the view from the cabin

Time to stop daydreaming and get into the action! Which isn't a problem given there's 19 of us in this hillside cabin and 7 of us are under 8. Jasmine goes into the creek before the fog blows off.


8.30am: Jasmine leaves the creek

We're back at the fair and plunged into mayhem after the girls' first performance. The ritual challenge to the King's authority is performed and the boys in metal get into beating the crap out of each other on the tournament field. They fight with simulated weapons and often go pretty hard. The rules are simple: Blow to unprotected arm - fight with arm behind back. Blow to unprotected leg - fight on your knees. Blow to head or torso - you're dead. They run amok all day...







The Middle Eastern Dance goes off too. (I was wondering about that: Western Medieval knights and the middle east... wasn't there something?) The girls from Bellyvision and Flowers of the Soul unite to weave a fine glamour over assembled royals, serfs, vassals and mendicants.





I'm going again next year!



BTW: I've realised I don't think I could ever be a "live" blogger. It took me this long to edit the photos and even if I could have done it on the day, Balingup doesn't have mobile coverage, let alone wireless internet!

...and the resolve to preserve what remains

the memory of all that's been lost...

Philosophy of... philosophy!

the evenstar twins (thanks to Anthony for the photo)

Oh boy, do I feel stupid now!

For the last couple of weeks, inspired by Bean's Philosophy Blog War, I've been seeking to understand more of philosophy and I've come to realise that what I've always thought of as philosophy is actually metaphysics with a touch of epistomology and ethics.

It was reading Brit Brogaard's Philosophy of... entry that initiated this revelation. Brit's post and the subsequent comments mention "the philosophy of art" and "the philosophy of mathematics", of language, of mind, of law, of economics for crying out loud!

Look - I don't know about you, but I just don't care about the "philosophy" of art. I'm captivated/moved/inspired by a work of art or I'm not. It speaks to me or it doesn't, and philosophising about it won't change that. I haven't thought about it deeply, but I'm pretty sure I'd say the same thing for all those other philosophies of...

The discussion initiated by Brit examined the question of what constitutes "core areas" of philosophy, and soon felt to me very much like "the philosophy of philosophy". I mean no disrespect and I've already admitted stupidity, so I hope no-one will be offended by this opinion, but I have to say that all that discussion, all those "philosophies of..." are just static on the radio as far as I'm concerned.

I believe "real" philosophy is that which seeks answers to the big questions that concern us all as human beings. What's the nature of reality? Does God exist? Is knowledge possible? What makes an action right or wrong? These are the questions everybody considers in some way at some time and I believe they should be the focus of philosophical enquiry. Then again, maybe I'm just discovering I'm some kinda old school traditionalist...

Although still feeling pretty dumb, I do take comfort from the fact that Aristotle's "First Philosophy" was metaphysics and that the subject was considered the "Queen of Sciences" from before Aristotle's time.

I reckon modern philosophy has splintered to abstract shards, as illustrated to me by this quote from Brit's post: Yesterday Robert Kraut was giving a talk at St. Louis U on whether music expresses emotions (for the record: Robert says 'no').

Excuse me? Music doesn't express emotion? Surely only a modern philosopher could propose something like that! I'm sure there's a good (modern) philosophical argument to justify that position. I probably couldn't even grasp it, let alone refute it. But is it true? I ask you - music doesn't express emotion? Hands up everyone who agrees with that!

I know I know nothing, but here's one philosopher's quote I found that did ring true:

"I think .. [philosophers] are not honest enough in their work, although they make a lot of virtuous noise when the problem of truthfulness is touched even remotely. They all pose as if they had discovered and reached their real opinions through the self-development of a cold, pure, divinely unconcerned dialectic... ; while at bottom it is an assumption, a hunch, indeed a kind of “inspiration”—most often a desire of the heart that has been filtered and made abstract—that they defend with reasons they have sought after the fact."

— From Friedrich Nietzsche's

Beyond Good and Evil, Part One: On the Prejudices of Philosophers.

today's cloud of indecision...

red/green three

seeking the gems...

Here's my vote for week 1 of Bean's Philosophy Blog War...

Hey Burlyman -

It's Sunday, so I'm guessing the first week of the phi blogwar is done? Hoping to learn something about philosophy, I thought the post that made me go Huh? the most would be the one to vote for and yours sure had me scrambling for info... no wonder you'd like to be paid for the research! ;)

The Other... my initial reaction was pretty strongly negative to that concept and its ramifications. Then I got to wondering about the point at which we first become aware of Other, because I'd understood that for a while after birth we don't differentiate anything as Other. Its all us.

If that's true, then surely the primal Other is...

Mother!

Now that raises a few issues - especially for someone like me who was adopted!

Maybe I should start there for my next entry...

Domo arigato sensei Burlyman!
My week one vote is yours.

red/green two

red/green one

these mountains won't leave my dreams

philOZophy

Here we go...

This week sees the beginning of Bean's philosophy blogwar.

Here's my opening move.

So: If you're a philosophical warrior (or pacifist) and would like to participate, you can sign up here.

Banzai!

shadowlife

Telstra: GRRRRRR!

Prior to our government selling Telstra, we had one of the best telecommunications networks in the world. A network the Australian people built and paid for. A network which was always guaranteed to be the best due to the act of parliament requiring all Telstra's profit to be reinvested in the maintenance and improvement of the network.

What happened?

Our government gave ear to the Arguments of Greed from Wall Street. That a nation's government has no place in providing infrastructure in today's world. That private enterprise would be SO much more efficient and return lower prices to consumers. So they sold it. They even offered us shares in it - shares in a company we already owned! PFFFT...

What do we have now? The slowest network in the developed world and a company run by a few Americans who have just spat the dummy over building a new fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) network. They weren't even talking about wiring the whole country. Just the parts of it that were profitable - mainland capital cities only! Again: PFFFT!

Let's not kid ourselves. If it wasn't for the 51.8% of the company remaining in government hands we wouldn't even have that. It's only government regulation that's stopped Telstra abandoning marginally profitable areas of its network. Like privatised utilities everywhere, the new owners slashed jobs and cut maintenance and development to the bare minimum so as to send the savings to their bottom line. That makes their shareholders happy and (much more importantly) fattens up their performance bonuses. Meanwhile, everybody suffers with a decaying third rate service.

Here's an idea: Let's make the three amigos at Telstra real happy by selling the remaining government stake in their company. Remove all the "regulatory disincentives" Trujillo and his mates so despise and then they'll be free to run their business the way they want. Then, take the money and BUILD OUR OWN FTTN NETWORK. The T4 network. Servicing the whole country in direct competition with Telstra. Owned and maintained by the Australian people.

After all - what's a government and its taxes for if it's not to provide infrastructure and services that private enterprise WON'T because they can't make enough money out of it?

Telstra: I'll give up my cyberlife before I'll pay them to connect me...

larrikeets!

They're back!

The black bikers of the bush. Their riotous screeching swirl of talk and action peels off into the top of the redgum in the front yard. They settle in. Youngsters screech in the branches, while their elders raise the tree's fruit to their mouths as if drinking toasts. Then they hurl their goblets down to crash and rattle over the corrugated iron of the roof.

Trouble! These overgrown parakeet larrikins will target you if you venture under their leafy bars. I kid you not. I've tested it. Sat on the verandah and checked the rate of nut fall. Then out where they can see me and the nuts come down like rain. I've seen them waiting for cars to pass under them before releasing a barrage of nuts obviously intended to hit the vehicle. Motorcyclists beware!

They're big and bad: Long-lived, intelligent, inquisitive and with a wicked sense of humour!

I love 'em!
Welcome back fellas... (hope you can stay)



For the ornithologically minded:

Baudin's Cockatoo
Calyptorhynchus baudinii
Size - to 60cm and 770g
Declared Threatened Fauna: Schedule 1
(Fauna that is rare or is likely to become extinct.)

dancer at the rock of tides

wonder in the dark

A while back I watched a documentary titled "Is There Life After Death?". Its title and the fact that it was broadcast on commercial television had me thinking it was going to be a simplistic, sensationalist piece of fluff, but it was surprisingly engaging and stimulating.

The program's producers examined the latest research into Near Death Experiences (NDEs). The question the featured researchers were attempting to answer was essentially the ancient mind/body one. That is, who's right - Dualists or Physicalists? That is, are NDEs physical - the product of random electrical activity in a dying brain - or does the commonality of described NDEs indicate a reality separate to the physical body?

I won't relate the incredible NDEs described by the participants in the program - I'm sure we've all heard or read versions of them by now. (I do recommend reading 8 year old Chris's story on Morse's page though - see the link below.)

What's striking about these experiences (90% overwhelmingly beautiful and 10% absolutely terrifying) is that they have a commonality independent of the age, sex, religion or psyche of the subject. They are also (whether positive or negative) profoundly transformative and affect those who experience them in very similar ways. What really interested me though, was the two different approaches to researching the phenomenon.

Dr Michael Persinger is a cognitive neuroscience researcher. He uses the God Helmet and Persinger's Chamber to magnetically stimulate the temporal lobe to produce "religious experiences" akin to NDEs.

Dr Melvin Morse is a pediatrician and neuroscientist who's spent fifteen years studying the NDEs of children.

It's known that persons experiencing a NDE exhibit a period of intense activity in (I think it was) the right temporal lobe, in a region that is not usually active. Persinger has focused on this and seems to be a physicalist. His magnetic stimulation of the temporal lobe has produced "visions" in conscious subjects. Visions akin to NDEs - "proof" that these experiences are physical in origin.

Morse, on the other hand, admits to being a physicalist and skeptic regarding NDEs until he began his research into children's experiences. His website leaves you in no doubt that he's physicalist no longer! Morse's research showed that subjects who were clinically dead were able in many cases to witness procedures performed on their bodies from a disembodied perspective. Some subjects accurately described events or objects in areas of the hospital that they had never visited. Areas above the room they were in. Areas they observed as their consciousness "rose" from their bodies in the manner so often described by NDE subjects - "proof" that their consciousness exists independently of brain activity.

So which is it?

I think the difference between the experiences of those in Persinger's experiments and those experiencing "real" NDEs is telling. Persinger's subjects always spoke in terms of "feelings" or "sensations" whereas the Morse's always said "saw" and were convinced they had witnessed a reality even more "real" than their normal waking state. People experiencing "real" NDEs are transformed - Persinger's subjects are merely deeply impressed...

I'd also like to know where the validity is in assuming that just because you can create a "quasi NDE" by temporal lobe stimulation, it's safe to infer that "real NDEs" have a physical source in that part of the brain...

Here's a (loose) analogy: A philosopher with absolutely no knowledge of electronics or electromagnetic radiation is given a battery powered radio. He turns it on. Voices and music emanate from the device. Amazed, he disassembles the radio looking for the little people contained within it. Of course, there aren't any. Through experimentation he determines that turning the device on without inserting the batteries yields no result. He puts the batteries back in, turns the radio on and presto! Voices and music!

If he's a dualist, I imagine he'll propose that the batteries are the "mind" of the radio and the radio itself the "body". If he's a physicalist, he's going to suggest the radio and batteries are essentially the same and the voices and music merely the result of a physical interaction between the two.

Obviously, either way, he's wrong! But we only know this because we comprehend the principles involved. We've "seen" them in action.

I think it's the same with the philosophical debate. I don't think dualists or physicalists are on the right track. There's another "ism" that's closer to what I feel is really going on. Not spot on, but closer.

The 17th century Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza is usually credited with introducing the concept of "Neutral Monism". This theory proposes that the universe consists of one basic substance which is neither mental or physical, but is capable of exhibiting the properties of both.

Now we're talking!

Dualists seem right because there is so obviously a fundamental difference between mind and body as illustrated by NDE research. Research which certainly indicates the probability of consciousness existing independently of a functioning brain.

Physicalists seem right because we know that energy is just matter in another form and the mind appears to rise from the brain's physical electrical activity. It's impossible to observe anything which has no physical properties - what else could it be?

Mystics, like neutral monists, teach there is indeed a primal essence that is not mental or material, but gives rise to the myriad physical and mental forms we experience. Call it soul, call it the unified field or string theory, call it god or the matrix if you want to - it doesn't matter...

Mystics say that mind and matter are indeed the same. E does equal mc squared. The physicalists are right - and wrong! The mystic tradition holds that mind creates every physical thing we observe - territory that the new physics is just beginning to map. Mystics also confirm that the mind exists independently of the body. The dualists are right - and wrong!

The mystics hold that the experimental tool required to observe this truth is the "soul" - the primal essence itself. The mind inhabiting the body exists in a state of separation from this essence and must be reconnected before the "soul" is free to perceive the ultimate nature of reality. I suspect that the ancient Temple of Apollo's inscribed exhortation "Know Thyself" alludes to this...

No wonder there's so much debate and confusion - we're attempting to understand the universe's deepest secrets with a tool that's totally incapable of even asking the right questions. Mystics assert that the purpose of the mind is to interact with the physical. They tell us that it's a machine. Much like a supercomputer. A machine we have to eventually turn off if we're to attempt to unravel this mystery.

Back to the radio: So if you're a neutral monist philosopher, you'd more than likely propose that the radio itself represents the body, the batteries the mind and the voices and music the consequence of an unknown primal essence that informs the mind and body - and isn't that much closer to the truth of radios?

Oh yes: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

saturday's burning bush

beneath the gliding sky

still right now...

still quite strange...

right now

Sure is a strange night here on the Indian Ocean coastline...

triffids 3

The dragon arums are going nuts now!

About four weeks ago they were just little points. Photo here.

Their leaves were emerging by July 23. Photo here.

They are so weird...

Wait until they flower!

the trouble with normal

Curses!

After saying in my last post how I don't want to be blogging political points of view, that conversation with Little Rock has got me started. As has mentioning Bruce Cockburn in that post's PS. Oh well. It's my blog and I'll rant when I want to :)

Here's the lyrics to a song Bruce wrote 25 years ago.

I want to just post the song, but I'm more than likely infringing copyright just doing this! Anyway...

I'm sure everything was different in Toronto in 1981 when the song was written, but you wouldn't know it from the lyrics. They're exactly what I was feeling when I mentioned "the new normal" in the last post's comments. So...


the trouble with normal...

Strikes across the frontier and strikes for higher wage
Planet lurches to the right as ideologies engage
Suddenly it's repression, moratorium on rights
What did they think the politics of panic would invite?

Person in the street shrugs - "Security comes first"
But the trouble with normal is - it always gets worse!

Callous men in business costume speak computerese
Play pinball with the Third World, try to keep it on its knees
Their single crop starvation plans put sugar in your tea
and the local third world's kept on reservations you don't see

"It'll all go back to normal if we put our nation first"
But the trouble with normal is - it always gets worse!

Fashionable fascism dominates the scene
When ends don't meet it's easier to justify the means
Tenants get the dregs and landlords get the cream
As the grinding devolution of the democratic dream
Brings us men in gasmasks dancing while the shells burst

The trouble with normal is - it always gets worse!


written by Bruce Cockburn
© 1983 Golden Mountain Music Corp


I think that's the end of that thread now:
Normal transmission should resume tomorrow...

a conversation with Little Rock

*sigh*

Had to happen I guess.

A while back I posted this about my perception of OTT US airline security.

P from Little Rock, Arkansas recently commented on that post. I was just going to respond with a comment of my own but then thought I may as well make it the subject of today's post.

Before I address P's comments I want to make it clear that while I do indeed see US actions on the world stage as ignorant, hypocritical, xenophobic, neo-fascist and completely counter-productive to their stated values and intentions, I do not judge individuals by the actions of their government. When I wrote "Hey America - screw you!" I meant the American government and the men that control it.
NOT the country and CERTAINLY NOT its people.

So...

P said...

I can respect your views and opinion. But I think your views may be flawed. As a US citizen I flew back from Jamaica to my home in Little Rock with a layover in Memphis, having to go thru the same security.

Well P, first up I think you're comparing apples and bamboo. You were entering the US from a foreign country - the subject of my post was passing through Hawaii from Fiji enroute to Canada. You say you had to go through the same security. What? You mean you were fingerprinted and photographed? As a US citizen? Well, if that's what happens and you're happy with it, so am I!

I'm sure the Australian authorities do the very same thing.

No. They don't.

Sure, if you're entering the country you have to clear customs - that's the same everywhere. However, Australia doesn't fingerprint and photograph visitors to our country. Not now and hopefully not ever. Our government seems aware that true security relies on surveillance and intelligence - not knee-jerk big government bureaucratic oversight.

Additionally (and this was the main point of my post) our country, like every other one I've visited, does not make transiting passengers clear customs. For example, if you transit Singapore from Australia on the way to Nepal, you don't have to pass through customs unless you want to leave the secure transit area. Obviously, if you want to ENTER a country, you have to clear customs. As far as I'm aware though, passengers TRANSITING a country who don't want to leave the transit lounge aren't subjected to customs checks anywhere except in the US and Great Britain.

I wouldn't have taken exception to a customs check alone for transit passengers. I don't dispute any country's right to do whatever screening and recording of inbound passengers its government deems necessary. But fingerprints and photographs when the passenger concerned is not even entering the country? When they don't belong to a demographic suspected of being a potential threat? When the passenger manifest is known to US security agencies before the 'plane even lands? When the passengers and cargo have already been screened prior to takeoff? That just seems like over the top inefficient bullshit to me!

It's fine that you can't stand the US because of our travel security, but at least try to not act like Austrailians or foreigners are the only ones who have to deal with it.

Maaaate! I DON'T dislike the US because of its travel security!

It seems that you not only misunderstood my post, but also had a little knee-jerk reaction of your own. I dislike the US government for the reasons I've outlined above. I'm well aware that US citizens are subjected to the same security - I've many friends and family in the US. However, I had no idea that the US government extends the fingerprint and photograph farce to its own citizens.

Again: I'd really like to know if I've understood you correctly. Are you REALLY saying that you were fingerprinted and photographed when coming back from Jamaica? As a US citizen? REALLY?

Judging a country by its airline security makes you look like an idiot.

Ummm... Yeah.... I agree. But I'm not that shallow. (I suspect that closing sentence gives lie to your opening one, by the way.)

Sincerely,
A proud American citizen who happens to hate George W. Bush and the whack-job conservatives who have hijacked our government.

Well... OK! We've more in common than first appears then...

I understand your patriotism and there's nothing wrong with that, unless it blinds you to criticism directed at your corrupt and imperial government and makes you take it personally instead.

That's exactly what they want you know...

Well - there you go... enough said, I hope. I don't wanna wind up with a political debate blog ;)

Peace...



PS: Give my regards to Bill. Whatever his failings, having Bruce Cockburn play at his inauguration puts him in the running for greatest US president ever!