Eternal life-projects

 

Oh, the pleasures of all those new inventions - OOPS!!!!! Not all that nice when they sort of turn upon us, the users ....

That makes me think of all those scientists, dreamers or just very wealthy people who focus on the fight against that eternal foe of humankind: AGE, i.e. OLD AGE. I suppose that 90% or so of all humans want to fend off the attacks by that Grim Reaper we've learnt to fear: It may happen to others, but not to us ....

"Come on, you elusive key to Eternal Life, hands up and surrender to science!!"

Life extension is what a lot of people are after, and they use all kinds of ways to find the magic formula that will give them what they want. However, one ought to weigh the benefits of gaining more time against the hardships of the time one spends trying to do so. To focus on regaining one's youth and all those more or less fake "eternal life-projects" one must accept the loss of time doing just that. And then what if one wins the fight against old age and death? What is one to do with all that spared time? 

I think most of us will find that eternal life isn't all it's been said to be, and that now we have to fight another mighty foe: Boredom ....

 

Kill People Who Are Dependent On You???????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After reading about Trumps alleged recent comments about the "better choice" of letting the disabled son of a nephew die I came to think of an age-old practice which has given rise to some gruesome legends in Japan: The Ubasute. According to history the practice of bringing aging or sick family members who were dependent on the care of younger and healthier relatives to a remote place and leave them to die there more than a legend: It did happen. Actually there are some instances of the practice being alive even today, for instance there is the case of Ritsuko Tanaka: She, who was 46 at the time, abandoned her demented father on an expressway and then went home on her own. When the old man was found walking around, very confused and unable to remember his name, he only knew the name of his daughter which led to her arrest.

Another more or less recent Japan instance was when 63 year old Katsuo Kurokawa took his elderly, disabled sister, Sachiko, to a remote place and left her because "she had become "troublesome". Presumably she died shortly afterwards.

It's easy to condemn a Japanese habit like e.g. Ubasute, but we shouldn't forget that something like it, targeting unwanted children, the disabled or the elderly, has existed in many different countries all over the world: Those who are dependent on us are burdensome when they become an obligation. If they are with people who love them they may be protected, but that doesn't make them less burdensome: The problem is there to be SOLVED, but isn't always ....

Recently a young, Canadian woman with a grave illness was denounced by a nurse for being "selfish" for wanting to stay alive and live her life as best she could. When seen from the outside she may not have had the sort of life that appealed to a healthy woman, but who is she to make a judgment of that sort??? Most likely the sick woman finds pleasure and happiness in some areas of life the nurse doesn't have eye for, but which may be just as fulfilling as her own pastimes. 

However, there is an interesting detail one shouldn't forget: Canada has an euthanasia program. Did the nurse try to convince the sick woman to commit assisted suicide? If so then the program has led to a morally slippery slope that may lead to many future atrocities ....

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13625001/disabled-woman-euthanasia-Canada-nurse-suicide.html?ito=social-reddit 

 

 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/houston-abandoned-newborn-dumpster/story?id=112246025 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jul/24/trump-nephew-book-disabled-son-die 

 

 

https://easysociology.com/sociology-of-culture/ubasute-in-japanese-culture/ 

 

 

Wikipedia

 

The Ear That Didn't Budge ....

Well, I admit that there is a THIN line up there that may be the naughty bullet that allegedly was aimed at former president, Donald Trump. As I - more or less - trust the judgement of SNOPES I can't just reject the photo as fake, but I still find it extremely hard to accept it as solid evidence. To me it looks made up or like a natural bird- or cloud-formation. In my opinion that turns the incident of the shooting into a maybe-event: Maybe it happened the way it has been stated - maybe not! .... That being said one has to look at the event from another angle: It happened at at time when Don the Con was pressed very hard by legal cases, new revelations of former crimes, and maybe also a lot of voters turning away from him. Things were not running as smoothly for him as they - in his opinion - ought to. In that situation an attempt at one's life may be a wonderful way of reviving the public (voter-)interest in a politician.  

 Putin is reputed to have resorted to fake murder attempts for PR-reasons

Others, before him, like e.g. Francois Mitterand (France), did too, for instance in 1959. That being said it's obvious that a presumptive murderer may serve a political purpose, especially if he both failed and died. There is NO ROOM for a live murderer in these cases .... 

 This murder is a good example of "the perfect political assassination": Jack Ruby Shoots Lee Harvey Oswald in1963

I see the tRump-incident as what I call a Kosta Fotopoulos-case: This greedy Greek had married a rich woman, but he loved her money more than her so he got a young, naive follower, 18-year old Bryan Chase, to shoot her for money. At the same moment he shot Bryan, thus getting rid of his wife, and gaining a false reputation of being a hero. WOW, what a plot, but I bet it has been used both before and after, like e.g. in the tRump-shooting. Actually, I need a lot of evidence to start believing that the 20-year-old tRump-follower Thomas Matthew Crooks wasn't set up to fake a murder attempt on him.

Let's look at a possible scenery: The shooter is not very far away from The Orange Menace whom he, for weird reasons, admire. He takes an aim which is what he is there for, either because he feels that's what should be done with someone like tRump, or because he has been hired or persuaded into doing.

I find it strange that there presumably are no photos of the impact itself. Was he hit or just grazed - maybe neither ??? Anyway the former president falls to the ground whether by luck or on a clue that got him to turn his head at the right moment. At the same time he was losing his shoes which oddly enough seem to have been his biggest concern when he gets up again. How come when he was bleeding from the presumed shot? Who in their right mind would think of shoes in that situation? Well, there was blood, but who knows, it may have been fake or not as much as it was made out to be. 

Bleeding from some kind of wound, which we haven't seen yet, he raises his clenched hand in triumph. Something which have made his followers go bananas, some, quoting The Bible, even see it as a God-given signature of his so-called "holiness" which in my opinion turns their praise into blasphemy. 

Talking conspiracies often is seen as paranoia or something like that. OK, I say, but in my opinion this particular shooting has ALL the markings of a set up. Nothing about it makes me believe in it as anything but fake. As to conspiracies as such many which were seen as ludicrous proved to be genuine. That goes for instances like these ones: The Iran-Contra, Nixon and Watergate, as well as various CIA-assassination attempts at Fidel Castro ....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conspiracy_theories

 

https://www.livescience.com/11375-top-ten-conspiracy-theories.html 

 

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP83-01042R000200090002-0.pdf 

 

Wikipedia

Women And Oppression

 

Yes, and it shouldn't be that way as women are the BACKBONE of any society. However, what's more interesting than the fact that the female sex is oppressed and, in many ways, exploited is another fact: Women often chose to play along with the system that oppresses them. WHY? Are they stupid???? No, far from it, but they are victims of an ingenious, but by now, subconscious ideology. They see that men and boys are favored in the patriarchal society as to status, jobs, economics, etc., but they also see that these favored individuals may be easy to play. Women know men very well and for the most part much better than men know them. To be able to play someone with a higher status than oneself turns that one into a token of one's own high abilities. That is as long as he keeps his status. Should he lose it then he isn't as valuable for the oppressed woman as before .... 

 

The Roman Emperor Who Was Transgender

 

Nobody can deny that Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus) who was known by his nicknames Elagabalus and Heliogabalus (c. 204-222) was a cute, young man who would have fitted perfectly into a group of modern teenagers, at least when it comes to his pretty, boyish looks. Some 2024-teenagers would even have appreciated his life style which was voluptuous to a degree. Did he ever think of anything but sex, fun and partying? Well, becoming the Emperor of Rome in 218, i.e. at a very early age, should have made him consider state affairs and the serious business of government, but naaahhh, he was much more interested in partying at all hours and to him "partying" meant SEX. Fourteen years old he roamed the Roman bordellos and his powerful grandmother, Julia Maesa, found that a marriage to a grown woman of a good family was needed to put some kind of rein on the young man. She chose the noblewoman Julia Cornelia Paula, but she wasn't up to the job, and the young emperor divorced her as she "had something ugly on her body". 

Julia Cornelia Paula

When he himself chose his next wife he made an awful scandal: Being a vestal Aquilia Severa was considered a holy woman who should never marry anybody. Like a nun she ought to stay a virgin, but when the emperor set eyes on her she was forced to marry him.

 

Aquilia Severa

Not even that marriage made the young man behave like he was supposed to as the emperor of Rome because by now he had got the idea that he wasn't a man, but a woman. That may be as it is, but having been brought up in Syria he had been the head priest of the sun god Elagabal and he wanted a religious revolt in favor of his god that didn't sit well with either the Senate or the Roman people who already hated how he did his best to "become a woman": He wore a feminine hairdo, got the hair of his beard plucked out, wore women clothes, etc., etc.. Also he tried to find doctors who were willing to perform some kind of surgery to "build a vagina in his body". 

All of this became too much for everybody, and his short reign ended when his soldiers massacred him. After his death his corpse was dragged through the streets of Rome as a way of demeaning him and his entire reputation. However, 1,600 years later or so, writers like e.g. Oscar Wilde and Baudelaire developed a liking for him and his debauchery. For a while he became quite popular, even with painters like e.g. Lawrence Alma-Tadema. In 1888 he painted a scenery from one of the most notorious parties of the emperor: 

 

https://carpediemtours.com/blog/elagabalus-crazy-roman-emperor/

 

https://cbsaustin.com/news/nation-world/uk-museum-declares-roman-emperor-elagabalus-was-transgender-sparking-debate-england-north-hertfordshire-art-gallery-lgbt-gender-identity 

 

https://new.coinsweekly.com/news-en/elagabalus-new-transgender-identity-and-its-consequences-on-the-coin-trade/ 

 

Wikipedia

Nostalgia For Something That Never Happened

 

It's weird how nostalgia centers around something like e.g. dresses, hairdos or food, all of which is shallow phenomenons compared to what REALLY counts: Politics and Wars, Economics, etc., etc.. Well, I take it that nostalgia always is part of a"Happy Moment of the Past", no matter the truth of that memory or not. For instance, the children of this family gathering at a restaurant some time in the seventies may remember the moment as peaceful and happy because they didn't know that the grown-ups were contemplating a divorce - one of the parents may even have thought of murdering the other one .... 

A happy moment with Daddy? Well, that's how it looks, but who knows what's going on between those two? Much more than meets the eye may be happening, from beatings to abuse. (Not that these two look that way, but that's the tricky part of it: LOOKS DOESN'T ALWAYS COVER THE TRUTH ....
 

This Puppeteer - whom I hate - really was beloved by a lot of people who thought he was the answer to their wishes for the future, and many/most even supported him in the last days of World War II because they were sure that he would "save them by using those magical, new weapons the people were lured into believing were being evolved". I saw a program which featured interviews with some of these poor deluded people who had staid in Berlin because they had been taught that this puppeteer had some kind of "Master Plan" that would save his people and his country. Alas, that was a sad and, in many cases, lethal delusion, but still, even now (!!!!) many follow his teachings. WHY? 

 
 

Religion Versus Mythology

 

Yes, and because of that faith should always be followed by this: ?????????

However, those "of faith" see a "?" as an attack on what to them is the TRUTH - and right they are because in this context a "?" is a sign of non-faith. However, for something to qualify as "truth" it must be an indisputable FACT, and that doesn't go for much in religions which, as we know, are built upon legends, dreams and wishful thinking. 

People of the West discern between RELIGION and MYTHOLOGY or, as they may put it, SUPERSTITION. Some even talk of lies when it comes to religions that are not in accordance with the book that they see as holy, i.e. "The Bible". Well, in my opinion that's very, very arrogant, but I admit that it's working in one respect: It may become the glue that keeps the structure of society together and makes it work according to the wishes of those in power. No doubt about it, religion - or a common belief in a political system??? - does make certain things easier for an emperor, a president or whoever wants to keep their position as "head of the state".

The monotheistic God like e.g. Yahweh of "The Bible" is considered all powerful in all matters of the world as such. As to the pagan gods they too were all powerful, but not in all aspects of life. A god like e.g. Ares was supposed to be all powerful in war, but that was about it, and sometimes that power didn't work as it was intended to do. His godly colleague and lover, the love goddess Aphrodite was all powerful in matters of love, but in the Trojan wars both of them were injured by a human, Diomedes, who had the support of a third deity, the goddess Athena. Deity against deity and a wonderful story is brought into life: The Iliad which we see as literature or a myth, but which the old Greeks saw as a religious depiction of the gods they believed in. To compare this amazing work to e.g. "The Bible" reveals an interesting fact: The gods of polytheism are very, very different from the single monotheistic god of an Abrahamic religion like Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The pantheon of many gods representing each their field is gone, and the claim that myths and legends are FACTS also is a claim that now we have THE TRUTH ....