JAN'S FRESH, SOME TIMES ANNOYING NEWS
    ...('cept for the fact that a few people love it)
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              © 2001: JAN COX
 

December 21. 2001.
 
 
 

Being civilized is living thoughtfully  --   more so than instinctively,
(and barring inherent physical flaws --
and if life was as simple as it can be described as being  --   then the following):
the less civilized you are the happier you are;
the less your sense of being alive is anchored to the thoughts in your head
which assume the mantle of you,
the less civilized and happier you are;
the less civilized you are amidst civilized people,
the harder it is to live a life that makes you happy  --   NOW! --
to begin with: the first statement above is specious, for a man cannot stay alive if he lives thoughtfully more so than he does instinctively,
he can live thoughtfully at some expense to instinct  --  but not much;
he can skip one night’s sleep  --  even a meal or two,
but cannot forego either entirely;
being civilized & living thoughtfully is a balancing act,
and with a talent for which, (to varying degrees), each man is born.
 
 

Being civilized and living thoughtfully rather than just instinctively
makes possible man’s more or less permanent, more or less peaceful
collective living arrangements,
and by virtue thereof has come all of the discoveries cum inventions
that continue to make his life increasingly survivable and pleasant,
but in that inner terrain which men call their animal instincts,
not surprisingly, something is not so pleased;
men’s thoughts have, from the beginning, recognized this,
and the collective verdict (life directed verdict) is that
a life of relative peace and technology,  rather than one of unbridled instinctive pursuits  --  is worth the trade off,
(as Lloyd always says:  Everything has its Price).
 
 

Men are not civilized in Athens --  in Rome or in Paris:
men are not civilized in their bodies,
men are not civilized in their collective institutions and laws –
men are civilized in one place --   theory.
 

Living in ways contrary to your automatic, silent instincts is a thought,
a theory life has implanted in man which purports to represent
an improved way to live --  collectively,
(for if you are a total hermit, no one cares how you conduct your life),
and true, if you enjoy living collectively, then civilization is an improvement on the alternative, and you living more thoughtfully than instinctively
is the acceptable cost therefore --  but as promised:
the fairy tale behind this common one is a whole -- whole lotmore fun,
for it sings to the eternally-adolescent-few the nursery rhyme that goes:

                                 “It’s all in your head,
                                  it’s all in your head;
                                  whether you’re civilized is,
                                  all in your head.”
 
 

The collective of ordinary man can measure being civilized only by behavior:
if a person lives according to the local laws, customs & morals –
they are deemed civilized,
for man has found no way to enforce rules controlling what men think;
someone may think that a particular custom is silly, or law unwarranted,
but as long as they behave in a manner that respects it --  all is well.
But there are born on this planet, to this species,
a few people for whom the inner “all” of being civilized IS not “well” –
never has been well  --  is not well now, and is not getting any weller.
A pertinent translation of one common mythology would be that in the
Garden of Eden tale, (which herein is placed entirely in the history of human consciousness), Adam is --  man-suddenly-made-civilized  --  indeed --
FORCED into being civilized
at the instant the landlord Jehovah told him to leave the idyllic setting,
and you wanna guess who the Snake
would in this telling then be? --   the few! --  yeah, yeah,
you gotta turn him kinda sideways and partially inside out,
but nevertheless --  there he was: every few-man’s original progenitor.
 

Notice in the story that The Snake did not bite the apple and, do-the-deed
that resulted in its eater becoming thoughtful (hearing the voice of God),
and civilized --  no, no: he got someone else to do it --  Adam,
who represents the dazed, confused & dozing part of your consciousness.
(Ready to twist the tail of the tale ever harder? --  until it hollers: “Reveille!”)
 

In the classic terminology of the sport of:
Trying To:  Wake Up; Achieve Enlightenment; Be Liberated:
being “civilized” is: being-asleep;
being “thoughtful” is: living-in-the-dark,
but you must understand this at its root --
realize that its reality is confined to your head,
(if your behavior does not appear to be consistently compatible with
local norms, sufficient to make you invisible, you haven’t a chance in this),
it is all in your head:
whatever may be spoken of:
if it is not in your stomach; in your genitals; in your muscles -- then it is in your head,
and only in your head, your thoughts, does being civilized exist;
your stomach is never civilized, your genitals are never civilized,
nor ever are your muscles;
you are only civilized in theory --  in the world of thoughts --  and:
your stomach is not asleep,
your genitals are not unenlightened,
and your muscles are not captive,
for they are neither civilized nor not civilized –
they have no thoughts, and thus cannot BE thoughtful at the expense of themselves --  only thoughts can do this!   “Do what?!” --  you ask:
That! --  do something at the expense of themselves.
“I don’t get it!?!” --  you say:
Exactly! --  you CAN’T get it.
Presto! (says Billy): “Nothing from nothing leave nada”  and not only that --
but: when anything IS taken from nothing --  nothing changes.
Thought is an active bank account everyone is born with:
you have it without having had to put anything into it,
and no matter how much you draw on it, it never decreases,
but what only one customer every three hundred & seventy two years realizes is that:
every cent he ever spent from the account
also never bought him anything.

What the few are bothered by is the civilized, thoughtful part of their thoughts,
the part that was driven from the quiet, peaceful garden
and driven into the city wherein it had to, work-for-a-living (think)
as opposed to simply laying under a tree with your mouth open,
waiting for a fried chicken to fall in.
Those with that irresistible hunger for something different to be going on in their head, feel, (without having a totally satisfying name for it),
that a distinct part of their thinking is not doing the full job of which it is capable;
they cannot initially be clear about what the fuller exercise of thoughts’ ability might be, but they sense, undeniably that it is not doing something that, by gawd,
it could be doing.
What such people (what such brains) are actually after is a dramatic, yet secret shift in the normal, assembly-line-process-of-thought common to man,
wherein the thoughts which life ships to him are pre packaged,
pre neutered, thoroughly sanitized and rendered collectively-acceptable;
in Otto words: he has only civilized sanctioned thoughts,
oh, some may well be barbaric and horrific, but civilized thought recognizes the existence (Ugh!--  as distasteful as they may be) of such,
(take a look a mankind’s continuing most popular stories in whatever medium),
while the Snake part of consciousness (still usefully viable in the few)
has no awareness of any such distinctions as:
civilized or not civilized:
the Snake simply is;
the Snake cannot tell you what it is,
but the Snake is awake, (or, more precisely, as he would say, if he could speak):
                       “’Awake’?!  --  what the hell is, ‘Awake’?!?”
 

                                                           J
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Reminder: a man who will tell you that he is awake --  is not,
and yummier yet: those thoughts you have which present themselves as
being “awake & enlightened” and whom inform you of which other thoughts are not --   are not either.   Neat, huh?!
…(aren’t you glad that some things never change.)
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                          In an area of his brain, no longer active in ordinary men,
                                                                          an extraordinary man is privately: Gaiseric The Vandal clothed as The Duke Of Windsor.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

As a Token gesture, they sang a few bars of: "The Snake Sleeps Tonight  --  NOT!"
....(followed by: "Beat Me Daddy, Eight To The Tie.")