JANUARY 23,  2003                                                                 © 2003: JAN COX
 
 
 
 
 

The thoughts men come with tell them they are born physically programmed
by the instincts appropriate to their species,
and mentally blank, which awaits their individual development;
they feel physically assured by the physical embrace of their parents,
and mentally primed for the intangible directions of both them and the community.
At one time early in every person’s life, their neurons were as excited about what
was upcoming for them as were their anxious little muscles about their
increasingly complex physical activities.
But the day-of-maturity arrives, and physical development comes to a natural end --
--  but what of mental  --  what of mental?
Many continue to file away new facts in their memory,
and the concept, education is world wide accepted as the developing of the mind  --  developing the ability to think profitably  --
but can this common truism stand an objective view;
does your brain having facts, figures and opinions stored in its memory,
which it can artfully retrieve, pleasingly repeat, even perchance,
juxtapose in a new way, exemplify the best of what thought is capable?
Are the thoughts men routinely have able to respond to this question meaningfully;
can the sun tell you how yellow it is;
does it require something more from the thought activity in the brain than it normally provides, for a man’s mental existence to actually grow beyond that of what it was shortly after he learned to speak (discounting the expanding memory file of word-facts)?
An ordinary man is surrounded-by and awash-in those whose thoughts
tell their tongues to uncategorically declare, education,
(that is; education-as-the-collection-of-man-created-facts ) --   to be the one,
and only proper method of developing the brain's capacity to publish thoughts --
their origin and ultimate purpose never being an issue with the ordinary.
Life from the outset arranged for mankind collectively to accept this operational idea of, education, and the situation surrounding it,
and none amongst this mentally docile herd can see or think about it otherwise  --
only the infrequent, solitary rider with that certain individual hunger.

The reassurance cows feel from herd life
comes from nothing more than the fact that they are in one.
In spite of the ordinary’s frequent laments of loneliness,
only a man who knows enjoys true solitude (that is):
no one in his thoughts to bother him but him.
It is to the advantage of the dense to be attractive,
and if not that  --   serious
(Mooing doesn’t sound quite so silly if done gutturally
[this is why in matters of the spirit, sheep speak french, and in those of war, german]).
Only a man who can think for himself can laugh for himself;
all herd humor is an empty collective reflex.
As a Monkey Day graduation gift expressing his feelings for the boy,
one father gave his son this shiny new sentence:
“I am now no less impressed with you than I was originally.”
When it comes to confinement: which inmate would find captivity most tolerable:
the blind and deaf,
or the lame and mute? --
and what possible response could be pertinent in that the senses themselves are a form of unrecognized imprisonment (and you might care to factor in the further step the independent thinker makes whereby he includes thought as an additional sense).
Being intellectually alive in the standard sense is to be in a crowd that is forever on its way to an important conference which never gets really started, yet never fully ends
  “Ah -- the city!  The only place where you can run into yourself wherever you go”
(in this regard; the certain man has cultivated better inner acquaintances with whom to hang
[if he cares to hang]),
and notes another man: “Those who fear that a machine may
eventually take over their, thinking-responsibilities, have I fear --  something to fear.”
Plain people are testy people  --
life survives primarily on plain people,
    “Is that why life is so testy?”
“Wouldn’t you be  --  if you were full of people!”
The main way cows pass time in the herd is by trying to sell other cows something,
  “Aren’t you pushing the cow-symbolism a bit too far, after all:
      cows have nothing TO sell!”
“And other than that, you thought my point was --  what?”
Only animals fear that machines may take over thinking.
Some days the gophers decide to attack the King’s Elite Guard,
and some days they decide not to;
without either side being aware of it, they are both pleased with this arrangement.
Imbeciles only assault morons  --   never einstein  --  and you know what?  --
they never even think about it,
  “And why is that, pa pa?”
“Why is not all of your mind as hip to what is really going on as that one part?”
   “You mean: why have I not yet fully merged with you.”
In all cities,
just about sunset,
when the haze of the normal business day is fading,
if you look really close you can hear the sound of irony settling,
     “Why,” someone asked the Why Doctor: “Do ordinary minds so routinely exclaim their surprise at what routinely occurs and should be routinely expected?”  --
“You mean by someone not in a stupor?”
After becoming geoneurally disoriented,
one of the city’s park philosophers found himself in the financial district,
and attempting to salvage what he could of his, what-cha-call-it,
decided to go ahead and deliver one of his daily messages there, which turned out to be the rip roaring cry: “Real profit is what you personally make it to be,”
and upon hearing this a passing banker decided to move all his assets into
a no-mental-load individual fund, saying to himself:
“Why ask more of me than I am obviously able to give?”  --