MS, The National Scene and Maturation

The recent election threw me off. I had religiously followed Fox News and their enthusiastic prognostications about the expected Republican sweep and elimination of all the Bad Guys and their dangerous/fatal shenanigans. My politics being slightly to the right of Attila the Hun, one can imagine the failing Despair which overcame me and with MS as a backdrop, how I had a good excuse to stay in bed for much of the next day.

Oh well, the sun rises and the sun sets but the sun also rises...We do need to bathe now and then and the needs of personal toilette finally pried me from the darkness of my room at suppertime of the day after the election.

I looked outside and saw scudding clouds and the ciaro-scuro of an evening Arizona sky. Things don't change that much day by day. The financio-political disasters which are on the horizon will likely not occur, certainly not immediately. Within two hours of Romney admitting defeat I had reviewed my IRA and had decided against selling all my stocks. I sat quietly and considered that the chance of imminent war with China was small since we have them make much of our stuff and they need us as a ready market. And at least for the time being, our military is second to none. With these thoughts I was able to sleep.

I actually am awakened sometimes by an overpowering fear of hordes of mindless people running lemming-like over a cliff. I first asked 'how can Americans be so stupid?' I realized after a day or so that it was ignorance, not stupidity which was the moving factor here. Ignorance of the implication of trillions of dollars of debt. Ignorance of the fact that many of our neighbors wish us ill. Ignorance of the race we are losing in everything from education to literacy to poverty level to infant mortality. MY GOD, HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

The problem with becoming politically aware is that one focuses too much on the present problems and tends to ignore it always has been this bad.

In Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey, the town drunk interrupts a political bull-session going on amongst many of the town wags and to paraphrase, says, "Don't you boys see it's just the same shit as always?"

London in the 1800's was rife with prostitutes since for many, no alternative choice existed. In America at the time of the First World War, army admission physicals found 15% of whites and 20% of blacks had a history of latent or chronic Syphilis. 'Gleets' (look it up) bothered many men and by most were considered 'normal' in the process of aging. They weren't. I recently saw 'Arsenic and Old Lace', a stage play of the early 1900's which had as a character Uncle Teddy, who thought himself Theodore Roosevelt and dug the Panama Canal in the basement of the family house. The joke was that of the insane uncle living with the family, common enough at the time. This is a clear picture of advanced neurosyphilis

A bad President may be voted out of office. A bad king or any dictator may not without bloodshed.

A review of our political history shows much corruption through the years: this is not new and comes with disparate political groups maybe getting along in the real life of our country. I guess it's no reason to declare the country Dead.

As I sit here in my chair, I think a lot about how I react to episodes in my life. There is a part of my brain, likely in the prefrontal cortex, which acts as an independent responder. Even if I am overcome with sorrow, or anger, or elation, fear or joy, this part of my most central 'I Am' does not react to situations, only observes.

My limbic system has its' emotional response reactions melded into my awareness functions. My memories, many in the temporal lobes, transmit strongly into my frontal areas. It is much easier for me to feel strong emotions now than before. This suggests to me that some injury has befallen the connections between these parts which has resulted in a loss of some control over my emotional responses. I am still thinking about this and will discuss it in the future.

I can't find the picture of the Flag I'd meant to end with...

The Winter Solstice of 2012 is supposed to bring The End of The World with it. All the speculative shows I see are rife with warnings. The Mayan calendar ends on this day. The catholic Prophesies of Malachy predicts the End coming with the reign of one more Pope.

Let's remember, though, that Nostradamus has prophesies for the mid 3000's...