Really Retro Thoughts on Global Warming

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Robert Frost

A Dragon Swoops By In Laramie's Sky

Hooray, hurrah!! Hari-Hara!?!?!?

I shall admit I've not gone to the trouble of dating the aforementioned terms denoting and exclaiming jubilation, nor of endeavoring to uncover whatever etymological literature might exist on said subject. Nonetheless, tis not too much to infer that these interconnected English terms are derived from--be it via "dispersion" or spontaneous or "inspired" minds connected--the figure Hari-Hara, who is half-Vishnu ("Hari")/half-Siva ("Hara"), the Maintainer and the Destroyer united as one, yet delineated down the center and maintaining the integrity of two.

This incarnation as the inspiration for terms of celebration seems self-evident, as this figure shows maintainance and the destruction of sin go more than hand-in-hand, and displays the possibilities for transformations intrinsically exist in the subtle nature of the universe and humanity. As I understand it, this form expresses the direction of powers of destruction towards purification of the state of things here and now, specifically manifest to fight some demon or other in myth but more generally expressing the application of measured destruction to maintain, that humanity might continue towards truest potential without getting mired down in the muck.



The trope of yoga ("union" or "yoke") as two becoming one in body is also presented as Ardhanarishwara, Siva and Sakti as one, an idelic representation of male and female in perfect balance. There is in fact a physical condition called tetragametic chimerism which occurs when two seperately fertilized ovum join early in a pregnancy and become one person maintaining two sets of genes. In most extreme forms, those with this condition show characteristic lines of pigmentation down the center of the body. In tetragametic human hermaphroditism one half of the body is male and the other half female (see November 2008 post, "What is Marriage?").



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Hari-Hara is also known as Shankaranarayana, which is Shankara--Siva in party mode, plus Narayana--Vishnu, who's also known as Krishna and Buddha. In recognizing in what "modern science" calls a medical condition as actually indices of yoga, these ancient mythically expressed teachings show science and faith meeting in an aesthetically wholistic metaphor, in iconographic and mythic mode made accessible and rife with meaning (for another example of Hindu mythology as truly "scientific," see November 2008 post, "Ten Avatars of Vishnu: Evolution Personified"). HariHara is the potential for destruction to help maintain, for deconstruction and purification to not utterly destroy the edifice but transform and in fact strengthen. This is the hopeful proclamation that what we need is perhaps not a violent overthrow of the system, but a subtle level purge, a fire applied to temper the metal which upholds society, to renovate and remodel and dispel and dispose of corruption without need to blow-it-all-the-fuck-up!!

Anyhoo . . . "hooray and hurrah" for HariHara!!

The Story Behind "The Sound of Silence"

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As I mentioned in a previous post, President Eisenhower, decorated WWII general, warned of the dangers of the military industrial complex in his farewell address (see post titled, "Former President and WWII General Warned of the Dangerous Military Industrial Complex"). I did not mention that some have taken his warning as a concern about a specific technology that was first being developed in the 1950s that was then known as "The Sound of Silence," and has been developed and deployed as "Silent Sound Spread Spectrum." This technology was deployed by the United States military against Iraqi troops, leading to the unconditional surrender of well over 100,000 troops hidden in underground bunkers--most without firing a shot!! Some have contended that Paul Simon, whose family purportedly had military-industrial complex connections, was writing about this very nefarious technology when he penned the lyrics to the hit song.

There is concern by some that the fedies have plans to utilize these technologies on an unsuspecting populace IN OUR OWN NATION!!!! Already, other sound weapons have been openly used on peaceful protesters in this nation during the G-20 protests just a few months ago!!! This technology, called LRAD (Long Range Acoustical Device) produces sound waves at up to 50 times the human threshold for pain, and can cause permanent hearing damage.





The more frightening possibility is that very high and low frequency sound technology will be used (and perhaps already are being used) via transmitters placed alongside cellphone transmitters--or via the television set in your living room--to subliminally control peoples minds, political intentions, and even consumer choices (see link below for info.).

http://www.wariscrime.com/2008/12/15/news/digital-tv-mind-control-by-the-sound-of-silence/

Be aware, and lets not let them take our freedom of mind and thought--after all, what good is freedom of the press, the right to bear arms, etc., if they're telling you what to think by subtle sound waves while you sleep or go about your daily routines?!?!

Bhopal Went Boom With Chemical Fumes 25 Years Ago: The Dharma of Poison

On December 3, 1984, over 4,000 people died horrible and gruesome deaths as 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas spewed into the air in Bhopal from the Union Carbide plant. Around 11,000-25,000 more would die from the residual effects of this toxin, and according to government figures, more than 500,000 others have been aversely affected by this incident, with horrible birth defects and chronic illnesses causing suffering to this day.




With this dreadful anniversary eclipsed in the environmental discourse by the ongoing wranglings regarding global warming, I have to wonder whether a clear and concise vision of global environmental priorities has been considered by policymakers. And this certainly again betrays or reveals my opinion regarding the greenhouse issue: though glad that the global warming issue is raising environmental consciousness generally, and appreciate that replacing coal-fired power plants (which spew mercury and lead and acid-rain causing chemicals as well as CO2) with wind and solar and other less impactive modes of generating electricity generally is a positive result of the discourse about global warming, I am not very concerned about the phenomenon itself. Not that I believe excessive human contribution to the accumulation of greenhouse gasses is cool, just less concerned about CO2--which life has mechanisms to deal with and is not directly toxic--than I am about mountaintop removal and other environmentally destructive modes of mineral extraction, poisons spewed into the air by the irresponsible use of chemical processes, and manmade chemical pollution generally.

As I noted in a previous post, there are historical indications (maps, narratives, etc.) that indicate the earth has been warmer in recent times (i.e., the past thousand years or two, that the ice shelves in Antartica have been ice-free in recent history ("The Truth of Global Warming: Evidences of A Warmer Side to Human History--But Coal is Still Bad to Burn"). More immediately harmful chemical and radioactive pollution, however, poison people and animals and plants, water and earth and air as soon as they are released into the environment.

As an example of the sort of irresponsibility that has been maintained by industry, there are known cancer-causing ingredients in baby shampoo and womens cosmetics, an absurd crime my younger sister Lisa has been fighting as the Breast Cancer Fund's Campaign Coordinator for the Campaign For Safe Cosmetics (http://www.safecosmetics.org/). Indeed, if we are poisoning our children from birth-on, of what consequence is a tad more CO2?!?!


(Johnson's Baby Shampoo is one of many such products shown to contain cancer-causing ingredients)

Yet here is where I must note that poisons are sometimes chosen means of purification, yet with anciently proscribed methods and modes, trial and error and meditation and contemplation brought to bear. Some sadhu and sadhvi (yogis and yoginis) intentionally ingest cyanide and other poisons to reach certain states of transcendence--an extreme "mind over matter" sorta practice that is designed to show the illusory nature of much of what is called common sense. These people intentionally take these poisons and with no intention of suicide. But for the millions and millions (if not billions) poisoned by those practices emblematic of the immature, ill considered and shallowly contemplated approach modern society and science have taken to handling substances which can kill and which poison life generally, a heinous crime cannot be denied.



Still, on a grander scale, the choice to embrace immediate convenience and innovation leading to self-poisoning might be understood as expressing humanity's ambivalence about life. Sadness and horror at suffering generally, leading to a sense of want, a gut feeling that is the disquiet of humanity in an age when solid foundations in family and tribe and nature and eternity are largely absent, and which said sometimes stupid homonids are oft given to believe can be remedied by consumer goods, which then often leads to a further poisoning of human quality of life as many aspects of the production of these goods further degrades our once good and pure relationship with nature, and thus further alienates folk from their roots.
If a person works even just eight hours a day, four or five days a week in factory or office, that is eight hours a day that in traditional society would have been spent in the field singing songs with kin and friends, at home cutting wood for the hearth fire, etc.

In a way, then, we have poisoned not only our bodies with unnatural chemicals, but our spirits with unnatural rhythms and social structures, poisoned by what in shortsighted perspective seem fixes to our problems--more or better stuff--but often turn out to reduce overall quality of life.

With this in mind, it seems at least one place to start in order to heal the relationships between people and our habitat and our spirits--clearly connected factors--is to stop poisoning earth and air and water and our children and ourselves, to take poisons of both chemical and spiritual nature as seriously as some would take "the sacred," and transform our relationships environmentally and societally to promote health and life and not mere placating shortsighted desires and consumer wants.

A recognition of the whole is necessary for a true integration of the individual, and an appropriate valuation of life and death, and those things which promote either, are necessary for health at both the micro- and macro- scale, health of the environment and of the individual. And basically, to ingest cyanide, lead, mercury, PCB or BPA or whatever potentially deadly or life-harming substance ought to be left to yogis and other conscious and willing subjects, and not broadly spread on and in an unwilling or unaware populace and animals and plants, earth, water and air.