Remarkable Disinclinations

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. – Douglas Adams

No one likes to be told, well, really anything.  It starts when a child first hears (and understands) the word “no”. From there, it’s a steady decline into a world of non-conformity that takes on many a varied and sometimes twisted road.

I’ve been told by that I should simply stop reading as much as I do each day. Maybe it’s some strange fixation, akin to turning one’s head off its base to look at a car accident that one happens to be passing by, but I feel compelled to keep watch over America’s seemingly willful desire to off itself. I guess I want to know when the end is near…or something like that.

(ANTIMEDIA) — A new survey published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) suggests Americans are willing to make a first nuclear strike against Iran and kill millions of civilians in the process.

Evidently, some Americans don’t have an understanding of the basics…nuclear war doesn’t end well…for anyone.

Some days, this writer at the Asylum is hopeful for America. When I hear of ordinary folks helping out other ordinary folks in hurricane ravaged Texas…that’s a cause for hope. Then I read things such as the article above and wonder…did whatever God one might believe in leave us with this beautiful world and then jet off to other universes on an eternal vacation and we’ve now regressed to the point where a majority of people have no problems with a scenario such as the following?

Dr Strangelove ~ Major Kong Rides The Bomb

Apparently, Americans think their cell phones will still work after nuclear detonations and all will still be right with their world.

So, as the insanity seems to multiply each day here in America, with Trump saying dialogue is not the answer with North Korea; that you’ll be offered a $5 gift card for the pleasure of encountering a frog in your salad; that much of the rest of the world seems to be attempting to get along with each other yet the mainstream media here in the States continues with their petulant obsession with Trump and Russia, I was heartened to stumble upon the following classical music piece – one that I was so damn scared to hear when I was a young boy, running from the room if I heard it on the TV (it was the theme to Alfred Hitchcock Presents, a 1950’s suspense show by the great director that frightened me) not knowing that it was a Charles Gounod work, and certainly not knowing that a mandolin orchestra could give it neat little turn toward the enchanted.

Vodka over kombucha on ice, a mandolin orchestra playing Gounod’s Funeral March of a Marionette, Sir Henry closing the office door with his snout and laying down next to me, letting out a deep doggie sigh because I won’t go play with him outside at 11:30 at night – I guess it could all be a little weirder but I’m not quite sure how.

Marcia Funebre per una Marionetta; Charles Gounod (1818-1893)

Photo credit:  www.unsplash.com/@jamomca