An Argument Against Living in the Present
Comedy and Literature are among the great escapes from the horrors of only LIVING in the present. People have always told me to LIVE in the NOW and be more present. I call bullsh-t. I think we ruined America in 2016 by only LIVING in the present.
If you keep one foot in the past and the other in the future you are less likely to be constantly fooled and flat footed. Mentally, spiritually, and even physically.
I can walk up to people living completely in the present and tip them over like traffic cones.
The Game that is being played is the use of AI to harness the patterns we reveal, as a herd of media and content-munching cows. With just the right triggers and code words, we are herded through a dizzying array of emotionally bankrupt anger and joy-gasms until we are simply numb. Not that being numb is the objective. That may just be when we are spent.
Much has been made of what internet porn does to the brain. Well it’s probably better for you than you arguing politics with idiots and bots. And much less messy.
But books like this put so much in perspective, and show you new possibilities bases on the many roads we traveled that got us here.
I had little epiphanies and moments of authentic inspiration visualizing images of the Mormon Mafia taking over Vegas with Howard Hughes and his money. Which explains why one conservative Reagan-loving Mormon Don I like to work with (regardless of our political theories) was friends with Don Rickles and Sinatra himself.
I bounced from Coast to Coast.
I saw Rodney Dangerfield quitting stand up comedy, to sell aluminum siding, while sneaking down in the morning to meet with comedians to literally sell jokes out of the trunk of his car and smoke reefer with his boys in Brooklyn.
I watched Sid Caesar meet Mel Brooks and pay Brooks under the table because his boss thought he was unfunny and refused to hire him. Under the table TV sketch comedy was born on NBC and still rolls on at 30 Rock today.
I saw Dick Gregory get up on a microphone in the South at a protest and call out Bull Connor and his White Supremacist thugs like no one has ever before or since…and somehow not get murdered.
I watched Belushi ask for money to buy a new ‘guitar’ at an LA comedy club, then go off and OD in a sad sack echo of Lenny Bruce.
Living in the NOW is so unbelievably stupid and unfunny. Arming teachers and school bus drivers and putting veterans with M4 machine guns everywhere to protect us from the monsters we have become is so pathetic and unnecessary it is clear that we are being ruled by a group of Manhattan Clowns and human trash so unclever they make the Insane Clown Posse look like a f_cking think tank full of acclaimed astrophysicists.
It is mentally unhealthy at this point in time to spend more than 6.5 hours a day living in present. I would rather fight for the future by digging through the past.
Also try to laugh before you cry. But it’s OK to cry. But it’s not my first option.
THE COMEDIANS: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy, by Kliph Nesteroff
Where Did They Park The Get Away Car?
Every time I come back from a trip abroad I go book crazy. Book borrowing is one of the best ideas human kind has ever devised and has yet to abandon.
Which is remarkable since our last two Republican Presidents can barely read.
The Tao of Public Library is one of the Socialist ideals that predates the Socialism and even the intellectual concept, such as the Socialism Jesus Conservatives ignore as they pretend Jesus died to make them Rich. You know ludicrous stuff. Pretzel Logic.
Is not Socialism itself the motor oil that keeps our Capitalist economic engines from seizing, and overheating, and running till the wheels fall off rather than bursting into flames on a hill this nation had once conquered?
Books man. I am not the fastest reader, but because of the New Deal and cats like Benjamin Franklin, I can write as cool and clear as a bird can sing.
It’s books that train the mind to practice empathy and understand how two opposing view points can enrich the other and allow a better one to stand up and reach the sun.
But the proliferation of truly dumb ideas that conquer really good ones is a terrifying sign our Capitalist machine is about out of oil, and the driver is getting ready to ditch it and run with the money.
Did you know you can check out up to 100 books at the King County Library? Or, for that matter, the Multnomah County Library?
Davin’s new song has been released and is fast becoming a dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many musical ventures and is one of the driving forces behind the Staxx Brothers. He has just returned from three weeks of networking and reporting from Kingston, Jamaica.
