Saturday, May 10, 2008

cave, cave, cave

It is increasingly clear that Americans in the main have allowed themselves to become degenerate and so the old American Dream is changing, fading…

The brief period of American world leadership is finished–– just more ancient history like the British Empire.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Breeds and Races

Before I came to live in Ahimsaland I worked as a substitute schoolteacher for about three years in San Diego, Merced and Roseville/Sacramento, California, USA.

Almost every working day I was in a different classroom in a different school teaching different subjects to different age levels of students from kindergarten to grade twelve.

Because of California’s mixed population, I have been exposed to the children of just about every race of human being on the planet and I have come to believe that the races are more different than we are taught to expect as teachers in this multicultural, multiracial democracy, the USA.

Biologically speaking, all human beings are members of one species, homo sapiens, and can interbreed. Well and good, but, to me, the racial differences I have experienced as a teacher are more like the differences between breeds of, for example, dogs.

No one experienced with dogs expects a Spaniel to behave like a Bulldog or a German Shepherd to behave like a Border Collie, yet all these animals are biologically of the same canine species. They can interbreed and are all “dogs”. Yet within the canine species, each breed has its specialty, its champions, its strengths and its weaknesses. All dogs do not receive the same training and are not expected to compete outside their breed. Greyhounds are not expected to race against Chihuahuas–- Poodles are known for their intelligence and Dalmatians for their spots–-but they are all equally dogs and no breed is born “better” than another-–just different.

Humans have purposely bred dogs and other animals for certain specialized qualities for many generations and humans, using their intelligence as a guide, sometimes breed themselves between races. This seems absolutely OK to me.

I have heard of Americans spoken of as a “mongrel” breed because of the interbreeding of other "purer" breeds.

So be it, since mongrels might survive when more specialized pure breeds would die out. With Americans, (and with human beings generally) only time will tell.

Anyway, right or wrong, this notion of the different “races” of humanity being like different “breeds” of dogs has helped me cope with some of the behavior I dealt with on a daily basis.


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Thursday, May 8, 2008

The Human Family


We all belong.

Appreciate us.


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Wednesday, May 7, 2008

"The Invisible Pyramid"

Have you read the book "The Invisible Pyramid" by Loren Eiseley?

May I recommend that you place it on your list of good reads and get to it as soon as you can.

Eiseley is a cool and methodical, thoughtful anthropologist--well, I am sure you have heard of him and don't need to read my praise--but if your library has a copy of the above named book, I would like you to read it soon.

The Chapter entitled "The World Eaters" has some remarks which are especially pertinent to us today.

All's well here in Ahimsaland.


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Tuesday, May 6, 2008

arms sale collage


Hello.

I am going to try a blog experiment. As you know I am new at blogging so I don't always know how things will look when they are posted.

But I am going to post an image which I scanned from an 8X11 collage. It will be easier to see if it is full screen so you may need to click on it or increase the magnification of the image.

The idea is to communicate a "feeling" about a news item that appeared lately.


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