Runaway technology (with work-depriving automation, electromagnetic pollution, cognition-robbing language models, and legalized plagiarism) is no doubt with us for the duration, but I cannot for the life of me understand how people can rationalize its utility, which surely will be out of proportion to the inevitable human cost. How can usefulness be a justification for not being against it? It is not unlike one being against environmental injury or war, even though many would justify their continuation and ignore the clear evidence of human damage. The only way forward that is rational or righteous is “zero tolerance of harm.” Let’s see if those with a vested interest in seeding communities with artificial intelligence can measure up to that standard. I won’t hold my breath.
Of course, one can take a stand “against” something, but also be accountable for personal behavior, advocate for reforms, and undertake positive action. I think of two of my heroes. Dick Gregory was against medical tyranny, but promoted nutrition, fasting, avoidance of toxic substances, mental wellness through humor, and upholding human rights. Wendell Berry is against industrial agriculture, but promotes the restoration of rural economies, human-scale communities, and stewardship of natural places. And above all those we may admire and hope to emulate, there is always Jesus of Nazareth, who was against the evil doer and wicked conduct, but promoted mercy for the suffering, love of others before self, and the forgiveness of sin.
Archive for the ‘Angst’ Category
Thursday, September 4th, 2025
Friday, August 15th, 2025
“The problem is that AI absorbs and spits back conventional wisdom gleaned from every source, which makes its judgments no better than someone wholly uninformed on particulars but rather gains opinions from the mood of the moment. It has no capacity to judge good quality over bad so it puts it all into a melange of blather, distinguished only because it looks and feels like English. Any writer who thinks this is a good way to pawn off content on unsuspecting readers or teachers is headed for disaster. I shudder to imagine a future in which AI is training the population how to think. It is the opposite of thinking. It is regurgitating conventionalities without any serious reflection on the social or historical context. It is literally mindless.”
Wednesday, July 30th, 2025
“A recent MIT study used EEG (electroencephalography) to examine what happens in the brain when people use AI tools like ChatGPT. The results were chilling. Brain activity dropped — especially in the prefrontal and temporal lobes, the areas responsible for problem-solving, planning, memory, and language. Even after removing the AI, participants who had used it showed persistently lower brain engagement. This lingering drop — dubbed cognitive debt — is eerily similar to patterns we see in screen-saturated youth or early cognitive decline.”
— Daniel G Amen, 7/28/25
Tuesday, March 25th, 2025
“The large-cap U.S. stock markets increasingly present a gruesome picture. Leadership in plunder capitalism and central control, richly subsidized by taxpayer dollars, does not translate into leadership in science and technology, let alone reinvestment in the things that can reverse ecological damage and advance human civilization.”
Thursday, March 20th, 2025
“Those who can afford the best technologies in AI merging will earn their entrance into the more elite castes. To deny yourself or your children this, is to not only deny their future, but their children’s future, and so on and so on. In fact, this new system will look a great deal like the old system where bloodlines were relegated to a life of serfdom or aristocracy based on ‘the blood’ you were born with, or rather… enhanced with.”
Sunday, July 14th, 2024
“We are seeing how, in broad daylight, it is not actually Joe Biden making the decisions and calling the shots — whether it be related to economic or foreign policy — it’s the Tony Blinkens and the Jake Sullivans and the Hillary Clintons and Lloyd Austins who are making these decisions, which should be troubling to every American because we didn’t vote for any of those people …. a huge problem for us as Americans to have someone in that position who is incapable of fulfilling that responsibility. He should not be in that position, but we also shouldn’t be under any kind of illusion that, should he be forced out or choose to leave, that anything will be different with a President Kamala Harris or anyone else that they choose to fill that position. The Deep State — the military industrial complex — they will continue calling the shots. They only care about power. They don’t care whose face, whose picture is hanging on the wall.”
— Tulsi Gabbard
Monday, April 29th, 2024
“For each thorn, there’s a rosebud… For each twilight – a dawn… For each trial – the strength to carry on, For each storm cloud — a rainbow… For each shadow — the sun… For each parting — sweet memories when sorrow is done.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Monday, September 5th, 2022
“Since the G7 oil price cap was announced on Friday, Russia has retaliated by cutting gas supply to Germany to zero, and joining forces with Saudi Arabia and others at OPEC+ to reduce global oil production. I’m going to go to the pub to drink some beer now.”
— Javier Blas, 9/5/22
March Ex(clusion) — twenty-ninth day
Tuesday, March 29th, 2022“Nothing, indeed, is so characteristic of Tolstoy as the painstaking attention he paid to his works. Even at a time when he was beginning to regard art as an evil, he remained the great artist who was never satisfied and in his search of unattainable perfection did not hesitate to criticize the best of his works.”
– David Magarshack
Sometimes I just want to hit my forehead against the double-brick facade of the Town House. After spending many hours over several days writing and refining a comprehensive artist statement for a major competition (with plenty of back-and-forth collaborative tension between Dana and me), I discover that a what I’d thought was a limitation of 5000 words was instead an clearly specified 5000-character maximum. AAUGHH!
Today’s sight bite— The tiny brown bird with speckled breast and long tail, fidgeting on my newly clipped bush.—c-l-i-c-k— An edgy wren, lady thrush, or juvenile sparrow? My ignorance is disclosed…
March Ex(clusion) — twenty-eighth day
Monday, March 28th, 2022“Cain turns to Evil to obtain what Good denied him, and he does it voluntarily, self-consciously and with malice aforethought. Christ takes a different path. His sojourn in the desert is the dark night of the soul — a deeply human and universal human experience.”
– Jordan B Peterson“No tree can grow to Heaven unless its roots reach down to Hell.”
– Carl Gustav Jung
Yesterday was really something else, and, if I had to live it repeatedly, I could do much worse. Was the promise of this month’s endeavor fulfilled? Perhaps it even suggests a solution to my quandary of the twenty-third day. If I knew that tomorrow was going to be put on a loop, how would I prepare? How then would I live it? A balance of effort and non-effort? How does one avoid crossing a frontier into excessive introspection? How often should action be diluted with non-action? James emphasized to me the importance of cyclic illumination for seedlings, because a young plant grows more during darkness than it does during the period of light. Similarly, a plant can bend toward the sun only if the cells multiply faster on the opposite side. What can that awareness possibly offer to the contemplative? Is there a meaningful difference between negation and denial? What is the March Ex(clusion) hiding that has yet to be revealed?
Today’s sight bite— A tangle of roots, sod, and invasive ivy, —c-l-i-c-k— as the ground is broken for my new backyard berry patch.
March Ex(clusion) — nineteenth day
Saturday, March 19th, 2022“He and I hold some different views, which can be painfully stark these days; at the same time, I will always be a person shaped by his art, and by our love for one another.”
– B C Adkins
I stumbled upon Brendan’s gesture of sharing a link to my process video. His “rollover aside” both melts and pierces my heart. (Perhaps that’s as accurate a description of real love as I will ever come up with.)
Today’s sight bite— Searching through my little movie, frame by frame, —c-l-i-c-k— until I finally discover an image of me working outside that is probably better than all the other photos from the past five years.
March Ex(clusion) — twelfth day
Saturday, March 12th, 2022“Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.”
– James Madison, Federalist Papers
It’s getting more difficult to navigate a course of balanced influences, now that everything is so charged with persuasion, hyper-slant, duplicitous rhetoric, or outright psychological manipulation. I’m reading the Pulitzer-Prize-winning book by Thomas E. Ricks about the educational context of four key Framers (not inaccurately sized up as a somewhat revisionist take on how literary writings of the classical world shaped the men who invented the American Republic). I’m monitoring the daily editorial media of populist partisans, as well as alternative analysis (from Tyler Durden to Jimmy Dore). I skim the top stories put out by the Corporate Media. I partake of regular Peterson and Rogan doses. I follow The Marginalian. I watched Oliver Stone’s informative documentary called Ukraine on Fire. Trying to avoid becoming part of somebody’s self-serving agenda can feel like a full-time job!
Today’s sight bite— n o n e
March Ex(clusion) — eighth day
Tuesday, March 8th, 2022“Better to be alone than poorly accompanied.”
— Gad Saad
If the sole criteria are the metrics of my peculiar exercise, this could be not inappropriately described as a nearly perfect March day. Indoor and outdoor activity, creative studio time balanced by practical home improvements, and plenty of fitness items duly noted on the traditional handmade checklist. Nevertheless, the undercurrent of grief from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is ever present. There is no single perspective that I can adopt, and it is almost beyond my capacities to forge a personal viewpoint that is not overly influenced by the agenda of some ideological bloc. But that won’t stop me from trying.
Today’s sight bite— Sky the shade of an old aluminum pot, —c-l-i-c-k— with the blurred sun like a cool white dwarf, hung all by itself on a curtain of gun nickel.
March Ex(clusion) — seventh day
Monday, March 7th, 2022“How sad in our blinkered arrogance that we go across the globe to the tribal Third World to teach the impoverished a supposedly preferable culture and politics, while at home we are doing our best to become a Third-World country of incompetency, constitutional erosion, a fractious and politicized military elite, and racially and ethnically obsessed warring tribes.”
– Victor David Hanson
The last thing I would think is that Ukraine or any other part of the world does not have the rightful destiny of self-determination. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a self-evident truth. But that’s a far cry from jumping into immature, self-righteous posturing or following the drumbeats that would move us toward another proxy war. I happen to be keen on the benefits of Western Civilization, and I won’t apologize for it, nor deny that its finest fruit is American Exceptionalism. But that’s also a far cry from endorsing the ulterior motives of the ruling elites, and how they use secrecy, lies, and propaganda to perpetuate their relentless exploitation and lust for control.
Today’s sight bite— A full conference table of plein air artists, —c-l-i-c-k— the overwhelming majority of whom decided not to wear a face mask.
March Ex(clusion) — fourth day
Friday, March 4th, 2022“Many called former U.S. president Barack Obama the ‘greatest gun salesman in America’ due to his support of strict gun control measures. Similarly, I believe Justin Trudeau will be remembered as the greatest Bitcoin salesman in Canadian history.”
– Frank Holmes
I don’t know what I’d be thinking today, with the dismantling of my CHANGE OF SEEN exhibition, if much of the artwork was not on its way to a new venue, thanks to Kate S of Arts Connect. My first all-collage landscape show is over, and I have much more for which to be grateful than any justification for critique. Beyond multiple deficiencies in the venue, I am enormously thankful to have been offered entrée to the Lexington art scene. Meanwhile, the war against Ukraine continues, with no ceasefire on the horizon. Yes, he is “Vladimir the Terrible,” but that is no reason to escalate a conflict that could bring catastrophic harm to the American people, far out of proportion to our interests in Eurasia. Too many are needlessly playing with a fire that could burn millions. Shouldn’t our leaders be brokering a peace, instead of throwing around gasoline?
Today’s sight bite— Driving along Clays Mill to check out my favorite chinkapin oak, —c-l-i-c-k— as grand a spectacle in the nude as he is with a full set of leafy clothes.
Saturday, December 11th, 2021
“What I foresee going forward is a government clinging white knuckled to a crisis response when regular people would far prefer to simply stay home for a few days if they’re sick and get on with their lives if they’re not. Instead of safety maximalism, they would prefer to balance risks and rewards in a world where other priorities such as business, school, and a full reopening for people without comorbidities (who have never been at much risk and have been in even less risk after vaccines) or others that simply want to make their own health decisions.”
— Chris DeMuth, Jr., 12/11/21
Monday, November 22nd, 2021
“Every institution that was once trustworthy has been debauched to maximize private gain: higher education, science, medicine, national defense — the list includes virtually every sector and industry in America. Nothing can be trusted because somebody behind the scenes is spinning the story and data to mask their self-interest, their immense gains, and the carefully contrived structure of diverting investigation and eliminating transparency, competition, and accountability.
“The consequences of the drip-drip-drip of moral decay is difficult to discern in day-to-day life. It’s easy to dismiss the ubiquity of artifice, PR, spin, corruption, racketeering, fraud, collusion, and narrative manipulation (a.k.a. propaganda) as nothing more than human nature, but this dismissal of moral decay is nothing more than rationalizing the rot to protect insiders from the sobering reality that the entire system is unraveling and heading for its final reckoning: collapse.”— Charles Hugh Smith, 11/21/21
Monday, July 26th, 2021
“Regarding the challenge of transformation, I think it is important to acknowledge that in order to grow, there is pain and suffering. The hardest moments in my life have ultimately been what pushed me to strive to be and do better. I cannot think of any example in history where someone achieved greatness without pain and suffering, and at some level, I think we need this suffering to ennoble us. All this is to say that I think the person you will become through this process will be stronger, clearer, and more beautiful.”
— June Kellum, Dear June
Friday, May 14th, 2021
“I think the next stage in the market psychology is when people figure out there is no adult supervision left in these markets… Daddy is not going to come home and fix this. We are at the point where there are no solutions, and that’s when things spin out of control…”
— John Rubino, DollarCollapse.com
Saturday, February 27th, 2021
“There is no reason to suppose that they [central bankers] understand the modern financial system and economy to any greater extent than they did in 2007 (that is to say, not at all). Nevertheless, they plow ahead, expressing total confidence that what they are saying and doing is wise and not dangerous drivel.
“It is unlikely that these unprecedented and experimental government policies of such gargantuan scope will actually create the desired result and allow themselves to be able to be unwound without great shock and disruption to the global financial system.”— Paul Singer, 2014