You went off with ‘nother ‘round Christmas time
Snuck out while I slept ‘s’if you’d done a crime
You burnt and clipt the wings off butterflies
But blamed it all on me, to summarize
So now you’re only worth these five typed lines
~David T. Kukulkan~
Anti-smoking ads give me that craving
For a lit cigarette slowly burning
Killing me, my sanity it’s saving
When I inhale the darkness stops churning
Poison less toxic than my memories
Black lungs better than cancer in my mind
I’ll take disease’s beastly remedies
O’er the haunting corpses life’s left behind
Demons cremated into dancing smoke
Their ashes fall to the ground: burnt away gone
A fibrous pillar where everything’s broke
An ember of light to keep me till dawn
Killing me more sweetly than people do
And better comp’ny than e’r I spent with you
~David T. Kukulkan~
One of my favorite things about the internet and Facebook in particular, is the news feed. It’s pretty easy to get a glimpse of public opinion and how people feel about certain issues. The days leading up to Valentines Day, people only mentioned it to bash it and point out that it’s nothing but a commercialized phony holiday- which is true. But here’s the thing, so are all the other holidays. They may have started out as something else, but today it’s about marketing and buying shit we don’t need.
However, there’s something no one seems to notice. Sometimes you may hear somebody say they wish it was like Christmas, or Halloween, or whatever all year round. But take a minute and imagine that. Imagine everyday you gave and received gifts, everyday you got flowers and a heart shaped box of chocolates and went out to a fancy, overly romantic restaurant, or every night kids knocked on your door saying “trick or treat.” First, it would be really fucking expensive. Second, it would get old real fast and degrade into downright annoying. The holidays would lose whatever meaning they have left. While they, in reality, are days just like any other, we become desensitized to most things that happen everyday. The sun comes up everyday and it’s normal, we don’t even think about it. Imagine- though life as we know it would be impossible- that the sun only came up once a year. Well, holy shit! We’d all be out there celebrating that one day of light out of year of darkness.
It thus seems that holidays play an important psychological role in our lives to bring certain values forward without making them old and worn out. When we celebrate something, anything, on a certain day and not everyday it makes the day special in our minds. The atmosphere changes and the day itself can change the way we feel. These days break the tedium of everyday life and let us highlight certain emotions. The holidays, including Valentines Day, are no different from all the days past and future, but the way we experience them is different. They’re little psychological nuggets of novelty and anthropologically significant in any culture even though the specific holidays vary from culture to culture.
So, take them for what they are: regular days that are special only in our minds, but would lose any meaning that they hold if we acted like everyday was a particular holiday.
~David T. Kukulkan~
Remember the good ole days when you could go to college, work and pay for your own way through, and then get a decent job that paid enough so you could support yourself and your family? I don’t, because I wasn’t alive for that mystical era.
The world that I and my fellow millennials now inhabit is a very different world. Most of the people I know with a college degree, still have to work shitty, mindless jobs that are so far removed from what they studied you’d think they never even went to college and wasted thousand of dollars.
College has also killed my passion for learning. Not only do most- not all, but almost every class and professor- teach shit I already know, they barely even teach. They’ll read directly from a book and the students just have to regurgitate information. They turn learning into busy work. It’s not about applying information, but picking the right answer on a multiple choice test. And if professors are just summarizing the books, why the fuck do we have to pay obscene rates to attend classes when we could just read a god damn book- a book that we could find online for a fraction of what they sell it for in any college bookstore? Oh, right, it’s because college isn’t about education anymore- it’s about cutting costs and making money. Simple as that. We students are gouged for all the money we have and a great deal of the money we’ll make in the future. Money that we’ll probably earn at a minimum wage job at a fast food restaurant because they’re aren’t any real fucking jobs! Not unless your willing to pay even more money, and spend more time, earning a PhD- and maybe not even then.
Also, let’s not forget about regular education- K through 12. A great deal of students are woefully unprepared for college which is why they have to offer remedial classes that don’t count towards earning a diploma. Why is that? Maybe because our stupid fucking leaders thought it would be a good idea to cut education spending and use it all on blowing shit up in foreign countries for no good reason.
The previous generations have destroyed the environment and economy and education, but it’s all the fault of millennials- the generation that inherited the mess. And then they have the audacity to wonder why so many of us live at home, or have a low work ethic. It’s because there are no fucking opportunities! Most of the jobs available pay poverty level wages even if we do graduate from profit center a.k.a colleges and universities. There’s not even an incentive to work because in many cases, it doesn’t matter how much time or effort we put, we’re not going to be any better off.
I don’t want any handouts. I just want to be paid my fair fucking share so I can be self sufficient. Is that really asking too much? Is that being lazy? Or maybe we should just go out and raid the houses and mansions of the super rich 1% then burn them to the fucking ground. I mean, that’s kind of what they’ve been doing anyway by destroying the environment, economy, education, you know, fucking everything that made this country great once.
~David T. Kukulkan~
In case everybody hasn’t noticed we can all literally see the climate changing. You don’t have to be a psychic, or even a scientist to notice whats going on. Each year the weather is becoming more extreme. It seems now whenever it snows, it’s not just a flurry, but a snow storm. High and low temperature records are being broken. It’s been over 300 months of above average temperatures since humans first starting keeping records of the weather about a hundred years ago. Storms of all kinds are increasing in quantity and intensity. Glaciers are moving and melting at never before seen speeds. Island nations have already begun sinking and it’s only going to get worse. Last summer the North Pole became a lake. A lake!
There’s also acid rain, water and air pollution too. The entire Pacific Ocean is being irradiated by the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant, and the world’s largest cities are becoming so toxic that the air is becoming unbreathable. People actually need to wear masks, or stay inside. Biodiversity is declining at a record pace and given the speed at which temperatures are changing most animals will not be able to adapt fast enough meaning they are on the road to extinction. We’re wiping out entire species without even trying. California is in the midst of one of, if not the worst, droughts in the states’ history and as a result crops are failing.
Now imagine this trend continues, which all evidence suggests it will. More crops, in more places will begin to fail and fail more often either through drought, or unseasonably cold temperatures. Ever hear of the Great Dustbowl? This means food will become more expensive, and as we’ve already seen fuel prices to keep homes warm have already gone up. There’s even a shortage of the fuel needed even if people could afford. Half the country is, for all intents and purposes, living in poverty and many are being forced to choose between rent, food, or heat this winter. So as this trend continues more people will die. Families will freeze to death in their homes, and if the power goes out they’ll freeze even faster even if they could afford their rent and heating costs.
What’s gonna happen when the shit all hits the fan at once? It’s a matter of when, not if, crops around the country, if not the world begin to fail. Without crops, there wont be enough to feed the cows, chickens, and pigs we like to eat so much. The prices will skyrocket and the people who are barely getting by now will not be getting by at all. There will be riots over food and even water. Right now we’re using water for fracking and the extraction of fuels from the Earth which will only speed up climate change and deplete already limited water sources further.
When those riots do come, we will then truly know class warfare. Tell me that desperate, starving, freezing masses wont raid and pillage the largest homes near them for anything of value. Whether they take material goods to sell at a pawn shop, or food to stay alive, or most likely both, home invasions will become routine. What wouldn’t you do to keep yourself and your family alive? As crazy as people like to think doomsday preppers are the threat and reality of the situation are all too real. We as nation and as a species are headed down a dangerous road- the end of which is barren and desolate, full of depravity and “The Walking Dead” will become closer to a documentary but with zombies. Then again, there is the very real possibility of a new plague arising in the midst of all of this. We already have drug resistant bacteria. Animals are pumped full of antibiotics which only increases the chances of a new superbug being able to survive such medicines. And from the perspective of a germ wanting to reproduce and infect as many hosts as possible, what better place to start than in the food supply?
At best we’re engineering a massive catastrophe which may effect the entire world. At worst we’re engineering our own extinction event. At first it was by accident, but now it’s greed and ignorance, and unless we start changing, using cleaner fuels, using renewable energies like wind and solar, practicing sustainable farming and food creation, a lot of people are going to die. I don’t know when, or how fast, but it certainly seems more likely than not.
I really hope I’m wrong.
~David T. Kukulkan~
It’s all just a game
But it’s all that matters
My pieces aflame
My defenses in tatters
Thinking too long
And moving too little
Opponents still going strong
And my set up is brittle
Lost my queen
Never used my rook
Future moves unseen
Even when I look
My king stands alone
I moved too late
I’ve lost my throne
Can’t escape checkmate
~David T. Kukulkan~
So today was the day. The Westboro Baptist Church- looks like 4 of them- came to visit Rhode Island. T’was somewhat of a surreal experience. You see their faces and signs online and on the news but seeing them in person was kind of like seeing a unicorn- if unicorns were evil, could talk, and used their speech to demean others.
The counter protest turnout was spectacular- students, Occupiers, LARPers, and drag queens all made it out with probably a few hundred people at each location- a least for the ones I could make it too.
The Church members sang, but you couldn’t really hear what they were singing, nor would anyone want to since it’s hateful and from what could be heard, they are not meant to be singers and wont be getting a record contract anytime soon.
As the cops directed traffic, most drivers honked their horns- presumably for the pro-equality side since many of the drivers made peace signs and gave a thumbs up towards the crowd, and not towards the four idiots on the street corner. Yes, they had one little corner in each spot they went to, and were literally surrounded by counter protesters.
Every time the church members packed up to move to a new location the crowd cheered and hurried themselves to confront the WBC at their next location.
At one point “USA, USA, USA,” was being cheered as one of the crazies not only let her American flag touch the ground, but began walking on it as if to clean her shoes.
But, something odd struck me: were all these people out to support marriage equality or because they have a lot of hate and anger? I heard a lot name calling and vulgar insults towards the four idiots on the street corner. But let’s be honest, they had it coming. And who could blame masses for being angry since the only thing the WBC does is spout hate speech meant to do nothing but grab attention and piss people off. My guess is it was a combination of love and hate that brought people, not to mention curiosity. Personally I wanted to see them in person, and they really are as ridiculous as they’re portrayed in the media, but more pathetic. They didn’t even have enough people to hold all their signs.
Hopefully we sent them a message- which I think we did because they seemed to pack up early from each location- and hopefully they wont come back, but if they do, I’m sure there’ll be far more people against them that show up too.
~David T. Kukulkan~
Despite our differences, I think most of can agree that the Westboro Baptist Church sucks. Everybody hates them for picketing funerals and thanking god for dead soldiers, amongst other nastiness.
But they’re not content to stay in their own state- even though they are quite content to stay inside their tiny minds- they’re coming here to Rhode Island to protest our state’s progress on marriage equality- or “fag marriage” as they call it. I intend on showing up wherever they show up to let them know they suck and that they’re not welcome here.
It’s not worth trying to reason with these guys. If it were even possible there wouldn’t be a Westboro Baptist Church. We can only be louder. And the best part? There will be LARPer’s. Yes, as in Live Action Role Players. There’s an open group on Facebook called My Big Gay LARP and it’s going to make protesting a lot more interesting.
This is how I imagine our counter protest will look.
You can come as yourself, or a Jedi, it doesn’t matter- no one will ever look as stupid as WBC members are in real life.
Here’s they’re August 1st schedule, and thus our schedule. So come on out, have some fun, and stand up to hate filled idiocy. Just remember, don’t do anything that’s going to get you arrested.
WBC’s Picket Schedule for August 1, 2013:
*Cranston City Hall in Cranston, RI 8:00 AM – 8:30 AM
*Providence City Hall in Providence, RI 8:45 AM – 9:20 AM
*Rhode Island State House in Providence, RI 9:30 AM – 10:00 AM
*Brown University in Providence, RI 10:00 AM – 10:30 AM
*Pawtucket City Hall in Pawtucket, RI 10:45 AM – 11:30 AM
~David T. Kukulkan~
This is a question I’ve heard and pondered in many philosophy and literature classes. However, we never came to answer. I suspect it’s because it’s kind of a nonsensical question akin to asking “What does it mean to be a chair?” The question itself implies there’s some symbolic meaning behind our species and that’s an arrogant supposition to begin with. It’s not like asking “What does ‘A’ mean?” because “A” is a symbol representing a sound and a word- which is also symbolic.
Perhaps it’s better to define and figure out what a human being is and then ask more specific questions like “What sort of environment would be most hospitable to the human being? How should we live to be the most content individual we can be?
So let’s start, shall we? What is a human? Humans are animals made of flesh and blood- which in turn are composed of cells, DNA, and eventually atoms and a quantum structure no one really understands. We are gene vessels; biological creatures with biological needs and urges which are often the source of our drive. We all have to shit, fart, and burp; we’re all covered in bacteria (inside and out) that feed on our dead skin, help us digest food, and plenty of others- good and bad. Some, like toxoplasmosa can even change the way we behave. In fact, it could hardly be said that a human being, or any animal for that matter, could be entirely defined on it’s own individual characteristics and without a larger context. Living things are all complex processes taking part in larger processes. We are nothing without the cooperation of those bacteria, along with our fragile environment. Without trees producing oxygen, without other organisms on which to live, without water, without the protective veil of our atmosphere and magnetosphere, we’re nothing except dead. And that’s just the basics of homeostasis.
Homo sapiens are also very complex psychologically and sociologically. Embedded in our biology is the need for social interaction. We literally need it, or else we become sick- mentally and physically- from prolonged isolation. These interactions often compose a great deal of what we think and how we feel. Emotions like anger, lust, and greed are as natural as compassion and love. They all served very important functions during our evolutionary history and still do. All of our emotions and biological drives are important because they compose us and our ambitions. And if we are then, reacting to our environment based upon our genetics and experiences (nature and nurture) how can it be said we have free-will? Neuroscience is leaning more towards the conclusion that we have very little, if any, free-will. We take pride in our looks, athletic abilities, intelligence, and various other traits we had nothing to do with creating. Then with these facts where does it leave us with questions like “Who am I?” and “What is the self?”
The most accurate answer I’ve been able to find is that the self, the thing we call “I” is an emptiness upon which our thoughts and experiences are projected upon. “I” is a very individualistic word which should encompass not just our bodies and minds, but our place in the universe and the necessary interactions between it and us. Even writing it that way seems inaccurate because it implies a separation, when in fact we all connected through a common lineage, and possibly through space and time itself.
Too often we get lost in words and cultural norms which shape our worldviews which may be helpful for navigating the world, but are woefully inaccurate. Language shapes the way we think even if don’t notice it and seems to be one of the main reasons for so much philosophical confusion.
We also like to think of ourselves as the pinnacle of evolution which is simply arrogant and false. The future of our genetic family will probably look back at us as we look back on the Australopithecines- if we make it that far.
Now that we have a better idea of what a human being is, how should we live? As animals with social hierarchies, conflict and competition will not be going away anytime soon as much as we might like it too. The natural state of man was not a great state to be in. Life was short and harsh. We have since domesticated ourselves for urban life but this can hardly be said to be purely beneficial. Our land, water and air have become poisonous. Our food is more unhealthy than ever and it seems everybody has anxiety, depression, or both. Money is life. Without it, you probably wont have shelter or food, let alone access to health care. We need to find a balance between our destructive and creative potentials and a balance between man’s natural and domesticated states.
There are lot’s of people in this world and lots of ways to live, and certainly there are different lifestyles that will be optimal for some and not others. Unfortunately the paradise where everyone has a habitat (home) and quality natural resources (food, air, and water) seems desperately far away.
We can strive for that future, but in the meantime, remember, we’re much more than only human.
~David T. Kukulkan~
We’re born into a wildfire of sensation. Suddenly it’s bright and cold and for the first time you’re exposed.
Dropped in a foreign word of twisting sights and nauseating sounds, surrounded by, which might as well be and still be, a barren November forest, naked and human.
Where creatures and men and monsters hunt us. You collide with that frozen solid dirt and what can we do but scramble and be humbled.
Shivers and hollow chills. The wind whips with shards of ice against your bare skin.
There are sounds in the forest: the leaves are rustling and crunching and something is moving out there. What you can only hope to be a wolf screams a hideous howl and nothing else moves.
The only thing to do is find a sharp stick and cut the throat of whatever beast comes hurling through shadows. Run it through! Carve it with a sharp rock. Wear it’s skin and eat it’s flesh.
Become what the forest fears and humble the world.
Force them against the cold and solid ground and howl a hideous scream they can only hope to be fanged and savage beast.
Else they’ll eat the flesh off your face and scoop out your eyes, flay and consume you and shit you out.
~David T. Kukulkan~
The Iron Astrolabe 