Friday 29th of March 2024

a proustian view of the world... but are we allowed to laugh?........

The human condition is all of the characteristics and key events of human life, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, morality, conflict, and death. This is a very broad topic that has been and continues to be pondered and analyzed from many perspectives, including those of anthropologyartbiologyhistoryliteraturephilosophypsychology, and religion.

As a literary term, "the human condition" is typically used in the context of ambiguous subjects, such as the meaning of life or moral concerns.[1]

Some perspectives[edit]

Each major religion has definitive beliefs regarding the human condition. For example, Buddhism teaches that existence is a perpetual cycle of suffering, death, and rebirth from which humans can be liberated via the Noble Eightfold Path. Meanwhile, many Christians believe that humans are born in a sinful condition and are doomed in the afterlife unless they receive salvation through Jesus Christ.

Philosophers have provided many perspectives. An influential ancient view was that of the Republic in which Plato explored the question "what is justice?" and postulated that it is not primarily a matter among individuals but of society as a whole, prompting him to devise a utopia. Two thousand years later René Descartes declared "I think, therefore I am" because he believed the human mind, particularly its faculty of reason, to be the primary determiner of truth; for this he is often credited as the father of modern philosophy.[2] One such modern school, existentialism, attempts to reconcile an individual's sense of disorientation and confusion in a universe believed to be absurd.

 

READ MORE:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_condition

 

BUT ARE WE ALLOWED TO LAUGH? IS LAUGHTER A DISTRACTION OR IS IT THE ESSENSE OF HUMAN SURVIVAL? AS THE MAJORITY (ALL) OF WESTERN JOURNALISTS IGNORE THE REALITY OF THE UKRAINE CRAP, ARE WE DOOMED TO SEARCH FOR AN ILLICIT VICTORY? IS HYPOCRISY A NECESSARY INGREDIENT IN OUR FABRICATION OF THE "TRUTH"? WAS DESCARTE A CLEVER IMBECILE? AS WE GET OLDER AND FIND WE LEFT OUR FRONT DOOR KEYS IN THE FRIDGE OR TRIED TO OPEN A TINCAN WITH A CORKSCREW, WE NEED TO ASK QUESTIONS. SHOULD WE LAUGH AT OUR MISTAKE AND REDRESS THE SITUATION, WHILE APOLOGISING TO THE  SCREWDRIVER FOR USING IT AS A NOSE CLEANER? OR SHOULD WE PURSUE OUR MISTAKES TO THE END?

WE ALL KNOW THE ANSWER HERE, BUT OUR LEADERS — SENILE, STUPID, MORONIC, CORRUPT AND CRAP-FOCUSED — WILL ANSWER WITH VENOM AGAINST SOMETHING THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND, DON'T WANT TO UNDERSTAND, AND WANT US TO ACCEPT AND FOLLOW THEIR OFTEN DELIBERATE MISTAKES.

SO WHY DO THEY DO THESE REALLY BAD AND DANGEROUS MAGIC TRICKS OF FAILURE? IS THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE SO DUMB? HUM.... GOOD QUESTION. THE MOST FRIGHTENING THING IS THAT WE COULD BE THE DUMB ONES. AT WHICH LAYER OF PHILOSOPHICAL COATING, ARE WE GOING TO SEE THE TRUTH? IS THERE THRUTH AT THE CENTRE OF THE LOLLY OR MORE SUGAR NOW DISOLVED INTO NOTHING? SHOULD WE LAUGH???? LAUGH!!!!

WE ALL SHOULD GO AND SEE THE "WARF REVIEW" AT THE SEYMOUR CENTRE... 

It’s a new dawn, a new day, and a new captain at the helm of the ship of state. And what a state we’re in!

Inflation, rising interest rates, conflict in Ukraine, climate disaster, culture wars, COVID 19-20-21-22-23, and a looming World War Three - could things get any worse? Absolutely - Neighbours has finished!

But here’s one way to make things better: book your tickets to The Wharf Revue's Looking for Albanese.

Inspired by the new national spirit of optimism that lasted for a week, the team are as keen as mustard to tackle the big-picture issues (see above).

The world is grim - what better time to have a laugh?

 

YEP...

 

GUS LEONISKY

CARTOONING SINCE 1951 AND STILL GOING STRONG......

 

SEE ALSO:

subconscious hairpiece envy?...

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW.......

NOW YOU CAN CRY ABOUT WHAT THE F%$#@*G US EMPIRE IS DOING TO HIM.....

 

 

the calamity of war should haunt us..........

 

BY Douglas Newton

 

In the shadow of Remembrance Day, the calamity of war should haunt us. But sadly, contemporary debates regarding our defence policy rhyme uncomfortably with those heard during the slide to disaster before the First World War.

In the last two decades before the Great War of 1914-1918 …

– Newly federated Australia was scarcely an independent nation – because, as H.B. Higgins warned the parliament in 1901, Australia lacked real control over its foreign and defence policy, and so ‘we shall not be consulted as to peace or war’.

– Valuing loyalty to Britain above all, Australia’s politicians contributed military forces to a disastrous war, for dubious objects, the Boer War, 1899-1902 – provoking furious debate.

– Believing Australia to be a vulnerable ‘white’ outpost of the British Empire on the edge of Asia, most politicians soon set aside the lessons of the Boer War, and repeatedly pledged unwavering loyalty to Britain – because ‘if England went down we should be helpless.’

– Fearful of being smeared as soft on the enemy, of being ‘accused of disloyalty’, Labor protested that it was as devoted to the British Empire as the conservatives.

– Politicians repeatedly promised to put Australia’s interests first, and never to compromise our freedom of action – but they agreed to prepare an expeditionary force, and promised to transfer the brand-new ‘Royal Australian Navy’ to the British Admiralty upon the outbreak of any war, because, as Minister of Defence George Pearce put it, anything less was ‘inconceivable’.

– Placing absolute faith in deterrence and fidelity to Britain, and taking British advice, both sides of politics rapidly boosted military spending – introducing compulsory military training, and purchasing an Australian fleet unit on lines recommended by London, including ‘one battleship cruiser, three second class cruisers, six destroyers and three submarines.’

– Joining the ram-raid on the public purse, the great weapons manufacturers of the era, who cultivated the press, lobbies, and politicians in both Britain and Australia, were frequently mired in corruption scandals across the globe – for example, the revelations of the systematic bribery of Japanese naval officers by Vickers, uncovered in 1914.

– Preaching British military doctrine, Australia’s military lobbies and advisers urged that it would be ‘horribly ignoble’ to focus our defence forces on the Australian continent, but rather we should stand ready to secure Australia’s ‘interests’ regionally and globally, and join with our great imperial ally in ‘forward defence’ – because, as Colonel James Whiteside McCay put it in 1911, ‘it is better to carry the war into the enemy’s country that to wait for the war to come to you.

– Faithfully reflecting London’s imperial world-view, Australian opinion makers played down the wars and abuses perpetrated by Britain itself, and those of its ‘entente partners’ (Russia in Persia, France in Morocco, Japan in Korea) and prospective ‘allies’ (Italy in Libya), and instead created ‘an extraordinary state of alarm and panic’ on the German menace – and the danger of Asian invasion if Britain lost command of the sea to Germany.

– And when the crisis came in 1914, Australian politicians, in the middle of a federal election campaign, immediately offered an expeditionary force to Britain, under British command, for any objective, and the transfer of the new Australian navy to Britain’s Admiralty – even before London requested this.

Lots of old men were dying to see the Germans defeated – but they didn’t die.

In the last two decades before the next great war …

– Australia was supposedly an independent nation – but our sovereignty was dissolving, so that, as former Prime Minister Keating warned, our foreign and defence policy was in danger of ‘being owned by the United States’.

– Valuing loyalty to the USA above all, Australia’s politicians contributed military forces to a disastrous war, for dubious objects, in Iraq 2003 – a decision defended a decade later by John Howard who explained that ‘the circumstances we recall tonight necessitated a 100 per cent ally, not a 70 or 80 per cent one.’

– Believing Australia to be a vulnerable outpost of the West on the edge of Asia, most politicians soon set aside the lessons of the Iraq War, and repeatedly pledged unwavering loyalty to the USA, arguing that we depended absolutely on the USA’s military might – as Julia Gillard told Congress in 2011, Australia was ‘an ally for all the years to come’, or as Malcolm Turnbull promised President Trump in 2017, ‘You can count on me. I will be there again and again.’

– Fearful of being smeared as soft on the enemy, of being accused of running as ‘the Manchurian candidate’, Labor protested that it was as devoted to the Australian-American alliance as the conservatives.

– Politicians repeatedly promised to put Australia’s interests first, and never to compromise ‘our own agency’ – while also preparing new levels of cooperation, lifting ‘interoperability’, and hosting more US bases and forces, so that, as Minister of Defence Peter Dutton put it, it was ‘inconceivable’ that Australia would not support the US in ‘an action’ over Taiwan.

– Placing absolute faith in deterrence and fidelity to the USA, both sides of politics rapidly boosted military spending – promising the acquisition of long-range nuclear-powered submarines, because, as Richard Marles explained, these were crucial ‘in shaping [our] strategic circumstances, in building strategic space.’

– Joining the ram raid on the public purse, the great weapons manufacturers of the era, who cultivated the press, lobbies and politicians in the USA, Britain, and Australia, were frequently mired in corruption across the globe – such as the revelations of the scores of retired US military staff on foreign payrolls touting for US arms sales, and the systematic bribery of naval officers over a decade by Leonard Francis (‘Fat Leonard’) to price gouge the US Navy to the tune of USD$35m.

– Preaching American military doctrine, Australia’s military lobbies and advisers urged that our defence forces must not focus merely on the defence of the Australian continent, but rather we should stand ready to join with our great powerful friend in ‘forward deterrence’, securing Australia’s ‘interests’ regionally and globally, moving our submarines up to ‘strategic show-points’ – and even claiming that ‘it’s been useful to go off and do these foreign wars, Iraq and Afghanistan.’

– Faithfully reflecting Washington’s world-view, Australian opinion makers played down the wars and abuses perpetrated by the USA itself, and those of its partners, such as Saudi Arabia, and instead focussed fixedly upon the perils facing Australia from a ‘strange new monster’, Russia and China.

And when the crisis came … shall we be sure to go, everywhere – like Mary’s lamb?

 

READ MORE:

https://johnmenadue.com/how-history-rhymes-being-owned-by-the-united-states-link-not-secure/

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW.................