Only the Unnecessary Must Be Defended
Audio = Stream from the bar; download from the dots
08/16/1991
Summary = See below
Condensed News Items = See below
News Item Gallery = jcap 1991-03-18 -0856
Transcript = None
Key Words =
Summary
#856 Aug 16, 1991 – 1:00
Notes by TK
Kyroot to :21. Only the unnecessary must be defended. There is no possible defense of the Primary Level World—it is its own justification. In the Secondary Level World there is as much talk justifying talk as there is talk itself. Man, creature of the Secondary Level World, is thereby charged with continually explaining, validating it. The Secondary Level World must continually re-invent itself or it would perish (unlike the Primary Level World which survives by its own virtue). To understand the quasi-illusionary. invented, intangible, imaginary status of the Secondary Level World is to understand why man will so ferociously defend it.
E.g., wars over ideas vs. wars over PL necessities (Christian inquisition, crusades etc.). Man must defend his own creation against claims of its speciousness, and his due defense is proof of Life’s health and expansion. W/o man’s support the Secondary Level World cannot sustain itself. Man has the equivalent responsibility of parenthood: defense and support of the offspring-Secondary Level World. The supreme example of rational living, self-interest survival of the Secondary Level World.
The News
Even if you have no talent for design, if you make something
ugly enough, somebody’ll want it. …(Think about that next time
you’re on your way to the city.)
***
One guy changed his name, phonied-up his home address, and
still — he still knew where he lived.
***
Latest dose of “City Graffity”: “Big helpings of littleness
may add up to small collections of largeness.” (Right below
this, someone had started to write, “Huh?” — but changed their
mind.)
***
In his self-described attempt to “expand their philosophical
awareness,” the king told the people, “Why should you petition me
for those particulars that only life itself can grant?” and some
shouted back, “But you’re the one to whom we give part of our
crops and labor.” (And a homeless lad in the village suddenly
thought, “This is the same problem I’ve been encountering in my
own search for wisdom, but in a different setting.”)
***
Habit has no fate.
***
This morning’s mail brought this letter from a viewer:
“Dear Sirs: The comment made on your program night before last
about some god whose only words to his creatures were `Ah, forget
it!’ disturbed me so greatly that I have not been able to eat for
the last two weeks; which also enforces that other viewer’s
complaint of how your shows get ordinary time all `es-kewed-up’;
I’ll admit I don’t know exactly what this word means, but it
sounds close enough to `screwed-up’ to suit my sentiments nicely.
Well, I guess that’s all for now; I was about to say `Keep up the
good work,’ but suddenly realized I wrote this letter initially
to complain about what you do; so I guess I am now sufficiently
confused to close. Yours Sincerely, etc.”
***
You might care to note that there would be no news coverage
of the secondary world if it were not carried out just as
seriously as reports concerning primary events.
***
Household Clean-Up Tip For The Day: Clean up your house!
***
They believed that the full extent of the damage couldn’t be
measured until he had recovered, but by then, he claimed they
couldn’t begin to grasp the true scope and splendor of his
stupidity.
***
A neural revolutionist said, “Really new ideas, I know, are
frightening,” and the people shouted back, “No, they’re not.” (At least I think that’s what I heard; it’s hard
to tell what people are saying while they are running.)
…and Kyroot said: Now for the Fable portion of our program; there was once a wise old reality, who became s-o-o old, s-o-o settled (and appropriately “wise”), that in its later years it simply made “new” ideas boring. The end.
***
One guy’s definition of reality: “Their word against mine.”
***
As some squirrels, kings, cities, and gods listened
intently, one kid asked his ole man, “If you can’t “teach
yourself”, and if you can’t “learn it from others” — then what
is the solution?” (They all listened most intently.)
***
The three-fifteen speaker in the Philosophers’ Spot in the
park had this to declare, “In the normal course-of-events, many
events will normally take place, of course.” (And for this he was
roundly ignored.)
***
At the height of the celebration the people cried out, “We will hang no king before his time,” and His Grace asked an aide, “What time is it?”
***
Oh, I checked: That one race of beings you asked about
seemed to have disappeared shortly after trying to hold down
their reality and perform some sort of “religious-sexual ritual”
thereon. …(It’s not nice to try and circumcise Mother Nature.)
***
The Oracle Tree said to a passing squirrel, “A man with a
mission is the same thing as a man with an austere suitcase,”
and the fuzzy one asked, “But how can that be?” to which the
arbor replied, “Do you have a mission?” “No,” said the
squirrel. “Do you have a suitcase?” “No,” he replied, and the
great tree said, “Then let me ask you two things: How, then, would
you know if this could be or not? And in any case, why then
would you care? The squirrel pondered this for a moment, then
said, “But you’re the one who brought the whole thing up in the
first place,” to which the tree replied, “I could take your
comment as either an accusation, or a statement of fact, but in
either instance, I must also point out that this sort of thing is
my job.” (On that particular day, that particular squirrel
gained a whole new respect and tolerance for the mental life of
man.)
***
Men start mysteries, therefore, men can’t solve them.
***
A chap who watches the show says that the Kyroots shouldn’t
be copyrighted; he says they should “belong to us all — just
like the air, the sky and stupidity.” (I should note to you
people that it is impossible to “be alive” and be stupid
regarding your own aliveness.)
***
One ole sorehead climbed up on a soup can and announced,
“Modern men ain’t spit — that’s why they’re modern.”
…(Although he wouldn’t admit it, he later admitted he was
sure this was much more important than he gave it time for. He
says that young people today just don’t appreciate the pressures
of being a sorehead.)
***
All excuses are the same. (This is certainly easy enough to see, once you realize that they all rhyme.)
***
A chap next to me in a city line said he thought that being
able to do nothing with perceived panache was a true sign of
“something or other”: (He says he’s sure it’s better than still
owing money on a ’52 Rambler.)
***
One quite common king — (and I say “common” in its most complimentary sense) one day said to his subjects, “I do not play with words,” and several of them noted, “We know, we know; that’s why the `commoners-that-we-are’ selected you.” …(And like most arrangements — “out there” and “in here” — it may not seem like the most passionate or perfect marriage, but such arrangements are necessary, are the norm, and are of sufficient duration as to hold together the estate of civilization. …[Certain of the rebels and homeless of the village may, however, see it otherwise.])
***
Whenever this one guy’d hear someone use the word
“conspiracy,” he’d immediately move the jelly from his front
pocket to a rear one with the peanut butter.
***
One reality told its little creatures, “Hey, don’t get too serious; I don’t wanna marry you — I just want to sleep with you.”
***
If uniformity is the ultimate sign of order, then the neural
subversive is Captain Irony’s “secret, evil twin.”
***
Two planets were talking and one said, “Most of my poets have a fear that life is but a masquerade,” and the other replied, “Yes, but their greatest is that they won’t be invited.”
…(And an ole man viewer told his kid, “Now don’t you go and feel speciously superior to our literary muses, for I must tell you — at the higher city levels, I have met-the-poets, and the poets-are-US.”)
***
One guy says he’s gonna move to where they talk a lot…
…Well, to be more exact, he says he’s going to where they
talk a lot, but settle on the other side of town.
***
One day, a man’s frontal lobes mused, “Ahh, the life of the mind is short and sweet,” and his liver said, “What the hell are you complaining about!” …(There was once a land that considered the brain and its operations as the same. [These people had a subsequently horrendous linguistic problem.])
***
In the settled, secondary world of civilization, the subtly homeless MAY have a chance.
***
Question Of The Day: Can a man of no intelligence actually
be brave? …(As always — be cautioned; and if you’re not under
a doctor’s supervision, do not apply this to your own head.)
***
There was a guy who had two brains he could keep separate; I don’t know what good it did, but he could do it just the same.
***
“I just wanna die,” said the first guy; “Are you certain?” asked his friend; “Why else would I want to die?! — (the reply).
***
Sensing an impending lull in the proceedings, this one chap
made an instant name for himself by leaping up and declaring,
“Wouldn’t this be a jolly neat place for us to take a lull.”
***
One young lad began to make such pithy observations that for his twelfth birthday, his ole man decided to give him a pith of his own.
***
Standing right up and speaking right up, one fellow declared, “It just suddenly struck me — the possibility that hormones can think,” and his brain partner and every other citizen in earshot screamed, “Oh, no! Anything but that!”
…(Jeeze — some people sure can be touchy!)
***
Whenever the beings of this one reality would take note of their creator’s efforts, they would only mention the quantity of his output, and never the quality. (And you might be interested to know that The Big Guy found absolutely no fault with this.
…[One neurally homeless kid remarked, “That’s why I’m a revolutionist, and he’s a mere god.”])
***
As the bus passed by, a head from a rear window shouted,
“Education is to the intellect as breast implants are to
calculators.”
***
One ole city sorehead said, “It’s sure hard to stay-on-top-of-things when things all stay on top of you.” …(And the city said, “That’s why I’m glad I’m out here and you’re in there!”)
***
Only those who can’t say “no” can fly.
***
Over in this one reality, the news station only reports the scores of yesterday’s games, and never identifies the teams involved. You have to call them up and ask — “Exactly who was involved?” and they always reply, “Who do you think was?”
***
When busy — or otherwise occupied — a subversive should be capable of telling fate to call back later.
***
“Young kid,” spake his ole man, “No offense to The Bard, but some of Shakespeare’s sallies are a bit timid and `day-trippish’; for, the very essence of man’s intellectual world is a gilding, regilding, and re-regilding of secondary lilies.”
***
One chap writes to say that he thinks Letters-From-Viewers takes up far too much time on our program, and certainly doesn’t want his read, least he then becomes part of the problem.
…(I once overheard a lesser lobe tell a frontal lobe the same thing.)
***
One man said, “I can’t stop dancing!” and it was my pleasure to tell him that it was a good thing, too, and he said, “But you don’t understand!” and it was then my pleasure to tell him no more.
***
One neural ruler said, “A king does not need cliches, buzz-words, banality and sloganeering to stay in power.” (He now works at Burger King.)
***
Whenever his mind would jump a few seconds ahead, this one man would get extremely upset; he said he didn’t much mind his thoughts roaming off days and months into the future, but that he simply couldn’t bear that “other stuff.”
***
No matter what kinds of seeds men plant, the soil will grow the flowers that it wants; if this is unclear, just remember that the dirt produced the planters. …(When they got to the park, the kid saw one ride and exclaimed, “Look, Pop — there’s no way out of a `No-Way-Out-Machine.'”)
***
A man who can’t bemoan his age will never pass for a city sage.
***
A viewer writes to complain; he says he’s done so before and may do so again. …(Then another member of our audience writes to ask if there is any possibility that the relationship between our show and the Letters-From-Viewers might be similar to that between the ole man and the kid in my stories?)
***
Over in a Super-City (in fact, a damn-near, Super-Duper one), a guy said, “I’m gonna sell everything I’ve got,” and his partner said, “But you ain’t got nothin’,” and the guy said, “Well…okay, then –slash the prices!”
***
To “give up” without actually dying is a trick not taught in the city. (At the Mary-And-Lamb level, the mind cannot teach itself to “Roll over.”)
***
When the young prince inhaled, his nose whistled, and when he exhaled, his brain made rude noises; at important state dinners he proved both entertaining and embarrassing. (Just — I might add — like most other things in the kingdom.)
***
A viewer with a new large-screen set with atomic remote control writes: “Dear Kyroot, et al: Regarding your symbolic use of squirrels (at least, by god, I hope it’s symbolic), anyway, regarding your use, I just wondered if I could look on the matter sort of like that — trees have squirrels like our minds have thoughts. Am I on the right track at all? Yours Most Cordially, etc.” (A-L-L ABOARD! — maybe.)
***
Although not all feet are created equal, everyone’s natural birthright is a pair of dancing shoes.
***
One old-time manager spat in the dust and complained, “They keep sending up these young ideas from the minor leagues before they’re really ready,” and the owner of the team, Mr. Reality, replied, “I’m afraid you still don’t understand the necessity for an `uncertain season.'”
***
There’re always some city-bred, fed thinkers who wish they lived some place else; but only the neurally homeless want to reside no where.
***
In one intense, revolutionist area, “real humor” means — “no adjectives.”
***
Cheer-Up Tip For Friday: One guy got s-o-o good at not “saying-what-he-meant” that he never meant what he said. Illusionary Moral: Never ask to be “set free” unless you’re ready to be handcuffed all over again again.
***
Another viewer writes and asks whether in my stories and comments there are any “subtle metaphors and symbols” contained within the obvious ones? — What i-n-n the world are you talking about?!
***
And still another viewer writes — “D-o-n-‘-t m-a-k-e m-e
l-a-u-g-h!”
***
After all of this — (or at least all of tonight’s “This”) — might you agree, conclude, or otherwise suspect that homeless flowers and subversive squirrels don’t really care what time the ballroom opens. (Those without a ticket can’t really be thrown out.)
***
If you’re ordinary, you can’t hardly stand it.
***