Even the Ordinary Can Become More Alert Just by Thinking About It
Audio = Stream from the bar; download from the dots
10/25/1991
Summary = See below
Condensed News Items = See below
News Item Gallery = jcap 1991-05-24 -0886
Transcript = None
Key Words =
Summary
#886 Oct 25, 1991 – 1:00
Notes by TK
Kyroot to :23. The Neural Revolutionist summation for City success: all new SL/Secondary Level activities give man something new to talk about. That is the purpose of Secondary Level World. Thinking in Real Time is a version of TMTYHT (thinking more than you have to). Note the general condemnation of man’s normal state of dream-like consciousness as dangerous and pathetic; but consider what may be possible if such trance-like consciousness gets man by in the modern complex world.
Condemnation aside, low-grade consciousness is a miracle of accomplishment. Even the ordinary can be more alert just by thinking about it. The Neural Revolutionist knows that no one has constant superior consciousness—that world leaders, geniuses, etc., one and all are just getting by.
The News
The defenders-of-the-past say the best has already been thought and said, while the friends-of-the-future rely not on such defective weapons.
***
One man began keeping a list of all the mistakes he’d made, and at the top of each new page he wrote, “Starting this damn list.”
***
Title of book, never published in the city: Continuity: Life’s Supreme Form of Hypnosis.
***
Once he got going, this one reality would just go on, and on, and o-n-n, and o-n-n, and his creatures just l-o-v-e-d him for it.
***
One guy says he finds the worst thing about being ordinary is that you’re so — so — well, ordinary.
***
It is constructively improbable to live in the heart of a city without the weight of irony (which alone, is another good reason to move). [Query: Why say, “flee” when you can say, “move”?].
***
Without dramatics, the Lamb could prove as dull as Mary is quiet.
***
A better response to almost any ordinary question is any not already given.
***
And from the viewing audience comes this note; “I enjoyed the letter you read several nights ago from someone who said they found some of the Kyroots to be more related than others; I enjoyed this, but how is it connected to anything else? Sincerely yours, Man-with-a-pen.”
***
Without division — no secondary world; without words — no division; without man — no words; class dismissed.
***
One king said were it not for the good of the people that he’d never go to war, and the Prince asked, “For the good of the people?”, and His Grace said, “Well — needs of the people.”, and the Regent pressed again, “For the needs?”, “Okay”, said the monarch, “Were it not for the desires of the people I’d never go to war, and if you question me about that one, I’ll begin to suspect that you’re one of them.”
***
In a respectable neural kingdom the people know when to shut up… (They at least “Know to”, when they’re shot.)
***
When he’d play hop scotch with his creatures, this one reality would ofttimes chant as he jumped, In my juices, in my juices; I’ll stew your guts, in my juices.”… (For some reason, he almost always won.)
***
As a means of encouraging his own humble efforts, this one man would sometimes tell himself, “Say look — even had Paganini lived, he’d’a still died.” (This would usually make him feel four or five bars better for the moment).
***
In secondary affairs, wasting time is about the same as giving architectural advice to a duck.
***
One guy’s left lobe told his right one, “Hey, unless there’s some reason to be mad, there’s no reason to get mad,” and his hypothalamus shook its head and chuckled, “What a pair — what a pair.”
***
A kid asked, “Why it is, Pa Pa, that the examples that come easiest to mind are most always negative?”
***
Taking on the “Sorehead View”, if not displaying some unexpected grasp of spatial limitations passing for temporal dimensions, one man said, “The worst thing about Saturdays is that they are the furthest day from the next Saturday.” (There was once a merchant seaman who thought how nice it was that neural activities did not have a calendar… [Captain’s Marginal: Do note how easy it is for one man’s mind to say what are the possibles and impossibles of the human intellect since it’s always true if its true for him… thus: Don’t listen to anybody.])
***
And a viewer writes, “I sure would be more likely to continue watching your program if you’d stop making those kinds of apparent attacks on the very kinds of things I keep thinking you’re up to. It kinda makes me wonder just what kind of audience you do have… Hmmm! — People who could find what they think serious, silly… Hmmm. Yours,” etc.
***
When the play’s really cookin’ the role plays the man. (Put another way: It’s hard to hold your attention when your attention’s holding you.)
***
“Well sure”, whined one Lamb, “Mary can afford to appear patient — she can’t talk!”
***
A revolutionist’s intent could be to entertain a variety of views; (Note: Variety with boundaries is no variety at all.)
***
“The Future Is What You Make It”, read the flash copy propped on the easel; the client reality studied it for a bit, then smiled, stood, and shook hands all around, saying to the ad men, “Good show — I like it; get it running as soon as possible.”
***
The forest dies one tree at a time — and thus the forest never dies.
***
One guy’s best friend was his socks; (With a certain gleam in his eyes, he says we best not laugh.)
***
(Okay, a second verse): In one reality they thought of “Good ideas” as just being, “A bunch of words strung together.”
***
“Say, Dear Pop,” asked the kid again, “What is the difference between the true, the correct, and the precise”?
***
Mental detox is not the revolution.
***
When they weaken and want to leave, some who think themselves insightful will use the king’s own words as their authority for departing.
***
A city chap said that sometimes things are so overwhelming that he’s tempted to just “lose his mind”, but adds that he’s so far along that he hates to do this to himself now — right in the middle of the game.
***
Everyone’s universal background noise is in part, them self.
***
The “worst” can never happen if you don’t look, and there are ways to operationally blind the Lamb without doing any damage to him or his mistress.
***
Corollary from Hell: All car accidents are caused by somebody thinking about it.
***
Remember: When it comes to games — Neither gods, kings, nor realities have to be better than you to win; all they’ve got to do is play.
***
And still later the kid asked, “Say, ole man, what ever happened to the Tower of Babel?” (The elder started to reply, “It’s name be Kid” — but he contained himself.)
***
A domesticated creature is only domesticated so long as you have its attention. (Don’t try and tell me that this too has something to do with man’s intellectual processes.)
***
From the outset, the city told the political aspirant, and all of his religious and artistic friends, “You’ll never be famous if you don’t whine.”
***
A city chap recently noted, “A man with a good hobby can be a friend — if he doesn’t drive you crazy.” (A fellow on the west side says the same thing about his own mind).
***
Strange though it may first sound: Only those who intellectually agree with the city feel in conflict with it.
***
A chap with a cap says he believes that the present acceptance of Iceland as an island is a metaphor for all that’s gone before.
***
News reported without a punch line doesn’t do much in the ratings. …(And a viewer flew over this note by messenger pig: “Does that last read Kyroot have any possible connection to the one about how people will take it ‘Real personally’ if you really treated them impersonally? Over-and-out for now.”
***
(And yet another shot at it): The world is divided into two groups: those who take life seriously, and those who take it extremely seriously.
***
Reality’s local spokesman announced, “The bad news is that there’s not enough jam to go around, but thankfully, there are sufficient curses.”
***
One guy’s head would only bruise if he hit it. (“I say — are we talking about the same bloody chap all along?”)
***
Every time he would appear on local TV, this one god would have them superimpose his name on the screen as long as he was on; this he learned from the local king; (There was one man in the kingdom that thought it made them both look tacky).
***
Saving up weakness for a future day is a cornerstone of individual city planning.
***
During the morning coffee break, first Tuesday of each month, the foreman of the non-union philosophy mill would address all new employees thusly, “You don’t have to know what you’re doing if you don’t care what you’re doing.” (One man used to wonder, “Which is worse: an abrupt ending, or a surprising start?” …[And an additional labor note: so long as the mines remain in the hands of primary ownership, no elections are necessary.])
***
There was this one man who cut holes in his real name to allow for better ventilation.
***
The closing speech at this month’s Ole Sorehead’s Convention bore the title: “Five easy steps to additional despair.”
…(And a Mary thought, “One good thing about my arrangements with the lamb is that I don’t have to attend meetings; oh, I am dragged to some, but I’m damn sure not expected to participate.”
…[She then chortled to herself just imagining how the others would react if she ever did speak up.])
***
A “revolutionist” (in quotation marks) with an agenda is like a climax without a symphony. …(Naw! It’s worse than that, but we’ll let it go at that.)
***
There was one reality that offered “Cash & Prizes” but inadvertently arranged it so that no one could collect them without giving up what they already had — well, hey, I said it was inadvertent. (Proofer’s Note: There is a distinction between, inadvertent and unavoidable. But if you’re destined for the Boob’s Award anyway, what difference does it make.)
***
Alas — the cleaners told the man that his fancy vest was ruined; n-o, it wasn’t from gravy, and n-o-o it wasn’t from a greasy adverb — it was from an adjective this time!!
***
The water based inscription read, “He with things that worrieth him has something to worry about.” (Some of the diggers wondered what building had originally stood behind these carved words, and some didn’t want to know.)
***
The primary has no attributes or faults to describe until it produces a secondary whose job in part is to describe such.
…(Amidst all the neon a kid’s voice was raised, “Gee dad, life’s like a mid-way for those going all the way.”)
***
One man says he’s tried to “think ahead”, but that life always gets up a day before him.
***
Whenever the town folks would lose the beat, the king would begin to rhythmically nod his head just as though they were all still on the good foot. In goo-field-terms that’s why his majesty is so “majestic”.)
***
‘Tis no good for the revolutionist to feel too estranged toward ordinary life — even the ordinary can do that!
***
A man stood and declared, “I have discovered that you can understand more by thinking about things than you can by reading about them.” And this really big, gigantic city book roused from its nap roared, “Who said that?” And the sleepy city itself added its own mutter — “Yeah, who said that?”
***
Near the candy works a man stopped and said that he’d seen our show “by accident,” and assumed that if he ever understood it, it would be on the same basis.
***
More useful information for the good burghers of your fair city: if you run out of criticism, sarcasm, and personal anecdotes — m-a-k-e predictions!!
***
A reality that is “magnanimous” is simply meeting minimal standards as required by law.
***
One man said to himself, “How many times do I have to tell you?!!” To which he naturally replied, “How many times you got?!!” (His mother later wrote me to say, “Cute! — r-e-a-l cute.”)
***
Zipping up his pants to coincide with the arrival of the full moon, the professor addressed the sophomores, “A free benefit of being “intellectually serious is that you can die ten thousand little deaths before the big expensive one.”
***
As it turned out, several of the natives weren’t actually from there; (and one of the explorers said, “H-e-y!, this is my kind of place!”)
***
One guy says that sometimes he can go days without being himself, and then — blam-o — right back at it.”
***
One man’s brain was perfectly symmetrical; and he said he didn’t think it was a bit funny.
***
I don’t suppose anyone cares to ponder the operational ramifications of the condition just mentioned.
***
Mythical rhyme from another nervous system kingdom: Those who talk can later balk. …(And in a far away galaxy, a Mary was heard making sounds dangerously reminiscent of laughter.)
***
To save time this one guy would issue a denial first!
***
When nothing else seemed to readily work, this one reality would lash its creatures by saying, “You know — it’s possible to be t-o-o smart for your own good!” (He never understood what this meant, but it always scared the hell out of ’em.)
***