khands

[khands]

An Ominous Future?

In 1935 Sinclair Lewis wrote a novel: It Can’t Happen Here, detailing the horrors of a totalitarian dictatorship. In the novel the ‘corpo’ government takes control, restrictions on personal freedoms emerge and the press becomes the voice of the state, dissidents are rounded up and imprisoned or executed and minorities become scapegoats. Young men are conscripted into the quasi-militaristic…

[khands]

The Dissolution of Hope

I’ve been thinking about what happens when life imposes obstacles so overwhelming one loses the hope a better life is within the realm of possibility. A darkness settles in with the realization a livable future doesn’t exist. Socially enabling behaviors, neighborly connections, dissipate, alienation results, hostility develops, obsession finds only the enemy. Does such a one entertain a death…

[khands]

Moral, Amoral Immoral

I’m wondering lately what part morality plays in our social behaviors these days, how morally ambivalent we’ve become in our acceptance of the less that morally stellar actions of some of our public figures. The ‘designer’ morality many of us assume these days lacks the omniscient overseer Christian believers have: an entity able to impose punishment or reward for behaviors well spelled out and…

[khands]

A Shadow Self

I guess it’s pretty clear that we are all innately susceptible to wicked behaviors. That, while we maintain a respectable public persona within us burns a shadow-self, a dormant entity that when motivated surfaces to exhibit behaviors that can only be described as evil. There are various reasons why an evil shadow-self might reveal itself: fear of the Other among them. An obsessive jealousy…

[khands]

A Fall From Grace

A stable upbringing will usually set most of us on a path to becoming someone worthy of self-respect. Through responsible participation in the mechanisms that contribute to a functional society we will find ourselves woven into the social fabric of our communities, thereby garnering the respect of our peers who share our moral values. Our sense of self-worth will grow into the assumption of…

[khands]

Our Evil Selves

I’ve been reading that everyone has within them the potential to behave in ways that can only be described as wicked. The idea is that although most of us develop moral values that help us remain socially responsible neighbors, (you know, do unto others as we would have them………..), a shadow self that has the potential to cause us to engage in evil behaviors, lurks within us. Sometimes obsessions…

[khands]

The Sacred and The Profane

Today’s newspaper carries news of a recently deceased 15-yearold Italian boy, Carlos Acutis, who has been designated by the Church for sainthood. Carlos developed an on-line exhibit of Eucharistic miracles that have occurred over the centuries, which caught the imaginations of the faithful making him prayer-appealable, accrediting to him miracles of healing through his on-line exhibit. The…

[khands]

Unimpeachable Truths

I’ve been thinking lately about the multitudes of good and sincere people in the world who have arrived at dramatically conflicting views as to the nature of reality. Most all of us rely on what we consider to be unimpeachable support sources for our views and usually a contingent of like-minded others that reinforce our beliefs. The evangelical Christian, the Qanon conspiracy buff and the…

[khands]

The Problem with the Theory of Intelligent Design

After thinking about for some time, it occurs to me that the problem with the theory of Intelligent Design is that it requires combining and organizing disparate parts into a whole; particularly complex structures may involve evolved parts which are themselves constructed from even more basic components making such a concept unimaginable. But biological life begins as a whole (single cell…

[khands]

The Effete Aesthete

I’ve been thinking about how visual art is consumed. I’m inclined to believe most people, viewing representational artwork relate favorably or unfavorably as the content reflects their interests: outdoor lovers and landscapes, hunters and wildlife, etc. Then, there are the aesthetes who revel in the beauty of color and composition or disdain the lack thereof. They seek rhythm, form and pictorial…

[khands]

Unimpeachable Truths

I’ve been thinking lately about the multitudes of good and sincere people in the world who have arrived at dramatically conflicting views as to the nature of reality. Most all of us rely on what we consider to be unimpeachable support sources for our views and usually a contingent of like-minded others that reinforce our beliefs. The evangelical Christian, the Qanon conspiracy buff and the…

[khands]

Witch Hunts: The Problem of Inter-subjective Knowledge

The idea of the existence of witches is age-old but became particularly oppressive in 15th and 16th century Europe when imaginative tales of satanic behaviors became so ingrained in people’s minds it created a pseudo-reality that led neighbors to accuse neighbor of subversive behaviors, witchcraft, based on little more than petty jealousies. The accused were often tortured to confess and then…

[khands]

Fundamentalist Fervor

I’ve been wondering lately what sort of life events, what kind of social influences one would have to experience to lead him or her to embrace the stringent discipline of fundamentalist religion.  Apart from an innate proclivity toward a rigid, reactionary conservatism (can there be such an inclination?), what, I wonder, propels some people toward angry condemnation of any and all perspectives…

[khands]

Stream of Consciousness

I think i should prepare my skis for storage now that the skiing season is over, I think a coat of preserving wax should do the job, I think if I give the skis a good coat and I’ll not scrape them after, just use the waxing iron and apply the wax and let it cool and put them in storage above the cabinets in the furnace room where I always keep during the off season, I think is the best place for…

[khands]

False Narratives

I’ve been reading about how mass movements are started, what exactly might inspire otherwise uninvolved people to rise up, to act with energy against what they see to be a real threat to their way of life. Fear has something to do with it, I guess. The realization of an unthoughtful populace falling behind a demagogue who promises one thing and delivers another. What these folks want, I…

[khands]

How to Travel as One Ages

We’ve been thinking about taking a trip to Great Britain in a few months in order to experience a few things we’ve missed in past visits. The ease of organizing an itenerary: flights, ground travel, reservations on-line makes planning a breeze and eliminates much of the uncertainty long distance travel often presented in the past. But I’m thinking that as we age perhaps the two of us might…

[khands]

Nightmare Scenarios

As my mind wanders these days it finds its way into various nightmare scenarios: unsettling thoughts about what may happen when I embark on a soon to occur trip across the big water. I’m having dire imaginings about potential occurrences; lost or pilfered necessities like phone or passport, missed travel connections, unavailable accommodation; the list goes on and on. These thoughts are occurring…