Drum This!

As someone who was actually a drummer at one time, I would like to tell all the “peace” activists of the world to lay off the “drumbeat of war” crap.  Oh, and stop abusing drums in your protests.  None of you skanky unwashed fools have a lick of rhythm.

This rant brought to you by free association from the rantings of the inestimable Juan Gato.

3 Comments

  1. Jim Baxter says:

    Many problems in human experience result from a false and
    and inaccurate definition of humankind – premised in man-made
    religions and humanistic philosophies. Definitions, for better
    or worse, rule in the minds, behaviors, and institutions of
    mankind. It is therefore essential to perceive and specify that
    distinction which naturally and most uniquely defines the human
    being. We can be confident that delineating and communicating
    that quality which will assist the process of resolution and the
    courageous ascension to which we humans are called. As Americans
    of the 21st century we are obliged and privileged to join our
    forebears and participate in its continuing proclamation.

    MAN DEFINED: EARTH’S CHOICEMAKER
    By James Fletcher Baxter
    (c) 2003 All Rights Reserved

    Human knowledge is a fraction of the whole universe. The
    balance is a vast void of our human ignorance. Human reason
    cannot fully function in such a void, thus the intellect can
    rise no higher than the criteria by which it perceives and
    measures values.

    Humanism makes man his own standard of measure, however, as
    with all measuring systems, a standard must be greater than the
    value measured. Based on preponderant ignorance and an ego-
    centric carnal nature, humanism demotes reason to the simpleton
    task of excuse-making in behalf of the rule of appetites,
    desires, feelings, emotions, and glands. 

    Because man cannot invent criteria greater than himself, the
    humanist lacks a predictive capability. Without transcendent
    criteria, humanism cannot evaluate options with foresight for  
    progression and survival. Lacking foresight, man is blind to
    potential consequence and is unwittingly committed to the
    redundant wreckage of expensive hindsight: averages, mediocrity,
    and regression – and worse. Humanistic opinion is therefore an
    inadequate and unworthy resource.

    In the realm of the physical universe, only statistical
    conglomerates pay tribute to deterministic forces.
    Singularities do not and are therefore random and unpredict-
    able, and in this sense, uncaused. Thus, the finest contribu-
    tion inanimate reality is capable of making toward choice,
    without its own selective agencies, is this continuing opportu-
    nity as the pre-condition to choice it defers to living forms.

    Biological science affirms that each level of life, single-cell
    to man himself, possesses attributes of sensitivity, discrim-
    ination, and selectivity, and in the unique nature of each
    diverse life form.

    The survival and progression of life forms has all too often
    been dependent upon an ever-present potential and undetermin-
    ative appearance of one unique individual organism within the
    whole spectrum of a given species. Only the uniquely equipped
    individual organism is, like the Golden Wedge of Ophir, capable
    of traversing the causal-gap to survival and progression.
    Mere reproductive determinacy would have rendered life forms
    incapable of such potential. Only a moving universe of
    opportunity plus choice enables the present reality.

    The human being possesses a unique, highly developed and
    sensitive perception of diversity. Thus aware, man is endowed
    with a natural capability for enacting an internal mental and
    external physical selectivity. Quantitative and qualitative
    choice-making thus lends itself as the superior basis of an
    active intelligence.

    Man is earth’s Choicemaker. His title describes his definitive
    and typifying characteristic. Recall that his other features
    are but vehicles of experience intent on the development of
    perceptive awareness and the following acts of decision. Note
    that the products of mankind cannot define them for they are
    the fruit of the discerning choicemaking process and include
    the cognition of self, the utility of experience, the develop-
    ment of value-measuring systems and language, and the accul-
    turation of civilization.

    The arts and the sciences of man, as with his habits, customs,
    and traditions, are the creative harvest of his perceptive and
    selective powers. His articles, constructs, and commodities,
    however marvelous to behold, deserve neither awe nor idolatry,
    for man, not his contrivance, is earth’s own highest expression
    of the creative process.

    Man is earth’s Choicemaker. The sublime and significant act
    of choosing is, itself, the Archimedean fulcrum upon which
    humans lever and direct the forces of cause and effect to an
    elected level of quality and variety. Further, it orients him
    toward environmental opportunity, freedom, and bestows earth’s
    title, The Choicemaker, on his singular and plural brow.

    “Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the
    way he chooses.” Psalm 25:12 Man is earth’s Choicemaker. He is
    by nature and nature’s God a creature of choice and of criteria.
    Psalm 119:30,173. His unique and definitive characteristic is,
    and of Right ought to be, the natural foundation of his environ-
    ments, institutions, and respectful relations to his fellow-man.
    Thus, he is oriented to a freedom whose roots are in the Order
    of the universe.

    The void of human ignorance can easily be filled with a
    functional faith while not-so-patiently awaiting the foot-
    dragging growth of human knowledge and behavior. Faith, initia-
    ted by the Creator and revealed and validated in His Word, the
    Bible, brings a transcendent standard to earth’s choice-maker.
    Other philosophies and religions are man-made, and thereby lack
    what only the Bible has: transcendent criteria and fulfilled
    prophetic validation. The vision of faith in God and His Word
    is survival equipment for today and the future.

    Deterministic systems, ideological symbols of oppression and
    abdication by humans from their natural role as earth’s
    Choicemaker, degenerate into collectivism: the negation of
    individual value, they become a conglomerate plural-based system
    of measuring human value. Blunting an awareness of diversity,
    blurring alternatives, and delimiting the selective creative
    process,  they are self-relegated to a circular and passive
    regression.

    Tampering with man’s selective nature endangers his survival,
    for such attempts render him impotent and obsolete by denying
    the tools of diversity, individuality, perception, criteria,
    selectivity, and progress. Oppressive and coercive attempts
    produce revulsion, for such acts are contrary to an indetermin-
    ate nature and nature’s indeterminate off-spring, man the
    choicemaker.

    Until the oppressors discover that wisdom only just begins with
    a respectful acknowledgement of the Creator, the Creation, and
    the Choicemaker, they will be ever learning but never coming to
    a knowledge of the truth. The rejection of Creator-initiated
    standards relegates the mind of man to its own empirical,
    primitive, and delimited devices. It is thus that the human
    intellect cannot ascend and function at any level higher than
    its criteria.

    The carnal-ego rejects criteria and self-discipline for such
    instruments are tools of the mind and attitude. The appetites
    of the flesh have no respect for standards, for at the point
    of contention, standards are perceived as alien, restrictive,
    and inhibiting. Yet, the very survival of our physical nature
    itself depends upon a maintained sovereignty of the mind – and
    of the spirit.

    As long as some choose to abdicate their personal reality and
    submit to the delusions of man-made collectivism, just so long
    will they be subject and reacting only, to be tossed by every
    impulse emanating from others. Those who choose such a path of
    abdication may, in perfect justice, find themselves weighed in
    the balances of their own choosing.

    It is worthy to recall that the principles of Biblical
    scripture are still today the foundation under Western Civil-
    ization and the American way of life. That human institution
    which is structured on the principle, “…all men are endowed
    by their Creator with…Liberty..,” is a system with its roots
    in the natural Order of the universe. The opponents of such a
    system are necessarily engaged in a losing contest with “nature
    and nature’s God.” To the advent of a new Season we commend the
    present generation and its “…multitudes in the valley of
    decision.” The Season of Generation-Choicemaker Joel 3:14 KJV

    “Above all, I see an ability to choose the better from the
    worse that has made possible life’s progress.”
    Charles Lindbergh

    http://www.geocities.com/James-Baxter/

  2. Acidman says:

    Jim needs to get his own blog….

    By the way, I like a window seat on airplanes.  I have terrible vertigo until I pass my “point of reference,” and then I’m okay with being high in the sky.  Just don’t put me ten stories off the ground.  I leave claw-marks in the handrails and damn near piss my pants.

    And I have to do that almost every day.

  3. Acidman,

    That really makes me glad I work in an office now.  I don’t think I would make it in a job where I had to do that every day.

    Jim,

    I didn’t read all of your essay, but I couldn’t help noticing that you seem to have great reverence for the Bible.  I don’t want to debate that with you, but I’m one of those people who don’t feel the same way.  As Acidman noted, maybe you should consider getting a weblog of your own.  That way you could debate this with people on your site (and I say that with all due respect as you seem to have a need to express yourself on this topic).