Arachnology 101
In an attempt to maintain the high educational and puerile standards of Lady Bonds' Sunday Picnic during a time of heavy examinations, Lady Bonds leaves her gentle readers with the following short clip.
She promises to return soon with an inspired, social responsible post.
"The Story of Spiders"
In an attempt to maintain the high educational and puerile standards of Lady Bonds' Sunday Picnic during a time of heavy examinations, Lady Bonds leaves her gentle readers with the following short clip.
She promises to return soon with an inspired, social responsible post.
"The Story of Spiders"
posted by Lady Bonds at 02:11
7 Comments:
"Ode to an Open Sewer" was socially responsible?
i believe that the answer to this question is summed up in the word return....
Zen; Yes.
a; See reply to Zen, above.
And Zen, welcome back after 36 hour absence. We got worried for a moment there.
Great clip: The memories that brings back: low-budget Canadian Film Board documentaries, government scare tactics and misinformation as education, and the mandatory all-school nature film assemblies.
Your clip was much more entertaining, and educational. If only they had told it to us like that back then. Instead, they spoonfed us their scare tactics until we had to find out what they were so afraid of. I checked behind the door very, very early. Much too young.
It was through the doors via Huxley, Castenada, & "The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test," and off on the road as one of "Jerry's kids"; one of the throngs of tie-dyed deadheads. If the world was going crazy, then one obviously had to become crazier in order to survive.
You made me laugh at it all. At them, and at me.
And considering the amount of similarity between humans and spiders, I believe the equivalent of any of these experiments would be for a scientist to chug a gallon of bleach and to try and recreate the Sistene Chapel.
If there is a Hell, it's run by vengeful spiders and fruitflies.
Dear Mr. The Fool;
If we're talking strictly in terms of an introduction to psychotropic web-building, I imagine you could have had a worse education than Huxley, Castaneda, and Kesey. There were (and are still) plenty of children who are fed directly into the hands of capitalists who exploit coca and poppy farmers and leave a trail of innocent dead in their wake--both on the "gathering" end of the trail, and on the delivery end.
Those are the children who are condemned to build dysfunctional webs for life without the benefit of understanding the artistic and cultural tradition that gave rise such experimentation.
It is important to laugh, but it's also important to remember why we were drawn to Aldous, Jack K., Allen, Jerry, Phil and friends, in the first place. Jerry died a few short weeks after my 13th birthday; I remember where I was when I heard the news--at hippie camp in the north woods--but I don't remember why it seemed so important, or even if I could have come close to articulating it at the time.
For every bit of hedonism, there's an ounce of idealism; for every bit of idealism, there's an ounce of the sheep mentality; for every bit of the sheep mentality, there's an ounce of curiosity; for every bit of curiosity, there's an ounce of self-destructivity.
It's a complicated, mixed bag, and it's worth thinking about.
And yes, hell is no doubt run by spiders, fruitflies, primates, and lab rats. Maybe some of those cows, too. They must be having a circus down there.
Lady Bonds, you are perceptive: it is for "the children who are condemned to build dysfunctional webs for life" that I returned to schools to teach.
Yes, it is very important to understand why we are drawn in such directions, and to question our assumptions as to why (i.e., in what ways is the "disease" the "cure" - and "where" is the dysfunction really?). I think Gregory Bateson was on to something in "The Cybernetics of "Self": A Theory of Alcoholism" and "Form, Substance, and Difference" which can be found in "Steps to an Ecology of Mind" (1972). We are astray in our false reifications of "self" and we have created a gulf between our "self" and experience.
"For every bit of hedonism...": yes, it is a mixed bag...and worth thinking about for sure. Better yet is to initiate the dialogue with others...as you have. And yes, we must laugh...otherwise we fall into despair and philosophy.
I think we may have wandered a bit from spiders and psychotropic drugs, so I'd bettter wander off now. Back to the darkness.
Thanks for the insights.
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