SUBSTACK IS DOING AN HONORABLE THING

A ramble starting off with my experience at a Substack event last night

SUBSTACK IS DOING AN HONORABLE THING

Last night I went to a Substack event and had a great time. This type of thing is usually not in my realm of experience but there was a genuine warm and friendly feeling and one of the founders, Hamish, answered my questions with sincerity and frankness in a way that could only make me respect him and his team. A grand endeavor on such a huge scale, which is what Substack is, requires both a firm hand on the tiller and the ability to lower or raise the sails with what at times must seem like no rhyme or reason. Substack may never be perfect but not because of the failings of its people. Nothing in life is perfect and if there was such a thing shit would get boring real fast. So bravo to Hamish and friends for displaying thoughtfulness, kindness and enthusiasm, all things we are sorely in need of.

Know your rights, ev-reeee of ‘em!”— The Clash

Went down another internet hole and stumbled on the subject of rights as far the U.S. is concerned. It all started when I saw something about how child marriages are still legal in 35 states. Wtf? In Kansas you only need to be 15!! While I’m personally no huge fan of marriage (my father was married five times and my mother is on her third and I’m quite confident last) not that I don’t believe in the union of two people (regardless of all that shit, no it does not need to be between a man and a woman) because I do. I just don’t think it needs to be under the auspices of some church, etc. And in a way who am I to judge but it does seem to be a bit hypocritical to scream bloody murder about things like child sex trafficking while allowing 15 year olds to tie the knot. Disturbing.

Further research revealed that the US does not explicitly consider it to be an incontrovertible right for a human to have food. Never mind we waste enough food to probably feed the entire starving world. Food? Nah, you don’t need it. Eat some dirt kiddo.

And not to cherry pick the U.S. (U.S. really means ME in Trumpian parlance) also does not recognize the conventions to not discriminate against women, the rights of a child (see child marriages above), we love using cluster munitions, we do not recognize the convention on the rights of people with disabilities as well as something called “the optional protocol to the convention on torture”. There are many more and there is actually a wikipedia page on the subject. In short we don’t give a blind fuck about your rights all you poor huddled masses, you ectoplasmic losers you! We do however love to recognize ones inalienable right to “personal freedom” whatever the fuck that means. To me it means we are all entitled to walk around within a personal bubble where we can do whatever we want to and no one can say differently or do anything about it regardless of the consequences because after all, personal freedom is paramount to human happiness not the greater good for all! Kris Kristopherson once wrote “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose” and Dylan wrote, “How does it feel?” Yeah I think they are related concepts. Anyway, good luck with all that personal freedom stuff and remember: “Where you have nothing, there you should want nothing .”— Geulincx via Samuel Beckett.