It's Stream of Consciousness Tuesday

I haven’t been writing.

Yep I admit it.

This morning I woke up thinking on this problem, this avoidance. Then I thought about what ‘they’ would say - my fore bearing forefathers of fawning phrases and philosophy. Of course I’m talking about the greats — Twain, Hemingway, and Jeff Lebowski.

You know what they’d say —

emphatically

of course:

“Just write, man.”

Which is another way of admitting what those greats knew all too well: writer’s block doesn’t exist.

Fine.

I’ve been radio-silent as of late for MANY reasons, but not for lack of content or mental activity.

You could say I fell into a Deep Spring.

I had heard

vaguely about the college my Grandfather went to before graduating from Cal (that’s Cal-Berkeley for the newbies) but had never looked into it until now.

For anyone who knows me or knew my dad, it won’t come as a shock to learn that Grandfather Jack Olmsted attended a secretive two-year prep school somewhere north of Death Valley that was created in 1917 as an ‘unorthodox’ learning experience for the most elite Ivy-league-bound students and future leaders, requiring them to ranch and farm their own food and even elect their own college government, and it’s still going strong at over 100 years old.

It’s called Deep Springs College.

I contacted Deep Springs and they even found a picture of my Grandfather - I think he’s the one with the ears.

They also sent me a copy of the above book (written by Deep Springs alum Jack Newell) about the founder - L.L. Nunn - who if you’re paying attention, founded the Olmsted Power Station in Provo that I visited in 2016, and who was responsible for bringing Tesla’s AC current west of Niagara.

You can see the layers layering.

And hopefully you can see why it was hard to know where to start.

There’s a great article here on Deep Springs, and yes the Olmsted Power Station was named for my great-Grandfather Fay Devaux - Jack’s dad who designed the station and then died of tuberculosis at just 28 - leaving Jack fatherless at age one - like myself, though divorce was less permanent than death - and which probably explains why Lucien Nunn himself sponsored Jack to Deep Springs.

John W. (Jack) and Alden Olmsted, 1908 / 2016, at Olmsted Power Station, Orem UT

If you’d like to go into the rabbit hole further yourself the college was featured recently on 60 Minutes: (how do I know it was recently? Because as you can see, they now admit women *gasp*). - air date 10/2021

Relax, it only took 100 years.

Collision Course

Our world, yes including almost every country too, is currently on a collision course, engaged in an astonishing, exciting, frightening and relentless, historical CLASH.

The proof of this clash, if you disagree at the outset, is that I needed not even explain the above statement, because you the reader has already attached your own explanation, your own assumptions of the cause of this clash based on your - wait for it - worldview.

BINGO

We’re not at a clash of what the low-information media figureheads or tik-tok-tweet-bots would have us believe, a temporary clash of information, or an ‘attack on Democracy’ or woke this or that.

No.

A vibe shift?

Please.

It’s much bigger, which is why it won’t just “go away,” as some might hope.

The clash is a simple but inevitable collision of —

worldviews.

It’s the Tower of Babel all dressed up for another rodeo!

Tower of Babel, Genesis 11:1-9

In other words it’s your worldview against mine.

My worldview against his.

Against hers.

Against thems.

It’s America’s worldview against Europe’s.

Middle America’s worldview against coastal America.

Washington DC’s worldview against the rest of the country.

Career politicians vs. working people.

Dem vs. Rs

Rs vs. Greens

Singles vs. families.

City vs. country.

Talk about a melting pot!

It feels more like a Fight Club pot.

In fact Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt says as much, when listing out the “rules” - around minute 25 he states confidently and terrifyingly:

When we saw the movie (remember movies!) we all straightened up in our seats, we placed our hands on the dirty armrests, put down our drinks, clenched our fists and wondered how we’d take the first punch.

Ok maybe that was just us dudes.

Either way I’m pretty sure most audience members braced for impact.

Much like today.

You feel it right?

But why?

Why does there have to be a clash you say?

CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?*

*that Rodney didn’t even say what we think he said is sooo fitting for our moment.

Some Say

(speaking of bracing for impact)

That we’re witnessing the true end of the Enlightenment, that doubting everything and embracing knowledge above faith has far too many humans over-informed and yet untethered from reality itself.

Thomas Hobbes’ social contract in Leviathan, which posits that although people in a society give up many rights, that the government has an unspoken agreement to protect them and to work in their best interests, in other words, they ‘keep the peace,’ is crumbling today, at both ends.

Keeping the peace? Like, is that a joke?

We’ve seen liberty and individual rights attacked full force over the past four years, while the failings of government to care for citizens’ most basic needs can be seen almost daily now, from the Los Angeles fires to the attacks on farmers by their own government in The Netherlands, to the horrific rape gangs in the UK coming to light, of which it seems the ruling elites either facilitated or at the least turned a blind eye to for too many years.

The third pillar of the end of the Enlightenment argument is the practical - that we’re also at the end of the very methods and means the enlightenment philosophers and scientists used to spread their new philosophy, ie.. books and pamphlets shared in lodges, literary groups, and coffeehouses - as the internet and the digital universe has forever altered the way ideas spread.

It all sounds so quaint and innocent now doesn’t it?

A Lighter Theory

Is that we’re simply at the end of a long 20th century, that the agrarian-to-industrial shift has been fully realized, and we’re now at the cusp of the next advancement.

Number Three

I’m personally leaning towards theory number three - that the clash at hand is actually the true end of the 1960’s, in essence the full and realized failure of The Great Society and all its aims.

Prepare for boomer arrows to fly! --> -->

I dig you man but let's face it the Rob Reiners and Bobby DeNiros of the world just ain’t looking to good just now.

Ditto the Sexual Revolution, welfare programs, and Marxism in the classrooms.

All failures.

And no it’s not just a ‘messaging problem’ Rob - esp. since the very boomers who “didn’t trust anyone other thirty” are now every bit the corporate patriarchy they sought to unseat.

So long, meathead.

Look I'm Not

Going to tell you what you’re expecting - my side this or your side that, or try to prop up or defend one tribe over the other, one color over the other, one reality over the other.

What I will tell you is that there are two realities.

Whoops, three.

If you wish to avoid this fact that is 100% fine.

In fact it may be desirable.

Or said another way, the three realities are:

The mine, yours, and the truth quote is credited to NYC mobster Joseph Massino, which is beyond fitting for the current tyranny we find ourselves in.

Chill out — I don’t mean right or left.

*SEE HOW QUICKLY YOU WENT ‘THERE?’

No.

In previous years the three realities didn’t matter much, it was borne out in Judge Judy humorous ‘mis-remembrances,’ or witty streetwise revelations on Friends - but now reasonable folks are whipped up into literal frenzies by a media that used to make duckets off of full-page ads for mattresses.

Wait, whatt?

Trust me, I was in advertising sales.

Follow me here –

1. Since ads no longer drive sales - at least not for the big guns: NBC, CBS, and ABC, and since “clicks” are sooo 2005, the current media environment survives off of - wait for it — engagement. In fact, it THRIVES off of it.

And sorry to burst the bubble of all you Buddhists out there, but..

2. Happy people don’t engage NEARLY as much as enraged folks.

3. Therefore the media NEEDS US enraged.

Just ask Italian Bay Area

restaurant Botto Bistro:

Last Proof

Witness iconic tennis star Martina Navratilova just a few weeks ago on Twitter-X, when corrected on a false image of sex-trafficker-du-jour Jeffrey Epstein sitting next to Donald Trump on a plane:

Martina’s reaction is that the doctored image doesn’t matter because in her view it *could* be true, ie, Martina WANTS it to be true.

So disappointing — since Martina and I had been interacting on the gender-transition topic and Martina is 100% against the surgical transition of minors, as myself and the majority of Democrats AND Republicans are — and yet she’s revealed her blindspot.

And so many others' as well.

Yup. That’s where we’re at.

Brace for impact accordingly.

To Answer

The obvious question yes, I’m extremely psyched about Grandpa Jack’s prep school and am ordering a Deep Springs T-Shirt as we speak.

This Lenin one has my name written ALL over it.

Roasting Lenin is so great.

It's so Deep Springs.

Maybe it’s time to make a similar T roasting the Enlightenment?

Or the Sixties?

Ooohh - now I may be onto something.

Peace out.

More to come.