R.M. Pirsig: "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance"

This book is not your usual leisure book. Although it rarely goes more than few meters away from the road or motorcycle, it is hardly a travelogue, or a mechanic's reference book. In fact, we are dealing here with autobiographical work. And a strong one. I found it online as a pdf and put it at Pirsig: "Zen and..."

I read this book for the first time as a teenager, and it had a profound influence on me. And it still has. Sure, I re-read it many times, and every time I had something to learn. This time again.

At first, one can take the message of the book to be one for free will, personal freedom and tune it with "The Wall" music of Pink Floyd all too easily. Spirit of the 1960-ies. Not too bad, for a teenager, if one takes as a motto:

"And what is good, Phædrus,
And what is not good...
Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?"

But as years go, one starts being more interested in what Phaedrus really found, why he went insane. I myself maybe grasped it when I was younger, and then lost it, enjoying too much the "usual" spirit of the book, as I saw it. Or becoming too arrogant to in my thinking that I understood it all. Never be an arrogant reader, it is like if you would be an arrogant side in a discussion. In this reading I recovered understanding of it, and feel a bit uneasy about it, as it shutters the firm columns of our high towers of Science. Phaedrus had, indeed, all reasons to go insane.

In short, what Phaedrus found was that we live in a Myth of dialectic, dualistic world, which is a lie, lie, lie. We are blinded by a (wrong) limiting choice of philosophical path taken in ancient Greece. Not that it was bad or avoidable, but nevertheless, it destroyed our ability to even THINK in agreement with the true world around us.

It is a bit like what was described in the previous book i reviewed here, "1984", where the aim of Newspeak was to prevent even thinking against Party. Simply, they cut the language so to make it impossible. What Phaedrus found is that we structured our philosophy, science, thinking and society in general in such a way that we stay alienated from true underlying picture of the world!

For more, go and fathom the book yourself, I am not a philosopher and I definitely do not feel as a guide for this one. But it does give me a profound shock to understand what Phaedrus found... Kind of a door to something what we'll probably see for the next time only when we meet Aliens.

"1984" today

I wrote before about my recent re-reading of the anti-utopian novels "We" by Zamyatin and "Brave New World" by Huxley. Logically, "1984" also got the attention it deserves: for the first time I read it in original language.

I started reading it with similar question as for the other two: what it can teach us today, is there anything where we fell under some of the prophesied spells?

I remember always having the feeling that Orwell is not so naive to merely describe Stalinism. That he meant more, was an observation of myself as a teenager, when reading "1984" for the first time, about the titular year 1984, when I myself was still deep immersed into a Yugoslavian story. I read other Orwell's books before "1984", so I knew he is not to be taken lightly, that he is a highly responsible writer. However, I see now that I understood his take on Inglsoc in a rather shallow way. This reading, and probably 30 intervening years (!) took me deeper. He really was not at all speaking about Stalinism. Nor the hypothetical Socialist Republic of Great Britain. The society he describes is much more applicable to today's world than we could imagine back in 1984.

When I am writing this, we have news of Mr. Snowden denouncing his own government, we have a character like Mr. Assange immersed in his own thriller. Somehow both cases have to do with obvious involvement of governments in not the best practices. Not that we would not know about it, but we prefer to live an illusion of a politically correct government, not the one actively pursuing control over all aspects of life of its subjects.

Now the perturbation of "un-free" Socialist State of X got vaporized in the working of History, and we can turn to the more important features of Orwell's work.

Naturally, what was missing in the picture with my first reading(s) of "1984", compared to today, was omnipresence of Internet. Now we have Google well groomed into Big Brother, with other online services as Skype, Yahoo, MSN, Facebook, more or less openly prostituting to any government, or, for that matter, group of influence. Phishing for information or direct spying are as common as spies in the border cities along the Iron Curtain were in the Cold War era. Camera of your own laptop could be switched on/off almost at anyone's will, as also the microphone of your headset. And yet, nobody seems to be frightened-we learned to live our benign lives with that fact. Nobody is even disturbed by the very idea. Big Brother? Who cares! We do not have anything to hide, Government(s) spying, advertisements companies prying...welcome!

Is it exactly so? What is then the relevance of Orwell's book for us today?

Privacy is not political matter today, at least for most of us. People like Gen. Petraeus could complain to the Water Works Dpt. of the Universe Services that their email was bugged, but then, it is to their own stupidity they'd think it would not be, or that the bug would not be used! Really interesting would be to have a statistics how many light-weight politicians were blackmailed on the base of their very private emails, on a global scale, but I am certain this information is harder to extract than e.g. how many Roman Catholics men were molested as boys by their priests. Nobody will come out with SUCH information, condemning himself. Or a State, for that matter, (s)he could finish...vaporized. Unperson. We, the ordinary ones, obviously do not have anything to hide, or, at least, not enough interesting that we'd care. We even love Big Brother (see the popularity of Facebook).

Except of the Big Brother screen entering our home freely without even frightening us (today it even follows us everywhere, in our smartphone, and we voluntarily give our privacy away-mind you, I am just confessing to google electronic media what was my reading recently, and even more, I am sharing worldwide what were my most intimate thoughts about it!), is there any other aspect of life from "1984" which we embraced readily or less readily?

One thing was strikingly obvious: mass media became exactly as described for Proles: "[in the Ministry of Truth] There was a whole chain of separate departments dealing with proletarian literature, music, drama, and entertainment generally. Here were produced rubbishy newspapers, containing almost nothing except sport, crime, and astrology, sensational five-cent novelettes, films oozing with sex, and sentimental songs which were composed entirely by mechanical means..."

Is this not what you felt when ceasing to read your favorite newspaper after years of doing so, because meaningful content has been increasingly hitchhiked by idiotic following of celebrities' life or some similar garbage of today? Did you notice that your favorite newspaper webpage contains more and more of "whose breast popped out of a gala dress" or "who is divorcing whom", or "what is X. Kardashian ...ing tonight", or some other "picantery" of the currently most (un)important movie stars, than any meaningful news?

Sports content of the newspaper, being a proletarian fun previously (except maybe of a cricket column for Prince This of That and his siblings), became almost intellectual treat when compared to the rest of the "news". Not extracting the current war agenda of this or that idiotic USA president or gibbering of equally idiotic Iranian or X-an Prime Minister or President.

Those two features, unlimited powers of observation and fathomless stupidity of the Media, are two most strikingly corresponding to Orwell's prophecy, at the global scale.

Are there some other, minor correspondences between the book and the today reality, which did not yet become so global?

"Minute of hate" is taken in as a media-hypes, be it directed against moslem, gay, pedophiles or anyone/anything at hand, if there is a current lack of the atrocities of war. Until it became too expensive, USA and USSR were maintaining enough wars around the globe to fulfill such role for their population, but currently even they had to shrink the choice, with USA itself becoming a 3-rd world country, and Russia never fully reaching the importance of USSR. In People's Republic of China, Party has to be more careful not to succumb to Romanian danger of calling a rally and sinking below it. North Korea looks as if its leaders would use "1984" as a textbook.

The same is the case with religion, sexuality-it became a plastic to be mold by anyone at power-it pairs well with media as described above. Occurrence of sects or new popes or new religious leaders or, at the equal footing, some more or less sexually transmitted diseases is always at hand-as throughout the history, they are never missing from the picture.

Friendship, love... it is interesting to see that the development is not necessarily towards more freedom, based on the sheer power of numbers. In India or Arabian countries, ossified, outdated patriarchal systems are ruling the day more than ever, and it is not easy to foresee their transformation. In those places, power of the media turns handy to the government, and it could be some of those countries which will follow (or is already following) the steps of North Korea not in the direct political sense, but by a moral policing, being a ruling power in disguise.

There are many facets of "1984" which could be reached in disguise in today world. At the end, we all have a big chance to finish loving some version of the Big Brother, with his all-encompassing eyes and all-embracing powers.

Julian Alps, Jalovec. Mountain and me.

The most memorable part of travels that I took this summer in Europe is a 16-hour walk in Julian Alps in Slovenia, from the Tamar Valley to the Soca Valley over the top of Jalovec. In this picture, which I made ten years ago from the top of another mountain, Mangrt, Jalovec is visible in the foreground on the right. At that time I thought I will soon conquer Jalovec, because at Triglav, the highest mountain there, which is leftmost at the picture, I have already been before. That "soon" lasted for nine years. Too long. Here is now the image of some ten days ago which shows Mangrt, along with the peak of Jalovec: Here is the Triglav from Jalovec, now there is nothing left between: Indestructible backpack, 21 years old and still serving, (this I call a good purchase), on top of Jalovec-it has been on all these tops and at many more places. Jalovec I have not visited because the description of the hike is "long and strenuous". Justified. The path that I have chosen, from Planica to Tamar Mountain House and accross the Kot's saddle, and then accross the top of Jalovec to the house on Soca river source took me 16 hours. According to the Slovenian guidebook, it should take about 14 hours of walking, but the part went to breakfast in the house in the valley of Tamar. Lady who works there, despite the early morning, prepared eggs for me and gave me an additional bottle of water, which was much needed for a hike. I started from Kranjska Gora to Rateče-Planica 5:47 AM, too early for any kind of shop, and I arrived there the previous day from Germany after 9PM, too late to shop. A mentioned lady left a smile in the valley (at so early an hour I could hardly elicited a smile, too), but not her kindness, a big thanks to her. The sun was just rising up behind the mountains: Some photos from Tamar, two possible uses of local variety of traditional hay drying storage: Here is the oldest and largest ski-jumping place in the world, Planica, preparing for an event in 2017: The Home in Tamar Valley: Interesting walls: Here Jalovec briefly showed above the Tamar Valley, most of the time it was in the morning clouds and fog: Top viewed from a hike to Kot's saddle: This ice almost costed me a peak of Jalovec, and maybe much more: What you do not see in that picture is the throat under glacier, something like in the image below, which is from one of the following glaciers, at the actual one I did not think about taking pictures but about staying alive): Lowest part of the rubble below ice was only ten meters, but just above the throat. When I tried to walk there, it was sliding down and I realized that the only way was the one which someone tried before me: over the glacier. But the previous person had ski poles, I had only 14 kg backpack (definitely too heavy) and summer Salomon shoes, which have not yet seen a real ice. And I had a perfectly classic fear of heights. This resulted in a one-hour search for other possible paths, the decision to go across sand and giving it up, even the decision to go back, but I finally went over the glacier. Luckily it was not a too long one, and fortunately did not have too much ice, but real snow, so summer shoes could cope with it. When I crossed it, I almost threw breakfast out from the stomach, so terrified I was! I do not remember that it would ever happen to me (maybe once on Triglav, at the overhanging part of the trail when I was hiking from the western side, but it was to a much lesser extent), but here the feeling of weakness in the legs kept for some time. Did I soften with age, or that was really so dangerous a place? Judge for yourself. Choice of the downward hike that has been described as the easiest in the guide-book was a very good one, although the edge of the ridge was quite steep. I did not dare to even raise the camera up, but I did it from the hip. View to the left: and to the right: Those few hundred meters of the ridge is in an easy thing for "of experienced mountaineer", piece of cake, but I felt pretty much like "retired mountaineer". I will not even try to imagine what crossing it looks like in the wind or a storm, then one could make it only creeping over it. Just below the ridge, above a glacier, flowery meadows. Colors like those are only possible in such a place. This is a steep ridge, down which I did mostly free climbing. It is also quite hard, but one feels safe, clinging to the rock. Mountain goats laugh at clumsy man, I came across a herd which fled from me: Another ice, this time much longer, I had to go in zigzag: There I made a mistake and I did not piled some snow into the bottle. There was a long, two and a half hour brisk walk from the glacier through the woods to the Trenta valley, which will remain in my memory as awful, as I ran out of water. Be sure to take at least 3 liters of water, or take snow from the glacier. At House at the spring of Soca river, to which I have come only at night, nice ladies working there have welcomed me with a simple dinner and a beer, and I slept tight until morning. They were so impressed that I came from Planica over Jalovec that they recognized me a status of honorary mountaineer although I had no membership card (long ago passed times when I had a valid identity card of anything in Europe) and charged me only a membership rate for overnight. They would not even charge for dinner, only beer. My thanks goes to them for such a treatment, indeed, it's nice to see that a genuine effort is still respected. By the way, it was a beautiful summer Sunday and I have met only one couple of hikers around 2PM, all other times it was like in a story, mountains and me. In honor of Soca river, in the morning I valked 12 kilometers to the Soca village. Not a problem, even after such a day as I had the day before, since the scenery is beautiful: Always when here, I make a point of visiting the Russian cemetery from the WWI, where they buried the Russian prisoners killed in an avalanche during the construction of the mountain road to Vrsic Pass. It is one of the most memorable examples of absurdity of war that I know, to start from distant Russia and finish being killed by avalanche in this beautiful valley ... On the way to House Zlatorog (which seems to be not working as a mountain hut any more?), a small haystack, so typical for the Alps: Down the Soca river, approaching Gorica, fine towns: Finally, home sweet home. I think a look at my own island from the sea, when one arrives from Velebit mountain, explains why I am so attached to the stone, whether in the Alps or at the seaside:

Zamyatin's "We"

I re-read this classic, in Polish translation, after 20 or more years. I think I first read it still in my Yugoslavian time, in the 1980-ies. How different the world is now! Then I was living in one of more successful societies which tried to build some kind of utopia, fueled by authoritarian thirst for power. It was not the worst one, oh no, compared to some more gruesome places! Later I lived in ruins of Soviet Reich, early 1990-ies Poland, and I started the new Millenium in more direct descendent of chillingly cold East Germany, just nearby the former Wall-I strolled daily with my kids along the former line of death which was running between the wall and minefields. I also lived in Greece with its endless strikes and Che Guevara-like angry youth on the streets, throwing Molotow's. Currently I am living at the aim of 1100 missiles of Big Red Brother (mainland China), in KMT safe haven, Taiwan, or, how they want to call it, Republic of China. I am writing this list that you would know I am not exactly a virgin when it goes about totalitarian regimes and its aftermats. I know what it is all about.

This novel is least known of the three which marked the 20-th century writing on dystopia ("Brave New World" by Huxley and "1984" by Orwell being the other two). It was also the first, as written in 1920 (!). And I must say, it seems it has some qualities which will make it frighteningly more realistic in times to come. At the beginning it seems a bit naive, but as we go deeper into the story, this illusion dissolves in real, painful struggle of a main hero for...sanity. Sanity without imagination, which is an illness, atavism from some remote, savage, hairy ancestors. It has to be shaved off, like an excess of body hair. This is the only, and last, prerequisite of Happiness. It will be incurred on you, if you happen not to be healthy enough to see it's benefits for you, if you are so hopelessly ill. They, the government, just and mighty, your benefactors, will help you with this minor trouble.

Description of a society which imploded successfully, to thrive in perfect order, for centuries, reminds me of North Korea nowadays. It must be that it's Great Leader loved "We". Is it the only society which I can identify, today, with this novel? China The Great departed from that path, even if The Party (let the Party leaders and their descendants and their pets and their litter live a long and happy life, they are the real Benefactors of their people, working so hard for the country...) claims to follow some old principles, no no, they broke the wall. Soviet heaven collapsed, and the new Oligarhs of Russia are still in the process of building the towers of power... Surprisingly, they are far too humane for it to happen. How about West, is there some hidden gem, which would, like in Orwell's Anglsoc, hint the possible cuckoo's egg? Except for European bureaucracy, which, fortunately, does not yet have arms to impose their vision of happiness on their subjects, I do not see such power. But we should take note, there is something to beware of in that bastard of European Union and Anglo-American vision of Reality. It still has potential for Anglsoc, it always had. Not for nothing it can develop a blind spot in its vision on demand, like it was "not noticing" suffering of East Europe for decades, or failed to notice minor disturbances of common decency in Middle East or Asia, Africa, when millions of people happened to be killed, starved... Or when it was so charmingly enchanted by Mao the Great Pig Eater, and, in fact, still is.

What I learned from Zamyatin this time? I was reminded that there are basic human values which should be pursued whatever the cost. It might seem prosaic, but in this time of Great Globalization sweep, it is not so prosaic as you might think. Life of a Consumer of Goods is onto you, and can you, with clean conscience, say that you are still fully living your human life, when Media is selling you a Celebrity life as a model... Thinking your own thoughts, breathing non-polluted air, drinking clean water, eating natural food, seeing the twinkling stars? Can you, without blush on your cheeks because of a failure, recall real, deep love relationships, worth living through or longing for?

It might seem prosaic, but many, so many, could need Prozac to cope with it.

Orwell, virtuous man

In L. Trilling's foreword of "Homage to Catalonia" in the Harcourt edition Orwell is described as a virtuous man. And indeed, he is. Of an old fashioned breed even at the time of writing that perfect piece of report from the madness of Spanish war, back in 1937.

I was reading the book before, long time ago as a teenager, and remember appreciating it then. Now, many years later, and having myself an experience of war (as a citizen in a country at war, in Croatia during the Balkan war), I appreciate it even more. I know how it is hard to keep the record straight, and my guts tell me Orwell did it fair.

I understand well his frustrations, and exasperation of having to deal with lies, misleading information, corrupt political parties and government. Everything he was speaking about in that book sounds so familiar. It is everyday bread in country in war.

One thing which is making me wonder is why people in the West became so passive nowadays? Is there a vacuum of ideas, "they" convinced us that politics is corrupt and nobody honest will go into it? We accept such a crooked democracy and do not even get enraged enough by jeopardy of our own rights, money, and in fact, future of our children? Example of Iceland proves that it is not the case in general, they expunged their corrupt politicians and "magi" of dirty finances. Why in other countries nowadays it so often seems as if people would surrender to the worst scums in society, and allow them to enrich and empower on sheer passivity of their fellow citizens?

In my previous post I commented on Huxley, I find he and Orwell have a kind of clear vision, which enabled them to feel a taste of the world in the future. And they were not delighted. What is needed for such a vision? To be aware of miss-perceptions stem from ignorance, wishful thinking and sheer lack of ideas. To be aware that it is we, ourselves, who ought to see things around ourselves and process them and come to conclusions. Not daily paper or, more often today, our bookmarked internet news. Especially not those! It is so easy to trumpet stupidities, but it is less easy to deal with real problems, and deal correctly.

Reading of those authors is definitely a sobering thing to do in those days of general ignorance. And...back to classics. Interpreters obviously miss-interpreted, philosophiers (to use that word of R.M. Pirsig from "Lila" which so well describes that kind of worthless gnawing of words and thoughts which is so often called "philosophy" today) misled... time to go on, children! Use your own brain!

Recently I went back to Caesar; lecture of his Gallic and Civil wars reminded me that Europe is playing this game since time immemorial. Reading Marx' "Capital" reminded me that there is a science in Marxism, of the same kind as Maxwell's or Darwin's theories, which survived well until today, in a bit modernized versions.

Use it! Do not be ignorant of our own present and, in the end, future.

Coward Old World

Recently I re-read Huxley's "The Brave New World Revisited", which is a striking narrative about his perception of his own work after two decades. Living in a foreign country which is at a forefront of "development", being an expat from the museum of the Old World, I sometimes have a visceral uneasy attitude towards modern society. Especially I despise politically correct writing, where we all have to pretend to be social anthropologists nodding with a smile when some backward father from a tribal area of Africa circumcises his daughter, as "he is preserving a tribal tradition". I so much prefer writing of F. Burton or Mrs. McGovern , where dirty is dirty, smelly stinks and stupid is simply...stupid. The following text, then, is saying more about the current myself than what I think about Huxley...

We did not come to the use of atomic transport, nor atomic helicopters, even not atomic private airplanes or cars. Huxley did not have to worry about this omission in his "The Brave New World". We are not "happily" modified to be socially useful. Use of drugs, heavy or light ones, for change of our perception of the world, is not welcome. We even limited their use to minimum, in a world which hardly justifies such a limitation. Problem of over-population is not solved, be it by some revolutionary or socially acceptable method. Developed part of the world is on a self-administered extinction path, driven by a wish for personal convenience and financial security. The other, developing, or painfully undeveloped part of the world, which does not have even theoretical chance to reach even a fraction of the wealth of the lucky ones, is on a path of uncontrolled multiplication.

Evil, "immoral" dictatorships crash in glory of civil unrest, (with a little help of "friendly" powers), or implode in simple degeneration of oligarchic power in a well connected, modern world, where revolution can be organized via a SMS messaging. Dictators themselves, chased into rat holes, get their bullet, or finish hanged, deservedly ridiculed to death, or are subject to humiliation of a War Crimes tribunal, which disposes society of them in more hygienic ways. Some even allow themselves to be dislodged by elections, but this is usually when they are safely too old or mortally ill, and are not any more bothered by earthly matters too much.

Religion as a factor did not disappear; quite contrary, its importance increased to insanity, becoming a main player in internal and international affairs of the political powers of today. Interestingly enough, it did not resurrect only in over-populated, tribal societies like that of India or Middle East, or countries stuck in the Middle Age, still waiting for a Renaissance but tuneled into the hypertech society of today, as China. No, its evil, debilitating or straightforward ill influence is sourcing from developed democratic societies like USA-the best example is a revival of the application of Creationism, which even found its path to the school curriculum.

It might be that the traditional religions as Roman Catholicism lost a bit of their appeal, under weight of sexual and financial scandals, but disoriented religions like Scientology, or politically powerful ones like Mormonism are sweeping the West. The East is overridden by "masters" of suspicious kind, procuring salvation (with only a small fee) in diminishing of wishes and will for anything on Earth. Probably as they do not have anything else to offer than nothingness-in the old days one would go to the nearby caves to find a Master in meditation, under his beard, to learn about the world. That Master would eventually get a bowl of rice, but rarely would go into building a fancy temple for himself and put purple robes. Consequence is a rare virtue, indeed.

A current trend is also a kind of swap of social order: State capitalism, which, reaching the respectable age, deceased together with Soviet Union and their gerontocrats, reincarnated in the USA, which slowly, but at a steady pace, started its shift to becoming a Third World country. Former socialist Eastern Europe countries, after a short phase of wild, predatory capitalism, transformed into a post-neokolonial status, owned by a Western financial mega-corporations. Those are mostly known for their fast retreat, after leaving the unhappy country under occupation of their kin, blood-sucking leeches of banking world, which will make certain that slaves would not have their say for at least current generation.

Africa, too poor to be sucked of blood in such a civilized way, after extremely successful operation of fathers and forefathers of today entrepreneurs, successfully drowned in a bloodbath orchestrated by their Western "friends". They are interested only in unlimited sale of the old and new weaponry there, and after leaving few generations of fatherless, homeless children to play games of war until extinction, disappeared in utter boredom.

Interestingly enough, we did not allow to be indoctrinated, awake or while sleeping, hypnopaedia remained where it was, at isolated voluntary self-learners or enthusisast. Science, that "wonderfully convenient personification of the opinions, at a given date, of Professors X, Y and Z", did not produce more than a succession of Professors. They came and went into honorable past of dusty University libraries, funded by well-wishing benefactors. Society is a too inert entity of a dynosaur ass sensibility, to be moved by such a benevolent creatures like humanists.

Over-organization of a Society is here, in a caricature of efficiency given by over-bureaucratization: see the example of European Union (beware of choking in laughter or crying!). For over-organization, good managing ideas, and also good managers, are needed. Not masturbators of powers we experience today in Europe. Could anyone sane consider European bureaucrats of today being anything else than fleas in the fur of an moult dog? Hardly. They are far, far away from all-knowing father figures of Huxley's technocracy.

Propaganda, under or out of dictatorship, became a domestic animal of today, but only in completely degenerated organisms like North Korea, where yelling of colonels came to TV and radio. Yes, in China, but even there only rarely, education under eye of the Party brought some individuals to caricature of Huxleyan vision. They are easily laughed-off even by their own kind. Human mind is far harder to condition than one could imagine, listening the words of Professor Y. Luckily, what Huxley considered under "What can be done?" is still on the list of rare surviving humanistic thinkers which did not go into (over)production of recipes for happy society or into a stamp-collecting.

It is heartening to see how completely Huxley fails to predict a future following from hands, and brains, of a generation eating hamburgers in front of a TV. Some wile minds would say that example of Obamamania and already mentioned introduction of USA as a Third World country are an effect of this, but I would rather discard it as a daily politic play, unimportant at a scale of almost 100 years of Huxleyan anti-utopia. There are many good things that particular generation did, or at least tried to do. I am less enchanted by what my generation, their children, is doing. Luckily, I see that my own and my generation's children still uses their own brain, they check book shelves, do Science and do Arts. In a world we gave them, where computers became so omnipresent, I think they are doing well, extremely well. Good luck to all of us, we will need it, not because of someone doing this or that, but because of sheer powers of Nature. We seem to be going to the stage of the cavemen of Concrete Age, still waiting for the invention of Fire.