Dear Friends:
In the last year I have become very much more sensitive to what I used to call "coincidences," but what the great scientist R. Buckminster Fuller called "synergetic occurences." He always maintained, and taught as a lecturer and professor of architecture, that it was humanity's role in the universe to be the main or principal force against entropy. The role of the human race is to collect, gather, analyze and explain the seems-to-be random activities of the natural world and of the natural laws of physics, and thus to make all of humankind into a big success -- not necessarily to reach some clumsy Utopia -- but to create a sustainable prosperity. One that does not leach the wealth of the planet nor drain the vitality of the people.
Fuller was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1983, at the end of a long and distinguished life: he was also avowedly a-political, which is -- I believe -- his only real mistake as a scientist. Since his death the standards of education in the United States have slipped steadily and there is almost nowhere that his message of "success for all humans," without a direct reliance on war and war industries, is taught. His ideas ranged from a basic curriculum which didn't lock students into prison-schools to the granting of fellowships to thousands of adult workers, the very ones displaced by technological advances and "global free trade." He would be an enthusiastic supporter of the likes of Napster, I think, not because he wanted artists or musicians to be cheated of their copyrights, but because these techie advances stimulate creativity in all fields, and because every technical advance obsoletes something while creating a new opportunity in some other field.
This brings to mind the Marx Brothers and their early years in show business, when the Vaudeville was all the rage. Before the radio networks developed, and before sound-on-film recording was made reliable and inexpensive, the Marx brothers had a travel troupe and did their comic schtick in Vaudeville. There were many 'crossovers' from classical music and the romantic heroism that the wonderful "Gigi" speaks of, from time to time, in this kind of entertainment. Vaudeville relied on a general knowledge, in the public realm, of certain classical themes and ideas.
That is why I am interested in the great madcap movie made by the Marx Brothers -- "A Night At The Opera." It was only recently that I learned that the opera to be performed in that wonderful comedy is The Force of Destiny (Gigi -- can you give the Italian, please?), and that it was something well-liked or even favored in the 1920's. Three times in the last three months this information can been illuminated on my "mental radar screen," and as I have listened to this music I find it profoundly moving and exciting. There is something about it I cannot explain.
The Marx Brothers continue to be favored on the all-movie cable channels here, where you can see decent prints of their best work on a regular (but rotating) basis. Also, the clerks in my favorite video stores here in southern Connecticut inform me that their "Horsefeathers," and "Duck Soup," and "... Opera" continue to be among their best rentals (among classic comedies). Kids who will not sit still for a black-and-white movie will sit transfixed by Harpo in "A Night At The Opera," and they howl with laughter at the other great films these guys made.
There is power in entertainment. We have to realize the truth of that statement in analyzing all the activities of the Two Clintons, and the Clintonista crew, their New World Order masters, and in charting or monitoring the actions of Faction Two and others who oppose the reimposition of slavery on the Global Plantation. Hillary Rotten Clinton has been exposed, day by day, here in the New York and Connecticut media markets, as being the strident First Strumpet of the New Red Guard. Her own words pillory her actions. Today the New York Post opined that she has tossed her erstwhile loyalty to William 'Big Creep' Clinton overboard, in defending her brother, Hugh Rodham. And her defense of him amounts to nothing more than a long series of "I don't know" and "I didn't know" statements. She is trying to massage the press into presenting her as the victim. It ain't working, friends, it simply ain't working at all.
To tie this all together, as I recall the main impetus of the Iran & Contra & Cocaine scandal was the perceived need to support the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, and thus take the pressure off of the Salvadoran social elite, which was suffering as the left-wing rebels on their side of the border got weapons and munitions from the Sandinista socialists and their connections to Cuba.
Ever since the United Nations treaty was signed, declarations of war have been -- technically -- outlawed. But we have had war after war after brush-fire war, from Korea to Viet Nam, and to the various battles in the Congo; to the Marxist victories in central american countries, and the counter-offensive staged by Ronald Reagan. And this has been a time of peace?
This fight has been going on for a long time. Perhaps Gigi could provide an opinion on the late Roberto d'Aubuisson (I think I have the spelling right), who was the incendiary leader of the right-wing faction in Salvador. He was, I think, a protestant.
The name seems to clearly indicate a French or Provencal origin.
What is happening now in Salvador is unclear to me, but I do believe powerful forces are at work -- that is what the history of our country and of the last 500 or so years tells me. For most of that time Italy was a collection of warring city-states and principalities, united by nothing except language. It is possible that Italy will again dissolve, not so? Is this what "The Force of Destiny" is really all about?
It is my opinion, now, that peace is not the natural status of humanity, of this human race: I think we are warriors, whether born and bred or whether created by some super-race or inter-stellar agency. We are bold and aggressive and constantly on the prowl for that which is new -- new lands, new ideas, new conditions, new experiences ... and what else? This prowling conflicts, of course, with our natural desire for stable social systems and predictability in the face of a chaotic and seemingly random natural world. Fuller said that the natural laws of universe were not chaotic, and randomness was not the fundamental principle or law. True, his sanguine teachings are ignored here in the days of the New World Order. But his humanitarian vision was grounded in a firm belief in a loving God, and an orderly universe where men and women of the human race could and would succeed, prosper, and do more than simply survive in the rubble.
That is what I think the real "force of destiny" is all about.
what is going on
: really there? somebody testing electro-impulse programs?
: gigi
