Pullo and Octavian play games

The new HBO series Rome has to be commended for its fidelity to history, as compared to the other cable series about the same epoch, called Empire. The latter was full of so many historical fantasies it should have been labeled alternative history. But this latest episode of Rome is a strange way to demonstrate Octavian's capacity for ruthlessness. He and Pullo decide on their own to find out what's what with Vorenus' wife and supposed former lover. This poor guy had made love to Niobe after the army told her her husband was dead and his salary stopped coming. So he has a pretty good excuse...but Octavian and Pullo, who should have known this, tell him they are going to kill him anyway, so why not talk before they torture him. Pullo, who doesn't know how, has to take suggestions from a kid. This is meant as humor I suppose.

And so Octavian instructs Pullo to cut off the guy's thumbs for starters...and so on, and after they find out the Niobe's grand-daughter is really her own daughter, then they see red and stab him and dump his body into the aqueduct...if this was a common method of murder, the Romans should have been all poisoned in no time at all from the polluted water supply.

I suppose this scene is to show us how common brutality was in Roman times, as well as giving us a clue to Octavian's nerves of steel, which would lead him to successfully climb the ladder of power to Emperorship. On the other hand, it strikes me as rather dumb....here are two guys butting their noses into someone else's business, they are bound to make Niobe unhappy, though Pullo likes her, they kill a totally innocent person who did nothing wrong under the circumstances, they contaminate their city's water supply without a thought, the list goes on.

I suppose this is part and parcel of the "Upstairs, Downstairs" soap opera motif in which we are alternately shown how the nobility conduct themselves in some particular fashion, and then how the riffraff do it their way. Except in this case one of the upper classes is slumming, "gaining experience" so to speak. Obviously none of this can be historically verified, the idea is to take what history tells us of the famous personages of the times, and flesh them out with dramatically interesting traits and intriguing plot twists. Nothing wrong with this I suppose, but this particular example is rather disgusting.

Lists of books one should read (a beginning)

Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en…about 1800 small print pages, available in English finally from Chinese publisher...the ancient Chinese Buddhist classic about a crazy monkey with supernatural powers who brings havoc to the court of the Jade Emperor and has to be subdued by the Buddha himself, later released to provide aid to an old Chinese monk who has taken on the impossible task of traveling to the West to obtain precious Buddhist manuscripts unknown in China...based on a real historical journey...

More Neal Stephenson novels, series starting with Quicksilver, Cryptonomicon pretty interesting, hard to stop reading though long (1100 pages)

Robert Sheckley detective stories, did not know he even wrote any, such as: Draconian New York, Soma Blues, The Alternative Detective. Sheckley has been ill lately, he should be considered one of the most innovative science fiction writers of the 20th century...it is sad so few of his imaginative stories have made it to the silver screen...7th Victim comes to mind...but there are scores more worthy of being made into film...

Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels...apparently a novel of the battle of Gettysburg, which has always fascinated me

Ulysses S. Grant by Geoffrey Perret...Grant was the first modern President and did a good job despite the hatchet job done by liberal historians

A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss...cannot resist historical novels about England apparently

How the Scots Invented the Modern World...Arthur Herman...at least making a stab at this one...seems logical to me, even though I don't have any Scotch ancestry that I know of

Marking Time, The Epic Quest to Invent the Perfect Calendar, by Duncan Steel...so detailed it scares me, but accurate to a microsecond

The Spanish Ulcer, A History of the Peninsular War, by David Gates...to provide more solid background to Spanish/British resistance to Napoleon's invasion and occupation of Spain...after finishing The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes by Mark Urban, a real humdinger

Did I say this was only a beginning?

Don Camillo books by Giovanni Guareschi

These books of short stories about a village priest in post-war Italy and his nemesis, Peppone, the Communist mayor, are always good reading. Never doctrinal or shrill, Don Camillo is street smart and wily as he maneuvers against the latest absurd power grabs of the local Italian Communist party. There is one moving story called “Christ’s Secret Agent” in which Don Camillo sneaks into an Italian Communist tourist group visiting the Soviet Union. Peppone cannot expose him without getting himself into trouble, so Don Camillo gets to see the reality of the Worker’s Paradise of Russia for himself. In this particular story he secretly performs Catholic rituals for a Catholic family on a commune, in particular an elderly Polish grandmother, in violation of Soviet law of course.

That such simple and harmless acts are considered high treason in a totalitarian dictatorship is highlighted. One recalls the Soviet occupation of Mongolia and the subsequent extermination of thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns, to know that this was standard practice in all Communist countries. This is the type of anti-religious program converts like Che Guevara relished and tried to duplicate. Even today Buddhist activity is severely limited in Vietnam, for example, and China regularly clamps down on Christian priests, while putting on a smiley face to the rest of the world.

This site has many Don Camillo stories online.

Another good site on the author of the Don Camillo books.

France owes more to Talleyrand than Napoleon

Former French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte -- Napoleon I -- in exile on Elba, blaming Talleyrand and Fouche for his predicament, said: "If I had hanged Talleyrand and Fouche, I would have been still today on the throne." When the news reached Talleyrand, he said: "Napoleon, instead of hanging me, should have listened to me."

But how could a megalomaniac listen to anyone else for advice? What Talleyrand said is true, if Old Nap had listened to him, Talleyrand could have kept him in power for decades in a Europe at peace. But as we all know, Napoleon constantly rejected Talleyrand's proposals for making peace with his defeated neighbors.

Talleyrand was ahead of his time regarding many European issues. At the Congress of Vienna he strived for the creation of a strong and independent Poland, although this was not to allowed at that time. He foresaw future Prussian aggression theatening European peace, and helped foster a German federation to counter Prussia's militancy. It was only the stupidity of yet another Napoleon who declared war on Prussia in 1870, that fatally weakened this effort to contain German aggression. Talleyrand felt France's natural ally in Europe was England and opposed the brutal policies of autocratic regimes like Russia and Austria. Compared to this, what did Napoleon stand for? Not much beyond self-glory.

Pepsi gives USA the finger??

If preliminary reports are true, (see here) it appears Ms. Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi, in a speech to Columbia Business School, used her middle finger to denote the USA's role in the world. It appears some of these multi-national companies, though started here, feel they are immune to the wrath of American consumers. They feel it is their job to tell us what supposedly the rest of the world thinks of us. What this really means, is they want to spout off their own opinion. I think Ms. Nooyi should start rewriting her resume.

Demos against investment

Why is it the Democrats are pro-choice when it comes to terminating the life of the unborn, and anti-choice in President Bush's proposal for personal investment accounts in Social Security? The investment account would be completely voluntary, no one would be forced to go that route, yet the Democrats carp and carry on like it's the end of the world. They hate to see government cede any authority or power it already has over the individual, apparently. Their opposition also reveals their anti-capitalist stance. Wall Street is a dirty word in their ideology. I suspect they can't stand the idea of some people getting more money than others from their Social Security payments. They don't want people to risk their money because they might make more than other people. The Demos prefer an egalitarian system in which the government collects our money and doles it out in equal payments to everyone.

Blade Runner vs. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

For those sci fi fans familiar with Philip K. Dick's book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the movie version Blade Runner must have come as a complete shock. Just the barest outline of the story makes it into the film. Director Ridley Scott seemed determined to create a noir detective film in the style of Chandler/Hammet, with homage due to Metropolis and Frankenstein as well. This is well and good, but we wish someone would make a movie that is really based on this great PKD novel.

What PKD created was in fact a religious science fiction novel. It is no wonder Scott claimed that he had not even read Dick's book, he probably wanted to make sure no one would complain about the changes he wanted to make. This is common Hollywood procedure though, even a movie about Napoleon cannot be made without inserting completely phony events, in order to "make it more interesting." Hitchcock felt no loyalty to the written word if he felt he could be more creative on film. No one seems to appreciate the effort PKD makes to create a plausible futuristic urban mass religion. Of course any reference to religion had to be deleted if Scott's detective noir theme was to make sense...it just would not fit into the hard-boiled atmosphere. No soft mushy stuff allowed.

In the novel, the religion of Mercerism is centered upon an empath who takes all of mankind's suffering upon his own shoulders. Using empathy boxes, people at home tune into Mercer's Sisyphean struggle uphill, being bruised themselves from the rocks unseen persecutors throw at him, follow him to the top where presumable he is martyred, and downhill into the Tomb World of dissolving forms of death and desiccation, until finally all is revived and he ascends again to start all over. What is significant in this trance-like experience is that all who are tuned in at the same time share each others emotions, and can exchange their joy for example to others who are miserable. In Tibetan Buddhism this is a visualization practice called tong-len, selflessly giving out our goodness and strength to those in need of it. "Health and wealth to others, sickness and poverty to myself." This is basically a method of grinding down the ego, that which separates us from our authentic self, our fundamental connection to all things.

Mercer himself is a kind of Amitabha or thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara figure, infinitely capable of listening to the troubles of others and forgiving them. His name, though etymologically different from the root of mercy, is so close there can be no doubt that he is meant to embody mercy itself. He is also similar to Krishna of the Bhagavad-Gita, as he speaks one on one with his devotees, giving them advice to "get on with it." For example, Deckard the bounty hunter, has doubts about his job of "retiring" androids. Mercer's words to him urge him nevertheless to go forward and do his duty. He says "we all must violate our identity...the ultimate shadow or curse of life"...this is what Joseph Campbell calls the basic horror at the crux of the world: life feeds on life in an unceasing cycle, and we are part of that process. Krishna tells the reluctant Arjuna, distraught at the prospect of killing his rebelling relatives,

"Indestructible, learn thou, the Life is, spreading life through all; It cannot anywhere, by any means, be anywise diminished, stayed or changed...Let them perish, Prince! And fight!...Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the spirit for ever; Death hath not touched it at all..." (Sir Edwin Arnold translation).

Mercer tells Deckard, "I am your friend. But you must go on as if I did not exist...there is no salvation." Deckard asks, "Then what are you for?" "To show you that you aren't alone." Mercer shows all the universality of suffering and the power of forgiveness. He utters this paradoxical statement: "You will have to stop searching for me because I will never stop searching for you." Mercer also appears in the nick of time at an apartment complex to warn Deckard that one of the androids is outside about to ambush him. Later on Deckard has a mystical type experience in the badlands, without even an empathy box, seemingly becoming Mercer himself in his endless quest.

Naturally the powerful media powers object to Mercerism. Buster Friendly and his Friendly Friends sponsor an expose of Mercerism, showing it to have been Hollywood produced, and even find the actor who played the part. Yet Mercer himself is not fazed by the exposure of the human origins of his religion, he forecasts nothing will change because what he offers is shared empathic unity of humanity. As it turns out, Buster Friendly and his guests are in actuality androids who, along with their manufacturer and all runaway androids, dream of destroying Mercerism forever, because it emphasizes the one thing they lack: empathy. I think certain parallels could be made with today's secular politically correct media.

Blade Runner ignores this subplot of course. It is more interested in creating sympathy for the "replicants", a politically correct term for androids. Rachel is nice and deserving of being saved when Deckard runs off to live with her in the end. In the book she turns out to be one of the chief agents helping murderous androids, and kills Deckard's live pet goat out of spite. Androids have no feeling for living beings, they torture a spider for kicks in a world where life is rare and therefore sacred. You can be quite sure that if the androids ever took over they would casually kill humans in the same fashion. One might imagine we were discussing Communists vs. capitalists in the Cold War era...should we see the Communists as extremists bent on world domination no matter what the cost to human freedom, or are they "just like us" deserving of a break, everything is relative, be nice to them despite their hostile actions and they will be great friends one day, coexistence is great...This is somewhat ironic as PKD was a rebel in his day, afraid that by fighting the Communists we were destined to become like them...in fact this is somewhat the theme of the novel...but he could not depict the androids with as much warmth as Scott...he was highly suspicious of beings that had no empathy...

PKD of course was so paranoid and anti-capitalist himself that he could not imagine a future in which the impersonal corporation did not rule the roost...even to the extent of creating near-perfect androids who sometimes revolted and killed their human owners. Of course in a real world the public through their exercise of free government would force the manufacturers to create many failsafe devices within androids to render them harmless or easily inoperable if malfunctioning. So Scott carries this thought forward into his postmodern society, emphasizing the dystopia of a polluted world run by selfish evil corporations who operate as if no government existed.

Happy Birthday President U.S. Grant

U.S. Grant was one of the greatest American presidents, despite what propaganda you may read in the history books. It was Grant alone who made valient efforts to enforce black rights, after Johnson's failure to enforce the law. Despite the political unpopularity of such moves, he did not back down. It was Hayes who followed who made a deal with the Southern Democrats to violate black voting rights that overturned Grant's humane and constitutional policy.

Grant was the first modern president and made sure the US steadily advanced toward becoming a world power. After the chaos and destruction of the Civil War, Grant's careful managemant of domestic and foreign policy brought about a dramatic rise of America to the forefront of nations.

There is a great book on Grant by Frank J. Scaturro called President Grant Reconsidered. You can find Frank J. Scaturro's book here.

Because of the intellectuals' bias against him, they could not even see the humor behind a traveling Grant's remark about draining the Venetian canals; they could not imagine he had a subtle sense of humor. Does this remind us of current affairs or what??

Napoleon's nemesis

Having just seen a cable TV program about the rise of Napoleon, I thought to myself, who is the real hero of the Napoleonic era? The British would say either Admiral Nelson or the Duke of Wellington. And we would expect the French to offer up old Nap himself as world statesman and reformer, not to mention military genius. The Russians would put forward Czar Alexander I. But I want to offer an alternative to all these, the man who from the start tried to forge an alliance between a British constitutional monarchy and a French one, the man who always worked for peaceful solutions to the problems of European power politics, the man who secretly orchestrated the overthrow of the dictator Napoleon, saving France and creating the framework for the 100 year European peace following Waterloo.

This man is Maurice de Talleyrand, the wily and cynical French diplomat who served all of the French governments during this era. He attempted to form an alliance between France and England in the early days of the French Revolution, but this became impossible when the crazies took over in France and killed the king and anyone else they could guillotine. Later Talleyrand helped Napoleon come to power, realizing France needed a strong leader who also seemed a reformer. Every time Napoleon secured a victory, Talleyrand urged lenient terms to the defeated in order to secure a lasting European peace, but each time a paranoid Napoleon refused, suspicious that these countries would rise up against him later, and so imposed the harshest terms. Thus he created the very situation he wished to avoid: a dormant but seething Europe waiting for its chance to renew hostilities. Talleyrand never ceased to urge for reconciliation and generosity, Napoleon never overcame his self-fulfilling paranoia.

Talleyrand, a friend of freedom, risked his life trying to thwart the megalomaniacal ambitions of Napoleon, who even dreamed of conquering America some day. Talleyrand's loyalty was not to the madman who created the world's first police state, but to his country and to Europe as a whole. Alexander Hamilton, who did so much to establish the capitalist framework of American financial and industrial power, was his friend and inspiration. Talleyrand's great wish was to meet President Washington, but this was not to be, due to the hostility of the wacko French revolutionary government of the time.

When Napoleon's intemperate ambition led him to invade Spain in 1809, Talleyrand, the freedom fighter, began to plot against him, realizing that the tyrant recognized the rights of no people, country or sovereign. Later Talleyrand tipped off a naive Czar Alexander I of Russia not to align himself with Napoleon, but to guard himself against Napoleon's slippery promises. It was due to this infusion of backbone in Alexander that frustrated Napoleon's plans and led to his incredibly disastrous invasion of Russia, which was instrumental in removing him from power in 1814.

At the Congress of Vienna Talleyrand successfully defended France's old boundaries and led the formation of a plan for the peace and security of Europe as a whole. Napoleon's escape from Elba and subsequent defeat at Waterloo did not prevent Talleyrand's grand vision of a British and French alliance of constitutional monarchies planning for peace in Europe. Later in 1831 when Europe could have come to blows over the Belgian rebellion against the Netherlands, it was Talleyrand as ambassador to Britain who helped resolve the difficulty without war, creating a neutral Belgium.

While it is undeniable Talleyrand was a womanizer, a gambler, an enthusiastic bribe-taker, and political intriguer, his dedication to political and economic freedom never wavered through his long career. Countless thousands would have lived if his visionary project to create a stable Europe had not been subverted by the man he raised to power, Napoleon. If Russia had not suffered the trauma of French invasion, perhaps political liberalism could have spread its influence as opposed to the statist Czarist regimes that followed, thus negating the likelihood of its tragic fall into Communist tyranny. If Spain had been spared the terrible guerrilla war against the French, the deplorable conditions leading to the Spanish Civil War in the 1930's would not exist. Two world wars of the 20th century could have been avoided if the militant German nationalism created by French aggression had not been fostered.

Sandy Burglar gets off easy

Sandy Berger's slap in the wrist misdemeanor guilty plea for destroying Clinton administration documents regarding the terrorism threat in the US is pretty outrageous. And on top of that, he now admits he lied about misplacing the documents; he actually shredded them. Whether he was destroying incriminating margin notes or he thought he was destroying the only copies of the documents, we will never know. As I said here before, as pointed out so well by Dick Morris, it is due to the terrible lapses in counter-terrorism during the Clinton years, that these problems have arisen for Bush to deal with.

Maybe we should call him Sandy Burglar. And he was widely assumed to be Kerry's choice for Secretary of State. Such is the caliber of top officials we avoided on November 2 of last year.