[Saigon, 12/5/18] In two days, Ian will be gone from Pakse. Though I’ll lose a friend whom I’ve been talking to each day, I’ll also feel relieved, frankly, for the more unguarded Ian became, the more frequent his nasty statements. The US and UK should have dropped nuclear bombs on Russia at the end of WWII, Ian said. Just wipe them out, for Russians aren’t humans.
I know many expats like this, in China and Japan and Thailand. They are such creeps and sex-addicts, and you would think they are anti-Imperialist because they are free renegades and wild at heart. But not so. They totally profit from US world hegemony and all its benefits it bestows upon Western expats in the Third World. So yes, they all watch CNN International, read Yahoo News and the NYTimes, declare their income tax in far away America still, and they are perfectly fine with the West starting World War 3. Why not, it worked out fantastic for America before.
I know well the fascination of listening to someone who just talks and talks and unrolls their unappealing psyche so unselfconsciously, for free. I also know the immense relief of not having to follow that tale any longer and perhaps get to have conversations with someone who is not so self-obsessed and actually wonders who I am as well. A beautifully told tale, Linh. There are many kinds of people in the world and too much of any one sort is - too much. Good luck with your next turn of the wheel.
The tattooed backpackers look like lizard people. They seem petulantly bored in a way, like it's not cool to show some simple enthusiasm and warmth. There's nothing wrong with being grimy and white, but if you can afford that many tattoos...uhh.
lack of discernment, at least but as they get more and more ....er...<extensive> (always pushing boundaries, like everything else) they also seem increasingly sinister. Yet another sign of societal decay.
Narcissists are sometimes of a certain type: Loud, aggressive, they know everything, understand nothing. Nor do they care. About any thing or any one. It relieves when they are not around. (And yet in this era? They multiply!)
Ian's erratic personality is no doubt what makes him an interesting subject for your blog, but the flip side of that is the need to put up with it. Even someone like you who has engaged with all kinds of characters in the course of your writing career must eventually reach a tipping point, where your interest is finally overwhelmed by the limits of your tolerance for such a character. Thanks to your efforts, your readers can therefore partake of the former while avoiding the latter. (Or is this just a rather cheesy way for us to avoid reality, or perhaps a voyeuristic indulgence?)
The propagandists have the "hate Russians" thing cranked up pretty effectively. I've noticed a distinct overlap of the group who wants to kill all Russians with the group who wants to round up all the unvaxxed and put them in concentration camps. Coincidence, I'm sure...
Speaking more generally, the "othering" going on has again reached disturbing levels. My own belief is that a healthy start would be to stop thinking of ordinary people and their governments as one and the same. Some wags say that people ultimately get the government they deserve, but I'm not sure any more that this is true. I have come around to thinking that to the common man (=most of us) government is viewed as a force of nature, the vagaries of which we need to protect ourselves against, rather than something we can affect. This is especially true in the bigger countries.
If we accept this view, we can get away from that idea that killing "little people" en masse will drive them to change the behaviors of their governments. Ask yourself: How well do your government's action represent your own desires? And how effective have your own efforts been in getting it to change its behavior? Yes, I thought so....
"the "othering" going on has again reached disturbing levels" -Yes. The mind controllers wind people up and pit them against each other, and the people oblige, bickering over every single division that isms and identity politics has to offer except the only real division which matters- that between the ultra wealthy talmudic globalist psychopaths and everyone else who has to live in the world they've created
I doubt if even a third of Ian's stories are true. He seems one of those people who like to tell tall tales. His support of US official narratives is not surprising. It's all also tall tales.
Seemingly people have fully adopted the United States propensity for religious cleanliness and predestination. Regression to Old Testament stipulations Reckoning, maybe all colonies regress before a new society forms.
And not least, detaching people from their class, cohorts and tribes saying all sorts of variations on madness have no relationship with their binding egregore.
Remembered dimly, essay on suicide: Wales having consistently maintained deaths for 250 years found, decadal variation in suicidal deaths varied little. The most personal of decisions followed a consistent percentage.
Your writing if one may comment, is terrific and I look forward to each essay. Thank you.
Although I've gotten used to seeing it, I am always disturbed by seeing (presumably) Americans "tatted" up. As Paul Caig Roberts said, when he was a child only sailors and disreputables did that to their bodies.
Seeing people objectify their bodies and turn themselves into walking billboards for stupidly is always unsettling to say the least. Can't Americans aspire to something better than this?
Ian comes across in opinions of current events just like many normies here in Nelson, BC.
even those that did not get jabbed behave as if everything is, "me and the family are off to Disneyland this Spring break", or "Oh! The City Hall is handing out interest free loans for (appliances on two wheels) e-bikes. Are you going to get one?"
The fact that Canada is merely a Ukraine grift ATM is absolutely lost on them.
"Ian" is a complete nutter obviously who is proof that idiots never benefit from travel; in this case it has clearly limited his horizons and understanding. They are trapped in their own grotesque and delusional cage and eventually believe all their own bullshit of which they seem to have copious amounts. I think you mentioned that the clown is also triple covaid$ death squirted so there is that to be grateful for. Nature has its way with dealing with obnoxious losers. Good riddance to the idiot that imagines USSA has any chance against the mighty Bear in fast evaporating rump Ukrapland.
I know many expats like this, in China and Japan and Thailand. They are such creeps and sex-addicts, and you would think they are anti-Imperialist because they are free renegades and wild at heart. But not so. They totally profit from US world hegemony and all its benefits it bestows upon Western expats in the Third World. So yes, they all watch CNN International, read Yahoo News and the NYTimes, declare their income tax in far away America still, and they are perfectly fine with the West starting World War 3. Why not, it worked out fantastic for America before.
Living in a toilet. That's either either degenerate or insane.
From the sound of Ian, looks as though you're better off without him. Good that he moved on.
I agree, Elaine. I don’t know what Linh found interesting about that boor.
I know well the fascination of listening to someone who just talks and talks and unrolls their unappealing psyche so unselfconsciously, for free. I also know the immense relief of not having to follow that tale any longer and perhaps get to have conversations with someone who is not so self-obsessed and actually wonders who I am as well. A beautifully told tale, Linh. There are many kinds of people in the world and too much of any one sort is - too much. Good luck with your next turn of the wheel.
The tattooed backpackers look like lizard people. They seem petulantly bored in a way, like it's not cool to show some simple enthusiasm and warmth. There's nothing wrong with being grimy and white, but if you can afford that many tattoos...uhh.
Tattoos.....ugggh!
lack of discernment, at least but as they get more and more ....er...<extensive> (always pushing boundaries, like everything else) they also seem increasingly sinister. Yet another sign of societal decay.
You've noticed it too? That look of stultified boredom on Americans' faces. As if they're waiting for a clown to appear on the scene to amuse them.
Maybe the result of decades of television watching? Or just ingrained, die-hard stupidity.
Narcissists are sometimes of a certain type: Loud, aggressive, they know everything, understand nothing. Nor do they care. About any thing or any one. It relieves when they are not around. (And yet in this era? They multiply!)
Ian's erratic personality is no doubt what makes him an interesting subject for your blog, but the flip side of that is the need to put up with it. Even someone like you who has engaged with all kinds of characters in the course of your writing career must eventually reach a tipping point, where your interest is finally overwhelmed by the limits of your tolerance for such a character. Thanks to your efforts, your readers can therefore partake of the former while avoiding the latter. (Or is this just a rather cheesy way for us to avoid reality, or perhaps a voyeuristic indulgence?)
The propagandists have the "hate Russians" thing cranked up pretty effectively. I've noticed a distinct overlap of the group who wants to kill all Russians with the group who wants to round up all the unvaxxed and put them in concentration camps. Coincidence, I'm sure...
Speaking more generally, the "othering" going on has again reached disturbing levels. My own belief is that a healthy start would be to stop thinking of ordinary people and their governments as one and the same. Some wags say that people ultimately get the government they deserve, but I'm not sure any more that this is true. I have come around to thinking that to the common man (=most of us) government is viewed as a force of nature, the vagaries of which we need to protect ourselves against, rather than something we can affect. This is especially true in the bigger countries.
If we accept this view, we can get away from that idea that killing "little people" en masse will drive them to change the behaviors of their governments. Ask yourself: How well do your government's action represent your own desires? And how effective have your own efforts been in getting it to change its behavior? Yes, I thought so....
"the "othering" going on has again reached disturbing levels" -Yes. The mind controllers wind people up and pit them against each other, and the people oblige, bickering over every single division that isms and identity politics has to offer except the only real division which matters- that between the ultra wealthy talmudic globalist psychopaths and everyone else who has to live in the world they've created
I doubt if even a third of Ian's stories are true. He seems one of those people who like to tell tall tales. His support of US official narratives is not surprising. It's all also tall tales.
Seemingly people have fully adopted the United States propensity for religious cleanliness and predestination. Regression to Old Testament stipulations Reckoning, maybe all colonies regress before a new society forms.
And not least, detaching people from their class, cohorts and tribes saying all sorts of variations on madness have no relationship with their binding egregore.
Remembered dimly, essay on suicide: Wales having consistently maintained deaths for 250 years found, decadal variation in suicidal deaths varied little. The most personal of decisions followed a consistent percentage.
Your writing if one may comment, is terrific and I look forward to each essay. Thank you.
Although I've gotten used to seeing it, I am always disturbed by seeing (presumably) Americans "tatted" up. As Paul Caig Roberts said, when he was a child only sailors and disreputables did that to their bodies.
Seeing people objectify their bodies and turn themselves into walking billboards for stupidly is always unsettling to say the least. Can't Americans aspire to something better than this?
Ian comes across in opinions of current events just like many normies here in Nelson, BC.
even those that did not get jabbed behave as if everything is, "me and the family are off to Disneyland this Spring break", or "Oh! The City Hall is handing out interest free loans for (appliances on two wheels) e-bikes. Are you going to get one?"
The fact that Canada is merely a Ukraine grift ATM is absolutely lost on them.
"Ian" is a complete nutter obviously who is proof that idiots never benefit from travel; in this case it has clearly limited his horizons and understanding. They are trapped in their own grotesque and delusional cage and eventually believe all their own bullshit of which they seem to have copious amounts. I think you mentioned that the clown is also triple covaid$ death squirted so there is that to be grateful for. Nature has its way with dealing with obnoxious losers. Good riddance to the idiot that imagines USSA has any chance against the mighty Bear in fast evaporating rump Ukrapland.
Z
My apologies for my boring comment... This is better in the Devine ordinary.
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The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter
BY EZRA POUND
After Li Po
While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead
I played about the front gate, pulling flowers.
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,
You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.
And we went on living in the village of Chōkan:
Two small people, without dislike or suspicion.
At fourteen I married My Lord you.
I never laughed, being bashful.
Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.
Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back.
At fifteen I stopped scowling,
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours
Forever and forever, and forever.
Why should I climb the look out?
At sixteen you departed
You went into far Ku-tō-en, by the river of swirling eddies,
And you have been gone five months.
The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead.
You dragged your feet when you went out.
By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses,
Too deep to clear them away!
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.
The paired butterflies are already yellow with August
Over the grass in the West garden;
They hurt me.
I grow older.
If you are coming down through the narrows of the river Kiang,
Please let me know beforehand,
And I will come out to meet you
As far as Chō-fū-Sa.
https://genius.com/Ezra-pound-exiles-letter-annotated