THE OUTSIDERS: I’m still checking in with the local Socrates Café group, maybe once every other week. If nothing else, it gets me out of the house a bit. Once in a while you hear an interesting comment, although many of the topics are bland and much of the discussion is rather predictable (albeit intelligent). The other night’s topic started out on the bland side – i.e., how do you know when you “belong” (as in social belonging). However, the discussion spread out after a while to consider the overall human need for social belonging and its clashes with our need for individuality. I made the point that anxiety about belonging was a modern problem; in ancient farm villages, individuality was just not an option. Pretty good, but not one of my better nights.

After gaining some focus, the conversation started drifting back into the fluff zone when the group started praising the joys of group belonging. In my usual contrarian mood, I said that the longing for belonging could be a slippery slope leading down into the pit of group thinking. Not that belonging is a bad thing, mind you, but one always has to ask oneself, do I think and feel this way because that’s how I really think and feel, or am I doing it just to be part of the group? During my schpiel, I made the point that I used to find it hard to believe that millions of Germans supported the National Socialist viewpoint back in the 1930s. How could a modern, educated society make such a terrible mistake as to support Hitler and all he stood for? Well, knowing what I now know about people and their need to be part of a flock, I can better understand the dynamics behind the Nazis’ rise to power. Perhaps being an outsider isn’t always such a bad thing; you get to see things that others can lose sight of. Think of those outsiders in Nazi Germany like Deitrich Bonhoffer. They paid dearly for never losing sight of the truth. But they were later hailed as heros; their memories served as buoys to guide the German people back to their senses, once the madness had been defeated.

Being an outside ain’t an easy thing, and I don’t recommend it for everyone. But for those of you who can and do stay back from the masses, you’ve got my sympathy. I’m a fellow traveler along that road less traveled. It’s a lonely and sometimes depressing journey. The joys of good company and fellowship are not easily passed upon. However, you will have more good things to say on those occasions when you do affiliate with the masses (some people say that I have too much to say when I go to a Café meeting, or when I write an entry to this blog).

And another thing to ponder – back in the 1960s, there was a pop group called The Outsiders. They had only one real hit – Time Won’t Let Me, from 1966 — but it was a catchy one, a tune that I can still hear playing in my mind. It had a great horn section. If that’s what being an outsider is all about, well, then bring it on — outsiderdom can’t be so bad after all!

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES: I always liked radio DJ’s who cleverly bunch songs together. There weren’t and still aren’t all that many DJ’s with enough cleverness to do it well. I know that I couldn’t; as I ponder this matter, I can hardly think of any subtle segues between seemingly dissimilar songs. But I can come up with three songs that would have been interesting to have heard together, even if the connections between them were rather obvious — i.e., they all dealt with a mythical man named Mister Jones.

Here’s the list: First, from 1965, Bob Dylan’s Balad of a Thin Man, with its refrain “something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mister Jones”. Second, Mister Jones by Counting Crows, from 1993. “Mr. Jones and me, stublin ’round thru the barrio”. Then finally, Mister Jones by Talking Heads (1988 — ah, the Eighties). This is the liveliest song of the bunch; the liberation of Mister Jones is celebrated by David Byrne with a Latin beat.

Still, the mystery remains. Just who is Mister Jones and what about him inspired three different song writers over three different decades? What does he stand for? And what is his first name?

Perhaps we’ll never know.

I watched a report this evening on the PBS Lehrer Newshour about the recent CBA Convention in Atlanta. For those of you not familiar with this, CBA stands for Christian Booksellers Association. This was another one of those industry shows where thousands of merchants come together in a big hall and display their wares hoping to attract retailers who will hopefully stock their items, and to make a few extra bucks from walk-up sales. The CBA Convention obviously involves religious books of a Christian nature. “Christian” here means the US heartland version of Christianity. But don’t think that heartland means back woods. Christian media is no longer a small-potatoes proposition confined to little book shops found in low-rent commercial strips. It now encompasses best-sellers and videos and rock music and software and Hollywood movies (e.g., Mel Gibson’s Passion); big companies like Warner have special divisions that cater to the faithful. In other words, Christian entertainment is now big business.

While watching the PBS reporter walking amidst the rows of DVDs and puppets and paintings and book racks, I couldn’t help but imagine a dark, scruffy, long-haired man running about, yelling madly, turning over stalls and display cases, and causing much pandemonium. But hey, I’m sure that security would pick him up on their cameras and have him out of there within 30 seconds. Within five minutes, things would be back to normal, and the pleasing sounds and scents of money changing hands in the 21st Century would once more fill the air.

OK, time for a break. I’ve discussed some pretty heavy topics recently. So it’s time to lighten up a bit, time to let a picture speak its thousand words.

This is a shot of an empty corn crib on some farm near Cooperstown, New York. Not much more to say than that. You either like it or you don’t. Hope you do.

CO-ETERNAL STUDENTS: You’ll notice that the title of this blog admits to the possibility of multiple eternal students out there in blogdom. Back when I started this endeavor in November, 2002, I didn’t see any sign of other eternal student bloggers on the search engines. But that’s no longer true. At least two other web logs now claim to represent the thoughts of an eternal student – the blogs of Andy and Marianne. Actually, Andy and Marianne both claim to be “The Eternal Student”. Most interesting.

Well, as far as I’m concerned, there’s room for more than one Eternal Student in this town. Therefore, I welcome them both. Andy Perkins started his blog in March, 2004, while Marianne got going this past May. Andy is a graduate engineering student in his late 20’s or early 30’s who hails from Atlanta. He’s married to Lynn and is the proud dad of Gideon. If all goes well, Gideon will have a new brother or sister pretty soon. As you might guess, Andy’s blog is very family oriented. Lots of pics of Lynn and Gid, along with relatives and neighbors and friends. If you enjoy normal family life focused around a healthy young couple, this is your blog. But OK, Andy has other things to say too. He talks about Neil Young and his internship at IBM in New York State, and he takes an intelligent if traditional religious viewpoint (Jesus is definitely his savior and redeemer). Still, he’s heavily into family and friends, and maybe that’s a good thing. He’s clearly a friendly chap; he gave out his summer address (where he’s staying during the internship) and invites his readers to drop in for a visit. I hope he doesn’t come to regret that. Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean there isn’t a negative element lurking out there in cyberspace.

As to Marianne, she describes herself as a conservative 21 year old literature student, currently enrolled in a doctoral program at Notre Dame. Her site only has a few posts thus far, and they all fall in line rather smartly with the neo-conservative agenda … e.g., doubts about the ability of the International Atomic Energy Agency to keep Iran from going nuclear and a burning desire to debunk the fairness and accuracy of the New York Times, especially its coverage of the American campaign in Iraq. Well, nothing too surprising so far, but I’d keep an eye on this eternal student; if she can replace the usual conservative vitriol with the sensibility of a Melville or a Faulkner or a Hemingway or a Fitzgerald, it might get interesting.

I’m not into extensive hyperlinking, as on most blogs, but I’ll make an exception today and give you a direct link to these fellow eternal students.

ETERNAL STUDENT ANDY

ETERNAL STUDENT MARIANNE

Tell ‘em Eternal Student Jim sent ya.

I had a few beers today at a brew pub out in Bethlehem, PA. Nice place. I had my cheapo digital camera, so I tried to get a few shots. They didn’t come out too well. But then again, this is what a bar SHOULD look like when you get comfortable and have a few too many.

But please … make sure that you don’t try driving when it looks like this. The whole country has gone over to the .08 standard, so it’s easier than ever to get DWI’ed. And it’s extremely true that you can do some real damage, including killing someone, when you drive under the influence. So have fun, but make your plans in advance as to how you’re going to get home.

The Democratic convention is over, and I wasn’t one of the bloggers invited to Boston to observe. Hrrrumph!! Well, maybe that’s a good thing. Although I’m generally more sympathetic to the Dems than to the Grand Olde Party, I don’t really want to be a partisan Democrat (or a partisan anything). I’d like to think that I’m an independent, albeit a somewhat liberal leaning independent. Ultimately I’m a party of one, looking for what’s right and what really works (or as close an approximation as possible).

Back to the Dems, I’ve been rather pessimistic thus far about John Kerry and his chances to beat George W. Bush this November. But now I’m back to the 50-50 point. The Edwards nomination certainly gave his campaign a shot of energy, and Mrs. Heinz Kerry’s feistiness might actually be a positive with women voters. As to Kerry himself, I just haven’t been very impressed with the image he’s put forth thus far. His resume is certainly outstanding; he’s probably more-than-qualified for the job (or at least is more qualified than George Bush is, even with four years experience). But since the coming of universal TV in the 50’s, image is the big thing. And up to now, the images of John Kerry that I’ve seen on TV haven’t looked too good. Mostly I’ve seen him speaking amidst crowds with a portable mike in his hand, sleeves rolled up, pacing back and forth, struggling to get a point across. He comes across in that context as being gawky and unsure of himself, someone who probably would be an arch “flip-flopper”.

But when he was up at the convention podium on Thursday night, standing tall in his black suit, it was a whole different matter. He started off with a smile, which seemed kind of forced. Then he got serious and I couldn’t help but think, now there’s a statesman. Memories of John F. Kennedy started coming back. Wow, imagine that, a President who actually looked like a real President.

So to you big-shot Democrats out there, if you’re listening (which you probably aren’t), here’s my advice: let Kerry be Kerry. Don’t force him to smile, don’t try to make him seem homey and down to earth. That’s not what this country needs right now. Emphasize the gravitas. Mrs. Kerry and Mr. Edwards will add all the color that is needed to get people’s attention. Keep John Kerry away from picnic tables and watermelon fests. Let him stand tall in a business suit, let him be serious. That’s what he does well, and I honestly believe that’s what the people of America ultimately want in a President.

In my opinion, we haven’t had a real President in a long time. FDR, Truman, Eisenhower and JFK were real Presidents. They had their human faults, but they looked and acted the part of “Leader of the Free World”. LBJ started out good, but got mangled on the Vietnam thing. The guy had plenty of foresight regarding domestic issues (the civil rights laws and anti-poverty measures passed under him), but he got stuck by treating the Vietnam situation as a battleground against world Communism. Then came Nixon, and what a mess that turned out to be. Gerry Ford might have been OK given more time; he looked like a bumbling fool, but he knew the way things worked in DC and the rest of the world. Jimmy Carter, unfortunately, did not. Carter was certainly the greatest humanist of them all, but he faced the worst four years that any President had seen since Lincoln, and he just didn’t have the leadership talents to rise to the challenge. Then came Ron Reagan, who lucked out; during his watch, the American economy fired up again while the Soviet economy petered out. All Ron had to do was to act out the part, and he definitely knew how to do that. Papa Bush wasn’t so bad; he looked good during the Kuwait invasion, but just couldn’t keep the leadership thing going thereafter. So we got Bill Clinton, who a lot of people still like. But Clinton turned out to be an even better image man than Ronnie was. He was the ultimate political pragmatist, excellent at buying time, day by day, but without any long-term vision (although he made you think he had one). So he was followed by GWB, a guy with plenty of long-term vision; but do we really want to go there? Religiosity, unilateral military interventions, budget deficits, dismantling social infrastructure, free reigns for the rich, pollution, unfilled promises on education? And plenty of smirks and smugness in his speeches?

I know that Kerry can’t espouse a Bolshevik agenda; I know that America won’t buy a plan that restricts its sacred SUVs and McMansions and automatic weapons and tax cuts. But there are a whole lot of families out there whose “boats” did not rise very much during the prosperity of the 90’s. If Kerry could somehow convince them that a reasonable mix of public and private initiative over time could open the doors of opportunity once more for their children, then maybe we might see a statesman President again. But for now, the Democrats need to let Kerry act like a statesman, which he does pretty well on his own.

THE BANALITY OF EVIL: I’ve heard that phrase used by various world-weary authors, although I’ve never completely understood it. Evil as banal and boring? Don’t most of the more interesting things and people in this world have at least a touch of evil in them?



Yea, they probably do. But true evil does tend to get a bit repetitious, in fact. I noticed that yesterday while I was working on a routine press release regarding homicide case indictments (I work at a local district attorney’s office). I’ve been doing indictment press releases for about two years now, and the homicide incidents are starting to blur together. It’s gotten to the point where I use a template and simply change the defendant’s name and the date of the killing. Most of the cases happen in three cities in the county. Mostly the weapon is a handgun. Sometimes robbery is involved, sometimes a conspiracy charge is thrown in, occasionally there’s jury tampering or eluding arrest. But a whole lot of murder indictments are simple “1-2-3” affairs. I.e., first degree murder, second degree possession of a handgun for an illegal purpose, and third degree illegal possession of a weapon. Yawn.



Today I had three 1-2-3’s in a row, all in the same city, all by young men between 18 and 20. Three wasted lives . . . three other lives violently terminated. Sad to say, but in the end, evil is rather boring. And this IS true evil, although I’m loathe to condemn the defendants as evil people. I’d like to look at them the way that Jesus did, believing that all people are inherently good, but are subject to invasion by evil spirits. Perhaps the (alleged) urban murderers that I write of ultimately suffer from social evil, not personal evil. But even if that were true, I’ll be darned if I know how to exorcise such a spirit.



For now, the best we can do is to give the accused their due process. Once found guilty, we must get them away from those who aren’t so badly infected by evil. And that means jail. But as to capital punishment … no, I can’t go that far. I know that people act in evil ways, and I believe that some people are filled with evil (and that none of us are entirely free of evil). But I can’t believe that anyone is inherently evil. By killing those who kill, the government contracts the same infection that the murders possess. At some point, in order to remain civilized, we must be able to subsume the ugly without becoming ugly ourselves.

You may have noticed that despite my objection to capital punishment, I work for an organization that helps to carry it out (I work in a state where capital punishment can be imposed). If your standards are so high as to find my situation hypocritical, then more power to you; high standards and principles are a good thing, an un-boring thing (as opposed to the banality of evil!). But as to me, well … I help to maintain a necessary but imperfect social function, and I occasionally use my first amendment rights after work to lobby against the imperfect aspects of that system (such as capital punishment).

Hey, at the moment, it’s the best I can do. But yea, admittedly, there is a touch of evil in my equivocal stance. You can tell, because it’s rather boring. You shall know them by their banality.

WELL … a deep subject. I often use the word “well” in speech and in informal writings such as this blog. Perhaps I overuse it, but it does come in handy when you need to shift your line of thought and a better segue isn’t apparent. Anyway (another breaking device), thinking about my “wells” inspired me to show a picture of a real well. This one is owned by a local water company, and pulls drinking water up from the deep. Which is just what a well is supposed to do. It’s just another bit of infrastructure that most people take for granted, so long as it’s doing its job right.

Hey, perhaps you too feel taken for granted. If so, don’t feel so bad. You never realize the good that you do by just doing the basics (e.g., doing your job right, not cheating others, driving considerately, helping others whenever you can, voting, being good to your family). Just like this well. Well, well.

MID SUMMER LULL: I’ve been at a loss for inspiration lately with regard to this blog. Some days, my mind just bubbles over with fascinating ideas (well, they seem fascinating at first); at other times, nothin’s cookin. Maybe it’s just a mid-summer lull.

Mid-summer does bring something to mind, however . . . thunderstorms. Ah yes, Mother Nature’s fireworks show, with its dark, dramatic build-up, its thundering crescendo, and its fade-out on the far horizon. As Matthew 24 says, “the coming of the Son of Man will be like lightning striking in the east and flashing far into the west”. Or as AC/DC sings (in Hell’s Bells), “the white light flashing gonna split the night”. And then there’s Eddie Rabbit: “I love to hear the thunder, watch the lightening as it lights up the sky, you know it makes me high”. (That lyric was later changed, substituting “feel good” for “high“, so as to avoid corrupting America’s youth … like they’re listening to his music.)

I really enjoy a good thunderstorm, so long as I’m watching it from inside a building or a car (preferably a parked car, where one can sit back and enjoy the drumming of the rain on the roof). Up here in New Jersey, we don’t get too many really good thunderstorms; this summer we’ve gotten even fewer than usual. Down south the storms are stronger; ditto for the plains states where cold fronts down from Canada crash into stifling humid air masses, causing all kinds of commotion (including hail and tornadoes). Once in a while I go on the government weather site (www.weather.gov) in the evening and look at the radar for Kansas or Nebraska or such. I watch those red and purple storm blobs bearing down on places like Marysville and Boone Valley, and I imagine end-of-the-world scenes of black clouds, bolts flashing across the sky, driving winds, and rains pelting the cornfields and the prairies and those lonely two-lane blacktops. (Yea, I know, one day I’ve gotta get a life).

The thing about thunderstorms is that they have a real element of danger to them. Often this makes you feel more alive while riding one out. Today I read about a fellow in Maine who just got hit by lightening and lived (which is relatively common; most people hit by lightening don’t die, but they often experience chronic health symptoms afterward). He was doing some work outside on his house but stopped while a thunderstorm passed through. He thought the storm was over and went back on a ladder or something, and ZAP, a leftover bolt hit him. They took him to the hospital but didn’t find much wrong with him, despite his having a heart condition. Now he claims to feel revitalized, with more energy then he’s had in many years. (Being from Maine, he didn’t put a metaphysical or spiritual spin on his experience; he just says that he feels better).

Maybe that’s why I feel a little bit blah right now. There hasn’t been much thunder and lightening around here lately. Perhaps thunderstorms are nature’s anti-depressant (which would explain why they are more common in the plains and in the south – that’s where they’re needed!). Like any drug, thunderstorms are dangerous. But if you use them properly, they might make you feel better.

I’m looking out the bedroom window, but there’s nothing but darkness out there on the horizon; all is still. Dang!