modest mouse
Meating People is Easy
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2001
- Posts
- 8,363
A poem that spoke to me in a way another had not and has not. Charles Foster's original layout is preserved here witht the use of some creative punctuation. I have left in his spelling errors and open ended parentheses. This would have been typed out on a type writer and was thus printed in its original form.
If forced to cite one, this would be the most important poem I have read.
**************************************************
THE SERVICES OF PAIN IN THE AMELIORATION OF PSYCHOSIS
1. All mental disease is
``involved with a
``displacement of relation:
`````example If, in the
```` `formula for water, one
`````of the atoms of H is
`````ionized the end product
`````is not water but
`````vitriol, sulphuric acid.
2. If a particular catalyst
``is present, this reaction
``will occur predictably
``& "inevitably".
`````The Catalyst may then
`````be functionally defined
`````as the motivator or
`````energizer of the reaction.
LOGIC
``` SOCIETY
````The soul of a society is reflected
in the gods that society worships.
A god is accorded worship
when (1) his services fill
a need (2) prayers for his
intercession go unanswered.
````The god most consistently
accorded worship in the
society of the western united
states is the God of Pain.
````Pain is here defined
as the absence of happiness.
Happiness I define as that
state sought by sane
people.
````Both pain and happiness
are inferior & opposite to
love & knowledge.
If we regard pain as the
potentially unusable energy
within a system, then
the pain that is present becomes
an objective measure of
the futility or death
present within that system.
````In physics the 2nd Law
of Thermodynamics provides
a measure of death by
equating death with disorganization
using the relative heat loss as
the measure of that disorganization.
````Thus, if the system
concerned consists of
one flask containing water
& one with the other
ingredients of vitriol,
the physical measure of
pain is the loss of radiant energy
sustained by that system
during the time of reaction.
_____________
This is also a measure
of the efficacy or efficiency
of the reaction, & from it
we develope the basic formula
for efficiency
units of work
units of time
````In a "psychotic" system,
energy is diverted from
work to time.
````This is because the maturation
of a psychotic system is not
temporal.
````It does not conform to the
general human principle
of least effort (called
economy in the arts
because the hidden goal
of the system is not
aligned with the overt
goal. Usually for its
own self protection within
an environment judged
hostile the psychotic organism
is trading energy for
entity.
If forced to cite one, this would be the most important poem I have read.
**************************************************
THE SERVICES OF PAIN IN THE AMELIORATION OF PSYCHOSIS
1. All mental disease is
``involved with a
``displacement of relation:
`````example If, in the
```` `formula for water, one
`````of the atoms of H is
`````ionized the end product
`````is not water but
`````vitriol, sulphuric acid.
2. If a particular catalyst
``is present, this reaction
``will occur predictably
``& "inevitably".
`````The Catalyst may then
`````be functionally defined
`````as the motivator or
`````energizer of the reaction.
LOGIC
``` SOCIETY
````The soul of a society is reflected
in the gods that society worships.
A god is accorded worship
when (1) his services fill
a need (2) prayers for his
intercession go unanswered.
````The god most consistently
accorded worship in the
society of the western united
states is the God of Pain.
````Pain is here defined
as the absence of happiness.
Happiness I define as that
state sought by sane
people.
````Both pain and happiness
are inferior & opposite to
love & knowledge.
If we regard pain as the
potentially unusable energy
within a system, then
the pain that is present becomes
an objective measure of
the futility or death
present within that system.
````In physics the 2nd Law
of Thermodynamics provides
a measure of death by
equating death with disorganization
using the relative heat loss as
the measure of that disorganization.
````Thus, if the system
concerned consists of
one flask containing water
& one with the other
ingredients of vitriol,
the physical measure of
pain is the loss of radiant energy
sustained by that system
during the time of reaction.
_____________
This is also a measure
of the efficacy or efficiency
of the reaction, & from it
we develope the basic formula
for efficiency
units of work
units of time
````In a "psychotic" system,
energy is diverted from
work to time.
````This is because the maturation
of a psychotic system is not
temporal.
````It does not conform to the
general human principle
of least effort (called
economy in the arts
because the hidden goal
of the system is not
aligned with the overt
goal. Usually for its
own self protection within
an environment judged
hostile the psychotic organism
is trading energy for
entity.
