Dark Ages

I like history. I'm a keen amateur. Unfortunately, because of this interest, I see the world is once again repeating itself and taking several steps backward again.

Every 1500 to 2000 years, or so, the world decides that we have to enter an age of darkness. Civilization builds itself up and then tears itself down again. And it's the same pattern. Disaffection, complacency, degeneracy, terror, wanton killing & destruction, disillusionment, selfishness... All of these factors seem to herald the beginning of a Dark Age. But most telling is mass migration by a violent community.

The last dark age began about 1700 years ago followed by a several hundred years of restructure and rebuilding followed by a thousand odd years of growth. Before that another dark age happened when the Sea People destroyed the bronze age civilizations about 1500/1600 years prior to the era we call The Dark Ages. Only a much reduced Egypt remained. Form that earlier dark age Ancient Greece, Persia and finally Rome emerged and rebuilt civilization. There is evidence for earlier civilizations and it's possible that they suffered a similar fate.

The first (known) dark age began with the mass migration of the Sea People's the later by the Huns, various Goths and their ilk and ended with the Vikings in Northern Europe. All of them came with violence and destruction to gain their ends. Only the strong survive and it is civilization that is the weaker of the opposing forces. All the gains and that civilization has made are destroyed and we start over again, several thousand steps behind where we left off.

So here we are, on the cusp of a new dark age. I'm not happy about this. I'm getting too old to resist it. My soldiering days are done. I feel sad that my own culture will be destroyed and, as history shows, it tends to destroy itself from within first and, so laying the ground for what will finally destroy it.

This has happened in other parts of the world too. Civilizations have grown, prospered, advanced and then died. Something else always replaces it and whether what replaces it is better or worse is up for debate. We, with all of our technology, still can't replicate ancient structures like the Great Pyramids, Machu Picchu, etc. So are we more advanced?

Anyhow, I don't believe that this blog post will survive any upheaval as we are destined to go backward once again. So I can't say: "I told you so."

Urgent Business

I was going to write something profound but I really need a poo right now.

See ya!

Today I Noticed Something

Today I was looking for an interesting piece of science fiction art work to use as my wallpaper and I noticed a couple of things.

The first things that came up were recent digital pieces. They were all done in a landscape format and they were generally dark with grey, dirty blues and black the predominant colours. Quite a few of them had very detailed images and most of them were of a pretty high standard of ability although they were mostly uninspiring.

At the top of the Google Images page there was a link to 70's Sci-Fi art. I clicked on that.

Now here's what I noticed. They were almost all in a portrait format and there was colour. Lots of colour. And the artistic standard was high in all cases.

I assume this change in format is because the '70's art was made, in the main, for book covers and posters where as the recent stuff was made for computer. Some of the older stuff was square and I recognized some album covers.  I found that interesting.

However the difference in colour palettes was disturbing.

It made me think about why we, as a collective, tend to see the future as bleak whereas once we saw it as something extraordinary and wondrous. The future use to be something to look forward to. It use to inspire and drive people to try and achieve greatness in order to bring to all, the fantastic things the future offered.

In the 60's and 70's the 2000's were the future and it looked bright. It looked special. But now that that future is the present it isn't bright and, in many, many ways it's horrible.

As I write this piece and prepare to send it into the ether to post it online I believe that it's the internet that has caused a lot of this blight on our, once bright present. Instead of projecting light and joy and goodness it has done opposite and has attracted the bad the nasty and the dark. In all of the science fiction of the past, the internet was not a factor. Computers were always present but they were tools. They didn't govern people or determine society. They didn't threaten.

It's a shame the future turned dark. Maybe it's time that we switched the lights back on.

P.S. I found a nice image - Done in landscape for a pc (but it took me a while).

Conundrum

It's been a while since I made an entry on this blog.  But, then I decided that I'd only write things on this blog when I had interesting or thoughtful to to say.

Today I have a conundrum...

If tuna is called the chicken of the sea, is a chicken considered the tuna of the land?

I, myself...

I, myself...

This phrase annoys me. It's like saying Me, me... Why refer to yourself twice? As far as I'm concerned if I write or say "I", I must be referring to myself. I'm not referring to someone else. The phrase is useless and asinine.

I think that people who use this phrase just want to sound more intelligent than they really are. Or maybe they believe that it makes them sound like a thoughtful individual who has put a lot of personal time and effort into whatever revelation it is they are about to impart to their unsuspecting audience.

Imagine if I was talking to you and I kept referring to you as, You, yourself... You'd think I was a bloody idiot. Even if I said it once you'd think I was a knob. And the reason for that is because if I did call you, You, yourself... then I would be a knob and I would deserve your contempt.

In my opinion, "I, myself...", makes me think that the person perpetrating this inane utterance is a self important turd. I wrote above that it's like saying Me, me... But on reflection what it's really saying is: Me. ME!  What I'm about to say is so damn important that I need to be recognised twice. And I need it to be me who is telling you it's me. ME!

ME, ME, ME, ME MEEEEEE!

An Anniversary Forgotten

I realised today (20 Feb) that 20 years and two days ago is the anniversary of when I joined the Australian Army for the second time. I initially joined, for the first time, some time towards the end of October (or the start of November) 1986. I don't remember that date. I only stayed a couple of years and then returned to being a musician. The only reason I remember the date in 1997 is because It was just after the wedding of two of my friends on St Valentines Day.

I think about my time in the army almost every day. Often it makes me angry or sad. Very rarely do I think about my second term of service with any affection. It was very easy to start with but it ended with everything that I hoped to achieve in my life in ruins.

Not a happy time.

But then things got worse for a while.

Memories and a Road Trip

It's a strange thing regarding memories. There are those things that we never want to forget and there are also things that we wish we could forget. Unfortunately we don't have any choice which is which.

That's a somewhat philosophical thought isn't it?

I started this blog for the purpose of just writing whatever I felt like writing. After the first couple of posts I became somewhat maudlin and thought that I should be writing quite negative things. That wouldn't be a bad thing really but what I found was that I could only think of negative things to write. I guess that's mainly due to influence from the media which is generally negative (and I don't agree with large portions of it).

So I didn't write. Not that I didn't want to write negative things but more so to ensure that I don't end up using this blog as a medium to whinge & whine. That could happen pretty easily and I'd like to avoid that. It's too easy as well as self indulgent. Besides that, why would I expect anyone who might happen to read this blog to wade through my self pity and negativity.

So, here I am.

I'm looking forward to a road trip with my wife an a few days time. She's very excited and making plans and lists of what to take and what to pack, what we'll need whilst driving and what to wear. This is the first time she's ever done something like this whereas I've done hundreds of long driving trips in everything from solo motorcycle to military convoys. Her excitement is driving me crazy but it's turning something that could be mundane into a big adventure.

When it comes to memories of road trips one I remember well is riding from Sydney to Melbourne in December 2004. This is memorable for several reasons. It was the longest motorcycle trip I ever made and it was also the last time I ever saw my ex-wife and step children.

It was pretty sad setting out and I didn't know what was in store for the future. It was my last Army posting (back home) and I was due to be medically discharged in the new year. My physical and mental health were both severely damaged, I was about to lose my job and, although I didn't know it at the time, was about to lose my family. All I had left of my former life was a dining room table, a clothes dryer and four cats.

Things for me changed rather dramatically with that trip. Surprisingly (to me) I landed on my feet and eventually got my life back on track with a few ups and downs along the way.

Now I'm headed back up the same highway but not to the same place and this time I'm looking forward to it. I have to go and wash the car (outside and in) because it has to look nice for our long drive.

Tally ho!

On writing this blog..

I've found over the past few days that I want to fill this (new) blog with posts straight away.
I could do this but I think I'll pace myself.
I'm just impatient.

327831

327831...

This is my Regimental Number. I was given this number some time in late October 1986 when I joined the Australian Regular Army (ARA - As it was called back then).)

I notice that many folk I know from the army will regularly post on Facebook something like: "On this day 33 years ago I joined the army..." For some reason I don't remember the exact date I joined up. I don't know why I don't remember this somewhat important date in my life. I just don't. For all I know it could have been early November that I joined up but I'm quite certain it was October.

However, I do remember my Regimental Number and, like every person that has ever served in the armed forces, it remains very much embedded into my memory. I think that this is because when you join the forces the powers that be distill your whole psyche, your whole personality, your whole self down to this number. Some numbers are longer, some are shorter.

Without this number you don't exist according to the Army. If it were ever to be totally forgotten or somehow erased from the record you would cease to be. It would be as though you had never existed.

I wonder: if I managed to forget this number would I vanish? I was around prior to being allocated 327831. I was a young musician. My whole life up to that date was devoted to playing music and having a good time. The moment it was determined that I was to be 327831 my life changed. Some things changed for the better and some for the worse.

I look at that last sentence and I notice that I put better before worse. Is that an optimistic view or is it that I have been conditioned to write such a phrase in that manner?

The Problem With Being Me

The problem with being me is that I've become quite cynical. I haven't always been this way, in fact I was far from it for many years, but it's the way I am now. I don't particularly like being this way but it's something that I think has become necessary for survival.

The world has changed dramatically since I was a youngster in the 1960's and 70's. I was born near the start of the radical changes that began in the 60's. Here, in Australia, our society was a step or two behind the rest of the world in the 70's and now that I'm of an age to be able to reflect I can see that that was a good thing. In this country we managed to hang on to our naivety for a little longer than the rest of the world.

Just a little longer.

And I was lucky enough to grow up in that time.