Newsgroups: bit.listserv.fnord-l
Date:         Mon, 13 Apr 1992 11:15:36 EDT
From:         "Daniel A. Foss" <DFOSS@CCVM.SUNYSB.EDU>
Subject:      So there will be no 'new ways of thinking' this time & i'll shut
              up, ok

   This was part of the job. The job took on urgency back in 1988 when Big
Stanley Aronowitz ("Barbara Ehrenreich's husband") called Ralph Larkin at 3am
and said, with the Socialist Scholars' Conference one week off, he should call
me no later than 6am re: Who Would Do The Next Social Upheaval? This since, in
my & Ralph's own book the Next One was scheduled for 1992 which is exactly
right as you can see or if you can't see transfer to the Soc Dept of this Univ
and register for my seminar in Fall.
   It says in Ch 5 of same book that eggwhite & eggyolk you can't have Upheaval
without "reinterpretation of social reality," pardon the expression, which you
can't do without whatcha call New Ways of Thinking or at least Ways of Thinking
which Aint Allowed; and when comes the Hour of the Woof the requisite New Ways
of Thinking can get made up in weeks; knowing one when you sees one takes
mentat training. "The Mission Of The Macrotheorist," says the wall, "Is Figur-
ing Out What The Hell Is Going On."
   ****
   Contradiction I: If Everything is part of the Job, the there Aint Nothing
what is just itself.
   ****
   In 1967-1969 LSD was part of the Job. On hot summer night 1968 foss was
with Sue Weisman, rocks in right hands, 3am, staring stupidly at weird colors
on stainedglass windows of Syracuse Univ Admin Bldg; unspoken deal made: If
foss threw rock through stainedglass window now at hideousest possible orange,
Sue Weisman would be foss's True Love for anywhere up to an hour and a half. It
made perfect sense to foss why Sue Weisman wanted foss to throw the first rock
through diabolically menacing stainedgalss, this overdetermined by foss being
Without Sin.
   It made neanwile no sense at all for foss to either throw rock in which case
breakage is attributable to 6-yr-old vandals since by tradition Rebels throw
rocks in broad dayligh time announced by leaflet or to not throw rock which is
contrary to Rebek Ten Commandments where Thou Shalt Trash is Six but on third
hand according to Ten Thou Shalt Not Obey Commandments yet fourth hand (2) Thou
Shalt Love The One You're With where fifth hand just take One Good Look at Sue
Weisman you never did why you suppose that is you shut up Sue Weisman is Unto
Me Predestined by cosmic forces of the universe proof: her soul fits exactly
into mine as designed by the jigsaw puzzle manufacturer which is a subsidiary
of the headshop conglomerate shut up yerself and <BRRRR> lookit this in the
Cold Light of Reason did anybody Ever could anybody Ever want Sue Weisman's
body even Owen hadda do it as parta the job as a southern boy from Mississippi
whitehood committed to Atonement for Christianity and grad student finding
astrophysics boring and Sue Weisman threw I Ching Taroted psychoanalyzed
pussycats bestly astrologized which functionally equivocated astrophysics how
convenient sorta thing why nobody ever took One Good Look at Sue Weisman....
   ******
   Contradiction II: Real authentic actual New Ways of Thinking is scariest
thing in the universe.
   ******
   Just ask Muhammad when was just tired middleaged businessman medium &
longdistance trucking married Khadija for money then ohno flyboy faggot plays
trumpet God toldja to do it stupid Say: Command The Good Forbid The Evil!" What
IS he possibly gonna tell the shrink which has not been invented so it's much
worse, what IS**2 he gonna tell abu-Talib what is Commissioner of Franchises &
Licenses?
   ******
   Inference C[2]I[k+1]: Those who aint been through the changes if they did
really start it just want yer money; and if they are no good at it they will
settle for the odd talk show like Robert Anton Wilson.
   ******
   Contradiction III: As is consistent with the above Inference, anyone who
has got New Ways of Thinking never spots it for what it is. The sad cases get
shot up with Haldol (r) and unthunk; the rest shut up. The rare exceptions have
lucked out and commenced to have thunk New Ways of Thinking when there was
Social Upheaval on and Rebels come round saying I WANT YOU! or vice versa.
   ******
   Contradiction IV: The synergism of two or more stupidities may be an
Enlightenment.
   ******
   Inference C[4]I[k+1]: Or not.
   ******
   With you out there the latter applies. LSD we know from. Computers it
took a little longer. We are in the DATALAB; no daylight is streaming
through no windows. The losers club is all here has not in fact ever not
been.
   "Why are we here, not that I'm not gonna be here if I don't get a
straight answer."
   "Dunno, the system made a call on my functions."
   "You hearda anything else?"
   "TELL ME I WANNA KNOW IS ANYTHING KNOWN, I MEAN IN THE SCIENTIFIC
SENSE, ABOUT ANYTHING OUT THERE LET ALONE WHAT IT IS. Assuming of course it's
something that is, not the other thing."
   "Me, I just got here early today, is all."
   ******
   Contradiction V: All efforts to stimulate or coerce New Ways of Thinking
will fail.
   ******
   Proof P[5]: Or do you think I PLANNED to kill time doing nothing around
here?
   ******
   Contradiction VI: In every social upheaval there is New Ways of Thinking;
all New Ways of Thinking got nothing like it before in history [forget HISTORY]
by definition. It becomes theoretically possible if not vitally necessary for
there to exist New Ways of Thinking which nobody out there, none of you, and
lastmost me - "The sociologist is always the last to know" - are going to know
it if we see it:
   **
   This is capitalism. <"Naw, this is Betelgeuse, har har titters"> In the
1960s They sold New Ways of Thinking within hours after they was thunk. With
this thing infronna me here, no more lead time. Thinkaboutit.
   ******
   Daniel's the name, prophecies of doom is the game.
   Can't scare me cuz:
   Not only am I a prophet without honor in the United States of America,
       I am a prophet without honor among prophets without honor.
   ******

Daniel A. Foss, DFOSS@SBCCVM.BITNET
                dfoss@ccvm.sunysb.edu

SUOS CULTORES SCIENTIA CORONAT, Syracuse University motto.
Their translation: "Knowledge adorns the seeker."
Preferable translation: "Knowledge makes kings of those who worship it
   with blind faith."
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