The Dance of the Druids

My mind is awash with so much information that having a genuinely objective analysis of events is almost impossible. I feel that my job is merely to share those combinations of facts that resonate in my psyche at a given moment in time.

As usual, I don't know what the last 10 days of 2006 mean, but I know they're significant.

Story A- 3,000 US Soldiers Dead in Iraq
Story B-Saddam's Mourners
Background-Paganism and the Winter Solstice

Deaf Dumb and Blinders

AUTHOR'S ADDENDUM: When I wrote this article, I was very tired and unhappy about the dismissive treatment I had received from a single representative who (I realize now) was under a lot of pressure as a result of changes made OUTSIDE THE COMPANY'S CONTROL. Today, I was able to resolve the problem thanks to a very knowledgeable and patient phone-technician at the same company who saw that the circumstances were NOT typical. There is no apparent reason (to me) why my email should have stopped working, and by the sequence of questions he asked, I realized that he had dealt with a lot of similar circumstances recently, so my apologies to the company for my having unfairly criticized them because of the treatment I had received from one person. After speaking with the tech-support representative today, I was reassured about the reasons I had chosen the company in the first place: namely that it is a professional company that is well-represented by the majority of its staff, and is genuinely concerned when odd systems-behavior causes grief for its clients.

Any company pursuing a business so fraught with external complexities is likely to endure problems beyond its control, but I think the quality of individual staff members (like today's tech support guy) really make a business work. So for the sake of goodwill, I retract my derisive statements for this particular company.

But, I think my original article is still a valuable lesson for other companies that provide network services.

---

My network service provider (curiously the SAME network provider that first made domain-names widely available to the public) has me listed as a Gold VIP client.

Yet, when I reported to them (through the service/Support section of their own website) that SEVERAL Very Important People (and I mean people who can literally pull the rug out from under errant network service providers with a couple keystrokes) were no longer getting email from me, I received the following response:

-BEGIN RESPONSE-

Dear [name],

Thank you for contacting [company]. We are committed to creating the best customer experience possible. One of the first ways we can demonstrate our commitment to this goal is to quickly and efficiently handle your recent request.

However, we will not be able to resolve this issue by e-mail. So we ask that you please call [internal Subgroup] to help you address and resolve your concern.

We hope this information has been helpful. However, if you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to contact our [internal Subgroup #2].

Please do not respond to this E-mail. We hope this information has been helpful. If you have any additional questions, you can reach us via e-mail by completing our online form at http://[web address] at [phone #] and provide Service Request Number [10-digit number].

Thank you for choosing [company].

Sincerely,

[nick]

[company] Customer Support

(c) Copyright 2006 [company], LLC. All rights reserved
-END RESPONSE-

Now MY ire was not with the response (in fact, IF the methods described in this response actually resulted in action, this email would be an outstanding example of the CORRECT way to provide customer service for a network provider).

The problem is that the reality in not commensurate with the statements made in this email. The truth would be better conveyed if the following disclaimer were added:

All statements in this transmission subject to the momentary moods, whims, or prejudices of our support staff.

Now, I myself have been in the ISP business since the days of DARPAnet, so I usually cut service providers a little slack...but when a business becomes so arrogant that it thinks it can afford to alienate the very people who nurtured it in its infancy, I get a little angry.

Now, admittedly, having a form or brain damage that makes simple tasks practically impossible (all these articles are typed with one hand, remember) is a minor contributor to my less-than-relaxed attitude about my email not getting to its intended recipients.

But to be honest, the whole experience is happening at a time when I would much rather be COMMUNICATING WITH PEOPLE WHO CARE than resolving the internal problems of multi-zillion-dollar businesses.

It makes me wonder just HOW MUCH sheer apathy contributes to the unraveling fabric of civilization that our predecessors worked so hard to knit together.

Exporting Diplomacy

I think broadcasting reruns of the Odd Couple should be the first course-of-action in any successful "Nation-building" strategy.

Don't Udder a Word!!!

Sycophantocracy

I have been studying Alexander the Great for several years (well, I started in college and have returned recently to the subject of historically significant conquests that employ a certain methodology I call "Ant-Trap Diplomacy").

Briefly, Ant-Trap Diplomacy endeavors to control national economies by forcing populations to move along specific routes pregnant with outposts of cosmopolitan commerce.

The outposts need not be sizable...in fact a shack with a table and a merchant will do, so long as the commodities being traded are perceived as desirable by travelers passing through.

The idea of Sycophantocracy (a government bouyed-up by a cult-of-personality) is that everything that fuels a national economy encourages the populace to acquiesce to the will of the controlling agency (a national leader in most instances, or a junta of military commanders).

More simply, a Sycophantocracy survives by telling people exactly what they want to hear, and then reaps the benefits of the irrational adulation of ostensibly "godlike" public figures who encourage the buying and selling of essentially valueless items that reinforce the larger-than-life image of the leadership.

Any government can devolve into a Sycophantocracy. The ugliest Sycophantocracy is one that evolves out of the dismantling of yet ANOTHER Sycophantocracy, the modern examples of which are too common to enumerate.

But as an example, in China, the autocracy of Chiang Kai-shek was eventually overthrown by the revolutionary military tactics of Mao Tse-tung and his "People's Army", but the resulting government was arguably more corrupt than the one it usurped (The people of China have actually surpassed the citizens of many countries in showing their ability to endure so many sucessive Sycophantocracies, IMHO).

The primary purpose of my post is also a bit Sycophantocratic: I believe many words here have been coined for the first time in history ;)

The Subtle Logic of Absurdity

I received an understandably opaque comment from a good friend about my previous post.

"I read your blog post and see that you are still alive and churning out your cryptic observations of the universe from your vantage point in [city]."

My friend seems to think I have lost my mind (admittedly, I DO have brain-damage from Multiple Sclerosis, but my ability to separate fantasy from reality hasn't been dimished).

To speak more plainly, I found it absurd that while the airline is being scrutinized in connection with the death of a politically-controversial figure from RADIATION POISONING, that the airline is simultaneously handpicking (unlikely) items that travellers might use to damage an aircraft or its passengers.

Obviously, the two stories are unconnected. The irational juxtaposition of events that occur in chronological proximity to one another of is merely a literary device to encourage readers to think about the REALLY BIG PICTURE(tm).

I don't know anything about Alexander Livinenko's personal OR professional grievances with the FSB, Vladimir Putin, or any other entity in Russian internal politics, and I don't know enough take sides in the matter.

I'm fairly certain that I've made clear throughout this blog that unless I have a personal or peripheral stake in a matter, I am apt to reserve judgment about the meaning of events that have the potential to stir populations to violence, an outcome that is simultaneously undesirable and vaguely predictable.

My rationale for such absurdity is in no way intended to suggest anything but my own inability to make rational sense of such clearly tragic events...regardless of what anybody thinks about a public figure's personal politics, idealitic conflict resulting from his sudden and mysterious death is likely to affect more innocent bystanders than is obvious at first glance.