Sordid Unity Through Stale Change

June 28th, 2008

“Every four years, at about this time, we begin to hear louder and louder appeals for…unity….

“But the pattern of a Presidential election remains the same: first, there is a campaign in which the candidates denounce each other and seem to appeal to some sort of unstated principles; then, when the election is over, the appeals become, in effect: now let’s forget all about principles…unity comes first.

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AFP

“How will you adjust to it? First, there is a business lobby, but you don’t mind it, it helps your boss.  Then, there is a labor lobby, but you don’t mind it, it helps you.  Then, there is a farm lobby, but you don’t notice it, it’s too remote from your activities.  Then, a neighbor on the next block forms a group demanding better roads—and two blocks further, a woman forms a group demanding better schools.  Another group demands free lunches for all schoolchildren—and a rival group demands free textbooks.  Your windows are smashed, one night, by the group of the local juvenile delinquent, or ‘problem-adolescent’:  they shout ‘nonnegotiable demands,’ which you cannot quite untangle, but you gather it has something to do with ‘Youth Power.’  The residents of the local Old Folks’ Home form a group, demanding ‘Senior-Citizen
Power.’  The old-maid file-clerk at the office, whom you can’t stand because she can’t keep the files straight, is given a promotion—with the help of a group that demands the ‘Liberation of Women.’  You have no time to keep track of it all, you notice only that your taxes keep rising and rising—and your money keeps buying less and less….

“You fall behind in your mortgage payments, but your property taxes keep rising and rising. You consider giving up your house and renting one in a new development, five miles away.  But the localbird-watcher’s group is suing the developer, demanding that the land he cleared be turned into a public park.

“Then an educational group decrees that you cannot send your children to the local school, which so much of your property taxes has gone to pay for, so your children are bused to a distant town—a daily trip of two hours going there and another two hours coming back.  This, you are told, will achieve racial integration.  You had never thought of it before, but you become race conscious and try to untangle your own ancestry.  You find it so mixed that you cannot qualify for any of the groups into which your community is splitting:  the Afro-Americans, the Chicano-Americans, the Italo-Americans, the Jewish-Americans, the Irish-Americans, etc.  And you—you are just a mongrel American, a title of which you would have been proud at one time, but which is becoming dangerous.”

The Ayn Rand Letter
Vol. II, No. 1 October 9, 1972
“A Nation’s Unity”

I choose these quotes because as an artist I know that no matter what year or century my work is created, it will be recognized if the work has universal significance.  For example, I doubt that Ayn Rand would ever have envisioned the term “illegal immigrants” when she wrote ‘Chicano-Americans’ as opposed to the modern influx of immigrants from Mexico.  I suspect she would have called them simply ‘immigrants’.  After all, Ayn Rand was an immigrant from the Soviet Union, got her American citizenship just in time not to be deported back to that hell.

Today we see all of Rand’s examples as facts of life in America, particularly in regard to the Obama/Hillary ‘unity’ pact displayed in the Democratic Party.

In my previous article on “A Cure For Deafness and Dumbness!” I showed what Obama means by “change”.  And I meant it.  What is Nazism but National Socialism?

Now his current slogan is “Unite Through Change”, although who knows how long that will last, as the expediency of the
moment dictates.

I noticed during Hillary and Obama’s get-together that the stock market fell some 40 points.  And what I saw in my mind
was an image:

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Bread Lines during the Great Depression

This is an image of Americans united through change.  This is what their ideal vision harks back to, “particularly when something is about to be put over on us.”  ibid.

And if you wonder why so much of the Democrats’ vision has already become apparent over the past two years, just remember who took power over the House and Senate two years ago.

A Cure For Deafness and Dumbness!

June 25th, 2008

“There is no such thing as truth,” explains Hitler, (which brings to mind Bill Clinton’s well known derivative formulation, “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”) “either in the moral or in the scientific sense.” Or as Goebbels puts the point: “Important is not what is right but what wins.” (emphasis mine.)

“The needs of a state,” says Hitler,”…are the sole determining factor. What may be necessary today need not be tomorrow. This is not a question of theoretical suppositions, but of practical decisions dictated by existing circumstances. Therefore, I may―nay, must―change or repudiate under changed conditions tomorrow what I consider correct today”

‘In their pragmatist capacity, they stress action, expediency, and change more than God and faith….’ (emphasis mine)

Leonard Peikoff, The Ominous Parallels, Hitler’s War Against Reason, (chapter 3) p. 59-60, 1982.

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Photomanipulation by Robert Tracy

Does this remind you of anything? Say, the American Democratic party and it’s nominee for the President of the United states Barak Obama?

I urge my readers to pick up Leonard Peikoff’s, The Ominous Parallels and read it as fast as you can.

Obama doesn’t say much, does he? Nothing much one can get a hold of because he’s so “charismatic”. Well, so was Hitler and Rasputin. But Obama is saying these very things that Hitler said.

You read Peikoff’s book and you’ll be able to hear it.

A Note on Permanency in Art

June 20th, 2008

It came to my attention from a recent buyer of my book, The Art of Robert Tracy, about a concern of my signing the book in pencil, not pen, about the importance of permanency in Art.

She wondered if that signature would fade over time.  It won’t.  That signature will last longer than the book.  That’s because the graphite in my art pencil is a permanent thing.

I tried to reassure her of this by stating that “In all of my work I aim in part for longevity.”

I’m not a teacher but there are things a self-taught artist must learn on his own.

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As the World Turns
Robert Tracy
Oils on canvas
18 x 18″
2007

Now in this painting I was dying to use “Sap Green” for the leaves.  Sap Green is one of the most intense and lovely colors of green that the artist has at his disposal.  And I mean he must dispose of that tube of color for it will fade or turn to black in a relatively short time.  He can replicate that color by mixing phthalocyanine blue and either transparent ochre or cobalt yellow dulled with a touch of burnt sienna.

This is what I did for the leaves in the painting.

Now what about the equally exquisite color for the sky in my picture.  One would use Prussian Blue, a deep intense blue, transparent and of extremely high tinctorial power.  The finest grades of Prussian Blue are rare on the market are fairly permanent except when used in thin glazes, which is precisely what I meant to do in this picture.  But Prussian Blue is not permanent.  It will fade out in thin layers.  And it gives the painting a lower key than when another color of blue is used, such as the all important color Ultramarine Blue  (I used Ultramrine plus Cobalt Blue).  However, Prussian Blue too can be replicated, or rather reproduced with the modern synthetic-made Phthalocyanine Blue.  The most intense and transparent Blue pigment on the market is made from Lapis Lazuli, made from the precious stone.  One can buy this pigment from various art supply sources but they never give you the price–they say “call”.  Guess where the best of this pigment comes from, or used to?  From the mines in Afghanistan.  I did call once years ago and the price was over the price of gold.

I stared for a long time at the version (he painted several versions of this subject) of Böcklin’s “Isle of the Dead” at The Metropolitan in N.Y.  I saw no way he could have achieved so deep and rich a blue night sky unless he had used Lapis Lazuli, but I don’t know for sure.  And this picture doesn’t come close to the depth of his blue night sky.

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The Isle of the Dead
Arnold Böcklin
Oil on board
74 × 122 cm
1880

The artist must research his materials; get the best of materials and supplies that he can afford and think of his work as something that’ll  last for centuries.

Art, Matematics and Education

June 17th, 2008

Send your kid to a private school? Or home teach? The first is risky, especially if it’s a religious school where your child’s mind will be mystified. The second is good if you know what you’re doing. The worst is a public school where your child’s mind will simply be destroyed. The best is a Montessori School. That’s what we did for our two daughters as long as we could. And the cost was high. And we couldn’t always afford it so I’d make drawings and paintings for the school in trade for tuition.

from Wikipedia:

“The Montessori method is an educational method for children, based on theories of child development originated by Italian educator Maria Montessori in the late 19th and early 20th century. It is applied primarily in preschool and elementary school settings, though some Montessori high schools exist.

“The method is characterized by an emphasis on self-directed activity on the part of the child and clinical observation on the part of the teacher (often called a “director”, “directress”, or “guide”). It stresses the importance of adapting the child’s learning environment to his or her developmental level, and of the role of physical activity in absorbing academic concepts and practical skills.”

Although Maria Montessori was a Catholic she did not inculcate any religion in her method.

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The Composer
Robert Tracy
Acrylics on canvas
10 x 15″
1983

I put this painting up on my site at devianART and received this information from a         
comment from an Italian: “Some years ago, before we Italians started to use Euro, we had
the portrait of Maria Montessori on our paper money.” As well the Italians should have
done because Montessori was a true genius.

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At my site on deviantART I also submitted an old drawing I had made of one of the tools, a
Trinomial Cube, used in Montessori schools. When I made the drawing my interest, as an
artist, was in the interesting perspective study of the cube. I had a vague idea that the child
will learn higher mathematics, by some sort of osmosis when he solves this cube. What the
child does is open the box, take off the lid, remove the cubes then put them back together
again.

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Trinomial Cube
Robert Tracy
Pencil
10½ x 10″
1975

I, who do sometimes forget my multiplication table, have the greatest admiration for
mathematicians. And I don’t claim to really understand this beautiful Trinomial Cube. So I
asked. And this is the answer I got from a real mathematician.

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“This is for *hank1 [my ID name at deviantART], who drew a really cool sketch of a math
principle called “Trinomial Cube”. He requested an explanation of what it was, and so I
took a second to draw one up. It’s not really art, per se, but, in my opinion, mathematics and
art have a lot in common.
Here’s how this thing works.
1. Say you have two numbers added together, like “a” (the length of the green segment) and
“b” (the length of the red segment). Adding those two numbers together, you get “a + b,”
which is like a longer segment made from putting the green and red segments together. In
order to square (multiply by itself) that combined length, you could treat it like a situation of
area (”square-footage” for us Americans).

2. So, let’s imagine we have a room that is (a + b) long in one dimension, and (a + b) long in
the other dimension. We would multiply these two lengths together to get the total area of
the room. If we knew how long “a” and “b” were, we’d just do this using one number for the
total length, multiply it by itself, and get the area. But Algebra exists (more or less) to work
with numbers that we don’t know, so we have to do something else. In Algebra classes, this
multiplication step is often taught using the “FOIL” method. That method multiplies
everything in the first (a + b) by everything in the second (a + b). So, we times both “First
terms” together (”a” times “a”), then the “Outside terms” together (first “a” times last “b”),
then “Inside terms” together (last “a” times first “b”), and then both “Last terms” together
(”b” times “b”).

3. Looking at how this FOIL thing translates into the area problem, we can break it down
into four smaller area problems. The green section is where we multiply “a times a,” and the
two brown sections are where we multiply “a times b,” and the red section is where we
multiply “b times b.” This gives us one section of a^2 area, two sections of a*b area, and one
section of b^2 area. In Algebra, putting that last sentence together would be written “a^2 +
2ab + b^2.”

The only difference between this problem and the (a + b + c) problem of Hank1’s drawing is
that we only dealt with two numbers (a binomial) multiplied together and his is dealing with
three numbers (a trinomial ) and cubing them together (multiplying “a + b + c” by itself
three times). This means that instead of area, we will be calculating a volume (like how
much space for air there is inside a large, square-cubic room). This will create 27 smaller 3-
D boxes. Hank1’s drawing shows the 3rd step in my explanation drawn out, but not labeled.
The answer, incidentally, will be “a^3 +3ba^2 +3ca^2 +b^3 + 3ab^2 + 3cb^2 + c^3 + 3ac^
2 + 3bc^2 + 6abc,” which means “one box of a*a*a and three boxes of b*a*a and three
boxes of c*a*a and…and six boxes of a*b*c.”

I understand none of this explanation, but find it interesting that art and math can both be so
beautiful.

Weather Alert!

June 15th, 2008

It’s easy to fight against Socialized Medicine.  Lost once, Hillary! 

To fight for the producers that keep our country alive is not so easy.  Americans are quick to blame Oil Companies for the current, temporary but hurtful plight on American families’ wallets.  Harder will be to fight for all of U.S. and world-wide industry and commerce with its emerging Capitalism.

It’s easy to destroy the pursuit of happiness that comes in a simple product like a cigarette.

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The Artist’s Father
(Robert C. Tracy, USN, WWII, US Army, Korean War)
Robert Tracy
Oils on canvas
9 x 12″
1989

Because the propaganda against such pleasures as a smoke or a drink, whether alcoholic or any other drink or an Oreo cookie–they all have long-winded govenment warnings on the package–has been accepted as truth.

Makes some Americans a little scared to walk out the door.

America Was a Better Place

June 11th, 2008

When I Was a Boy, America Was a Better Place
Dennis Prager
Tuesday, June 10, 2008

(Full article HERE)

“…[I]t is difficult to come up with an important area in which America is significantly better
than when I was a boy. But I can think of many in which its quality of life has deteriorated.

“When I was a boy, America was a freer society than it is today.
“When I was boy, what people did at home was…their…business.
“When I was a 7-year-old boy…I was responsible for myself.

 

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Photo of this Blogger at age 7.

“When I was a teenage boy, getting to kiss a girl, let alone to touch her
thigh or her breast (even over her clothes) was the thrill of a
lifetime.

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The Kiss
Francesco Hayez
Oils on canvas
1859
 

“When I was a boy, Time and Newsweek were well written and…it would have been inconceivable for Time to substitute anything for the flag planted by the marines on Iwo Jima.

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Graphic by Robert Tracy

“Can we return to the America of my youth? No. Can we return to the best
values of that time? Yes. But not if both houses of Congress, the
presidency and the Supreme Court move the country even further leftward.
If that happens, many of the above noted changes will simply be
accelerated: More laws restricting ‘offensive’ speech will be enacted;
litigation will increase and trial lawyers will gain more power; the
American military will be less valued; trees will gradually replace the
flag as our most venerated symbol; schools will teach even less as they
concentrate even more on diversity, sexuality and the environment;
teenage sex will be increasingly accepted; American identity will
continue to be replaced by ethnic, racial, gender or ‘world citizen’
identity; and the power of the state will expand further as the power of
the individual inevitably contracts. It’s hard to believe most Americans
really want that.”

A “Change” That Blinds and Binds

June 10th, 2008

“The kind-hearted government was fed-up, and the country was informed that, from this day on, any person who by word or act sought to harm or discredit the State, would be executed or interned. Inasmuch as the prisons were already too full, both for these slanderous criminals and for the persons whom the kind-hearted State had to guard by ‘protective arrest,’ there were immediately to be opened, all over the country, concentration camps.”Sinclair Lewis, “It Can’t Happen Here“, 1935, p.216 (SC)  You read that right, published in 1935.

“Every moment everyone felt fear, nameless and omni-present….And with the coming of fear went out their pride.” ibid, p.219

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graphic by Robert Tracy

It’s about time…It’s about change. “I’M ASKING YOU TO BELIEVE.Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington…I’m asking you to believe in yours.”

Barack Obama Official Website

Since Obama doesn’t define his terms other than such generalities as “…a change of attitude and focus, Barack Obama brings a new viewpoint to discover solutions to the problems at hand.” (From Obama’s Official Website), allow me to translate.  

What is “belief”?  What is “change”?

“Believe”: ‘To exercise faith”.

 (The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary)

“Change”. “The passing from life; death”, ibid.

Ask me to believe in [my] ability to…believe?!

Since 911 America has not been hit by our enemies, not because of President Bush’s faith but because he’s done everything despite his faith. Can anyone forget the faithless look on President Bush’s face when he learned of the attack on America? It was a look of desperation at once with calm determination. Faith is all over America today. From President Bush’s constant insistence that faith and prayer is the answer for all evil in the world, to Obama’s pastor and mentor, the infamous Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. (whose infamous rant “God damn America” at Obama’s Trinity Unity Church of Christ) and later Rev. Michael Pfleger, a Catholic priest (whom Obama has known for 20 years) and who saw fit to attack Obama’s rival for the Democratic nomination. All Obama offers is evil and appeasement to evil.

“Faith” designates blind acceptance of a certain ideational content, acceptance induced by feeling in the absence of evidence or proof. It is obvious, therefore, why …leaders insist on faith from their followers.” Leonard Peikoff, The Ominous Parallels, 1982 (.p 48-9 (HB)

“Faith,” writes Hitler, is harder to shake than knowledge….and the impetus to the mightiest upheavals on this earth has at all times consisted….in a fanaticism which inspired [the masses] and sometimes in a hysteria which drove them forward.” Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 337-38.

Look at Europe . . . . Can’t you see past the guff and recognize the essence? One country is dedicated to the proposition that man has no rights, that the collective is all. The individual held as evil, the mass—as God. No motive and no virtue permitted—except that of service to the proletariat. That’s one version [communism]. Here’s another. A country dedicated to the proposition that man has no rights, that the State is all. The individual held as evil, the race—as God. No motive and no virtue permitted—except that of service to the race [fascism]. Am I raving or is this the cold reality of two continents already? Watch the pincer movement. If you’re sick of one version, we push you into the other. We get you coming and going. We’ve closed the doors. We’ve fixed the coin. Heads—collectivism, and tails—collectivism. Fight the doctrine which slaughters the individual with a doctrine which slaughters the individual. Give up your soul to a council—or give it up to a leader. But give it up, give it up, give it up. My technique . . . . Offer poison as food and poison as antidote.”

Ayn Rand, “For the New Intellectual, The Soul of a Collectivist”, p.76 (SC).

Americans are confused. Most understand popular music. Get this:

“It’s all about soul
“It’s all about joy that comes out of sorrow
“It’s all about soul
“Who’s standing now and who’s standing tomorrow
“You’ve got to be hard
“Hard as the rock in that old rock ‘n’ roll song
“But that’s only part, you know in your heart
It’s all about soul.”

Billy Joel, “All About Soul“, 1993

And what is “soul”? “Soul”, “…the essence of a person, which is his mind and its basic values.” Leonard Peikoff, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, p. 202 (HB).

Keep your soul. McCain can keep America safe which is the only thing that matters. He’s awful in many ways, including his faith, but he can hold off much of the evil for a few years as the rest of us hope for something good, someone good to come along.

“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you” [Kipling]

Yes, keep your head but don’t let others blame the loss of theirs on you.

Marvin Steel: Painter of the Flamenco

June 3rd, 2008

Marvin Steel is a very fine artist. His love of the Flamenco singers, guitarists and the life style of these exotic people is a sight that uplifts and shows an important and really wonderful segment of society–one perhaps not well known and not typically American at all.

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Mr. Steel has found something wonderful here.

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Marvin Steel
Traditional Flamenco Bulerias
Oil on linen
30 x 38″
2007

Mr. Steele has been recently featured in an online interview with Prodos. When listening to this interview you can follow along with the paintings discussed HERE.

Beyond his deep love paintings of the Flamenco world are amazing art works to be seen at Mr. Steel’s main site, Romantic Realism by Marvin Steel 

I learned a few things I hadn’t considered before. In the interview, Mr. Steel says you must love your subject. Well yes. I know that. The difficulty for an artist is to find his subject. On technique, I learned that Mr. Steel glazes only the subject. I had always glazed the entire painting. Very interesting idea. Hear why it’s important to glaze only the subject.

I’m not going to give much away here. Mr. Steel speaks with a clear sharp voice and gives in to nothing that seems to be headed to a contradiction in his thoughts. Too bad he’s interrupted often by Prodos. For example, Mr. Steel mentions in passing his time in the Army. This was totally ignored by Prodos. As both an artist and a military veteran I was slightly annoyed by this ignorance.  And, in Mr. Steel’s good heart he let it go as he should have done since the subject of the interview was on Mr. Steel’s Flamenco art.

However, I’ve seen the works that Mr. Steel did when he was a very young man in the Army. He was in Lenggries, 50 miles south of Munich, in the Bavarian Alps. Honorable discharge in 1960.

His art from this time are worth seeing. Perhaps another time.

Welcome to the world of Marvin Steel.

Work Hard!

June 1st, 2008

Linda Lou: Monkee

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Closeup of Monkee (from Three Kittens)
Robert Tracy
Pastels
8½ x 17¼”
2001

Named by our daughter after the Monkees (whom she discovered and adored), who produced generally happy-go-lucky music in the 1960’s. Monkee was born in our living room in 1989. For some reason his mother neglected him as she went into the dining room to give birth to two more kittens. Linda was at work and so it was up to me to see things got done right. But who knows why Monkee was ignored? And I really didn’t know what to do. I picked him up squalling for his mother’s milk and took him to her. She was a good mother and took him in with the other two. But Monkee was forever different, as if he was affected by the lack of immediate attention given to the other two kittens. Monkee lived a long life. Linda had him de-clawed keeping him as an indoor cat. But only for a year or two. How tough he was! We let him go. He wanted out. So he became an outdoor cat. Often Linda would hear the sound of a cat fight. Looking out we’d see a blur of fur and dust and something like a whirling wheel in the air as Monkee and his enemy cat went at it. Even missing his front claws Monkee always won the fight. I think it was a matter of his protecting his territory and the other cat didn’t have the ammunition to beat that back. So much to say about this trooper cat. But it’s a long story. He died in 2004. A long life for a cat, but oh how Linda cried and cried over the loss she knew was coming.

Black:

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This is a cat that has adopted us. A black cat. We have named her “Black”. I’ve never seen a cat who cleans herself constantly. She’ll take the meal we offer and then spend half an hour cleaning. What a beautiful shiny coat she has. On a clear day it reflects the blue sky and you see blue on a smooth black coat.

Linda Lou and Black:

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Here, Linda is attending to a grave marker she got for Monkee. And Black is sort of in the way. Or is Black involved in the cat, Monkee, she never knew? In any case Black is accompanying Linda to Monkee’s grave site.

Linda Lou Finishing:

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Linda didn’t know I was photographing her progress, her deep value in tending to Monkee’s grave. Oh how she loved that Monkee! Bought a grave stone with Monkee’s dates. And she found a simple permanent fixture of a cat for Monkee’s grave. When the wind blows that fixture’s “body” (which consists of a 4-blade fan) blows in the wind and scares away any creature from the burial site. I love watching Linda go through her work. She’s like a little girl totally absorbed in something seemingly unimportant to the onlooker. But of intense value to her, and oblivious to all around her except for her work. Indeed, all work is important.Finally she saw that she was the subject of a kind of story. And here she offers a wave to the one who’s been watching her. She offers a happy ending to the story as always.

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********** My blog is sometimes serious. Really though, it’s meant to be a journal. I’m happy to give this a date. Linda Lou and her attention to her animal friends occurred on May 29, 2008.  And this is a serious matter.

To hold an unchanging youth is to reach, at the end, the vision with which one started….”

–Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, p.724 (HB).

Anti-Smokers: What You Don’t Know

May 31st, 2008

A few personal experiences on smoking

Cigarette smoking is a terrific mind booster. When working on a project it induces motivation that one may or may not gain without it.

And there’s a ritual about it that’s better than a habit. For example, I smoke 5 cigarettes a day―up to 12 when I have a rare visit. I love that ritual of smoking ½ a cigarette; put it down and come back for two drags. Put it away and come back to finish it off hours later. I happen to have a M.D. who tells me that I’m in no harm and doing no harm in the few cigarettes I have each day.  Financially:  In the end a carton of cigarettes lasts me nearly a month. This is about the cost I remember when I quit in the 1980’s. I quit because I couldn’t afford the .$50 a pack.  Now at nearly $5.00 a pack it amounts to about the same, or less.

About quitting smoking

It’s the easiest thing in the world.  Never mind the propaganda about the difficulty of it.  The experience of quitting is a delight.  You feel like you’re a child again, with all the healthy unconcern with cigarette smoking.

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Homework
Robert Tracy
Oils on canvas
14 x 11″
1985

I can’t stand the taste of black licorice when I smoke. When I quit, that’s what I “smoke”.  I rediscover the taste of that wonderful odd strange delicacy of licorice. I get a cold so seldom. When I do, I simply stop smoking for the duration of the cold. Take extra Vitamin C and the cold is barely a cold, unlike I suspect the miserable colds that non-smokers experience. I quit smoking for eight years during the 1980’s and then twice in the 1990’s for a year at a time. Why?  In a way for the opposite experience that smoking offers one.  It’s true that quitting smoking in time grants one the same experience of motivation that smoking does.  Perhaps more so; one has more time to devote to his work. That ritual of smoking takes time no matter how short in duration it is.  As to the medical science on the harm of smoking (never mind “second-hand” smoke) I don’t see the evidence. Individuals will die from it.  Others won’t.  I suspect that most know of individuals who lived long lives enjoying their smoking.  And others who didn’t live so long as a direct (as far as medical science can tell) result of their smoking. As far as I’m concerned, I’ll enjoy my smokes as long as I can.

The Emotional Issue 

On an emotional level as for the anti-smoking culture we live in I will quote Ayn Rand in a different context, but one that pertains perhaps to the reason why one takes up smoking usually as an adolescent, and the crux of the anti-smoking crusade under the paternalistic government which we desperately try to survive:

“It is easy to convince a child, and particularly an adolescent, that his desire…is ridiculous: he knows that it isn’t exactly [his desire] he has in mind and yet, simultaneously, it is—he feels caught in an inner contradiction—and this confirms his desolately embarrassing feeling that he is being ridiculous.

“Thus the adults—whose foremost moral obligation toward a child, at this stage of his development, is to help him understand that what he loves is an abstraction, to help him break through into the conceptual realm—accomplish the exact opposite. They stunt his conceptual capacity, they cripple his normative abstractions, they stifle his moral ambition, i.e., his desire for virtue, i.e., his self-esteem. They arrest his value-development on a primitively literal, concrete-bound level….

“Their motive is obvious. If they actually regarded [his values] as an ‘impractical fantasy,’ they would feel nothing but a friendly or indifferent amusement—not the passionate resentment and uncontrollable rage which they do feel and exhibit.

“While the child is thus driven to fear, mistrust and repress his own emotions, he cannot avoid observing the hysterical violence of the adults’ emotions unleashed against him in this and other issues.”

―Ayn Rand, The Romantic Manifesto, Art and Moral Treason. p.149 (PB).