Open Thread - 05-03-24 - Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream
A few years back I had a bad dream, no, it was a nightmare. The worst I've ever had. I was lying on my back in deep sleep and suddenly there was a very large ominous man-like figure standing next to the bed looming over me. This apparition suddenly jumped up and sat on my chest with its knees on my arms so I was totally pinned down, I couldn't move. I struggled to free myself but couldn't budge an inch. I then let loose with a primal scream, you know, the kind of a nightmarish scream that you can feel vibrating deep in your throat but it just doesn't produce any sound no matter how much your subconscious mind wills it.
That unresolved scream woke me up. I was lying there on my back, eyes still closed as I thought to myself, "Phew, that dream was too realistic, I'm glad the scream shocked me out of it". I was actually sweating and my heart was thumping. I said something out loud to prove to myself that I was awake, I don't remember what I said, but my voice was back. Or so I thought.
Having lived many decades and having experienced many bad dreams, I knew that if I fell back to sleep immediately the bad dream would continue right where it left off. So I needed to stay awake for a few minutes before drifting back to sleep rather than risking possibly resuming that terrible nightmare. To make sure I didn't fall back to sleep I opened my eyes, to my great chagrin.
There it was again, the apparition, standing right next to the bed with a big grin across its face! I had been sure that I was awake, but there it was! It all felt so real, but it didn't take long to grasp that I was still dreaming, dreaming that I was awake when I actually was not.
I forced myself to awaken again, this time for real, and the entity was gone. I was petrified for a few short seconds until reason returned. I said something aloud again for proof, but after that dream sequence how could I be sure. I sat up in bed and it fully dawned on me, I was really awake.
That was the nightmare of all nightmares. It should go without saying but I couldn't get back to sleep after that, nor did I want to.
I've always been pretty good at figuring out the reasons for my dreams, for the most part. There was usually something going on in my life that I was able to determine as the cause. In this case there was probably something happening that I felt was out of my control or maybe something was controlling me. That would explained the apparition sitting across my chest that disabled me from moving and it would also explained the scream that I couldn't vocalize. But, the waking up twice thing I couldn't correlate with any happenings at that time in my life. It was just plain weird.
That dream was the stuff of movies. It's one thing to watch it vicariously on a screen, but it's quite another when it actually happens to oneself. You could argue that it was indeed a movie that triggered the dream and that very well may have been the case. But, none the less, I'll never forget it.
Although it's not a perfect analogy, if you substitute "myself", the author of this piece, with We the People and the "apparition" with the government, the dream sequence takes on a different meaning all of its own.
In light of this dream, I wonder, in terms of this once great country, which dream phase are we in right now? Are we still deeply immersed in the original nightmare? Could we be in the pseudo-awake phase or have we fully awakened?
It's difficult to fathom how much this country has changed in the last few years. It all feels so surreal since late 2019 to the present. There have been numerous crises hanging over our heads for decades but suddenly they've all converged within one narrow window of time.
What are the odds that it's all happened organically? With the rapid acceleration of convergent crises, the seemingly endless turmoil may be coming from some entity or entities rather than a random serendipitous natural occurrence. Almost everything seems staged nowadays, to me anyway. It may not be a stretch to think that there is an invisible hand at play.
We have been witnessing our Constitutional rights being eroded by a government that seems to be hell bent on removing the obstacles that obstruct them from the unbridled subservience they so seek from We the People.
The big one, the First Amendment, the pinnacle of our Constitutional pact with the government, has been slowly chipped away over the years, piece by piece, representing a slow transformation into a grotesque metaphorical sculpture that denotes a broken promise with a people. The recent protests on campuses across the country are being used to chip away a huge chunk of that sculpture, our right to speak our minds freely and the right to protest government policy. The Constitution precludes the government from doing exactly that, but that hasn't stopped them from trying and they certainly have no qualms about strong arming the private sector into doing it for them.
With each little chip off of the Constitutional sculpture I become more convinced that We the People, apart from the government, are in the midst of losing the last vestiges of our rights, be it from within or without. We've watched it happen to other countries over the years, now it seems like it may be our turn. Whether these protests have sprung from the grass roots, or are being used with the intention of the end justifying the means, or if it's simply another example of not letting a crisis go to waste, the end result may be the same, the potential loss of the First Amendment and one more step in the march to tyranny.
The government's desire to limit our rights is too obvious to ignore. We ignore them at our own peril.
Comments
Good morning Free Rangers...
know your rights. Before we lose them.
Hey good morning
-
Glad you survived your nightmares.
Dreams are an important back-channel
between consciousness and awareness behind
the curtain.
Used to have a recurring nightmare of going thru
the windshield in a car wreck. Same scene played
almost weekly, always awakening in a panic.
I sold my car and travelled afoot for over a year.
Then the dreams stopped. The correlations are
interesting to contemplate.
Sometimes I feel we are living in a waking nightmare.
Scripted and directed by nefarious actors.
Dream On
Thanks for the OT!
Dreams are a window...
into the psyche. A person can learn a lot about themselves by interpreting that portal into their consciousness.
I've had dreams in the past where I was hurt physically and woke up in pain in that exact area of my body. I remember one dream when I was little of being run over by car and woke up with tremendous pain in my chest. Thankfully none of them were recurring. Was it my mind that caused the pain via a dream or was my body actually in pain during sleep and that caused the subsequent dream? I don't know.
Maybe the whole of life is but a dream.
I've described
my recurring white-flash nightmare here many times. I'm having it 2-3 times a week again, after it having nearly stopped for a few years during Perestroika and Glasnost. But it's been with me for over 60 years now, and I don't see it ever going away at this point.
I do, however, see it coming true. I know exactly what the sensation of having my flesh burned away will be- I've rehearsed that in my sleep thousands of times. And when at long last it does come true, my last word will probably be "finally....".
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Hard to imagine having that intense
-
-
dream flash for so long
lo siento mucho
it would make my crazy meter peg
certainly do not need help in that department
at least you are mentally prepared?
bien suerte
My crazy meter
has been pegged for a long time...
Seriously, though, "Duck and Cover" rendered a whole generation of us completely upgefuckt. That dream still sits me bolt upright in a cold sweat pretty much every time, and I can't afford the gazillion hours of therapy that might make it go away. It's a good night when it doesn't make me sit up.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
heh
crustacial overturning due
to the weakening magnetic field and
a solar recurring micronova will send
the survivors running for the caves
to re-emerge toolless to start over
wouldn’t put it past the a$$wholes
that be to try to fire off a few nukes
as well-hopefully the micronova fries
their electrics as well
one can hope. . .
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
Perhaps...
the recurring dream is your subconscious blowing off steam that then allows you to function in the real world. That's just a wild guess.
Hopefully your dream remains just that, a dream.
TGIF!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
wow
never saw that before
damn Amazing
thanks
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
The show's judges
had to stop making fun of her appearance when she started singing. It was wonderful when she shut them the fuck up.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I have to admit...
that woman can sing.
I am still waiting
for the storm to pass. I have 30 yards to walk to get to my car, and a hundred opportunities to get struck by lightning.
The town is pretty much shut down by flooded highways.
This rain has brought the level of the Trinity River at Hurricane Harvey levels, and may exceed it.
How nice to have coffee while reading weather alerts and road closures.
I haven't seen any fire trucks or ambulances drive by, and no tow trucks. People is learning!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Carlos Castaneda
would recommend peyote and then you could levitate yourself to the car. Nah, just kidding [I say as I duck].
RIP Dickey.
Does Carlos
have a suggestion as to how I get the peyote without getting struck by fucking lightning, Mister?
I am now trapped at the office in a storm, lightning everywhere, and the office lawn resembles a lake. Now, I have to wade to my car. I should have worn rubber boots.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
夢 꿈 Dream
I had learned the words to this very famous South Korean song more than ten years ago, while listening to it on a CD in the truck. I used to sing along to it frequently because I was alone and knew nobody could hear my terrible singing voice. Like singing in the shower i guess.
Lately, there is a Kdrama Welcome to Sam Dal Ri on netflix, about a seaside village on Jeju Island, centered on a group of haenyeo (lady free divers who collect seafood for market). The main male character is a young man named Jo Yong-pil who grew up there. He was named after the famous singer who sang this song below while he was a child growing up. The big move to Seoul is a must for the younger generation to "make it in the big city." It's a central cultural theme. Sometimes it's a big disappointment, and the values of the old village one was raised in remain meaningful.
I understood the song words, but I never wrote them down until three years ago, when my internet friend of some years told me he was very depressed. I could understand that, he had been confined to a wheel chair virtually his entire life, and was totally disabled. I think his main joy in life was attending a class at a local university just for the enjoyment of it, and participating in a chat and our little wire group. I'm not sure why, I thought this song would lift his spirits so I wrote the translation for him, with the video recording, (the best one which for some reason in no longer available). I recall that Dream video had many millions of hits on it. A few weeks later, one of my friends in our little circle told me Larry had died. Larry was in his early sixties I think. He was a wonderful and engaging person. I know the words seem depressing, but I found it uplifting.
조용필 Jo Yong-pil
I came to the splendid city I envisioned,
This cold and rough place
Here and there, wandered around, to this pityful doorway
shedding bitter tears
I came on a long journey seeking my dream here, here
On this painful, rough street I came to be
In this world wherever you go, there are forests and swamps
There, not a word from anyone.
People each one, gone to their hometown
now I'm the only one left
wandering around these buildings in shabby alleys
shedding bitter tears.
Star over there do you know my heart
Do you know my dream?
When suffering comes, I sing a sad song
When i'm becoming sad, I'd rather close my eyes alone
while imagining the scent of my hometown
Jo Yong-pil represented South Korea at the 2018, "Spring is Coming" cultural exchange concert in Pyongyang.
I don't think I've had a dream like that JtC, but I've had the fear or terror if you will, of losing strength and ability as I get older, and not being able to protect myself or loved ones. The sense of being institutionally dominated, is worse. I'm inspired by the peaceful resistance among the younger generation, and dismayed by the corruption and murderous lies of media and politicians.
語必忠信 行必正直
Good morning soryang...
That song is truly sad but beautiful.
I studied Tae Kwon Do for 2 years in the early 80s. Part of that study was Korean history and culture. Korea has a long history of occupation and the sadness that it entails. I see that expressed in that song.
I share the sentiments of your last paragraph.
Thank you.
Two years!
I'm impressed. I did it for several months when I was young and quit after I broke my wrist in a fall. Not a very good athlete, I'm afraid. I did learn a basic drill from another school, that was a softer style than Taekwondo, I only went to that school for six months.
I still remember their basic drill pal gae. I kept doing the basic drill on my own for quite a few years, not for self defense, but for the health effects. I quit doing their basic form when I was about 55. It's been all downhill from there. The only thing my Taekwondo instructor said was ready position, begin, one, two, three, four...Oh yes, and "honesty, justice, respect." It's great that they covered a little history and culture. I think it's a great style.
語必忠信 行必正直
I was one test...
away from getting my black belt when I suffered a shoulder injury that took so long to heal that I didn't go back to finish.
The physical training was great but for me it was also the mental aspect, specifically the confidence I gained, that stays with me to this day. Martial arts, done correctly, is a balance between the physical and the mental. I saw too many practitioners that just didn't get that, they were in it for the wrong reason.
Good morning Johnny thanks for the OT and the tunes.
It has been proposed that dreams, presumably including nightmares are our brains' way of working out and/or working through problems and their solutions or at least possible approaches to their problems. Thinking about that, and the various dreams and nightmares that we've all experienced is scary and unpleasant. Do we really foresee all these kinds of shit going down? All these dress rehearsals for disaster, and the amount of times that we seemingly wee no way out and simply escape into wakefulness. Quelle horreur, Quelle bummer, as they say.
Chronology is sometimes interesting and informative:
Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream - 1950, a hint of hope in the air somewhere.
Know Your Rights - 1982, rage, alarm and awareness rises to the fore
So what do we got now, dunno. Here's some 2023, I guess --
Only made it to #5 so far, seems like mostly escapism?? can't say for sure
Today?? Dunno, Taylor Swift? Any rebellion there?
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
If we must rely...
on modern pop music culture as windows into our collective consciousness, then we are truly doomed. Although I think that was the intent when the protest music of the 60s and early 70s was tamped down, I'm looking at you disco.
In response to your first paragraph: man o man am I glad some of my many wild dreams over the years haven't come to fruition. Many of which I'm sure were way beyond the scope of analysis, if you catch my drift. I'd hate to have to work my way through those.
Thanks for the visit, old buddy.
Never liked Disco - "The Fad that Killed the Bee Gees" -
and ws glad to see it go, but it never really died. It infected everything and there are trace of it everywhere plus the occasional straight up disco tune.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
My reaction to number one Jungkook 7
I qualify what I say, because I know nothing about music or show "business."
I've never really been impressed with BTS. I'm an old goat, so it really doesn't matter what I think. He a great dancer, very athletic, good looking, The choreography looks quite professional, etc. His voice seems quite good as well. It does have a massaged or electronic buzz to it. It's the whole corporate commercial stylized appearance of the "show." There is nothing there for me.
Maybe the music is great, I don't know. The lyrics are sterilized garbage. I watched some of his other videos that get many millions of hits. I literally had no positive reaction to them, either. They're going for a homogenized world market, so there is no Korean cultural influence that I can discern, although he is undeniably Korean. I watched his interview on Jimmy Kimmel's tonight show. He seems like a nice young man. When I was living in South Korea in the late 80s, and the whole fusion thing was going on with US culture and Korean culture, there was a creativity and appeal to it that was magnetic. It was obvious, it was different. That has definitely worn off. Now I feel like every performance is a Michael Jackson act.
So bi ja moon hwa. Consumer culture. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Be cool, be "bad" whatever.
語必忠信 行必正直
Heh, I don't know where to start. Long ago, elsewhere,
I wrote a piece on how MTV killed rock and roll. I'm very big on what I call Radio music, in your car, at your desk, walking home from school on a transistor radio, whatever. The music was the entertainment. Melody, lyrics, rhythm, the beat, the bassline and drums, the vocals; you could be blind and still appreciate it. After a few years of MTV it was all about the costumes and the choreography and it also mostly sounded the same. Michael Jackson was the king of .... of what exactly? Pop? I caught some shit over it, so I played MJ's "Smooth Criminal" video, followed by a couple of you tubes with no video element of Roy Orbison, The Platters and something like "Mother Earth" or some such - no comparison, whatsoever - if you can't see him strut he's nuthin'. And that was before true tone and the millenial wail which homogenized the music further. Really.
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Interesting observations
I share your opinion, EL. Reflecting on your comment last night, maybe it's just because I'm old and I'm in the "get off my lawn" stage. Perhaps what young people find attractive and get wildly enthusiastic about music wise is going to differ from my judgement and that is only natural and in the way of things.
But the thing that bothers me, is a lack of creativity and aesthetic appeal. My personal opinion is that those lost qualities reflect formulaic "standards" deduced from marketing principles. I think psychologists are deeply involved. The person I first heard commenting on the influence of marketing in the arts and culture was a psychologist or social scientist of some type. I learned the term consumer culture in Korean from her because she was publicly warning about being swamped with US cultural influence which is lopsidedly commercial in nature and would adversely affect traditional Korean values.
Talking to someone with a strong background in psych and sociology a few years ago, they said they were seeking a position in advertising and marketing. I was surprised by this but shouldn't have been. Many of her colleagues had apparently taken this route. Their expertise in human behavioral characteristics is used to reach and manipulate retail markets rather than advise or counsel treatment in a health care environment for a clinic, hospital or individual. I had actually read a little about the relationships among advertising, propaganda and the "masses," yet this had not occurred to me.
I have a working theory that the same applies to movie and television entertainment. I had noticed an increasing drift to the traditional sensational hooks in Korean programming, that was reducing the quality production values that their entertainment media was previously noted for. It was a major export item (like BTS) making billions. Subjectively speaking decades earlier there appeared to be a prior similar degradation in quality in the US industry. The propaganda messaging in the US film and drama series industry is over the top. It seemed to reach a crescendo after 911 and never really abated. Maybe it just reflects the warlike nature of US culture.
Now there is a lot of South Korean output focused on themes like sensational violence, torture, sex, revenge, etc. Disasters and horror movies are big too. Imo they are not particularly well done. This change has been occurring over a series of years. There is still some quality output but not as much. It seems more difficult to find. The covid thing had reduced South Korean output, so that's a factor that contributed to more Hollywood types getting directly involved in production. I think of it as the Netflix influence. I don't know if that can ever be reversed.
Thanks EL!
語必忠信 行必正直
@enhydra lutris yeah it did. But
yeah it did. But "disco" wasn't the bad thing it was portrayed as. If it can be narrowed down to anything along the lines of MTV's early 80's abruption- the greedy expectations set by blockbuster records Frampton Comes Alive and Rumors, RSO soundtracks AND the fears of performing musicians who built their careers on music that wasnt just thump thump thump or saccharine pop who tried to get on board even as it was being burned in ridiculous stunts and reviled on T-shirts, posters on WKRP et al.
They had no idea what they were complaining about (well it was their $ in someone elses bank account)
as time marched. "Disco" was still being made by skilled producers making singles to sell, using the tricks and techniques they learned and utilized.
What was about to fuck music up for good was the computer and the clock.
Once they could tie everything to a synthesized precision figure, they stole or sacrificed the soul of music. I truly enjoy electronic music, which you would not need to be told if you stepped into my room full of modular and related analog synths, a hobby/interest going back about 40 years. Mixed feelings about clocks and the effects of dead precision of drum machine type recordings. Once the recording studios had the capabilities and requirements of synchronization and recording techniques using those tools, EVERYTHING changed. It could be very good. It may have helped XTC achieve a beautiful sound with complicated achievements using drummers playing to a click. It went a lot further than that though, the clock in computerized productions called the tune, and subsequently the charm and unique qualities of Electronic Music was lost because Electronic Music won. Everything short of field recordings of folkies was electronic music, even then, laying those soundwaves into digital... electronic music. That is what I consider the big change. Disco didnt suck, the people reacting to it did.
And MTV was a vile disruption in the process of pop music becoming the last consideration of a product being marketed. Love Trevor Horn. Interesting choice.
By the time
the citizens awaken from the dream of America, they will be prevented from discussing that it ain't beautiful.
When the H. R. 6090 makes its' way through the Senate and gets to Biden, who is frothing at the mouth to sign it, I hope tape is cheap.
I laugh a lot about changing the subject to avoid a disagreement, usually "Cute shoes!". In the future, genocide, apartheid, bombing and starving babies, will bring forth cute shoes conversations or jail.
We will be Zionists or else.
Dissent will not be tolerated, Big Brother.
And I thought The Patriot Act was as bad as it could get.
I was way wrong.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
It's that very bill...
that gives me pause, and why I wrote this:
I grow weary
of redefined words. At this point, the language we understood all our lives is being changed by some organization we never heard of.
I only thought I understood the definition of anti-Semitism.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
It’s been one massive psyops after another
.
A student was shot in the face with a rubber bullet and instead of people being outraged by the actions of the cops they are cheering cops for being so violent. One guy said that those people should have left when told to do so. Many others agree that the students are in the wrong. No wonder government keeps taking our rights. Too many people see no problem with it doing so.
I’ve had a few nightmares like that. I think I have woken up only to find that I’m still dreaming. The ones that tick me off are when I’m flying and suddenly I can’t do it anymore because I’m paralyzed. I read that our muscles do get paralyzed during REM sleep. But boy do I enjoy those few minutes of flying.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Here’s the tweet
Still hoping that someone creates 1-800-bitch-slap for me.
Pro Palestine protesters are getting paid. Yesterday I linked to how Jessica Steinfelt and other rich Jews are paying people to be pro Israel and go harass the pro Palestine ones . Here’s a great article on this.
Frat Chads For Israel
A few of the colleges that are seeing mobs of pro Zionists actually have very few Jewish students.
I’ve read his 2 recent articles and hope you enjoy them as much as I have. He writes well.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Wish you sweet dreams...
and no more nightmares. The world is in flux and the times are interesting. Enjoy the ride if you can.
Y'all be careful with all the flooding!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”