ZEITGEIST NOTES

Why does the UK hate Christianity so much? Is it because snobby Brits (sore about losing their colony) identify America as a Christian empire? Remember the British Invasion band who said “we’re bigger than Jesus” and it only became a stink when Americans started burning Beatle records? And it hurt John so much and yet John moved out of England forever and lived in the U.S. and his only big hit post-Beatles was “Imagine no religion?” Is that it? Because if it is, the UK is committing suicide by viscerally hating Christianity, which far transcends British snobbery and John Lennon and people who live in the Southern U.S. You don’t have to be a fanatical Christian (I’m not) to see the social value and philosophical virtue of Christianity. UK, you’re mad because of this prejudice. Even John Lennon, were he alive, would see it. Though he did become a New Yorker, so who knows?

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C02 is the gas of carbon footprint, greenhouse emissions, and global warming—there is no other. It is C02. But what is C02? No one talks about this. It is natural, necessary, trace (.04%), greening. Not one Climate protestor understands this issue. None who are in favor of the humanity-crushing Net Zero and are not totally evil could understand it. CO2 is naturally produced—and naturally leaves the atmosphere. There is no “balance” humans can possibly effect, since a very tiny percentage of CO2 is what humans add. To those who study it, CO2 is not bad. It is not a pollutant. The heft and bulk of trees literally comes from CO2. Without CO2, there is no plant life, no life on earth. CO2 is historically quite low in the atmosphere. There is no predetermined, ideal, temperature of the globe which is under threat by “warming” and CO2 contributes almost nothing to it, anyway. No cause, no effect. Industry producing a gas (CO2) which plants love is counter-intuitive—those who hate the oil companies can’t get their heads around this. Net Zero, meanwhile, allows the real bad guys to impose massive restrictions on human flourishing.

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The Rolling Stones hated Brian because he was gifted and they weren’t. The Beatles recorded their first album in a day. A pop song can be written in 5 minutes, recorded to demo in 5 minutes, then pros record it in an afternoon. Rock stardom has tremendous amounts of downtime: on the plane, in the hotel, time between tours and gigs, time waiting for the inspiration for the next hit song. Fans who listen to records don’t understand this. During all this time, Brian LIVED. He was a celebrity and genuinely knew famous people. The rest of the Stones were insecure louts (Were they charming or funny in public interviews? No.) who worked hard, showed up to play, had playing talent, could keep a beat, sure, give them that. Mick was an excellent front man, but when I hear him talk, I don’t think he’s that intelligent. Where is the proof that he’s really intelligent? I’ve never seen it. Practical, shrewd, yes. Intelligent? No. The last 40 years the Stones have been together with Brian in the rear view window, gone forever, what great songs did the Stones produce? None. Nothing of interest whatsoever. The 60s Stones (and tracks in the 70s which were rehashed 60s ideas lying around from when Brian was a Stone) disappeared completely with Brian. Mick Jagger publicly said he had nothing to do with “Ruby Tuesday.” That song is credited to Jagger-Richards. Does anyone believe Keith Richards wrote “Ruby Tuesday?” No, he obviously didn’t. Listen to Paul McCartney’s solo work. That’s Beatles music. John’s solo work. That’s Beatles music. Where is ANYTHING the solo Stones did which sounds ANYTHING like the best of the 60s Stones? Who was the weird genius who made the Stones the great “anti-Beatles” who were as good as the Beatles (very often) who made the rest of the “super hard working” Stones incredibly insecure and jealous? Enough to push him out when getting rich on massive touring replaced songwriting as the ticket to success? Brian Jones.

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Praising the Indiana Fever for playing on with grit and persistence despite all the losses mishaps, injuries this year is hollow rhetoric. “They could have given up…” we say. What do we mean by this? They did give up. They are a poor team. Badly coached, little chemistry or team play, bullied by refs and other players, going through the motions, frozen with fear. Yeah the healthy bodies kept playing, so what? We didn’t expect them to really quit, did we? “Character, hard work” is just talk and we know it. Looking back, the Fever 2025 team has been an absolute disaster. Staying healthy is part of any sport. Lots of injuries point to underlying issues: stress, poor regimen, poor training/health management, and then you ask: why stress? Didn’t feel safe, didn’t trust coaches and officials, were uneasy with league and team and how it was run, didn’t stay focused on the game and their health as professionals. Sure, I understand the need to put a positive spin on it, talk about “persistence,” but this is how talking heads on TV talk, the other element which is not trustworthy in the W, the fake broadcasters who don’t tell the truth about the violence and the bad refs and try to gloss it over. No thanks. The Fever may barely make the playoffs , but they are going down quickly. The refs hate the Fever. The weird little cult which is the WNBA hates Caitlin Clark.

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WHO REALLY BROKE UP THE BEATLES? JANE ASHER.

“my dear Lady Jane” —Rolling Stones lyric 1966


Jane broke up the Beatles. I think Paul needed and loved her more than he could admit, and post-Jane he was lost and angry. Think about it. Linda was Paul’s mommy and made him happy but I think it also made Paul regress into selfish infantilism and let’s live in the country with sheep and kids. And he became absolutely insufferable to the other three Beatles, a bossy little kid, and that was the rift which essentially ended the Beatles. Paul went from an adult intellectual to privileged bully who put the other three off because unconsciously he felt defeated and small by his relationship with Jane (the pinnacle of English classiness) not working out. Jane and Paul split in July of 1968. Just as John became a fake New Yorker, bossed around by Yoko, Paul, too, decided he was going to give up his British edginess for American goofiness and excess. John and Paul were so clever, so funny, so edgy, and yet they decided to go soft and be worshiped for their American fuzziness, which they both wanted to happen to compensate for something deeper they were losing unconsciously.

And while I’m on the subject, here’s another reason the Beatles broke up.

The Beatles were comparing themselves to new powerful acts with guitar gods and spectacular drummers and sexy lead singers. It must have made them seem a bit old-fashioned and twee as the 60s progressed. A weird insight: Plato, in speaking about elementary building blocks of the universe, compared the triangle to fire, the rectangle to earth. The dionysian fire: the Doors in 1967, a group with a prominent front man backed by a band (the base of the triangle). The Stones, another ‘triangle’ band, would take notice of the Doors (Jagger traveled to California to learn what he could from the Doors’ live act at the Hollywood Bowl in mid-1968). The Stones have gone on to gross the highest earnings as a musical act of all time. The Beatles were a foursome (rectangle) who lacked the dionysian triangle identity. The pressure to be sexy rock gods when their strengths were song craft and a sense of humor must have been enormous. They must have realized that they could never compete with the Stones and Led Zeppelin and other guitar god bands in giant stadium tours. It wasn’t that the Beatles didn’t want to stay together as a band—they were terrified of falling short in the new, “dumb-downed,” stadium touring rock climate. The rectangle fractured. The Beatles could not compete with Morrison, Plant, Jagger. Paul was not big enough to drag John and George with him so he went solo, Paul’s touring, to date, earning roughly half the take of the Stones. Not bad, Sir Paul! I’m sure Jane (married in 1981, 5 children) is proud.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SUNNY WORLD?

THE ELECTION

Democrats, in 1972, were sure McGovern was going to win…because…the Vietnam War.

McGovern was crushed because the majority didn’t care enough about Vietnam.

In 2024, if the majority don’t care enough about the border—and the stock market and social security and abortion rights make them feel they are in a good place, the majority will vote in a “conservative” manner and go with the current status quo. Democracy will prevail. Kamala will win.

American voters are pragmatic, they tend not to read the conspiracy tea leaves which say things like ‘America is doomed.’

Just as Trump supporters know Kamala is controlled by others, those voting for Kamala know this as well, and will vote for her precisely for this reason.

Even if the worst case scenario is true and a majority think elections are no longer fair, voters will still vote for Kamala, thinking: if the Republicans can’t ensure the election is fair, they must be really incompetent. How will the Republicans be able to fight America’s enemies abroad if they are too weak to fight the Democrats? Again, the conservative impulse is to vote for the “stronger” party (the one that gets its way) and that favors the Democrats.

Sorry, Republicans. You may be very disappointed next month.

But life will go on.

FREUD AND SPORTS

Sports is completely unconscious.

Reporters love to stick microphones in the faces of athletes after a game. Win or lose, when has an athlete ever made a memorable statement or explained anything? We always get a dull answer from the athlete (always!) because sports resides in the realm of the unconscious.

At best, the athlete or coach may, on a rare occasion, say something nasty and childish which elicits laughter.

Nothing interesting can be said about sports, which is why those who didn’t pay attention in their humanities classes (a large percentage) feel so comfortable around sports.

Sports is the most conservative impulse there is, precisely because it belongs so completely to the unconscious. Sports cannot elicit anything dangerous, radical, trendy, odd, different, questioning, or improbable. The intellectual is humble before it. Freud is silent before it.

What can be said about it?

Nothing.

Herein lies its power and influence.

It is why those who are generally inarticulate can talk in general about sports forever. This is its purpose. It is the revenge of those who refuse to be schooled.

POP MUSIC’S FALL

The 1960s. The Rolling Stones symbolized what was going on in the culture generally.

The Rolling Stones 1968 song, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” The lyrics are strange. Who was “Mr. Jimmy?” Why did he say “dead?” Perhaps it was Jimi Hendrix, mixed up with MI6, fearing for his life, the guy who just wanted to play psychedelic rock and wanted no part of being a “black artist. But there’s a role you must play in corporate tribalism. Jimi was a casualty, with Brian, Jim, RFK, MLK, the sacrifices which had to come in order to destroy the peace and harmony of 1967.

Loog (Stones manager) and Klein (Stones lawyer) were allies, dividing the Rolling Stones against itself as they played favorites, giving all the acclaim to Mick and Keith. The “anti-Beatles” (Rolling Stones) were competing with other bands and that’s why the “Jagger Richards songwriting team” (which was mostly a lie) was so important. And because it was a lie (ask Bill Wyman, the Stones bass player for the first 30 years or so) the song-writing lie was at the heart of the division which caused Brian to “act out” and M & K to “rub out” not only Brian, but all that was glorious in mid-60s pop music—beautiful, creative, and uplifting.

Think of 1967 Sgt Peppers (Beatles) and its melodic, majestic, popularity.

Think of Brian Jones, playing all those different instruments, joining in the sharing, collaborative, effort as a sincere musician in what was a wonderful and extraordinarily creative era of psychedelic music.

Jimi Hendrix, who started out as a session player for black groups, emerged as part of that poetic scene in 1967.

The guys who didn’t do so well in 1967 were Mick and Keith of the Rolling Stones. Their 1967 album was panned in the press and their “bad boy” image didn’t fare well in the ‘peace and love’ days of 1967. Keith stole his band mate Brian’s girlfriend in 1967, and wasn’t the cool star he later became after Brian’s death, when culture and music took a darker and more hedonistic turn.

John, George, and Paul were at their songwriting peak in 1967. Yet, in less than two years, the Beatles imploded as a band—1969 would be their last official year together. The Beatle-breakup occurred because Klein, sent to the Beatles by the rivalrous Jagger, divided the Beatles against each other.

It was stunning how quickly twenty-somethings Brian, the Beatles, and the genius of creative pop music fell, and the darkness of crude “roots” music and the “touring” of Mick and Keith’s craven machine (with establishment music critics praising the “new” Stones) triumphed.

The sunny music of the Beatles and other creative, independent bands (melodic, optimistic, romantic) with its communal spirit, uniting all ages, races, genres (“crossover” hits common as country, folk, pop, rock, dance, jazz blended in the mid-60s) rapidly fell apart as dark forces ushered in the template of sex, violence, and stadium-shaking mayhem.

The early Beatles and Stones survived riots, but the dionysian beginnings quickly transformed into peace, love, harmony, and creativity by 1967.

The masters of chaos must have been disturbed by this sunny window.

This wasn’t the plan.