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11.09.2001 || 00h59 Jericho, China, and me Enough. ********** Hm. I made an error in my last entry that I *must* acknowledge, though my wrist-slapping was not entirely well-founded. I should have said that Jericho is widely viewed as having helped kickstart *western* civilisation. not all of it. I'm embarassed because I did a minor in Sino-Japanese history in university, so I should have known better. That being said, and whereas I completely acknowledge the fact that China had a well-oiled civilisation running while Europe was still rolling in its own shite, saying that current Chinese civilisation pre-dates the ancient town of Jericho seems a bit off. What I know is that the dates of the three legendary founding rulers are about 2850 or so to 2595 BCE. Now, the Classical Period didn't start until about 1600 BCE, give or take, which isn't really important for this conversation, as anyone who says that the Classical period was the real beginning of China doesn't know their arse from a hole in the ground. however, before 2900 BCE, All we had over there was neolithic cultures and simple stone tools, prolly much like those in use in Jericho for much of its history. now, if we tak 2900 BCE as the brthdate of China (though by definition, all dates are lies), then that gives us 4901 years of Chinese civilisation. I'd prolly add on a few decades or centuries just for good measure, but I'd still say that, if Jericho has, in fact, been squatting on the same piece of sand for ten millennia, then that's older. But it would surprise me greatly to hear that it represents the unbroken lifeline of a single civilisation. Hell, if Joshua and his crowd of sandy Israelites did, in fact knock down the walls (though it seems mighty unlikely that they actually did it withhorns), then we see the end of whichever group was there at least once. The thing is, I really don't know that much about Jericho, so I looked it up. It seems that the place really is ancient. I don't meant ancient in the sense of Greek or Roman empires, I mean *ancient*. Old as the original sin, as the first gasp of civilisation. The town's origins are now thought to have been around 8000 BCE, which boggles my mind completely. That means that by the time the Israelites invaded Palestine and came upon Jericho, where 'they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword, and they bunt the city with all that was in it, But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron are consecrated unto the Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the Lord,' (though they didn't actually *stay* there) the site had already been inhabited for over five millenia. Not by the same people, of course, the Canaanites whom the Israelites raped and pillaged had only been the latest in a succession of peoples who'd been there, done that. All this to say that, whereas I was a typical western snob when I said that Jericho was a cradle of Civilisation, and I should have been more specific, the point still stands that the place is pretty old, and the nation of china doesn't hold a candle, though it absolutely pre-dates the current civilisation in the area covered by Israel and historic Palestine. So we're both right, largely because China, Europe, and ancient Palestine shouldn't really be compared. ********** Hm, I came across this passage in Barometer Rising to-night. It kind of reminded me of someone whom I love to see naked: 'What's going on behind that funny smile?' Penny said suddenly. Hm, the word 'genius' gives me hives. I don't think there's a person on this planet who deserves the title, mostly because I see genius as a species of action or thought, not a subspecies of human. And other people's passages can never capture what we feel or think with utter exactitude, because at the end of it they are written for the writer, not the reader. This is why I rarely fall for putting other people's lyrics on my page. How could someone else and I feel exactly the same about anything? Hey, I said the passage reminded me of someone, not that it was an exact match. ********** Gr. I'm out of tea. Not going to buy any until I can afford more fair-market stuff. It's a little thing, but it's a move in the right direction. Oh, and I guess I enjoy my tea more when it doesn't come with the weight of North-Western guilt pressing down on the leaves. Hello, caffeine headaches. ********** When I finally get some cash, I will buy the following things: Breakfast in New Orleans Dinner in Timbuktu; ********** So I was standing at the counter at my usual photo store, getting a picture blown up for a client. Outside, the streets were blocked off at the corners for a few blocks with police cordons, a couple of firetrucks and a sea of MUC police minivans. people were strolling by and stopping to chat with the police officers, though there were no crowds collecting near the yellow tape. I had been allowed to cross the line on the condidtion that I promised to steer clear of the opposite corner. I was a good boy and went directly to the photostore. I asked the lady behind the counter was was up outside, and she nonchalantly told me it was another Anthrax scare; it was probably bull, just like the others. We traded some tasteless jokes about panicking and white powder, then I left. As I ducked under the tape, it struck me that the utter lack of any credulity in the general populace up here is more dangerous than a thousand packets of infected mail. |
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shite One last little note... - 09.21.2006 de-stressing, biking and terrorism - 06.06.2006 Mildly stressed... - 05.29.2006 More crime stupidity - 05.28.2006 Scary stuff - 05.25.2006
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