BE ch 5 nerd wars

[Mark Kohut]

albatross: a source of frustration or guilt; an encumbrance (in allusion to
Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner):

On Wed, Nov 24, 2021 at 3:34 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> “*The Man has a branch office in each of our brains, his corporate
> emblem is a white albatross*”
>
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner
>
> *The Rime of the Ancient, **Samuel Taylor Coleridge
> <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge>, *1798. considered
> a signal shift to modern poetry and the beginning of British Romantic
> literature <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romantic_literature>.
>
> The mariner's tale begins with his ship departing on its journey. Despite
> initial good fortune, the ship is driven south by a storm and eventually
> reaches the icy waters of the Antarctic
> <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica>. An albatross
> <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albatross> appears and leads the ship
> out of the ice jam where it is stuck, but even as the albatross is fed and
> praised by the ship's crew, the mariner shoots the bird:
>
> [...] With my cross-bow
>
> I shot the Albatross.     lines 81–82
>
> The crew is angry with the mariner, believing the albatross brought the
> south wind that led them out of the Antarctic. However, the sailors change
> their minds when the weather becomes warmer and the mist disappears:
>
> 'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
> That bring the fog and mist.[3]
> <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner#cite_note-STC_1869-3>
> — lines 101–102
>
> They soon find that they made a grave mistake in supporting this crime, as
> it arouses the wrath of spirits who then pursue the ship "from the land of
> mist and snow"; the south wind that had initially blown them north now
> sends the ship into uncharted waters near the equator, where it is
> becalmed <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/becalmed>:
>
> Day after day, day after day,
> We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
> As idle as a painted ship
> Upon a painted ocean.
>
> Water, water, every where,
> And all the boards did shrink;
> Water, water, every where,
> Nor any drop to drink.
>
> The sailors change their minds again and blame the mariner for the torment
> of their thirst. In anger, the crew forces the mariner to wear the dead
> albatross about his neck:
>
> Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
> Had I from old and young!
> Instead of the cross, the Albatross
> About my neck was hung.[3]
> <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner#cite_note-STC_1869-3>
> — lines 139–142
>
> After a "weary time", the ship encounters a ghostly hulk. On board are
> Death <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_(personification)> (a
> skeleton) and the "Night-mare Life-in-Death", a deathly pale woman, who are
> playing dice for the souls of the crew. With a roll of the dice, Death wins
> the lives of the crew members and Life-in-Death the life of the mariner, a
> prize she considers more valuable. Her name is a clue to the mariner's
> fate: he will endure a fate worse than death as punishment for his killing
> of the albatross. One by one, all of the crew members die, but the mariner
> lives on, seeing for seven days and nights the curse in the eyes of the
> crew's corpses.
>
> Finally the mariner wakes from his trance and comes in sight of his
> homeland, but is initially uncertain as to whether or not he is
> hallucinating:
>
> Oh! dream of joy! is this indeed
> The light-house top I see?
> Is this the hill? is this the kirk?
> Is this mine own countree?
>
> We drifted o'er the harbour-bar,
> And I with sobs did pray—
> O let me be awake, my God!
> Or let me sleep alway.[3]
> <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner#cite_note-STC_1869-3>
> — lines 464–471
>
> As penance for shooting the albatross, the mariner, driven by the agony of
> his guilt, is now forced to wander the earth, telling his story over and
> over, and teaching a lesson to those he meets:
>
> He prayeth best, who loveth best
> All things both great and small;
> For the dear God who loveth us,
> He made and loveth all.[3]
> <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner#cite_note-STC_1869-3>
> — lines 614–617
>
> On Wed, Nov 24, 2021 at 10:16 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> A remark I like from a favorite prophet-studier, Abraham Joshua Heschel:
>>
>> "We may not all be guilty, but we are all responsible"....
>
>
> “The Man has a branch office in each of our brains, his corporate
>> emblem is a white albatross, each local rep has a cover known as the Ego,
>> and their mission in this world is Bad Shit. We do know what's going on,
>> and we let it go on. As long as we can see them, stare at them, those
>> massively moneyed, once in a while. As long as they allow us a glimpse,
>> however rarely. We need that. And how they know it-“
>>
>>