Blood Is Payment, and Life

Occasionally, I write an essay for a friend in order to get them through a difficult course and charge a nominal fee. This is one of them. I risk posting it here but I feel I have to, for it did come from me and sums up what I feel about not only history but the institution of education as well. That institution is run by sour old bastards whose balls have dried up probably due to fear. I understand that. I sympathize with that. I try not to spend too much time thinking about what sort of damage I may have done to my own life by writing letters like this. I only hope that one day it amounts to something more that an afterthought skimmed by readers looking for a quick argument.

The world as we know it today was born during the 1300 C.E. period to the 1700 C.E. period. Before those times of black plague and the seesaw effect of declining China and rising Europe any student finds that the troubles of that day are not different from the troubles of now. The Christians and Muslims fought each other for not just land but followers, flexing muscle in order to sway the herd. A group of farmers believing in one god collided with a group of sailors believing in another god; they saw land and found it good, therefore they shed blood to control the lands. In gaining the lands they forced their morals upon the people, some of whom agreed and some of whom did not agree. Fighting ensued.


Same as it ever was. In history, fighting is always the deciding factor. It has little to do with who has the money or who has the goods or even who has the land. The end always goes to the one who has the will and the soldiers and the weapons. This has never proved wrong. There are no facts supporting the idea that the weaker muscle controls the stronger muscle in any case for the statement makes no sense. Hours of research are spent to create arguments supporting differing sides of the political science when all that really matters is who has the weapons. This is an ugly truth but it is nevertheless true. And it will not change.


In answering these questions this one came last. I realized something—historical examples and sufficient detail from the text must be used to support...what? Any new idea? Just reading the text and using the internet for research to write a run-of-the-mill essay explaining the same picture of brain fodder anyone else could describe with a thesaurus and wi-fi seems pointless to me, not to mention exhausting. History shows that the influence of trade over the course of years is controlled by the ones who are willing to shed the most blood. For all the banter and think-tanks this is now and will always remain the truth.

What is most sad is the fact that students who have read these facts and reported them with essays will not state this plainly. There is always the risk of a bad grade, and spreading truth is never worth that. Where history is concerned it is if only due to the simple fact that history is made through war, blood, drive, and the ability to suck down the fear of consequence when it comes to going off the beaten path and blazing a trail. Sometimes, however, that is what must be done.

In researching this time period one will find evidence of a world being born. Burma, the Jewish nations, India, China, Europe, even America—all of these nations struggled during this time period to make a name for themselves. They all made respective names the same way, through blood and the diplomacy that comes after the blood has been spilled. Those names have not fared well, so here we are today, still spilling blood in the hopes of creating newer, smaller names and keeping good the larger, more popular names. Rather than proving knowledge of the times, dates, and names important in these motions it is better to educate new minds in ways of repaving the way, not with blood, but with something else as yet unfound.

Ye Fucking Gods #5632

A horrible bald bastard recently did his level best to make my wife and I homeless. This after I filled out the online application that got his foot in the door so he could have a nice, cushy job at the hospital. Cooked his dinner. Washed his dishes. I tried to help him in every way I could think to help and the motherfucker decided that wasn't good enough because I have too much stuff. He didn't like seeing my stuff in his house. You may think there is more to this but there is not. Some people are just that asshole.

So far the wife and I have managed to stay head above homelessness. It has been hell, going from a friend's house to a hotel room inhabited by the dregs of society; crack heads, dealers, killers and swine of every type. Nobody gave us any static so I cannot bitch too much. We'd still be there if we'd have been able to afford the exorbitant $750.00 a month rent, but we just couldn't--a waitress and an up and coming writer do not make for wealthy partners. We don't have much but we do have friends and our hope for a brighter future. Sometimes that has to be enough.

Right now we are living with good people--my surrogate sister and her two kids, and her husband--a good-hearted, no-nonsense Canuck. I'd be lying if I did not admit the whole scenario has an inspiring sort of novelty of the type I can use, the sort that brings about great tales such as Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. I would also be lying if I said I would not trade in that inspiration for a sense of security, the type of security I enjoyed while writing Polarity. Those were good days, relaxing and drinking and writing my ass off with stars in my eyes. But that is not the way things are. Instead, we live in a place full of raucous laughs and much alcohol, the joviality only marred by a sense of underlying paranoia that things could change for the worse at any given moment. Silent moments of a sort of group-prayer where all involved do not know the others pray as well but the energies join and maybe each one of us feels a little less of the existential terror threatening to throw the killswitch.

With all of this come to pass, I haven't given a good goddamn about world affairs, and I don't know when I will again. Chances are it will not be too far in the future. And I just signed another contract today...I think there will be more to come.