Observations About the World, Part Forty-Eight

Photograph of the Atlas globe

Old Ships |
Tuesday – October 13, 2026

I like old ships a lot and a sad thing about today is of course that ships in general are less common, and in particular older steam shippers (S/S) are even less common. I am writing about this, because this is one observation about the world that one can make and that one could assert to be quite right. Right not in the righteous sense, but rith in the valid sense. Yes and of course, I have traveled the light seas on older ships, and I suppose that there is something within me that is longing for the days of having to cross large oceans in order to reach new worlds, but that time is now gone, and I have also come to accept this, read "The Age of Exploration". But none of this so-called "acceptance" has anything to do with reality, and I should state that I actually do not accept this world, but I am forced to live in it, but because I am forced to live in it, does not mean that I have to accept it. Look at it yourself! Look at it: can you truly say that this dope filled place is any better than 2115 B. C. Sistan, Persia? I do not think so, and if you do think that this place is somehow better, then you should really go have your head examined, because you are sick. Now, I am aware of the fact that I am perhaps coming across as American here, because of course Americans seem to love to use the word "sick" for and about everything that they do not approve of. I have been referred to as sick many times by Americans, and it is one of those things that I have come to note; really, I have been forced to note this, and I suppose many of these confused, dog faced Americans are quite right in their assessment that their perceived opponents are sick, because of course sickness is everywhere these days: the modern world is a vast homogenous screech, punctuated by disease. Well, that was a bad way to put it. Perhaps a better way to put it would be different, but that does not matter for the purposes of this post.

    Now, I suppose that ships can go back a long time and really, S/S ships are not that old compared to even older ships, and I suppose that those really old-old ships that existed during the age of 2115 B. C. Sistan is really what I am hedging for, but then again I could stretch even further back in history, from the Bronze Age to the Stone Ages and beyond. Boats do actually not tend to change on the level of principle: a boat is a boat and a wire is a wire, but what I do not like about most ships these days is that they are so ugly, and the same can be said about the architecture as well; everything is just so ugly and so damned, and I realize that I have turned this post into a long complaining session, but if you do not like it, then go somewhere else. The whole point of writing about old ships is perhaps for me to only complain about the world, but it could also be for me to clear my thoughts... Yes, we all have to think about these things because we are forced to take note, are we not? Of course, there were problems I am sure with ships of the old, but the primordial body, or the point made about "The Primordial Body" still stands. It was not enough to travel over the waters in a canoe, and so today we have reached a point where large shanty towns are traveling up and down the rivers, and sometimes even on the ocean. Would you really like to go on one of those cruise ships? If you have trouble answering that question, perhaps you should read my post about "Disease Control!". And yes, it is perfectly legitimate to characterize these so-called "Cruise Ships" as enormous floating shanty towns, because that is what they are; just allow yourself to think about the pollution and the environmental destruction caused by these monsters. Also, what about the drainage system? Of course, older ships probably had no drainage system at all, but at least they did not appear on the horizon as giant floating slums, and of course they tend to become uglier and uglier, and the same can be said about cars, as they become more and more "practical" and "specialized" to deal with the conditions outside. So, I do not believe that it is wrong to long for the traditional forms, and even a ship can be said to have a traditional form. I do not believe however, that it can be said that a car possesses a kind of traditional form, because the car is not derived from anything else but the noise and the confusion to begin with; boats and ships have been with us since the dawn of man. Besides, I never did like cars, read "Cars".

    Now, are there any exceptions to the rule? Yes, and the latest exception to the rule was the Middle Ages, because this represented a period in Western life where traditional forms actually still carried meaning and when people had a semblance of understanding true knowledge, and I must also say that while Medieval Art appears to be of less quality, it contains truth and knowledge, but I do not mind renaissance art either, but it is a step away from truth and wisdom and it does not contain such things as sacred geometry. Why must all of these concessions always be necessary? Why must everything be understood through a zero-sum lens? I reject the idea that something cannot contain its essence and still fully occupy its substance, and this thinking that it has to be one or the other is truly a poison. I am not against photography, read "My Views on the Photography and the Camera Obscura", but I am against referring to photography as an art: there is nothing artful about a photograph! A photograph is the antithesis to art! While people have this strange and annoying preference of saying that a photograph contains more than a thousand words, this is simply not true! A photograph contains more than a thousand lies, especially these days with all the docturing that is going on. You can hardly trust a photograph to be anything more than a tissue of lies, and something truly manipulative. I do not believe in this as an art and I am getting agitated and shocked having to even think about it in terms of an art: photographs must surely represent the very extreme and substantial pole of manifestation?

    Anyhow, this is why I tend to prefer old ships. This is not to say that you cannot reinvent old ships, but in order for you to do this, you would actually have to understand something about ancient wisdom. Now stop.

Reginald Drax (AKA, M. C. Dutt) – October 13, 2026.