Calvin and Hobbes is not an obvious choice for this blog, "Brave New World Notes."  It was inspired by Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" novel* and its theme is the current USA presidential contest.  But (you may have noticed)  that theme is tiresome.  Without relief it is unbearable.  This post is that relief.




*  Notes:

I found the novel and the comic collection at about the same time among books I am sorting out of our long term storage (boxes  in closets), one of my periodic efforts to "declutter."  I had never read - or seen - either before.

"Brave New World" was first published in 1932.  My geeky friends in high school read it and were enthused in the 60's, but  I never got around to it.  It is famous, clearly part of the occidental canon.

In the forward Huxley wrote for a new edition in 1946 he says, "Remorse, for example, is as undesirable in relation to our bad art as it is in relation to our bad behaviour."  I was hooked as soon as I read that.   But I didn't begin to think of it as germane to our presidential election until page 101 when a new character is described as follows:

Given  my current monomaniacal obsession, I read this as a close description of Donald Trump.  Had the Warden also been irrational and uninformed, the portrait would have been perfect.  The book is about a dystopian world in which an elite of well meaning people tells everyone else how to live.  That is the Clinton connection.  

As to Calvin and Hobbs:  The cartoonist, Bill Watterson, says that Calvin was named for the 16th century theologian who believed in predestination, and that Hobbs was named for the 17th century philosopher who had a dim view of human nature.  My two favorite people!  What more can one say?

Below is the first comic shown in the Calvin and Hobbs 10th Anniversary Book:  

It is good to know that I am not the only grandpa who disapproves of what passes for comics today.  But I do resent the allusion to nursing homes.

2016 Haiku, "The Second Coming"

W. B. Yeats.

Today I stumbled across

 "The Second Coming" 

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.*

*  Not the complete poem.

A Trump Court if Clinton is elected??

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Controversy erupted today with a new posting of hacked files that seem to show that Donald Trump is secretly working for Hillary Clinton.  The most recent WikiLeaks release includes thousands of emails, including many that Mrs Clinton may have previously deleted from the private server she used while Secretary of State.  Several seem to show that she promised Trump appointment to the Supreme Court if he won the GOP’s presidential nomination and then lost to her in the general election. 

Technical experts say that because of Mrs. Clinton’s acknowledged attempt to delete so-called personal emails from the private server, there may be no way to tell which messages may be genuine or forged.

Mr Trump dismissed the idea that he may have done anything out of the ordinary or improper.  “I’ve been telling people the system is rigged for more than a year,” he said.    "Believe me," he continued, "I will be a really great Chief Justice.  Getting her to agree to the deal took me months of negotiation.  Bottom line:  I won."  

Mrs Clinton said that she has no way of knowing if the new emails are genuine.  “I don’t have the originals,” she said, “There is no way I can compare them.”  She went on to say that, genuine or not, they should be kept confidential.  "Those are obviously private communications," she said, "Whoever hacked my server must really hate women."

Julian Assange, Editor-in-Chief of WikiLeaks, refused to comment except to say that WikiLeaks will release more hacked Trump-Clinton documents in October.  “I want it to be a surprise,” he said. 

Neither Mr Trump nor Mrs Clinton would comment on whether their deal includes provisions for getting him confirmed by the Senate, should she actually win the election and nominate him. 

This story is an example of telling the truth by manufacturing facts.  It’s not a “short circuit,” it’s a lie. 

"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

Attributed to Sherlock Holms in "The Sign of the Four"

Arthur Conan Doyle

SHOW US THE TEXT!

Mrs. Clinton wants to pass a constitutional amendment to "overturn Citizens United."  Presumably, any such amendment will have to limit free speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.  Does anyone other than me want to see the text of the proposed change(s)?