Time Travel – Destruction, Lust, Philosophers, Fascists, and Arseholes

(The concept of Stoicism consistently pops up in my writing as a sub theme. It will do it again in this piece. The Stoic Philosophy, and its positive impact on modern life, has gained popularity on social media. If you the reader want to know a little more highly recommend Chris Kirk's regular stoic ponderings at 'https://ascendbeyond.beehiiv/com') 

28 November 2022, finds me Down Under in rural Australia, suffering a debilitating head cold – feeling ‘blah’. No physical activity outside today for this little black duck. Besides, it’s oh so hot, extremely dry: The run down to XMAS in Australia. So, time for some ‘Time Travel’, better known as the pondering of history. 1980, I brought this old TARDIS, from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the first of many of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s cultural budget cuts. I’ve been very fortunate that my obsession with Time Travel, always provides the instant ability to leave the present, ponder the past, and imagine the future.

Julius Caesar – Time travel and a self-promoting violent arsehole.

I’ve been casually pondering such issues as: Was Julius Caesar a Superstar, or just a typical self-promoting politically violent arsehole? Did his behaviour time travel down to us? Ancient British Druids knew some cool stuff, what happened to them? What did the Ancient Romans ever do for us? Did anything of significance time travel down to us in 2022? Just every day meaningless ponderings: Oh, and do head colds impact your mental faculties?

Now, if I can just remember where I put my reading glasses, ok: Here we come Julius.

Caesar meets the British Celts.

2077 years previously, we find Julius Caesar invading Britain for the first time. Caesar’s all conquering legions fought their way ashore, but they did not stay long – seems British food was rough on the Italian digestion, besides those naked blue painted Brits, were not great company: They liked to get drunk and throw stuff!

Julius’ rugby toured Britain again 12 months later, again he did not stay exceptionally long: Preferring a Roman Cafe – good coffee, and the leisure time to write an awful lot of Fake News about British Celts.

Julius Caesar – Lies and Time Travel.

Caesar highly embellished the success of his troopers. Roman Infantry and Cavalry were at that time invincible. Caesar was the Ancient World’s equal of Field Marshal General Rommel, master of combined arms: Both suffered political assassinations. They were notorious self-promoters: Julius with his written war diaries, Irwin with his photos. We have so many excellent holiday snaps of Irwin in combat, simply because he ordered them taken. Jumping to 2022, Irwin has self-promotion in common with Donald Trump: The similarity stops there – One is a Fascist, the other was not.

Julius’ War Diary Time Travel to us.

Caesar’s War Diaries skip the fact that arrival in Britain was accompanied by the sounds of his men being violently seasick: Romans were not particularly good sailors, this was not the Mediterranean! So, the common legionnaire, disorientated and vomiting: Looked up at the blue faced naked masses, led by Druid priests, and simply said “Vaffanculo, non sto uscendo da questo galeone”.

Julius delivered his typical brilliant oratory: Straight out of ‘Saving Private Ryan’, “Solo due tipi di uomini stanno su questi galeoni, gli uomini morti e quelli che stanno per morire‘. Still, they refused to move! Very cleverly he sent a faithful Centurion ashore carrying the ‘Roman Standard‘, but also carrying something Julius failed to mention, everyone’s pay! Perhaps the first recorded evidence that common soldiers will certainly fight for Empire, but it’s equally motivating to secure your pay whilst you’re at it. Who were these Druids?

British Celts and sexy Druids – Time travel.

British Celts were led by a ruling high class of Druids: Born to rule, leadership as birth right, aristocratic, priest, teacher, judge, magician, wizard, shape shifter and politician – The British like this sort of thing! Druids were highly effective at marshalling martial resistance to the Romans. Consequently, Rome responded with its typical pragmaticism – they simply slaughtered every single Druid. Ironically, Irwin Rommel would have preferred if Germany’s evil Druid had had been slaughtered. To reinforce a lesson, we’ve often forgotten over 2000 years, women were well represented amongst Druids.

Female Leaders in the Ancient World.

Yes, Druids were men and women. Ancient records suggest they held some knowledge beyond common in Ancient Britain – From an earlier civilization, Atlantis even. I’m confident they looked nothing like the images that have time travelled down to us. More Maggie Thatcher or Boris Johnson, similarities exist, as Billy Bragg, (British poet, one time busker, folk singer and general shit stirrer) would agree, both were shapeshifters from another Planet.

Italian Mobsters and the Peace of Rome.

So, did Julius omit anything else? Caesar conveniently forgot to mention the significance of nature and specifically trees in the spiritual life of British Celts. He mentioned trees as in: “The Druids made human sacrifices and indulged in cannibalism amidst sacred tree groves“. It was indeed such sacrifices that Rome used as justification for the destruction of Druid led Celtic Civilization. Monumental hypocrisy on behalf of Rome! Caesar was motivated to promote the Celts as savages, he was playing a political game in Rome. Caesar’s War Diaries were the ‘twitter’ of their day. This dehumanizing of other humans for self-seeking political purposes, has been a constant time traveler down to us. Caesar was also broke!

Protection Racket in the Ancient World.

In service to the Italian Mob, Caesar was in debt to the Roman mobster families. Right up to the ears of ‘Genitor’ his fine equestrian mount. He had borrowed heavily to fund his earlier conquest of the European Celts. Not keen on sharing his bed with parts of Genitor. Military success for Caesar brought financial capital and the military honours required to dominate Rome’s politics.

Caesar invaded Britain, not to spread Roman Civilization, and certainly not to stop the alleged Druid atrocities. If Caesar was spreading ‘Pax Romana‘, it was more akin to a New York Mafia Protection Racket. Caesar wanted gold, silver, tin, and timber, the latter in huge abundance right across Britain.

Historians agree that the Celts of Britain had had a deep affinity for trees for thousands of years. The Celts were completely embedded as a forest culture. A telling point is that in the Celtic language, more words existed associated with trees than any other concept. Where might we be today if this affinity with nature had time travelled as ingrained human culture?

Ripping Yarns and the Tree of Life.

Ok, another ripping yarn and perhaps interesting, but what’s my point?

Postcard # 1 warned of my passion for Ancient History. http://postcardsfromdownunder.com/about-me/I’ve been reading history voraciously since I was about 20, so 40 years. Always pondered the achievements, thinking surely many cool things did not survive time travel? Knowledge lost? I also warned that all things are interconnected. Certainly, Ancient British Celts believed this was so. The Tree of Life was the spiritual, temporal, and pragmatic instrument of connections in Life. Such interconnectivity travels across time and space – Sometimes you just need to listen.

The Purpose of a Ripping Yarn.

My purpose was to consider the lost, what remained, reasons for such losses, what remains unchanged, and that rediscovered. All in the context of truth, warning that there are some real bull shit artists around these days. An art group I’ve been a member of for decades. Time Travel is a great antidote to such nonsense.

Somethings have not changed in 2077 years. History demonstrates that Politicians, Corporate Tyrants, and the Military, are capable of deception in service of self-seeking, self-promoting activity. In the name of self-interest, surely much has been lost, that could have made a better future. A better present, the one we live in now!

But did anything significant time travel down to us from the Ancient World?

What did the Ancient Romans ever do for us?

What did the Ancient Romans, Greeks and Persians ever do for us?

Rome gave us roads, central heating, concrete, the modern calendar, and flushing toilets. The latter quite an achievement, given this Aussie boy, did not have a flushing toilet till 1972! Ancient Greece left us some wonderful food. But also:

• The water driven grain mill;
• The speed odometer (important to control drink driving of bullock carts I guess);
• Alarm clocks;
• Cartography;
• The Olympics;
• Geometry;
• Medicine,
• Philosophy,
• Democracy; (if you exclude women),
• and Science.

Stoicism.

And then there is, ‘The Philosophy of Stoicism‘. 200 years prior to Julius’ British Tour, Zeno of Citium, Greece deeply pondered stuff. Zeno was a very grumpy writer. I know something of grumpiness I’ve written at length about it. You can find my previous post by following this Link.

Lifes Purpose.

Eventually, several bottles of retsina in, he nailed the ‘Purpose of Life’ – Stoicism. Julius obviously skipped this class at the Military Academy – Playing polo with Genitor, I guess.

 Zeno’s ponderings time travelling 500 years down to Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius – 2022’s most well-known promoter of the power of Stoicism.

Mental Health and the stiff upper lip.

Few people would have heard of Zeno, but everyone is familiar with the term to be ‘stoic’. EG: The British displayed great stoicism during the Battle of Britain.

The stiff upper lip, the British Bulldog Defiance!

‘Keeping a stiff upper lip’, to be stoic, is an aspect of the Philosophy of Stoicism, but not the essence. The essence of Ancient Stoic Philosophy is that man can harness Logic, Acceptance and Control. All aimed at calming the heart, mind, and soul. Starting to sound familiar? Up steps modern Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT). Now time travel gets really interesting!

CBT has proven effective in treating:

• Depression,
• Anxiety,
• Eating disorders,
• Bipolar dysfunction,
• Childhood abuse disorders,
• Alcoholism,
• Drug addiction, and
• Smoking.

Given the increasing prevalence of such issues, high chance you’ve personally benefitted from CBT. Or at least some of your family and friends have. Excellent, how does CBT work?

In essence, with CBT, the idea is that if you have unhelpful automatic thoughts, these can negatively influence your emotions. Your emotions then drive behaviour. Often those negative or automatic thoughts do not accurately present reality. So, CBT interventions help you recognize or change those automatic thoughts. Then manage how you perceive, interpret, and react to the world. This sounds awfully familiar.

So, CBT of 2022 is based on Old Zeno’s writings of 2400 years previous? Well not exactly.

CBT arrives in the Contemporary World.

In 1962 American psychotherapist Albert Ellis, a pioneer of early CBT, was pondering his own time travel. Writing up clinical observations, he suddenly recalled his own Year 10 class on the teachings of Marcus. He was I imagined quite stunned:

“This principle, which I have inducted from many psychotherapeutic sessions, was originally discovered and stated by the ancient Stoic philosophers, especially Zeno of Citium, and Marcus Aurelius“.

The truths of Stoicism were set forth by Epictetus, who wrote:

“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them.”

So, in 1942 the stoic old bulldog had it right:

It seems that 2400 years previously, humans stumbled across the healing power of Stoicism. Then enthusiastically went about destroying other people’s civilizations, tinkering with new religions, reducing trees to commodities. Generally, after fucking things up, then hurried off as if nothing happened.

Fortunately for those for whom CBT is a lifeline to happiness, we found our way back in time.

Time Travel.

Time for me to live in the 2022 present. After all my TARDIS needs a service, you just can’t get the spare parts. I’m told its COVID delays and the Ukraine War – Best be stoic and focus on what’s in my control.

Pay attention to your own personal TARDIS – Time and Relative Dimension in Space.

Take care.