Amarna Forum

I decided to create this because I was reading about "Lawnchair Larry" on bikipedia.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawnchair_Larry_flight

A truck driver randomer has a recurring dream of flight, but can't become a pilot due to eyesight issues. Cracking under the pressure of being unable to fulfill his dream, Larry ties some large weather balloons to a lawnchair with help from his girlfriend and sets off, reaching a height of 16000 feet and being spotted by two commercial airlines, before shooting some of the balloons for a slow descent which ends up with him entangled in some power lines. It's interesting enough, but I really felt I had to make this thread when I saw he killed himself at age 44. His "aircraft" was named Inspiration I. 

Obviously, this immediately brings to mind Richard "Sky King" Russell. There is also this:

Quote:Yoshikazu Suzuki departed from Lake Biwa in Japan on 23 November 1992 with 23 helium balloons. He was spotted by a Japanese coast guard aeroplane on 25 November 1992, located about 800 km (500 mi) offshore over the Pacific Ocean, at an altitude between 2,500 and 4,000 m (8,200 and 13,100 ft), and was never seen again

There is an entire genre of this stuff...normal dudes with crazy ideas or experiences, who are known due to these strange moments or circumstances, and frequently end up killing themselves. This feels like one of the more stark examples of rare people being wasted by the system. In Larry Niven's book "The Mote in God's Eye" there is an alien race with a biological caste system and a dystopic rapid breeding / civilization collapse cycle that they cannot escape. In their society there are a figures known as "Crazy Eddie"s which are members of this alien race that escape their world, never to be seen again. 



The implication in this story is that the unpredictability of human behavior and socialization is what makes one "Crazy Eddie", and the moties, being a much older civilization have a certain ossification of their attitudes towards progress and what is possible for them in the future. They accept entirely that they are stuck in a cycle which cannot be beaten, and not only that, but moties seem to think themselves that they SHOULDN'T spread around the cosmos to new worlds due to the potentially disastrous consequences. 

These guys are our very own "Crazy Eddies". That's probably why suicide is so common to them, and suicide is clearly a motif in the Crazy Eddie story. 

Here's one more, courtesy of 'zine: 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Sullivan

The saddest part about this story is when he says other people started to avoid him out of fear they too would get hit by lightning strikes. That's the moment he knew he was a Crazy Eddie.

This Thread reminds me of when I was Learning About the California gold rush and all these Men fleeing Civilization going across the Wilderness, to look for gold, with most never finding any. Out of those who went many died and never Produced Progeny. I think there is a lot of instances of this, men Wandering into the Unknown with a fatal ending.

This is different from the colonist and settlers who came with families and made something or the Spaniard Conquistadors who created a whole new race from all their encounters with Indioso women. I think in male populations(especially of the Aryan peoples) there is a need to wander when not held down by prestigious Positions of power or other responsibilities/luxuries like having a wife and family. Even when Aryan men are given a whole Harem and Lordship over a domain, they might just throw it all away to become an ascetic and then latter save humanity(I’m talking about shakimuni).

Faustian Spirit, the ever Striving of the White Man. I knew Satisfaction and Peace, I remember a Halcyon time of my life when I was like the Buddha, I Had achieved Enlightenment and could seek eternal rest(not really Enlightenment, just a example) but like the Buddha instead of letting Mara deceive me and departing this world I decided to stay. It’s like the Buddha said, one only needs to reach enlightenment once. 

But on the Crazy Eddie’s with their Zarathustrian need to escape the Spirit of Gravity, I think these are the Type of Men I could call Brother, they are the Faustian Spirit come to Remind humanity of its Stagnant State. Come Shining stars Bright and ready to Expire in a Glorious Explosion of a Passionate life.

(Great Thread Idea, “the Mote in Gods eye” was it good?)

Modern technics are extremely dangerous when used off-label. Killing yourself by building a flying machine out of childrens' toys (helium balloon) is a good example of this. Chemistry is another one. There are well-understood techniques to fly and do chemistry (even naughty chemistry) safely which a lot of people died figuring them out. Not only is a "Crazy Eddie" quite likely to die doing things on his own; even if successful he will probably waste a lot of time reinventing the wheel. Foraging for mushrooms vs buying them in the grocery store is a good analogy.

What ought to happen is for them to be apprenticed to a technical master at a young age -- certainly by 16, probably more like 12-14. Nothing like this happens -- excluding the increasingly likely probability that they burn out on makework or run afoul of paranoid and envious regime enforcers, they can maybe sort of get started doing "real work" around 22-25 (ten useful year squandered).

(03-31-2023, 12:32 AM)Reverend Moon Immortal Wrote: [ -> ](Great Thread Idea, “the Mote in Gods eye” was it good?)

Yes.

(03-31-2023, 04:54 PM)Unformed Golem Wrote: [ -> ]What ought to happen is for them to be apprenticed to a technical master at a young age -- certainly by 16, probably more like 12-14.  Nothing like this happens -- excluding the increasingly likely probability that they burn out on makework or run afoul of paranoid and envious regime enforcers, they can maybe sort of get started doing "real work" around 22-25 (ten useful year squandered).

I don't even know if anything can be done with these people. After all, Lawnchair Larry DID have bad eyesight, so he never could realize his dream no matter what. The Crazy Eddies in the story can't really be used either, their "work" is ultimately in vain. Most of these guys are truly normies, not like us, just ones with some experience or thing that makes them into an alien amongst their own kind. Sky King is like this too, I don't think he would have any better outcome being a full weirdo or outsider. Their suicidal actions are very compelling though on a spiritual level, if a real innovator or paradigm-shifter shows us new limits to what is possible, these guys show us what the limits are for certain castes of society.

"If we had the Meritocracy Lawnchair Larry would have his eyes violently torn out and replaced with better-than-Human artificial ones, allowing him self-actualization."