Vulcanalia
A picture of the fires burning in California between Joshua Tree and Los Angeles. By Patrick Campanale.
Looking at the news on my phone, I said to my wife a little while ago, “We should consider moving further north, maybe where it rains more. Fire season is starting to get real bad”. Later, after seeing that Oregon and Washington have fared no better when it comes to not being on fire, I corrected myself, “I'm sorry hun, I'm a fool, there is no escape.” She smiled sweetly to me and repeated it, “There is no escape.”
As of my writing this, 3,451,428 acres of forest have burned this year. For contrast, the past five year average is at 202,786 acres. Fire season has been real bad this year. And yes, I did say fire season. This year has been the largest in California state history. If you're unfamiliar, fire season is what we call the dry parts of the year when wildfires are most likely to happen. This year, a fire was very close to home. The CZU Lightning Complex fire burned 86,509 acres and destroyed a lot of homes in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties. This one wasn't even caused by negligent privatized utilities, or some jackass tossing a cigarette butt out his car window. It was straight up lightning, the Justice of Jupiter. Or as they call it in the insurance game, a heavily Abrahamic influenced racket, a so called, “Act of God”.
Act of God, Jupiter's Justice, however you want to say it, we caught the wrath. The CZU Lightning Complex fire, at the time of this writing, isn't even completely out. Supposedly, wildfires are a natural part of many of the forests of California. Why then is it getting worse every year? I think we all already know why, but let me go into detail about the local factors feeding it for the past century too.
Because of course racism had a role to play in it, we should start there. I've written before what I think on California's secret (but only for white people) racism. Part of that racist past was the suppression of native practices, both by the conquistador's and by the United States, and post 1850 state government as well. Part of this suppression was the suppression of controlled burning practices. But lets face it, by the early 20th century, the legislated ending of controlled burning was just the final straw on the tinder pile.
The real blow to the ecology of the area was the wave of diseases that decimated populations all over the Americas. Without native peoples to work the land with fire, fuel started piling up. For a while, the natural burning process was consuming this fuel. But as real estate started to be carved up for houses in wholesome forest and mountain settings, the fuel started piling up. For the past hundred or so years, the state of California's policy has been to suppress fire. This stems from the Western cultural fear of fire in urban areas, which, up until recently, comprised mostly of wood timer construction. Fear of fire and racism ensured native burning practices and wildfire were suppressed with equal vigor. The result is that a historic build up of fuel is leading to historic forest fires.
Firefighters I would call heroes. They risk their lives to save others and the homes of people who maybe take too many chances living deep in the forest. You can see the love California communities have for their firefighters as you travel around lately. If you want to talk an essential service that could use the money they're showering cops with, it would be California's firefighters. We need so many firefighters in California, that they let inmates fight fires. Up until recently, the inmates that helped fight our fires were barred from becoming firefighters once they were released from the states grip. The reason: felons can't be firefighters. Only within the past few days of this writing has that changed.
For a long time now, former felons have been barred from serving their communities in all kinds of ways that never made sense, outside of a societal drive to say, “fuck you” to anyone who has broken the law. An excellent way to create a permanent criminal class, a terrible way to rehabilitate anyone. Since rehabilitation has never been the point anyway, we can surmise that the “justice” and prison systems are working as intended.
However, the cracks in that system are starting to show, as California seeks forgiveness as a feature of justice, in sheer desperation for firefighters. You want more firefighters California? Stop giving more cash to cops, start giving way more cash to firefighters. Double their pay! Triple it! People go where the money is, even when there is risk, especially when there is risk! If the pay is good, the risk becomes an embellishment of the ego. Not that you'd need it with whole communities of people giving you all the emotional support you need.
I want to take this moment to denounce gender reveal parties that are held outdoors. I'm not against gender reveal parties, it's a fine, dumb, way to enjoy the miracle of childbirth. I would just prefer it if people do it inside their own home. That way, if they do some dumb-ass bullshit that starts a fire, they burn their own home down, and not a whole fucking forest. Also, firefighters are less likely to die, I would imagine. I don't have to imagine firefighters dying of gender reveal party spawned forest fires, because that has literally already happened. So, in summary, that miracle you're enjoying isn't so much a universal reality as a chemical reality in your soon to have a child mutated brain; please do us all the favor of keeping that shit to yourself in your own fucking home, please! Lives that aren't your baby’s life are a stake, you slack-jawed morons.
Speaking of slack-jawed morons, at this point I want to address the gorilla in the room. Which isn't climate change, it's Donald Trump. I guess at this point I could call him Donald Trump-up. If you are unfamiliar with archaic English transitive verbs, to “trump-up” something is to embellish something with the intent to deceive. So, Donald wants you to think that the cause of these fires is poor forest management. This sounds to him like a good lie because he doesn't know anything, and therefore doesn't know that it is a stupid lie that he would have been better off not saying. Of the 33 million acres of forest in California, 19 million of those acres (57.575%) are controlled by the Federal government. By his logic, the fires in California are his fault, so he should grab a rake and get started, because we don't have all damn day.
Ok, now we can move on to Climate Change, with two capital “C”s, so you know it's serious. It's pretty obvious now that Climate Change is just secular paganism. Because to a Christian, any love of the material world is Paganism (Satanism), unless that material is one of the pre-approved emblems of wealth that makes god love you. These emblems come in a variety of shapes, colors, sizes and denominations, like people. Unlike people, they don't suffocate and die when you lock them in a safe. I am of course talking about money. Climate Change continues to be an Earth wrecking problem because it is very profitable. At the end of the day, that is what this is, a problem that involves money and Christ. I know there are millions of Christians out there that ain't into this gospel of wealth fuck the Earth bullshit. I also know that it doesn't matter that there are millions of Christians out there that ain't into this gospel of wealth fuck the Earth bullshit. If it did matter, we wouldn't be having this problem. I think that is the actual Elephant in the room. When the Elephant and Gorilla dance, we have an even bigger problem.
It seems to me people are kind of tip-toeing around this fact. The Koch brothers, nah, the entire Koch family, have been bankrolling the fight against climate change since before I was born. Before it was even phrased in those terms. If you've ever seen one of the few interviews of the brothers leading Koch Industries, you would know that they think they are heroes, saving their bank account and America from Leftists and Satan himself in the name of Capitalism and Christ. And the people whose opinions they've paid such a large price to manipulate, and successfully did, are the same kind of Christian. Now, I should be clear, I'm not trying to incite violence, or any other shitty behavior, against Christians. I am however seeking to shame them horribly for their silent culpability in what is essentially lying to get more money; more money! Apparently as long as you give Yaweh lip service as the primary, you can give all your love and attention to your real god or gods, which for the Koch Christians come in a variety of shapes, colors, sizes and denominations, just like gods do. So I guess what I'm saying is that wealth is a secular Christianity that anyone can enjoy. Or more simply, more money equals more Christ, now go out there and rob a community, be somebody!
Ron Goode, tribal Chairman of the North Fork Mono, has this to say about the Western (White People) attitude toward fire, “They came with their concepts of being afraid of fire. They didn't understand fire in the sense of the tool that it could be to create and what it did to help generate and rejuvenate the land. So they brought in suppression.” Now, there are plenty of California tribes that do burning management, but to be honest, at this late point, that ain't enough. They are stretched thin as it is, and some communities in California are still not into it. I guess we could all try to get tribal leaders to teach us all their cultural practices, but I get the feeling they might not be super into that. So, I thought I'd make a suggestion, stemming from an ancient European cultural practice that also involved burning the refuse of the forest, and lots of other stuff too. Have you ever heard of Vulcanalia?
Vulcanalia, a festival celebrated on August 23. This comes not long after the end of the Dog Days, that sweltering hot miserable time of the year following the heliacal rise of the star Sirius. How it works is, the Romans would make many large bonfires, and throw fish and other small animals, in place of the citizens of Rome. Vulcan was tied, to the Romans, much more heavily with the wild untamed aspects of fire, in contrast to Vesta, who was the fire of the hearth. Why then not a festival of Vesta to start a healthier relationship with fire? Because facing the wilder aspects of fire is what this is about, all humans have a good relationship with the “hearth fire”, mostly. Clearing detritus that is fuel to forest fires that are scary is what this is about. People could skip the animal sacrifice part, really this is about burning fuel for forest fires, though if you wanted to have a nice smelt while you're doing it, no one would stop you I'm sure. Come on! Bonfires are fun! Everyone likes a fun bonfire!
This could be a practice done at home for those who live in areas likely to burn. People who are near forests and want to clear out the detritus from the forest floor around their house. You could also have large public festivals for show and to ingrain the practice, but really its true usefulness is found on the individual level. At the end of the day, this practice would have to be one of many brought to bear to keep the whole damn state from burning. It is certainly a better idea than raking the fucking forest. I mean at least this way you get a party out of it.
I love my state. I certainly don't want California to burn up like it has been. Some burning is fine, the tree's need it. But this amount of burning is anything but healthy. Not for the forests, not for the people, not for the state, and not for the U.S. If you think this problem is only on the West Coast, you might be right, it isn't fire everywhere. In the South East United States they have flooding from hurricanes. In other areas, whole crops of corn have been laid flat by “freak” winds (get ready to kiss your food security bye bye when that becomes a regular thing). This is a problem that will destroy everyone. If it isn't destroying you with fire, it will find some other way to reach out and destroy you. What is needed now, more than anything, is for us to face reality. To do that, we must all finally realize there is no escape. But maybe we can have a nice bonfire before we go. Ave Vulcan!
Patacelsus
A Discordian for 20 years, Patacelsus finally got comfortable when the 21st century “started getting weird.” When not casting sigils, taking part in Tibetan Buddhist rituals, or studying the unfortunate but sometimes amusing stories of the dead, he’s been known to wander the hidden ways of the city, communing with all of the hidden spirits one can find in a city. As Patacelsus sees it, we’re all already free; after completing the arduous task of waking up to that we can then proceed, like a doctor treating a patient, to try to rouse others from the bitter and frightening nightmares of Archism. He laughs at Samsara’s shadow-play in lovely California, in the company of his wife, two cats, and two birds.