9sense Episode 19 September, LVI A.S.

Welcome to episode 19 September, LVI A.S. of Reverend Campbell’s Satanic podcast 9sense. 9sense is a Satanic perspective of our modern world.

1. The Devil’s Advocate

Time Stamp: 12:32

• The Importance of Downtime
  • As Satanists we are always talking about setting and achieving goals, practicing Satanic Lesser Magic, working on improving ourselves, etc.
  • We need to schedule downtime as well.
  • https://engageforsuccess.org/wellbeing/why-its-important-to-schedule-downtime-in-your-workday/#:~:text=Get%20strict%20with%20downtime,absorb%20information%20at%20first%20glance.
  • One of the key purposes of downtime is to give the mind a chance to switch off for a while.
    • Taking time away to reflect on the things learnt during the day gives the brain the chance to better absorb information at first glance.
  • https://hbr.org/2012/12/the-upside-of-downtime
  • Many modern workers find it hard to take downtime. The idea of leaving work so cleanly at the office seems quaint in a world of smartphones, laptops, and global companies that are always on to accommodate employees from Hoboken to Hong Kong.
  • creating the space for downtime increases productivity.
    • An experiment conducted at BCG found that forcing employees to take days, nights, or extended periods of time off actually increased productivity.
    • Other studies show that brief periods of downtime, like afternoon naps, can restore focus and energy. 
  • employing downtime — on a planned and ad hoc basis — unleashes creativity.
    • Jonah Lehrer has written for The New Yorker about the virtue of daydreaming, and in his book Imagine notes the necessity of downtime for problem solving, saying, “While it’s commonly assumed that the best way to solve a difficult problem is to relentlessly focus, this clenched state of mind comes with a hidden cost: it inhibits the sort of creative connections that lead to breakthroughs.”
  • downtime can dramatically improve mental and physical health and our personal relationships. 
    • One study found that employees who unplugged and took time off reduced serious health issues like coronary heart disease.
    • John Tierney and Ron Baumeister state in Willpower that midday breaks can rejuvenate willpower and improve judgment and decision making in the afternoon. 
  • how can you better use downtime?
    • Clearly schedule your time
    • Allow for ad hoc downtime when you need it
    • Shut off your smartphone
    • Free up your RAM
    • Create rituals and routines

2. Infernal Informant

Time Stamp: 39:40

• Samuel Adams’ new beer is illegal in 28 states. Here’s why.
  • https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/samuel-adams-utopias-beer-2021-illegal-155401852.html
  • Samuel Adams just created a new beer that’s so strong, it’s illegal — in 28 states, at least.
  • The brand just released its 12th batch of Utopias beer, according to a press release from the company. Utopias, which is barrel-aged and released every two years, is described by the company as “a spirited blend of multiple batches of our extreme beers.” This particular batch was finished with 2,000 pounds of cherries and offers “subtle notes of honeyed apricot and caramel to the rich layers of flavor.”
  • The reason it’s illegal in 28 states, however, has to do with its alcohol by volume (ABV), which stands at 28%. By comparison, a typical beer is only 5% ABV, while spirits like vodka, rum, and tequila hover around 40% ABV.
  • Many states, such as Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont and West Virginia, still have laws on the books, dating back to the Prohibition era, that caps beer at 5% ABV. However, many have argued that the laws are arbitrary and are limiting craft beer makers.
  • Jim Koch, founder and brewer of Samuel Adams, said of the brand’s latest arrival, “We pioneered the barrel-aging and blending process of Utopias almost thirty years ago and continue that time-honored tradition today. Since the introduction of Utopias in 2002, brewers have explored uncharted territory with each brew, experimenting with different kinds of aging barrels, new flavors, and different blending techniques. The result is always special, spirited, and worth waiting for.”
  • For those who want to get their hands on a bottle (legally, of course) you’ll have to pay a bit more than your average six pack. A bottle of the latest batch of Utopias retails for a suggested price of $240.

• 7 ways men live without working in America
  • https://finance.yahoo.com/news/7-ways-men-live-without-working-in-america-092147068.html
  • Almost one-third of all working-age men in America aren’t doing diddly-squat. They don’t have a job, and they aren’t looking for one either. One-third of all working-age men. That’s almost 30 million people!
  • How do they live? What are they doing for money? To me, this is one of the great mysteries of our time.
  • I’m certainly not the first person to make note of this shocking statistic. You’ve heard people bemoaning this “labor participation rate,” which is simply the number of working-age men (usually counted as ages 16 to 64) not working or not looking for work, as a percentage of the overall labor force.
  • It’s true that the pandemic, which of course produced a number of factors that made working more difficult never mind dangerous, pushed the labor participation rate to a record low. But the fact that millions of American males have not been working precedes COVID-19 by decades. In fact, the participation rate for men peaked at 87.4% in October 1949 and has been dropping steadily ever since. It now stands at 67.7%.
  • Economists, sociologists, politicians, and cable news pundits each have their pet factors to explain the groundswell of non-work. But after digging down here, I’ve concluded there are many different forces at play. 
  • Seven ways men are living without working in America:
    • Unemployment insurance
      • Conservatives and some liberals too have made the claim that state unemployment aid, coupled with $600 a week from the CARES Act, which was rolled out in March 2020, have reduced men’s need to work.
      • We’ll be getting a good read on whether all this relief did suppress employment now that CARES aid ended for some 7.5 million Americans earlier this month. But as Yahoo Finance’s Denitsa Tsekova reported, states that ended federal aid programs early didn’t see big increases in employment. That may mean these payments really weren’t enough to live off, or not enough to live off by themselves, which speaks to men looking to a combination of sources, like under the table income or family support and possibly some saving
    • Early retirement, pensions, disability and lawsuits
      • millions of men under 64 are at least partly living off of pensions and 401(k)s. This would include everything from C-suite executives to union members. And don’t forget municipal workers, who make up almost 14% of the U.S. workforce. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are some 6,000 public sector retirement systems in the U.S. Collectively these plans have $4.5 trillion in assets, with 14.7 million working members and 11.2 million retirees.
      • There’s also disability insurance from the Social Security Administration that is being paid to some 9 million Americans who may receive payments many years before retirement age.
    • Savings, trading stocks, and bitcoin
      • according to a recent survey by Northwestern Mutual, average personal savings are up over 10% compared to last year, from $65,900 last year to $73,100. Average retirement savings increased 13%, from $87,500 last year to $98,800 today.
      • Credit Suisse estimates that since the beginning of 2020, “retail trading as a share of overall market activity has nearly doubled from between 15% and 18% to over 30%,” as CNBC reported.
      • Robinhood, which according to The New York Times, also reported last month that “revenue from cryptocurrency trading fees totaled $233 million, a nearly 50-fold jump from $5 million a year earlier.”
    • Working for cash, aka the under-the-table economy
      • GDP in the U.S. this year is about $22 trillion. So 13% of that is $2.86 trillion. As it turns out, $2 trillion-plus, is a number that has been thrown around quite a bit when it comes to estimating the size of the cash economy in the U.S. Even if half that money is paid out to women, that still leaves, say, $1 trillion dollars being made by men in this country off the books.
    • Living off family members
      • the Pew Research Center reported last year that the pandemic “has pushed millions of Americans, especially young adults, to move in with family members. The share of 18- to 29-year-olds living with their parents has become a majority since U.S. coronavirus cases began spreading [in early 2020], surpassing the previous peak during the Great Depression era. In July, 52% of young adults resided with one or both of their parents, up from 47% in February.”
    • Illegal work
      • According to the Washington Post, overdose deaths hit 93,000 last year, up a stunning 30% from 2019. Most of the overdoses were attributed to opioids; heroin, synthetic opioids like OxyContin and in particular Fentanyl.
      • a government report on drug trafficking arrests from five years ago notes that ​​”the majority of drug trafficking offenders were male (84.9%), the average age of these offenders at sentencing was 36 years, 70% were United States citizens (although this rate varied substantially depending on the type of drug involved), and that almost half (49.4%) of drug traffickers had little or no prior criminal history.”
      • 2 million people incarcerated in the U.S. right now. (We have the highest absolute number and the highest per capita on the planet, and hold some 25% of the world’s total prisoners, according to the ACLU.
    • Living off the land
      • “Fishing and hunting license sales increased 10% in California during the pandemic, reversing years of decline.
      • “From the start of the 2020 licensing year in May through Dec. 31, WDFW [Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife] sold nearly 45,000 more fishing licenses and 12,000 more hunting licenses than 2019. The number of new license holders — defined as someone who hadn’t purchased one for the previous five years — went up 16% for fishing licenses and almost 40% for hunters.”
      • As for growing vegetables in home gardens, yes, it is up, way up too. Even before the pandemic, there were estimates that a third of American families grew vegetables.

3. Creature Feature

Time Stamp: 1:06:49

• Sex Education
  • https://www.netflix.com/title/80197526
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Education_(TV_series)
  • A British comedy-drama streaming television series created by Laurie Nunn for Netflix.
  • The series depicts the lives of the students, staff, and parents of the fictitious Moordale Secondary School as they contend with dilemmas in their personal lives, often related to sexual intimacy.
  • It features an ensemble cast that includes Asa Butterfield, Gillian Anderson, Ncuti Gatwa, Emma Mackey, Connor Swindells, Kedar Williams-Stirling, Aimee Lou Wood, Tanya Reynolds, and Patricia Allison.
  • The first series premiered on 11 January 2019 and the second premiered on 17 January 2020. The third series was released on 17 September 2021.
  • Sex Education has been a critical and commercial success, with over 40 million viewers streaming the first series after its debut. At the BAFTA Television Awards, Wood won Best Female Comedy Performance for the second series.
  • Sex Education primarily follows Otis Milburn, an insecure student at Moordale Secondary School. Otis begins the series ambivalent about sex, in part because his divorced mother Jean is a sex therapist who frequently has affairs with her male suitors, but is unable to maintain romantic relationships. His best friend is Eric Effiong, the gay son of Ghanaian-Nigerian immigrants. Over the course of the series, Otis becomes close with Maeve Wiley, a confident student whose high intelligence is overshadowed by her troubled past.