Clearing It Up: Neo-Conservatives and Neo-Liberals
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Yesterday at 12:33am by one of my favorite alumni, Calvin Johns
Believe it or not, you can be BOTH a Neo-Con and neo-liberal. In fact, that's kinda common.
Neo-Conservatives are a POLITICAL faction that believe in a couple things: First, the average person is not smart enough to rule him/herself. Second, a small group of wealthy elites should run the country. Famous Neo-Cons: Cheney, Rove, et al.
It isn't all THAT evil of an idea. Plenty of great people in history have thought that same thing. Plato agreed with this. Most philosophers of the Middle Ages. Artists. Conservatives and Liberals (believe it or not) alike. I mean, Kant was completely torn over whether people were ready to rule themselves. He said in the end that they were, but he admitted that his culture had not trained them very well to do so.
Neo-liberalism is an ECONOMIC philosophy surrounding the idea that government should get out of the way of businesses to let the "free market" work its "natural" course. Now, this boils down to a small group of very rich people running the economy (and by extension the entire country) instead of a government, which would in this view only be necessary as an infrastructure. This idea is popular among libertarians and many seemingly conservative folk in today's society. Famous neo-liberals: Reagan, Friedman, Thatcher, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr., Obama.
See the similarities? The big one is "a small group of rich people running the show." Neo-liberals won't OVERTLY say they want businesses to run the country. They talk about freedom and free market and liberty and deregulation. The thing is, there is no such thing as a "free" or "natural" market. We MADE that market over hundreds of years.
The idea is that the experts of big business should run the economy, not the government. It doesn't take a Marxist, however, to see that a small group of wealthy business owners running the economy alongside a dissolution of the powers of government would lead to a society run by the desires and in the best interest of these already-wealthy giants.
I mean, what is the super awesome healthcare plan provided by the Left? Take tax dollars to give money to the poor, and then force the poor to spend that money on PRIVATE insurance. Wait, really? Yes, really. Tax money goes to people who have no healthcare so that they can buy healthcare from big businesses. I'm not saying that's bad; it might be a lot better than alternatives. But we just need to see what's up, K?
Neo-liberals talk about an "even playing field," but how would anything be even? I mean, if these neo-liberals get what they want, it would be AT BEST like starting a very fair and well-intentioned race with every athlete starting at a different place on the track (and a very small group starting a foot from the finish line). The race is theoretically fair, but it isn't like these neo-liberals want to take all the money in the country and split it up evenly before the starting gun. They want to start right now, each capitalist for him/herself. Each person starting in completely UNEVEN starting places (the rich already rich and the poor already poor).
Now, if you're a politician with a very old, wealthy family, the Neo-Con boat sounds great. If you're a rich business-person who needs to expand his/her business but the pesky government gets in the way, the neoliberal wagon is inviting. What if you're both? Then you're both. Easy.
I mean, technically you can't be both, but philosophically you can share both ideals. And, practically, you can talk like you're both and have double-think incorporating both sides.
I'm not badgering either camp. I happen to be neither. Just clearing up terms that appear to be opposites but are not.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
What Is your definition of AN INTELLECTUAL
How does each of you define what it means to say someone is "an intellectual?" In what sense is it a good thing to be and intellectual and in what sense is it bad? How many of you consider yourselves to be intellectuals. Name 3 or for publications which you see as intellectual, and 3 or four which are definitely not intellectual. Name the 10 top people in your lifetime, living or dead, who are intellectuals.
I should have said "how DO each of you.." I suppose I was thinking "how does ONE define" . I see The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly magazines as intellectual. People: Wm. F. Buckley Jr., Charlie Rose, Salman Rushdie, Tony Randall.
I notice that some people become PASSIONATE about ideas and insights with a passion that can endure for hours in conversations. What role, if any, does such passion play in the definition of an intellectual.
I should have said "how DO each of you.." I suppose I was thinking "how does ONE define" . I see The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly magazines as intellectual. People: Wm. F. Buckley Jr., Charlie Rose, Salman Rushdie, Tony Randall.
I notice that some people become PASSIONATE about ideas and insights with a passion that can endure for hours in conversations. What role, if any, does such passion play in the definition of an intellectual.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Ancient Myths of Santas Flying Reindeer
I shall be using this post to comment upon a number of links I have found today, which touch upon what Herodotus described in his History of the Persian Wars, regarding ancient burial practices now confirmed by archeologists
I might as well get right to the point, up front, of what is on my mind, and then below are various supporting links.
If we look at ancient texts like Herodotus and Homer, and compare them with recent archeological findings, we can begin to see how many things evolved, from simple popular notions such as Santa Claus and his flying sleigh drawn by eight reindeer (Rudolf being the most famous, but Donner [thunder] and Blitzen [blitskreig; lightening] being also noteworthy) ... not only such popular recent legends, but also the Islamic account in Hadith of the Prophet Mohammad flying upon the winged beast Buraq on his "night of power", .. and connect it with theology in Homer, and the development of Greek Christian notions of a divine incarnation of Christ the Logos as God-Man (theanthropos), together with a substitutional atonement of the Crucifixion and a Resurrection. I feel there is some connection with Patroclus donning Achilles armor, becoming the likeness of Achilles, being slain by Hector in Achilles stead, and then Hector donning Achilles armor and, also as a likeness of Achilles, being slain by Achilles, so that Achilles symbolically slays himself. Now, combine this with the fact that in the Iliad, the gods (especially Zeus, head god) are NOT portrayed as omniscient (for Zeus is tricked and distracted by Hera-Juno), but in the Odyssey, the gods ARE described as omniscient. Also, consider the scene where immortal goddess Circe OFFERS TO MAKE ODYSSEUS IMMORTAL, if only he will give up his desire to return to Ithaca and his mortal wife Penelope. Odysseus turns down the opportunity to become immortal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pazyryk_burials
of the ancient notions of flying reindeer and horses
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5199713
of the Vedic Horse Sacrifice
and of the Islamic account in Hadith of Prophet Muhammed's Night of Power when he is transported on a winged beast named Buraq (Arabic: البُراق al-Burāq "lightning")
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buraq
I have posted some of this material in Facebook, and am making certain observations in a private (St. John's alumni only) seminar on Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
Facebook has some limitations on how much one can post in any day, and so I shall gather my ideas here in blogspot, and may refer to them as I add to this post with one link, in PLURK, and elsewhere, for those who may be interested in following these ideas.
The following link will allow you to view a text book with photos regarding Herodotus on Scythian burial practices and archeologist's findings
http://penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/17-4/Rubinson.pdf
Here is the complete text of Herodotus
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2707/2707-8.txt
Here is an excerpt from Herodotus regarding the preparation of a body for burial:
These, whenever a corpse is
conveyed to them, show to those who brought it wooden models of corpses
made like reality by painting, and the best of the ways of embalming
they say is that of him whose name I think it impiety to mention when
speaking of a matter of such a kind;[73] the second which they show is
less good than this and also less expensive; and the third is the least
expensive of all. Having told them about this, they inquire of them in
which way they desire the corpse of their friend to be prepared. Then
they after they have agreed for a certain price depart out of the way,
and the others being left behind in the buildings embalm according to
the best of these ways thus:--First with a crooked iron tool they draw
out the brain through the nostrils, extracting it partly thus and partly
by pouring in drugs; and after this with a sharp stone of Ethiopia they
make a cut along the side and take out the whole contents of the belly,
and when they have cleared out the cavity and cleansed it with palm-wine
they cleanse it again with spices pounded up: then they fill the belly
with pure myrrh pounded up and with cassia and other spices except
frankincense, and sew it together again. Having so done they keep it for
embalming covered up in natron for seventy days, but for a longer time
than this it is not permitted to embalm it; and when the seventy days
are past, they wash the corpse and roll its whole body up in fine
linen[74] cut into bands, smearing these beneath with gum,[75] which the
Egyptians use generally instead of glue. Then the kinsfolk receive it
from them and have a wooden figure made in the shape of a man, and when
they have had this made they enclose the corpse, and having shut it up
within, they store it then in a sepulchral chamber, setting it to stand
upright against the wall. 87. Thus they deal with the corpses which are
prepared in the most costly way; but for those who desire the middle way
and wish to avoid great cost they prepare the corpse as follows:--having
filled their syringes with the oil which is got from cedar-wood, with
this they forthwith fill the belly of the corpse, and this they do
without having either cut it open or taken out the bowels, but they
inject the oil by the breech, and having stopped the drench from
returning back they keep it then the appointed number of days for
embalming, and on the last of the days they let the cedar oil come out
from the belly, which they before put in; and it has such power that it
brings out with it the bowels and interior organs of the body dissolved;
and the natron dissolves the flesh, so that there is left of the corpse
only the skin and the bones. When they have done this they give back the
corpse at once in that condition without working upon it any more. 88.
The third kind of embalming, by which are prepared the bodies of those
who have less means, is as follows:--they cleanse out the belly with a
purge and then keep the body for embalming during the seventy days, and
at once after that they give it back to the bringers to carry away.
89. The wives of men of rank when they die are not given at once to be
embalmed, nor such women as are very beautiful or of greater regard
than others, but on the third or fourth day after their death (and
not before) they are delivered to the embalmers. They do so about this
matter in order that the embalmers may not abuse their women, for they
say that one of them was taken once doing so to the corpse of a woman
lately dead, and his fellow-craftsman gave information. 90. Whenever
any one, either of the Egyptians themselves or of strangers, is found
to have been carried off by a crocodile or brought to his death by the
river itself, the people of any city by which he may have been cast up
on land must embalm him and lay him out in the fairest way they can
and bury him in a sacred burial-place, nor may any of his relations or
friends besides touch him, but the priests of the Nile themselves handle
the corpse and bury it as that of one who was something more than man.
...
I might as well get right to the point, up front, of what is on my mind, and then below are various supporting links.
If we look at ancient texts like Herodotus and Homer, and compare them with recent archeological findings, we can begin to see how many things evolved, from simple popular notions such as Santa Claus and his flying sleigh drawn by eight reindeer (Rudolf being the most famous, but Donner [thunder] and Blitzen [blitskreig; lightening] being also noteworthy) ... not only such popular recent legends, but also the Islamic account in Hadith of the Prophet Mohammad flying upon the winged beast Buraq on his "night of power", .. and connect it with theology in Homer, and the development of Greek Christian notions of a divine incarnation of Christ the Logos as God-Man (theanthropos), together with a substitutional atonement of the Crucifixion and a Resurrection. I feel there is some connection with Patroclus donning Achilles armor, becoming the likeness of Achilles, being slain by Hector in Achilles stead, and then Hector donning Achilles armor and, also as a likeness of Achilles, being slain by Achilles, so that Achilles symbolically slays himself. Now, combine this with the fact that in the Iliad, the gods (especially Zeus, head god) are NOT portrayed as omniscient (for Zeus is tricked and distracted by Hera-Juno), but in the Odyssey, the gods ARE described as omniscient. Also, consider the scene where immortal goddess Circe OFFERS TO MAKE ODYSSEUS IMMORTAL, if only he will give up his desire to return to Ithaca and his mortal wife Penelope. Odysseus turns down the opportunity to become immortal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pazyryk_burials
of the ancient notions of flying reindeer and horses
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5199713
of the Vedic Horse Sacrifice
and of the Islamic account in Hadith of Prophet Muhammed's Night of Power when he is transported on a winged beast named Buraq (Arabic: البُراق al-Burāq "lightning")
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buraq
I have posted some of this material in Facebook, and am making certain observations in a private (St. John's alumni only) seminar on Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
Facebook has some limitations on how much one can post in any day, and so I shall gather my ideas here in blogspot, and may refer to them as I add to this post with one link, in PLURK, and elsewhere, for those who may be interested in following these ideas.
The following link will allow you to view a text book with photos regarding Herodotus on Scythian burial practices and archeologist's findings
http://penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/17-4/Rubinson.pdf
Here is the complete text of Herodotus
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2707/2707-8.txt
Here is an excerpt from Herodotus regarding the preparation of a body for burial:
These, whenever a corpse is
conveyed to them, show to those who brought it wooden models of corpses
made like reality by painting, and the best of the ways of embalming
they say is that of him whose name I think it impiety to mention when
speaking of a matter of such a kind;[73] the second which they show is
less good than this and also less expensive; and the third is the least
expensive of all. Having told them about this, they inquire of them in
which way they desire the corpse of their friend to be prepared. Then
they after they have agreed for a certain price depart out of the way,
and the others being left behind in the buildings embalm according to
the best of these ways thus:--First with a crooked iron tool they draw
out the brain through the nostrils, extracting it partly thus and partly
by pouring in drugs; and after this with a sharp stone of Ethiopia they
make a cut along the side and take out the whole contents of the belly,
and when they have cleared out the cavity and cleansed it with palm-wine
they cleanse it again with spices pounded up: then they fill the belly
with pure myrrh pounded up and with cassia and other spices except
frankincense, and sew it together again. Having so done they keep it for
embalming covered up in natron for seventy days, but for a longer time
than this it is not permitted to embalm it; and when the seventy days
are past, they wash the corpse and roll its whole body up in fine
linen[74] cut into bands, smearing these beneath with gum,[75] which the
Egyptians use generally instead of glue. Then the kinsfolk receive it
from them and have a wooden figure made in the shape of a man, and when
they have had this made they enclose the corpse, and having shut it up
within, they store it then in a sepulchral chamber, setting it to stand
upright against the wall. 87. Thus they deal with the corpses which are
prepared in the most costly way; but for those who desire the middle way
and wish to avoid great cost they prepare the corpse as follows:--having
filled their syringes with the oil which is got from cedar-wood, with
this they forthwith fill the belly of the corpse, and this they do
without having either cut it open or taken out the bowels, but they
inject the oil by the breech, and having stopped the drench from
returning back they keep it then the appointed number of days for
embalming, and on the last of the days they let the cedar oil come out
from the belly, which they before put in; and it has such power that it
brings out with it the bowels and interior organs of the body dissolved;
and the natron dissolves the flesh, so that there is left of the corpse
only the skin and the bones. When they have done this they give back the
corpse at once in that condition without working upon it any more. 88.
The third kind of embalming, by which are prepared the bodies of those
who have less means, is as follows:--they cleanse out the belly with a
purge and then keep the body for embalming during the seventy days, and
at once after that they give it back to the bringers to carry away.
89. The wives of men of rank when they die are not given at once to be
embalmed, nor such women as are very beautiful or of greater regard
than others, but on the third or fourth day after their death (and
not before) they are delivered to the embalmers. They do so about this
matter in order that the embalmers may not abuse their women, for they
say that one of them was taken once doing so to the corpse of a woman
lately dead, and his fellow-craftsman gave information. 90. Whenever
any one, either of the Egyptians themselves or of strangers, is found
to have been carried off by a crocodile or brought to his death by the
river itself, the people of any city by which he may have been cast up
on land must embalm him and lay him out in the fairest way they can
and bury him in a sacred burial-place, nor may any of his relations or
friends besides touch him, but the priests of the Nile themselves handle
the corpse and bury it as that of one who was something more than man.
...
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Dialog with Conservatives
Lillian
I completely agree with you, Michelle. It's important for wronged individuals to reclaim their dignity when it has been bruised.
Taynia
I can't agree more!! he made a fool out of her and his staff....let him sing about crying in Argentina by himself!
Cathy
I am not happy with Governor Sanford. He had been doing so many things right now he bucked it up.
Rose
This just confirms Mitt Romney was the right candidate as we wrote over two years ago (by process of elimination). All the other candidates were serial adulterers.
Jeanne
I don't know about this. I can see both sides, you're darned if you do and darned if you don't.
But the one thing I think we have to remember is that we are all human and unfortunately he may pay dearly for this. Which also means that Jenny and his four boys pay dearly too!
Joe
We need more information before we can fairly judge this man. There were separated for two weeks.
Lisa
Thank God she has some gumption!
William
well, true, but mainstream America is not open minded enough to have a Mormon in the White House, yet...
Rose
Yes they are.
Christian
Rose - I am totally with you on this one! and William, in an era of "firsts" for everything I would contend that America is entirely "open minded enough to have a Mormon in the White House."
David
What a woman. True class and dignity. For a long time I had respect for Gov Sanford, today it is gone. I am sorry but I cannot have respect for a man that would do that to his wife. What a coward and a jerk.
Brigitte
I am impressed with Jenny's desire to maintain her dignity in the eyes of her four sons. That's something Mr. Sanford didn't think of before allowing some parts of his body to overtake his brain.
Clifford
why is it a catholic can be a president but a MORMON? i dont get it. whats wrong with having any Religious man as a president? Why cant a MORMON be president? what a crazy statement that is William
Rose
Hear anyone complaining about Harry Reid's religion? As far as Sanford goes, he has known for months he was being considered for 2012. Therefore, he's also arrogant and self-delusional. Guess that explains the pained expression.
Christian
...the evangelicals (the only one's not "open minded enough to have a Mormon") will be split between Huck and Palin and will consequently be canceled out. They will then ignore their unjust animosities towards Mormons in the face of another four years of Obamification.
Jonathan
I think she was right to do that. The manner and tone of that statement showed dignity and polish. Mark Sanford made a huge mistake that he will have to reconcile.
As to the Judgment of, I feel that should remain between him and the Almighty. It is not for us.
Reid
Jenny Sanford has always demonstrated herself to be a classy woman. And she continues to do so.
Rose
We cannot afford another split in the party.
Craig
She is a remarkable woman. She made the right choice, se tried, he didn't-Goodbye
William
You know darn well that they almost didnt elect John F. Kennedy precisely BECAUSE he was Catholic, and they had a press conference where he explained that he would not take orders from the Papacy. That is why JFK was the FIRST Roman Catholic president. And you know there is a prejudice against Jews, Atheists, people of color, and females (who only got the right to vote in 1918, which is not so very long ago. And Civil Rights didnt really get moving at all until 1950s and 1960s. So you know perfectly well that the American majority will be prejudiced against LDS (Latter Day Saints), and Jehovah's Witnesses. Things should not be that way, but they are and only very slowly do they change.
Jim
Her statement was truly classy. Maybe she should run for his expiring term!
William
The only crazy thing is to live in denial of the fact that America has several centuries of bigotry and prejudice which it is only slowly outgrowing.
Rose
Hello William Van Winkle, a black man was just elected the most powerful man on earth.
Deb
God bless Jenny and her boys!!!!!
William
yes, Rose, but how many centuries did that take? hmmm...
William
A mere two centuries ago, we were busily committing genocide against the Native Americans, blacks were in slavery, women could not vote... and now suddenly we are such a fair minded free society, and a lot of history never happened? I know people in the South who despise Lincoln and think he was a krypto-Communist. And there are vast areas of America where people cling to guns and religion.
Chuck
It's great to see our tax dollars goto waste because he can't keep it in his pants!
Rose
Bang
Radford
William, I'm from the South. Lincoln wasn't a krypto-Communist, he was an anti-Federalist. Please, get your history right.
William
I also question the notion that a president of the USA is "the most powerful man on earth" ... in fact, I think that chauvinistic attitudes like that are part of the disease that afflicts the American mentality, that America is the greatest, the world's policeman, with gunpoint democracy. What is the matter with Canada, and New Zealand Australia and Great Britain and France, and any number of other countries. Why is America any better than the rest? And for your information, no president is "our commander in chief" because the USA is not a military state (yet). A president is only "commander in chief" of the armed forces.
It not the history that needs correcting, but the mentality of various right-wing groups. I have personally heard people in the South speak at length about Lincoln as a communist, and then play a lot of "Wish I were in Dixie" music.
Radford
Canada couldn't beat Vermont William. You know it, I know it, the Canadians know it.
William
yes, but, Radford, your attitude is precisely a symptom of the disease which afflicts right wing American Republican war-monger extremists. The world is not about "beating up" every other nation. The world is about getting along, peacefully, before we all die.
I dont have to leave this country, I merely have to sit back and watch the conservatives crumble under the weight of their own prejudices
Duane
William. Wake up. Quit dreaming. This country is the envy of all others in the world. Many hate it because we do good and many want to live in it because we do good. Regardless of anything, to have a country this great, you should realize that it has to be fought for, against people that do not like giving its citizens freedom. Simply put, they want to kill us for our way of life. Unless they learn they are wrong to attack us, they should die for that notion. Dead. Get it?
William
America is declining in part because of the conservatives' attitudes of "might makes right", and "my way or the highway"
Rose
Goodnight Comrade William
Tim
Jeeze this is embarrassing, Republicans left and right admitting they're having issues controlling their ding dong's. Freakin idiot's.
Duane
Gee Tim, that's the difference between GOP cheaters and DEM cheaters. They admit it and don't lie under oath and cost the govt. tons of money only to see the admittance.
Now who's babysitting John Edward's bastard kid tonight?
Tim
Isn't that the truth Duane. I'm Republican btw, but I call it like I see it. I expect that from DumbocRATS who routinely support fruity tootie marriage, no excuse for a Republican.
I completely agree with you, Michelle. It's important for wronged individuals to reclaim their dignity when it has been bruised.
Taynia
I can't agree more!! he made a fool out of her and his staff....let him sing about crying in Argentina by himself!
Cathy
I am not happy with Governor Sanford. He had been doing so many things right now he bucked it up.
Rose
This just confirms Mitt Romney was the right candidate as we wrote over two years ago (by process of elimination). All the other candidates were serial adulterers.
Jeanne
I don't know about this. I can see both sides, you're darned if you do and darned if you don't.
But the one thing I think we have to remember is that we are all human and unfortunately he may pay dearly for this. Which also means that Jenny and his four boys pay dearly too!
Joe
We need more information before we can fairly judge this man. There were separated for two weeks.
Lisa
Thank God she has some gumption!
William
well, true, but mainstream America is not open minded enough to have a Mormon in the White House, yet...
Rose
Yes they are.
Christian
Rose - I am totally with you on this one! and William, in an era of "firsts" for everything I would contend that America is entirely "open minded enough to have a Mormon in the White House."
David
What a woman. True class and dignity. For a long time I had respect for Gov Sanford, today it is gone. I am sorry but I cannot have respect for a man that would do that to his wife. What a coward and a jerk.
Brigitte
I am impressed with Jenny's desire to maintain her dignity in the eyes of her four sons. That's something Mr. Sanford didn't think of before allowing some parts of his body to overtake his brain.
Clifford
why is it a catholic can be a president but a MORMON? i dont get it. whats wrong with having any Religious man as a president? Why cant a MORMON be president? what a crazy statement that is William
Rose
Hear anyone complaining about Harry Reid's religion? As far as Sanford goes, he has known for months he was being considered for 2012. Therefore, he's also arrogant and self-delusional. Guess that explains the pained expression.
Christian
...the evangelicals (the only one's not "open minded enough to have a Mormon") will be split between Huck and Palin and will consequently be canceled out. They will then ignore their unjust animosities towards Mormons in the face of another four years of Obamification.
Jonathan
I think she was right to do that. The manner and tone of that statement showed dignity and polish. Mark Sanford made a huge mistake that he will have to reconcile.
As to the Judgment of, I feel that should remain between him and the Almighty. It is not for us.
Reid
Jenny Sanford has always demonstrated herself to be a classy woman. And she continues to do so.
Rose
We cannot afford another split in the party.
Craig
She is a remarkable woman. She made the right choice, se tried, he didn't-Goodbye
William
You know darn well that they almost didnt elect John F. Kennedy precisely BECAUSE he was Catholic, and they had a press conference where he explained that he would not take orders from the Papacy. That is why JFK was the FIRST Roman Catholic president. And you know there is a prejudice against Jews, Atheists, people of color, and females (who only got the right to vote in 1918, which is not so very long ago. And Civil Rights didnt really get moving at all until 1950s and 1960s. So you know perfectly well that the American majority will be prejudiced against LDS (Latter Day Saints), and Jehovah's Witnesses. Things should not be that way, but they are and only very slowly do they change.
Jim
Her statement was truly classy. Maybe she should run for his expiring term!
William
The only crazy thing is to live in denial of the fact that America has several centuries of bigotry and prejudice which it is only slowly outgrowing.
Rose
Hello William Van Winkle, a black man was just elected the most powerful man on earth.
Deb
God bless Jenny and her boys!!!!!
William
yes, Rose, but how many centuries did that take? hmmm...
William
A mere two centuries ago, we were busily committing genocide against the Native Americans, blacks were in slavery, women could not vote... and now suddenly we are such a fair minded free society, and a lot of history never happened? I know people in the South who despise Lincoln and think he was a krypto-Communist. And there are vast areas of America where people cling to guns and religion.
Chuck
It's great to see our tax dollars goto waste because he can't keep it in his pants!
Rose
Bang
Radford
William, I'm from the South. Lincoln wasn't a krypto-Communist, he was an anti-Federalist. Please, get your history right.
William
I also question the notion that a president of the USA is "the most powerful man on earth" ... in fact, I think that chauvinistic attitudes like that are part of the disease that afflicts the American mentality, that America is the greatest, the world's policeman, with gunpoint democracy. What is the matter with Canada, and New Zealand Australia and Great Britain and France, and any number of other countries. Why is America any better than the rest? And for your information, no president is "our commander in chief" because the USA is not a military state (yet). A president is only "commander in chief" of the armed forces.
It not the history that needs correcting, but the mentality of various right-wing groups. I have personally heard people in the South speak at length about Lincoln as a communist, and then play a lot of "Wish I were in Dixie" music.
Radford
Canada couldn't beat Vermont William. You know it, I know it, the Canadians know it.
William
yes, but, Radford, your attitude is precisely a symptom of the disease which afflicts right wing American Republican war-monger extremists. The world is not about "beating up" every other nation. The world is about getting along, peacefully, before we all die.
I dont have to leave this country, I merely have to sit back and watch the conservatives crumble under the weight of their own prejudices
Duane
William. Wake up. Quit dreaming. This country is the envy of all others in the world. Many hate it because we do good and many want to live in it because we do good. Regardless of anything, to have a country this great, you should realize that it has to be fought for, against people that do not like giving its citizens freedom. Simply put, they want to kill us for our way of life. Unless they learn they are wrong to attack us, they should die for that notion. Dead. Get it?
William
America is declining in part because of the conservatives' attitudes of "might makes right", and "my way or the highway"
Rose
Goodnight Comrade William
Tim
Jeeze this is embarrassing, Republicans left and right admitting they're having issues controlling their ding dong's. Freakin idiot's.
Duane
Gee Tim, that's the difference between GOP cheaters and DEM cheaters. They admit it and don't lie under oath and cost the govt. tons of money only to see the admittance.
Now who's babysitting John Edward's bastard kid tonight?
Tim
Isn't that the truth Duane. I'm Republican btw, but I call it like I see it. I expect that from DumbocRATS who routinely support fruity tootie marriage, no excuse for a Republican.
Clipperz password storage and retrieval
I have been using clipperz.com for a few weeks now as well as 4mypasswords.com
clipperz.com offers you the ability to RANDOMLY generate a long strong password, one that you could never possibly remember, and barely write down, since it contains all sorts of random signs as well as numbers and upper/lower case letters.
clipperz.com does have a gmail support forum that one may join to post questions, and see what users around the world are saying.
I have reached the point with these sorts of passwords services that I trust them.
Now, I must reach the point where I trust clipperz to generate a password that I could never remember, and then depend upon clipperz each time I want to log into the password protected site.
To acquire this trust (faith) I will start with some website logins that I can AFFORD to lose.
http://www.yourdictionary.com/community/forums/
This is a very interesting dictionary site which emails a daily new word of interest together with some history, etymology and examples of use.
I added the website link, and my user name to clipperz.com
THEN I asked clipperz to generate a random strong password and store it for me.
NEXT, I log into my profile at yourdictionary.com and CHANGE my current simple password to that new strong clipperz password.
I will get used to launching clipperz.com and logging into yourdictionary.com forums, copying and pasting my strong password from clipperz.
Periodically I will CHANGE that password to a NEW randomly generated clipperz password.
IF I can go for some months without losing my access to the test site, then I will trust clipperz.com for more crucial accounts and password generation.
Ah, but, you will say, suppose, just suppose that clipperz.com site is DOWN for a period of time for some reason, OR suppose I should lose my internet connection, but need a password.
Well, clipperz.com allows me to generate a STAND ALONE executable version which I may store on a memory stick or some other storage device, and run at any time, to retrieve my password information without need for internet access. AND clipperz allows one to EXPORT the password database to an encrypted form of export file, so that it may be IMPORTED into a different clipperz account.
I have not tested all these features, but I shall as time goes by.
Password services such as this DO NOT store your user name and password, which are used to encrypt and decrypt your passwords, so IF YOU FORGET your clipperz password or user name, then there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY THEY CAN RETRIEVE YOUR INFORMATION, and they DO NOT store your email address, so you remain anonymous, if you so desire.
One depressing but clever use for these services is to store all your bank account passwords, and provide the user name and password in your WILL so that your heir or heirs will be able to access such accounts after your demise.
clipperz.com offers you the ability to RANDOMLY generate a long strong password, one that you could never possibly remember, and barely write down, since it contains all sorts of random signs as well as numbers and upper/lower case letters.
clipperz.com does have a gmail support forum that one may join to post questions, and see what users around the world are saying.
I have reached the point with these sorts of passwords services that I trust them.
Now, I must reach the point where I trust clipperz to generate a password that I could never remember, and then depend upon clipperz each time I want to log into the password protected site.
To acquire this trust (faith) I will start with some website logins that I can AFFORD to lose.
http://www.yourdictionary.com/community/forums/
This is a very interesting dictionary site which emails a daily new word of interest together with some history, etymology and examples of use.
I added the website link, and my user name to clipperz.com
THEN I asked clipperz to generate a random strong password and store it for me.
NEXT, I log into my profile at yourdictionary.com and CHANGE my current simple password to that new strong clipperz password.
I will get used to launching clipperz.com and logging into yourdictionary.com forums, copying and pasting my strong password from clipperz.
Periodically I will CHANGE that password to a NEW randomly generated clipperz password.
IF I can go for some months without losing my access to the test site, then I will trust clipperz.com for more crucial accounts and password generation.
Ah, but, you will say, suppose, just suppose that clipperz.com site is DOWN for a period of time for some reason, OR suppose I should lose my internet connection, but need a password.
Well, clipperz.com allows me to generate a STAND ALONE executable version which I may store on a memory stick or some other storage device, and run at any time, to retrieve my password information without need for internet access. AND clipperz allows one to EXPORT the password database to an encrypted form of export file, so that it may be IMPORTED into a different clipperz account.
I have not tested all these features, but I shall as time goes by.
Password services such as this DO NOT store your user name and password, which are used to encrypt and decrypt your passwords, so IF YOU FORGET your clipperz password or user name, then there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY THEY CAN RETRIEVE YOUR INFORMATION, and they DO NOT store your email address, so you remain anonymous, if you so desire.
One depressing but clever use for these services is to store all your bank account passwords, and provide the user name and password in your WILL so that your heir or heirs will be able to access such accounts after your demise.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
My Shrinks and I
I once asked my shrink (an M.D. who did counseling and prescribed things like inderal and valium for a bargain $80 for an hour on a Saturday)... I asked him to "draw me a tree", he grined a wicked knowing smile, and in 30 seconds, produced a drawing of a tree all chopped in pieces with an axe lodged in the stump (and a superb drawing it was... revealing that the good doctor was a very gifted sketch artist). He, by the way, on my very first visit, sized me up as an "intellectual type" (Lord only knows WHY) and ordered me to read "From Sad to Glad" by one of the pioneers of the psychoactive drug reserpine (from the herb Rawolfia Reserpina) and to also read "If you meet the Buddha On The Road Kill Him" by psychotherapist Sheldon Kopp.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Atavistic Cthonic and Christian Neolithic Archetypes
Curious to relate, it was my participation in DO IT AGAIN group, rereading Iliad, which led me to purchase "Greek Religion" by Walter Burkert, a German scholar (in English translation.) Burkert's book occasionally describes somethings as "atavistic"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atavism
while others are "chthonic"
http://www.answers.com/topic/chthonic
Occasionally Berkert mentions findings from the Neolithic and Bronze ages which shed some light upon Homeric religion and which blow me away with the awareness brought of the vast antiquity of origins in the mists of human prehistory. Disputes have arisen as to whether it is meaningful to speak of "sacrificial atonement" with regard to Patroclus, and then Hector, donning Achilles armor. Personally, I cannot help but suspect that aspects of Christianity must have lain hidden, nascent, inchoate, in the language and myths of ancient Greece.
http://www.terrapsych.com/jungdefs.html
Archetype: (from St. Augustine and Jacob Burkhardt's "primordial image"; also, a version of Levy-Bruhl's "representations collectives"): a constitutive prototype or form or Gestalt within the collective unconscious; a ruling "organ" of the psyche and Platonic blueprint for its activity. Complexes of the collective unconscious. Images and emotions (both must be present). The psychic form of preformed mechanism for the development of consciousness by ordering the chaos of perceptions into meaningful patterns. Instinctive behavior pattern grounded in the fundamental structure of living matter. Archetypes organize our perceptions, collect images, regulate, modify, motivate, and even develop conscious contents, plot the course of developments in advance, set up bridges between the ego and its instinctive and collective roots, lead the channeling and conversion of instinctual energy, and "represent the authentic element of spirit" and a "spiritual goal."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atavism
while others are "chthonic"
http://www.answers.com/topic/chthonic
Occasionally Berkert mentions findings from the Neolithic and Bronze ages which shed some light upon Homeric religion and which blow me away with the awareness brought of the vast antiquity of origins in the mists of human prehistory. Disputes have arisen as to whether it is meaningful to speak of "sacrificial atonement" with regard to Patroclus, and then Hector, donning Achilles armor. Personally, I cannot help but suspect that aspects of Christianity must have lain hidden, nascent, inchoate, in the language and myths of ancient Greece.
http://www.terrapsych.com/jungdefs.html
Archetype: (from St. Augustine and Jacob Burkhardt's "primordial image"; also, a version of Levy-Bruhl's "representations collectives"): a constitutive prototype or form or Gestalt within the collective unconscious; a ruling "organ" of the psyche and Platonic blueprint for its activity. Complexes of the collective unconscious. Images and emotions (both must be present). The psychic form of preformed mechanism for the development of consciousness by ordering the chaos of perceptions into meaningful patterns. Instinctive behavior pattern grounded in the fundamental structure of living matter. Archetypes organize our perceptions, collect images, regulate, modify, motivate, and even develop conscious contents, plot the course of developments in advance, set up bridges between the ego and its instinctive and collective roots, lead the channeling and conversion of instinctual energy, and "represent the authentic element of spirit" and a "spiritual goal."
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Father Justin Monk at Sinai Egypt
I am very glad to have received your email reply.
Yes, indeed, your memory is correct! That gallon of leather conditioner that I gave to Fr. Nicholas was a product which my late step mother Eleanor Spalding used to mix in the basement lab and sell to libraries, and it was called MITT SPITT, (refering to the leather catcher's mitts which are also in need of such an oil conditioner.)
I have not yet succeeded in finding the letter which I wrote to you on my disk drives, but I DID find a few blogs in which I reminisce about my time in the monastery, and mention you, Fr. Justin. I also blogged Fr. Lazarus, after he passed away.
Blog entry:
Thirty years ago, I spent a year in a Greek monastery as a novice. I discovered myself to be too weak and unsuitable for monastic life, but one of my fellow novices stayed on to become a monk, then priest, and was even selected to be consecrated a Bishop, but did not desire consecration and left that monastery. I heard some years ago that he went to St. Catherine's Monastery at Mt. Sinai.
Suddenly, the other day, I got the idea to do a google search, and sure enough, found articles about him, and his photo.
Fr. Justin is now in his 50's but looks very much as he did in his 20's when I knew him,.... it was a real trip down memory lane to do that google search!
His parents were Baptist preachers in Texas (where he was raised).
I remember seeing his parents the first time they came to visit him in the monastery, during his first year as a novice. Being Baptists, they were very spooked by all the icons paintings. They stared at them as if they were the idols of blasphemous, deranged, demonic savages. It may well be to this day the greatest heartbreak of their lives that their son has chosen to lead the life of a Greek Orthodox monastic.
I am sure that Fr. Justin has some flaws, or shortcomings, since no one is perfect, but I would venture to guess that he is in reality one of the most saintly people I have ever known personally.
I see Father Justin as an even-keeled ship which weathered that storm of scandals and controversy for many years as best he could, and finally found safe harbor at St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai.
When a monk is tonsured into the Great (Angelic) Schema (Greek tradition), he vows (among many things) a vow of "constancy," to remain at the monastery of his tonsure at all costs until death. I am sure Fr. Justin did not take lightly his decision to leave the monastery where he took that vow of constancy. I imagine that he stayed on as long as his conscience would
permit. Perhaps it was the impending threat of consecration as a Bishop which tipped the balance and confirmed Justin in his decision to depart. Once a Bishop, he would no longer be a simple monk or priest, but would be more deeply embroiled in politics and controversy. But these are only my personal conjectures. I shall perhaps never know the details of his decision to leave. Ultimately, certain grave matters and decisions in life are between our self and God alone, and no one else. We certainly know what is in our own hearts, though perhaps no one else knows or understands. And we always have the voice of our own conscience which we can never escape. We certainly hope that God also, as the only "knower of hearts," knows what is in our hearts better than we ourselves do.
The words of St. Paul frequently echo through my mind, "God places His treasures of gold in earthen vessels (vessels of clay)." Flawed human natures are those "vessels of clay" of which St. Paul speaks. Each of us is a vessel of clay, flawed, limited, subject to so many base sentiments and appetites. The
"treasures of gold" are those eternal religious truths which are handed down
from generation to generation in various traditions. Ironically, as I now sit
writing this, someone has just posted in IRC Dalnet #philosophy a reference to Ezekiel 28,14:15:
You were the anointed Cherub who covers;
I established you;
You were on the Holy Mountain of God;
You walked back and forth
In the midst of fiery stones,
You were perfect in your ways
From the day you were created,
Until iniquity was found in you.
In the context of this passage in Ezekiel, the reference is to the King of
Tyre, but some see this as a reference to Lucifer, the Angel of Light, who fell
from Heaven and became Satan. Corruption is possible even in Heaven!
Over the ten years that I frequently stayed at the monastery and saw Father Justin, I never once saw him angry. I never once heard a judgmental or gossiping word from his mouth.
One very hot August day, thirty years ago, I was in a cramped corner of the
little church, behind an open window shutter, chanting Byzantine hymns during an hours-long service, together with five other novices, one of whom was Justin. There was no air to breath in the small space where I stood behind that open shutter. The heat was unbearable. I was not a brave person. I was not a struggler. I was not the sort of person cut out for monastic or ascetic life (though I only came to realize that years later). In my discomfort I squirmed and fretted in a most undignified manner, given my
circumstances. Suddenly, Justin, sensing my distress, skillfully moved me to
one side and switched places. I was now standing in the breezy cooler position that he had enjoyed only a moment before. I was grateful for his selfless gesture, but I was not more happy, but rather less happy, realizing that I had been wrong to complain of my circumstances. That little suffering, which I had rejected, was a small pearl meant for my crown but now lost to me, a pearl which Justin had now earned for himself with selfless nobility. I am certain that Fr. Justin has earned many such pearls for his crown in the form of instances of personal long suffering and self-denial of which no one shall ever be aware except for Justin, God and the Angels.
One day, Justin and I were working with others to clean out the attic of the
old coach-house. Novices were not permitted to speak to one another. A novice was only permitted to speak to a tonsured monk. Suddenly, Justin turned to me with a knowing expression of firm faith in his eyes, and told me something about the New Testament which I shall never forget. He uttered only a few words, but my knowledge of Greek and the New Testament was sufficient to fill in the complete meaning and import of what he said. We are all familiar at Christmas time with the "Manger" scene of the Nativity. Most of us probably think of a manger as a barn or cave. But the Greek word for manger in the New Testament is "phatnee," which designated the feeding trough into which grain or corn is placed to feed the livestock. Of course, the shape of a feeding trough is also the perfect shape for a baby's cradle. The word "phatnee" comes from a root which means "to eat." Those blood cells called "phagocytes," which eat other cells, derive their name from that same Greek root. The Italian "mange!" (eat!) demonstrates the same root meaning of "manger." The word "crib," which is a place to put a baby is also a "corn crib." The theological significance is that the infant Christ is placed in the feeding trough or manger as the heavenly grain or bread (Eucharist) to nourish the logical sheep (logika probata) of the flock of believers.
I remember being at Fr. Justin's service of monastic tonsure. Shortly after he
was tonsured, something quite amazing took place. One day, during Liturgy, he was taken by surprise as he was escorted up to the royal gates and tonsured a Reader. The very next day, during Liturgy, he was again taken by surprise as he was escorted up to the alter and ordained a Deacon. The next day, he was again shocked as he was escorted up to the Bishop for a third time, and ordained a Priest. Everyone recognized Justin's spiritual gifts from his earliest days as a novice.
Father Justin was always very clever with tools and machinery as well as
computer software and hardware. Father Justin was placed in charge of a fancy jigsaw cutting machine in the monastery workshop. One day, a Greek gentleman was given permission to use the jigsaw. Being a very proud and independent macho sort of a fellow, he told Fr. Justin that he knew all about such machines and needed no help or assistance. Fr. Justin meekly stood by, handing the man one new blade after another, as he improperly inserted it in the machine, turned the machine on, snapped the blade, turned the machine off, and then requested another blade from Fr. Justin's dwindling supply. Finally when there was one blade left, the man requested Fr. Justin's assistance, and Fr. Justin properly inserted it, and turned the machine on. It took great patience and humility for Fr. Justin not to speak out and humiliate this proud man.
Some years after I had left the monastery, I had a very vivid dream in which
Father Justin described to me the extraordinary beauty of sunsets in Texas, and wistfully said that he missed them greatly. The dream seemed so vivid that I went to the monastery and related it to Fr. Justin, feeling some concern that he was somehow unhappy or restless in his vocation. He seemed slightly puzzled and dismayed that I would attach such significance to a dream, as that is an unorthodox thing to do, though he did not utter a word of rebuke. He simply replied that, though sunsets in Texas were indeed very beautiful, he in no way missed them and was quite happy and content in his vocation at the monastery.
There are important lessons to be learned here, both from wonderful people like Justin and thousands like him in the world, as well as lessons from those unfortunates who suffered from downfall, temptation and scandal.
In an interview for an article, Justin states:
"I'd spend most of my time reading books, especially about history," he said. "I'd spend so much time in my room that my mother would tell me to go outside for fresh air. However, I wanted to learn. I was interested in history and places like this."
I surmise that Justin from his earliest years harbored within himself the grace and purity and gentleness of spirit which he exhibits today. His tonsure and ordination, training and experiences and suffering may have perfected his grace, but these things were not the source of that grace. The grace was there all along, as a gift. The mystery of such a gift is forever hidden from our understanding, as to why one individual is born into the world with such a grace, while countless others are born into the world devoid of such gifts.
I might, in closing, mention that I have written at my website about another novice from those monastery years, Fr. Lazarus, in a page entitled "The Repose of Father Lazarus - Page 362."
The Repose of Father Lazarus
Fr. Lazarus, Fr. Justin and I were all novices together. Fr. Lazarus chose to leave the monastic life after 20 years and marry. Fr. Justin chose to leave the monastery but continues in the monastic life to this day. I found myself totally unsuitable for the life and never took monastic vows. Now my beliefs and writings would be considered unorthodox and un-Christian by those many people that I knew from my monastery days, a fact which I understand perfectly and accept.
It is in "The Repose of Father Lazarus," on page 362, that I write:
(excerpt from page 362)
If controversy and disagreement and scandal were coinage, then poverty would have been eliminated millennia ago, and all would be wealthy.
For me, personally, (and this is quite a subjective statement), there is one shining light, one star, one bright ray which shines out from amidst all religious dispute and scandal. Many will disagree violently with what I am about to say. That one ray of light which shines out, for me, is simply this:
that individual who so ardently desires union with the divine, that they renounce the material world and their bodily nature and appetites, that individual is truly an example of something "super-natural."
The laws of physics teach us that no work may be performed without an expenditure of energy and force. All religions involve a sacrifice or offering of some sort, whether it is a lamb or a fruit or a flower. But the highest offering which any person can make is an offering of the Self and the Will and the Ego and their own biological Nature. The most profound act that any human can attempt is the religious act of renunciation and asceticism. The energy and force which makes possible this greatest of religious acts is a divine energy and force which cannot help but unite that individual with the Divinity. The ancients recognized that "nature abhors a vacuum," so when an ascetic creates a place, a space, a vacuum devoid of egotism and sense-gratification, then we may be certain that it is the very God which rushes into that space, to fill that vacuum and void, and it is that Divine Energy which constantly works to maintain the sanctity of that empty space, that holy place and inner sanctuary.
A wise theologian (Elder Panteleimon) once said, "Whenever you meet a monk or a nun (a renunciate), know that you have met a veteran of many battles."
The battle and struggle of the religious renunciate is constant, from moment to moment, a daily battle, against desires and the pleasures of the senses.
The worldly person will say, "But this is sick, abnormal, unnatural! Better to indulge ones senses and appetites and desires, since such is our biological nature."
But whether we have ever undertaken the ascetic life, even for a brief while, or if we have always been worldly in our nature and pursuits, we all know well in our 'heart of hearts' that there is no pleasure or enjoyment which yields lasting satisfaction and satisfies our endless hungers and thirsts for more and more and more.
As in any battle or war, there are those few soldiers who make it to the end,
and become venerable veterans, and there are the majority who fall in battle or who are taken prisoner. But it is the total effort of all combatants which contributes to the ultimate victory and liberation.
Perhaps one of the greatest religious truths ever stated is simply that 'The
Judgment of God is a Mystery to Man." Who can know or say, in the ultimate scheme of things, after all the eternities of time have played themselves out, what is the value and purpose of any single human life and effort. Who can say what constitutes victory and defeat?
Let us hope that the power of the offering of our will and ego and self, or even the gesture of such an offering, is in itself so pure and powerful that it transcends all dogma and doctrine, that even the flame of such an intention and resignation is fiery enough to burn away any sin of human frailty.
Perhaps that Compassionate Lord of the Vineyard, who paid the penny wage to those who labored only the final hour of the day, will also have compassion upon those who labored in the heat of the afternoon, but fell weakened before the close of day.
(end of excerpt)
As I conclude this post, I am listening to PBS "History of the Jewish Peoples."
They have just quoted Moses Maimonides, in his "Guide for the Perplexed," "I wish to help that one man... to achieve a state of perfection and peace."
(also mentioned in that segment are the Kibush Hashem)
How does one attain peace, inner peace? As a new convert to Orthodox Christianity, I loved to gossip about what I considered to be the incorrect practices of various Churches; what the Metropolia Russians did, what the New Calendar Greeks did.
During a visit to the monastery, shortly after my baptism there, I met a Russian priest who had come for a visit. As we walked in the woods behind the monastery, I told him my story of how I had come to be baptized, and of the scandalous differences that I had observed in various jurisdictions. The priest had patiently listened to me in silence. When I concluded my narrative, he looked at me with great seriousness and simply said, "And have you found peace now? Are you at peace?"
I imagine Fr. Justin has found peace, looking at his photo with St. Catherine's Monastery in the background.
=====================================================
(one reader comments):
I read your post (#956 on 8/19/2, "Finding Inner Peace") with great interest. I find the basic ideals which motivate the Christian renunciate are quite similar to those of the Hindu ascetic, although the concept of the end goal for which one strives is different.
Your observation that people are endowed with a certain Grace that sets them apart from others was also very well put. I would say however, that the greatest state of Grace in my view is the capacity to perceive and be grateful for the gifts one does have. That awareness may be a combination of natural ability and hard work.
Each of us must "count our blessings" and be grateful for those gifts which we have received. Truly, attitude is everything.
But as you well know, as a former aspirant to the monastic life, one may KNOW something intellectually to be true and act out something completely at odds with that. Life is a greased ladder. A positive outlook is impossible to sustain indefinitely, even if one wins a lifetime supply of Prozac.
As for the confession of father Elias, I may have a perspective of it that is somewhat different, as a non-Christian.
I think I have a big problem with the notion of sex as a sin, and of beginning with the premise that humans are basically sinners. Humility and the acceptance of human frailty is good -- but I am not sure what so much self-hatred accomplishes.
I think is is the extreme guilt, shame, and all those negative feelings that are associated with the sexual act actually make one think about it more. This is a human attribute. One cannot escape, as you put it, this "vessel of clay" that one inhabits. The average person who begins a diet or attempts to fast thinks of nothing but food all day long. So, for example, say I wanted to lose weight, rather than thinking I have to subsist on carrots and vegetation and if I give in to any real food I am a worthless and disgusting person completely devoid of will power -- I can focus, instead, on the constructive things I need to do that I perhaps have procrastinated. I can schedule a day that is full of those things and as a natural consequence, I will feel good about myself and in the process not use food to fill the void in my life.
Sex is a basic human impulse, not a flaw. Like all other human impulses, it can be indulged in in excess. The point in the religious life is not that one must give up sex, but train one's mind to attain a certain goal. To the extent one's mind is sincerely fixed on that goal, there is no question of thinking about sex.
Perhaps this is why in the Hindu system a gradual progression of stages in life was defined --Brahmacharya, the celibate knowledge seeker, Grhasthashram, when one gets married and leads the life of sharing a physical and -- hopefully -- mental union, and Vaanaprasthaa -- retiring to the forest for a life of renunciation and meditation when one has evolved to the level of maturity that
provides insight into the human condition.
Some rare individuals are born with that ability, but you cant force renunciation simply by imposition of guilt. Perhaps it is that unnatural forcing of minds not yet ready that produces those sexual predators that ruin the lives and minds of their young acolytes.
Even more of a crime than the sexual transgression, I feel, is the lack of accountability that protects the perpetrators. So in that sense, this uncovering of the truth is a greatly positive development, not a tragedy that has befallen the Church. It is ridiculous for believers in the faith to say they want to leave it because of the actions of some unworthy people, be they few or many. What does that have to do with the faith they practice, if they grew up believing in it? I say this as a purely logical argument, though my concept of the nature of God is much different and more abstract.
How is something infinite and infinitely mysterious affected by the few and the fallible? Perhaps this is because one always asks, "How could God allow this to happen?" whenever something bad happens.
The truth is it is not God who abuses us -- it is we who abuse the gift of free will and choice that we have been blessed with and use it to destroy each other and this spectacular earth for our beggarly and narrow ends.
Yes, indeed, your memory is correct! That gallon of leather conditioner that I gave to Fr. Nicholas was a product which my late step mother Eleanor Spalding used to mix in the basement lab and sell to libraries, and it was called MITT SPITT, (refering to the leather catcher's mitts which are also in need of such an oil conditioner.)
I have not yet succeeded in finding the letter which I wrote to you on my disk drives, but I DID find a few blogs in which I reminisce about my time in the monastery, and mention you, Fr. Justin. I also blogged Fr. Lazarus, after he passed away.
Blog entry:
Thirty years ago, I spent a year in a Greek monastery as a novice. I discovered myself to be too weak and unsuitable for monastic life, but one of my fellow novices stayed on to become a monk, then priest, and was even selected to be consecrated a Bishop, but did not desire consecration and left that monastery. I heard some years ago that he went to St. Catherine's Monastery at Mt. Sinai.
Suddenly, the other day, I got the idea to do a google search, and sure enough, found articles about him, and his photo.
Fr. Justin is now in his 50's but looks very much as he did in his 20's when I knew him,.... it was a real trip down memory lane to do that google search!
His parents were Baptist preachers in Texas (where he was raised).
I remember seeing his parents the first time they came to visit him in the monastery, during his first year as a novice. Being Baptists, they were very spooked by all the icons paintings. They stared at them as if they were the idols of blasphemous, deranged, demonic savages. It may well be to this day the greatest heartbreak of their lives that their son has chosen to lead the life of a Greek Orthodox monastic.
I am sure that Fr. Justin has some flaws, or shortcomings, since no one is perfect, but I would venture to guess that he is in reality one of the most saintly people I have ever known personally.
I see Father Justin as an even-keeled ship which weathered that storm of scandals and controversy for many years as best he could, and finally found safe harbor at St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai.
When a monk is tonsured into the Great (Angelic) Schema (Greek tradition), he vows (among many things) a vow of "constancy," to remain at the monastery of his tonsure at all costs until death. I am sure Fr. Justin did not take lightly his decision to leave the monastery where he took that vow of constancy. I imagine that he stayed on as long as his conscience would
permit. Perhaps it was the impending threat of consecration as a Bishop which tipped the balance and confirmed Justin in his decision to depart. Once a Bishop, he would no longer be a simple monk or priest, but would be more deeply embroiled in politics and controversy. But these are only my personal conjectures. I shall perhaps never know the details of his decision to leave. Ultimately, certain grave matters and decisions in life are between our self and God alone, and no one else. We certainly know what is in our own hearts, though perhaps no one else knows or understands. And we always have the voice of our own conscience which we can never escape. We certainly hope that God also, as the only "knower of hearts," knows what is in our hearts better than we ourselves do.
The words of St. Paul frequently echo through my mind, "God places His treasures of gold in earthen vessels (vessels of clay)." Flawed human natures are those "vessels of clay" of which St. Paul speaks. Each of us is a vessel of clay, flawed, limited, subject to so many base sentiments and appetites. The
"treasures of gold" are those eternal religious truths which are handed down
from generation to generation in various traditions. Ironically, as I now sit
writing this, someone has just posted in IRC Dalnet #philosophy a reference to Ezekiel 28,14:15:
You were the anointed Cherub who covers;
I established you;
You were on the Holy Mountain of God;
You walked back and forth
In the midst of fiery stones,
You were perfect in your ways
From the day you were created,
Until iniquity was found in you.
In the context of this passage in Ezekiel, the reference is to the King of
Tyre, but some see this as a reference to Lucifer, the Angel of Light, who fell
from Heaven and became Satan. Corruption is possible even in Heaven!
Over the ten years that I frequently stayed at the monastery and saw Father Justin, I never once saw him angry. I never once heard a judgmental or gossiping word from his mouth.
One very hot August day, thirty years ago, I was in a cramped corner of the
little church, behind an open window shutter, chanting Byzantine hymns during an hours-long service, together with five other novices, one of whom was Justin. There was no air to breath in the small space where I stood behind that open shutter. The heat was unbearable. I was not a brave person. I was not a struggler. I was not the sort of person cut out for monastic or ascetic life (though I only came to realize that years later). In my discomfort I squirmed and fretted in a most undignified manner, given my
circumstances. Suddenly, Justin, sensing my distress, skillfully moved me to
one side and switched places. I was now standing in the breezy cooler position that he had enjoyed only a moment before. I was grateful for his selfless gesture, but I was not more happy, but rather less happy, realizing that I had been wrong to complain of my circumstances. That little suffering, which I had rejected, was a small pearl meant for my crown but now lost to me, a pearl which Justin had now earned for himself with selfless nobility. I am certain that Fr. Justin has earned many such pearls for his crown in the form of instances of personal long suffering and self-denial of which no one shall ever be aware except for Justin, God and the Angels.
One day, Justin and I were working with others to clean out the attic of the
old coach-house. Novices were not permitted to speak to one another. A novice was only permitted to speak to a tonsured monk. Suddenly, Justin turned to me with a knowing expression of firm faith in his eyes, and told me something about the New Testament which I shall never forget. He uttered only a few words, but my knowledge of Greek and the New Testament was sufficient to fill in the complete meaning and import of what he said. We are all familiar at Christmas time with the "Manger" scene of the Nativity. Most of us probably think of a manger as a barn or cave. But the Greek word for manger in the New Testament is "phatnee," which designated the feeding trough into which grain or corn is placed to feed the livestock. Of course, the shape of a feeding trough is also the perfect shape for a baby's cradle. The word "phatnee" comes from a root which means "to eat." Those blood cells called "phagocytes," which eat other cells, derive their name from that same Greek root. The Italian "mange!" (eat!) demonstrates the same root meaning of "manger." The word "crib," which is a place to put a baby is also a "corn crib." The theological significance is that the infant Christ is placed in the feeding trough or manger as the heavenly grain or bread (Eucharist) to nourish the logical sheep (logika probata) of the flock of believers.
I remember being at Fr. Justin's service of monastic tonsure. Shortly after he
was tonsured, something quite amazing took place. One day, during Liturgy, he was taken by surprise as he was escorted up to the royal gates and tonsured a Reader. The very next day, during Liturgy, he was again taken by surprise as he was escorted up to the alter and ordained a Deacon. The next day, he was again shocked as he was escorted up to the Bishop for a third time, and ordained a Priest. Everyone recognized Justin's spiritual gifts from his earliest days as a novice.
Father Justin was always very clever with tools and machinery as well as
computer software and hardware. Father Justin was placed in charge of a fancy jigsaw cutting machine in the monastery workshop. One day, a Greek gentleman was given permission to use the jigsaw. Being a very proud and independent macho sort of a fellow, he told Fr. Justin that he knew all about such machines and needed no help or assistance. Fr. Justin meekly stood by, handing the man one new blade after another, as he improperly inserted it in the machine, turned the machine on, snapped the blade, turned the machine off, and then requested another blade from Fr. Justin's dwindling supply. Finally when there was one blade left, the man requested Fr. Justin's assistance, and Fr. Justin properly inserted it, and turned the machine on. It took great patience and humility for Fr. Justin not to speak out and humiliate this proud man.
Some years after I had left the monastery, I had a very vivid dream in which
Father Justin described to me the extraordinary beauty of sunsets in Texas, and wistfully said that he missed them greatly. The dream seemed so vivid that I went to the monastery and related it to Fr. Justin, feeling some concern that he was somehow unhappy or restless in his vocation. He seemed slightly puzzled and dismayed that I would attach such significance to a dream, as that is an unorthodox thing to do, though he did not utter a word of rebuke. He simply replied that, though sunsets in Texas were indeed very beautiful, he in no way missed them and was quite happy and content in his vocation at the monastery.
There are important lessons to be learned here, both from wonderful people like Justin and thousands like him in the world, as well as lessons from those unfortunates who suffered from downfall, temptation and scandal.
In an interview for an article, Justin states:
"I'd spend most of my time reading books, especially about history," he said. "I'd spend so much time in my room that my mother would tell me to go outside for fresh air. However, I wanted to learn. I was interested in history and places like this."
I surmise that Justin from his earliest years harbored within himself the grace and purity and gentleness of spirit which he exhibits today. His tonsure and ordination, training and experiences and suffering may have perfected his grace, but these things were not the source of that grace. The grace was there all along, as a gift. The mystery of such a gift is forever hidden from our understanding, as to why one individual is born into the world with such a grace, while countless others are born into the world devoid of such gifts.
I might, in closing, mention that I have written at my website about another novice from those monastery years, Fr. Lazarus, in a page entitled "The Repose of Father Lazarus - Page 362."
The Repose of Father Lazarus
Fr. Lazarus, Fr. Justin and I were all novices together. Fr. Lazarus chose to leave the monastic life after 20 years and marry. Fr. Justin chose to leave the monastery but continues in the monastic life to this day. I found myself totally unsuitable for the life and never took monastic vows. Now my beliefs and writings would be considered unorthodox and un-Christian by those many people that I knew from my monastery days, a fact which I understand perfectly and accept.
It is in "The Repose of Father Lazarus," on page 362, that I write:
(excerpt from page 362)
If controversy and disagreement and scandal were coinage, then poverty would have been eliminated millennia ago, and all would be wealthy.
For me, personally, (and this is quite a subjective statement), there is one shining light, one star, one bright ray which shines out from amidst all religious dispute and scandal. Many will disagree violently with what I am about to say. That one ray of light which shines out, for me, is simply this:
that individual who so ardently desires union with the divine, that they renounce the material world and their bodily nature and appetites, that individual is truly an example of something "super-natural."
The laws of physics teach us that no work may be performed without an expenditure of energy and force. All religions involve a sacrifice or offering of some sort, whether it is a lamb or a fruit or a flower. But the highest offering which any person can make is an offering of the Self and the Will and the Ego and their own biological Nature. The most profound act that any human can attempt is the religious act of renunciation and asceticism. The energy and force which makes possible this greatest of religious acts is a divine energy and force which cannot help but unite that individual with the Divinity. The ancients recognized that "nature abhors a vacuum," so when an ascetic creates a place, a space, a vacuum devoid of egotism and sense-gratification, then we may be certain that it is the very God which rushes into that space, to fill that vacuum and void, and it is that Divine Energy which constantly works to maintain the sanctity of that empty space, that holy place and inner sanctuary.
A wise theologian (Elder Panteleimon) once said, "Whenever you meet a monk or a nun (a renunciate), know that you have met a veteran of many battles."
The battle and struggle of the religious renunciate is constant, from moment to moment, a daily battle, against desires and the pleasures of the senses.
The worldly person will say, "But this is sick, abnormal, unnatural! Better to indulge ones senses and appetites and desires, since such is our biological nature."
But whether we have ever undertaken the ascetic life, even for a brief while, or if we have always been worldly in our nature and pursuits, we all know well in our 'heart of hearts' that there is no pleasure or enjoyment which yields lasting satisfaction and satisfies our endless hungers and thirsts for more and more and more.
As in any battle or war, there are those few soldiers who make it to the end,
and become venerable veterans, and there are the majority who fall in battle or who are taken prisoner. But it is the total effort of all combatants which contributes to the ultimate victory and liberation.
Perhaps one of the greatest religious truths ever stated is simply that 'The
Judgment of God is a Mystery to Man." Who can know or say, in the ultimate scheme of things, after all the eternities of time have played themselves out, what is the value and purpose of any single human life and effort. Who can say what constitutes victory and defeat?
Let us hope that the power of the offering of our will and ego and self, or even the gesture of such an offering, is in itself so pure and powerful that it transcends all dogma and doctrine, that even the flame of such an intention and resignation is fiery enough to burn away any sin of human frailty.
Perhaps that Compassionate Lord of the Vineyard, who paid the penny wage to those who labored only the final hour of the day, will also have compassion upon those who labored in the heat of the afternoon, but fell weakened before the close of day.
(end of excerpt)
As I conclude this post, I am listening to PBS "History of the Jewish Peoples."
They have just quoted Moses Maimonides, in his "Guide for the Perplexed," "I wish to help that one man... to achieve a state of perfection and peace."
(also mentioned in that segment are the Kibush Hashem)
How does one attain peace, inner peace? As a new convert to Orthodox Christianity, I loved to gossip about what I considered to be the incorrect practices of various Churches; what the Metropolia Russians did, what the New Calendar Greeks did.
During a visit to the monastery, shortly after my baptism there, I met a Russian priest who had come for a visit. As we walked in the woods behind the monastery, I told him my story of how I had come to be baptized, and of the scandalous differences that I had observed in various jurisdictions. The priest had patiently listened to me in silence. When I concluded my narrative, he looked at me with great seriousness and simply said, "And have you found peace now? Are you at peace?"
I imagine Fr. Justin has found peace, looking at his photo with St. Catherine's Monastery in the background.
=====================================================
(one reader comments):
I read your post (#956 on 8/19/2, "Finding Inner Peace") with great interest. I find the basic ideals which motivate the Christian renunciate are quite similar to those of the Hindu ascetic, although the concept of the end goal for which one strives is different.
Your observation that people are endowed with a certain Grace that sets them apart from others was also very well put. I would say however, that the greatest state of Grace in my view is the capacity to perceive and be grateful for the gifts one does have. That awareness may be a combination of natural ability and hard work.
Each of us must "count our blessings" and be grateful for those gifts which we have received. Truly, attitude is everything.
But as you well know, as a former aspirant to the monastic life, one may KNOW something intellectually to be true and act out something completely at odds with that. Life is a greased ladder. A positive outlook is impossible to sustain indefinitely, even if one wins a lifetime supply of Prozac.
As for the confession of father Elias, I may have a perspective of it that is somewhat different, as a non-Christian.
I think I have a big problem with the notion of sex as a sin, and of beginning with the premise that humans are basically sinners. Humility and the acceptance of human frailty is good -- but I am not sure what so much self-hatred accomplishes.
I think is is the extreme guilt, shame, and all those negative feelings that are associated with the sexual act actually make one think about it more. This is a human attribute. One cannot escape, as you put it, this "vessel of clay" that one inhabits. The average person who begins a diet or attempts to fast thinks of nothing but food all day long. So, for example, say I wanted to lose weight, rather than thinking I have to subsist on carrots and vegetation and if I give in to any real food I am a worthless and disgusting person completely devoid of will power -- I can focus, instead, on the constructive things I need to do that I perhaps have procrastinated. I can schedule a day that is full of those things and as a natural consequence, I will feel good about myself and in the process not use food to fill the void in my life.
Sex is a basic human impulse, not a flaw. Like all other human impulses, it can be indulged in in excess. The point in the religious life is not that one must give up sex, but train one's mind to attain a certain goal. To the extent one's mind is sincerely fixed on that goal, there is no question of thinking about sex.
Perhaps this is why in the Hindu system a gradual progression of stages in life was defined --Brahmacharya, the celibate knowledge seeker, Grhasthashram, when one gets married and leads the life of sharing a physical and -- hopefully -- mental union, and Vaanaprasthaa -- retiring to the forest for a life of renunciation and meditation when one has evolved to the level of maturity that
provides insight into the human condition.
Some rare individuals are born with that ability, but you cant force renunciation simply by imposition of guilt. Perhaps it is that unnatural forcing of minds not yet ready that produces those sexual predators that ruin the lives and minds of their young acolytes.
Even more of a crime than the sexual transgression, I feel, is the lack of accountability that protects the perpetrators. So in that sense, this uncovering of the truth is a greatly positive development, not a tragedy that has befallen the Church. It is ridiculous for believers in the faith to say they want to leave it because of the actions of some unworthy people, be they few or many. What does that have to do with the faith they practice, if they grew up believing in it? I say this as a purely logical argument, though my concept of the nature of God is much different and more abstract.
How is something infinite and infinitely mysterious affected by the few and the fallible? Perhaps this is because one always asks, "How could God allow this to happen?" whenever something bad happens.
The truth is it is not God who abuses us -- it is we who abuse the gift of free will and choice that we have been blessed with and use it to destroy each other and this spectacular earth for our beggarly and narrow ends.
Monday, June 15, 2009
From Homer Through Plato & Aristotle to the Gospels
1.) We know that the first three words of the Iliad are
Menin aedei Thea
which is
RAGE SING GODDESS
So, it is rather obvious that the Iliad has something to do with RAGE in particular
and passions or excess of passions in general.
I would LOVE to know if the Greek word hamartia occurs in Homer.
We KNOW that Aristotle uses the word hamartia in his Poetics to mean
"miscalculation" (understood in Romanticism as "tragic flaw")
AND we know that by the time the four Gospels of the evangelists were
written, the Greek word HAMARTIA had come to mean SIN.
I have open before me the ponderous volume of the LARGE Liddell and Scott ancient Greek lexicon, and I am looking at the verb HAMARTANO, where we read that in the
Iliad Book V verse a form of HAMARTANO is used to denote "MISSING THE MARK" especially with regard to someone who throws a spear and misses. In the Odyssey Bk 21 v. 155 it is used to mean fail in one's purpose or go wrong.
In the first line of the Iliad, we see that the 3rd word is Thea, Goddess, which is the feminine form of THEOS, God. It is obvious that Homer makes frequent mention of THEOS. Plato and Aristotle also use the same word THEOS to me one of the Gods of a pantheon, or the one God in abstract. And by the time we get to the Gospel of John
we read "EN ARXHE EEN HO LOGOS.... KAI THEOS HO LOGOS". The Gospel writers are also writing in a dialect of the Greek language.
Now, it is obvious and indisputable that Achilles refuses to join in battle for various reasons, and so his best friend Patroclus PUTS ON ACHILLES' ARMOUR (which is so famous and distinctive that the enemy may easily think that this is Achilles himself). So, we have a best friend out of love, assuming the identity of his friend and dieing in his place. Furthermore, Hector, who is on the side of the Trojan enemy, PUTS ON ACHILLES ARMOUR, and so Achilles winds up fighting and killing someone who is ALSO IN THE IMAGE OR GUISE OR SEMBLANCE OF Achilles.
It is most certain that Homer was not thinking about Aristotle or Jesus when he was writing the Iliad because Homer lived and wrote centuries before those people lived. BUT there is a unity of Greek language and unity of traditions to the extent that ONE CANNOT RULE OUT the possibility that elements of Homer affected future generations in the sense of planting the seeds of ideas.
Menin aedei Thea
which is
RAGE SING GODDESS
So, it is rather obvious that the Iliad has something to do with RAGE in particular
and passions or excess of passions in general.
I would LOVE to know if the Greek word hamartia occurs in Homer.
We KNOW that Aristotle uses the word hamartia in his Poetics to mean
"miscalculation" (understood in Romanticism as "tragic flaw")
AND we know that by the time the four Gospels of the evangelists were
written, the Greek word HAMARTIA had come to mean SIN.
I have open before me the ponderous volume of the LARGE Liddell and Scott ancient Greek lexicon, and I am looking at the verb HAMARTANO, where we read that in the
Iliad Book V verse a form of HAMARTANO is used to denote "MISSING THE MARK" especially with regard to someone who throws a spear and misses. In the Odyssey Bk 21 v. 155 it is used to mean fail in one's purpose or go wrong.
In the first line of the Iliad, we see that the 3rd word is Thea, Goddess, which is the feminine form of THEOS, God. It is obvious that Homer makes frequent mention of THEOS. Plato and Aristotle also use the same word THEOS to me one of the Gods of a pantheon, or the one God in abstract. And by the time we get to the Gospel of John
we read "EN ARXHE EEN HO LOGOS.... KAI THEOS HO LOGOS". The Gospel writers are also writing in a dialect of the Greek language.
Now, it is obvious and indisputable that Achilles refuses to join in battle for various reasons, and so his best friend Patroclus PUTS ON ACHILLES' ARMOUR (which is so famous and distinctive that the enemy may easily think that this is Achilles himself). So, we have a best friend out of love, assuming the identity of his friend and dieing in his place. Furthermore, Hector, who is on the side of the Trojan enemy, PUTS ON ACHILLES ARMOUR, and so Achilles winds up fighting and killing someone who is ALSO IN THE IMAGE OR GUISE OR SEMBLANCE OF Achilles.
It is most certain that Homer was not thinking about Aristotle or Jesus when he was writing the Iliad because Homer lived and wrote centuries before those people lived. BUT there is a unity of Greek language and unity of traditions to the extent that ONE CANNOT RULE OUT the possibility that elements of Homer affected future generations in the sense of planting the seeds of ideas.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Achilles & Patroclus as Righteousness & Peace
Due to member requests, the Facebook discussion group "Do It Again - Rereading the St. John's Program" will remain a private group for members only, and no summary or paraphrased synopsis shall be made available.
I am of course free to post my own personal observations at my blogspot regarding my re-reading of The Great Books program, but my own comments shall have nothing to do with the private group, or what has been posted by any of its members.
(my recent thought on The Iliad)
I am reminded of the Glaukos-Diomedes battleground dialogue of the generation of men as leaves of a season which fall and pass away, and all the remains is the "glory" of their memory. Camus in "Myth of Sisyphus" uses that wonderful phrase "that paltry eternity, posterity". In Homer's day, posterity surely seemed an eternity. Now we know that it is a mere 1/2 billion years until our sun, a growing white dwarf with only 8 billion years remaining, will render Earth uninhabitable. And what rosetta stone if any shall we leave behind for some future intelligence, if any, to unearth, decipher and say, ah, the glory that was Greece and Rome, and America.
I am of course free to post my own personal observations at my blogspot regarding my re-reading of The Great Books program, but my own comments shall have nothing to do with the private group, or what has been posted by any of its members.
(my recent thought on The Iliad)
I am reminded of the Glaukos-Diomedes battleground dialogue of the generation of men as leaves of a season which fall and pass away, and all the remains is the "glory" of their memory. Camus in "Myth of Sisyphus" uses that wonderful phrase "that paltry eternity, posterity". In Homer's day, posterity surely seemed an eternity. Now we know that it is a mere 1/2 billion years until our sun, a growing white dwarf with only 8 billion years remaining, will render Earth uninhabitable. And what rosetta stone if any shall we leave behind for some future intelligence, if any, to unearth, decipher and say, ah, the glory that was Greece and Rome, and America.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Next Iliad Seminar on Facebook
Due to member requests, the Facebook discussion group "Do It Again - Rereading the St. John's Program" will remain a private group for members only, and no summary or paraphrased synopsis shall be made available.
I shall feel free to continue to blog my own personal thoughts and opinions at my blogspot as I re-read the "great books" program, but my remarks shall in no way paraphrase or represent what anyone discusses in the private Facebook group.
Here are my personal observations:
Homeric heroes exemplify virtues such as speed (Achilles) or massiveness (Ajax) or beauty (Helen? Juno? Hera? Aphrodite?) taken to the utmost extreme, and yet the wisdom of ancient philosophy is a "middle way" of nothing overmuch and moderation.
The other question which intrigues me regards how each of us might choose to characterize Achilles and Odysseus as to what their political or religious or philosophical affiliations might be were they to live in our times (based upon what we see as their character traits.) I realize that this sort of question is even MORE unorthodox in the eyes of St. John's seminar protocol than would be a discussion of Patroclus death in the guise of Achilles likened to the concept of Christ's substitutional atonement (which is what immediately came to my mind before
I shall feel free to continue to blog my own personal thoughts and opinions at my blogspot as I re-read the "great books" program, but my remarks shall in no way paraphrase or represent what anyone discusses in the private Facebook group.
Here are my personal observations:
Homeric heroes exemplify virtues such as speed (Achilles) or massiveness (Ajax) or beauty (Helen? Juno? Hera? Aphrodite?) taken to the utmost extreme, and yet the wisdom of ancient philosophy is a "middle way" of nothing overmuch and moderation.
The other question which intrigues me regards how each of us might choose to characterize Achilles and Odysseus as to what their political or religious or philosophical affiliations might be were they to live in our times (based upon what we see as their character traits.) I realize that this sort of question is even MORE unorthodox in the eyes of St. John's seminar protocol than would be a discussion of Patroclus death in the guise of Achilles likened to the concept of Christ's substitutional atonement (which is what immediately came to my mind before
Friday, June 12, 2009
Achilles Odysseus Republicans or Democrats
Compare and contrast Achilles and Odysseus from the point of view of conservative vs. liberal values. What do you see in Achilles that says "Democrat?" What do you see in Achilles that say "Republican." Same questions for Odysseus.
To put it in a different way, do you see a polarization of the liberal personality and the conservative personality which could be applied to personalities from any age and categorize them?
Im just asking for the fun of it, out of curiosity. If you feel the question is too frivolous to bother with, I can accept that.
To put it in a different way, do you see a polarization of the liberal personality and the conservative personality which could be applied to personalities from any age and categorize them?
Im just asking for the fun of it, out of curiosity. If you feel the question is too frivolous to bother with, I can accept that.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Shopping for a Buddha Statue
I used to work at a job which required a commute on the N train, which passes through Chinatown. One night, the train service was interrupted, and I decided to walk around Chinatown to pass the time. I wandered into a shop which had many Buddha statues. A very devout Chinese Buddhist woman, a visitor from Ohio, approached me with great excitement. She was staying at famous Pureland Temple. I had read a book by the abbot there, Master Lok, entitled "Horizontal Escape." I learned she was shopping for a Buddha statue, but had very little money. I took her to dinner at a restaurant across the street, and then invited her home to meet my wife. I had two rather expensive metal Buddha statues at home and planned to surprise her by telling her to choose one for herself. She was surprised and chose the larger of the two. I was caretaker of the Guyanese temple across the street, and opened it for her to see. She said to me, "Now we shall worship YOUR Deities." Buddhists can be very open-minded.
American Stereotypes
I live in NYC. Our city-dwellers are stereotyped in various negative ways. Once, 15 years ago, I had an afternoon free and I was sitting on a bench in Union Square park, near the Gandhi statue. A young man from Bangladesh in his early 20s was sitting at the other end of the bench, smoking. We began to talk and he mentioned that he needed a job in a restaurant. I said, "well, you come with me and lets find one." I knew all the Muslim owned stores in the area, plus a large Bangladeshi Masjid on 1st Ave, and then all the Bangladeshi run India restaurants on that entire street a few blocks south. We stopped in each place, including the Masjid, and I introduce him and said "do you know of a job for your brother Muslim here." The imam was astounded when he saw what I was doing. We went to each restaurant on that street and asked. Suddenly the young man said he had to leave. I asked at the very next restaurant and they said "yes we are looking for a bus-boy", but the phone number which the young man had given me did not work.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Opening Question for Facebook Seminar
Due to member requests, the Facebook discussion group "Do It Again - Rereading the St. John's Program" will remain a private group for members only, and no summary or paraphrased synopsis shall be made available.
I shall feel free to continue to blog my own personal thoughts and opinions at my blogspot as I re-read the "great books" program, but my remarks shall in no way paraphrase or represent what anyone discusses in the private Facebook group.
I shall feel free to continue to blog my own personal thoughts and opinions at my blogspot as I re-read the "great books" program, but my remarks shall in no way paraphrase or represent what anyone discusses in the private Facebook group.
Love As Stages Of Acceptance
Love as stages of acceptance
I heard one song of K.D. Lang with one verse... "I had you in my web/... now here I am instead / hanging by a thread..." which caught my attention.
What occurred to me is that love, for anyone, is stages of acceptance.
First, in pre-adolescence, there is the process of self-acceptance. We first realize and accept that we are sexual beings. Later comes the discovery and acceptance of our straight or gay orientation.
Second, is finding and accepting another, a beloved, and learning and accepting what it is that we expect from that other person, and what they expect from us, along with learning about compromise regarding things that one or the other might find unacceptable.
Third, as a couple, is seeking acceptance of family, friends and community, of falling in love in front of the world's eyes, and have the world smile and say "thats ok, thats good, thats just as it should be."
Lyrics:
One says love is tragic
One says miracle
One becomes a skeptic
One is vulnerable
It's sad to me how quickly
We define
What's wrong with yours
Is right with mine
You think
That we could learn
To let things slide?
Just let things slide
One side moving closer
One is more obscure
One side feeling open
One in overload
All the time it takes
To build things up
And no time
Flat to deconstruct
You think
We could learn
To give it up?
Give it up
The thin ice that we tread
That's dangerously set
The intentions
Go falling through
And you
I had you in my web
Now here I am instead
Hanging by a thread
I'm caught up back and forth
Of balancing my fear
I'll tell though you
For all it's worth
I fell for you my dear
It's sad to me how quickly
We define
What is wrong with yours
Is right with mine
You think
That we could learn
To let things slide?
Let things slide
The thin ice that we tread
That's dangerously trapped
The intentions
Go falling through
And you
I had you in my web
Now here I am instead
Hanging by a thread
KD Lang - Thread - youtube.com
I heard one song of K.D. Lang with one verse... "I had you in my web/... now here I am instead / hanging by a thread..." which caught my attention.
What occurred to me is that love, for anyone, is stages of acceptance.
First, in pre-adolescence, there is the process of self-acceptance. We first realize and accept that we are sexual beings. Later comes the discovery and acceptance of our straight or gay orientation.
Second, is finding and accepting another, a beloved, and learning and accepting what it is that we expect from that other person, and what they expect from us, along with learning about compromise regarding things that one or the other might find unacceptable.
Third, as a couple, is seeking acceptance of family, friends and community, of falling in love in front of the world's eyes, and have the world smile and say "thats ok, thats good, thats just as it should be."
Lyrics:
One says love is tragic
One says miracle
One becomes a skeptic
One is vulnerable
It's sad to me how quickly
We define
What's wrong with yours
Is right with mine
You think
That we could learn
To let things slide?
Just let things slide
One side moving closer
One is more obscure
One side feeling open
One in overload
All the time it takes
To build things up
And no time
Flat to deconstruct
You think
We could learn
To give it up?
Give it up
The thin ice that we tread
That's dangerously set
The intentions
Go falling through
And you
I had you in my web
Now here I am instead
Hanging by a thread
I'm caught up back and forth
Of balancing my fear
I'll tell though you
For all it's worth
I fell for you my dear
It's sad to me how quickly
We define
What is wrong with yours
Is right with mine
You think
That we could learn
To let things slide?
Let things slide
The thin ice that we tread
That's dangerously trapped
The intentions
Go falling through
And you
I had you in my web
Now here I am instead
Hanging by a thread
KD Lang - Thread - youtube.com
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Tolerance, apathy, last virtues of a dying society?
IF YOU ARE VISITING FROM FACEBOOK, I shall be adding thoughts periodically to the end of this blog. I have continued here because Facebook sometimes has a problem with to many posts to a single thread. Thanks!
Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society. Aristotle
I was suspicious of this quote when I encountered in in PLURK.
I began to search for it in google, and found over 5000 places where it was posted
I found my answer on
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090516003631AAcNoXS
No, this looks like a classic example of fake attribution to add weight to a modern statement - in this case, an anti-liberal slogan circulating on the right-wing / religious web circuit.
It appears in a number of variants, such as "Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society", but a thorough look in Google Books finds nothing even like it in any works of Aristotle.
The "tolerance is the last virtue of a depraved society" version seems to be attributed to the modern evangelical minister D James Kennedy.
Source(s):
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070517/the-new-tolerance/index.html
Kara asks:
Nevertheless, there does seem to be a problem with tolerance for its own sake... regardless of whose authority you source. wouldn't you agree?
Sitaram replies:
interesting question, ... I must give this some thought, much thought. I am not Muslim, but have been involved with some issues regarding Islam, and Qur'an and Hadith, which raise questions of tolerance, as well as issues of tolerance in the context of Hinduism and Buddhism, and of course, issues of tolerance in Judaism, and in ... Christianity, with the long history of eastern Orthodoxy, and then the split of 1054, and then the reformation of Luther, and the counter-reformation led by the Jesuits, and certain interesting things in Vatican II, such as the brief encyclical Nostra Aetatis, and then issues regarding toleration in the political arena,... Truman and the non-proliferation doctrine, starting with a Russian plot to sic Turkey on Greece... I must give much thought to this... (I am not trying to be cute by the way with this long Pauline like run on sentence, but am simply thinking out loud.
What suddenly pops to my mind is the interesting beliefs of the Zoroastrians..
Now, perhaps you are responding to the SECOND LINK by the pastor who actually is supposed to have originated the quote attributed to Aristotle. I must review that.. reread a few times. BUT, the Zoroastrians were most likely in power under King Darius during the time of the Babylonian captivity which undoubtedly had a tremendous influence upon ... Judaism. In fact the Book of Ezra, in the Old Testament, is the first book where the word Jew occurs, and the first book to describe a form of Jewish worship which resembles current Jewish practice as it evolved after the destruction of the Temple, and the disappearance of the Sadducee priestly influence, and the dominance of Pharisee scribal Talmudic Halakic with its stress upon Law (mitzvahs).
Back to the Zoroastrians, ... they believed that God created a religion for each tribe, and that one must respect different ways, but CONVERSION to Zoroastrian (Parsi) worship is even today strictly forbidden. One MUST be born into it. And the greatest sin
Now, IMHO, the Qur'an was influenced by Zoroastrian ideas to the extent that it claims Allah "sent messengers to every nation".. but it then argues that each nation or tribe somehow corrupted the message, and that now a great restoration would be necessary, by the "seal of the prophets" and his revelation. Their idea of tolerance is that "peoples ...of the Book" should be tolerated, if they chose to be subject to the Jizyah taxation, but that idolators and polytheists were NOT peoples of the book. We see a notion of tolerance in the Torah, with the Noabitic laws of Noah, after the ark and flood, stating "do not worship the STARS for THAT has been given unto the nations" (conceding that a difference was divinely ordained and to be tolerated. I think we should also look a bit and the writings of Thoreau, essay on Civil Disobedience (the first use of the term "human rights") And we must look at Locke and Hobbes and the development of notions of constitutional authority drawn from the people
I want to think a bit about the role of Tecumseh in uniting the great diversity of North American native tribes against the threat of the white man. Yes, indeed, there is a form of tolerance which is inspired by the threat of some common enemy. We must look at legislation which attempts to preserve minority interests and yet inact the will of the ... majority. And of course, we must find examples of people who advocated tolerance simply for the sake of being tolerant, and decide examples which were good, and examples which led to undesirable results... This may take some time for me...
The concept of tolerance is intricately entangled with the resolve that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" should become the justification for violent revolution and the creation of an independent sovereign government. There is the notion of what I might call INTERIOR TOLERANCE, in our own mind, namely, what we choose to tolerate in our heart, and why we would choose to tolerate. The essence of inner tolerance is what Viktor Frankl calls the final freedom, to choose ones own way of how one will regard their circumstances, even in a concentration camp. (and we may read about this in "Man's Search For Meaning." Then I would call "exterior tolerance" that we we choose to allow for the sake of things like freedom of speech, or freedom of (and from) religious belief.
Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society. Aristotle
I was suspicious of this quote when I encountered in in PLURK.
I began to search for it in google, and found over 5000 places where it was posted
I found my answer on
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090516003631AAcNoXS
No, this looks like a classic example of fake attribution to add weight to a modern statement - in this case, an anti-liberal slogan circulating on the right-wing / religious web circuit.
It appears in a number of variants, such as "Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society", but a thorough look in Google Books finds nothing even like it in any works of Aristotle.
The "tolerance is the last virtue of a depraved society" version seems to be attributed to the modern evangelical minister D James Kennedy.
Source(s):
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070517/the-new-tolerance/index.html
Kara asks:
Nevertheless, there does seem to be a problem with tolerance for its own sake... regardless of whose authority you source. wouldn't you agree?
Sitaram replies:
interesting question, ... I must give this some thought, much thought. I am not Muslim, but have been involved with some issues regarding Islam, and Qur'an and Hadith, which raise questions of tolerance, as well as issues of tolerance in the context of Hinduism and Buddhism, and of course, issues of tolerance in Judaism, and in ... Christianity, with the long history of eastern Orthodoxy, and then the split of 1054, and then the reformation of Luther, and the counter-reformation led by the Jesuits, and certain interesting things in Vatican II, such as the brief encyclical Nostra Aetatis, and then issues regarding toleration in the political arena,... Truman and the non-proliferation doctrine, starting with a Russian plot to sic Turkey on Greece... I must give much thought to this... (I am not trying to be cute by the way with this long Pauline like run on sentence, but am simply thinking out loud.
What suddenly pops to my mind is the interesting beliefs of the Zoroastrians..
Now, perhaps you are responding to the SECOND LINK by the pastor who actually is supposed to have originated the quote attributed to Aristotle. I must review that.. reread a few times. BUT, the Zoroastrians were most likely in power under King Darius during the time of the Babylonian captivity which undoubtedly had a tremendous influence upon ... Judaism. In fact the Book of Ezra, in the Old Testament, is the first book where the word Jew occurs, and the first book to describe a form of Jewish worship which resembles current Jewish practice as it evolved after the destruction of the Temple, and the disappearance of the Sadducee priestly influence, and the dominance of Pharisee scribal Talmudic Halakic with its stress upon Law (mitzvahs).
Back to the Zoroastrians, ... they believed that God created a religion for each tribe, and that one must respect different ways, but CONVERSION to Zoroastrian (Parsi) worship is even today strictly forbidden. One MUST be born into it. And the greatest sin
Now, IMHO, the Qur'an was influenced by Zoroastrian ideas to the extent that it claims Allah "sent messengers to every nation".. but it then argues that each nation or tribe somehow corrupted the message, and that now a great restoration would be necessary, by the "seal of the prophets" and his revelation. Their idea of tolerance is that "peoples ...of the Book" should be tolerated, if they chose to be subject to the Jizyah taxation, but that idolators and polytheists were NOT peoples of the book. We see a notion of tolerance in the Torah, with the Noabitic laws of Noah, after the ark and flood, stating "do not worship the STARS for THAT has been given unto the nations" (conceding that a difference was divinely ordained and to be tolerated. I think we should also look a bit and the writings of Thoreau, essay on Civil Disobedience (the first use of the term "human rights") And we must look at Locke and Hobbes and the development of notions of constitutional authority drawn from the people
I want to think a bit about the role of Tecumseh in uniting the great diversity of North American native tribes against the threat of the white man. Yes, indeed, there is a form of tolerance which is inspired by the threat of some common enemy. We must look at legislation which attempts to preserve minority interests and yet inact the will of the ... majority. And of course, we must find examples of people who advocated tolerance simply for the sake of being tolerant, and decide examples which were good, and examples which led to undesirable results... This may take some time for me...
The concept of tolerance is intricately entangled with the resolve that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" should become the justification for violent revolution and the creation of an independent sovereign government. There is the notion of what I might call INTERIOR TOLERANCE, in our own mind, namely, what we choose to tolerate in our heart, and why we would choose to tolerate. The essence of inner tolerance is what Viktor Frankl calls the final freedom, to choose ones own way of how one will regard their circumstances, even in a concentration camp. (and we may read about this in "Man's Search For Meaning." Then I would call "exterior tolerance" that we we choose to allow for the sake of things like freedom of speech, or freedom of (and from) religious belief.
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