Monday, January 08, 2007

What are the Best Political and Spiritual Operating Systems for Earthlings?

In a thought-provoking article entitled How to Think About the War, Herbert Meyer compares competing political systems to different computer operating systems.

At its foundation, politics is not "Republicans versus Democrats, or liberals against conservatives, or the looming scramble among Presidential contenders for their parties' 2008 nominations." Rather, as always, politics "is the relationship between the individual and the State. And for as long as human beings have walked the Earth, we have been struggling to get this right. We've tried everything. We've had kingdoms and empires of all sizes and flavors. We've had military dictatorships, and civilian dictatorships. We've had totalitarian states like fascism on the right, and communism on the left. We've had constitutional monarchies, republics and democracies."

In short, humans have developed countless operating systems to deal with the dynamic relationship between the individual and the collective. Part of the problem undoubtedly arises from the fact that any system we devise is going to be "unnatural," in the sense that it will be dissimilar to the way our upright furbears evolved in the archaic environment -- which is to say, in small groups of 20 or 30. Although evolutionary psychologists exaggerate the centrality of this, nevertheless, we always bear the stamp of our evolutionary past, and it would be foolish to try to deny its existence, as it does hold certain keys to our behavior.

Meyers notes what amounts to a common sense observation -- which in our time is sadly uncommon. That is, "when you look at history through the prism of operating systems, you find that one operating system has triumphed above all the others: Western Civilization. Its key features are the separation of church and state, the primacy of the individual over the State, the encouragement of artistic expression and intellectual curiosity, free enterprise, and a never-ending struggle to reach equality among the races and sexes. Like all operating systems, Western Civilization has its flaws, its shortcomings and its imperfections -- as will any operating system designed and run by human beings. But by any imaginable measure, Western Civilization is history's greatest achievement."

Exactly. It is amazing to me that this isn't something with which we can all agree. Yesterday we spoke of how "intelligent, virtuous, and mentally sound men" should be able to understand each other on this point. Which they do. It's the stupid, bad, and/or mentally unsound men who disagree. For example, there is the operating system of Radical Islam. Unlike our operating system, "Its key features are the combination of church and State, the submission of individuals to this combination, the discouragement of artistic expression and intellectual curiosity, the crushing of its people's entrepreneurial talents, and the treatment of women as though they were property rather than people."

Perhaps the Islamist operating system wouldn't be so bad if they merely wanted to impose it on themselves. The problem is, they are determined to impose it on us.

Worse yet, many if not most of our own elites in academia and the liberal media do not think there is anything so special about our operating system. Rather, they see only its flaws, largely because they have abandoned one of its key programs, the Judeo-Christian tradition, which causes them to politicize the psychological, spiritual and existential -- in a word, to "horizontalize" the vertical. And when reality is horizontalized, one not only misses its most vital aspect, but the system will begin to breed citizens who don't even know of its existence. They will be human freaks -- only "crippled inside," as John Lennon put it in song.

When reality is drained of its transcendent dimension, the world will be reduced from a field of spiritual liberty in which to actualize oneself, to a mere struggle for economic or political power. Out of its emptiness, the flight from verticality evokes envy. Thus, we constantly hear the horizontal folk complain about "gaps in income," as if this is all there is to our impossibly rich lives. I personally have never understood this complaint. Perhaps it's just my nature -- I'm pretty sure it is -- but from the earliest age, I have always been more concerned about gaps in slack. My car is six years old. I don't care. It never crosses my mind. But the horror of having insufficient time to commune with Dobbs!

Put it this way: I am a clinical psychologist. After some 23 years of education and a couple more for my post-doc internship, I was fortunate enough to be given a license to steal. At least hypothetically, I could easily earn more than I do, but it wouldn't be easy for me. FrankIy, I would have to be someone else. It would mean having to be more ambitious than I am and working more than I do, thus cutting into the reason for my existence. It comes naturally to me to live a simple, uncluttered life, but I hardly feel deprived. Rather, I would feel deprived if evicted from the vertical. Yes, the dopey CEO of Home Depot makes some outrageous amount of money. But would I want to be him? Would I trade my life for his? Is he having more fun than me? Please. No one has more vertical fun than a Raccoon. If so, show me this person. I want to meet him and appoint him the new Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler (sorry Petey).

No, all the money in the world could not be consolation for what I would have to give up to be King of Home Depot. I am enjoying my vertical liberty in my own sweet way, and I am acutely aware of how this is only possible because of our precious operating system called Western Civilization.

But our horizontal elites focus so much "on the flaws, shortcomings and imperfections of Western Civilization that they are blind to its achievements." This is another key point, for I am sure all Raccoons have had the experience of conversing with a moonbat -- the moonbat can be of superior or subnormal intellect, it matters not -- and being met with incredulousness, contempt, or sarcasm when the obvious superiority of Western Civilization is mentioned. "What about the Indians?!" "What about slavery!?" "What about the transgendered?!"

It is as if the anti-Western moonbat, because he has abondoned the concept of personal sin, transfers it to the collective. "Original sin? That's a primitive idea. People are good -- especially me. And transgendered Indian feminists. But you've got to be kidding. The United States is bad and unredeemably sinful."

This only demonstrates how the operating system of Western Civilization goes completely haywire in the absence of the religious program that made it possible. An interesting thought occurred to me while lurking at a new age website yesterday, and which answers the question of why "new age" almost always means "left," and even "America-bashing." I won't go into details, as they don't really matter. You are no doubt familiar with the type of person who rejects tradition in favor of assembling a melange of half-baked spiritual notions for the sake of egoic comfort rather than personal transformation.

To be honest, I more or less started out this way, as I am sure you probably did too. After all, in a certain way, it's the American thing to do. We're not Europe. No one's going to tell us who God is and how to worship Him. That's our business.

Which reminds me. When I was a kid, there used to be newspaper cartoon called "Rick O'Shay," which took place in the American West. My favorite character was the lone gunslinger, whose name was Hipshot Percussion. Not infrequently, the Sunday cartoon would feature a series of panels depicting Hipshot on his horse, high up in the mountains, worshipping God in his own wordless way. There would be no captions, but it might show Hipshot reverently standing by a mountain stream with head bowed. I think it conveyed a not-so-subtle message about the inevitable hypocrisy of organized religion, and about the new American experiment in radical spiritual liberty. But there was something very devout about these cartoon images. They weren't "in your face," and they certainly didn't imply atheism or radical secularism, much less "environmentalism" (in its narrow leftist connotation). They conveyed an important aspect of American spirituality.

I remember once in film school, the professor spoke of two quintessentially American archetypes that reappear in film -- call them the "drifter" and the "settler." One of America's ideals was of a place where one didn't have to settle down -- where one could continue roaming and exploring indefinitely, never putting down roots. The other ideal was of the person who owned his little portion of America -- a little piece of paradise -- living his freedom in the opposite way. But in either case, the emphasis was on different kinds of liberty, with deep spiritual implications.

It is said that reality consists of objects that object. In other words, we do not control them or produce them out of our own substance. They exist in their own right. They are real.

Being more of the Hipshot pursuasion, one of the most surprising and completely unexpected developments in my own life has been the discovery of the very real realities embodied in religious tradition. It is as if these are spiritual operating systems "authorized by heaven," so to speak, and something that humans could never have devised on their own. I have found that thinking about vertical reality from "within" these systems is profoundly generative, much more so than trying to do so outside them -- to try to invent our own operating systems.

Referring back to those new-agers with heads full of mush, such as our own recent persistent visitor. There is a reason why no deep spiritual thought emerges out of the "new age movement" -- why it is almost all bunk. It is because the operating system is wrong. These people can reject orthodoxy and tradition all they want, but there is a reason why the latter has produced hundreds and thousands of profound spiritual thinkers, from Origen, to Dionysius, to John Scotus Eriugena, to Eckhart, to St. John of the Cross, to Theophan the Recluse, to Teilhard de Chardin, to Valentin Tomberg. Imagine placing such individuals on the same plane as Tony Robbins or Deepak Chopra, who have their own manmade operating systems which they will sell to you for just $1,500 at a dynamic weekend seminar!

Like the Left, it's just another case of horizontalizing the vertical. Or is it verticalizing the horizontal? Either way, it reflects another perennial American archetype: the salesman. For once you have abandoned the vertical, I can sell it back to you, like ice to Eskimos.

****

Or as Siggy put it today in his Religious Progressives, The Judenrat And Another Generation In Denial:

"[T]o be a radical ‘religious progressive’ that adopts the radical leftist agenda, faith has to be dispensed with. A believer who wants to espouse progressive ideology must accept that his religious beliefs and values are worth less than progressive beliefs and values. Believers must find a way to rewrite faith to accommodate progressive ideology, even if that means upending the very beliefs, values and principles of the faith they profess to be a part of.

"In the end, all radical ‘religious progressives’ are the Judenrat and kapos of their respective faiths and of our time. By accepting and ascribing to beliefs and ideologies of Leftism, ‘religious progressives’ have made a deal with the very devil that would destroy them. Disagree with a ‘religious progressive,’ and like their progressive masters, tolerance goes out the window because dissent cannot be tolerated -- because the ‘emperor has no clothes.’"

Hmm, where have I heard that line before?

54 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good one, Bob.

NoMo said...

I may have been a French philosopher who said, "Cynicism is the worm of mockery that spoils the otherwise delicious fruit of complete freedom". Not sure entirely where he was coming from, but it seems particularly apt in the comparison to OS.

Anonymous said...

Interesting analogy and post. I just read the article you referenced, and feel free to delete this if it presents an unwanted tangent to the comments. I think the first point to make is that speaking of moderate and radical Islam is, in the end, somewhat pointless. Even moderate Islam can not really come to grips with the separation of Church and State, as their scripture and founding prophet say otherwise. Further, the Koran is not like the Bible. It, for a Muslim is the word made book, and this cannot be laid aside, except by hiding something, which will always be found later.
This being said, even if we focus our attention on radical Islam, we were and continue to be fooling ourselves by imagining we can somehow do anything to deter it by fighting in Iraq. I do believe we need to add/delete program, withdraw from Iraq, and invade The Kingdom, the epicenter of radical Islam. Then Iran. Then Syria. Israel needs to finally and fully deal with the Palestinians. Iraq was not a real threat, except for the fact that Hussein was a devil, as an element of radical Islam. We don't even appear to be fighting radical elements any longer there, simply mean Muslims, who want us to go away, so they can slaughter each other in peace. If we leave and let them do that, then we will have won, if you will.
This, in my opinion, is why this war has been such a difficult sell. Other than the threat from Hussein, which was stopped early on, Iraq was no real threat and Americans sense that. Yet, all the while we bed down with the Saudis. It is time for a thorough house cleaning at all levels of the adminsitration, especially in the departments of intelligence.

Anonymous said...

Excellent post Bob. I think it is spot on. I am not a religious type but I do see the value in it and think we can all worship in our own way, some of us by noticing the beauty the intelligence we were granted allows us to create...

Anyway, excellent post and excellent article that you referenced.

Anonymous said...

I think you're onto a Mind Virus Symptom here:

"--But what about X?!
--What about Y?!
--What about the threatened global extinction of the snark?!
--What about...?"

Hidden upfront is the article of faith that no answer will ever satisfy!

Behold the "reasonable" troll. Can we apply this with less delay next time?

Anonymous said...

Bob said,

"These people can reject orthodoxy and tradition all they want, but there is a reason why the latter has produced hundreds and thousands of profound spiritual thinkers, from Origen, to Dionysius, to John Scotus Eriugena, to Eckhart, to St. John of the Cross, to Theophan the Recluse, to Teilhard de Chardin, to Valentin Tomberg."

The sad part is that many new agers will put themselves in their own minds on a par with these people.
I spent some time in my misspent youth dating a woman who considered herself "on the cutting edge" (her words) of the new age movement. The more I got to know of her and her compatriots, the more I saw what complete basketcases a majority (not all) of these people were, as decent, honest human beings in their personal lives. It was all about hiding behind ego and trying to elevate themselves in the eyes of others. Truth was not real high on the priority list although if you were to ask them, of course it was. I remember looking around at gatherings wondering why anyone would want to be admired by these people. It was always a fight for my life whenever I waded into the fray, especially when I began to point out the charlatans for who they were. Boy, did the hair fly then. These people had their entire persona and livelihoods invested in the mask, and I was pulling it off.
I can't say that it was a waste of time because I came out of that situation more "me" than when I went in. The experience actually began my ability to discern deeply and make assessments based on what I saw. It better enabled me to intuit the intended/unintended consequences which peoples actions/motivations would have in the present and future and thus my political awakening began.

Anonymous said...

Joseph:

At last, someone who talks sense about war! I thought you'd never get here.

What I hear you saying is that we should go ahead and annex Saudi Arabia, (is that what mean by "The Kingdom?) which is a new idea. Say more..

AS for Iran, I think Bush is going to have a go at her if congress will give him the 20K troop increase.

Ostensibly for Iraq security, these troops are probably really going to secure Iraq's eastern border against Iran's forces while we bomb Iran with both land and carrier based air assets.

I think few Americans realize that the real problem with leaving Iraq is not the Iraqis. It's those Iranians waiting to surge over the border and sieze Iraq's oil-fields as soon as wel leave.

They'll crush the puny Iraqi army like a bug. I'll bet they're already cautiously mobiblizing, taking care not to be too obvious to the intelligence satellites.

Oh, this is going to be a hell of a year, my friend.

Anonymous said...

Bob, this is golden.

I remember "Rick O'Shay".
And am most decidedly a "settler".

But - it's hard to explain the - attraction isn't really the word, but I'll use it - of the creative challenge of developing a vertical life in a given parameter. It's the framework, but to the drifter, it looks like a prison.

"Here's the structure, here are the rules, here are the tools - let's see what you can do with it."

Your appreciation of tradition is one of the reasons your orthodox Christian exoteric readers can paddle their feet in the shallows and not feel despised, as in other venues.

The bit about "religious progressives" was dead on.

(My dear 82 yo mil is recovering from pneumonia - any prayers would be appreciated.)

Anonymous said...

"imagining we can somehow do anything to deter it by fighting in Iraq"

We have caused them to fight on that soil and not our own, by doing this. We have also placed ourselves in prime position in the middle east by being staged in Iraq and Afghanistan. The squeezeplay on Iran is obvious -if needed.

I don't think letting the factions of Iraq fight it out is wise. The Shiites in Iran would surely fund the Shiites in Iraq -as they do now. This would create a broader Islamic Facist state.

Of course, there is that section of the Bible which mentions that Babylon will be rebuilt. Wonder how this will play out? The ability to rejoin the Medo-Persian empire sits uncomfortably at the door it would seem.

As we ponder over this region of the world, also recall the scripture regarding 100 million demons chained there. In some ways, that can explain a lot.

As for the other problem, yes the Saudis are that. Funding Wahabi Islam in the US and around the world, while they pay them off behind their backs locally is just such a peachy prospect for the rest of us.

I think in any case, letting people of the peasant mentality rise too quickly to stature, creates issues like this. They bring with their new found power, thier penchant to mistreat everyone. They only have larger ability to do so with their increased resources.

Now, if you really want to talk associative evil, that would be the liberal politicians. Who busily try to make our life and death struggles with these clowns, into some oversimplified class warfare fairness issue.

IMHO -this will no doubt result in WMDs being used in the US at some point -all of the politicians then busy pointing fingers at each other from their graves. Leaving us Racoons to pick up the mess, as usual.

Somewhere Luke has a copy of an unclassified report about the history of WMDs in Iraq. You remember? The ones the news media and left say they did not have? Tell it to the gassed and dead Kurds and Iranians.

Meanwhile, the evil left political morons spend their time trying to play patty-cake with Iran and North Korea over nuclear weapons. Turning a blind eye to the manipulation by China and Russia in this.

As for making clear ice, didn't anyone tell you that if you boil out most of the oxygen and gasses in the water, you get clear ice?

Thats the fastest way to do it, rather than controlling the temperature variations to remove stress fracturing due to expansion.

Now, if we had the recipe for Ice 9..

heh heh

-Luke

PS - We make void the word of God by our traditions.

dicentra63 said...

This is what happens when you don't write down your brilliant ideas right when they occur to you: Bob scoops you and you have no way to prove you were there first.

I played with the idea of proposing to Integralist that he pull a segment of base code from a Mac and splice it into the base code of a PC and see where that lovely bit of integration gets him.

But! But! Both Mac and PC have good code! Why not integrate them?

Except in the case of Integralist, he might be on a journey of maturation, and he's in that stage where he still hasn't had time to question his old beliefs deeply enough, but he has grown up enough to see where some of them are wrong. It is only natural that he'd take the stance that one ought to cull the best from each side.

If he continues his journey, he'll finally realize that his old beliefs weren't as good as he thought and therefore not worth keeping or integrating. I just hope his combat over here doesn't prevent him from continuing the journey.

NoMo said...

Late breaking news you need to know…

The universe gives up its deepest secret. It is the invisible material that makes up most of the cosmos. Now, scientists have created the first image of dark matter. One of the greatest mysteries of the universe is about to be unraveled with the first detailed, three-dimensional map of dark matter - the invisible material that makes up most of the cosmos. Astronomers announced yesterday that they have achieved the apparently impossible task of creating a picture of something that has defied every attempt to detect it since its existence was first postulated in 1933. Unlike the ordinary matter of the planets, stars and galaxies, which can be seen through telescopes or detected by scientific instruments, nobody has seen dark matter or knows what it is made of, though calculations suggest that it is at least six times bigger than the rest of the visible universe combined.

For more see: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2134891.ece

All I can say is thank goodness! I will no longer have to just "believe" in dark matter.

NoMo said...

Sorry, the entire link:

http://news.independent.co.uk
/world/science_technology
/article2134891.ece

Anonymous said...

Outstanding post. Spot on in every way.

Anonymous said...

"In the end, all radical ‘religious progressives’ are the Judenrat and kapos of their respective faiths and of our time. By accepting and ascribing to beliefs and ideologies of Leftism, ‘religious progressives’ have made a deal with the very devil that would destroy them. Disagree with a ‘religious progressive,’ and like their progressive masters, tolerance goes out the window because dissent cannot be tolerated -- because the ‘emperor has no clothes.’"

Jim Wallis, you have hearby been exposed!!

Anonymous said...

Rick O' Shay! Funny you should mention him, because I just found out the other day that the strip is available in reprints. My dad has one of the cartoons pasted in an old scrapbook of his: Hipshot is talking to the minister, who is unsuccessfully trying to get him to come to church once in a while. Hipshot just says, "That ain't my style" and rides off-- later on, when he's off in the wilderness, he checks his pocket watch and dismounts. He looks up at the sky and says, "Sorry I'm late, Lord, but I didn't want to bother you when you were busy with those good folks in church..."

Amadeo said...

Hello, Bob:

This is quite off-topic for this current blog entry, but I know this may also fit into the general scheme of things.

In the past I had also seriously read up on the study of parapsychology, and even had the wishful plan that if time and resources permitted, I would apply to Duke U for its parapsychology program. While the plan did not materialize, I do have in front of me a letter from The Rhine Research Center, detailing the researches that it is engaged in. I’m sure you have heard and read of its original founder, Dr. J B Rhine and his wife, Louisa. Was not surprised to learn then that a daughter now heads that center.

Anyway, the relevant question then is how does parapsychology, if it does, fit into the overall scheme of One Cosmos?

Lastly, as an unsolicited progress report, I have already printed out all your blog entries ending the year of 2006. Unfortunately, because of the huge volume, comments could not be included. And your book which was gifted to me this Xmas remains to the side and unread, until I get fully updated with the blog entries.

Was this a good idea?

Many thanks again for your most invaluable written thoughts.

More Power!

Anonymous said...

Bob,
I hear you on the things a slackologist must do to remain viable.
My last vehicle was an 8 year old used truck which I proceeded to drive for 17 more years.
My current one is 6 years old and feels like a new cadillac.
Slackology has honed my mechanics skills.

Anonymous said...

Amadeo:

While Bob enjoys his synchronicities, his coon vision, and his soul-sniffing powers, it would never occur to him to subject them to empirical scrutiny, much less to major in them. He thinks people probably get interested in parapsychology as a substitute for religion. He doesn't believe it leads anywhere. Think of it as a side effect.

Having said that, if you take all of Bob's posts -- all of them, mind you -- and glue them to the interior walls and ceiling of your dwelling, you will find that it protects you from nine out of ten evil spirits.

Anonymous said...

Postscript--

Funny I should mention that particular cartoon, because I just did a Web search and found it available as an art print on Stan Lynde's Web site:

www.oldmontana.com

Gagdad Bob said...

Interesting tidbit from the site:

"Stan was working on his comic strip LATIGO late one night in his Montana studio when the vision came to him. It came with power, and with unsual clarity, and it took him completely by surprise. He clearly saw a representative of the crucified and risen Christ, superimposed against the background of the universe. Although he had never seen this done artistically before, this vision would not leave him alone."

Who knew?

Anonymous said...

Slack, a management book by Tom DeMarco, had a good impact on me several years ago. I had read most of the hot management books of the decade, and they were all the same - squeeze out all inefficiencies or you'll be gone from the marketplace - which might be fine for robots, but this was the first book I'd read that took into account how the best forward strides often take place in "downtime". For me it was the same principle as prayer or meditation applied to the business model, disengaging the forward gears momentarily. Unfortunately, my attempts to apply it in my corporate environment fell on deaf ears - just too radical. But that's how common sense is these days.

Anonymous said...

..Can't get to Heaven on rollerskates, can't take a Taxi Cab to Timbuktu,

Life is hard.

Anonymous said...

Luke,
One of the problems that I was attempting to point out is that while the Shiites in Iran support the Shiites in Iraq, the Sunnis in "The Kingdom" support Sunnis everywhere, including Iraq. Yes, Iran is a problem, but the epicenter of Islamo-fascism is Saudi Arabia. We don't attack or annex as Mr. Chaos suggested (I think Will proposed conquer a while back, which I like--why not an old-fashioned conquering and colonization?), because they, somehow, through strange and thoughtless machinations became our "ally". I am still learning on the subject though, kind of late to the game.

Anonymous said...

>>He clearly saw a representative of the crucified and risen Christ, superimposed against the background of the universe<<

Dark Matter?

Anonymous said...

Yusef, (heh heh)

"Terrorism in Context"
by Martha Crenshaw

This is a very good overview, probably one of the best.

Another classic is "The Terror Network" by Claire Sterling

I think I spelled Claire right.. maybe not.

The Saudis dance with the Devil on this one -obviously they prefer themselves to be the heads of the Caliphate the fundamentalists are seeking to create.

Personally, after 09/11 I would have gotten on the phone to all the leaders of the middle east in one big conference call, and told them they were all on the "vaporise" list, and it did not matter who did what to the US next -we'd just pick a target at our own discretion.

Put them on the hot seat with us.

But as you know, that ain't happenin'

A "Nuke Mecca" bumper sticker would only serve to get my car burned to the ground.

There is only one God, and Mohammed never knew him.

-Luke

NoMo said...

Will - indubitably.

Luke - I dare say, he does now -- and not in a good way.

Anonymous said...

"When reality is drained of its transcendent dimension"
A good article on transcendence by Lawrence Auster
What is transcendence and why does it matter?

http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/004328.html

dicentra63 said...

Having said that, if you take all of Bob's posts -- all of them, mind you -- and glue them to the interior walls and ceiling of your dwelling, you will find that it protects you from nine out of ten evil spirits.

Great. Now you tell us.

Anonymous said...

Integralist? Is that you again? Posting as me?

LOL

Muahahahahahaha!

Dope!

Anonymous said...

"'[T]o be a radical ‘religious progressive’ that adopts the radical leftist agenda, faith has to be dispensed with. A believer who wants to espouse progressive ideology must accept that his religious beliefs and values are worth less than progressive beliefs and values. Believers must find a way to rewrite faith to accommodate progressive ideology, even if that means upending the very beliefs, values and principles of the faith they profess to be a part of."

It seems to me that a Guenonian/Schuonian traditionalist would level the argument that your espousal of evolution, democracy, modern science, and, indeed, the notion that, in spite of all the horrors of the modern world, the world is becoming more civilized, not to mention the idea that modern/Western man is essentially different than the average pre-modern man (oh wait, I just mentioned it) is the same thing of which you accuse the Leftists and once the end point of the Kali Yuga comes, you too will find you have made the same deal. How do you argue (I am actually asking for your help here).

Anonymous said...

Joseph,
You seem to have left out the biggest piece of the picture you are trying to paint. You know, the theologigal part that overarches and contains all the other categories you pointed out.

Anonymous said...

Great post Bob!

For some of the very best, well thought out, specific analysis concerning Iraq, Iran, the ME, North Korea, etc., check out
http://ajacksonian.blogspot.com/

This war against Jihadists, and perhaps Islam itself eventually, will be a long one, especially since the left (American and Int'l) will oppose any efforts to fight it.

The efforts of the PCMulticult, diplomacy-solves-everything crowd will, unfortunatedly, result in far more deaths than necessary, including American.

Gagdad Bob said...

Joseph:

I can't explain it in a short response. One of these days I'll post about it. Who knows, maybe even tomorrow...

Anonymous said...

I was hoping so. Meanwhile, here's to baseball, my son and I had our first game of catch for the new year--very cold, but what could I do, he begged.

Gagdad Bob said...

Speaking of modern horrors, just don't tell him about the DH when he's still so young and innocent. He'll find out soon enough.

Anonymous said...

Of course not. He is, without doubt, being raised steeped in baseball tradition. His grandfather pitched in the minors. His Dad teethed on a baseball glove (true, but no telling how many mind parasites that brought in:)). I often recite baseball tales about the glory years, before the DH, before the mound was dropped, before steroids, but I don't fail to mention the fate of the Negros and the courage of Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson. Ah, the lore.

Anonymous said...

Predictions for the war:

'07--Iran
'08--Syria/Jordan/Saudi Arabia
'08--Somalia

It's gonna be a long one and it's just heating up. ya heard it here first.

Anonymous said...

War,

As of today; (if not covertly brfore)
07' Somalia

Anonymous said...

War,

As of today; (if not covertly before)
07' Somalia

Van Harvey said...

Rick O'Shay! What a memory masher that is... my older brother & I flying onto Mom & Dad's bed Sunday morning, Rick O'Shay was always my first target, that & getting Dad to read it out loud!

Thanks for the link Golem14, that was the particular one that first came to memory.

It is a small Cosmos after all - with or without dark matter.

Van Harvey said...

Joseph,

I hear you Joseph. I remember letting out a long and painful groan the first I realized that the Bush administration was going to try and justify the Iraq war on WMD, rather than as a strategic starting point with plenty of broken treaties to serve as warrant to begin eradicating a dangerous cancer from Ours and the Wests vital interests in the middle east, and the world.

I don't think that our problems have so much to do with the difficulty of fighting the war (of course it's difficult, hence the name War), rather our difficulty stems from our unwillingness to unhesitatingly identify it as a War against an ideology at war with us, and not a good deed/civil police action.

Our greatest difficulty and weakness is our reluctance to identify our Right to defend our way of life, the safety and rights of our citizens and our property from outlaws.

To sound my old one note again, that problem began to take root in earnest in academia 200 years ago with Kant, Hegel & Marx and their death child 'progressivism'.

As they made it easier to avoid the Truth by dividing it and pretending that no one could be certain of either, it became more and more easy for the progressives to say that we aren't responsible, and can't be responsible for our money, for our lives, our children’s education, our retirement, our health care or even our diet - wiser and better others should make it easier for us.

Should we take responsibility for our lives, or seek to be taken care of by bureaucrats? You'd think the 20th century would serve as a wake up call for us. Of course, I suppose Thucydides said that same thing 2,500 years ago.

The worse evils are rarely so clumsy as to cause people to want to fight them. The most pernicious evils are those that come packaged in half-lidded pleasure, easy choices, and easily avoided choices.

"The time is coming when each of us must choose between what is Right... and what is easy".

For many of us, a more frightening phrase than that is hard to imagine. Just aske the Inty-nagr'.

Anonymous said...

Or, as my father and I have said before...

You have a choice, you can be right, or be whats left.

-Luke

Anonymous said...

We live under stress, in a subhuman culture whose populace is confused even in the most elemental level of existence. We are all involved in an animal-like struggle for survival, without much intelligence even at the level of the verbal mind.
Until we have created a human order that is fundamentally free of mutual threat, it will not be common for people to live in a truly awakened and peaceful state, not only of mind, but of body (or the total body-mind). The body-mind must receive the signals that the stressful world has been overcome, that we need not fear, that we presently have a peaceful human society, not a society full of guns, bombs and benighted craziness.
The evolutionary mechanism of the bodily being is intrinsically programmed to awaken its next higher centers of function only when the chronic problems of its lower functional centers have been solved and mastered and when the being can live without chronically creating degenerative stress chemistry.

Basically, the entire human race is yet functioning within the realm of the threatened existence of beings who are eaten by other beings. We feel, bodily, that everyone is prey to someone else. In fact, we continually witness the drama of hunter and prey all over the world. Listen to the news! People are being killed all over the Earth everyday--simply being murdered in weird personal and social and political conflicts.
Such a dreadful circumstance is a natural part of the unevolved and lower state of the dreadfuly sane Everyman. Thus we MUST have conflicts and opponents. We must eat and be devoured ourselves.

To create a human sanctuary for higher adaptation and the ultimate transcendence of man is a true urge, even the primal human urge. We inherently desire a human and natural environmemt in which we can live without the chronic production of stress chemistry. We want to be cured at the heart of our mind and thereby transformed bodily. Thus, sanctuary, or spiritual community, is the motive in Man that contains the genetic secret of the next stage in human evolution.

We do not live a life of love and blissfulness and peace and harmony, in which the basic requirements of ordinary physical and social life are mutually granted. Yet, such is the state of evolution or adaptation that mankind must enjoy in order to experience spiritual and bodily bliss significantly and continuously.

We are threatened is the message of the "news". It reminds us of our chronic situation. We must be stressful, politically and socially, to protect the world and our own lives and families and communities from the profoundly chaotic madness of this subhuman global society.
We constantly reinforce loveless society in our associations with one another. We teach each other and we pass on to our children all the tecniques for living as a stressful personality. We believe bodily, stressfully, that our life cannot, even should not, be long, that it is not good to be alive in the body, that we are only supposed to go elsewhere or "heaven" where we can be at peace.

Anonymous said...

Carbunkle,

Get some light man.

Doncha see the vertical IS the salvation from the animal?

NoMo said...

Whoa, uncarbunk, dude, has anyone ever told you you're a real downer. Seriously, its a fallen world filled with fallen humans all separated from their Maker -- so what do you expect?

There in the very midst of the darkness, though, is a Kingdom of light -- just through that door over there. Step through and receive the Gift that's being offered and you won't escape darkworld, but will find the Way through the very real tension of spiritual war -- as well as a way to reflect some of that Light on those around you.

Come on in, the Water's fine.

Anonymous said...

Totally off topic but, it's just after midnight on the East Coast, here in the land of the Swamp and the Gator and I must say, UnkCarbunk, that I think to myself, "what a wonderful world!"

A palindromic score,
and the Big Ten
is no more.

Suh-weeet!

Anonymous said...

Carbunkle,

Substitute the word I for the word we in your little ditty and see how that feels on the truth scale. ;)

Anonymous said...

Blue and orange OWNS that Tostito stadium, from Fiesta to title game.

There was never any doubt about the outcome tonight. Bronco Nation heartily congratulates Gator Nation.

Anonymous said...

What I don't understand is that users who don't like the Judeo-Christian operating system are still eager to download and install Marx 7.0, which contains all the flaws they accuse the old system of having.

And then there's Bill Hicks, weird combination of vertical seeker and horizontal libertarian that he was; to me, he seems like a man in desperate need of Gagdaddian review.

To sum him up in Bob's vertical algebra: I feel that Hicks, despite several intense experiences of (?!) throughout his life, unknowingly took flight for Ø instead of O because he saw all conventional religious praxis [I think Bob calls that (o)] as a source of bad (k).

"The source of light is in all of us, in our own minds.... I appreciate your little games and rituals, putting on the tie and going to church and all the rest of it. But, you know, there is a LIVING GOD WHO WILL TALK DIRECTLY F__KIN' TO YOU. No middleman required."

Anonymous said...

Inty? Is that you as me again?

LOL

Anonymous said...

uncle carbunkle,
I highly recommend a kitten, or a puppy, or a horse, or a child. If you saw the complete and spontaneous love a child has for a kitten, there is simply no way you could truly accept your vision of reality.

Van: You have probably touched on this before, but what is your view on US monetary policy?

Van Harvey said...

Gagdad said "...our own elites in academia and the liberal media do not think there is anything so special about our operating system. Rather, they see only its flaws..."

Imagine a leftie giving a tour of skyscrapers, "Oh! No need to look at THAT building, it's got basement just like this tenement does! In fact, it has FOUR Sub-basements! FOUR! oh... yeah, they say it has 110 floors, but a window is a window no matter how 'far' you claim to be able to see through it... Now this is interesting, I heard that there are actually additional sub floors beneath the lowest sub basement for parking - get this FIVE more levels down! Think of the muck below them! wha...? elevator? yeah, suppose... now supposedly the walls keep people separated from the real filth, but can anyone really be free from filth at that level underground... huh? how high is 110 stories above ground? What does that matter!? All buildings go above ground, what's really interesting is...."

To say they miss the point misses the point.

Van Harvey said...

Joseph said... "uncle carbunkle, I highly recommend a kitten... love a child has for a kitten, there is simply no way you could truly accept your vision of reality."

Uncle Carbunkle reminds me of the highly intelligent and highly morose robot from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, he knows all the facts of the universe and concludes "its all just so depressing".

Carbunkle, I'd take Hoarhey's advice & substitute an "I" for the "we" and take another look.

"Van: You have probably touched on this before, but what is your view on US monetary policy? "

A quick late for work answer would be the phrase "sound as a dollar" faded from usage about the same time a dollar bill could no longer be exchanged for a dollar of silver or gold.

Van Harvey said...

Joseph,

As an additional I-should-now-be-working-but-my-eyes-are-crossing comment, I'd say that money is both an IOU and a measurement of value; what would it be like if there was a federal board of governors overseeing the length of the foot, and publicly concerned with keeping the height of the average American constant?

Value is dynamically determined by what it is that is being valued and to whom - the only part of the process that can be fixed, is how it will be measured, you can't set a fixed rate for the value of money in any way that is not speculation.

People like to imagine that they can separate their money in the bank from the fluctuations in how much stuff their quantity of money will purchase, but attempting to do so misunderstands the nature of money. Those who are knowledgeable about the nature of money and say you can, are little more than slick speculators who've found a marvelous sales spiel that the entire public will buy. As P.T. Barnum said, "there's a sucker born every minute", and they are all self created through their desire for some assurance of something for nothing.

A free market must be free - any attempts to nail it in place, sets up the start of a long slow train wreck - the great depression being the most spectacular to date, but not the only one by any means.

I think that the references to money in the original constitution were about as far as the Government should go into monetary policy and regulation. It set a standard reference point of measure (the dollar weight) and common coinage and that's about as far as it should go.

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