Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Sinking Into Nothing Under the Weight of Progressive Principles (5.04.10)

Schuon has written that, given the principial order of this or any cosmos (for a cosmos is literally an order), there are three possible "situations or tendencies" for human beings: "firstly, conformity to the Principle, or the 'upward' tendency; secondly, the expansive affirmation of possibilities, hence 'horizontal' -- or, if one prefers, 'passional' -- existence; and thirdly, non-conformity to the Principle, and thus the 'downward' tendency, the illusory movement in the direction of a 'nothingness' that is nonexistent, obviously, but is possible as a negative and subversive point of reference."

Obviously, the Coon way of life corresponds with the "upward tendency." For a Coon, this is the only possible purpose and even justification for human existence, which is to say, transcendence of oneself in the journey back to our Source. One way I know I'm on the right track is if I am slightly embarrassed about where I was (vertically speaking), say, a year ago -- let alone, 10, or 20, or 30 years ago. I hope I can always say, "what an idiot I was for believing that!"

But if there is no vertical tendency, then there is no possibility of real growth (beyond mere biological development), much less conformity with Cosmic Truth, and thus, no need to ever feel shame or regret. Here we have struck on one of the great appeals of leftism. Imagine, for example, being Jane Fonda, and being so incapacitated by an absence of shame that one believes the same things at 70 that one believed at 30. Put another way, if a conscious person were Jane Fonda, how would one ever stop cringing at one's past behavior? Easy. By disabling shame. By becoming fixated down and back in developmental spacetime.

Likewise, imagine one day waking up from the awful dream of being Sean Penn. For that is what he is -- a particularly disturbing, even hideous, dream he is having (and which he can't help "sharing" with the rest of us). Most of us live in some version of this dream, or hellucination, at one time or another in our lives. But I would guess that all Coons can remember when something in them began to stir from the dream, since which time their life has been an ongoing process of further waking, or "realization."

This is a good word, since it is real-ization -- which is to say two things. First, conformity with Reality, which automatically creates the tension that makes the "upward tendency" possible. And second, the slow conversion of oneself into something real and solid -- indeed, something eternal, or a self fit for eternity.

Looked at in this way, life consists of building a vehicle -- no, that's too mechanical -- of conceiving, gestating, and giving birth to a "celestial self" or astral body fit for vertical travel. Likewise, to fail to do this is not just to waste one's life, which is tragedy enough. Rather, it is to waste eternity, which is worse than a tragedy. It is plain careless.

It is no surprise that one of the central passions of the left is abortion -- it is an unthinking "way of life" for them, which is to say, a way of death. This is simply a horizontal reflection of the "astral abortion" of the leftist's life. Yes, perhaps this sounds harsh, but I am not saying anything that the leftist does not explicitly believe. From where they stand, they would mock and dismiss the Coon point of view as a fantasy at best and probably a pathology, which is fine. I am wasting my life on "spiritual fantasies," or something like that.

As I said yesterday, I have no objection to this characterization. I am not offended. Indeed, this is what horizontal man must think, given his admitted horizontality. How could he think otherwise? Like a man living in two-dimensional flatland, he is a rock-solid realist, insofar as he is innocent of any knowledge of the third dimension. He hears of people who speak of cones, coons, and spheres, but he knows better, for reality is right there before his eyes, and every leftist knows that perception is reality.

But it is strictly incorrect to say that the leftist simply inhabits the horizontal, "passional" world alluded to by Schuon in the first paragraph. No. This world is relatively neutral, but has a naturally upward tendency if left alone, as per the physics of non-linear systems, i.e., chaos and complexity theories. This is why science and the free market lead to such miraculous progress if we simply leave them alone. As Adam Smith noted 230 years ago, the market is an almost magical way to transform man's inevitable passions into something that transcends them, but only if we get out of the way, which the leftist refuses to do, precisely.

This, of course, is why it is such a cosmic hoot to suggest that the left is a great respecter of science, much less, progress. Both the left and right have specific issues with science, issues that are a function of their respective relationships to principial reality. But at NRO the other day, Yuval Levin pointed out that the left "has a much more complicated set of problems with science that are explored far more rarely than those of the right":

"Scientific advance, for instance, is the great engine behind capitalism, and is in that respect responsible for much that the left has disliked about the west since the 18th century. Much of what progressives oppose is precisely progress. Science, extended beyond its appropriate bounds, is also the chief contemporary threat to our continued allegiance to the principle of human equality, which has been at the heart of the liberal worldview. Put simply, science seems to demonstrate we are not equal -- this after all is the problem many on the left had with The Bell Curve. Of course, it only seems that way if you take a very peculiar view of what the principle of equality actually is. We are equal not in our natural capacities -- obviously we are not all equally strong, or smart, or tall, or healthy -- but in our standing as human beings in relation to something higher than ourselves. But the left is no longer well equipped to offer that defense of equality, since it requires all manner of premises they have given up."

In short, human beings are equal only in the vertical sense. Obviously, I might add. But if you have jettisoned the entire realm of verticality, then you are reduced to trying to impose horizontal equality, which is simply another word for tyranny. And this is why the left is also so angry. They are perpetually aggrieved -- and basically incapable of true human happiness -- since they have converted the vertical "transcendence drive" into a horizontal "political drive" -- which only ends up pushing them further and further from the goal, which is to say, human reality (which may only be found in the vertical). This results in a kind of nagging existential pain that eats away at the leftist, an itch he can never scratch. Or it is something like "referred pain," in which a lumbar injury causes sciatica in the leg. Leftists are obviously in pain. They remind us of this constantly. They are the Party of Pain. They just have no idea where the pain is coming from.

Which is why leftism is the philosophy of anti-progress. Since it unapologetically sets itself up as the "revolutionary" (which is to say, compulsively reactionary) philosophy of "non-conformity to the Principle," then it is necessarily "centrifugal" in nature, if only because of the Cosmic Law of Gravity, i.e., the fall. In other words, from the Coon standpoint, you are either with us or with the errorists. Once you become truly committed to that first proudly false step in ontological space, then your cosmic fate is pretty much sealed. You become trapped in a seany new pigpenn from which you cannot escape except by waking up -- which involves the acute pain of realizing not only that you have wasted your own life, but that you have spent it doing great harm to others.

No wonder there are so many tenured leftists who have not taken a new cognitive imprint since 1968! The more time that passes, the more intense the pain of waking. One becomes, as Schuon has said, encased under a thick and impenetrable sheet of ice that builds and builds like a glacier, separating one from one's vertical source. Tenure, publications, awards, and academic prizes are piled on, until one sinks beneath the weight.

Again, unlike the netural but upwardly tending passion of science and the free market, the leftist's passion leads specifically downward. In an editorial today, Tom Sowell describes the problem with his typical lucidity:

"That people on the political left have a certain set of opinions, just as people do in other parts of the ideological spectrum, is not surprising. What is surprising, however, is how often the opinions of those on the left are accompanied by hostility and even hatred.... [F]or many on the left, indignation is not a sometime thing. It is a way of life.

"It is hard to think of a time when Karl Rove or Dick Cheney has even raised his voice but they are hated like the devil incarnate. There doesn't even have to be any identifiable individual to arouse the ire of the left. 'Tax cuts for the rich' is more than a political slogan. It is incitement to anger....

"But how can people work themselves into a lather over the fact that some taxpayers are able to keep more of the money they earned, instead of turning it over to politicians to dispense in ways calculated to get themselves re-elected?...

"Often it is an exercise in futility even to seek to find a principle behind the anger. For example, the left's obsession with the high incomes of corporate executives never seems to extend to equally high -- or higher -- incomes of professional athletes, entertainers, or best-selling authors like Danielle Steel....

"If it is hard to find a principle behind what angers the left, it is not equally hard to find an attitude. Their greatest anger seems to be directed at people and things that thwart or undermine the social vision of the left, the political melodrama starring the left as saviors of the poor, the environment, and other busybody tasks that they have taken on. It seems to be the threat to their egos that they hate. And nothing is more of a threat to their desire to run other people's lives than the free market and its defenders."

Exactly. What can one say except that the chronic anger and hatred of the left is indeed "principled," except, to be exact, it is, as Schuon put it, "in non-conformity to the Principle." Thus the inevitable downward trend of the leftist's passions -- including the "artistic passions" discussed in yesterday's post.

Remember, Coons are not Buddhists. We are hardly dispassionate. But our passion is always upwardly tending toward the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. We passionately love these with all our hearts, minds and souls, always bearing in mind that wisdom is the proper content of knowledge and beauty the appropriate object of love. Naturally, if everyone were this way -- which is an impossibility, if only because Dupree would be overwhelmed by the number of membership applications -- it would be paradise on earth, would it not?

Conversely, what if everyone were like Sean Penn? Or Alec Baldwin? Or Spike Lee? Or Randi Rhodes? Or Markos Moultsas? Or Al Sharpton? Or Hillary Clinton?

Not just "hell on earth," but the cosmic dimension of hell, precisely -- which is to say, the downward tendency personified, or the "many faces of Satan." Speaking metaphorically. Or so they think.

Iron and mud his nature's mingled stuff,
A little limited visionary brain
Cunning and skillful in its narrow vein,
A sentimental egoist, poor and rough....

This screaming orator with his strident tongue,
The prophet of a scanty fixed idea,
Plays now the leader of the human march....

But if its tenebrous empire were allowed,
Its mastery would prepare the dismal hour
When the Inconscient shall regain its right,
And man who emerged as Nature's conscious power,
Shall sink into the deep original night...
--Sri Aurobindo

62 comments:

Anonymous said...

they have converted the vertical "transcendence drive" into a horizontal "political drive"

As usual succint distilled essence.

Thank you

walt said...

Bob said, "...what an idiot I was for believing THAT!"

If that is The Standard by which to judge my vertical growth, then I am doing pretty well.

Anonymous said...

In today's post Bob writes:

"One way I know I'm on the right track is if I am slightly embarrassed about where I was (vertically speaking), say, a year ago --..."

Bob, I would like to hear more about what has changed in your thinking over the last two years.

I'm a little concerned over my own spiritual progress, which seems to be crawling very, very slowly. It would be useful for me to hear of the progress you have made.

walt said...

From the NRO quote Bob used:
"...what progressives oppose is precisely progress."

I link this with how Bob defined materialism a couple of days ago, as "an assumption dressed up as a conclusion." That's exactly how I perceive Progressive politics.

julie said...

Thanks for the Sowell link. For a happy moment, I was imagining what this country would be like if he received the type of attention and respect from this country that Jackson and Sharpton currently get.

julie said...

Walt, I think you just hit on my biggest reservation the other day about string theory. You have an amazing ability to get to the point :)

shoprat said...

When I was 21 I believed I would never change a single belief, after all I had it all. At 50 I have changed only a few beliefs but my core beliefs have not so much changed as been refined and modified. My beliefs have grown more than they have changed. (I think I changed (as opposed to grew) more between 18 and 25 then I have since, but I hope I have grown a bit instead.

Leftists can't even grow because their beliefs are dead even as they live. I might even say that growth is natural if you are in a position to grow, but they cannot grow because their beliefs will not let them. Change is what they need before they can grow and change is not natural. Eventually they will swallow up themselves, like the legendary snake swallowing its tail, and do so until they have consumed even themselves, and what is left may well be beyond salvation.

Anonymous said...

Hi Kits,
A quick note to say I've not dropped off the planet, just been tied up with a new job, moving, commuting between towns & a Beaky dander hosed PC. Should settle down within a couple of weeks. I hope.

Currently rereading "End of Time" by David Horowitz, the former New Left-er who came to his senses & restructured his being. One of their own, a Leading Voice to boot, and boy, they really, really HATE him. Likely because he had the guts to do the revamp while they cling to their error, hugging it tight like a blankie or teddybear.

Just a bunch of full-grown babies, bawling & squalling when poked, and circling their wagons for defense.

julie said...

Shoprat,
"Leftists can't even grow because their beliefs are dead even as they live."

Your comment put me in mind of the old Chinese practice of foot binding, but instead of merely hobbling their own feet leftists are binding their souls.

julie said...

Ximeze,
glad to see you back!

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

I wonder what the Orthodox would say regarding the silly Predestination vs. Free Will debate?

(having one with some friends on FaceBook...)

Van Harvey said...

"If it is hard to find a principle behind what angers the left, it is not equally hard to find an attitude. Their greatest anger seems to be directed at people and things that thwart or undermine the social vision of the left, the political melodrama starring the left as saviors of the poor, the environment, and other busybody tasks that they have taken on. It seems to be the threat to their egos that they hate. And nothing is more of a threat to their desire to run other people's lives than the free market and its defenders."

Cue Jake and Elwood
Got what I got, the hard way,
And I'll make you better, each and every day,
So honey, don't you fret,
Cause you ain't seen, nothin' yet.

Cause I'm a Sowell man, I'm a soul man. [da-da dat dat da-da dat]
Yea I'm a Sowell man. I'm a Sowell man. [da-da dat dat da-da dat]

Ohhh Yeahhhh
(With apologies to you realblues folks out there)

Anonymous said...

Hi, ximeze! Missed you.

Synchronicity alert: the second in the Robertson Davies's trilogy I'm reading is all about...Art! And artists, nature and nurture, virtue, synchronicity (there are no coincidences), astrology and daimons. Very Coonish.

Van Harvey said...

Shoprat said "Leftists can't even grow because their beliefs are dead even as they live. I might even say that growth is natural if you are in a position to grow, but they cannot grow because their beliefs will not let them."

It's difficult trying to integrate and refine ideas and beliefs that don't build upon or towards others. You're stuck wandering around and around, or outwards to new and more exciting (perceptually stimulating) positions.

I think that goes well with Gagdad's "...because of the Cosmic Law of Gravity, i.e., the fall. In other words, from the Coon standpoint, you are either with us or with the errorists. Once you become truly committed to that first proudly false step in ontological space, then your cosmic fate is pretty much sealed."

If you've chosen to walk away from the stairs, you have to walk back to them before being able to climb them.

Van Harvey said...

Ximeze!

Anonymous said...

george, the curious

Your own spiritual progress is the hardest thing in the world to judge - while it's happening.
You can only see it in retrospect.

It was enormously freeing to me to realize that being deeply embarrassed by one's previous lacks was going to be a constant. An inducement to take them seriously, but not too seriously. Ditto, any visible progress.

And- there are often plateaus along the way, where it looks as if nothing's happening, but things really are. Just not revealing themselves yet for whatever reason.

Bob2 said...

thanks for your posts, have replaced coffee as an a.m. picker-upper;

Anonymous said...

All hail the B'ob, who makes even coffee wake up!

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

Well, what does Coffea Arabica read?

If it had I's, of course...

Anonymous said...

Verticality is all well and good, as long as women's rights are included.

No more second place for us dames. We want it all.

Anonymous said...

"Leftists are obviously in pain. They remind us of this constantly. They are the Party of Pain. They just have no idea where the pain is coming from."

Not a good kind of pain, either.
Rather, the left induces a soul-deprived pain.
The psychic pain of evilution that no pill can ever relieve (but can hide for awhile).
They suck your will to live.
How else could they come up with the motto:
"death with dignity."
Which actually means that death and their version of dignity is more important than life.

Hi Ximeze!
I'm glad you and Beaky are okay!

Anonymous said...

juliec said: “Your comment put me in mind of the old Chinese practice of foot binding, but instead of merely hobbling their own feet leftists are binding their souls.”

One of the sad things I have read was translations of early 20th century stuff written by some Chinese women who had had their feet bound. They were steadfast in defending and promoting the practice; they saw its demise as the fall of civilization. This was not surprising, given that they had no choice in being mutilated like that, but I think it showed their souls had been co-opted, as their feet had.

An aside: one of the side effects of foot binding was that the feet were hard to clean and keep clean: shed skin would accumulate in the cracks and fissures, resulting in a great stench of rotting skin; tightly wrapping the deformed adult foot was an attempt to control the smell.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for missing me Sal & Julie.

Van!

Anonymous said...

Hi Ben

Beaky has a new window view for the first times since she's been with me. She seems to like it, tho we don't get to spend enough time together. Today, she, Simon the cat & I got in a good scritch the Cat & Parrot at the time fest. Lovely!

And all hail! Beaky celebrated her 9th hatch date on Cinco de Mayo!

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

ximeze: "The beak abides..." ? ;)

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

Falwell passed today, and though I, like many was not a fan of his style of Fundamentalism, I still wish his family the best and hope to see the fellow in the hereafter. However, not everyone shares those condolences...

Roundup of some Lefty reactions.

Wow, last time a lefty died, I never recall making those kind of statements. Respect for the dead?

Anonymous said...

Ximeze-
I put up Beaky's pic. yesterday.
An APB as Mizze described it, so it's cool that you responded today.
Oscar was 9 in April, although that's more in dog years.
Parrot years are significantly longer are they not?

River-
Sheesh! You would think that Bin Laden had died.
Vile stuff, but no surprise, coming from the party of Pain.

julie said...

Ben,
if Bin Laden had died, I suspect many of those same people would be saying nicer things...

Anonymous said...

Yes dammit we are the party of pain. What else is there? Pleasure? Who cares about pleasure? If you've got it, fine. If not, then that's pain.

Pain matters. Pain is what needs to be addressed. Pain is what's for dinner.

Everything else is just playtime. So get serious and change out of your diapers you big babies.

Anonymous said...

I don't like all the hairy-forearmed redneck deer hunting dirty joke cracking beer drinking football watching republican voting women hating gay bashing baptist holy roller sanctimonious self rightous hateful hearted hypocritcal stink-bait throwing bass fishing coon hunting sadist men out there who know how to fix cars.

I just had to get that off my chest. I'm really senstitive and I get offended easily.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

lol

Anonymous said...

Well bless his heart. I'll put him on my list.

Re: Predestination vs. Free Will. I'd imagine it would take so long to define terms so that everyone is talking about the same thing that you'd be an old man before the actual argument started.

walt said...

Ximeze -

Hurry back! Trolls abound, and we are harried...

julie said...

"I don't like all the hairy-forearmed redneck deer hunting dirty joke cracking beer drinking football watching republican voting..."

My goodness, I'm getting the vapors

"...women hating gay bashing baptist holy roller sanctimonious self rightous hateful hearted hypocritcal stink-bait throwing...coon hunting sadist..."

hmmm, thankfully I don't know many of those

"...bass fishing...men out there who know how to fix cars."

That's okay, sensitive gal, that just leaves more out there for the rest of us ladies ;)

Mizz E said...

Beaky feliz de cumpleanos.
De gracias a dios Ximeze regresa.

Susannah said...

sensitive woman: One less woman who'll be after my man, I guess. ;) Never hurts to reduce their ranks, even if by one.

There are simply too many great quotes in this post to choose one favorite.

I think Thomas Sowell's "busybody" designation is how I've always perceived the left. Also: control freaks. Busybody control freaks.

The whole post puts it so succinctly, but Bob really nailed it here:

"In short, human beings are equal only in the vertical sense. Obviously, I might add. But if you have jettisoned the entire realm of verticality, then you are reduced to trying to impose horizontal equality, which is simply another word for tyranny. And this is why the left is also so angry. They are perpetually aggrieved -- and basically incapable of true human happiness -- since they have converted the vertical "transcendence drive" into a horizontal "political drive" -- which only ends up pushing them further and further from the goal, which is to say, human reality (which may only be found in the vertical). This results in a kind of nagging existential pain that eats away at the leftist, an itch he can never scratch. Or it is something like "referred pain," in which a lumbar injury causes sciatica in the leg. Leftists are obviously in pain. They remind us of this constantly. They are the Party of Pain. They just have no idea where the pain is coming from."

This is exactly the sense you get when reading articles and columns and blog posts (not to mention comments!) written by left-oriented people.

That, and a profound sense of boredom. Blahblahblahblahblah. The same themes, the same stale ideas, the self-same *catchphrases* used to set them forward, in almost every diatribe. It's, well, retarded, in the truest sense of the word.

Makes you wonder why the times, they only were a-changin' back in the sixties.

walt said...

I was reminded again by today's post of how absolutely "useful" the concept of vertical and horizontal intersection really is. It is used here a lot, rather like a fine tool, that puts so many Big Ideas together. Coons using that symbolism have sharpened point after point for me, and it has helped me understand how certain ideas relate to one another on my own.

At the start of today's post, Bob paraphrased Schuon: "...there are three possible "situations or tendencies" for human beings: "firstly, conformity to the Principle, or the 'upward' tendency; secondly, the expansive affirmation of possibilities, hence 'horizontal'; and thirdly, non-conformity to the Principle, and thus the 'downward' tendency..."

Framing these statements, I have a "cross" drawn in my mind. What a useful "summary" of what we face each day, and also, what faces us! And yet, how many times have I wished to think coherently and congruently about such ideas, but lacked the "construct" to contain or to express them properly?

Mizz E said...

Coon anyone name the composer of this?

River?

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

It does sound like Cage; and to think, all this time they could have put a cat on stage and saved all that trouble with trying to compose randomly.

I recall he would, um, crumple paper? And then uncrumple it and and find the angles of all the crumples, and then use them to get the tones he was going to write down? I think.

Or, just get a widdle kitty up there. Aw, much cuter.

WV: ieakityn? Ooooh kay.

Anonymous said...

Ben & River:

This reminds me of the day we all found out Reagan had died and someone I knew called me up to sing "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead."

I wonder if he's gonna do it again tonight.

Van Harvey said...

MizzE said "Beaky feliz de cumpleanos. De gracias a dios Ximeze regresa."

I'll second that!
(I think... it sounds like it sounds good...looks kinda perty....)

Hey! Is this what it feels like to be a leftist? Using words because of how they look and sound, having only the vaguest idea of what they mean?

Wow....
(shudder)

Either way, hurry back Ximeze -

Van Harvey said...

walt said "I was reminded again by today's post of how absolutely "useful" the concept of vertical and horizontal intersection really is."

Knowing what this one means, I'll second this comment too, well said Walt.

julie said...

Jacob,
I hope your friend doesn't call with another witty quip. I wasn't fond of Falwell - in all honesty I think he frequently did Christians and Christianity a big disservice - but I am sorry for his family and for all of those whose lives were touched by him in positive ways, and I am certain there were many. Given what he came from, he accomplished more in his life than most people could hope to do.

Rick said...

I’ve been away coons. Sorry. Haven’t missed a post though (all brilliant), and caught most of the comments. So sorry I missed the Art discussion yesterday. Would have enjoyed participating in that. Was nice to watch after the fact though. Good, honest discussion of course - so unlike the typical hyper-cultured artspeak of the left. So glad I went to a Art school when I did.

Back to catching up to today’s post and comments…

Rick said...

Bob said,
“I have no objection to this characterization. I am not offended.”

Considering the source of this characterization, Bob, you should take it as a compliment.

Anonymous said...

Durn-
I'd like to throw my couple of cents in, but I'm just too tired.
Work.
Cold.
Yuk.
Hi, Ximeze! Booger the Cat says happy birthday Beaky.

Rick said...

Walt said,
“I have a "cross" drawn in my mind.”

Van echoed too.

This cross, The Cross, is no accident...obviously. I’ll might add that this event was The inevitable, prepared-for intersection of the horizontal and vertical.

The further the two paths separate it seems the greater the gravitation grows between the two and likely will again cause an acceleration toward each other for another intersection ‘burst’.

Stephen Macdonald said...

Thomas Sowell should be made an honorary Raccoon. I have a brief email from him that I printed out and keep on my desk. Bob nails it when he notes Dr. Sowell's lucidity. He is perhaps the most straight-forwardly vertically aligned (relatively) widely-read writer in America. The Truth shines on through every fine sentence.

Anonymous said...

MizzE,

It was Cat Stevens.

Rick said...

I second that, Smoov.

Van Harvey said...

Seems to be a trend tonight; I second Smoov's comment as well.

I first happened across Thomas Sowell in the library, must have been about 15 yrs(?)ago, with "Inside American Education", and have followed his columns and books ever since. One of the clearest minds in the country, free of cant, not only intent on pursuing the Truth, but capturing it and freeing his readers with it.

Anonymous said...

I don't get it; things have changed around here. Everyone is so polite all of a sudden.

Where is the shitkicking firebreathing deathsquad that used to greet trolls here? Bring it back already, I miss it.

John Edwards! John Edwards! Rah Rah Rah!

Anonymous said...

Bob said:
"No wonder there are so many tenured leftists who have not taken a new cognitive imprint since 1968! The more time that passes, the more intense the pain of waking." Which brought to mind David Horowitz's "Radical Son" in which, if I remember correctly, this red diaper Black Panther lawyer got honest when the dear secretary of the same organization was murdered by one of these thugs. It was the truth that set him free. A married man with three or more children, a career, an entrenched dark belief system transformed by seeing into the glass face to face. Redemption. I agree, Ximeze, I've noticed they do hate him in a deranged sort of way.

Anonymous said...

"....the shitkicking firebreathing deathsquad ....."

Hey Generic, thanks for the compliment! :^)

Magnus Itland said...

To move upward is not something we can do casually and by happenstance, for each higher level of reality is more real than those below. As such, upon arriving there, we are weak and disoriented until gradually we assimilate the particles of the more intense reality around us.

Conversely, when moving downward we become more real than what surrounds us, and we acquire heroic or even godlike powers, depending on how far and how fast we move. But we are diminished by the reality we radiate, until in the end we cannot return to where we came from, being no longer substantial enough to exist there.

And so the saints find themselves to be weak, a spectacle and a derision; but random forgettable NewAgers insist that they are gods, each creating their own reality. They are both right, but how much being, how much reality does each of them have at the end of the day?

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

"In the world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king"?

It always flips such people out when their 'powers' don't work on you, whether they be of buying you with things, persuading you with words or intimidating you with 'charisma'.

Got a bunch of plants from the hardware store yesterday... It is possible I have too many now... wait... never!

Webutante said...

Good post Bob.

Think it would be helpful to do a post or two on some of your life-changing towards the vertical moments which curious george mentions.

Just picked up a book for my summer reading list, "Why I Turned Right," compiled by Mary Eberstadt with essays by leading conservatives, such as David Brooks and P.J. O'Rourke, who were once on the horizontal path.

Also, one of my favorite little treasures by C.S. Lewis, "The Great Divorce" comes to mind about a busload of disembodied souls--all firmly entrenched in the horizontal dark regions--who are given the opportunity to travel to the gates of heaven and transformation and all but one or two end up turing back to darkness.

The only hope for mankind is to be fortunate enough to get on the vertical path by whatever means necessary and then be willing to endure whatever pain and humiliation necessary to continue treading it to eternity.

Thank you again.

Van Harvey said...

Webutante,
Funny, Magnus's comment brought C.S. Lewis, "The Great Divorce" immediately to my mind - a treassure indeed.

Susannah said...

pu"The only hope for mankind is to be fortunate enough to get on the vertical path by whatever means necessary and then be willing to endure whatever pain and humiliation necessary to continue treading it to eternity."

So true. At least I find it true in my own experience.

The Great Divorce is one of those I re-read every so often.

Webutante said...

So many people tell me that my faith is just a feel good panacea. But my experience is far from that. Getting and staying on the spiritual path is guaranteed to be painful and very embarrassing at times.

Bob, I have just linked to you on my blog so that my three or four readers can be directed over to your clever wisdom.

Magnus Itland said...

The disturbing fact is that I've never read The Great Divorce or seen any spoilers of it until the comments from you folks made me look it up in Wikipedia. I've had this disturbing vision about vertical degrees of reality since my late teens (that would be thirty years or so), but despite repeated attempts never managed to write a novel about it.

Mizz E said...

Sinking Into Nothing Under the Weight of Progressive Principles

News item:
Blogger who posted CFP Islamberg story had life threatened

(The threat was not made against me for my May 14th blog entry "Swinging Down the Lane in Islamberg".)

I did a Google news search query: "Islamberg" which produced only TWO articles; the original Williams report exposing the miscreants within our borders and the threat by one of the miscreants made to a Spokane blogger for citing the article.

A Google Blog search turned up 14 pages of entries on the subject. Draw your own coonclusions.

Prayers for all sheep dogs and their flocks and Raccoons and their orders.

The living Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler, who instructs and teaches GB and resides in each of His volunteer Order of Cosmic Raccoons, who, by the Grace, have been given to know the nature of the Miscreant - having been there, done that - pray only for knowledge of His will for us, the power to carry it out and to suffer our Time on the Cross gladly for Him who is there.


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