Thursday, March 10, 2011

Sinister Ministers and Reptilian Kleptocrats

It's canto XXV and we're still in the den of thieves. One of them -- a slow learner -- makes an obscene gesture, curses God, and even -- if I understand correctly -- contemptuously tosses his stolen goods at the Creator. (The translation says "figs," but one of the definitions of fig is "a contemptibly worthless trifle.")

Evidently, to be reduced to cursing God is itself a kind of curse -- just as contempt, which is the opposite of gratitude, is a kind of ultimate punishment, for the key to happiness is gratitude. To paraphrase Don Colacho, hell is filled with people who are satisfied with who they are and unsatisfied with what they have.

One cannot curse God without renouncing our deiformity, so in this plane of hell, souls have become "bestial, and the beast takes on a human semblance" (Upton).

This is a point Dennis Prager often discusses, and which is absolutely central to Judaism, that is, the bright line between man (neshama, the higher self) and animal (nefesh, the lower self), and the intrinsic sin of denying or effacing it. And equally as important, Judaism emphasizes integration, not denial, of the lower self. God very much wants us to have a good time and to partake of all permitted pleasures.

Here again, destroying this line is intrinsic to the project of the left. One could also express it conversely: anyone who denies this distinction is a default leftist -- or certainly anti-conservative, which is why libertarians and objectivists are by no means conservative.

I read something very interesting the other day about the Scopes "monkey trial," which, if true, suggests that this is one of the most distorted historical episodes since the Galileo affair, for it was not a case of "liberal" vs. "conservative," but more essentially of conservative liberal (William Jennings Bryan) vs. leftist (ACLU).

Bryant was rightfully concerned about the baleful effect of inculcating children with the idea that they are just one of countless other mammals, which -- if one is intellectually honest in a way that leftists never are -- immediately contravenes our founding document.

That man is both created and at the existential "center" of creation are ontological facts -- or rather, principles -- whereas natural selection and heliocentrism are just theories that more or less adequately account for empirical phenomena.

As Don Colacho says, there is a kind of ontological gravity that ironically pulls us downward as a result of denying the vertical, for When things appear to us to be only what they appear to be, soon they appear to be even less. If a man is only a man, he soon becomes less than one.

One of many reasons I would never send my child to a public school is that he would be forced to accept various scientistic doctrines -- which are true enough on their own plane -- as ontological facts applying to planes above matter. Since the leftist denies any degrees of being, his own principles are taught as magically self-sufficient.

Dennis Prager made another important point the other day. That is, the vast majority of Americans -- especially the religious -- agree that it is not a good idea to mix church and state. But if this is true, why is it a good idea to mix ideology and state?

For this is what ends up happening: children are inculcated with an ideology that both justifies and serves the state. For truly, the tenured -- including teachers' unions -- are just the state's way of increasing the size and influence of the state. It is why teachers are literally rewarded for failure, in that the worse they perform, the more money liberals want to give them. Success for public teachers would be totally self-defeating.

The official stance of PETA is that there is no moral distinction between man and animal. I remember Dennis Prager interviewing a PETA spokesperson who insisted that barbecuing a million chickens was equally reprehensible as barbecuing a million Jews.

The problem is, this does not elevate animals to the value of persons, but inevitably devalues man to the status of animal. And sex education in public schools? Forget about it. For starters, the left not only knows nothing of innocence, but systematically destroys it.

So in this corner of hell, "the mammalian nature is totally taken over by the reptilian one," and "empathy is completely negated" (Upton). Souls here are pure envy, which means that they cannot tolerate the painful feeling that someone else possesses what they want (another hallmark of the left). Thus, as Upton says, their "desire to steal something is based purely on the fact that it belongs to someone else."

Along these lines, Don Colacho wields a number of sharp objects, for example, Every society eventually bursts when envy expands too far.

Yes, that would be the giant sucking sound you hear in the distance -- the one third of Americans who are suckling on a government teat which is in the process of imploding.

And speaking of the left, here is a perennial truth about them -- their all-purpose excuse for violating the Constitution: Compassion is the best excuse for envy. And envy, of course, is the best excuse for theft. For Envy differs from the other vices by the ease with which it disguises itself as a virtue (DC).

Thus, The democrat comforts himself with the generosity of the program over the magnitude of the disasters it produces (DC). What the left calls "generosity" we call appeasement of envy.

Which never works, for envy cannot be appeased. Since man has an imagination, any idiot can imagine having more than he has. Which is why Egalitarian societies strangle the imagination without even satisfying envy.

Is the left any less envious today than it was trillions of dollars ago? Hardly! Like a child, their most frequently used word is more!

Furthermore, since the leftist lives in a flattened universe devoid of any higher dimension, envy is totally under the auspices of the appetites, for The poor man does not envy the rich man for the opportunities for noble behavior which wealth facilitates, but rather for the degradations which wealth makes possible.

Ah yes, Modern man comforts himself by thinking that “everything has a solution.” As if there were no sinister solutions! (DC).

Our country has been hijacked by sinister ministers whose ministrations make the country sick.

Er, I'm starting to wonder if envy is a good exit strategy from this place.

40 comments:

philmon said...

The Sinister Minister

Thanks for reminding me.

Since man has an imagination, any idiot can imagine having more than he has. Which is why Egalitarian societies strangle the imagination without even satisfying envy.

Oooh yeah. Bingo. NewSpeak.

I think the most successful New "Newspeak" word is "hate", by the way.

JWM said...

I very frequently hear those liberal folks with whom I am acquainted complain about the greed of the rich. But every time my outer ear hears "greed", my inner ear hears "envy". As long as they have what they want, why does it disturb them so that others have more? And what's more- they never seem to be disturbed about the salaries of movie stars, rock stars, or professional athletes. But they get apoplectic over CEO's.

JWM

philmon said...

Incidentally, if this blog is for innerattainment purposes only, is Sea World for Entertainment Porpoises only?

julie said...

One of them -- a slow learner -- makes an obscene gesture, curses God, and even -- if I understand correctly -- contemptuously tosses his stolen goods at the Creator. (The translation says "figs," but one of the definitions of fig is "a contemptibly worthless trifle.")

I'm reminded of such celebrity thieves as Winona and Lilo - people who have (or ought to have) plenty of money to pay for whatever worthless trifles they want, but who cannot resist simply taking them, instead. I'm sure there are plenty of non-celebrity rich people who do the same, either for the thrill of the act or because they somehow consider themselves entitled to just have something for free, simply because they are wealthy.

Re. the bright line between man and animal, Upton also had this to say:
"...when human and subhuman marry, the subhuman always rules."

julie said...

JWM - re. people who complain about the greed of the rich, there's a lovely young person of my acquaintance who once decried that she thought people shouldn't be allowed to possess such things as private yachts. More recently, she stated that people ought to care more about biodiversity. And yet this selfsame young person is bedecked in upper-middle-class finery and lives a lifestyle that lavishly exceeds anything that virtually all but a microscopic percentage of humanity could ever have imagined. Her carbon footprint is very likely off the charts, like most of her generation and location.

Her intention at such moments seems to be good, i.e. she would will others to do good with what they have. But you're right - deep down it is about envy, perhaps even of the sort that would take some ultimately useless trifle from one who has it; not in order to possess the trifle, but to both drag down the other person and perhaps even pitch the trifle angrily right back at the One who made such trifles possible in the first place, if that makes any sense, for alowing the unfair imbalance between those who have those who lack.

One wonders if she would feel the same about vertical achievement as she does about horizontal success: whether she would consider it "unfair" that some people may, over the course of their lives, become saints, whilst most others never manage to rise that high.

Magnus Itland said...

People are utterly unaware that when they take something from someone, they also *take responsibility for it*. When they use it irresponsibly, which the envious can hardly avoid doing in their mind-darkness, they add to their own tenure in Hell, beyond the sheer act of the theft.

mushroom said...

"...barbecuing a million chickens was equally reprehensible as barbecuing a million Jews"

That doesn't even rise to idiocy. Nobody can be that damned stupid. And to say it to Prager. If I had been Prager I would have shot the evil SOB.

Why not just come out and say that Jews are no better than chickens?

julie said...

The poor man does not envy the rich man for the opportunities for noble behavior which wealth facilitates, but rather for the degradations which wealth makes possible.

Modern man comforts himself by thinking that “everything has a solution.”


Along those lines, Belmont Club and Dr. Sanity discuss the Projects. Again and again, the left makes the mistake of thinking that if only people are given the trappings of success, they will choose to raise themselves to that level of success. Instead, their failure has been rewarded by the givers, who maintain the delusion that if only the "the poor" are given enough handouts they will eventually wish to succeed.

mushroom said...

Julie, isn't it funny how people who are supposedly poor manage to have -- what do you youngsters call it? -- bling? blang? blung?

I gave my granddaughter a simple rule of thumb, "Never ride in car that could be purchased for less than the price of the woofer in the trunk."

Don Colacho said...

The left claims that the guilty party in a conflict is not the one who covets another’s goods but the one who defends his own.

Unknown said...

As for the true history of the Scopes v. what we've been told see www.allegedthemovie.com and www.themonkeytrial.com. Bryan was not a conservative, though, as I think you mentioned.

Unknown said...

Oooops. You said "liberal conservative" not conservative. Sorry!

Gagdad Bob said...

Yes, I forgot to add that Bryant was afraid of the consequences of social Darwinism....

julie said...

Is the left any less envious today than it was trillions of dollars ago? Hardly! Like a child, their most frequently used word is more!

And along those lines, when they don't get what they want, dreadful tantrums ensue.

The events in Wisconsin seem to be more eye-opening by the day.

Gagdad Bob said...

Here's the passage I was looking for: Bryan was "an enemy of race theory," and "in his day, evolutionary theory was inextricably associated with eugenics, and from early on he had denounced Darwinism as a philosophy of hatred and oppression..."

Furthermore, the book that Scopes was using to teach natural selection "was a monstrously racist text, which ranked humanity in five categories of evolutionary development (with blacks at the bottom and whites at the top), advocated eugenic cleansing of the race, denounced intermarriage..., and suggested steps for the elimination of 'social parasites."

So it was really an American conservative liberal against a kind of leftist nazi ideology.

Stephen Macdonald said...

The poor man does not envy the rich man for the opportunities for noble behavior which wealth facilitates, but rather for the degradations which wealth makes possible.

Bob has written a number of times how -- I'm paraphrasing and may not have it exactly right -- your life seems to come into focus as a coherent and meaningful narrative as you draw closer to O (in my personal case, to Jesus Christ, but all O is good O). When I first started to see some success in business I was very much on the "degradation" side of the equation--think a far less egregious version of Charlie Sheen (at least I hope it was less egregious - memory...ah... parts are missing). During that period I had at least as many setbacks professionally as successes, and the overall road was generally bumpy in all respects.

When Bob mentioned public school today it resonated as we've just located the perfect little Christian academy for our little Katie, who isn't even a year old yet. We met the man who single-handedly built the place up from a single room in a basement 20 years ago. You know the type of person I mean--clearly doing God's work and it shows. Anyhow for about a year now I've had this fairly strong desire--it almost feels like a lightness, a gentle tugging from above--to put some serious money into organizations like this (i.e., Judeo-Christian principles, absolute separation from any form of government, small-ish scale, locally controlled). If there can be such a thing as a pleasant, positive obsession I think I'm developing it. I want to give schools like that one fifteen or twenty mil. Which brings me to my latest business venture in big pharma, which is growing like an explosion on rails right now--far more rapidly and successfully than it seems possible to me. Almost like doors are being opened and people put in our path by some... well you get the picture.

From O's vantage I suppose strengthening some local Christian schools in Canada and Massachusetts can be accomplished by simply working "backward" with someone who is open to grace, and increasingly indifferent to monetary wealth (as opposed to Love) in order to make it happen. It's a strange but wonderful feeling.

JP said...

JWM says:

"As long as they have what they want, why does it disturb them so that others have more?"

Because they they are losing the game.

This is why it always bothers me when other people make more money than I do (or, as in college, when they got better grades than I did). Because then I am losing and therefore failing at life.

Nope, it's not rational, but that's the problem of adopting the concept of life as a competition to be won.

After all, there can be only one winner.

JP said...

Bob says:

"This is a point Dennis Prager often discusses, and which is absolutely central to Judaism, that is, the bright line between man (neshama, the higher self) and animal (nefesh, the lower self), and the intrinsic sin of denying or effacing it. And equally as important, Judaism emphasizes integration, not denial, of the lower self. God very much wants us to have a good time and to partake of all permitted pleasures."

I always found this odd about Judaism, since it was so far from what I perceived to be the Christian ideal of poverty, austerity, and suffering.

It seemed very hedonistic and non-spiritual when I first found out about it.

julie said...

Does it still seem that way to you?

JP said...

No, I thought it was a good idea.

Although I've never been particularly good at enjoying life or having fun, so it's hard to apply.

julie said...

Ah, the gentle paring of horizontal men and the serpents who would bite their necks and turn them to ash...

julie said...

JP -

Ah - good to see you've changed your mind on that one.

JWM said...

Julie said:
Again and again, the left makes the mistake of thinking that if only people are given the trappings of success, they will choose to raise themselves to that level of success. Instead, their failure has been rewarded by the givers, who maintain the delusion that if only the "the poor" are given enough handouts they will eventually wish to succeed.

This reminds me of a conversation I had some years back with my very moonbat brother-in-law. My stolen car had been recovered down in the projects, and we were driving out there with a trailer to bring home what was left of my Honda. As we drove through increasingly shitty neighborhoods he remarked how sad it was that all these people had to live in such crummy surroundings, while others were so filthy rich.
I pointed out that if all the money in the country were taken away, and distributed evenly among all the people that it wouldn't take long before the rich were rich again, and the poor would be right back here where they belonged. He agreed, but said that it still wasn't fair. "Fair", I said, would only happen if everyone were forced to have the same. He didn't think that was such a bad idea.

JWM

Matthew C Smallwood said...

Dear Mr. B - thanks for the tour through Hell. In case you want to read a blog dedicated to traditional studies here is a link: http://www.gornahoor.net/?p=1275#comment-8083 (not my blog). The reptilian group-mind is slowly coalescing into something very real, right here in good ole A-Merry-K.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

"And speaking of the left, here is a perennial truth about them -- their all-purpose excuse for violating the Constitution: Compassion is the best excuse for envy. And envy, of course, is the best excuse for theft. For Envy differs from the other vices by the ease with which it disguises itself as a virtue (DC)."

Aye! I would go as far as to say that anyone that is envious, and therefore bitter and ungrateful, cannot possibly be compassionate in any true sense of the word.

This is abundantly evident when (inevitably) the so called "good intentions" of the Left hurts (and in many cases kills) people, liberty, jobs, property, etc. (not only the folks they steal from but the folks they say they are gonna help).

For the leftist never feels remorse for the destruction they cause, choosing instead to place the blame on someone else rather than themselves, or, if they do manage to admit the truth, feel justified and redeemed by their own murderous "good intentions" regardless of the results.

That is not compassion.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Philmon said...
Incidentally, if this blog is for innerattainment purposes only, is Sea World for Entertainment Porpoises only?

Ha! :^)

I bet they have cross porpoises too.

julie said...

Yikes - I hope if there are any low-lying Pacific Coasters that you folks are getting to high ground this morning.

Can't believe the footage from Japan. Devastating.

Matthew C Smallwood said...

Northern Bandit, that idea of working "backwards" to your derivative opposite is intriguing. "Buy yourself treasures in heaven"?

JP said...

I just heard from someone in Maui. He was packing and evacuating a few hours ago.

Mighty unpleasant event.

At least it didn't hit Tokyo itself.

Anonymous said...

Matthew - excellent observation. Whatever happened to giving in secret?

Matthew C Smallwood said...

Jesus actually taught we could buy grace by giving to those who need it. That's how it seems to read.

DaniGirl said...

I have to think that one of the main causes of envy, especially envy that runs as deep as that in the heart and mind of the leftist, is being cut off from the divine... or more pointedly, the infinite. To be so cut off is to live in the finite (the base/carnal/purely physical... whatever phrase you like best). They believe that life is a zero-sum game, and that what one person has takes away from the finite amount of money/success/love/notoriety in the world. They take it personally... because they feel it is therefore denied to them.

This is of course false. For with God the Infinite there is no limit to what may be brought into the world... since He brought all that there is into it in the first place!

But there's the rub for the envious... the vicious cycle they make for themselves. They will not be humble and acknowledge the source of prosperity, thus making their heart and mind and life open to receiving it. Thus all that is left to them is envy. And the more they envy... the further they buy into the zero-sum mindset.

This is what our self satisfied and officious do-gooders of the leftist persuasion have been trying so hard to systemetize in our society. And with some success... as we can plainly see from the hysterics in Wisconsin, or at any other time a "sacred cow" comes due for trimming.

julie said...

DaniGirl, that's a good point. After all, one of the things they're always freaking out about is "peak" [insert favorite resource here]. We're running out of [x], they shriek, when often the reality is just the opposite. Rainforests, spotted owls, polar bears, caribou... Last week I actually saw an article about "peak coffee," the rationale for the fear being that "warming" will result in diminished crops. Apparently, they've dropped the word "global" but they haven't lost their faith.

As for peak oil, while I don't doubt it's real I think the earth holds more and that the source is more mysterious than many would have us believe. Also, if they were truly concerned and truly serious about finding alternative energy sources they'd be much more supportive of developing and improving nuclear power.

philmon said...

Well, I don't know that "buying" yourself treasures in heaven is the right way to put it.

Compassion is a manifestation of grace. It doesn't create grace -- at least, not in the one showing the compassion. It may spread grace by the example of its manifestation -- to others.

So doling out money to people really doesn't gain you anything in the vertical world. Although this is exactly where the left goes with it.

If doling out money makes you compassionate, and being compassionate means you're a GoodPerson™ then it doesn't matter how much of a sacrifice it was for you to give what you give. This of course can be extended to "reason" (rationalize) that forcing others to give is a form of said giving and earns you GoodPerson™ points even though what was given wasn't yours to give.

This is not to say that one cannot eventually arrive at a point of realization of grace from a starting point of ostentatious giving through the experience (n) one might subsequently encounter via the process and feedback that might stir real compassion in you... but that's really not the same thing as "buying".

philmon said...

A friend and I were talking about this on the side... he brought up this passage (Eph 2:4-10)

Eph 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
Eph 2:5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--
Eph 2:6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Eph 2:7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Eph 2:9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

and commented: Another verse on grace, there is no way to buy grace. It's God's gift to us so we will have nothing to brag about how we "earned" Heaven.

In Bob terms (if I read his book right), ↑ is a reflection of ↓ . We must be able to make ourselves sufficiently __ to reflect ↓ back ↑.

Taking a liberty with Bob's __, perhaps it takes a certain amount of humility to achieve __.

Through ↓, we can become more __ and "return" ↓ better as ↑. But it is not the ↑ that gains us "heaven", but maybe more the doing what it takes to be __. For when we're __, we are closer to O. As a consequence, we are better vessels ... er ... mirrors for ↓.

I could be totally off on this in Bobinology. But there's a take on it.

julie said...

Philmon - agreed. The idea that grace can be bought as a commodity reeks of indulgences. I'm not certain what translation Matthew had in mind, but the passage he seemed to be referencing was about storing treasures in heaven. Not buying.

St. Paul said...

If I distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing.

philmon said...

I had put up a previous comment (before the Ephesians comment) where I talked a little more about compassion being a manifestation of grace rather than currency with which to buy it, but it looks like it got spam-filtered out or eaten by an HTML submit form somewhere.

philmon said...

It might have been user error. Here it is (my original speal on it):

Well, I don't know that "buying" yourself treasures in heaven is the right way to put it.

Compassion is a manifestation of grace. It doesn't create grace -- at least, not in the one showing the compassion. It may spread grace by the example of its manifestation -- to others.

So doling out money to people really doesn't gain you anything in the vertical world. Although this is exactly where the left goes with it.

If doling out money makes you compassionate, and being compassionate means you're a GoodPerson™ then it doesn't matter how much of a sacrifice it was for you to give what you give. This of course can be extended to "reason" (rationalize) that forcing others to give is a form of said giving and earns you GoodPerson™ points even though what was given wasn't yours to give.

This is not to say that one cannot eventually arrive at a point of realization of grace from a starting point of ostentatious giving through the experience (n) one might subsequently encounter via the process and feedback that might stir real compassion in you... but that's really not the same thing as "buying".

julie said...

That's alright - subscribers saw it, and they're probably the only ones paying attention, anyway. I thought it was a good comment.

But as for being eaten, I can sympathize. I've been commenting here for years now, but my comments had never been never dumped until the past couple of weeks; then it happened three times. Seems you can't talk about erecting buildings or earning income anymore without getting the boot...

Theme Song

Theme Song