Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Erotic Tales of Metaphysical Ignorance and Tenure

The cult of intelligence and mental passion distances man from truth: intelligence narrows as soon as man puts his trust in it alone; mental passion chases away intellectual intuition just as the wind blows out the light of a candle. --Frithjof Schuon

In today's post we shall continue circumnavelgazing human intelligence and try to discover why it poses such a problem in the wrong heads. Obviously Man is intelligent. That's the problem. In fact, almost all his troubles are caused by his intelligence, through which he believes so many amazing things that can't be so. More often than not, the greater the intelligence, the more catastrophic the error, which is why it has been remarked that philosophy is "error on a grandiose scale."

There are many reasons man is in need of salvation, but because of the contemporary under-appreciation of gnosis, few people understand that they are especially in need of intellectual salvation in order to prevent their minds from "rotting in hell," so to speak. (I don't care if you understand all of this metaphorically, so long as you understand it.) There is a reason why so much foolishness comes from the secular left in general and liberal academia in particular. It's not an accident or coincidence, but absolutely "in the nature of things." We all fall, but only the secular left sanctifies the fall and renames it "tenure," for their left brains don't know who their right brains are screwing.

Taylor goes into great detail about how all of the impulses that eventually lead to the despiritualized secular world were rooted in religion. Only later did they become detached from spirit, at which time a new, self-flattering narrative was invented, depicting intellectual liberation as a revolt against spirit instead of its extension and elaboration.

Now we have a situation in which things like science and democracy have been severed from their metaphysical roots -- as if they just "happened," or were developed by people who rejected religion. This is the secular fairy tale we are asked to believe. But all religions have founding myths, and secularism is no different. Atheism is at odds with the humility necessary to receive Truth, and always -- either implicitly or explicitly but always obnoxiously -- "takes itself for a form of moral heroism" (Schuon).

Schuon writes that "modern man collects keys without knowing how to open a door." In contrast to this, a generative metaphysical doctrine "is the mental incarnation of of a universal truth."

Thus, what makes most modern thought so fruitless is that it is detached from its proper object, which results in a kind of sterile cognitive narcissism -- just "brains rubbing together." Since it adam & evesdrops only on the plane of middling relativities, it can only proceed in an absurcular manner, and can never even account for its own fallen activity. In other words, it "seeks the culminating point of the cognitive process on its own level," which, intellectually, is a little like marrying your sister. When that happens, don't be surprised if your offspring are a little off.

This is the difference between the intellection of a fertile egghead vs. the mere intellectualism of academic wacktivists. Most of the people we misleadingly call "intellectuals" fall and fall into the latter category of mental inbreds. They incubate thoughts and ideas to succubi, which are ultimately by the dead and for the tenured (and vice versa).

I suppose one has to have spent 20 years or so in the looniversity bin, as I did, to appreciate the full ghastly picture, but to be granted tenure is to be given access to the wider intellectual jerk circle of mutual master-, bachelor-, and doctorbation. It's really just a form of pornography, and like its sexual cousin, is so boring because no one's ever naked. And in case you don't know what I mean, when I say "no one's naked," I mean that it's full of jaded cynicism, joyless irony, and other posemoderns that are the consolution prizes for its spiritual vacuity and lack of intercourse with the Real.

(I don't want to get sidetracked again, but perhaps I should review my understanding of pornography, as the sexual kind must be just a symbolic sub-category of a wider phenomenon [as I explained in previous posts here and here]. In Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce's alter ego, Stephen Dedalus, discusses the criteria for great art. He says it is the task of the true artist to record "epiphanies," that is, the sudden ingression of spirit into matter, when something leaps through its outer appearance and reveals its true nature in a way that illuminates the soul.

Didactic art is the opposite of this -- in fact, it is not art at all. That is, it lowjacks the medium of an art form and tries to cram some merely worldly message into it. In other words, instead of transmitting radiance from another dimension -- from the higher -- it forces in a message or "lesson" from the lower, from this side of manifestation. This is why nazi or communist or leftist art is so tedious. It is also why so much contemporary art is so awful. It's not really art, but what Joyce called pornography.

Pornography has nothing to do with sex per se; from the Greek, it means "writing of whores," which pretty much summarizes my point. It occurs whenever we completely despiritualize anything and divest it of its otherworldly radiance and spiritual telos. Therefore, there is much that is pornographic that is not sexual at all. By this definition, most contemporary music is indeed pornographic, as is most TV, certainly MSM news. Most literature is pornographic. Even religion can easily be pornographic. And certainly most politics.)

Yesterday, what smelled like a probable denizen of academia left a comment to the effect that this blog and its "true believers" are just plain stupid, proving once again that the wisdom of this world is folly to Godwin. I didn't argue with him, because I know exactly what he means, even if he doesn't.

That is to say, as Schuon points out, a metaphysical truth can never be exhausted on the mental level, as this would be absurd, for the same reason that a three-dimensional sphere contains an infinite number of two-dimensional circles, none of which are "wrong" on their own level, but nevertheless can never be equivalent to the sphere if added together. This is why it is so easy for the Intelligent Stupid to argue that one circle looks different from another circle, therefore the sphere doesn't exist.

In turn, this proves the adage that "when one denies the supernatural it is unwise to hold forth on matters that have no meaning without it" (Schuon). Such critics apply a kind of deranged but impeccable logic "to things that a priori elude them." To paraphrase Schuon, what such a person calls "objectivity" is simply an honest confession of their genuine inability to distinguish truth from error, and then congratulate themselves with the title "objective." You will notice that liberal MSM boneheads do this habitually. They really don't see their bias. Yes, they're that stupid.

The whole point is that a traditional doctrinal formulation is a symbolic emanation of O, so to speak, which "realizes a mental form capable of communicating a ray of [infinite] Truth to one who is intellectually fit to receive it." Thus, it is not we who embrace truth; rather, it is Truth which deigns, or coondescends, to embrace and "become" us.

Everything revolves around truth and the will; the one must penetrate the other. Truth illumines the will, which, when illumined, vivifies the truth.... Intelligence is nothing without truth, and without virtue it is unable to contain truth in a really adequate and absolutely stable way. --Schuon, Spiritual Perspectives and Human Facts

Think outside the postmodern box:

And don't be like the drunk who looks for his keys under the street lamp because that's where the light is:

20 comments:

debass said...

"It's not really art, but what Joyce called pornography."
Whenever I see prison art, I feel like I have been violated.
Of course, it's always touted as some great work.

Gagdad Bob said...

A commenter at LGF called this story "moonbat porn." Exactly.

Anonymous said...

An 'Intellectual Circle Jerk' is a good way of looking at the whole disaster of supposed "higher education."

They're all going to drown when their tenure-ships sink in the ocean of infinity, and by consequence of the stupid no-bodies never learning how to swim. A part of me delights in seeing narcissus squirm in light of the reality principle. I wonder, does this lead to the "dark side of the force"? Hating evil is a tricky business.

Mizz E said...

Ed Lasky, news editor of American Thinker undresses the Soros/Obama
liaison.

julie said...

I saw that disgusting headline on Yahoo this morning. I don't even know why they still bother - he's only got one year left, it's not like they're toppling a ruthless dictator.

Although I suppose, in their twisted brains, when Bush steps down and the next president takes office (assuming, of course, it's the correct one), they'll be tearing down all the giant statues of Bush, ripping its head off, and beating it with their shoes. "At last!" (They'll cry) "The dropping of opposition journalists into giant shredding machines will cease! At last! Liberal women's studies professors will be free of the threat of Bushitler's rape rooms! At last! We can tax the upper-middle-classes into destitution, and give everybody the same healthcare and ipods! At last! The Theocratic Wingnuts will be cast down! Oh, Huzzah, what a glorious day it will be!

God help us all...

debass said...

Here is some good info to counter the moonbat porn from Flopping Aces.
http://www.floppingaces.net/theliethatbushlied.pdf

Anonymous said...

Coons who are amused by wackademic rational herding should get a kick out of this: (links included)

PHONY SCIENCE
Jerome J. Schmitt 11/2/07

James Lewis’s brilliant essay today reminded me of physicist Alan Sokol’s fantastically successful send-up of “Deconstructionism” which occurred over ten years ago. Dr. Sokol persuaded the intellectually prominent editors of the academic journal entitled Social Text to publish his “science” essay "Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity". Unbeknownst to them, it was a total parody of their thought processes, which he subsequently revealed here: "A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies"

There is no better way for AT readers to familiarize themselves with the bankrupt intellects of today’s left, especially with regard to their understanding of science, than to review this “hoax”.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007
/11/phony_science.html

robinstarfish said...

Worth
beauty is useless
hanging in a shop window
children love to ride

julie said...

Love the photos, Bob - they put a much-needed smile on my face today.

Ephrem Antony Gray said...

Fascinating, Ximeze; I think it was Chesterton who said, "There is a thought that stops thought. That is the only thought that ought to be stopped."

And like Bob was saying, it is like pornography, whose most prominent feature is talking about, writing about and anticipating 'the real thing' but never actually attaining it. If pornography is the "writing of whores", then this consists of a kind of dark liturgy, (common work) or maybe more of a narcissist's liturgy, a common work only for one's self. "All for one, and more for me"?

It always promises things but never delivers them. In the end it is because it actually doesn't have them... it would be like attending a church that talks about communion nonstop but never has it.

Seems like the academics talk alot about how 'this deconstructs that' and 'this liberates that' and so forth without as much of a bit of evidence that it really is so. You might as well replace all of their verbs with obscenities; it is both equivalent to the oldest profession and also symbolic of what they are doing to our language.

walt said...

"Pornography has nothing to do with sex per se; from the Greek, it means "writing of whores," which pretty much summarizes my point. It occurs whenever we completely despiritualize anything and divest it of its otherworldly radiance and spiritual telos. Therefore, there is much that is pornographic that is not sexual at all. By this definition, most contemporary music is indeed pornographic, as is most TV, certainly MSM news."

This needed to be said!

As one example, how about Cable TV's coverage of the death of Heath Ledger?

James said...

River,

I think you are on to something in yesterday's comments.

Anyway, I can't help but think that the enemy - since it is common for men to be individuals - attacks them on the individual level in very specific ways. If we think of sentiment as a faculty, we might be able to conceive that depression (some aspect of it) is an attack of the enemy on our sentiment. As a person who has suffered from it, I can tell you it 'colors' the world in terms of sentiment. It's very subtle and can not be described in words. Which makes sense for the concept of sentiment.

Addiction seems to be, also, in its way, an attack on the will, and insanity on the intelligence. And these three things are what plague us: Addiction, depression, insanity.


There is something to this. I read something like it awhile back something to do with Jung and alchemy and three characteristics of higher metals. Anyway, I like the idea of framing these three ills as an attack, because I have suffered from depression and addiction and it always felt like it was coming from outside me. Looking at yourself in terms of intellect, sentiment, and will is fruitful. At least you remember that you are more then just raw intellect.

Anonymous said...

Exhibit A - Bill Clinton, of whom most lefties (including militant feminists) will excuse any transgression because, well, gosh, he's just so effing smart, don't you know . . . but of course, Clinton remains the tantrum-prone puer aeternus, the Great American Manchild.

I think it's good to keep in mind that intelligence of the Clinton sort really boils down to how fast brain synapses can fire off electricity - in other words, this type of intelligence is a *purely material attribute", same as physical strength or good looks and whatnot. Yes, these attributes can be virtues and blessings, but only when in service to divine intuition and guidance. Unmoored from such, however, they serve only the demon of self-aggrandizement - they serve evil, to one degree or another.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Another fantastic post, Bob, and the comments here are top notch today.
Lotsa good links to check out.

"The whole point is that a traditional doctrinal formulation is a symbolic emanation of O, so to speak, which "realizes a mental form capable of communicating a ray of [infinite] Truth to one who is intellectually fit to receive it." Thus, it is not we who embrace truth; rather, it is Truth which deigns, or coondescends, to embrace and "become" us."

You know in the past, when you Bob and other Raccoons here brought up and discussed why it's so crucial for O to remain a great mystery, and why the Secret of O will never be discovered by evil hearts and minds, because their pride blinds them.
It's literally impossible for them to understand O because they deny it a priori.
Without liberty, will and Truth,
which promotes Grace, and vice versa, evil remains blind, and never gnosIS.

Mizz E said...

New Vid Release - "Pawn of Soros" flesh-craving zombie; kinky, but ultimately limp.

WARNING: Very creepy!

NoMo said...

George Soros reminds me a little of these related prophetic passages.

"WARNING: Very creepy!"

8^/ Just sayin'.

Anonymous said...

Off-topic, kinda: great meditation by another blogger/author on the atheist worldview, esp. as expressed in the Pullman fantasy novels.

PSGInfinity said...

Another lurker checking in. I've started rereading after a two+ month absence, and I'd really like tho thank you, Bob, for a wonderful oasis of a-sanity in a world gone mad. I've got your book, and it's been a page-stopper, as is your blog. The spooky part is that you *write* it, daily, and your regulars come up with something good, *regularly*.

WV: uyzne - I'm zany because it's a passable filter. But I need a better one, among many other tools. (Sniffle)

Van Harvey said...

"...for the same reason that a three-dimensional sphere contains an infinite number of two-dimensional circles, none of which are "wrong" on their own level, but nevertheless can never be equivalent to the sphere if added together. This is why it is so easy for the Intelligent Stupid to argue that one circle looks different from another circle, therefore the sphere doesn't exist. "

Perfect! You have trancended circular logic.

;-)


"Everything revolves around truth and the will; the one must penetrate the other. Truth illumines the will, which, when illumined, vivifies the truth.... Intelligence is nothing without truth, and without virtue it is unable to contain truth in a really adequate and absolutely stable way. --Schuon"

The nice thing about perfect, is there's always room for more.

Van Harvey said...

Speaking of circular assinity, a creature on one of the "Liberal Fascism" threads on Amazon, typed this with a straight finger,

"As for Derrida, what do you object to in his philosophy? As I see it, his fundamental insight - that there is no rational ground for reason - is essentially irrefutable. His further insights on the chain-link phenomena of language seems similarly ironclad."

as part of one of his arguments. It would be so nice if reality behaved like the cartoon world, where when a creature swallows itself, it dissappeared from view.

Patience.

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