Monday, April 11, 2011

Freedom Will Die, Comrades, if the State Fails to Sacrifice Enough Babies!

Now entering purgatory proper, we must ascend seven terraces in order to reach ecstasy central. The seven terraces no doubt correspond to the seven deadly sins (or capital vices). And since the cardinal sin is pride, the first terrace is reserved for the narcissistic and vainglorious who are full of nothing but themselves.

Pride -- or hubris -- is the sin from which all others flow, as it essentially involves an overvaluation of the self (or ego) accompanied by a devaluation of the other. It is as if the pole God → man is displaced to Me → You.

In another sense, pride can have no reality; rather, it is a reaction to its positive counterpart, humility, which is an objective appraisal of the self in Light of the Creator.

One shouldn't think of humility as representing an exaggerated devaluation of the self, for this too can be a disguised form of pride. In a religious context, a race to the bottom can nurture the unconscious belief that one has scrambled to the top. But humility is the way, not the end.

Much of this is addressed in the Sermon on the Mount -- Mount being the operative term, since the sermon is being delivered from the top of the purgatorial mountain we happen to be ascending.

You know, blessed are the poor in spirit. Or, when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray on TV to be seen by men. And When you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as they do in congress, to be honored by the state-run media.

In fact, the Sermon on the Mount can be seen as a set of "impossible" ideals which are to guide our ascent, for nothing less than the impossible can serve as the celestial attractor.

If this ideal were something easily attainable by man, it would only lend itself to the pride it is attempting to vanquish. Thus, as Dante says, Don't dwell on the form of punishment but consider what comes after that.

In other words, Dante urges us to keep our eyes on the divinized, those effigies of true humility. No, they are not down here in purgatory. Rather, we see their forms engraved upon the rock and carved in marble. This is to signify that they are in time but not of time; people come and go, but these celestial clueprints -- or icons -- will endure:

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. Eternity is down here in time -- and more importantly, in flesh.

So Even when we know that everything perishes, we should still construct our temporary shelters with granite. For Values, like the soul, are born in time, but do not belong to it. Therefore, To search for the “truth outside of time” is the way to find the “truth of our time.” Whoever searches for the “truth of his time” finds the clichés of the day (three of Don Colacho's Aphorisms).

Dante passes by three celestial archetypes of humility, first Mary, then David and Trajan. Mary is the one who turned the key that had unlocked the highest love, while David is both less and more than king.

What a marvelously succinct description of the perfect ruler, whose humility makes him less than a king, but whose wisdom and magnanimity make him more than one. This is in contrast to the typical contemporary ruler, who is simultaneously infrahuman and all too human. Such rulers bring only change we can bereave in.

Note that each terrace must be successively smaller as we ascend toward the peak. Therefore, the first terrace is going to be quite commodious; as a matter of fict, it is the commodius vicus of recirculation in the first and last paragraph of Finnegans Wake. It is the meandyouring riverrun past Eve and Adam, from swerve of shore to bend of bay. In the words of Petey, it is the winding binding river of light that empties to the sea and cures us of plurality.

So, Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.

But according to Dante, the soul's aberrant love would make the crooked way seem straight. This is a critical point, and one of the reasons why Love cannot be higher than Truth.

For a love that loves the inappropriate object is still love; but "knowledge" of falsehood is no longer Truth. It is obviously the same with virtue; for example, it is possible to "courageously" defend the morally indefensible.

To say "truth" is to say "objective" is to say "disinterested." This is the spirit in which we are to understand humility: not as harsh and excessive judgment on the self, but an accurate and objective insight into it. Get over yourself. You are not the worst person in the world, only one of the worst.

Schuon has many wise statements about pride and humility. For example, "A humble person is not interested in having his virtue recognized, he is interested in surpassing himself; hence in pleasing God more than men."

This is another way of saying that the Raccoon's primary orientation is in the vertical and toward the Absolute. And the ultimate in humility would be represented first by Mary and then by Jesus, both of whom "emptied" themselves in different ways. This unattainable degree of humility is nevertheless our celestial telokenosis.

This emptiness -- or what we call (o) -- is the essence of humility. God's quintessential humility -- or kenosis -- is represented by the Cross. Here again, the true King must be both less and more than a man -- and more through the less (or even least).

Now, one reason why the left is unnecessary is that no one is incapable of appreciating what he doesn't have. In other words, no one needs to be taught how to envy, which is, to a large extent, pride in action.

Note that the left invented the term "social justice" to conceal the envy at its foundation. But "social justice" is just another way of saying "state mercy," to which we are entitled. Which would not be so destructive if it didn't intrinsically involve the administration of injustice to others.

Thus, it is not enough that we respect what he wants to do with his life; he demands, in addition, that we respect what he wants to do with our life (DC).

You don't want to be compelled to fund abortions, even though the Constitution plainly says you must? Oh yes, The leftist screams that freedom is dying when his victims refuse to finance their own murders (DC).

No, it's not a graven image but a marble clueprint. Vive la deference!

47 comments:

will said...

>>we must ascend seven terraces in order to reach ecstasy central.<<

There's that archetypal number seven again. Dante's working with the prima materia that all genuine poets/artists work with. Seven, as in the Book of Revs, seven seals to be broken on the way up to paradise, or in Vedic-speak, seven major chakras to be activated in the human body on the way to Enlightenment.

In other words, one doesn't have to wait for the post-mortem state to experience purgatory - it can be had in full while in the earthly body. And this means the eventual divinization of the human body and the divinization of the earth.

West Coast Think Tank said...

At our think tank we do a "Seven deadly sins" study called the 7DS assessment.

We get a stratified case mix sample and our field agents do a study.

We've linked a high GDB (General Debauchery score) to youth. Older people of any political persuasion tend to get a progressivily lower GDB scores as the years wear on.

Interesting stuff.

J Jackson said...

>>For a love that loves the inappropriate object is still love; but "knowledge" of falsehood is no longer Truth. It is obviously the same with virtue; for example, it is possible to "courageously" defend the morally indefensible.<<

On the flight to our honey-moon me and my wife were discussing a sermon we heard at church a few days earlier, unaware of the lesbian couple eavesdropping in the row before us.

One of them turned around, and interrupting our conversation says, "So you Christians are going to tell us that me and my partner don't really love each other?"

*awkward silence for a moment*

"No" I replied somewhat annoyed. She turned around and never said another word for the rest of the flight. Looking back on it, I bet she felt courage at first, but I think my response turned that feeling of courage into something else altogether.

And I thought trolls only came out of their dark caves to post on internet message boards!

Van Harvey said...

"What a marvelously succinct description of the perfect ruler, whose humility makes him less than a king, but whose wisdom and magnanimity make him more than one."

Having watched a modern poli-sci history class Sunday, courtesy of C-SPAN, I wonder how long it would take to have that lesson be understood in a poli-sci class today?

"This is in contrast to the typical contemporary ruler, who is simultaneously infrahuman and all too human. Such rulers bring only change we can bereave in."

Oh, and let's be clear, parks remain open because of their leadership, mustn't forget that.

julie said...

Such rulers bring only change we can bereave in.

Heh - that would be a lot funnier if it weren't so painfully true...

will said...

Julie -

Exactly. We are the dunce we've been waiting for.

Markand said...

I support the Obama administration and all of its policies and goals.

I've from a place where its hard to stay washed, fed, and free of parasites, and where the government security forces are likely to take most of what you have.

Police? Hah..out for themselves strictly.

You don't know bad government. You have all been spoiled by years of living your secure rich lives.

So go ahead and try hard to invent "problems" you have so you can complain about them.

Boredom makes you do it, because you are not constantly in fear of your life.

Be grateful.

Anonymous said...

I am a staunch leftist and I am greatly offended by this blog.

Where do you get off?

Anna said...

Haven't read a thing yet, but got to say it.

wv: light

mushroom said...

The impossibility of the Sermon on the Mount -- in just a few sentences Jesus strips away all self-righteousness and leaves us naked as Adam in a cactus patch.

julie said...

Mushroom - I like that description; anyone who doesn't feel positively skewered by the Sermon is probably hearing it wrong...

William said...

Nearly all non-theocratic modern indutrialized countries provide and protect reproductive choice for women. So, where are you going with this? Since these objections you raise are largely theological (or at least metaphysical), despite trying to mask them as otherwise, you are suggesting a theologically based law to put us on par with other countries - mostly Muslim theocracies -that outlaw abortion? Worse, it has become a political wedge issue, some call it the "religious conservative fetus fetish." Even though it has been proven that making abortion illegal does not decrease it's instance, AND the fact that abortion is widely legal, has reduced the number of abortions.

"The number of abortions worldwide dropped from about 46 million in 1995 to slightly less than 42 million in 2003. About 20 million unsafe abortions are performed each year, mostly in countries where abortion is illegal, and 67,000 women die as a result of complications from these abortions."

Of course, your next step as a conservative, is to deny these findings.

We, as Americans have a responsibility to assure that abortion remains safe and legal for women. To believe otherwise would be putting self-righteousness and religion ahead of compassion for the health and rights of women. It is any surprise that the Republican move to defund Planned Parenthood is a movement that is being promoted in Congress primarily by men? Is it any surprise that former First Lady Laura Bush is staunchly Pro-Choice?

What makes us human is our brain.

No, a fetus is not a person. A developing human life, yes, but not a human being, not a person. Big difference. It is a developing person. An acorn, not a tree. The science that determines human life from a legal perspective is that of brain waves, the standard by which we can remove a person that is 'brain dead' from life support.

Like 'global warming deniers' ... much anti-abortion psuedo science has spouted fallacies like "At only 40 days after fertilization electrical waves as measured by the EEG can be recorded from the baby's brain" as proof of life. Yes, it is proof of life - like a vegetable - but it is not a human being because it's brain is not fully formed before 20 weeks.

For a thorough discussion on this subject see this link.

From the article:
"To get scalp or surface potentials from the cortex requires three things: neurons, dendrites, and axons, with synapses between them. Since these requirements are not present in the human cortex before 20-24 weeks of gestation, it is not possible to record "brain waves" prior to 20-24 weeks. Period. End of story."

98% of all abortions are performed before the 20th week, before the fetal brain is fully functional. If you want to restrict abortions in the last trimester, I have no problem with that, but abortion should an option in cases of severe fetal abnormalities or a risk to the life of the mother. Please note, the official Republican platform and the stated position of several 'tea party' Republicans provide no exceptions... even in the case of incest rape. It goes to show you how far this madness has gone when a lawmaker puts the rights of a criminal rapist above that of the victim and a zygote.

So, again, where are you going with this? Ask yourself why.

Gagdad Bob said...

Where am I going with this? Just to the Constitution. Why? Because the alternative is tyranny, AKA, the rule of robed assouls.

There will be no post today. We're taking the day off for Future Leader's 6th birthday. We have a surprise in store which will take us far afield.

Petey said...

William, you really ought to leave science to the experts. In fact, every person is a "developing person." Except leftists, who remain children forever. By your logic, we could therefore kill you. But our compassion for the least among us renders this an unthinkable act.

Margaret Sanger said...

We must not let it be known that we intend to eliminate the Negro race.

Cousin Dupree said...

This isn't really a fair fight. I'm afraid this man is operating on an intellectual level that is beyond our comprehension -- after all, his favorite films are the abstruse, subtle, and rarified works of Michael Moore.

Old Fart said...

Gosh, William - didn't you know that Planned Parenthood was founded specifically to further the elimination of "undesirables" such as the handicapped, the mentally retarded, and the racially inferior?

Where are you going with this?

Why do you hate black people?

julie said...

Michael Moore? Oh, my. This guy is way under our heads.

Dolf said...

Margaret:

Indeed! The most unsafe place in the world for the American negro is inside his mother's womb. You Yanks have succeeded beyond our wildest dreams in cleansing the genome!

julie said...

Shifting gears, I thought I said it already but I may just be stuck in three-hour time warp, so happy birthday to FL!

Margaret Sanger said...

Thanks, Dolf! Although it's still moving more slowly than I'd like. On the plus side, I've nearly eradicated the blight of Down Syndrome children. 90% of those aberrations are now eliminated with a vengeance.

Señor Coconut said...

Odd how the same people who clam that sexual orientation is genetically fixed at conception claim that the fetus is not a person. Which means that for the prescientific leftist, it is possible to be a nonexistent homosexual, or a specified nothing.

Charles said...

Given the left's success in eliminating their own liberal and negro genes through abortion, doesn't this disprove my theory?

Nancy P. said...

I have an idea: let's make murder safe and rare by legalizing it.

Kermit G. said...

LOL - good one, Nancy!

Rachel Carson said...

Abortion is so inefficient. We've killed millions of negroes just by banning DDT in Africa.

Van Harvey said...

Happy Reproductive Choice Result Day FL! Glad you got all your dendrites together!

And remember, choose your nous daily and you'll stay Head and Shoulders above William.

Unknown said...

Surely there is a joker in this deck, the poor louse infested writer who says he supports the Obama administration and all its usurpations -- somehow assigning credit for our liberties and blessings to that stealth vector of disease, that smooth singing mocha colored minstrel of malice, that jet fuel guzzling imbecilic lead locust busily masticating our tree of liberty in order to pass it through his convoluted transmutational tax payer funded gut. The piling up putrified offal that was once a living tree will enable America to experience the parasite life, to become terminally drunk on malarial waters while all around us the ceremony of innocence is drowned out by psalms to Satan led by murderous psychotics clad in counterfeit robes of righteousness.

O, President Zed, Nill, Null, the well groomed Void - comes off so pleasant, and our citizens were so completely subverted by the media -- and their own desires for heaven on earth. So they raised up the saturated sponge whose porous soul had absorbed all the toxic lies of academe and the media. Contagion cleaneth not.

NoMomba smiles and shoots hoops and goes on talk shows to display his affability but he is our Enemy in Chief. He wants you and me and it and us transformed.

It's one thing to suffer the afflictions and the miseries that life can bring. It's another to invite and invoke and invent them. He's a bad mutha focker.

julie said...

Jiminy Christmas - when did baseball fans start acting like soccer hooligans?

Truly, the signs of the apocalypse are everywhere...

julie said...

Via Ace, this is great advice for everyone. I couldn't help noticing Bob has used at least a couple of those; #6 is an important one, too...

William said...

Ain't we special. We can even invent God, and claim he made us in His image. I can't think of a concept more lacking in humility.

Old Fart said...

pfffft

Or we can pretend that there is no God, thus effectively putting ourselves in his place. It's the archetypal patricide. I can't think of anything more lacking in humility.

Johan said...

William, are you sure that you already are a full person - or are you becoming a full person. If so, what are we to do about you?

Think about it.

William said...

Sorry old fart, God is bigger and more encompasing than this cozy little planet where us hominids so badly needing answers and leadership subscribe to ancient scrolls written by our ancestors telling stories of magic. Your assumptions of those who don't subscribe to your limited views are predictably bogus.

Van Harvey said...

willian said "where us hominids so badly needing answers and leadership subscribe to ancient scrolls written by our ancestors telling stories of magic."

Truly your wisdom knows no bounds.
But that's fairly typical of Nothing.

Gagdad Bob said...

In California it is against the law to kill a condor egg -- as if a condor egg is a condor! Ask yourself, Californians: why do you hate female condors?

Sal said...

Found the Mary quote I wanted,reminded by the post:
It was as if the human race were a little dark house, without light or air, locked and latched...
But one day a girl opened the door, and the little house was swept pure and sweet by the wind. Seas of light swept through it, and the light remained in it; and in that little house a Child was born and the Child was God.


From The Reed of God by Caryl Houselander.

Happy belated B-day, FL! Even though we don't know you irl, you are a delight to us all.

William said...

Hey Bob, unless humans are considered "critically endangered" like the condor, you give us false equivalency. Thank you for your poor argument.

Old Fart said...

Billy Boy,

"God is bigger and more encompasing than this cozy little planet where us hominids so badly needing answers and leadership subscribe to ancient scrolls written by our ancestors telling stories of magic."

*pfft, pfft, pftt, pfftt*
(Pardon me! That just made me LOL)

"unless humans are considered "critically endangered" like the condor,"

pbpbpfftfppf!!

Oh, my!

You are such a cut up! Really!

Gagdad Bob said...

Every man is an individual, thus, his own species.

I appreciate, however, that the left is rooted in the alternative principle that human beings are just drones in the collective hive, and therefore wholly dispensable for the Greater Good.

Margaret Sanger said...

Yes, William, exactly. Now if humans were an endangered species, why, of course abortion would be wrong. But as it is, why can't we be candid? There are simply too many people, and certainly too many of the wrong sort of people. You know who I mean, I'm sure. Why, paying for their abortions is simply a public service! These ungrateful Christians ought to be thanking me. Now if only people like yourself could convince these uppity magic-worshippers that God wants them to abort their fetuses and sterilize themselves, we'd be one step closer to the perfection of the human race!

Roger W. said...

That's right, Bill. What's with these creeps? They're just bricks in the wall, man. You don't need their thought control.

William said...

Don't ya love how the religious right wing fetus fetishists drawn false equilalencies between the racist comments of Margaret Sanger and today's Planned Parenthood? Thinking like they do, I could draw the false equivalency that these United States of America were founded on principles of enslaving Africans, commiting genocide against Native Americans, and denying women equal rights. Hey, that's the Christian principle of Manifest Destiny, what our Nation Stands for then and today!!! GAWD BLESS CHRISTIAN AMERICA ! And thanks to all those 3/5 humans that built our railroads and plantations.

Margaret said...

Exactly. Just because America is evil, it doesn't mean we can't kill fetuses.

Dante said...

Now see Tomyris bloody with her kill
After the ruin she wrought, saying to Cyrus:
"Your thirst was all for blood. Now drink your fill."

***

Now swell with pride and cut your reckless swath
with head held high, you son of Eve, and never bow down to see the evil in your path!

debass said...

Planned Parenthood-finishing the job of the Klan.

Gagdad Bob said...

Liberalism in general succeeded in accomplishing what even slavery couldn't, the destruction of the black family.

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