Okay, we'll bite: what's the subject?
The subject is order, and order is everything, literally. For the past several weeks we've been trialoguing with Voegelin, whose entire corpus comes down to unearthing and disclosing the order of Order; as he put it, "the order of history is the history of order," and no, this isn't just a mystic bromide worthy of the Sphinx:
Incidentally, our Democrat mayors are straight-up HEROES:
Now, Order is another word for Cosmos, and the Cosmos is indeed One (order is synonymous with the unity of plurality, or the reality beneath appearances).
The alternative to Order -- or in Good Times, its complement -- is Chaos. Chaos is generative -- or contributes to generatively -- up to a point, the reason being that the world is (or should be, in order to properly function) an open system, and an open system operates at the border between order and chaos, such that too much of either is a bad thing: sclerosis and compression at one end, dissipation and dissolution at the other.
Aphorisms:
Order paralyzes. Disorder convulses.
The former goes to the progressive state that is evoked to contain the barbarous consequences of progressive thought.
Legislation that protects liberty in minute detail strangles liberties.
But only for ordered souls. Disordered and criminal types will crash straight through the legislation, for example, rioting and looting while not even wearing proper face masks!
The price of absolute freedom would be a vulgarity without limits.
CNN should change its name to VWL.
According to modern man, oppression begins when any filth is prohibited.
Agreed. I get the looting, but...
Why all the cursing, whether via signs, graffiti, or thug-on-the-street interviews? The disordered freedom of the uncaged beast, one supposes.
Freedom is the dream of slaves. The free man knows that he needs refuge, protection, and help.
It reminds me of that idealist for whom it was insufficient to see bears at the zoo, but wanted to live intimately amongst them. Like the deeply progressive business owners of Santa Monica, he found out too late that he needed refuge, protection, and help.
The freedom to which modern man aspires is not that of the free man, but that of the slave on a holiday.
The question is, is this a slave rebellion or slave holiday? Either way,
He who jumps, growls, and barks has an invisible collar and an invisible chain.
Invisible chain? Yes, of course. It becomes evident the moment one of them opens his or her mouth (and I'm not just talking about the journalists, but the protesters and rioters as well).
It is difficult for you or I do identify with the chronic frustration one must feel to be such a stupid person in such a complex world.
The temptation to simplify and vilify, and to act out on these, is enormous. Why else would the Adversary tempt these weak-minded souls in this way? Like any form of intoxication, to be drunk on Victimhood is liberating -- the downside being that it requires imaginary oppressors.
Under the best of circumstances, politics is the organization -- AKA, ordering -- of hatreds. Encourage the haters to act on, instead of argue about, the hatred, and here we are. For a normal person the result is disorder. Not so to the left, for
Leveling is the barbarian’s substitute for order.
Our progressive class encourages rebellion in the name of "freedom" while imposing the burden of law (not to mention lawlessness) on the restavus. As Iowahawk so aptly put it,
We live in a nation of laws in the same way people on 'Hoarders' live in houses of cat food boxes.
This post has spiraled out of control and lost any semblance of order. Back to our truly cosmic thesis, that the order of history is the history of order. Whatever do we mean by this?
Tomorrow.
17 comments:
Leveling the playing field?
I'd settle for presidential candidates who weren't chronic liars, always -in the back pocket of $pecial interest$ always trying to tip the field in their direction. It's like trying to play an honest competitive football game on the side of a steep hill and the rich guys goal is the one that's always downhill, because they own the field.
How's corporate socialism even remotely related to liberty?
I'd think that Obama living in a mansion, or Chelsea Clinton living in a 5000 sq ft Manhattan apartment thanks to her moms friends, or Trump ignoring any emoluments clauses, or Pelosi or McConnell or......
The subject is order, and order is everything, literally.
I recently took on a crocheting project for my daughter, something I haven't done since I was a kid. The interesting thing about it was realizing that crocheting is simply taking a very long piece of string and making loops in it, over and over, until you have something like fabric. It is an extremely ordered process, which superficially one might describe as purposeful tangling. But the difference between crocheting and simply tangling something is that in general, in the former case the string becomes something useful, whereas in the latter, it is only useful to the sort of people who live for untangling massive knots.
Ironically, because the crocheted work is so perfectly ordered, if it is not finished properly it can be completely and almost effortlessly unraveled simply by pulling the loose end, whereas a knot, by definition, tends to be very difficult to undo.
Shifting gears,
The alternative to Order -- or in Good Times, its complement -- is Chaos. Chaos is generative -- or contributes to generatively -- up to a point,
In other types of matter, chaos is like a substance which is malleable, until it is baked or cooled, whereas order is the final, solidified form. Order is easily shattered, where chaos can just be reformed, over and over, under the right circumstances. Both states are vital to the function of anything more complex than, well, a base lump of clay.
It reminds me of "prime matter," which needs form in order to be something instead of nothing. But form without matter also doesn't exist, contrary to what Plato imagined.
What did grown America think was going to happen?
Willing complience to the orange childs, narcissistic demands?
Anyways: Drink Bleach, Stay safe kids! peace and love!
Orange Man bad!!!
If prime matter needs form "in order to be something", then the informing principle must be independent of such matter. Contra Aristotle, form without physical matter most certainly does exist. Plotinus admitted the existence of 'spiritual matter' (the basis of Plato's transcendent forms) but the fact remains that inchoate matter cannot generate its own form or intelligibility.
"The subject is order, and order is everything, literally."
One thing that pro-regressives(L & R), utilitarians, most libertarians, have in common, is the leveling spirit, an visceral antipathy to hierarchy. Way back when, I thought they were just wrong, but it doesn't take too many efforts at trying to communicate the the nature and necessity of hierarchy, to realize that there's far more than judgement involved in their positions.
Protests and looting are tapering down after charges were filed against the other three officers at the Floyd crime scene.
Did you see the video Gagdad? What do you make of it?
Re the video, it would be inappropriate to draw any firm conclusions until all the facts are in. Superficially it sounds like this disgusting career criminal had a heart attack or some other medical event that started before he was on the ground, perhaps from violently resisting arrest and struggling with the police, complicated by polysubstance intoxication and residuals from Covid, but we shall see.
It sounds like the police could have handled things better, but we haven't even heard their side of the story.
As for the looting "tapering down," funny -- a similar thing happened when we occupied Nazi Germany. We'll have to gauge the longer term effects of a further emasculated police force, but by then the media circus will have moved on to stoking their new manufactured crisis.
And of course, it is primarily blacks who will be the victims of increased crime -- and primarily blacks who will victimize them. Black lives matter. Except to blacks and to the leftists responsible for their plight.
If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t a looter.
I saw a video of a black man pummeling a privileged old white man in a nursing home. Sickening that the white man will probably get away with it.
Hello All:
I saw the video and noted Floyd cried out "Mama" twice just before losing consciousness. He probably knew he was going to die. The mental suffering Floyd endured should be taken into account. Mortally wounded soldiers often call for their mothers as they die.
It didn't seem like Chauvin was listening to Floyd. He seemed to be talking to other officers and looking the other way. A bystander is heard calling to Chauvin loudly and repeatedly "Bro, he can't breathe." As Floyd becomes unresponsive the bystander is heard calling to Chauvin "Bro you just killed that nigger." Chauvin made no response and appeared to be looking the other way the whole time. He didn't seem to look at Floyd's face or head.
Drugs, pre-existing conditions, all of that may have some bearing, but why was there no checking on the medical status of the suspect while in the custody hold? That is a gross violation of common sense and professional standards.
You can say Floyd was a disgusting career criminal, and police could have handled it better, but that is to minimize what was really disgusting, which was the disregard for Floyd's well-being, and by extension any respect he had for his profession.
Chauvin appears to not give a shit about Floyd's well-being. He judged Floyd prior to trial and convicted him of being worthless. There is the crime. A dirty cop like Chauvin will eventually start taking bribes and planting evidence. At least his career of destructiveness was nipped in the bud.
Yes, when you are a law enforcement professional, you must look out for the well being of the suspects you take into custody. Even a complete demon like Dennis Rader (BTK) has the right to medical care while incarcerated.
Convicted killers going to their execution get a last meal or a cigarette. And there is a reason for that. Evil people must be treated well in our system, or what you have left is the Gestapo.
No doubt Chauvin will be treated well in custody. Otherwise why not just take him to an interrogation room and beat him with truncheons? Because our system is not barbaric.
We aren't having Gestapo in this country. Emasculate the cops? I don't think so. Just require each officer to respect his profession and all will be well.
True, Floyd's mental suffering should be taken into account, but I have more sympathy for the woman whose house he robbed in the home-invasion, when he put the gun to her stomach. I wonder if she ever recovered from the trauma?
The overwhelming amount of inter-racial crime is black on white (85%, despite blacks being only 13% of the population) and the overwhelming violence to blacks is from fellow blacks. That is a real problem. "Structural racism" is an imaginary one, especially when we adjust for IQ, marital status, and other non-racial variables, which causes the differences to vanish.
Orange Man bad!!! OR Emperors New clothes?
Evidently the latter. Far too many seem to have some weird form of political Stockhausen syndrome.
I don't think it requires a liberal or libertarian
bias to see, Trump is an inappropriate JOKE on the decent world.
tbf, I saw this coming when they inaugerated that disgusting pussy grabber.
The Irony is that Dettol bottles have child proof tops!
"During the civil unrest in the United States that occurred during the long, hot summer of 1967, which were in part racially motivated, several nascent riots in Dade County, Florida were stopped before they could start through the effort of local community leaders.[4]:2–3 However, law enforcement personnel began to prepare for further violence, as the causes of the unrest were never addressed and promises made by leaders went unfulfilled.[4]:3
The first known use of the phrase was in a press conference held by Miami's police chief, Walter Headley, on December 26, 1967. Headly announced that six three-man teams of officers equipped with "shotguns and dogs" would respond to the "young hoodlums" from "Negro districts" in Miami with lethal force[1][11] and stated "his men have been told that any force, up to and including death, is proper when apprehending a felon".[12] In a pithy soundbite during the post-statement interview with reporters, Headley claimed that Miami had avoided "civil uprising and looting" because he had "let the word filter down that when the looting starts, the shooting starts."[1][13][14]
Headley clarified: "Felons are going to learn that they can't be bonded out from the morgue."[15] Florida Governor Claude Kirk expressed his support for Headley's tactics: "Let them all know they will be dealt with [harshly]. We have the weapons to defeat crime. Not to use them is a crime in itself."[14] Headley added "we don't mind being accused of police brutality."[14] In a follow-up press conference, Headley refused to say whether the policy of shooting looters would only be applied to blacks, given his previous stances, leading to a heightened state of fear among the black communities of Miami.[4]:3
A paraphrased version of his December 1967 remarks was quoted in his 1968 Miami Herald obituary: "There is only one way to handle looters and arsonists during a riot and that is to shoot them on sight. I've let the word filter down — when the looting starts, the shooting starts."[16][17] Anecdotes were shared that City of Miami police officers had started aggressively enforcing its stop-and-frisk law by stopping black males in public with no pretext, calling them belittling or racist epithets, then demanding identification and their purpose.[4]:3 Three weeks after the new policy started, Chief Headley declared that it had caused the violent crime rate to fall by 60%.[18] In contrast to the continuous harassment by Miami police officers, the Dade County Public Safety Department built relationships between its deputy sheriffs and the black community; although both the City of Miami and Dade County were judged to have effectively maintained order, the Miami Police Department were perceived to have revived prior racist policies.[4]:4
According to Lusane, Headley might have actually borrowed the phrase from infamous Birmingham, Alabama, police chief Bull Connor.[9] Connor had declared in 1963 he would use dogs and fire hoses to quell unrest."
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