Sunday, May 16, 2021

Escaping into Reality

Do you sometimes want to just leave politics behind and escape into reality? 

I know I do, but let me first get some aphorisms off my chest: 

God gave man the miraculous power to name things. True, but Satan gives progressives the magical power to rename them. 

"Hate speech," "spreading disinformation," and "community standards" are to language as the Fugitive Slave Act was to freedom.

The materialist can never make ends meet. 

You can't fix your own life by meddling in other people's lives. Progressive: hold my cruelty-free nonalcoholic soybrew!

In four months, Biden has proved himself unfit to conduct peace.

The credo of the left: in weakness, victimhood; in strength, revenge. 

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the authority of the progressive State, the right of George Soros to fund BLM and AntiFa shall not be infringed.

Man is a political animal. The progressive tribalist is an animal with politics.

Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding the oppressive dialectic between indoctrination and stupidity.

Africans live in a world of pure black privilege. Unless they can escape to a place with white privilege.

A decadent paradigm becomes more complex in order to account for its lack of explanatory power. Anti-racism is the search for epicycles within epicycles to account for black failure. 

Social and economic problems are answers to the left's solutions.

The left says Israel's response to the Palestinians is disproportionate. True, but do they really want Israel to commit genocide? 

Reality. See sidebar for details. I'm reading it at a leisurely pace because I am a Man of Leisure, and Leisure isn't just anything, let alone nothing, but perhaps -- now that I think about it -- the key to Reality, but only literally. 

Business is to Isness as is Toil to Leisure, the latter being the telos of the former (which is one way to make ends meet, alluding to the cryptic aphorism above). Not for nothing is Leisure the very Basis of Culture.

I'm referring of course to Josef Pieper's koon klassic, Leisure, which I haven't flipped through in years, but I'll bet has something to say about this post. From the Amazon page (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1586172565?ie=UTF8&tag=onecos-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=1586172565):

Leisure is an attitude of the mind and a condition of the soul that fosters a capacity to perceive the reality of the world. Pieper.... points out that religion can be born only in leisure -- a leisure that allows time for the contemplation of the nature of God. Leisure has been, and always will be, the first foundation of any culture. 
Pieper maintains that our bourgeois world of total labor has vanquished leisure, and issues a startling warning: Unless we regain the art of silence and insight, the ability for non-activity, unless we substitute true leisure for our hectic amusements, we will destroy our culture -- and ourselves (emphases mine).

That little passage has a bit of everything: mind, soul, culture, perception, God, world, reality, contemplation, silence, insight, and non-doing, and/or their destruction. In short: Slack and the unending conspiracy against it.   

"But I'm a novice at this reality isness. Where do I begin?"

Are you a troll? Because I don't troll on Shabbos. 

I don't know. What would Jesus do?

Wrong question. Rather, who would Jesus be.

Now interestingly, Pieper begins with a slightly tweaked quote from the Bible: Have leisure and know that I am God

And who is God but I AM? Which is precisely who Jesus would be, irrespective of whether he is doing or non-doing. 

In fact, I would say that the goal (for us) is to bring non-doing into doing, so that we're always doing a bit of nothing even in the midst of doing it. Like Yin and Yang, the Siamese twins of ontology: they can't be separated without killing them.

And speaking of ontology, this is the subtitle of the very next section of Reality. Metaphysics is the science of reality; it is

conceived as wisdom, science pre-eminent. Now science is the knowledge of things by their causes. Metaphysics, therefore, is the knowledge of all things by their supreme causes.

All sentient humans can agree that being is. Everything that isn't God has a cause, and being is no exception. Being is intelligible reality; it is the cause of our knowing it. Fr. Reginald speaks of the contemplative life, AKA the life of leisure:

the deepest joy arises from the activity of man's highest power, namely, his mind, when that power is occupied in contemplating its highest object, which is God, the Supreme Truth, the Supreme Intelligible.

If knowing truth is nice, being it is even better. Now, Jesus makes the startling metaphysical claim that I am the truth, the way, and the life. In other words, "I am the living truth and the way to it."

You know how with the left everything comes down to Who and Whom? With us it all comes down to I AM and We Are.

24 comments:

julie said...

The materialist can never make ends meet.

For that matter, neither can the faithful, but then we don't have to do it all on our own.

ted said...

Word

Gagdad Bob said...

I suspect myself of agreeing with him. BTW, I recently learned from a reader that Cutsinger died a short time ago.

ted said...

Yes, sadly. Speaking of the perrenialist, how is that Laude book? Looks great.

Gagdad Bob said...

I'm reading it pretty slowly, going back & forth between it and Reality (and a few others). It's good but a bit pedantic. Lacks the unique poetic power of Schuon himself. At some point I'll blog about it in more detail.

Gagdad Bob said...

It often sounds like he's writing for other academics rather than the folks.

Gagdad Bob said...

The Stalin book is great, albeit with more detail than one needs. The Holocaust notwithstanding, it looks like we picked the wrong enemy in WWII. Or at least should have helped them destroy each other. We're still paying for backing Stalin.

julie said...

Funny, we've been having discussions about Hitler vs. Stalin here in recent days. The older I get, the less I understand about an awful lot of things.

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed the post greatly, despite it being mostly composed of aphorisms.

Bob, I know you are a fan of the aphorism format, but to me, aphorisms just screams "lazy." Your just phoning it in, like there is no effort involved. Like you don't have the gumption for a nuanced essay of a post like you used to write seemingly without breaking a sweat. So what's going on?

Ever since you've retired its been like this. Can you get your job back please?

And this talk of leisure as being so important seems misguided. What have you ever accomplished on your leisure time? Has your slack done anything for the world? Or just you. It reek of selfishness and also of dissipation. It is defeatist at best.

Here's an idea. F*ck the slack. Write real posts for your readers, and expend real effort doing it. If an aphorism floats into your mind, just make a note of it and save it for later.

-Irritable Editor Ed

Anonymous said...

Hey.

Somebody commented "The Holocaust notwithstanding, it looks like we picked the wrong enemy in WWII. Or at least should have helped them destroy each other. We're still paying for backing Stalin."

Really? Seriously you think we are paying for backing Stalin? What kind of backing are we talking about here?

America hated the USSR. You only gave us anything hoping we'd use it to destroy Nazis. Which we did.

We never felt any love from Amerika.

Now who's system is best? I am not a socialist, I am not woke. I am a Bolshevik. I am as Red as Red can be. That's right, the workers should have control of the means of production.

Oh, we're still around. I've heard form the USA, the UK, Modava, Ukraine, you name it. NWO, Deep State. All telling me "Ludmila drop it you Communist." I ignored all.

I am also under 30 years of age and have two small children. That's not common. That's why they call me:
-The Kommie Mommie

Anonymous said...

Ed and Mommie,

Disagreement is not allowed in the conservative universe. Have you ever noticed that they don't debate with each other? They don't even point out spelling errors in the post. That's because it's All Truth. You either agree with the post and the conservative commenters, or you're a leftist.

Jules said...

Wow... this really resonates with my life experience.... leisure ... the wisdom to unplug from the mass consumption, trying to.impress neighbors etc.
Not to become anti capitalist,... oh no, to become part time capitalist/ free market nomads like the arab camel caravans.
They saw the amazing stars in the desert, the intensity and potential danger of the desert. Brings: calm, awe, humility, strenght you never knew u had. Same with 15 hr days mountaineering, deep.ocean sailing, sea kayaking.

I recently did another 4 day trip in the whitsunday islands, sea kayak , camping etc. Brings great calm.

Never forget, a big part of the leftist agenda is to drive you crazy, demoralise you. They know they have no valid arguments or case studies. When you debate, they rapidly change the goalposts, then smear you with some belittling comment etc.

They are prisoners of a satanic/ neo nazi cult and want to bother anyone who aint.
So.... use outdoor sport that forces you to focus on the moment, and also builds your immune system and physical strenght... this intimidates them, as they can sense your vibes. And strengthens you against their slander.

As that youtuber Swedish guy says " laugh at those who insult you". Don't waste too much energy with arguments, as its the truth that they DO NOT CARE about reality....

Jules said...

Lol total bullshit and projection. Cnn, bbc , abc Australia, most so called universities are pathetic circle jerks , smelling their own leftist brave new world, stalinist, satanic farts. I debate leftists regularly and almost none can stand it... they run away, or start trying to belittling me personally, or using kindergarten names " 4 eyes, big nose, you smell" ie " racist, homophobic, sexist, white, male ,etc etc" all of which make me laugh in their faces since i am much less sexist and racist than most leftists.

fact is: i volunteered as a soldier for irak...many right wingers , including Trump ( who i admire) say that was a mistake. And perhaps it was.

The world of leftists is like The puritans, spanish inquisition....especially with the latest wokeness...you are never pure enough . And can get guillotined at any time....just like the french revolution.

Jules said...

Worth reading and watching the movie " into the wild " about a brilliant young guy who leaves law degree studies, turns his back on his parents " impress the Jones " mentality and goes with a backpack thru the america, picking up jobs.

Also the book and movie " wild" abouta lady in her early 20s with severe trauma, going into drug addiction, who finds healing by doing the PCT thru hike, with almost no experience. She improves and learns hiking techniques quite rapidly.

And ends up completly healed.
Mmm also magic mushrooms...have helped me...id love to see the Antifa brownshirts on mass mushrooms or DMT.... they might see the demons using them , the magic of the universe. And walk away from their slavery to demons.

Anonymous said...

You sound a bit crazy Jules. "Leftism" just wants government to solve the big problems. Rightism says it's not possible, at least not for long. And then the debate happens, preferably using commonly accepted rules of debate. Theoretically, that should be about it.

But are you saying that this is impossible, because leftists are these crazymaking, demoralizing, no valid argumenting, zero case study, goalpost changing, smearing, belittling, satanic/ neo nazi cult slandering, total bullshit and projecting, pathetic circle jerking, stalinist, satanic farting, running away, users of kindergarten names, sexist and racist, puritans, spanish inquisitionors, Antifa brownshirtish, demonic slaves who DO NOT CARE about reality....

So... you got any credible proof?

Anonymous said...

What’s up with the recent uptick in coverage of UFO/UAP sightings? What are they and why the newfound public interest in them? Aliens, Time-Travelers, Demons, China, Military Tech, Natural Phenomena, Mass Psychosis?

No shortage of insufficient explanations. Trying to find one that explains the facts and jives with judeo Christian theology and world view. Any thoughts?

Anonymous said...

Hi Anonymous 6:40 PM:

I too have noticed the uptick in coverage of UFO/UAP sightings. Here are some potential reasons for the uptick:


1. The media requires a constant supply of hot issues to kick around which are proven to stimulate viewing and UFO's are very reliable in that regard. People LOVE to hear about and discuss UFO's. The media will trot out UFO stories on slow news days to as reliable news filler. This is the most likely explanation.

2. UFO study and interest is spark-plugged and championed by a core group of former military people, fighter pilots who reported sightings, and defense people who aren't comfortable with the military sightings and radar contacts. This coalition is constantly putting out press releases asking the question, shouldn't we be worried? (The short answer is yes). There actually haven't been any sensational new sightings since 2019 so the thing is kind of running on fumes right now.

3. The government wants to come clean and is getting the population ready for a revelation: They've been playing with UFO pilots and parts for decades and have gotten some useful tech out of it. This is not very likely.

4. The UFO personnel (from out of our system) can't seem to avoid getting seen because there are just too many aircraft, radars, and cell phones around making secrecy hopeless. And they are not willing to just go away because they have some kind of business here. The upshot is, the bug-heads are telling our government or the Deep State/NWO that there should be a gradual reveal so they can stop sneaking around. They want to open up Earth to limited trade and ease back on commercial restrictions. Earth has some hot commodities and there is money to be made and lots of of it, and there is lobbying pressure for that on both sides of the divide. This explanation is almost certainly hokum.

Anyway, I am one of the people that just LOVE UFO related stories. I'm a fan.

-Vast Reaches

Anonymous said...

Why would aliens travel all this way, just to watch a bunch of crazy humans be irrational?

I mean, if I was a superior-technology alien I’d either conquer and destroy human asses for the resources, or convert them to Christianity already. Why all the sneaking around?

I can remember being a teen staggering around between frat parties. I steered my drunken friend the astronomy enthusiast, to a “Friday Night at the Observatory” event nearby at my local university. We got to discuss several things with TA-level geeks there.

One topic was that they had access to original documents where their astronomy professor predecessors were speculating about these nebulous things which would later be called “galaxies.” Astronomers and astrophysicists of old had compelling reasons to believe in such things, but insufficient proof. Plausible potentiality is what I now call it.

So that being 1980, I asked about what compelling new things our (then) astronomers might be believing in. They replied that supermassive black holes might be the reason for the cohesively common structure of galaxies. Although we were drunk, my friend and I saw the plausible potentiality of this immediately. Everything in most galaxies had to be rotating around something truly massive, and only black holes could get that big.

So today it’s 2021, with so much plausible deniability out there that it seems all the rage. Such a pessimistic age we live in. Fermis Paradox seems quite popular these days. And sadly, the rare ancient aliens believers like George Tsoukalos seems like quite the crazy-haired leftist full of total bullshit and projecting, pathetic circle jerking, and Stalinist-satanic farting. I for one tend to believe the cynics. Red dwarfs make up 70% of all stars, yet have tens of billions of years before they stabilize enough to become hospitable for life. All giant stars have lifespans far too short, and for the rest, Great Filters, including the desire intelligent life has to embrace the seven deadly sins, seems very difficult to overcome.

But maybe I should be open to the idea that a species intelligent enough to overcome things like leftism, satanism, and stalinistic-farting, would become so naturally selfless and peaceful that they’d be happy to just be sneaking around observing other planetary species, while occasionally and quite mischievously, teasing them with the occasional appearance.

Anonymous said...

Well anon, it turns out that Earth girls are scrumptious. And that is a draw.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I'm open to the possibility that we humans are simply being farmed as livestock. And that it's only the girls who are tasty. And that at the end of a long slaughter day, it'll only be the men left. And all we'll have left to do is dance. Speaking of which...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep_35FTnYVA

Van Harvey said...

"The credo of the left: in weakness, victimhood; in strength, revenge."

Precisely.

Anonymous said...

My credo: "The Left is always right."

Anonymous said...

in weakness, victimhood; in strength, revenge

Applies to everything alive, actually. The trick seems to be, to make the other poor dumb bastard be the victim. And absolutely, never ever let them get strong. Natural law.

Byron Nightjoy said...

James Cutsinger passed away in February last year. Here is his last video: https://youtu.be/Ar_CtrLCZpM

Patrick Laude told me that his book was written for fellow scholars with a view to rehabilitating Schuon’s perspective in academic circles. But, yes, ordinary folk should stick to Schuon himself.

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