Retirement involves a great deal of goofing off. Frankly, it takes all day just to get nothing done.
But a helpful comment from yesterday reminded me that, just because I live like some kind of sad-asssed refugee from the f*cking sixties, it requires little effort on my part to simultaneously type and goldbrick.
What's it like to be a non-organized vertical ObOspontaneously abiding in the moment and typing whatever drifts into his head? Keep reading to find out.
True, there are a lotta strands to keep in the head, but I find that if I pursue them one by one, they have a way of pulling themselves together without my having to force the issue. One warp leads to awoofer.
I don't want to jump down another rabbit hole, but something G-L said prompted me to pull a few volumes of Polanyi from the shelf and weave his thoughts into the magic carpet. It may or may not prove relevant as we proceed:
Theological accounts of God must, of course, appear meaningless and often blatantly self-contradictory if taken to claim validity within the universe of observable experience. Such a result is inevitable, whenever a language that is apposite to one subject matter is used with reference to another altogether different matter (Polanyi, emphasis mine).
To take an obvious example, using Newtonian terms and concepts to describe subatomic processes inevitably generates paradoxes and absurdities.
Come to think of it, it isn't possible to describe a dream with wideawake language or cutandry aristotelian logic; rather, one must supplement symmetrical with assymetrical logic. Bomford shows how this nighttime logic can help us understand infinite, atemporal, and suprasensible realities that are described in the more concrete and ready-to-hand modality of scripture (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1853434388?ie=UTF8&tag=onecos-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=1853434388).
Although everyone moves, thinks, and has his being in an implicit metaphysic, not everyone is a metaphysician. Indeed, hardly anyone in the extra-Coon world.
Bomford is another tempting rabbit hole, but let's stick with Polanyi. The basic problem, I think, is how to describe a higher level with the means of the lower level from which it has emerged? This is a recurring motif of verticality -- for example, using only physics and chemistry to describe the biosphere will result in an impoverished model and generate insoluble paradoxes; likewise reducing mind to brain or soul to psychology.
This has always suggested to me that -- being that we are a very new species, only around 50,000 years old -- we're still struggling to map the nonlocal and immaterial territory we find ourselves inhabiting. For this reason, God has reached down to us in various ways to assist us in the task of pneumography and vertical navigation. But obviously, in so doing he must meet us where we are.
Anyone can see that we aren't where we were two or three thousand years ago. Does this invalidate the divine message?
Here we circle back to the question of historicism raised in yesterday's post. Was the old revelation so historically and culturally conditioned that maybe we need a new one for our cosmically stupid times?
Suffice it to say that G-L's purpose in writing The Philosophy of Being and the Development of Doctrine is to explain why the old revelation was ahead of its time then and remains so today. Moreover, we only are where we are because of the gradual historical assimilation and exteriorization of the old message.
Just as the achievements of biology can never be exhaustively represented by physics or chemistry, nor can man's spiritual adventures ever be reduced to words. Recall yesterday's image of the oppressive grid made of crisscrossing bars of journalism and tenure. Contrast this with an organic tapestry with intertwined threads of the natural and supernatural.
Backing down to where we lifted off yesterday, G-L wants to vindicate the proposition...
Too formal... Put it this way: why is there so much idiocy among the educated -- or credentialed, rather -- and so much wisdom in revelation and scripture?
One immediately flashes back to Paul's gag to the effect that the wisdom of the tenured is so much lunatic babbling to the Creator. Pick any atheistic philosopher from the past 300 years, and you'll understand what he means. For in the words of the Aphorist,
He who speaks of the farthest regions of the soul soon needs a theological vocabulary.
That's just a fact. The question before us is the relationship between language and reality. One side (the idiocracy) would enclose us in language, while our team makes the outrageous claim that words ultimately refer to real things exterior to us (and interior to us, come to think of it). We will expand upon this insult as we delve deeper into the book
Sure, sometimes it can sound as if one is talking nonsense, when one is merely speaking of the nonsensuous with the available vocabulary. Looking back on it, this is how I made the prodigal journey home from East to West: the simple realization that the concept -- or better, the experience -- is one thing, the vocabulary another. The map is not the territory, nor can one eat the menu. The bottom upshot for today is this:
Mysticism is the empiricism of transcendent knowledge.
The objectivity of mystical experience cannot be demonstrated. Just like that of any other experience.
23 comments:
man's prideful intelligence is to transcendent reality what good intentions are to conduct: more often than not a road to hell.
Indeed. Safe drivers can only see the road in front of them, and not the psychopathic monsters hiding behind the bend waiting to carjack the vehicle for a demonic joyride. Sadly, the car’s owners often get the blame. It's the way of things for most good intentions.
Speaking of spooky action at a distance, this might be seen as Proof of God. One online scientist has theorized that it can only happen because everything has been predetermined. I assume he meant that God left that little loose end untied as a sort of joke, or something.
I tried repeatedly to tell that scientist that from God’s perspective, everything in our spacetime-constrained little universe has been predetermined, because God sees everything all the time and all at once from his higher dimensional perch. We are in effect, goldfish living in Gods bowl. Or lizards living in a terrarium. Mexican living in a meat-packing plant? I think we may be here for God’s amusement.
Well, I got banned. Damned scientism.
Was the old revelation so historically and culturally conditioned that maybe we need a new one for our cosmically stupid times?
Certainly, there are those who want us to believe so: Thus it is now every humx's job to change the world, stop global warming, stamp out disease, and accept pretty much everything Our Moral and Intellectual Betters mandate, in order to usher in the utopia where nobody owns anything. Except OMaIB, of course; they will deserve it for working so hard to make it happen.
"Sure, sometimes it can sound as if one is talking nonsense, when one is merely speaking of the nonsensuous with the available vocabulary. Looking back on it, this is how I made the prodigal journey home from East to West: the simple realization that the concept -- or better, the experience -- is one thing, the vocabulary another. The map is not the territory, nor can one eat the menu. The bottom upshot for today is this:
Mysticism is the empiricism of transcendent knowledge.
The objectivity of mystical experience cannot be demonstrated. Just like that of any other experience.
Oh, and man's prideful intelligence is to transcendent reality what good intentions are to conduct: more often than not a road to hell."
Nothing to add, no additions needed, I just enjoy reruns.
He who speaks of the farthest regions of the soul soon embraces celibacy. If he does not, then his theological vocabulary is mere lies. As Jerome said, "Marriage populates the earth; virginity populates heaven." Any who say otherwise have merely accepted the theological vocabulary of the devil who runs clown world and desires for souls to reincarnate back into it for more honks.
This thoughtful post was a good read and was packed with interesting departure points for further thought.
One of these being: "Anyone can see that we aren't where we were two or three thousand years ago. Does this invalidate the divine message?"
Well, Bob doesn't think so and neither do I.
Now, let us take the ancients Egyptians.
Their religion seems extremely weird today, with all the animal headed gods and the extreme after-life obsession. But if you take the cult of Amen-Ra apart carefully, you can see the Egyptians were in contact with religious truth (God) but were groping to describe Him, and the results were very erratic, flamboyant, erroneous, and in the end, utterly useless to us today.
Does one really need written instructions available near one's corpse in order to cope with the afterlife? Nobody alive today believes that.
It it far better to amass a track record of virtue which shows you have internalized God's message. This will prevent your heart from being devoured by the crocodile headed hippopotamus at judgement time. Right? Anyway....
Except for the cult of the Aten (the Sun Disk). This cult still makes perfect since to us today, strongly resembling the Old Testament Jewish religion. One can worship the Aten today and God will give you a nod and say, "Why hello, I'm good, thank you."
Someday even the Bible is not going track for folks anymore. The NT probably has another 5,000 years until the tread wears out, probably about 3,000 yrs for the OT.
The Vedas, because they are ahistorical and experiential, may have has many as 10,000 years of relevance remaining.
The take home is, genuine new revelations are always welcome and are sometimes even needed.
So who has a revelation to share? Who wants to revel?
Well, it was hip in my school to be experimenting with cross-dressy gayness. But I'm seriously thinking about coming out as hetro. Obviously, this would make me a blah. A stiff, square lame-o. But I've just gotta be me!
Trump supporters, you may be asked to carry and identification card. Please stay tuned with how to obtain the official/approved identification card.
The way The Universe is putting pressure on us at present it's as if It's trying to get rid of us, could it be because we're following the dictates of The Beast even to the extent of displaying His Image when there are already more than enough beasts on earth. Maybe if we followed the dictates of The Kingdom of Heaven within and complied with our intended nature, in particular by not showing such contempt for the miracle of Life, the heat would be taken off and we'd evolve in a trajectory more fitting to our standing on this planet.
Once you have your ID, await the text as instructed which will detail pick up location and transport itinerary to your initial staging area. Be sure you memorize your unit number, service number, MOS, and name of CO.
Wile waiting clean your equipment, get plenty of sleep, and spend quality family time. Put your affairs are in order. Try on/break in your boots if these were new. You must be ready for significant physical exertion, possibly in hot weather. Pack a minimum of 2 liters of fluids.
It is right and just what you do. You are heroes. Never waver.
But enough about Obama's party invitation instructions.
Cousin Dupree, right you are.
The lefties are assembling a large civilian host inland east from Portland Oregon. As far as the eye can see the countryside is dotted with their vehicles and kit.
Ostensibly they are combatting the Incident 805 blaze but it is in fact the DNC's own NW Rainbow Defense Corp and it is estimated at 10 full-strength divisions, approximately 200,000 persons. Sappers and construction brigades have been identified amongst the throng and they have river fording equipment on hand. They also have a drone deployment estimated at 900 large and 200 smaller UAV's.
Arrayed against this force is the rather mysterious and shadowy Trump civilian militia raised up in Montana, Idaho, and Utah. These are alleged to be fearless, committed gents with very good firearm handling skills. Numbers are estimated at about 125,000 and they are currently spread out in a wide variety of positions north of Boise, Idaho. They are expected to attempt to invest Portland if there were to be an outbreak of hostilities.
The resultant clash would be titanic and no doubt be quite sanguinous. Salem and Medford Oregon are expected to see heavy fighting.
anon @8/08/2021 12:46:00 PM,
I'm not so sure about this Portland battle of which you speak.
We're talking about drug-addled homeless hippy-hipsters versus the typical doughy middle aged live action role playing Trumper. I think it'd just be cops making the hippies pack up all their tents and mountains of crap to move on, and then the cops being beaten silly with Blue Lives Matter flags by the larpers.
I remember the capitol insurrection. I remember the shots of the Oathkeepers in full battle regalia marching single file up the capitol steps. They had no idea how out of shape they looked on camera, not to mention that there was a tranny amongst them. Later, ashamed of these optics they said that it was actually antifa posing as Oathkeepers to try and make them look bad. They'd say: "Real Oathkeepers look like this" and hold up their promo pamplets with the pictures of the Nazi-esque male models on it. But I digress.
I don't think it'd be much of a battle.
Hello Anonymous 2:23 PM
Now that I think more about it I believe you are right. The population is just too flabby and couch-potatoey to withstand the rigors of a conventional war. This is not 1860. There are no abundant reserves of wiry, exercise tolerant farm boys. There are no slaves at issue. Nobody want to risk missing their faves on Netflix in the evenings.
In the end, the reasons for war are entirely insufficient to motivate the populace. The populace is too darn comfortable.
But I'd been saying that all along. Now it has been proven.
Some kind of demonstration will have to be made to honor Trump. Anything less would be disgraceful. But this demonstration could just be a few dozen MAGA men squatting on a bird reserve. It doesn't have to be a horde of riflemen descending on Portland.
Something will come along as a face saving act. The conservative cannot be so dick-less as to not even come up with that. Right?
One of the strange things I’m reading/hearing about once “very healthy” people like John Eyers, is that in the deepest midsts of their covid illness and nearing death, they don’t usually announce that they were still proud to have not gotten the vaccine and to go on their own terms of freedom and liberty.
They’re usually remorseful and scared shitless.
Maybe we need more news reports about the covid-dying saying that meeting their maker after living free is the way to go
When we finally do, God willing, get a vaccine, who’s going to take the shot? Who’s going to take the shot? You going to be the first one to say, ‘Put me -- sign me up, they now say it’s OK’? I’m not being facetious.
There is nothing sadder than a skeptical conservative anti-vaxxer felled by the COVID-19 virus when the vaccine had been available in a timely manner. Truly it is saddest for the spouse and children left behind. We need to spread the word more? IDK. I think all of these open-carry, survivalist anti-vaxxer type have got the word, they just don't trust it.
I took the vaccine because I don't have delusional beliefs about vaccines being bad. When you understand the science, you can better judge if vaccines are going to harm you. Like any medication, there is a low statistical chance of an adverse reaction. This goes for your tried and true Hep B, MMR, Polio, and a slew of other vaccines. Just do the relevant studying and then you make your call.
COVID-19 is a known man-killer and it is on the loose. Evidence of this can be seen first hand in the hospitals. Skeptics can sneak into any ICU and take a look around. Seeing is believing.
I would guess both GDB and Julie got the vaccine long ago because they are not imbeciles and they have families to protect.
You can lay some blame on the government. They may have had a hand in creating the virus. They have not engendered trust, at the very least.
Big Pharma lost our trust when they pushed the oxycontin.
Now the most macho of our American tea-party patriots, who are a necessary faction functioning as the "canary in the coal mine," first line against corruption, are paying the price for that lack of trust with their lives. They can't bring themselves to trust the government or Big Pharma.
"Believe us the vaccine is a good idea." It so happens to be true. Sad some of us couldn't believe it.
Trump's August Reinstatement has been postponed due to inclement weather conditions. We will keep you informed of any further developments.
In the meantime it would not be a bad idea to purchase a Trumpy Bear stuffed animal. Values are going up. These are desirable to collectors. Get yours while the price is still reasonable.
Memo to Joey B: We've had the vaccine for about a year and a half. I personally know dozens of people who have got it, with no problems.
Now what are you going to do, Joey B? What is your choice now?
Walgreens or CVS? Those are your choices. Now get the vaccine, soldier. Move! Move!
Commanding Officer X
We will all die the vaccinated and unvaccinated alike. All the vaccines currently available have connections to abortion. Those whose conscience isn't bothered by having their life potentially extended at the expense of those who had their's forcibly cut short are 'blessed'.
From Alex Berenson this morning, one of the few trustworthy voices:
As Covid cases, hospitalizations, and now deaths soar in Israel even though over 90 percent of older adults are fully vaccinated, the country is aggressively pushing a third shot.
Hundreds of thousands of older Israelis have already received it.
Now the inevitable is happening. The third shot is beginning to fail.
The move for a third shot is the latest and maybe most desperate manifestation of the panic around the vaccine failure that health authorities still will not openly admit is happening.
And it is profoundly anti-science.
These mRNA vaccines are not Pepto-Bismol. They have profound biological effects. They are encapsulated in fat particles whose long-term effects are unknown. They spread throughout the body (despite the early promise they would not). They hijack cellular machinery in exactly the same way an actual virus does.
They are no joke.
And - as rushed and flawed as their development was last year - at least regulators forced Pfizer and Moderna to test them in large clinical trials, with a total of more than 70,000 people.
The trials showed the vaccines did have a nasty short-term side effect profile - and that it worsened after the second dose. And despite their size, the trials failed to catch severe side effects for both the mRNA vaccines (which - at the least - cause heart inflammation in some young people) and the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines, which cause a rare but particularly nasty form of blood clotting.
Still, most side effects appeared to fade after a few days. The trials also showed that at peak protection after the second dose, the mRNA vaccines reduced infections by 95 percent.
—
But now we know better.
The real-world data - from Israel, the United States, and everywhere else - are clear. Protection from infection fades within months even against the original coronavirus. It shrinks essentially to zero against the Delta variant (we can argue about time vs. variant effects, but the answer doesn’t matter in this context, either way the vaccines have stopped working).
Cont.
For now, vaccine advocates are clinging to the hope that even if the vaccines do not protect against infection, they still provide some protection against more serious illness and death. I think the jury is still out on that question, but again it is largely irrelevant for this conversation - the Covid wards are filling in Israel, and most people in them are older and vaccinated. If the vaccines do offer any help after a few months against serious illness, it is far less than the 95-99 percent protection that advocates have claimed.
The third shots are being pushed forward on the basis of VERY early data from VERY small trials - a few dozen volunteers, at most - showing that people had significantly more antibodies a month after receiving a third dose.
THE VACCINES MAKE YOUR CELLS PRODUCE THE SPIKE PROTEIN. YOUR BODY THEN MAKES ANTIBODIES TO THOSE PROTEINS.
That’s what they do, and they’re very good at it. More vaccine makes your body do it more.
But that’s only the beginning of what we should know before encouraging a third dose. Here’s a PARTIAL list of questions we haven’t answered:
Does a third dose of the vaccine ACTUALLY REDUCE INFECTIONS IN THOSE PEOPLE WHO RECEIVE IT?
Does it reduce deaths (remember, even the original, huge Covid trials didn’t answer that question)?
Will the third dose produce a transient spike in infections, as the first dose appears to?
Will the antibodies last longer this time because we have more of them after the second dose, or will they decline more quickly?
Does the vaccine confer ANY long-term protection through T-cell immunity?
Will people who have received a third dose be vulnerable to future variants? Will they be more or less vulnerable than people who have been infected and recovered and are are naturally immune?
Will the side effects - which are generally much worse after the second dose than the first - be still worse after the third?
Will some people die from those side effects?
What is the overall safety profile of the third or more doses in a large population?
Does it differ by age?
Offering a third dose essentially means offering an entirely new vaccine regimen. If the FDA or other regulators had any guts they would insist on a new, full-size clinical trial (a BETTER trial, one powered to detect reductions in death) before allowing it.
Instead governments are rushing ahead based on what are basically early Phase 2 clinical trials - tiny and providing evidence of efficacy based on lab benchmarks rather than clinical data.
That's too many questions. All you need to know is, take the vaccine.
If it turned out that anti-vaxxing was a hoax astroturfed by big pharma as part of some printer-cartridge-capitalism scheme (crafting necessary 'needs' from which to profit) I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.
But are plandemics of the scope we're seeing beyond human capability? More realistic seems the whoopsdemic. Outsource research to the lowest bidder, let whatever chaos result, then find ways to profit from the result.
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