tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post3443677524597827372..comments2024-03-28T18:48:41.469-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: On the Third DayGagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-90743070771533489332015-10-07T06:29:26.070-07:002015-10-07T06:29:26.070-07:00Catching up.Catching up.mushroomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651027035577798096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-75930495889873937722015-10-05T12:17:07.024-07:002015-10-05T12:17:07.024-07:00But just this morning I was thinking about some of...<i>But just this morning I was thinking about some of the idiotic things I used to believe when I was a liberal, and wondering why I thought them. It couldn't have been because they were rational or factual.</i><br /><br />To let you off the hook just a little, a lot of it has to do with the things we are taught which just ain't so.<br /><br />One thing I've noticed about most people I've interacted with over the years, left or right, is that they want to think of themselves as good people. Christians, of course, know that's just an illusion since the only one who can properly make that claim is God, and we aren't Him. Most other people get around this by doing away with God and making themselves the arbiter of what is "good." Thus we have, for instance, Disney Jr. exhorting toddlers to make a "Power Promise" to change the world by doing "good" deeds such as obsessively recycling, or nannying others into eating the latest state-approved diet, or obnoxiously pointing out the ways other people fail to be "safe". Of course, since this is the new state religion, it's not just tv channels that plug this mentality 24/7/365, it's all businesses, many churches, almost all schools, etc.<br /><br />As Joan pointed out, the fish don't notice the water they swim in, they just absorb it into their being and accept it as the right way to breathe. Except some of us aren't so much fish as tadpoles...juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-61192583345458127292015-10-05T11:56:51.426-07:002015-10-05T11:56:51.426-07:00"The first thing a man will do for his ideal ..."The first thing a man will do for his ideal is" -- get this -- "lie" (Schumpeter, in Sowell). But you -- by which I mean you, the Raccoon -- are not permitted to lie, not to others, and most especially to yourself. Therefore, you are under much more serious constraints than is the leftist, whose vision does not include the eighth or any other commandment, really, because if you are permitted to lie, then all commandments are negotiable or even meaningless, right?"<br /><br />Aye. And if the truth is meaningless then what's the point? Well, there wouldn't be a point, or not any good points. Everything would be reduced to servitude to evil, and the point would be do what you're told or get the point of a gun or bullet in you.USS Ben USN (Ret)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07492369604790651538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-13013969061372783742015-10-05T10:49:19.907-07:002015-10-05T10:49:19.907-07:00And that's a big part of the watery problem: f...And that's a big part of the watery problem: fish don't know they're all wet. We swim in a cultural ideal that makes us lighter than we figure, going with the flow, and don't feel the full weight of gravity (or, the "glory" of who He is) until we evolve on up to the East side.Joan of Argghh!https://www.blogger.com/profile/14729682908266300507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-35487448291471563362015-10-05T09:35:13.394-07:002015-10-05T09:35:13.394-07:00"Put conversely, if your first commandment is..."Put conversely, if your first commandment is that there is no objective truth, then all things are permitted because there are no commandments."<br /><br />While that is the guiding shadow if the Left, they don't have a lock on it, unfortunately. That tendency to substitute your inspiration for substance, is easssily done, and I know several people who I thought I knew, that are busily, emphatically, doing so right now, and resenting the hell out of my accepting no substitutes. <br /><br />Also interesting that the default reaction of the inspired, to those who don't see their vision, is not to reexamine their vision (as they would on nearly any other subject, "Oh no, did I make a goof? Where? Ah crud, sorry about that, I'll fix it right away"), or at least double check it against another's concern, but to launch directly into "Defend your King!" Mode:<br /><br /> 'Obviously you only day so because of some secret deal you've made with our enemies. How pathetic of you!'.<br /><br />Which leads me to believe that, 1)its motivation comes not from dry land, so to speak, but from under the 2/3 waters. And 2), that is the norm for people, and it is only through a deliberate questioning of appearances, inside and out, that you are able to see what is there, rather than what you wish were there. <br /><br />If you don't make an effort to climb up onto dry land, you're going to remain all wet. Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.com