tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post547158044916508802..comments2024-03-27T11:16:36.951-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: Ask Not What Being Can Do For YouGagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-73028315013469316842012-12-11T09:46:15.352-08:002012-12-11T09:46:15.352-08:00Matthew, of course I was only able to make a quick...Matthew, of course I was only able to make a quick scan of the table of contents, forward and intro, but the seeming conflation of Liberty with Democracy, and that the contents seems to want to find useful & substantial comparisons between Locke and Hobbes, doesn't bode well.<br /><br />And just hazarding a guess... does he have kind words for Lincoln? No? Go figure.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-9764676168753261632012-12-11T09:40:27.168-08:002012-12-11T09:40:27.168-08:00JP said "I'm also pretty sure that I'...JP said "I'm also pretty sure that I'm not Van."<br /><br />I can verify the reality of that.<br /><br />Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-3101345334351016162012-12-11T09:39:06.270-08:002012-12-11T09:39:06.270-08:00JP said "Well, don't leave us in suspense...<br /><br />JP said "Well, don't leave us in suspense."<br /><br />Having a memory lapse? You don't recall any of the exchanges here over the years?<br /><br />"What is the part that causes the challenge, based on your experiences."<br /><br />Those points where what they wish reality would be, conflicts with what reality will never be. They're usually perfectly willing to go along with appearances in those aspects of daily life that don't get their juices flowing, but the moment they have to actually examine reality, and risk seeing the disconnect... they run.<br /><br />"What triggers the flight response?"<br /><br />Lots of possibilities, in fact any particular concept that you ask them to walk back to its roots in reality will do, but that can take a while. If you just want to see them turn tail and run, what I've found to be pretty much fool-proof, and there are mucho many examples here in OC if you google it, is ask them to explain what Rights are. <br /><br />If they don't run immediately, they will within the next few steps.<br />Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-35370676821141991612012-12-11T09:21:19.751-08:002012-12-11T09:21:19.751-08:00Right, his perspective made me think of Teilhard&#...Right, his perspective made me think of Teilhard's because the latter is such a richer and more generous way of looking at the same painful mess.David J Quackenbushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11873818923450408281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-17142679694003538292012-12-11T09:21:19.251-08:002012-12-11T09:21:19.251-08:00He's also a well known troll with a new monike...He's also a well known troll with a new moniker, previously known as Grant and then Open Trench.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-60940909476721908212012-12-11T09:07:36.628-08:002012-12-11T09:07:36.628-08:00David:
My spidey sense tells me that Mr. Froth do...David:<br /><br />My spidey sense tells me that Mr. Froth does not share your sensibility, and that he is coming from a very different place. There are two kinds of unity, one of which is a nightmare. Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-19277552918353072742012-12-11T08:57:45.280-08:002012-12-11T08:57:45.280-08:00@FF:
"Yes but Christianity is based on the p...@FF:<br /><br />"Yes but Christianity is based on the presumption that human beings are inherently separate from the Living Divine Reality, from the World Process, and from each other.<br /><br />The fiction of separateness, and the denial of the universal characteristic of prior unity, is a mind-based illusion, a lie, a terribly deluding force, and a profoundly and darkly negative act."<br /><br />I'm pretty sure that I'm not God.<br /><br />I'm also pretty sure that I'm not Van.<br /><br />In any event, isn't the solution that we are both united and separate? <br /><br />Both/and, rather than either/or?<br /><br />I suppose that it's true that murder is suicide. But it's also murder.JPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11126071014909954387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-31501025777194350492012-12-11T08:54:27.235-08:002012-12-11T08:54:27.235-08:00@Van:
"And I've yet to meet the leftist ...@Van:<br /><br />"And I've yet to meet the leftist that's on good terms with realty. I've met a few who don't mind taking a short stroll down ISness ave., but none who don't do an about face as soon as the scenery gets a bit challenging to the view that they're willing to see."<br /><br />Well, don't leave us in suspense.<br /><br />What is the part that causes the challenge, based on your experiences.<br /><br />What triggers the flight response?JPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11126071014909954387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-19526616956118726652012-12-11T08:53:01.708-08:002012-12-11T08:53:01.708-08:00Frederick, your perspective makes me think of Tei...Frederick, your perspective makes me think of Teilhard, and one of the things I admire most about him. When he looks at the great mass of mankind -- say, during WWI in the trenches, or sitting in China during WWII and watching the Japanese abuse the Chinese and wondering if anything human would survive -- he has a persistent confidence that there is a great motion going on in humanity. Our freedom is involved, of course, but when we try to see what we could do, or convince people of, that would "turn the tide" we quickly see that this is beyond any conceivable human agency. But still there is the mysterious sense that something having deeply to do with overcoming our separation from the "Living Divine Reality" -- or, as you would have it, our presumption of that separation -- is actually underway, and that we must serve it as we can. Julie's new tree is a vision of faith, in the sense that we cannot see how a new and living union of all men in God is possible. The peacefulness of holy men comes in part, I believe, because they catch glimpses of how even our stupid, mass, frenzied ignorant rushing about are being deployed in service of the formation of that new tree. What patience of soul it must take to watch, wait, and serve.David J Quackenbushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11873818923450408281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-54948682793905582422012-12-11T07:27:43.096-08:002012-12-11T07:27:43.096-08:00Am going to buy your whole book soon, and read it,...Am going to buy your whole book soon, and read it, maybe over the holidays. Saw it in Powell's, in Oregon, & almost grabbed it. Matthew C Smallwoodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08234878138545287306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1377995371537365302012-12-11T07:25:07.685-08:002012-12-11T07:25:07.685-08:00I know you are depressed by the election, & so...I know you are depressed by the election, & so am I & so should we all. It is really unprecedented that even lip service to the Constitution can be jettisoned and actually give you higher poll numbers (added to vote fraud to get victory). At the risk of irritation and beating a dead horse, I'd like to recommend a book I am working through (my father and I are arguing about it - he is closer to your perspective). <br />http://www.amazon.com/Liberty-God-That-Failed-Constructing/dp/1621380068<br />It is horrifying to contemplate the removal of literature, but Ken Craven at Dead Hermit's Blog had the same reaction - let people read and discover good stories at home, maybe it's for the best, in a twisted way? If I believed in conspiracies, I'd think he was a reptilian from another planet. I had hoped the first African president would be an actual conservative. Ferrara's book makes a strong case that this country, from the beginning, North and South, paid homage to the abstract God of Mother Liberty, rather than the Ordered Freedom of the medieval world. Matthew C Smallwoodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08234878138545287306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-64256169679897435302012-12-10T23:23:21.358-08:002012-12-10T23:23:21.358-08:00You have just described the Fall. Don't you kn...You have just described the Fall. Don't you know?<br /><br />The answer, however, is not to force all of those separate bits of human dust back into the mold of the universal prior unity; that would be about as effective as rendering an entire tree into sawdust, then gluing all those bits of sawdust back into the shape of the original tree. Even if you lose not a single molecule, even if you can artfully arrange it such that it looks exactly like the original, you still have nothing but the corpse of a tree.<br /><br />The only way to bring those pieces back into unified life is to allow them to decompose into the ground, then be taken up again into the body of an entirely new tree, born perhaps of a seed from the father tree, before all the ages...juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-84516170014915766672012-12-10T21:12:43.182-08:002012-12-10T21:12:43.182-08:00Yes but Christianity is based on the presumption t...Yes but Christianity is based on the presumption that human beings are inherently separate from the Living Divine Reality, from the World Process, and from each other.<br /><br />The fiction of separateness, and the denial of the universal characteristic of prior unity, is a mind-based illusion, a lie, a terribly deluding force, and a profoundly and darkly negative act.<br /><br />The individual and collective denial, and active refusal, of the Universal Condition and Intrinsic Law of prior unity is the root and substance of a perpetual and self-perpetuating universal crime against humanity, performed by every one and all of humankind.<br /><br />In the present-day, the culture and politics of illusion controls the world. As a result there are now 7 billion human individuals (and, otherwise, large numbers of competitive and mutually dissociative groups, cultures, traditions, races, religions, corporations, and nation-states) that are, characteristically and even strategically out of touch with each other - like dust, and bombs, and petty traffic, all blowing in the wind. That wind steadily blows all prior unity into the bits and particles of human chaos.<br /><br />The world is mad. Humankind is in a constant state of extreme psychosis. Dont you know?Frederick Frothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04318304600140946026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-70698611926836836062012-12-10T13:49:05.433-08:002012-12-10T13:49:05.433-08:00Indeed, it is all part of the working out. Great ...Indeed, it is all part of the working out. Great Observations.mushroomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651027035577798096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-76011193753410883252012-12-10T13:13:55.114-08:002012-12-10T13:13:55.114-08:00Yesterday I was running, and some guy in a passing...<i>Yesterday I was running, and some guy in a passing matatu yelled at me to run faster. Fucking Kenyans and their natural abilities. People here say all sorts of shit to you if you go running. Sometimes they say "jogging" just to piss you off. It's all part of the work out.</i><br />[got a kick out of that] <br /><a href="http://www.5cense.com/EA/Nkhata_Witt.htm" rel="nofollow">from blog stumbled upon</a>gehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02015936407999495181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-26090190664596419892012-12-10T12:02:29.726-08:002012-12-10T12:02:29.726-08:00I was kind of ambivalent when I heard they were pu...I was kind of ambivalent when I heard they were pulling <i>Catcher in the Rye</i>, but, as depressing as Salinger may be, I can't believe they would try to get kids to read government-ese. <br /><br />The new education motto: <i>We will bury your truth with information.</i>mushroomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651027035577798096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-18609910913611449752012-12-10T11:26:55.407-08:002012-12-10T11:26:55.407-08:00Julie, regarding the 'common core' (which ...Julie, regarding the 'common core' (which I've been railing against for years... and 'they've' been promoting, in its essentials, for well over a century), this part made me laugh:<br /><br />"The government has nothing much against literature, per se. Rather, this initiative is driven in large part by the desire to promote political propaganda in the classroom."<br /><br />Just what is it that you suppose they thought good literature was good for, if not innoculating you against falsehoods and other such worldviews? <br /><br />Did they really suppose it's just entertainment? Yeah? Well, as I said, it's been underway for a long time.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-54706220809003618732012-12-10T11:11:42.597-08:002012-12-10T11:11:42.597-08:00" Pieper sums it up very neatly: "All ob..." Pieper sums it up very neatly: "All obligation is based upon being. Reality is the foundation of ethics. The good is that which is in accord with reality."<br /><br />Yep. And I've yet to meet the leftist that's on good terms with realty. I've met a few who don't mind taking a short stroll down ISness ave., but none who don't do an about face as soon as the scenery gets a bit challenging to the view that they're willing to see.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-32355523564713886112012-12-10T10:00:55.674-08:002012-12-10T10:00:55.674-08:00Re. the vomiting situation, I do hope it resolves ...Re. the vomiting situation, I do hope it resolves quickly! Poor little guy; when one kid is puking, everyone is miserable.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-33559401970451156882012-12-10T09:58:26.805-08:002012-12-10T09:58:26.805-08:00Holy cow. From the common core article linked in t...Holy cow. From the common core article linked in the post,<br /><br /><i>Consider that one of the “informational texts” recommended as a replacement for, say, Great Expectations is “Executive Order 13423: Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management.”</i><br /><br />My brain hurts just reading that title. If this is what kids are being taught, not only will they be indoctrinated, they will be illiterate. I can't imagine any more effective means of turning a growing mind away from the pleasures of reading and learning, short of delivering electric shocks at any hint of interest in written material.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.com