tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post6664823865129575613..comments2024-03-28T20:04:20.286-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: Habit-Forming Realities and Mind-Altering IdeologiesGagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-61589047399281475002014-09-10T15:27:40.407-07:002014-09-10T15:27:40.407-07:00roy lofquist said "They are usually ignored.&...roy lofquist said "They are usually ignored."<br /><br />Thanks for the tip. <br /><br />Still, why you'd try to "attempt to provoke discussions" with something so vague and uncontroversial that could only provoke what it did - "...huh..?... and the point was...?".<br /><br />But then again, I suppose see tip above.<br />Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-45380103895157200722014-09-10T15:08:04.179-07:002014-09-10T15:08:04.179-07:00@Van Harvey
Actually, I have an early, signed cop...@Van Harvey<br /><br />Actually, I have an early, signed copy of One Cosmos. I have also read through Meditations on the Tarot more than once - thanks for the recommendation, Bob. I have visited this blog regularly over the years.<br /><br />I am by nature a contrarian, an iconoclast. When I comment on a post I frequently make cryptic allusions in an attempt to provoke discussions. They are usually ignored. Sometimes the conversations are quite satisfying. Other times they invoke the wrath of the peanut gallery.<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQEqLUtp9Bg<br /><br />Regards,<br />Roy<br />Roy Lofquisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16536815900678298041noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-83788135555893372162014-09-10T13:09:47.965-07:002014-09-10T13:09:47.965-07:00roy lofquist said ""...My purpose was to...roy lofquist said ""...My purpose was to point out that Koestler's observations apply to all areas of human thought, eve..."<br /><br />You haven't really been around <i><b>One</b></i> Cosmos long, have ya?Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-83803307103511533742014-09-10T12:35:41.699-07:002014-09-10T12:35:41.699-07:00Mushroom said "I am totally confident that Wi...Mushroom said "I am totally confident that Wisdom is about to be vindicated by all her children. <br /><br />It may not be much fun for a while, though."<br /><br />Beg Yep on that.<br /><br />Joan "Totes tweetable, 'shroom. So I did."<br /><br />I'll add another :-) to that!Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-62723713380755422852014-09-10T10:31:26.177-07:002014-09-10T10:31:26.177-07:00@EbonyRaptor
From the article:
'But in any e...@EbonyRaptor<br /><br />From the article:<br /><br />'But in any event, "discovery often means," writes Koestler, "the uncovering of something which has always been there but was hidden from the eye by the blinkers of habit."'<br /><br />"When life presents us with a problem it will be attacked in accordance with the code of rules which enabled us to deal with similar problems in the past.... [R]esponses will become stereotyped, flexible skills will degenerate into rigid patterns, and the person will more and more resemble an automaton, governed by fixed habits, whose actions and ideas move in narrow grooves. -- --Arthur Koestler"<br /><br />My purpose was to point out that Koestler's observations apply to all areas of human thought, even those areas where some claim exceptional or received insight.<br /><br />Regards,<br />RoyRoy Lofquisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16536815900678298041noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-19241928545876225392014-09-10T08:01:00.166-07:002014-09-10T08:01:00.166-07:00RoyL, I know who Max Planck is and understood you ...RoyL, I know who Max Planck is and understood you were citing his quote, what I don't understand, although I have a hunch, is what was your purpose in posting it here?EbonyRaptorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02483546359869912858noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-89545949063066582722014-09-10T06:25:07.465-07:002014-09-10T06:25:07.465-07:00I am totally confident that Wisdom is about to be ...<i>I am totally confident that Wisdom is about to be vindicated by all her children. <br /><br />It may not be much fun for a while, though.</i><br /><br />Totes tweetable, 'shroom. So I did.<br />:)Joan of Argghh!https://www.blogger.com/profile/14729682908266300507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-14894086813636616122014-09-10T06:13:30.480-07:002014-09-10T06:13:30.480-07:00A friend of mine who is of stable, towering faith ...A friend of mine who is of stable, towering faith and virtue, is very worried about people who adhere to the so-called prosperity gospel. I assure him that reality has a way of disabusing 99% of them of that notion. <br /><br />So he now he worries that they will become bitter. I wish he had more faith in God's ability to draw those who seek Him, even through the dubious light of selfish desires.Joan of Argghh!https://www.blogger.com/profile/14729682908266300507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-3141986551168905562014-09-10T03:58:32.097-07:002014-09-10T03:58:32.097-07:00"Note also that that which is seen is difficu..."Note also that that which is seen is difficult to unsee -- i.e., once fused, it is difficult to de-fuse ideas. For example, only a handful of human beings have ever actually seen that, yes, the world is round. The rest of us take it on various degrees of faith, and yet, we all have the picture in our head, the evidence of our senses to the contrary notwithstanding."<br /><br />The leftist form of fusion is foolsion. They are addicted to it like a meth addict to meth.USS Ben USN (Ret)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07492369604790651538noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-48792434009172980892014-09-10T02:48:06.888-07:002014-09-10T02:48:06.888-07:00EbonyRaptor,
I am not suggesting anything. Those ...EbonyRaptor,<br /><br />I am not suggesting anything. Those are the words of Max Planck, the originator of quantum theory and considered to rank, along with Albert Einstein, as one of the greatest physicists of all time.<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Planck<br /><br />A casual perusal of the history of science illuminates this truth. It has always been so.<br /><br />Speaking of science, this one minute video by Richard Feynman (ranked along side Planck and Einstein) explains all of science:<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL6-x0modwY#aid=P20kDjskZwA<br /><br />Regards,<br />Roy Roy Lofquisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16536815900678298041noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-73296453825107762592014-09-10T02:04:39.262-07:002014-09-10T02:04:39.262-07:00scientific truth that can't convince ... hmmm ...scientific truth that can't convince ... hmmm ... are you suggesting that the current generation are close minded or the new generation duped/indoctrinated?EbonyRaptorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02483546359869912858noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-86937176146258188602014-09-10T00:01:46.113-07:002014-09-10T00:01:46.113-07:00A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing ...A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.<br /><br />Max Planck<br />Roy Lofquisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16536815900678298041noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-13903101218786536992014-09-09T17:43:04.678-07:002014-09-09T17:43:04.678-07:00The image most liberals seem to have of God is the...The image most liberals seem to have of God is the same as a 4 year old, a bearded guy on a throne floating in the clouds.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16652102016905951809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-20057527730973979692014-09-09T13:36:24.293-07:002014-09-09T13:36:24.293-07:00Reality has a way of having the last word.Reality has a way of having the last word.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-88773316646259313562014-09-09T13:31:01.386-07:002014-09-09T13:31:01.386-07:00ER said: It's difficult to be an optimist and...ER said: <i>It's difficult to be an optimist and conservative these days.</i><br /><br />I've seen a couple of references to the MarketWatch piece making fun of bears and saying the this market will never break. I'm not optimistic like that -- which probably requires you to live in Colorado, be drunk, or off your meds.<br /><br />I am beyond optimistic -- in fact, I am totally confident that Wisdom is about to be vindicated by all her children. <br /><br />It may not be much fun for a while, though.mushroomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651027035577798096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-13042553724299455912014-09-09T11:47:35.851-07:002014-09-09T11:47:35.851-07:00From Bruce Thornton, Victor Davis Hanson's fe...From Bruce Thornton, Victor Davis Hanson's fellow classicist, <a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/bruce-thornton/to-hell-with-the-constitution/" rel="nofollow">‘To Hell With the Constitution!’</a><br /><br /><i>"...In terms of the federal government, the key to this new vision is the executive branch, led by an activist president. Woodrow Wilson was quite explicit about these ideas. In 1890 he wrote of the need for a “leader of men” who has “such sympathetic and penetrative insight as shall enable him to discern quite unerringly the motives which move other men in the mass.” He knows “what it is that lies waiting to be stirred in the minds and purposes of groups and masses of men.” This sympathy is one “whose power is to command, to command by knowing its instrument,” and the leader possessing this “sympathy” cares only “for the external uses to which they [people] may be put.”<br /><br />More frightening still are Wilson’s comments further expanding on this “sympathy.” “Whoever would effect a change in a modern constitutional government must first educate his fellow-citizens to want some change. That done, he must persuade them to want the particular change he wants. He must first make public opinion willing to listen and then see to it that it listens to the right things. He must stir it up to search for an opinion, and then manage to put the right opinion in its way.” Gone are the notions that free people decide their own political fate and choose representatives to serve their interests and principles, their autonomy protected by the Constitutional structure of checks and balances. Now an empowered elite presumably wiser about human nature will, like Plato’s Guardians, manipulate the people’s opinions so that they make the “right” choice. These ideas are on a continuum that at the extreme end lie Mussolini’s fascism and Lenin’s communism...."</i><br /><br />Nothing better than industrial school systems to input those newly manufactured realities 'right opinion' right into a few generations of lil' noggins. Nothing better that is, excepting a 21st century informational school. <br /><br />Can't beat that. <br /><br />But you can sure test it. Until there's no more need to beat it in any further.<br /><br />Clickulus response.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-45477950891465138242014-09-09T11:11:44.431-07:002014-09-09T11:11:44.431-07:00aka: Pragmatism. The mudder and enabler of all ...aka: Pragmatism. The mudder and enabler of all 'isms.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-58397320397434132672014-09-09T10:56:49.561-07:002014-09-09T10:56:49.561-07:00The purpose of a leftist indoctrination is "n...The <a href="http://happyacres.tumblr.com/post/97067021449/for-the-liberal-progressive-the-relativity-of" rel="nofollow">purpose</a> of a leftist indoctrination is "not to make them scholars but to provide them with a moral virtue." Or to be monkeys higher up the pole.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-10181092145298983162014-09-09T10:41:34.151-07:002014-09-09T10:41:34.151-07:00"...just as a liberal rejects a conservatism ..."...just as a liberal rejects a conservatism that exists only in his own head -- not for the purpose of gaining insight into the world, but for the purpose of elevating himself in his own eyes."<br /><br />[slips into Don Adams "Get Smart!" voice] <i>Ah yes, the ol' straw-man reboot to lift yourself up by your own boot straps trick.</i><br /><br />Works every time, and you don't even need a mirror to admire yourself in it.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-49432461935965436742014-09-09T10:35:03.897-07:002014-09-09T10:35:03.897-07:00Coincidentally, I caught some of Behind the Candel...Coincidentally, I caught some of Behind the Candelabra on TV last night -- the movie about Liberace. Perhaps unwittingly, it depicts some of the horror of the homosexual lifestyle. It was simultaneously fascinating and repulsive. Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-20205204724929448202014-09-09T10:34:43.708-07:002014-09-09T10:34:43.708-07:00I've been a political junkie since voting for ...I've been a political junkie since voting for Reagan in 1980, after having voted for Carter in 1976. Somewhere in the Carter presidency I had my conservative epiphany and have remained a grown-up ever since. There were other "dark days" in national politics but nothing compared to the Obama presidency. I was optimistic that most of the electorate - those not ideologically committed and those not on the dole - would correct the error of the 2008 election. I was confident that enough of my fellow citizens would see Obama for what he was and the 2012 election would usher in a new administration and a renewed optimism for our country.<br /><br />After Obama was re-elected, I have spent the intervening days in a self induced apathetic fog. I stopped watching the news and reading political commentary. I knew sticking my head in the sand was the wrong thing to do but I felt defeated and helpless to do anything about it. I'm naturally optimistic and have much to be thankful for and I didn't want to be dragged down by the political reality.<br /><br />Now we have mid-term elections right around the corner with the possibility of the GOP taking control of the Senate and the House remaining in GOP control. I'm not so naive to think that means more than it does - that Obama's lame duck session may be less destructive than it otherwise would be if Harry Reid retains the gavel. But even if that should happen, the Dems playbook is prepared and we will get inundated with claims of "GOP obstructionism" which will grease the already slippery tracks leading to Hillary's coronation in 2016.<br /><br />It's difficult to be an optimist and conservative these days. Thank God there is humor and places which fuse humor and reality, especially places like here at OneCosmos.EbonyRaptorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02483546359869912858noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-84517568007268738612014-09-09T10:32:44.124-07:002014-09-09T10:32:44.124-07:00If that doesn't make you want to vomit, there ...<i>If that doesn't make you want to vomit, there is something deeply wrong with you.</i><br /><br />Amen. <br /><br />It's not that I don't understand that the homosexual "can't help it". Obviously, no man in his right mind would rather have a man than a woman. <br /><br />I can feel pity for him. I can't tell him it's normal.mushroomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651027035577798096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-31172877272149890782014-09-09T10:32:06.523-07:002014-09-09T10:32:06.523-07:00@ Bob - Yes. My little guy runs around telling eve...@ Bob - Yes. My little guy runs around telling everyone he knows that he loves them. I hate that as he gets older, he will reach a point where the innocent love and affection he feels for his friends will be twisted into something perverse if he expresses it.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-42100066420702692992014-09-09T10:28:22.284-07:002014-09-09T10:28:22.284-07:00WRT that final quote, I feel like this is the grou...WRT that final quote, I feel like this is the ground I am constantly trying to keep my mind from settling back down to, the unthinking baseline I am trying to escape. On the other hand, I feel like it is a sort of height to which I would like to raise my body by way of training, exercise, and habit. It is interesting (although expected, I suppose) to think that my mind's nadir is a sort of apogee for my body. Paul Griffinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11266956202232070017noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-41435898620672124502014-09-09T10:27:31.679-07:002014-09-09T10:27:31.679-07:00Such pictures are more or less pure fantasy, but m...<i>Such pictures are more or less pure fantasy, but man is in need of an image of reality, no matter how distorted.</i><br /><br />Better living through poetry. mushroomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651027035577798096noreply@blogger.com