This is heavy stuff.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Zen and the Art of Post-Modern Philosophy
Dustin
12/12/02
Philosophy of Religion
Carl Olsen’s Zen and the Art of Postmodern Philosophy (henceforth Z&PmP) compares and contrasts the perspectives of two Zen Buddhists, with the perspective of numerous postmodern philosophers. Z&PmP is not an easy book to review, not so much because of the difficulty of the subject-matter (though it is difficult), but because of it’s structure. It does not proceed in a straightforward manner, or have much of a thesis; Olsen merely makes the claim that Zen and postmodernists have some similarities in their thought, and some differences as well. Olsen then presents these similarities and differences in diverse chapters like The Self and Other, Nihilism and Metaphysics, and Radical Skepticism and Doubt, to name a few. As a result of this, summarizing Z&PmP in a thorough way would be almost impossible, as there are simply too many positions to discuss, and the book itself is already a summation. Therefore, what follows here is more synthesis than summation.
The major difference that becomes apparent between Zen and the postmodernists is that the former are absolutists about the mind, while the later are more relative and have more diversified interests. It is not surprising that Zen Buddhists are absolutists since the idea of Zen is that there is a Buddha-nature, absolute mind, center of consciousness, etc., that exists behind the surface ego, and that it is possible to realize this mind. As a result of this position, the Buddhist thinkers are not so concerned with philosophy or even words; they are concerned with helping people realize their true mind. Therefore, they are not concerned with being logical, or not contradicting themselves; their aim is to encourage to listener to make that leap into Being. Of all the postmodernists discussed in Z&PmP, Heidegger comes closest to the Zen concern by focusing on the problem of Being; his major work is called Being and Time.
Like the Buddhists, the postmodernists have a similar distaste for abstract philosophy and metaphysics, but it is for entirely different reasons than the Buddhists. Postmodernism is defined more by what it is not then what it is: postmodernism is not modernism. Modernism is commonly defined by the Enlightenment-era-ideals of using truth, reason, and science to forge a better existence for mankind. It is safe to say that the postmodernists have been more then just a little bit disillusioned by many of the events of the Twentieth century. The fact that most postmodernists are European, specifically French, German, and Italian, should then come as no surprise. It is these countries that had an advanced intellectual tradition prior to World War II, and saw the effects of the war firsthand. The role of French and German existentialism also cannot be discounted as a precursor to postmodernism. Many of the revolutions in modern physics also provide support for postmodernism’s distrust of concepts like object truth; Einstein’s theory of relativity and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle posit an end to the understanding of objective reality that can be gained through the scientific method.
Postmodern applied to the arts says that everything that can be done, already has been, so all the artist of today can do is replicate the old forms, pastiche it is called. Postmodern philosophy also shares this view to some extent. The postmodernists are very distrustful of ‘grand narratives’, and metaphysical schemes, in essence, explanations of reality. What the average person doesn’t realize that the postmodernists do, is that our minds function to a great extent off of explanations of reality imposed from outside. Simplified, it could be said that the ego-mind functions off of dominant ideas.
Recall earlier how I spoke of the effect of World War II on creating the right conditions for postmodernism to take root. Buddhism begins with such disillusionment. One of the Buddha’s main tenets is that ‘all life is suffering’. Anyone entering into Buddhism was never attached to a notion of social progress. It is important for Westerners to be aware of how much the idea of social and personal progress dominate the mind. Both postmodernism and Buddhism share this understanding, but take it in two different directions. Zen sees an abandonment of ideals as a positive affirmation of the meaning of existence, while the postmodernists are led to nihilism, or meaninglessness. To me, this condition of the postmodernists seems a result of abandoning progressive ideals on the intellectual level, while retaining them in their hearts.
Nietzche was the first philosopher to examine nihilism, and his views on the subject were examined in Z&PmP. Many of the postmodernists can trace their intellectual roots to Nietzche, as he and Kierkegaard were the earliest Western thinkers to perceptively analyze the “decadent Christian civilization” (Olsen 181). Nietzche saw nihilism as inevitable as “the highest values devalue themselves” (ibid 181). In the case of the Enlightenment-ideals, there appears to be some truth to that statement. The Enlightenment-ideals were the progression of mankind through reason. Reason, leading to individuality, then serves to alienate man from humanity.
Interestingly, Nietzche had a perspective on Buddhism: he saw it as a “passive kind of nihilism” (ibid 187). The charge has been levied by Westerners who fail to understand Eastern religions, specifically Buddhism and Taoism, that those religions are ‘quietistic’. Nietzche’s view corresponds to this claim. This opinion, I think, comes from a misunderstanding of Eastern views. For example, a Buddhist may say, “everything is emptiness”. Or a Taoist may talk about how the Tao is like water and how therefore, if one wants to follow the Tao, one must ‘go with the flow’. These ideas have clashed with the prevailing Western notions of progress, materialism, and consumerism. But a non-nihilistic interpretation of these Eastern statements is easy to make. On emptiness, one can say, “the world of senses has no meaning because truth is found within your mind only”. On the Tao being like water, one can say, “it is better to accept reality than to fight it, because reality always wins”. While that does indeed still smack of quietism, one solution is to say that it is necessary to accept reality in our hearts, and if it is still necessary to fight the prevailing conditions, then go ahead, but just don’t be devastated when things go wrong.
Along different lines, Derrida’s idea of deconstruction also correlates to the Zen-sphere very well. One can look at enlightenment from two perspectives: shedding all the ‘mental-rubbish’ away and coming to understand who one really is, or enlightenment could simply be the realization of the true mind, which would therefore eliminate the rubbish. I think that both processes are needed, but that it is the second step that is mandatory. Derrida’s idea of deconstruction focuses on that first step. It is deconstructing all the ridiculous ideas about ourselves and the world that have been constructed through society and culture. Derrida does this by attempting to find the underlying assumptions responsible for a position. Personally, I find the idea of deconstruction very easy to accept, as I commonly come across questions stemming from faulty perspectives. Such questions cannot be answered because in answering it, one validates the faulty premises. Instead, all one can do is attempt to deconstruct the question, in the hope of coming closer to the truth.
The second chapter of Z&PmP is titled, Language, Disruption, and Play. It is the disruption aspect of the chapter that comes closest to Zen. Some of the popular lore of Zen contains stories of Zen masters shouting at their pupils, hitting them with sticks, and behaving in ways seemingly unbecoming of an enlightened person, i.e. crouching on the ground and roaring like a tiger. All of this is with the idea of disruption in mind. What is being disrupted is the unenlightened mind’s expectations of reality.
The Zen koan also serves to disrupt the mind, but in a different way. Koan means problem, but the koan is not a problem can be solved using rational means. The koan most widely known in the West is: what is the sound of one hand clapping? The idea is to put all of ones rational efforts into solving the koan, and since it cannot be solved through reason, the mind finds another way, and a greater understanding of the self is achieved. By creating a practical method for overcoming Reason, the Koan takes the postmodernist’s distrust of it to a higher level.
One postmodern conception that I think corresponds particularly well to Eastern ideas, is the notion of Deleuze and Guattari that human beings are “desiring-machines” (ibid 85). Deleuze and Guattari see humans as having fragmented minds, full of various thoughts, ideas, and desires, many of them contradictory. Of the schizophrenic, Olson summarizes the pair by saying, “the schizophrenic is a fragmented, divided, and false person because such a person can only become him/herself by being totally foreign to oneself” (ibid 86). I find that statement particularly useful because it encourages a closer examination of who we in fact are. Of interest here is what Ted Hughes, Britain’s former poet laureate, and husband of poet Sylvia Plath, has to say about her shaking off her fragmented selves:
Delueze and Guattari, all of the Buddhist discussed in Z&PmP, and many other postmodernists, would praise Hughes’ lucid statement in its concordance with their views.
It is easy to draw parallels to Zen Buddhism because the only thing that Zen is saying is that it is possible to go deeper into one’s mind. As a result, Zen has an affinity with literally every single brand of mysticism and esoteric philosophy. But is postmodernism an esoteric philosophy? Esoteric is the antonym of exoteric; they mean inner and outer. So to the extent that postmodernism encourages increased thought and subjectivity, it is indeed an esoteric philosophy. And much postmodernism is firmly centered on topics that promote introspection. So I do feel that it is fair for Olson to write a book such as Z&PmP.
I have several criticisms of Z&PmP, some of them fair, and some not fair. One unfair criticism is that Olson spends too much examining the differences between the positions, without trying to look deeper to find to commonalities that exist. This is not a fair because a good work of comparative philosophy should try and set the positions as far apart from each other as possible, so that each position can be seen fully in its own light. And Z&PmP is a good work of comparative philosophy.
Another unfair charge is the omission of the French existentialist/absurdist Albert Camus, and other existentialists in the discussion. It could be said that an existentialist is not a postmodernist, and therefore outside of the realm of the book, but Heidegger is much more commonly associated with existentialism than postmodernism, and his positions were discussed at length. Camus’ absurdist philosophy, particularly what he explicates in The Myth of Sisyphus would have been very useful in bridging the gap between the postmodernists and the Buddhists in regards to nihilism. Sartre, likewise, was mentioned only a few times. Overall, I find existentialism much more closely associated with Buddhism because existentialists tend to fall on the absolute side of that absolute-relative divide.
Many times I found Z&PmP tedious, but that was probably a result of the fact that I am much more interested in the comparative philosophy of similarity, rather than of difference, and much of the book is spent explicating the differences between the various thinkers. Z&PmP was however a very stimulating book because it did promote thought and introspection, and I tend to enjoy any such ‘disturbing’ material. The book has also renewed a plan I once had to read Heidegger, and spawned a desire to read Nietzche as well. Because Z&PmP has the potential of introducing the reader to so many foreign thinkers and ways of thinking, it is a valuable book. I do however feel that some knowledge of both Buddhism and postmodernism is probably required before taking up Z&PmP. I feel this because it is important, at least for me, to have a feel for the overall structure of someone’s thought in order to understand it. I argue that two people can say the exact same thing and one of them can be right, and the other one wrong. The lack of beforehand knowledge of many of the various postmodernists discussed, prevented me from making such distinctions. One warning though, Z&PmP is for the serious minded individual who is capable of introspection. As Sylvia Plath says speaking about two men in her life:
Bibliography
Olson, Carl. Zen and the Art of Postmodern Philosophy: two paths of liberation from the
representation mode of thinking. Albany: State University of New York
Press, 2000.
Plath, Sylvia. The Journals of Sylvia Plath. Edited by Francis McCullough. New York:
Anchor Books, 1982.
12/12/02
Philosophy of Religion
Zen and the Art of Postmodern Philosophy
Carl Olsen’s Zen and the Art of Postmodern Philosophy (henceforth Z&PmP) compares and contrasts the perspectives of two Zen Buddhists, with the perspective of numerous postmodern philosophers. Z&PmP is not an easy book to review, not so much because of the difficulty of the subject-matter (though it is difficult), but because of it’s structure. It does not proceed in a straightforward manner, or have much of a thesis; Olsen merely makes the claim that Zen and postmodernists have some similarities in their thought, and some differences as well. Olsen then presents these similarities and differences in diverse chapters like The Self and Other, Nihilism and Metaphysics, and Radical Skepticism and Doubt, to name a few. As a result of this, summarizing Z&PmP in a thorough way would be almost impossible, as there are simply too many positions to discuss, and the book itself is already a summation. Therefore, what follows here is more synthesis than summation.
The major difference that becomes apparent between Zen and the postmodernists is that the former are absolutists about the mind, while the later are more relative and have more diversified interests. It is not surprising that Zen Buddhists are absolutists since the idea of Zen is that there is a Buddha-nature, absolute mind, center of consciousness, etc., that exists behind the surface ego, and that it is possible to realize this mind. As a result of this position, the Buddhist thinkers are not so concerned with philosophy or even words; they are concerned with helping people realize their true mind. Therefore, they are not concerned with being logical, or not contradicting themselves; their aim is to encourage to listener to make that leap into Being. Of all the postmodernists discussed in Z&PmP, Heidegger comes closest to the Zen concern by focusing on the problem of Being; his major work is called Being and Time.
Like the Buddhists, the postmodernists have a similar distaste for abstract philosophy and metaphysics, but it is for entirely different reasons than the Buddhists. Postmodernism is defined more by what it is not then what it is: postmodernism is not modernism. Modernism is commonly defined by the Enlightenment-era-ideals of using truth, reason, and science to forge a better existence for mankind. It is safe to say that the postmodernists have been more then just a little bit disillusioned by many of the events of the Twentieth century. The fact that most postmodernists are European, specifically French, German, and Italian, should then come as no surprise. It is these countries that had an advanced intellectual tradition prior to World War II, and saw the effects of the war firsthand. The role of French and German existentialism also cannot be discounted as a precursor to postmodernism. Many of the revolutions in modern physics also provide support for postmodernism’s distrust of concepts like object truth; Einstein’s theory of relativity and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle posit an end to the understanding of objective reality that can be gained through the scientific method.
Postmodern applied to the arts says that everything that can be done, already has been, so all the artist of today can do is replicate the old forms, pastiche it is called. Postmodern philosophy also shares this view to some extent. The postmodernists are very distrustful of ‘grand narratives’, and metaphysical schemes, in essence, explanations of reality. What the average person doesn’t realize that the postmodernists do, is that our minds function to a great extent off of explanations of reality imposed from outside. Simplified, it could be said that the ego-mind functions off of dominant ideas.
Recall earlier how I spoke of the effect of World War II on creating the right conditions for postmodernism to take root. Buddhism begins with such disillusionment. One of the Buddha’s main tenets is that ‘all life is suffering’. Anyone entering into Buddhism was never attached to a notion of social progress. It is important for Westerners to be aware of how much the idea of social and personal progress dominate the mind. Both postmodernism and Buddhism share this understanding, but take it in two different directions. Zen sees an abandonment of ideals as a positive affirmation of the meaning of existence, while the postmodernists are led to nihilism, or meaninglessness. To me, this condition of the postmodernists seems a result of abandoning progressive ideals on the intellectual level, while retaining them in their hearts.
Nietzche was the first philosopher to examine nihilism, and his views on the subject were examined in Z&PmP. Many of the postmodernists can trace their intellectual roots to Nietzche, as he and Kierkegaard were the earliest Western thinkers to perceptively analyze the “decadent Christian civilization” (Olsen 181). Nietzche saw nihilism as inevitable as “the highest values devalue themselves” (ibid 181). In the case of the Enlightenment-ideals, there appears to be some truth to that statement. The Enlightenment-ideals were the progression of mankind through reason. Reason, leading to individuality, then serves to alienate man from humanity.
Interestingly, Nietzche had a perspective on Buddhism: he saw it as a “passive kind of nihilism” (ibid 187). The charge has been levied by Westerners who fail to understand Eastern religions, specifically Buddhism and Taoism, that those religions are ‘quietistic’. Nietzche’s view corresponds to this claim. This opinion, I think, comes from a misunderstanding of Eastern views. For example, a Buddhist may say, “everything is emptiness”. Or a Taoist may talk about how the Tao is like water and how therefore, if one wants to follow the Tao, one must ‘go with the flow’. These ideas have clashed with the prevailing Western notions of progress, materialism, and consumerism. But a non-nihilistic interpretation of these Eastern statements is easy to make. On emptiness, one can say, “the world of senses has no meaning because truth is found within your mind only”. On the Tao being like water, one can say, “it is better to accept reality than to fight it, because reality always wins”. While that does indeed still smack of quietism, one solution is to say that it is necessary to accept reality in our hearts, and if it is still necessary to fight the prevailing conditions, then go ahead, but just don’t be devastated when things go wrong.
Along different lines, Derrida’s idea of deconstruction also correlates to the Zen-sphere very well. One can look at enlightenment from two perspectives: shedding all the ‘mental-rubbish’ away and coming to understand who one really is, or enlightenment could simply be the realization of the true mind, which would therefore eliminate the rubbish. I think that both processes are needed, but that it is the second step that is mandatory. Derrida’s idea of deconstruction focuses on that first step. It is deconstructing all the ridiculous ideas about ourselves and the world that have been constructed through society and culture. Derrida does this by attempting to find the underlying assumptions responsible for a position. Personally, I find the idea of deconstruction very easy to accept, as I commonly come across questions stemming from faulty perspectives. Such questions cannot be answered because in answering it, one validates the faulty premises. Instead, all one can do is attempt to deconstruct the question, in the hope of coming closer to the truth.
The second chapter of Z&PmP is titled, Language, Disruption, and Play. It is the disruption aspect of the chapter that comes closest to Zen. Some of the popular lore of Zen contains stories of Zen masters shouting at their pupils, hitting them with sticks, and behaving in ways seemingly unbecoming of an enlightened person, i.e. crouching on the ground and roaring like a tiger. All of this is with the idea of disruption in mind. What is being disrupted is the unenlightened mind’s expectations of reality.
The Zen koan also serves to disrupt the mind, but in a different way. Koan means problem, but the koan is not a problem can be solved using rational means. The koan most widely known in the West is: what is the sound of one hand clapping? The idea is to put all of ones rational efforts into solving the koan, and since it cannot be solved through reason, the mind finds another way, and a greater understanding of the self is achieved. By creating a practical method for overcoming Reason, the Koan takes the postmodernist’s distrust of it to a higher level.
One postmodern conception that I think corresponds particularly well to Eastern ideas, is the notion of Deleuze and Guattari that human beings are “desiring-machines” (ibid 85). Deleuze and Guattari see humans as having fragmented minds, full of various thoughts, ideas, and desires, many of them contradictory. Of the schizophrenic, Olson summarizes the pair by saying, “the schizophrenic is a fragmented, divided, and false person because such a person can only become him/herself by being totally foreign to oneself” (ibid 86). I find that statement particularly useful because it encourages a closer examination of who we in fact are. Of interest here is what Ted Hughes, Britain’s former poet laureate, and husband of poet Sylvia Plath, has to say about her shaking off her fragmented selves:
Sylvia Plath was a person of many masks…some were camouflage cliché
facades, defensive mechanisms, involuntary. And some were deliberate poses, attempts to find the keys to one style or another. These were the visible faces of her lesser selves, the minor roles of her inner drama…
Her real self had showed itself in her writing, just for a moment, three years earlier -the self I had married, after all, and lived with and knew well- in that brief moment, three lines recited as she went out through a doorway, I knew that what I had always felt must happen had now begun to happen, that her real self, being the real poet, would now speak for itself, and would throw off all those lesser and artificial selves that had monopolized the words up to that point, it was as if a dumb person had suddenly spoke.
A real self, as we know, is a rare thing. The direct speech of a real self is rarer still. Where a real self exists, as a rule, it reveals itself, only in the quality of the person’s presence, or in actions. Most of us are never more than bundles of contradictory and complementary selves. Our real self, if our belief that we have one is true, is usually dumb, shut away beneath the to-and-fro conflicting voices of the false and petty selves. As is dumbness were the universal characteristic of the real self. When a real self finds language, and manages to speak, it is surely a dazzling event. (Plath, xii)
Delueze and Guattari, all of the Buddhist discussed in Z&PmP, and many other postmodernists, would praise Hughes’ lucid statement in its concordance with their views.
It is easy to draw parallels to Zen Buddhism because the only thing that Zen is saying is that it is possible to go deeper into one’s mind. As a result, Zen has an affinity with literally every single brand of mysticism and esoteric philosophy. But is postmodernism an esoteric philosophy? Esoteric is the antonym of exoteric; they mean inner and outer. So to the extent that postmodernism encourages increased thought and subjectivity, it is indeed an esoteric philosophy. And much postmodernism is firmly centered on topics that promote introspection. So I do feel that it is fair for Olson to write a book such as Z&PmP.
I have several criticisms of Z&PmP, some of them fair, and some not fair. One unfair criticism is that Olson spends too much examining the differences between the positions, without trying to look deeper to find to commonalities that exist. This is not a fair because a good work of comparative philosophy should try and set the positions as far apart from each other as possible, so that each position can be seen fully in its own light. And Z&PmP is a good work of comparative philosophy.
Another unfair charge is the omission of the French existentialist/absurdist Albert Camus, and other existentialists in the discussion. It could be said that an existentialist is not a postmodernist, and therefore outside of the realm of the book, but Heidegger is much more commonly associated with existentialism than postmodernism, and his positions were discussed at length. Camus’ absurdist philosophy, particularly what he explicates in The Myth of Sisyphus would have been very useful in bridging the gap between the postmodernists and the Buddhists in regards to nihilism. Sartre, likewise, was mentioned only a few times. Overall, I find existentialism much more closely associated with Buddhism because existentialists tend to fall on the absolute side of that absolute-relative divide.
Many times I found Z&PmP tedious, but that was probably a result of the fact that I am much more interested in the comparative philosophy of similarity, rather than of difference, and much of the book is spent explicating the differences between the various thinkers. Z&PmP was however a very stimulating book because it did promote thought and introspection, and I tend to enjoy any such ‘disturbing’ material. The book has also renewed a plan I once had to read Heidegger, and spawned a desire to read Nietzche as well. Because Z&PmP has the potential of introducing the reader to so many foreign thinkers and ways of thinking, it is a valuable book. I do however feel that some knowledge of both Buddhism and postmodernism is probably required before taking up Z&PmP. I feel this because it is important, at least for me, to have a feel for the overall structure of someone’s thought in order to understand it. I argue that two people can say the exact same thing and one of them can be right, and the other one wrong. The lack of beforehand knowledge of many of the various postmodernists discussed, prevented me from making such distinctions. One warning though, Z&PmP is for the serious minded individual who is capable of introspection. As Sylvia Plath says speaking about two men in her life:
“I was too serious for Peter, but that was mainly because he did not participate in the seriousness deeply enough to find out the gaiety beyond. Richard knows that joy, that tragic joy” (Plath 107).Olson’s Z&PmP certainly has the subject-matter capable of producing that “tragic joy”, and bringing us to the “gaiety beyond” our egos.
Bibliography
Olson, Carl. Zen and the Art of Postmodern Philosophy: two paths of liberation from the
representation mode of thinking. Albany: State University of New York
Press, 2000.
Plath, Sylvia. The Journals of Sylvia Plath. Edited by Francis McCullough. New York:
Anchor Books, 1982.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
The Money Masters
The Money Masters Part 1
The Money Masters Part 2
At 3.5 hours this is quite long, but this is a must watch. This puts so many pieces together.
Money is no longer time. Watch this documentary and so much history will be understood, going back hundreds of years- this lays it all out. I am begging you to watch this- it is in all of our interests to understand.
This documentary presents the most basic and fundamental core of everything that I have been learning about.
The Money Masters Part 2
At 3.5 hours this is quite long, but this is a must watch. This puts so many pieces together.
Money is no longer time. Watch this documentary and so much history will be understood, going back hundreds of years- this lays it all out. I am begging you to watch this- it is in all of our interests to understand.
This documentary presents the most basic and fundamental core of everything that I have been learning about.
Internet Porn and the Rise of Fascism
Mussolini called fascism the marriage between the state and the corporation.
Senate Considers Tax on Internet Pornography
Right now the vast majority of internet porn is free. Under this proposed law a credit card would be required in order to provide age verification. And this is in order to protect our children they say.
Do I support 8 year old children watching porn online? Of course not. But the internet needs to remain free, untaxed, and unregulated.
Now, what is the credit card age verification actually about? Well, once your credit card is on file it makes it really easy to start using it. This is called incrementalism. Right now internet porn is free and unregulated, if things continue in the direction that they are going then eventually it will be taxed and controlled. Governments and business prosper, and the people lose- this is fascism.
George W. Bush and the 14 Points of Fascism
Fascism Anyone?
The Truth About Hate Crimes Laws
Elton John 'I would ban religion completely'
Belmont to be first U.S. city to ban all smoking
Vatican enters Muslim veil debate
Senate Considers Tax on Internet Pornography
Right now the vast majority of internet porn is free. Under this proposed law a credit card would be required in order to provide age verification. And this is in order to protect our children they say.
Do I support 8 year old children watching porn online? Of course not. But the internet needs to remain free, untaxed, and unregulated.
Now, what is the credit card age verification actually about? Well, once your credit card is on file it makes it really easy to start using it. This is called incrementalism. Right now internet porn is free and unregulated, if things continue in the direction that they are going then eventually it will be taxed and controlled. Governments and business prosper, and the people lose- this is fascism.
George W. Bush and the 14 Points of Fascism
Fascism Anyone?
The Truth About Hate Crimes Laws
Elton John 'I would ban religion completely'
Belmont to be first U.S. city to ban all smoking
Vatican enters Muslim veil debate
Monday, December 11, 2006
Aubade by Louis MacNeice
This a poem I have always like by Louis MacNeice (1907-63) called Aubade.
Having bitten on life like a sharp apple
Or, playing it like a fish, been happy,
Having felt with fingers that the sky is blue
what have we after that to look forward to?
Not the twilight of the gods but a precise dawn
of sallow and grey bricks, and newsboys crying war.
Having bitten on life like a sharp apple
Or, playing it like a fish, been happy,
Having felt with fingers that the sky is blue
what have we after that to look forward to?
Not the twilight of the gods but a precise dawn
of sallow and grey bricks, and newsboys crying war.
Pink Floyd and the Fiat Money System
The Fiat Money System
"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." — Henry Ford
I first heard that The Wizard of Oz was actually about the gold/silver debate when I was in high school, and then I heard it again in one of my philosphy classes later. What did Nixon do with our money in 1974? He took it off of the gold standard and put it on nothing but trust. And the people behind the Federal Reserve Board profit hugely as a result of this, and the IMF.
Lets think for a moment about Pink Floyd synching Dark Side of the Moon with The Wizard of Oz. By itself that may or may not mean much to you- but if you have ever watched The film The Wall, and I don't mean the album, but the actual movie- then it should mean a lot in light of our newfound understanding.
Money. Its a crime.
Paper Money and Tyranny
This is a speech before the House of Representatives in 2003 by Ron Paul, R-TX.
The Wizard Of Oz
and here is the movie set to the music. Looking at the comments, I see that I'm not the first to make the connection.
Here is a nice page
Its funny. Its always nice to make a connection and then search and find that I'm not the first.
The M3 Becomes a Liability For The Fed
Analysis of The Wall
What is the wall?
The wall is the social construction of reality.
Who constructs it?
The powers that be.
What is their agenda?
The enslavement of mankind
--------------------------------------------------------------
"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." — Henry Ford
I first heard that The Wizard of Oz was actually about the gold/silver debate when I was in high school, and then I heard it again in one of my philosphy classes later. What did Nixon do with our money in 1974? He took it off of the gold standard and put it on nothing but trust. And the people behind the Federal Reserve Board profit hugely as a result of this, and the IMF.
Lets think for a moment about Pink Floyd synching Dark Side of the Moon with The Wizard of Oz. By itself that may or may not mean much to you- but if you have ever watched The film The Wall, and I don't mean the album, but the actual movie- then it should mean a lot in light of our newfound understanding.
Paper Money and Tyranny
This is a speech before the House of Representatives in 2003 by Ron Paul, R-TX.
The Wizard Of Oz
and here is the movie set to the music. Looking at the comments, I see that I'm not the first to make the connection.
Here is a nice page
Its funny. Its always nice to make a connection and then search and find that I'm not the first.
The M3 Becomes a Liability For The Fed
Analysis of The Wall
What is the wall?
The wall is the social construction of reality.
Who constructs it?
The powers that be.
What is their agenda?
The enslavement of mankind
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Austian School
From the wikipedia structuralism page
"Structuralism has had varying degrees of influence in the social sciences: a great deal in the field of sociology, hardly any in economics"
This isn't completely true. In fact, there is a whole school of economic thought that fits right in with the new paradigm, The Austrian School.
Economics for me has been the last major area of the social sciences that I have needed to tackle. And so I'm glad that 9/11 is finally bringing me around to understanding it.
Boom and Bust Cycle
The article is highly biased towards Keynesian theory. It assumes the business cycle (as the boom and bust cycle is sometimes called) is caused by changes in the aggregate demand, barely acknowledging that the Austrians have an entirely different view.
"The Austrian School of economics suggests instead that the business cycle of boom and bust is avoidable but inevitable after monetary manipulations by a central banking authority."
It is this these sorts of ideas that I am most interested in right now, and again, I urge everyone to watch The Money Masters because it does so much to expand our understanding of things.
The theory put forth in The Money Masters is that the boom and bust cycle is artifically created through privately owned central banks for the purposes of enriching the elites. And given the amount of context and historical examples put forth in the movie, they make a very compelling case.
Murray Rothbard
The Creature from Jekyll Island
I just ordered this today.
The History of Money and Banking in the United States
America's Great Depression
Question: Is the Federal Reserve a privately owned bank, or a public instition?
"Structuralism has had varying degrees of influence in the social sciences: a great deal in the field of sociology, hardly any in economics"
This isn't completely true. In fact, there is a whole school of economic thought that fits right in with the new paradigm, The Austrian School.
Economics for me has been the last major area of the social sciences that I have needed to tackle. And so I'm glad that 9/11 is finally bringing me around to understanding it.
Boom and Bust Cycle
The article is highly biased towards Keynesian theory. It assumes the business cycle (as the boom and bust cycle is sometimes called) is caused by changes in the aggregate demand, barely acknowledging that the Austrians have an entirely different view.
"The Austrian School of economics suggests instead that the business cycle of boom and bust is avoidable but inevitable after monetary manipulations by a central banking authority."
It is this these sorts of ideas that I am most interested in right now, and again, I urge everyone to watch The Money Masters because it does so much to expand our understanding of things.
The theory put forth in The Money Masters is that the boom and bust cycle is artifically created through privately owned central banks for the purposes of enriching the elites. And given the amount of context and historical examples put forth in the movie, they make a very compelling case.
Murray Rothbard
The Creature from Jekyll Island
I just ordered this today.
The History of Money and Banking in the United States
America's Great Depression
Question: Is the Federal Reserve a privately owned bank, or a public instition?
Structuralism
Wikipedia Aricle
Here is the top section:
"For the use of structuralism in biology, see Structuralism (biology)
I don't think the definition of structuralism here is broad enough. After all, at the very top there is a link to structuralism in biology.
A great book which gets into all of this is called Lila: An Iquiry into Morals by Robert Pirsig, who is more well known for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Here is the top section:
"For the use of structuralism in biology, see Structuralism (biology)
Structuralism is an approach in academic disciplines that explores the relationships between fundamental elements of some kind, upon which some higher mental, linguistic, social, cultural etc. "structures" are built, through which then meaning is produced within a particular person, system, or culture.
Structuralism appeared in academic psychology for the first time in the 19th century and then reappeared in the second half of the 20th century.....The term of "structuralism" itself appeared in relation to French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss' works, and gave rise, in France, to the "structuralist movement,"..... Post-structuralism attempted to distinguish itself from the use of the structural method. Structuralism has had varying degrees of influence in the social sciences: a great deal in the field of sociology, hardly any in economics."
------I don't think the definition of structuralism here is broad enough. After all, at the very top there is a link to structuralism in biology.
"Biological or process structuralism is a school of biological thought that deals with the law-like behaviour of the structure of organisms and how it can change.
Structuralists tend to emphasise that organisms are wholes, and therefore that change in one part must necessarily take into account the inter-connected nature of the entire organism. Whilst structuralists are not necessarily anti-Darwinian, the laws of biological structure are viewed as independent and ahistorical accounts that are not necessarily tied to any particular mechanism of change. A structuralist might thus hold that Darwinian natural selection might be the driving force behind how structures change, but nevertheless be committed to an extra layer of explanation of how particular structures come into being and are maintained.
Typical structuralist concerns might be self-organisation, the idea that complex structure emerges out of the dynamic interaction of molecules, without the resultant structure having necessarily been selected for in all its details. For example, the patterning of fingerprints or the stripes of zebras might emerge through simple rules of diffusion, and the resulting unique structure need not have been selected for in its finest details. Structuralists look for very general rules that goven organisms as a whole, and not just particular narratives that explain the origin or maintenance of particular structures. The interplay between structural laws and adaptation thus govern the degree to which an adaptationist account can fully explain why a particular organism looks as it does."
----------
Understand that those who take a structuralist approach to biology aren't anti-darwinian one little bit, its just that natural selection isn't the only game in town. It is all interconnected. One way to look at biology is to see biology as the study of the structures of life. There is microbiology, biochemistry, ethology, sociobiology, etc.
A great book which gets into all of this is called Lila: An Iquiry into Morals by Robert Pirsig, who is more well known for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Hank Hill Speaks Out
I can't figure out if Mike Judge made this or not, I wouldn't be surprised. Either way, its good stuff.
My Letter to the Pope
A friend of mine who works for an organization called Catholics For Choice, has asked everyone to join a petition asking the Pope to reevaluate the Church's stance on condoms as a part of World Aids Day which is tomorrow. Here is my letter.
-------------
Pope Benedict XVI,
In my opinion there are some serious problems with the Catholic Church. The Church's opposition to liberation theology in Latin America and the recent announcement that Henry Kissinger is going to serve as a papal advisor, has placed some significant doubts in my mind as to who exactly the Catholic Church is fighting for. As I'm sure you know, Luke 18:25 says "For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God".
The Gospels are rife with examples of Jesus standing up to injustice and the authority behind it. And Henry Kissinger is behind a lot of injustice in the world. In December, 1975, Ford and Kissinger gave the green light to Indonesia's invasion of the tiny island nation of East Timor. Memos obtained through FOIA (The Freedom of Information Act) have been released that indicate that Ford and Kissinger met with and discussed the Indonesian invasion with General Suharto, the dictator of Indonesia in December of 75. Regardless of whatever cold war era justifications were made for green-lighting this invasion, Henry Kissinger is not the kind of person that an organization which purports to spread the teachings of Jesus should have as an advisor.
In regards to liberation theology, which I will admit is a subject that I know little about, I can only invite you to watch an excellent documentary which is avaliable free over google video called, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. This movie documents the failed right wing coup attempt against Hugo Chavez in April of 2002. A lot of exciting things are happening in Latin America right now, and if the Church wishes to remain relevant there then it will need to readjust its attitude towards populist movements. Antiquated positions like the Church has on condoms, women in the priesthood, and homosexuality have long ago marginalized the Church in first world nations.
Specifically regarding condoms, which is the purpose of this petition, I can only say: with all the problems facing the world today, a little spilt seed should be the least of our worries. Furthermore I hope that you check out my blog, which can be found at www.lowballplath.blogspot.com, and look into some of the additional things that I discuss there. The world could use a genuine leader now more than ever.
Fox News
I doubt that this is an original idea, since it seems to have its counterparts in other areas, but I came up with it this morning: that Fox News, by being such a joke, serves to legitimize the rest of television news in America.
Let me explain. First off, Fox News is only a joke to those who don't watch Fox News. For those that do watch it, it is finally a news source that speaks to them- news stripped away from its "liberal bias". Fox News is in fact, for them, fair and balanced.
But for those who see through all the jingoism, the flag waving, the empty rhetoric- for those who dispise people like Bill O'Reily, Sean Hannity, and Ann Coulter- well, Fox News does its job on those people as well.
The more outlandish Fox News is, the more we hate Fox News, then the easier it becomes to believe that other mainstream media sources, sources that come off a little more reasoned and intelligent, are actually giving us the truth.
This is just a theory.
Let me explain. First off, Fox News is only a joke to those who don't watch Fox News. For those that do watch it, it is finally a news source that speaks to them- news stripped away from its "liberal bias". Fox News is in fact, for them, fair and balanced.
But for those who see through all the jingoism, the flag waving, the empty rhetoric- for those who dispise people like Bill O'Reily, Sean Hannity, and Ann Coulter- well, Fox News does its job on those people as well.
The more outlandish Fox News is, the more we hate Fox News, then the easier it becomes to believe that other mainstream media sources, sources that come off a little more reasoned and intelligent, are actually giving us the truth.
This is just a theory.
NY Times Article on the Dollar
Dollar falls as concern grows over the economy
"Analysts said that the dollar’s drop today reflected a growing anxiety over Chinese economic policy. China’s central bank holds a large amount of American currency, and speculation has intensified recently that it could begin selling off dollars to avoid being burned if the dollar collapses."
Lets attempt to read between the lines here. Most importantly, this is the New York Times casually mentioning the possibility of the dollar collapsing. What is also funny is the circular argument used.
Why did the dollar drop?
Because the Chinese are anxious.
Why are the Chinese anxious?
Because they don't want to get burned if the dollar drops.
Sounds to me like the solution is just to give those Chinese some xanax.
(and if that doesn't work maybe investing in some gold wouldn't be a bad idea. I remember the days when an oz of KB cost more than an oz of AU. Today gold is 639 per/oz and if I had any money that is where I would put it)
France in vigilance plea on falling dollar
"Analysts said that the dollar’s drop today reflected a growing anxiety over Chinese economic policy. China’s central bank holds a large amount of American currency, and speculation has intensified recently that it could begin selling off dollars to avoid being burned if the dollar collapses."
Lets attempt to read between the lines here. Most importantly, this is the New York Times casually mentioning the possibility of the dollar collapsing. What is also funny is the circular argument used.
Why did the dollar drop?
Because the Chinese are anxious.
Why are the Chinese anxious?
Because they don't want to get burned if the dollar drops.
Sounds to me like the solution is just to give those Chinese some xanax.
(and if that doesn't work maybe investing in some gold wouldn't be a bad idea. I remember the days when an oz of KB cost more than an oz of AU. Today gold is 639 per/oz and if I had any money that is where I would put it)
France in vigilance plea on falling dollar
Meme Theory
There was a time when meme theory found its way until almost every paper that I wrote. And I see no reason to abandon the idea now. If we are going to attempt to understand the social construction of reality, which is a fundamental tenet of sociology- then we need to understand memetics. Start here.
A Generation Is All They Need
A Generation Is All They Need
I am not a Luddite. I believe that technology can be used for good purposes. I think that this is fairly obvious. Advances in medical technology save lives, and we are using the Internet in order to defeat these SOBs who want to control every aspect of our lives. In Democracy in America V2 , Alexis de Tocqueville in 1840 wrote:
How many of you have 2 or 3 different 'supermaret cards' in your purse or wallet? Try this test out the next time you go to a grocery store: try using the wrong card and see if it works. See if you still get that discount. I have done it. If you live in the Phoenix area your Frys, Bashas, and Safeway cards are all interchangeable. And there is no reason to think they won't work at Albertsons too. And I know that if you go Vegas your Frys card will work at Smiths there. I am more than willing to lay odds that any of these cards will work in Missouri grocery stores too: any takers? (I will give 3:1). Now I'm not saying that all of these grocery stores are all owned by the same corporation: some of them are for sure, but I will bet the cards work everywhere.
But we have to use those cards because otherwise it would be so much more expensive: this is called an incentive.
And its about tracking our preferences so that they can better market to us. Here is a Fox News article: Pentagon to Track All Consumer Purchases
Haggerty is right though. It is absolutely through the process of incrementalism that these things will take place. Except what he fails to understand (or maybe he does?) is that our freedoms are being attacked from multiple angles, not just through the "unassailable language of progress and social betterment". Terrorism isn't just about providing a pretext to go war with countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Syria: it is also about increasing the powers of the techno-fascist police state. But if humanity wakes up in time we can stop them.
What an interesting article that Haggerty has written. I suppose I should have read the whole thing first before I started picking it apart sentence by sentence. Haggerty goes on to describe just exactly how the incrementalism might look like, and he comes out opposed to these chips. That makes me happy: after reading the first few paragraphs I was under the assumption that he was a piece of human trash, a soulless sycophant of the new world order.
I am not a Luddite. I believe that technology can be used for good purposes. I think that this is fairly obvious. Advances in medical technology save lives, and we are using the Internet in order to defeat these SOBs who want to control every aspect of our lives. In Democracy in America V2 , Alexis de Tocqueville in 1840 wrote:
The kind of oppression with which democratic peoples are threatened will resemble nothing that had preceded it in the world; our contemporaries would not find its image in their memories. I myself seek in vain an expression that exactly reproduces the idea that I form of it for myself and that contains it; the old words despotism and tyranny are not suitable. The thing is new, therefore I must try to define it, since I can not name it.I don't think that de Tocqueville could have forseen this. Mussolini called fascism the marriage of the state and the corporation. Well this is fascism with a twist, its techo-fascism. And it is being implemented through the process of incrementalism.
How many of you have 2 or 3 different 'supermaret cards' in your purse or wallet? Try this test out the next time you go to a grocery store: try using the wrong card and see if it works. See if you still get that discount. I have done it. If you live in the Phoenix area your Frys, Bashas, and Safeway cards are all interchangeable. And there is no reason to think they won't work at Albertsons too. And I know that if you go Vegas your Frys card will work at Smiths there. I am more than willing to lay odds that any of these cards will work in Missouri grocery stores too: any takers? (I will give 3:1). Now I'm not saying that all of these grocery stores are all owned by the same corporation: some of them are for sure, but I will bet the cards work everywhere.
But we have to use those cards because otherwise it would be so much more expensive: this is called an incentive.
And its about tracking our preferences so that they can better market to us. Here is a Fox News article: Pentagon to Track All Consumer Purchases
A massive database that the government will use to monitor every purchase made by every American citizen is a necessary tool in the war on terror, the Pentagon said Wednesday.So here we see terror and incentives working towards the same means. Returning to the Star article:
By the time my four-year-old son is swathed in the soft flesh of old age, he will likely find it unremarkable that he and almost everyone he knows will be permanently implanted with a microchip. Automatically tracking his location in real time, it will connect him with databases monitoring and recording his smallest behavioural traits.If people, and by people I mean consenting adults capable of making semi-rational decisions, want to embed microchips under their skin or in their brains, then that is fine with me. That is a big part of the definition of liberty as written in the constitution and defined by the courts. But we don't need the courts the define liberty for us: liberty equals freedom. And this isn't 1984 just yet, and I will do everything in my power to make sure that four year olds don't get embedded with microchips, so help me Allah.
Most people anticipate such a prospect with a sense of horrified disbelief, dismissing it as a science-fiction fantasy. The technology, however, already exists. For years humane societies have implanted all the pets that leave their premises with a small identifying microchip. As well, millions of consumer goods are now traced with tiny radio frequency identification chips that allow satellites to reveal their exact location.Oh. So I guess if humane societies are using microchips then it must be ok. Millions of consumer goods tracked with RFID? I guess thats ok too since its part of humane societies.
A select group of people are already "chipped" with devices that automatically open doors, turn on lights, and perform other low-level miracles. Prominent among such individuals is researcher Kevin Warwick of Reading University in England; Warwick is a leading proponent of the almost limitless potential uses for such chips.Prominent individuals, or prominent among such individuals? An almost limitless potential. Wow. Sign me up today. We won't even have to turn on lights anymore! Think of the convienence!
Other users include the patrons of the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona, many of whom have paid about $150 (U.S.) for the privilege of being implanted with an identifying chip that allows them to bypass lengthy club queues and purchase drinks by being scanned. These individuals are the advance guard of an effort to expand the technology as widely as possible.Cool and hip young clubbers are already shelling out big bucks to get chipped. Its so neat and convenient.
From this point forward, microchips will become progressively smaller, less invasive, and easier to deploy. Thus, any realistic barrier to the wholesale "chipping" of Western citizens is not technological but cultural. It relies upon the visceral reaction against the prospect of being personally marked as one component in a massive human inventory.Getting a chip is really no big deal at all. Just get over yourselves people. Welcome to the Brave New World.
Today we might strongly hold such beliefs, but sensibilities can, and probably will, change. How this remarkable attitudinal transformation is likely to occur is clear to anyone who has paid attention to privacy issues over the past quarter-century. There will be no 3 a.m. knock on the door by storm troopers come to force implants into our bodies. The process will be more subtle and cumulative, couched in the unassailable language of progress and social betterment, and mimicking many of the processes that have contributed to the expansion of closed-circuit television cameras and the corporate market in personal data.No 3 a.m. knocks? I find that very reassuring. What happens after the next big terror attack? What happens when we "lose a city", as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich recently said:
Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards banquet, said a "different set of rules" may be needed to reduce terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message.The Internet is right now under attack from the techno-fascists. Though we scored a big victory today with the defeat of the COPE act. The free spread of information outside of their control is a major threat to these people. And when you hear about net neutrality, and the "need" for a tiered it is important to understand what it means and what is really going on. It is about taking away even more of our liberties and putting them in the hands of corporate control.
Haggerty is right though. It is absolutely through the process of incrementalism that these things will take place. Except what he fails to understand (or maybe he does?) is that our freedoms are being attacked from multiple angles, not just through the "unassailable language of progress and social betterment". Terrorism isn't just about providing a pretext to go war with countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Syria: it is also about increasing the powers of the techno-fascist police state. But if humanity wakes up in time we can stop them.
What an interesting article that Haggerty has written. I suppose I should have read the whole thing first before I started picking it apart sentence by sentence. Haggerty goes on to describe just exactly how the incrementalism might look like, and he comes out opposed to these chips. That makes me happy: after reading the first few paragraphs I was under the assumption that he was a piece of human trash, a soulless sycophant of the new world order.
An increasing array of hypothetical chipping scenarios will also be depicted in entertainment media, furthering the familiarization process.In the West, chips will first be implanted in members of stigmatized groups. Pedophiles are the leading candidate for this distinction, although it could start with terrorists, drug dealers, or whatever happens to be that year's most vilified criminals.
Immortal Technique
Pure speculation, but I actually doubt that Bush was very involved with 9/11.
Ok, and I guess he doesn't think so either. I think I like this one better than the first.
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