Free spirits run riot

Jobs take their toll through repetition that transforms people into mindless robots. You see this when you purchase a pack of gum and are asked if you need a bag to haul the gum to your car. Or you might buy a dozen items and be asked if you need a bag. You may freely reply "No thanks, I'll just juggle" because general awareness is rare in this age.

Humans become drones when mental exhaustion takes hold. After spending many hours in dull mechanical activity, they tune out and mindlessly repeat previous patterns that do not match reality, revealing themselves to be semi-sentient oxen. This happens to laborers, office workers, academics, politicians, and nearly all other professions where physical presence suffices as credit for fulfilling labor duties. Instead of thinking critically about what they encounter in life or on the job, they phone it in and overlook that for all actions there is a goal, and its underlying requirements must be understood and addressed, or the time spent is lost and wasted.

Most people remember their friends in high school being alive, aware, and able to assess the world around them and see beyond social pretense, even if with incomplete and deficient knowledge. We remember their eyes bright with the enthusiastic spark of possibility and an inspired spirit that had vision and was fearless to attempt -- and this lives on in some people, though carefully guarded.

College beat the life out of most people, stealing their fight and turning them into sheep that fulfill demands and wait passively to be told what to do and think. Most educated people do not even question the generically prepared path and interchangeable masters who command them as they wander through an imitation of life.

Those who remained alive after graduation were taken out by tedium a few years after entering the working world. Retaining one's cheerfulness while watching others march to self-destruction is challenging, especially when you love and respect them, but this helps remind us to keep our spirits strong and to be true to ourselves. We shall remain the same for all time while others give up, drink up, consume tv shows and ball games, repeat cliched lies, and follow previous patterns instead of thinking critically. It is essential to properly assess virtues and handicaps.

We are dissuaded by the easy answers that are too often lies, or at best oversimplifications. Resistance comes not from a desire to be stubborn, but because the prevalent dishonesty offends us -- yes, even we free spirits who offend others by speaking unpopular truths have our own moral standards that we uphold.

Those who remain aware in adulthood are strange, but necessary cases. Life is not about following what is easy nor should authenticity be compromised. Nor are we purists who wait for the perfect case to appear, for life is short and we have to work with what we have at hand and can reasonably assemble to fulfill our cosmic purpose. Our acts ripple beyond us and outlast us, and are not even performed for our gain. We are actors of the universe, perhaps put in motion for a larger purpose. In any case, we must be what we are and take the actions we were born to achieve.

May 6, 2008

Transcendent Love

1 Corinthians 13 speaks about love in a manner befitting of tired slaves when it advocates enduring, being useful, and quietly serving a master. This is a crude material misunderstanding of love and fails entirely to speak of noble character, spirituality, or transcendent love.

Love is larger than the self and the fluctuating social order because the individual worthy of love is properly seen as an example of a type and not a destination in themselves. We all have physical forms and they are mostly inconsequential. What matters is the essence of the person and that they find a way to exert their eternal characteristics regardless of the time in which they appear. A strong spirit is immortal and will wind its way triumphantly through whatever situation it faces.

Love is a kinship of souls, as one can only venerate another when there is something in common that is understood and valued. It seems we are all a part of an orbit, generally consisting of no more than a few thousand people with similar paths but different trajectories that are close neighbors at times and recur, with the length of our shared paths varying as we wander through our destiny in the universe. Too many times to shrug off as random we have found improbable commonalities or the ease of old friends with people who are independently going in a similar direction as us and with similar aspirations -- and despite the large world they are no more than one of thousands. Often it is only the brightest stars that glimpse one another in the night sky.

Love dares: show me your character, show me what you really are! Love embraces, forgives, sanctifies. Love dances, love gazes deep into another's eyes and soul, love joins two people in laughter and curiosity. Love is a tender exploration, a tempting possibility, both desirous tingling passion and a sober dream that is real.

Love turns blind to many faults, not so much from idealization as a lack of concern with the vulgar and banal, except where these become so severe as to hamper a person from greater pursuits and thus come into focus. But even mistakes are a part of a curious character and must be loved with the whole. All boats that sail do so upright, but those which have sunk are not seen, but rest at their end.

Love inspires when we taste and appreciate the character, gifts, works, and energy of another. From this perspective, love for another requires no possession. One can form love merely with the knowledge that a person exists and of what they are made. They are loved for what they are, what they mean, and what they do without ever meeting them, or even requiring acknowledgment or awareness from the loved. Their spirit and character stand on their own and need not be captured to be what they are. Likewise, love does not even require the loved to be living, as the spirit one loves exists beyond the physical realm and what they were and did over a lifetime is not nullified by the necessity of death. Their life affirmed what they were, even if they have not taken physical form for centuries.

We love others ultimately because we love the world, specifically its best examples that affirm life and inspire us with the awareness of eternal vibrant character that cannot be suppressed. We can know these people in spirit and love them for being what they are. We love life because it created people who are true to themselves and cannot be otherwise.

April 26, 2008

Against "the mind" as a singular agent making a solitary decision -- the mind is a legislative body, governing over a broad constituency that for any choice or opportunity might sift through varying positions of support, dissent, indifference, sabotage, and personal agendas. But when the vision is clear and all know their proper role and position, near unanimous support compels a governing mandate. A lesson for legislators: show how the specific fits into the whole and what cooperation each part must offer for the whole to gain, and then all good ideas will receive popular support. Corollary: an idea that cannot be articulated should not be proposed.

April 8, 2008

At Peace with France

The French are unconcerned with trifles. No wonder they are called anti-American. The French live relaxed, prepared, realistically, and do not easily tolerate fools. When they find something distasteful, they simply reject it and refuse to participate in its schemes.

French culture is perhaps most famous for Voltaire, but still produces disagreeable geniuses like Michel Foucault: part libertine excess, part begrudged revenger, part revolutionary, part saint, part cynic -- a mass of energized contradictions coming together to unseat historically repeated lies. A personality as rich with flaws as with gifts, but most of all: a personality! Not a flaccid academic cliche repeater, not an interchangeable ideologue, not a pale imitator. Foucault is like a close friend about whom you can appreciate what is special while overlooking his faults.

Ambassadors to the arts also remind us of France's cultural appreciation and cultivation. Upon first seeing Renaud and Gautier Capuçon perform enthusiastically with the National Symphony, I was overjoyed to see that music was still alive and had living representatives. In France, high standards still produce superior results.

The creation of ballet is quintessentially French. Who else would undertake a study of forms, determine those that are most beautiful, demand prolonged training, total attention to detail, and to do so with such sensitivity that all agree on the supreme result? Witness Russia becoming aware of ballet, quickly understanding its value, and becoming its champion as if it was their own. In ballet, the abstract French mind pursues a strange but beautiful mission and grants itself absolute permission to refine its vision into a perfection of its inspired dream. It is this spirit of grand voyage we can love about the French.

I've previously dismissed southern Europeans as impossible because they are prone to fits of emotive fluctuating character. One moment they are swept away by love, then betrayal, then hope, then rage -- and ultimately all imagined without any actual rational basis. Northern Europeans expect less and are content with less, not falling too low when disappointment appears or being very elated by a temporary triumph; tending to be self-sufficient in inspiration, friends, and thought, but also often seeming dry or cold to the uninitiated. Still it is wisest to dismiss the rabble and crazies of all populations. We should look instead at the best examples of a people and seek to understand the greatness of their character and creations.

We could learn a lot by becoming more French, more contemplative, more appreciative.

Throughout Italy, superior, inexpensive coffee exists as a general standard and principle, because good food and drink are a basic part of all civilized cultures. In Argentina, where filet mignon costs a few dollars for a meal, Argentines laugh at the idea of "grain fed" beef because all tasty cows eat grass, not inferior grain. There is little expense when a nation baselines for quality instead of cutting corners to produce low cost products by deliberately making them of unnaturally low quality.

Choosing between low and high quality is not difficult if one thinks in the long-term and rejects corporate food "innovation" that reduces quality for larger profits. Eventually this "innovation" creates a third-world food supply like that enjoyed in the U.S. by an increasingly unhealthy population.

Throughout Italy, even in small cafes and airports, the coffee is of a quality that even the best shops in the states do not offer. And it costs half the price and is considered a normal and basic standard.

Tolerance for low quality is effectively a subsidy that ensures inferiority.

In general, art results from one person's desire
to communicate with another -
All means are equally good -

In painting as in literature, the means is often mistaken for the end - Nature is the means not the end - if one can achieve something by changing nature - one must do so - When one is deeply moved a landscape will have a certain effect on one - by portraying this landscape one will produce a picture of one's own mood - it is this mood which is the essential thing - nature is just the means - how far the picture then resembles nature is irrelevant - To explain a picture is impossible - it is precisely because one cannot explain it in any other way that it is painted - One can merely give a little hint as to the lines one had been thinking along
I do not believe in art which has not thrust itself into being by a person's desire to open his heart
All art, literature and music must be produced with the heart's blood.
Art is the heart's blood.

- Edvard Munch

Everything develops from one thing.
Passing away is a punishment.
Passing away and coming into being are governed by laws.
Passing away and coming into being are delusions: the one [is all that] exists.
All qualities are eternal. There is no becoming.
All qualities are quantities.
All effects are magical.
All effects are mechanical.
Nothing is fixed except concepts.
[FWN]

Magnanimity, Humility and Pride

Nassim Nicholas Taleb is my favorite modern thinker and the closest form modern society has to the classically educated man. He is free from having to feign knowledge and enjoys speaking truth in the face of vaunted ignorance that otherwise is tolerated and permitted as the dominant mode of discourse. His research into source materials often uncovers basic misunderstandings and academic laziness that have been repeated as doctrine for centuries. Sloppy work is the norm for academics and the "educated", while truth and verified knowledge seems to be of little concern. Oh, but they have good intentions...

Those who desire honest and sane thinking demand much higher standards than the "educated" who argue tirelessly about lies, nonsense, and the irrelevant after having waged war against truth and pledged their careers to defending an empire of largely fictional reality. This drives the honorable people away from academia and leaves the incapable, crooked, feeble, and ill-constituted in charge.

The magnanimous despises others justly! (but without being puny). He does not gossip, only takes grand tasks, does not care for honors, does not work for Goldman Sachs (wearing a tie, demeaning "annual reviews", in exchange for millions in bonuses), does not care for academic tenure & for the company of academics and other half-men (but does not hold grudges), does not kiss the clients' behinds, does not read the NYT, etc. ἀναγκαῖον δὲ καὶ φανερομισῆ εἶναι καὶ φανερόφιλον ... καὶ ἀληθευτικός [upfront in his loves and hates! & free!] The problem is to be grand precludes psychological socialization by a milieu (say when you become part of an academic or professional collective, you no longer feel free of your opinions lest you hurt someone and become progressively domesticated).
[ Nassim Nicholas Taleb ]

Wages today are almost 10 percent lower than they were in 1973, after accounting for inflation. The share of national income devoted to workers wages and benefits is at its lowest since the late-1960s, while the share going to profits has surged.
[New York Times]

[Equality means more workers making a larger labor pool, bringing down costs so companies can make more profit. Now women can work for a company instead of having a family. Corporations love it, so this must be the "progress" they keep telling us about on TV.]

Americans like to work more hours for less money

With two-thirds of the nation saying the country is on the wrong course, the two parties are offering candidates both of whom played major roles in setting that course. And neither probable nominee has advanced ideas to deal with the crises America faces, nor even shown any great awareness that the country is in crisis.
...
As economist Robert Reich writes, the real wages of working men have not risen in 30 years. Families maintained their standard of living three ways. Wives went to work. The men began to work longer hours than in almost any other developed nation. The family's equity in its home was then borrowed to sustain consumption.

Now, with the middle class tapped out, the home equity used up or declining, and mortgage, auto and credit card debt turning rotten, the U.S. government is going abroad to borrow 1 percent of GDP to hand out in checks in May to get consumers buying again to prevent a recession.

What kind of long-term solution is this?
[More]

The Fruits of Progress: American Wealth, Health, and Education

At every opportunity, Americans are told by mainstream media that their current society is the best possible configuration and superior to all other previous societies. Their leaders call themselves the wisest possible leaders, and despite great personal wealth, their sole interest in leadership is to help the poor, weak, stupid, and powerless because it is not fair to be born with low capability.

Statistics show the United States ranked high in 1950 but has since fallen in all major categories. The reasons for this and the source of the change are never investigated or discussed.

America's feeling of "wealth" comes from having debt of over $48 trillion. This comes to over $160,000 per person, or over $640,000 for a family of four.

Basic family expenses have more than doubled over 30 years, while discretionary income has remained steady.

As real wealth declines, husbands alone can no longer afford to support a family alone. Women are now sent to work, and their children are raised by strangers.

Health declines, with people eating more cheap, junk food and watching entertainment programs instead of accomplishing anything.

How would you have time to do anything in your life if you are watching television all day long? How could you think if your brain was pumped full of idiotic nonsense for hours every day?

Education has declined from being a world leader in 1950 to now no longer being competitive against advanced nations and barely beating third world nations in basic standards.

Children raised in America tend to be poor, unhealthy, uneducated, in broken families, and behave badly. If once a world leader, the United States is now resting at the bottom of first world nations and is poised to soon become a third world nation.

U.S. Government reports massive unsustainability

An increasing amount of governmental funding is going towards interest payments on debt instead of actual government services. Increases in taxes do not pay the irresponsible debt but are used to create more services needing funding and thus incur more debt and interest burdens as society races to third world standards from lack of funding for services. This threatens basic infrastructure needs, not only architectural infrastructure such as dilapidated highway bridges and flimsy levees, but basic public needs like clean water that is increasingly threatened because water sources are decreasing, population is increasing, and chemical pollution is increasing.

In a speech today at the National Press Club, David M. Walker, the Comptroller General of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said, "If the federal government was a private corporation and the same report came out this morning, our stock would be dropping and there would be talk about whether the company's management and directors needed a major shake-up." Walker urged greater transparency and accountability over the federal government's operations, financial condition, and fiscal outlook.

"The federal government's fiscal exposures totaled approximately $53 trillion as of September 30, 2007, up more than $2 trillion from September 30, 2006, and an increase of more than $32 trillion from about $20 trillion as of September 30, 2000," Walker said. "This translates into a current burden of about $175,000 per American or approximately $455,000 per American household."

At least they honestly admit the government funds will soon be exhausted. Ponzi schemes don't play out well for governments either.

[P]ayment of Social Security and Medicare Hospital Insurance (Part A) benefits are limited by law to the balances in the respective trust funds. Consequently, future scheduled benefits are limited to future revenues plus existing trust fund assets. As discussed in Supplemental Information, the Social Security and Medicare Part A trust funds are projected to be exhausted in 2041 and 2019, respectively, at which time they will be unable to pay the full amount of scheduled future benefits. For Social Security, projected future revenues would be sufficient to pay 75 percent of scheduled benefits in 2041, the year of trust fund exhaustion, and decreasing to 70 percent of scheduled benefits in 2081. Similarly, for Medicare Part A, projected future revenues would be sufficient to pay 79 percent of scheduled benefits in 2019, the year of trust fund exhaustion, and decreasing to 29 percent of scheduled benefits in 2081.

[p. 164-165, 2007 Financial Report of the U.S. Government]

Why so few updates?

If you've been watching this site for a while, you've noticed that it's been slow the last few years. In the beginning, the Internet offered neat possibilities for exchanging ideas, but more and more it seems to be just another mindless entertainment source. I enjoy intelligent conversation with creative people but that is better found in real life. On the Internet, almost no one bothers to offer coherent ideas, assuming first that they have them, and even the best "educated" seem to only want to force others to bow to some particular viewpoint and use the methods of most vulgar fascist propagandists. These "educated" people are good at repeating silly slogans but show no familiarity with critical thought, polite decency, or the great works of civilization, instead championing whatever ideas are fashionable at the moment. This goes nowhere fast.

Every thirty years a new generation appears which knows nothing and then sets about trying to gulp down summarily and as fast as possible all the human knowledge assembled over the millennia, after which it would like to think it knows more than all the past put together. To this end it resorts to universities and reaches out for books, and for the most recent ones too, as being its own contemporaries and fellows of its own age. Everything quick and everything new! as new as it itself is. And then off it goes, loud with its own opinions!

Internet 2.0 is an online Tamagotchi. Login and click on things to feed the system, though no part of this achieves anything. Then there are older Internet structures like forums where angry people slander each other and promote their egos, or instant messages where bored people attempt fragmented communication with strangers and usually fail badly.

No thanks to all of that! I'd rather do something real that brings results; consequently my time is invested in the real world with real people.

Coalition of the Rabble
Protesting is not activism, pt.2

I was in Washington DC this weekend and though I had no idea that there would be a huge book fair clogging up the streets and main Mall area, I noticed there was also a great example of a pointless protest taking place.

Though this group had signs and fliers, there wasn't much of a crowd, not that that could have changed the outcome. Why would Congress be changed in any way by what a few thousands or a few million marchers think? Marches and protests come and go every week without change happening. This one was no different.
[More]

Salutation

O generation of the thoroughly smug
    and thoroughly uncomfortable,
I have seen fishermen picnicking in the sun,
I have seen them with untidy families,
I have seen their smiles full of teeth
    and heard ungainly laughter.
And I am happier than you are,
And they were happier than I am;
And the fish swim in the lake
    and do not even own clothing.

- Ezra Pound

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Meditations serves as a Traditional holy book that provides wisdom and counselling in difficult times. Its spirituality is deep, its advice eternal, and its lessons easily demonstrated. It is a good antidote to individuality and helpfully reminds that personal lives are short and the larger whole is what matters, but the self is completely unimportant.

Paired with long walks, Meditations will clarify the deepest and most troubling questions when given the proper quiet, reflection, and receptivity.

You are doing yourself violence, violence my soul; and you will have no second occasion to do yourself honor. Brief is the life of each of us, and this of yours is nearly ended, and yet you do not reverence yourself, but commit your well-being to the charge of other men's souls.
[II, 6]

If it is in your power to decide, why do you do it? But if in another's, whom do you find fault with? The atoms or the gods? Either is madness. You must find fault with no one. If you are able, put him right; if you can't do this, at least put the thing itself right; but if you can't even do this, to what purpose still does fault-finding tend? For nothing should be done without a purpose.
[VIII, 17]

Gentleness is invincible, if it be genuine and not sneering or hypocritical. For what can the most insolent do to you, if you continue to be gentle to him, and, if opportunity allows, mildly admonish him and quietly show him a better way at the very moment when he attempts to do you injury: 'No, my child; we came into the world for other ends. It is not I that am harmed, but you are harmed, my child.' And point out with tact and on general grounds that this is so, that not even bees act like that nor the many creatures that are by nature gregarious. But you must not do it ironically or as if finding fault, but affectionately and not feeling the sting in your soul, nor as if you were lecturing him or desired some bystander to admire you, but even if others are present, just in the way you would address him if you were alone.
[XI,18]

Islam is metaphorical, not literal

You should take care not to interpret Islam as the television commentators tell you to. Spiritual leaders like Bin Laden suggest a metaphorical interpretation of their religion in the same way that Europeans, especially Germans, made Judeo-Christianity digestable to their people. There are no imaginary worlds, there is only the peace and joy of living for the purpose for which you were created, for defending your people from the threats of the wicked who desire your destruction, and being unified in all thoughts and action to live as you believe, to give yourself to a larger whole. Living in a simple and focused way is bliss, and dying while doing one's duty is heroic and blessed, compared to cowards who are afraid to speak up or even defend themselves when encroached upon.

While there are surely idiotic Muslims who are as literal as the dumbest Judeo-Christians, studying the thoughts of morons is senseless. Instead, read the metaphor of the most intelligent spiritual leaders. Here you will find Bin Laden is a part of the tradition of Aurelius, Eckhart, and Silesius with parallels to Hindu spirituality that is derived from and uniquely preserves the original Indo-European spirituality.

Do you think the ancient Romans, Greeks, Norse, or any other Europeans believed in a literal Valhalla and that their gods literally existed? They are archetypes of nature/reality and placeholders or references for what is observed in life, not imaginary entities that people dream about stupidly.

It makes sense that this is unknown to people outside of a spiritual tradition and thus there is only a literal Judeo-Christian interpretation of other cultures, but this is a dead-end that only yields ridiculous conclusions. You have to look at what is being spiritually communicated instead of treating it as a material claim of imaginary entities and worlds existing.

Osama in the tradition of Plato

People of America: the world is following your news in regards to your invasion of Iraq, for people have recently come to know that, after several years of the tragedies of this war, the vast majority of you want it stopped. Thus, you elected the Democratic Party for this purpose but the Democrats haven't made a move worth mentioning. On the contrary, they continue to agree to the spending of tens of billions to continue the killing and war there, which has led to the vast majority of you being afflicted with disappointment.

So in answer to the question about the causes of the Democrats' failure to stop the war, I say: they are the same reasons which led to the failure of former president (John F.) Kennedy to stop the Vietnam war.

Those with real power and influence are those with the most capital. And since the democratic system permits major corporations to back candidates, be they presidential or congressional, there shouldn't be any cause for astonishment, and there isn't any, in the Democrats' failure to stop the war.
[Osama bin Laden, September 2007]

Your information media, during the first years of the war, lost its credibility and manifested itself as a tool of the colonialist empires, and its condition has often been worse than the condition of the media of dictatorial regimes which march in the caravan of a single leader.

Among the things which catch the eye of one who considered the repercussions of your unjust war against Iraq is the failure of your democratic system, despite it raising the slogans of justice, liberty, equality and humanitarianism. It has not only failed to achieve these things, it has actually destroyed these and other concepts with its weapons - especially in Iraq and Afghanistan - in a brazen fashion, to replace them with fear, destruction, killing, hunger, illness, displacement and more than a million orphans in Baghdad alone, not to mention hundreds of thousands of widows. American statistics speak of killing more than 650,000 people of Iraq as a results of the war and its repercussions.

It has become clear to all that they are the real tyrannical terrorists. In fact, the life of all mankind is in danger because of global warming resulting to a large degree from the factories of major corporations. Yet, despite that, the representative of these corporations in the White House insists on not observing the Kyoto accord, with the knowledge that the statistics speaks of the death and displacement of the millions of human beings because of that, especially in Africa. The greatest plagues and most dangerous threats to human lives is taking place in an accelerating fashion as the world is being dominated by the democratic system, which confirms its massive failure to protect humans and their interests from the greed and avarice of the major corporations and their representatives.

Despite this brazen attack on the people, the leaders of the West - especially Bush, Blair, Sarkozy and Brown - still talk about freedom and human rights with a flagrant disregard for the intellects of human beings. So is there a form of terrorism stronger, clearer and more dangerous than this? This is why I tell you: as you liberated yourselves before from the slavery of monks, kings, and feudalism, you should liberate yourselves from the deception, shackles and attrition of the capitalist system.

If you were to ponder it well, you would find that in the end, it is a system harsher and fiercer than your systems in the Middle Ages. The capitalist system seeks to turn the entire world into a fiefdom of the major corporations under the label of "globalization" in order to protect democracy.
[Bin Laden transcript, September 2007]

The people are free, each will choose a life to suit himself, diverse; there is a lack of compulsion, tolerates all kinds. The city would not force people to govern. Obedience to authority is not required, no one is forced to go to war not to keep peace. There is leniency to criminals. The society is very permissive.

"In its diversity and disorder it proceeds to dispense a sort of equality to equal and unequals alike" (558c)

Anarchy = liberty; improvidence = grandeur, shamelessness = courage (561a)

His life LACKS ORDER but he claims that is a life of pleasure (561 d)

"Democracy is undone by the same vice that ruins oligarchy. But because democracy has embraced anarchy, the damage is more general and far worse, and its subjugation more complete. The truth is, a common rule holds for the seasons, for all the plants and the animals, and particularly for political societies: excess in one direction tends to provoke excess in the contrary direction" (564)
[Teaching Plato in Translation]

Germans knew about American "Liberators" in 1944
Another example of how the world changes little in a century

Thank Jehovah for insane invaders who lie their way into other people's countries where they then destroy everything for profit and offer their best intentions to impose culturelessness, insanity, and every innovative flavor of failure.

Other nations of the world fear the "Liberators" because they don't want to be destroyed by a gang of profiteers and have their people forced to take on the "Liberator's freedom" which will surely make their nation inferior and in debt. At the same time, the newly "liberated" is required to offer false praise for failure. Any sensible person would avoid facing such a threat by any means possible, even risking their nation however it must be gambled, because to fail in preserving one's cultural autonomy would mean certain destruction at the hands of the "liberators."

"The new man is still evolving. Indeed, he is not yet visible to everyone, for he does not come from the noisy centre which constantly attracts the attention of the crowd, but from the quiet periphery. Every force that is destined to topple an age which has run its course comes from the periphery of that age with all its values and pseudo-values. It is in the moments of great crisis in the emergence of the new that the 'outsiders' take on their special function of forming the nucleus of a new centre around which the coming world will henceforth order itself."

-- E. Günther Gründel, Die Sendung der jungen Generation, Munich, 1933

Majority opposes leaders of Democracy

Indeed, democracy is out of favor throughout the Western world. In the UK and Europe, peoples are being forced, despite their expressed opposition, into an EU identity that they reject. British PM Tony Blair and his European counterparts have decided on their own that the people do not know best and that the people will be ignored. As former French PM Valery Giscard d'Estaing told the French newspaper, Le Monde, "Public opinion will be led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals that we dare not present to them directly." Giscard d'Estaing is referring to the resurrection of the rejected EU constitution camouflaged as a treaty. Giscard d'Estaing acknowledges that 450 million Europeans are being hoodwinked. Why should Americans be surprised that they have been and are being hoodwinked?

Americans might have more awareness of their peril if they realized that their leaders no longer believe in democratic outcomes.
[The Reign of the Tyrants is at Hand]

A new Gallup Poll shows only 14 percent of Americans have confidence in Congress, 18 percent in big business, 22 percent in newspapers, and 25 percent in the president.
[Milwaukee Business Journal]

It would be interesting if the institutions intended to serve the public could be made to do so. Imagine a nation where the leaders served the people instead of corporations, the newspapers informed the people instead of entertaining them with cliches and agendas, and corporations had social responsibility instead of desiring to extract profit at any cost -- especially saddling the public with the costs of pollution, third-world immigration, and other "clever" ways to irresponsibly generate profit by passing costs on to the public.

Individualism means no one needs to be responsible

Research from a British university suggests a common preservative found in drinks such as Fanta and Pepsi Max has the ability to switch off vital parts of DNA.

Concerns centre on the safety of E211, known as sodium benzoate, a preservative used for decades by the 74bn global carbonated drinks industry. Sodium benzoate derives from benzoic acid. It occurs naturally in berries, but is used in large quantities to prevent mould in soft drinks such as Sprite, Oasis and Dr Pepper. It is also added to pickles and sauces.

Sodium benzoate has already been the subject of concern about cancer because when mixed with the additive vitamin C in soft drinks, it causes benzene, a carcinogenic substance. A Food Standards Agency survey of benzene in drinks last year found high levels in four brands which were removed from sale.

Now, an expert in ageing at Sheffield University, who has been working on sodium benzoate since publishing a research paper in 1999, has decided to speak out about another danger. Professor Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology, tested the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells in his laboratory. What he found alarmed him: the benzoate was damaging an important area of DNA in the "power station" of cells known as the mitochondria.

He told The Independent on Sunday: "These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether.

"The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it - as happens in a number if diseased states - then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases that are now being tied to damage to this DNA - Parkinson's and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing."
...
Coca-Cola and Britvic's Pepsi Max and Diet Pepsi all contain sodium benzoate. Their makers and the British Soft Drinks Association said they entrusted the safety of additives to the Government.

In capitalism no one is responsible for producing chemicals and promoting them for people to consume.

[the Independent]

Happy Birthday Osama

Osama bin Laden, dissident voice against American-Israeli occupation and meddling in Muslim nations, turns 50 today. Though the media pretends not to understand his thoughts and motivations, they are readily published and available for study by anyone who desires awareness of the rational cause of world events.

His statements are remarkably consistant and understandable, unlike those of American politicians who say whatever the polls support, and still the media offers the usual slander that dismisses any disliked ideas as "rambling." Further, Osama bin Laden's statements about the Middle East predict how occupation would go for the U.S., most notably in Iraq, as the last remaining "superpower" is revealed to be an impotent paper tiger. Following the USSR's failed occupation, the U.S. is now falling into third world status as it becomes undone by bankrupcy from decades of increasing debt intended to create the appearance of wealth, while hopeless war losses now make its bluffs of force no longer taken seriously by other nations.

A reaction might take place as a result of the US government's hitting Muslim civilians and executing more than 600,000 Muslim children in Iraq by preventing food and medicine from reaching them. So, the US is responsible for any reaction, because it extended its war against troops to civilians.
...
We saw the brutality of the Russians bombing Mujaheddins' positions, by grace of God, we dug a good number of huge tunnels and built in them some storage places and in some others we built a hospital. So our experience in this jihad was great, by the grace of God, praise and glory be to Him, and the most of what we benefited from was that the myth of the superpower was destroyed not only in my mind but also in the minds of all Muslims. Slumber and fatigue vanished and so was the terror which the U.S. would use in its media by attributing itself superpower status or which the Soviet Union used by attributing itself as a superpower.
[CNN interview (1997)]

I say to you that security is an indispensable pillar of human life and that free men do not forfeit their security contrary to Bush's claim that we hate freedom. If so, then let him explain to us why we didn't strike-for example-Sweden.

No we fight you because we are free men who don't sleep under oppression. We want to restore freedom to our Nation and just as you lay waste to our Nation, so shall we lay waste to yours. No one except a dumb thief plays with the security of others and then makes himself believe he will be secure whereas thinking people when disaster strikes make it their priority to look for its causes in order to prevent it happening again.
[Bin Laden's Video (Oct. 29 2004)]

Due to its subordination to the Jews, the arrogance of the United States regime has reached the point that they occupied Arabia, the holiest place of the Muslims, who are more than 1 billion people in the world today. For this, and other acts of aggression and injustice, we have declared jihad against the U.S.
[CNN interview (1997)

We believe that the biggest thieves in the world are Americans and the biggest terrorists on earth are the Americans. The only way for us to defend [against] these assaults is by using similar means. We do not differentiate between those dressed in military uniforms and civilians. They're all targets in this fatwah. You will leave when the bodies of American soldiers and civilians are sent in the wooden boxes and coffins.
[ABC Nightline interview (1998)

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The goal of every nation is to produce examples of their superior people, even if this amounts to only one or two people worth showing each century. The capacity of such people and their vitality for positive influence and leadership demonstrates the worth of the underlying stock and the ascending purpose for which they aspire.

At a recent National Symphony Orchestra concert, young French brothers Renaud and Gautier Capuçon showed why their nation's continuity of classical tradition was worthwhile, even if modern France is in distress. Though almost no substantial music has been written in the last century, earlier works when culture was still creative and healthy offer a treasure that belongs to all who still have attention spans and functional minds. Their performance of the Brahms Double Concerto was not only technically accurate, as is expected of a world class appearance, but impressively communicated the passion and purpose of the composition with an artistic wisdom that is only seen from accomplished musicians.

Renaud and Gautier Capuçon

After three ovations for their performance, intermission followed with the curiosity of what the closing piece could do to top the Brahms classic, since it is customary for a program to save the best for last. Conductor Leonard Slatkin introduced the final piece by American modernist John Adams. He lamented that it was hard to think of the last composition to be added to the orchestral repertoire, though certainly there have been none for over 50 years. From here he tried his best as an apologist for Minimalism, as if it was a chosen form instead of being the only possible product of composers who have no ideas to express. The audience laughed at his description of how musical hacks like Philip Glass and Steve Reich wrote tedious simplistic loops, but it seemed impossible to seriously confront the artistic paucity of the last century after many centuries of increasingly superior creations.

It is considered offensive to talk about what has made culture barren, or to suggest that "progress" might actually be decadence, or that the project of modernity has resulted in dysgenic and chaotic ordering that measures inferior when compared to a unified, healthy population that maintains its classical traditions, purpose, and ideas. But consider where the praise for modernity comes from -- only itself. It attempts to silence all alternatives and portray them as backwards, though for all its bluster and lofty sounding ideals, modernity never yields fruit. If one is to believe modernity, the only way forward (to what and why?), is to submit to modernity. You are asked to have faith for rewards that never come only to watch the execution, burial, and mockery of every great inspiration, philosophy, creative work, and social realization that was the product of endless generations, only to be replaced with the vapid trash of the last few decades.

With the average age of the people in attendance hovering around 70, and even the best orchestras battling financial troubles every year, it is fairly clear that a different approach to maintaining meaningful culture must be undertaken in an age where people prefer 4 minute pop songs, pointless movies, simulations of video games, and television spectatorship to the meaningfulness of real life. That the last century has consisted of people like the "Greatest Generation" who were unable to bequeath their cultural inheritance and seemingly didn't care, resulting in a practical stupor of artistic and intellectual impoverishment that we all suffer, though people today have wonderful self-esteem and certainty of their imagined gifts.

We who know our connection with the past and grasp its value constitute the living remnant of traditions that are thousands of years rich and stand on their own. We who can still feel passion, can still think rationally, and can understand the subtleties in abstract expression remain capable of understanding great literature, philosophy, art, culture, and other higher forms of civilization to which modern man is unfamiliar and illiterate.

It is neither fair nor honest to call failed efforts, like those of the Minimalists, quaint or cute attempts at art. An artist's quintessential purpose is to voice new ideas, not merely to promote a novel form or seek an egotistical platform for their individualism. Most of all, errors should be politely corrected. Certainly it is wrong to allow them to stand unchallenged so that others innocently waste time and effort exploring them, having received no sensible warnings or alternatives from wise elders.

Those of us who retain the living wealth of the past stand as the sole inheritors and interpretors of a once vibrant culture. Though reintroduction of the eternal in a time of great boredom and disposal often seems difficult, we should take solace in our unseen allies that continue to appear unexpectedly and the historical proof that it will only take a hundred of us to bring forth a burst of great works that will revive culture after a century of restless slumber.

Ship of Fools

Transitioning the U.S. to third-world status

You know your empire's crumbling when its considered an achievement to pretend that you've halved the rate at which you're adding to the massive mountain of debt you've already accumulated.

You know your empire's crumbling when almost half the soldiers in that war are high-paid mercenaries, and you don't dare institute a draft.

You know your empire's crumbling when you blow off international law that you once helped create, and undermine the institutions of international governance that you once helped build.

You know your empire's crumbling when the predatory class has taken over your government and is stripping the country of everything not bolted down to the floor. And then it sells the floor itself, as well, to your rivals.
...
David Michael Green

For the New Year. - I am still living, I am still thinking: I have to go on living because I have to go on thinking.

F.W.N.

What makes a woman attractive

In many ways, the body is a physical reflection of the soul. Healthy and intelligent people are typically a result of good breeding and consequently have an entire range of features consistent with their pedigree. The poorly constituted tend to have undesirable misshapen and incongruous features in fitting tribute to their chaos and decline stemming from disorganization. This lack of direction is characterized by its discharge of energy in a purposeless way because it is separated from its properly designated position and relations. This also reveals why such people suffer from a meaningless existence.

Many men quickly neglect standards when pursuing a woman's approval, or more correctly: her consent. Thoughts of undressing a tempting tart cause them to overlook normal measures of attractiveness and before they realize it, they have become involved with a woman who is beneath them. Worse, it is apparent to others at a single glance, and eventually to the man himself who will either become embarrassed at the source of his poor judgement or puzzled by how he was so easily misled.

Though it is true that I like girls with beautiful hair, intelligent eyes, and a fine feminine figure, my greatest instinct of genius is selecting a perfect nose. I avoid dishonest beaks and the poor character of snouts. A good nose shows the congruous planning of forces aligned; so much can easily go wrong when incompatible features attempt to merge. The nose is the first indicator that other features, including the mind and spirit, could also be properly directly in a congruous and ascending manner.

An attractive, intelligent, and spirited woman can go so far with you and is worth every effort if there are signs that she could be right. The time spent together can be magic, no matter how little is written on the sands of eternity. Even if she eventually turns out to be confused, crazy, or in some other way impossible, I can always remember the beauty I once saw and the potential it held.

Diversity destroys trust

A bleak picture of the corrosive effects of ethnic diversity has been revealed in research by Harvard University's Robert Putnam, one of the world's most influential political scientists.

His research shows that the more diverse a community is, the less likely its inhabitants are to trust anyone - from their next-door neighbour to the mayor.

This is a contentious finding in the current climate of concern about the benefits of immigration. Professor Putnam told the Financial Times he had delayed publishing his research until he could develop proposals to compensate for the negative effects of diversity, saying it "would have been irresponsible to publish without that".

The core message of the research was that, "in the presence of diversity, we hunker down", he said. "We act like turtles. The effect of diversity is worse than had been imagined. And it's not just that we don't trust people who are not like us. In diverse communities, we don't trust people who do look like us."

Prof Putnam found trust was lowest in Los Angeles, "the most diverse human habitation in human history", but his findings also held for rural South Dakota, where "diversity means inviting Swedes to a Norwegians' picnic".

FT.com

[Diversity is our strength, if you want social dysfunction.]

After many requests, girlie ringer t-shirts are now available. I'm also working with a local vendor that would like to offer the "Jesus Hates You" and other designs in tie-dye and men's ringers shirts. Wholesalers with interest should get in touch.

Book Review: Men-Art-War

Men-Art-War is an ambitious attempt to reconcile modernity and traditionalism by showing how action, creativity, and rationality are lacking in the modern age, but can be reintroduced to build a subculture of people who live meaningful lives while existing among the mass of drones.

Of the many resonating themes in Men-Art-War, the most important is the need to recognize the consequences of how distinctly modernity has split from tradition. We are encouraged to understand the implications of living in an age where art favors ugliness over inspirational beauty, inoffensiveness is more important than truth, and social behavior continues to imply community unity when in fact we no longer have shared values or interests with most of those around us.

Through a series of short, digestible stories, author Mikulas Kolya unfolds intricate scenarios by untangling their underlying suppositions. Though oversocialized people are accustomed to accepting whatever actions are imposed on them, Kolya's characters tend to be confident and daring explorers who make their own paths. Each story develops curiously, expanding to make its key points, and lingers no longer than necessary before an appropriate closing.

The opening piece The Random features a protagonist who antagonizes people who have become reactive and no longer capable of contemplation or reasoning. In acknowledging that they are human beasts, the intent is to stir up suppressed feelings and instigate rousing conflict to overtake their polite learned tolerance and inaction. Nietzsche is abundantly implied here:

It also seems to me that the rudest word, the rudest letter are still more benign, more decent than silence. Those who remain silent are almost always lacking in delicacy and courtesy of the heart. Silence is an objection; swallowing things leads of necessity to a bad character -- it even upsets the stomach. All who remain silent are dyspeptic.

You see, I don't want rudeness to be underestimated: it is by far the most humane form of contradiction and, in the midst of effeminacy, one of our foremost virtues.
[Ecce Homo, Why I am so Wise, 5]

Though those versed in European Traditionalism and philosophy will already know many of the points demonstrated by these stories, this is a good introduction to topics that are scattered across multiple sources and difficult for some to approach and digest in their original forms.
[Men-Art-War]

The soundscape of our society blares with futile idiocy: morons babbling, canned music to provide "atmosphere", and endless mechanical noise now deemed normal simply because it is pervasive and most people are too numb to notice. No useful information is conveyed through this assault on our senses, while the possibility of silence is stolen from us.
[Mini Sermon: Noise and Frivolous Society]

No Surrender

In this world, where the game is played with loaded dice, a man must have a temper of iron, with armor proof to the blows of fate, and weapons to make his way against men. Life is one long battle; we have to fight at every step; and Voltaire very rightly says that if we succeed, it is at the point of the sword, and that we die with the weapon in our hand--on ne réussit dans ce monde qua la pointe de l'épee, et on meurt les armes à la main. It is a cowardly soul that shrinks or grows faint and despondent as soon as the storm begins to gather, or even when the first cloud appears on the horizon. Our motto should be No Surrender; and far from yielding to the ills of life, let us take fresh courage from misfortune:--

Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito.
[Virgil, Aeneid, vi. 95.]

As long as the issue of any matter fraught with peril is still in doubt, and there is yet some possibility left that all may come right, no one should ever tremble or think of anything but resistance,--just as a man should not despair of the weather if he can see a bit of blue sky anywhere. Let our attitude be such that we should not quake even if the world fell in ruins about us:--

Si fractus illabatur orbis
Impavidum ferient ruinae
[Horace, Odes iii. 3.]

Our whole life itself--let alone its blessings--would not be worth such a cowardly trembling and shrinking of the heart. Therefore, let us face life courageously and show a firm front to every ill:--

Quocirca vivite fortes Fortiaque adversis opponite pectora rebus.

[Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims]

Happy National Day of Slayer!

Trapped in purgatory
A lifeless object, alive
Awaiting reprisal
Death will be their acquisition

The sky is turning red
Return to power draws near
Fall into me, the sky's crimson tears
Abolish the rules made of stone

Pierced from below, souls of my treacherous past
Betrayed by many, now ornaments dripping above

Awaiting the hour of reprisal
Your time slips away

Raining blood
From a lacerated sky
Bleeding its horror
Creating my structure
Now I shall reign in blood!

Individualism as Degeneracy
And now Japan is collapsing from individualism.

"But neighborhood society broke down" -- a victim of urbanization and the blind rush to economic superpower status. New moral imperatives arose, mandating impersonal conformity and self-sacrifice to the corporate interest. When the corporate interest itself foundered with the bursting of the economic bubble, the new challenge became to live simultaneously as individuals and as responsible members of society. This challenge, in Shukan Post's view, is not being successfully met.

[A person can only be a member of society or an individual separate from society, but cannot be both. They are either an island unto themselves or a part of something larger. To live with a foot on both sides is to live in contradiction - that approach is why most people today are confused, bored, and live meaningless lives.]
[Japan Times]

The blessings of spring were personified in the goddess Ostara, whose festival of Easter, is dear to the Germans after the long cold winters in the forest, is still called after her name, though the God of the Christians claims the worship once accorded to the spring. Ostara's favorite animal was the hare, which to this day still brings the Easter eggs to the little children.

[The Real Meaning of Easter]

It is too late now,
because
YOU HAVE NOT BEEN PAYING ATTENTION

Observers says that by 2025, 48 countries will be severely short of water and half the people on earth will not have access to clean supplies.
...
"In 2025 we will have another two billion people to feed and 95 percent of these will be in urban areas," said Professor Jan Lundqvist of Stockholm International Water Institute.

We waited too long

"I'm up to my eyeballs in reporters," he said, referring to public outcry in wake of what he calls his doomsday talk a lecture in which Pianka confidently predicts 90 percent of humanity is on an irreversible path to death in the not-so-distant future.

"We've grown fat, apathetic and miserable," all the while leaving the planet parched.

The solution?

A 90 percent reduction.

Pianka urges humanity to heed his call to be prepared, saying "we're going to be hunters and gatherers again real soon."

"This is gonna happen in your lifetime," he told his St. Edward's audience. "Do you wanna go there? We've already gone there. We waited too long."

The Seguin Gazette

Operations costs in Iraq are estimated at $5.6 billion per month in 2005

http://www.ips-dc.org/iraq/quagmire/

WASHINGTON: About $8.8 billion disbursed for Iraqs reconstruction is unaccounted for, the CBS News on Friday quoted the US official in charge of tracing the funds as saying.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?E128520AC

[It seems the victory over a third world army with no leader is right around the corner. Congrats to the "most powerful army in the world" (LOL) and good job on finding those WMDs! Mission Accomplished!]