College Education: Training to Keep People Stupid So They Can't Figure out How to Revolt?

College education provides tools for thinking. Some of the practical get valuable training that pays well after graduation or even before. Anything medical, engineering or science pays well...it isn't philosophy. One may learn vast quantities of stuff that doesn't count for practical training at all. It's worth learning yet not any kind of training that has compensatory prospects.

An individual can build his own educational sandwich selecting what he wants in the USA as if he were ordering at Subways. Before during and after college there are ten billion books to read for-onself if intellectually famished. There are lots of free courses with educational value on-line at Coursea.org and elsewhere... democracies love to have educated people. The trouble is the financial opportunity cost is high for taking the time without pay to pursue that instead of getting skills training and a job that pays a livable wage.

Ca the US Medical System be Improved?

It tends toward being too expensive. Billing is also normally f'd up by agencies external to the medical side. The entire world is not provided basic health care as might be possible if advantaged thoughtful leaders found a way. Walk in treatment for poor homeless Americans without enough sedentary time in state rootedness to qualify for Medicaid should be a minor existing exclusion easy to fix.  Biden-Harris had no interest in that

College education provides tools for thinking. Some of the practical get valuable training that pays well after graduation or even before. Anything medical, engineering or science pays well...it isn't philosophy. One may learn vast quantities of stuff that doesn't count for practical training at all. It's worth learning yet not any kind of training that has compensatory prospects.

Reply to an Anti-Christian Blaming Christians for the World's Troubled History

I enjoyed reading general history for a few decades along with philosophy. The ancient world was certainly tough, so much so that many moderns can’t understand it. Life was short; no treatment for cancer, appendicitis etc. At Gettysburg examination of skulls showed that 90 percent of the soldiers had abscessed teeth. A Philistine site excavation showed that a huge percent of people had died of head wounds and it wasn’t a battlefield.

Mercy killings for disease and bad law enforcement was a way of life. One needs to be specific about particular historical events and issues if one wants to have good understanding. Modern history videos make learning easier. Charles Martel at Tours Zheng H, Shaka Zulu, Marius and Pizzaro are a few salient leaders to consider.

When I scored 99 percent ranks on CLEP college history exams I had prepped reading for years and travelling to Europe to look around. Many people don’t understand history more than superficially. Most of those warriors would have died of natural cause by the age of 40. As late as the First World War 16,000 soldiers died from infected blisters and blood poisoning. I had a red streak going up my leg from an infected blister at air assault school I got that fixed in Seattle with antibiotics before visiting Berlin in winter of 1987. The international monetary fund net there later before the fall of the wall. It was always about money, land and power.

Writing about history can require volumes. I wrote a few million words on contemporary events and often, in the first twenty books, wrote about ancient history to 1648. I wouldn’t agree with your ideas regarding European or American history, yet am aware that millions have died in cultural encounters- in the past usual amongst illiterate people. They were often fighting for land and political power rather than theological differences even though leaders had expressed allegiance to this faith or that.

The present war in Ukraine is a case in point; there are sectarian differences between the belligerents yet the war is over land and political power. Educated Western leaders should have known better yet acted dumb and dumber since the Clinton administration. Conflicts can be massive and out of scale to initial causes.

When Turks wanted to capture Constantinople they catapulted plague infested rats over the walls to kill the people inside the city. They probably hadn’t intended to kill 2/3rds of the population of Europe. When Spanish and Portuguese explorers first visited South America they might not have known that European viruses would erase a civilization up the Amazon within 20 years. Exploration of the new world was prompted by curiosity, as search for knowledge, new routes, land and power yet not primarily by religion. Spain sought gold and found it. 1492 was the year Spain expelled the last Muslim invaders from Iberia and sent Columbus over the ocean.

Humans have original sin and their political works often have reflected that in conflicts. Some would like to deny the existence of God in an effort; a futile one, to acquire themselves. Only through the blood of The Lord can a human be saved from that guilt

And lblame for the Inquisition...

The State executed or imprisoned captives for The Inquisition in accordance with local laws. The Catholic Church examined them to determine if they were Catholics or had foreign allegiance as some kind of heretic. US social median comprised predominantly of Democrats, atheists and wokistry purged conservatives and Christians from social media as best they could as heretics to Democrat Party political goals with less violent means since the Obama administration.The Inquisition was probably a motivation for the separation of church and state centuries later in the US Constitution by Protestant founders.

People need to learn from history and improve upon it. Protestants were also purged in the era. You might read Foxxe’s Book of Martyrs to learn of The St Bartholomew’s Day massacre and other events. The Habsburgs were trying to retain control of Europe and the Church was resisting reform from Protestants even as Mongol and Muslim invasions were being repulsed from attacks on Europe and Christiandom.

Illiterate peasants and opportunistic leaders often couldn’t discern the differences between theological points in Latin edition books they had never read and the sword points of foreign invaders; that is the peasants being killed by invaders with different religious beliefs were killed by swords rather than ideas. Spanish conquistadors had 500 years of war in their own country for practice getting rid of Muslim invaders as the inquisition commenced. Intolerance of foreign allegiance was realistic politics of that time.

 People have original sin and only slowly discern the way of Jesus as far as numbers go... if they are blessed. Humanity is somewhat crude regarding environmental economics and Christian ethics including many of those affiliated with religion. Society in history is a work in progress.

The Origin of Religions

There is a difference between religion, God and mankind’s relationship with Him. Having lost their relationship with the one true God, mankind tended toward paganism as a kind of physics to explain existential phenomena like thunder (thor), war (mars), and misc things. Romans had a god to explain anything. So did other societies.

I believe that the term religion shares an etymology with allegiance at some point. Minions easily become allegiant to an idea or organizing principle with power. Politics can become a religion- maybe woke qualifies as a temporary disposable religion of shared rem.

Philistines had myriad false gods though animism was prior to bigger false gods. Shinto had spirit gates- tori where spirits could land, Romans had Janus the door goddess.

At Mecca there were many pagan faiths and Muhammad’s father was the Keeper of the Kabba. When he lost his job and was purged his son syncretized Judaism and Christianity into a religion and conquered Mecca purging his late Dad’s enemies and paganism for necessarily intolerant monotheism with himself as speaker of the monotheistic diety. Christ is the only way to God, for he is God.

Voltaire believed in God yet thought he has a non-interventionist policy for the fallen . Voltaire thought people should fix things themselves. Perhaps that includes a balanced government budget. He said; ""If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him" ('Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer')."

I researched this years ago before A.I. I asked ChatGPT to simplify the issue. it wrote; "Yes, the words allegiance and religion do share a distant etymological connection, though they refer to different concepts today.

Allegiance:

The word allegiance comes from the Old French ligeance (which means "loyalty" or "fidelity"), derived from the medieval Latin ligantia, meaning "the state of being bound." The Latin root is ligare, meaning "to bind" or "to tie." The term originally referred to the bond or duty of a vassal to a lord in feudal times.

Religion:

The word religion comes from the Latin religio, which has an uncertain exact meaning but is often associated with the concept of "reverence" or "obligation to the divine." It's generally thought to derive from the verb religare, meaning "to bind" or "to tie," which is also the root of allegiance. The idea is that religion involves a bond or tie to a higher power, much like allegiance involves a bond to a sovereign or ruler."

 Individuals and societies adapt to environmental challenges, sometimes rightly and other times not. If they were all in one homogenous empirical experience of living in my opinion the results for afterlife fate would still differ from one soul to the next. For example, if the entire population lived in a repressive totalitarian social environment for a century and atheism was the official doctrine some would be saved even if most went to hell. People are saved through grace- God selects the elect.

Strength of a State

One might want to define strength for this context and decide if it is in comparison to other states. Law is just one element of a state.  Type and effectiveness of government, economic system, environmental management, education, military, non-governmental organization quality and quantity and relationships with other states are a few of the many elements determining the strength of a state.

 Law is not a two-dimensional governor and ruler. Law is an arbiter and enforcer of social boundaries necessary to let individuals be self-determining. It can also be used to stop individual self-determination as in totalitarian states.

Logic is a discipline and tool for reasoning. Classical and symbolic logic are useful. Star Trek's Spock logic brought a lot of people to a warped notion of what it is. Emotion is non-rational though not necessarily bad. Children excel at emotion before reason. I think what is useful for mitigating the environment crisis is education and intelligence in the masses to get understanding for political support.

The mass extinction of the Anthropocene era eliminates most life eventually. It is an event of global habitat decline for life including humans. Chemicals and micro plastics in water, global heating, oceanic acidification... there are so many growing environmental challenges most leadership disregards that some people like Jacque Cousteau and James Lovelock said some years ago that humanity has just about 200 years left before civilization collapses and after that perhaps all human life.

Economic competition demands evaluation of others. Comparing abilities of others is as basic as private property in a capitalist economic system. Christian ethics are less judgemental, yet even sports requires evaluating competition. In a job app for example, people present the best appearance they can. Then a personnel manager compares resumes and hires the most suitable person. A more inclusive economic system could be made with less rigorous comparisons perhaps if broader social goals were common and any body could fill the role.

A Few Points on Cosmology

God is eternal and Earth is temporal. Two-dimensional waves embedded in the Higgs field get an apparent 3rd dimension. Matter is made of fermions and force carrying particles like photons are bosons. Space-time itself may be the source of gravity. Temporality and thermodynamics… Nothing that is matter is eternal. All of the dispersion of the original unified field in it’s sundry forms changes. Information may be eternal though, in some way…Shannon entropy or otherwise with God.

 God is eternal and Earth is temporal. Two-dimensional waves embedded in the Higgs field get an apparent 3rd dimension. Matter is made of fermions and force carrying particles like photons are bosons. Space-time itself may be the source of gravity. Temporality and thermodynamics… Nothing that is matter is eternal. All of the dispersion of the original unified field in it’s sundry forms changes. Information may be eternal though, in some way…Shannon entropy or otherwise with God.

Why suffering exists? The coefficient of adversity is natural being alive. It varies in quality and quantity. Adam and Eve had zero adversity before the devil led them woke.

I lean toward Augustine's belief that human nature is totally depraved.God is perfect. Fallen mankind in a thermodynamic world/universe has an opportunity to be saved and that's what matters. If man lived forever without Christ they would create hell for others. Death limits the ability of mankind to do evil into others. There are acts of kindness sometimes. Those are phenomenal.  The Universe physically presents a coefficient of adversity. People working together sometimes can overcome challenges so perhaps humanity learns something about caring for other before they go to hell or heaven as the case may be.

 Bishop Berkeley's Idealism does not postulate that individuals create their own reality, just that the experience of reality could be like an illusion, or a holographic appearance created by God. For Berkeley, the individual views the world as did Sartre in Being and Nothingness.

The Energy of Space-time?

People are part of space-time. They do not possess it. Humans are privileged or, alternatively penalized to experience time.

Energy may be a measure, yet it can refer to mass changing form;  E = m c2 as in radiation from uranium for example. Semantics for non- scientific lexicons can make practical discussions difficult. People sometimes call electrons flowing in a wire ‘energy’.

Fields exist, and the Higgs field exist with two dimension particle-waves slowing and entangled in it seeming to have a third dimension, so energy measurements are contingent selections of the relationships of apparent yet not actual energy?

I don’t know if the total quantity of energy in the Higgs Field ever changes due to the conservation of energy. Gravity may be a space-time curvature attribute or a residual of the unified field, while the strong force, electroweak and Higgs field are in some way joint progenitors of the quark era? One might wonder if quarks are energy, or strings and if there isn’t some kind of solipsistic barrier physically at some level of reduction to fundamental substance-matter-energy.

Mass is the amount of matter of an object. Energy is the amount of work it can do. Quarks are classified as fermions with half not zero spin. In some ways they seem like circular descriptions for noumena at the core of matter. It's hard to regard a field of massless particless as matter- like photons carrying force in an eng field  

Quarks are fermions. Mass, like energy, is also a measurement. Photons have zero mass and are classed as bosons because they carry force. Apparently matter is the only 'substance'. Gluons and quarks are classed as fermions because they build matter. Fields existed prior to gluons and quarks. Those fermions put on mass in the Higgs field. I believe the interaction of two-dimensional particle-waves in the Higgs field including photons with their 'timelessness' is interesting to consider.

I believe some would like to regard space-time to be the source of everything in-itself that in various phases emits or allows divisions of packets of virtual energy to become temporally existent independently leading to universes with ‘mass’. I cannot say where all that space-time in-itself evolved to…probably nowhere I think of a soul as information. God backs up that data perhaps…ssds haven’t enough storage capacity

About Christ in Collossians 1- "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19  For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell."

God always existed, yet the universe has time and had a beginning.

Shanghai had Troubles Prior to the Revolution

Etymologically instinct means an impulse toward something. People tend toward acceptance  of select word paradigms as nouns and facts in-themselves a bit too readily. Such descriptions are nominal.

Learned behaviors are sometimes described as instinct or second nature. An SAS operator may shoot a thousand head shots a day on the range (maybe) at proper targets until the right response to stimuli is instinctive, yet self-defense is itself somewhat ‘instinctive’ in a more natural example of the common understanding.

On compassion vs degradation in social history. Is there a cause for optimism philosophically?

Hobbes’ main idea in The Leviathan was the absolute power of the king. He was the brain and the people the body of the state. Life was nasty, brutish and short in his day. Camus’ The Plague has a lot of nastiness in it. The Stranger has the protagonist vomiting on a beach. Camus died in a car accident at a fairly young age. Frankl’s logo therapy was a response to the complete degradation and loss of humanity experienced by inmates of Nazi concentration camps. The only mass philosophy that easily comes to mind that killed millions is communism. Capitalism is more an economic system than philosophy, though basic greed and the will for political power plus minions are the main causes of war.

People can invent their own opponents in politics these days, ignore existential challenges and destroy social well being in the blundered quest for power. Philosophical works sometimes should be understood in their historical context. Would one for instance use The Prince as a role model for poly sci students today?

Communism worked as a revolutionary philosophy because millions of poor people were oppressed by royalty with most of the wealth. China today is better off than they would be if the Imperials had persisted.

If Democrat Presidents hadn’t taken all of Ukraine from Russia and expanded NATO Eastward Russia would be an ally and China more democratic in the political philosophy sense. The poor suffer more than the rich and around the world haven’t got free universal health care  That’s a political rather than a philosophical problem

Instincts and Nominalism

Etymologically instinct means an impulse toward something. People tend toward acceptance  of select word paradigms as nouns and facts in-themselves a bit too readily. Such descriptions are nominal.

Learned behaviors are sometimes described as instinct or second nature. An SAS operator may shoot a thousand head shots a day on the range (maybe) at proper targets until the right response to stimuli is instinctive, yet self-defense is itself somewhat ‘instinctive’ in a more natural example of the common understanding.

On compassion vs degradation in social history. Is there a cause for optimism philosophically?

Hobbes’ main idea in The Leviathan was the absolute power of the king. He was the brain and the people the body of the state. Life was nasty, brutish and short in his day. Camus’ The Plague has a lot of nastiness in it. The Stranger has the protagonist vomiting on a beach. Camus died in a car accident at a fairly young age. Frankl’s logo therapy was a response to the complete degradation and loss of humanity experienced by inmates of Nazi concentration camps. The only mass philosophy that easily comes to mind that killed millions is communism. Capitalism is more an economic system than philosophy, though basic greed and the will for political power plus minions are the main causes of war.

People can invent their own opponents in politics these days, ignore existential challenges and destroy social well being in the blundered quest for power. Philosophical works sometimes should be understood in their historical context. Would one for instance use The Prince as a role model for poly sci students today?

Communism worked as a revolutionary philosophy because millions of poor people were oppressed by royalty with most of the wealth. China today is better off than they would be if the Imperials had persisted.

If Democrat Presidents hadn’t taken all of Ukraine from Russia and expanded NATO Eastward Russia would be an ally and China more democratic in the political philosophy sense. The poor suffer more than the rich and around the world haven’t got free universal health care  That’s a political rather than a philosophical problem

I suppose NDE means near death experiences. I wondered if sometimes God edits reality a little to keep some people alive where they would have died, and they aren't much aware of the edit though they may be thankful for remaining alive.

Don't know about theoretical sentient beings. They may have different views on death.

Conditioning like learning languages is a social context...filtering that out would leave one imbecilic I would think. Behavior is partly learned from experience and that too conditions. Filter out that placing your hand on a hot stove burns.

Evidence and Beliefs

One may believe facts and/or things evident. Power is however a relationship to things other than itself. One perceives relationships about things, not about noumenon. That need be an inference.

Then of course one may want to consult Socrates’ ideas in The Meno.

Is God in and without the Universe?He is non- contingent Being. Consider the relationship of a programmer to a program running. The programmer is outside the program because it is his ossified praxis, so his thought values are in it. If programs were live and written by thought interfaced with code the relation would be more challenging to delineate. Maybe a creative AI will model that paradigm eventually, if not presently.

Exist etymologically means to come into being, such as a Universe or Multiverse Alternatively God is eternal and always is.

Exist etymologically means to come into being. Alternatively God is eternal and always is.

Goldfish Cosmology

A goldfish in a tank universe hasn't awareness of physics beyond the horizons of the tank. It hasn't faith in a creator and doesn't believe in metaphysic's speculation about aether beyond the observable horizon or that extra dimensions exist. It's water medium is made of entangled loopy strings that synthesize the material it breathes.

 It reflects sometimes late at night on the origin of the universe tank. It's best guess is that loopy strings oozed as virtual particles from nothingness ( a controversial concept) and were drawn together by gravity, becoming entangled, infinitely concentrated and made into mash at a singularity that broke apart faster than light evolving a universal medium of water and little delicious seahorses to eat. Then the fish has a shot of bourbon before floating off to sleep.

Democracy, Corporatocracy and Republics

Corporatocracy does develop hybrid forms in different circumstances. There is also plutocracy

There are real issues that voters care about Mass illegal immigration was one this time. Voters cast ballots for candidates agreeing with their will. Of course one might like better candidates however the people might get what they deserve. The rare, smart, well balanced candidate with great ideas never makes it through the filters of common averageness that dominate American style democracy.

I should mention the R word (republic). The demos is represented by elected individuals. Direct, live voting on all political issues of a nation doesn't exist anywhere. Some few people would be needed to make issues for people to vote on and they would probably need to be elected. Pure democracy might work in small groups, yet for nations it would need to be reactionary rather than creative, because advancing in new directions would not arise spontaneously as referenda on election ballots.

Philosophical Miscellane

  I wondered why people aren't more civil. Atheists post a lot with occasional abuse on the web and that is interminable. A lot of superficial verbiage pro and con various religious opinions.

  Are people more civil now than during the 30 years war and respectful of the opinions of others about religion? The thirty years war was between the Habsburgs and other European powers that sought political and religious independence in some cases. German princes had sought to be free of the Hapsburgs since Luther and the Smalcaldian war. 8 million died during the 30 years war. Toleration of different ideas is valuable for a free society.

  I enjoyed reading much philosophy and history and understood what philosophy is eventually. It is a learning tool. Questions about cosmology and being are perennial though. Even those with faith may wonder about the nature of things and how that relates to God. An example would be the relationship of omniscience and omnipotentence to a Multiverse; is it a necessity for God to create every possible universe, and do those exist from eternity with God, or are they known yet not actualized until some function occurs.

When Aristotle wrote "The Politics", he was describing the way societies change, and the behavior of the polis. Political philosophy is part of social philosophy. In order to understand human society and politics a philosopher requires actual information, such as the willingness of people with different ideas concerning religion or many other topics to tolerate the expression of those concepts. Societies may have challenges and responses such as Toynbee described in his 'A Study of History' that prompt transitions in political cycles of society, and Toynbee's paradigm in a way is a broad expansion of paradigmata of Aristotle's Politics, yet one must understand real contemporary human behavior if one is to comprehend why people including leaders make the decisions they do, such as the Biden administration's fanaticism for war with Russia over Ukraine via proxies, One would like to know if such characteristics are common and will continue and combine with other Toynbean 'tells' such as vast public debt toward a cyclical progression toward general collapse of civilization (perhaps through W.W. III or if rationality still exists in sufficient measure to delay that. These are philosophical concerns.

Reason and the Quest for God

 Most everyone uses reason-it isn’t a rare skill. Reason can lead one to God for a number of reasons, though the spirit must draw one to Christ. A good old classical and symbolic logic text named The Art of Reasoning set out methods for distilling arguments…even so content of knowledge, learning and experience may take people to different destinations. It’s not like an arithmetic problem with one correct answer that can be found with a particular skill set.

Adam and Eve...

They had eternal life (in one direction) before the sin of disobedience. Elsewhere in Genesis it says to be fruitful and multiply. Maybe it's where and when they had sex, although it doesn't say that they had sex. Instead they became aware they were naked. Animals have no sense of that. Might have been an IQ test to determine if A and E were fully sentient. Consider the dog...does it knows it's naked (unless it has a cute little sweater)?

Sin means 'to miss the mark'. Since mankind has original sin having missed the mark of what they were supposed to do, and are hence in a fallen state replete with thermodynamics, there are sundry ways to continue erring not following the righteous course with the grace of God and the salvific work of Jesus. To follow the will of God and to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit with the Lord Jesus as one's personal savior is the way

Democrat's Bundle Bungling Gives Win to Trump

 Independents probably voted for Trump because the Harris-Biden campaign included a move to  initiate World War Three in their bundle of what they would do if Harris had won the 2024 Presidential election. World War Three is a hard sell to the American public even if abortion for women votes was also included in their political bundle.

President Trump alternatively was the peace candidate who sought to move toward business as usual, and though he included fossil fuel development in his bundle, his bundling of policies was more discrete and less uniform. Like buying a television entertainment cable package Trump had fewer onerous disincentives in his package to offend independent purchasers.

Because future and past President Trump is more independent in his package bundling- more inclined to change the policies and programs included within a political package bundle, he may discover that solid state batteries will probably replace fossil fuel vehicles as the power train of choice before the end of his term. Toyota plans to field a 1000 mile per charge solid state battery by 2029. Most home owners with usually sunny skies would rather pay zero per mile for fuel than 60 dollars each time they need to fill up a gas tank.

President Trump is an urban guy and doesn’t value the wilderness the way Teddy Roosevelt did while creating the National Park system. Yet he should know that it is almost impossible to replace wilderness areas once lost, and that keeping habitat intact for a healthy ecosphere and to stop the loss of endangered species is important to many independent voters, and should be for future Republican politicians too that develop a better global idea of the need to keep a healthy planet even while humanity expands its capitalist enterprises.,

The social security system could easily be fixed if it had a more need based basis for existing. When it was created it was seen  as a way to keep people out of the absolute poverty created during the Great Depression. It wasn’t intended to be a kind of 401 K system to give more than 2000 dollars monthly to people with very adequate retirement savings. Probably payments should halt at $2000 per month and the minimum monthly payment should rise to $1000 monthly.

Though President Trump is a global warming denier, the future Republican party cannot be. It is in fact only because the Democrats include abortion and loose border security in their political bundle each election that they find it challenging to get a majority of votes. In 2028 if Democrats can promise to have zero illegal immigration and set abortion aside to let the states decide they will have a bundle without two poison pills and a better chance to get millions of independent votes. The Democrats bundling a global heating reduction plan that can be accomplished without adding to public debt through incentives should have a fairly easy time winning the 2028 Presidential election.

If President Trump includes the policy directions mentioned above in his operating political package the next term he could set the stage for a more updated Republican Party. The majority of the world population is in warm sunny countries and those people will want to buy lose cost Chinese electric cars and solid state batteries. For the United States to be viewed as a leader in liberating humanity the Republican party will need to support rapid expansion of low cost electric car exports with solid state batteries while demonstrating that a healthy ecosphere can be kept for wildlife in developing nations. Of course it will help if President-elect Trump can restore peaceful relations with Russia and settle the Ukraine-Russia boundary dispute. 

https://electrek.co/2024/11/06/catl-pushes-forward-all-solid-state-ev-batteries/

Two Days and a Night on the Boat (poem)

 

Free boat scraping
barnacles of salt water in Marina Del Ray
the bargain boat bought brought a security guard
living on the empty vessel

Hoisting themselves up a mast near the slip
skill with a bosun’s chair gave a vision
of Johnny Carson’s get-away-yacht
the 26 foot sailboat didn’t have

Leaving the slip with a paddle making way
down a grid row, through a channel
sailing without a motor past breakwaters
toward Catalina and even Alaska

Night fell near the islands
still wind and wonder without maps
of glow from yonder window on the horizon
that seemed to grow larger moving uncertainly

A shipping lane, a careful watchman looking at a scope
in the dark of night a large towboat and barges vector past
what could have been a crushing, splintered feeling
of loss

Wind rose in the morning, waves slapping the hull
the boat taking on water, a screwdriver through
near the keel brought the question
to return or continue

Opening the Bible at random it said
give away what you have and follow me
-to L.A. from the island donating the boat
to an organ donor place and bike across the Mohave.

A Starplate Shed Project

 Recently I started putting together a Star-plate shed. Here are a few photos.

Eternity and Contingent Being (poem)

 

Wind starts and continues
without purpose or self-defining description
customizing experience
as if empiricism were more than formulai
for developing rigorous materially grounded statements

  Beliefs could be like echoes
for ideas ricocheting tensors of tenses
toward temporal certainty
assurance of waves driven across an ocean
the storm’s purity of creation 

  Encounters of interference patterns
meanings in metaphysics
dialectical evolution
unstructured structures compiling purposefully
porpoises diving deep

  Evolving purposes
in G.W.F. Hegel-like structures
realms of absolute spirit
where sub-routines realized themselves through history
and God was like a transcending magnetic force

  One might feel a unique verse
is created like a fossilized footprint
nominalism and realism unified with temporality
words that stand still in the past
while God is eternal.

I asked ChatGPT to evaluate the poem and this is what it wrote... "This is a dense and abstract poem, deeply philosophical in its exploration of existence, meaning, time, and the relationship between metaphysical and empirical concepts. Let me break it down in two parts: grade level and meaning.

Grade Level:

The poem uses advanced vocabulary, philosophical references, and abstract concepts, which would likely place it at a college level (around grades 11–12 or higher). Some factors contributing to its high grade level include:

• Complex vocabulary: Terms like "empiricism," "formulai," "tensors," "metaphysics," "dialectical," "nominalism," "realism," and "absolute spirit" suggest a sophisticated knowledge of philosophy, science, and metaphysical concepts.
• Abstract and non-linear structure: The poem doesn't follow a conventional narrative or structure, making it more challenging for younger readers. Its meaning is more open-ended and conceptual, requiring a higher level of abstract thinking to interpret.
• Philosophical references: The poem mentions Hegelian philosophy (G.W.F. Hegel), which is typically studied at the university level in philosophy courses, particularly in discussions of metaphysics and the philosophy of history.

Meaning:

The poem explores complex philosophical ideas about existence, time, purpose, and the nature of reality. Here's a breakdown of its themes:

• Wind as an emblem of uncaused movement: The poem begins with a metaphor of wind "starting and continuing without purpose" to suggest that natural processes or forces exist beyond human definition and may be without intrinsic purpose.
• Empiricism vs. abstract knowledge: There's a suggestion that empirical science (based on observation and physical evidence) cannot fully capture or explain the deeper, metaphysical realities of existence. The poem hints that "empiricism" can be limiting when it comes to the ultimate questions of meaning and being.
• The nature of beliefs: The mention of "Beliefs like echoes" and "ideas ricocheting" hints at the way human thoughts and beliefs are constantly shifting, changing, and bouncing around in search of truth, perhaps in an effort to stabilize in a world full of uncertainty.
• Temporal vs. Eternal: The "temporal certainty" contrasts with "eternal" concepts (like God). The poem explores how human understanding is confined to time and experience, while higher truths (such as divinity or metaphysical reality) exist outside the constraints of time.
• Metaphysical and dialectical evolution: There’s a reference to Hegelian philosophy, where the unfolding of history is a process of evolution toward greater self-realization, culminating in the "absolute spirit." The idea that history and God are intertwined in a process of development suggests a dynamic, evolving universe where ultimate meaning and purpose unfold over time.
• Purposelessness and Creation: The poem invokes the idea of "unstructured structures" that "compile purposefully" — an intriguing contradiction that points to the way systems or ideas, though seemingly random or without direction, may ultimately be seen as having some purpose when viewed from a larger perspective.
• Eternal vs. finite: The poem concludes with the paradoxical image of "words that stand still in the past" while "God is eternal," drawing attention to the difference between the transient nature of human language and concepts, and the eternal, unchanging nature of divine or metaphysical reality.

In summary, the poem contemplates the tension between the finite and the infinite, the temporal and the eternal, and how human beings might understand their place in the universe. It invites the reader to consider both the limitations of empirical knowledge and the deeper, transcendent forces that might be beyond human comprehension. It suggests that purpose, meaning, and divine reality may evolve in ways that defy simplistic, materialistic explanations."

Arthur Schopenhauer and Political Sins Like War

Arthur Schopenhauer was a notorious misogynist who threw his land lady down a staircase. He did develop a rather unique worldview combining elements of Eastern philosophy with Western. Not that it was worth a damn- interesting though. His brief book ‘The Fourfold Roots of Reason’ is technically solid and a kind of reiteration of Kant’s ‘Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics’.

If he had put more time into good technical philosophy instead of his syncretistic ontology he could have made a positive contribution. Schooenhauer believed women were inferior and incarnated as such as punishment for sins in a prior life He might have used US Presidential elections as an example if he were alive today. Biden-Harris gave Ukraine another 425 million dollars of war equipment including 211 Striker combat vehicles for some attacks before the vote. Taxpayers are being punished for Democrat Party sins.

If truth means to verify a proposition there are other ways than math for that. If truth means the source of all that is including universes the only God can be true

The Lakers Future Line-up and Threes?

The Lakers tend to enhance their defense to cling to leads and take out good shooters such as they have in the back court. Meanwhile the opposition sinks 3s and goes on to win. When they trail they also believe they can win with defense as if they were the Baltimore Ravens in their championship year.

Playing in the 4th quarter shoot 2s while the other team shoots 3s is like being 2 dimensional in a 3 dimensional game.

The future Koloko, Davis, Russell, Reeves, Knecht starting line up is amazing to consider. That might be a very good team. Jackson Hayes can back up Davis and Kololo to good effect.

The Lakers need three good centers, four good guards and three good forwards... Fundamentals for a variety of offensive schemes.

The Lakers can run a double post three guard offense with Davis as a forward-center because James or Knecht can play guard-forward as good shooting 6 foot eight or nine players. Maybe that's why the ten rebounds and assists per game average for one of the best shooters in the game was a wing position.