President Obama's decision to stop construction of a vast redundant Canadian pipeline across the U.S.A. -the Keystone Pipeline- to sell gasoline to South America was a good choice-Asian markets like dirty crude oil and will be happy to send their money to Canadians who might in turn by American e-books at Lulu.com- Canadians are smart and inventive people after all.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-18/canada-pledges-to-sell-oil-to-asia-after-obama-keystone-denial.html
The United States should develop its own alternative and clean energy infrastructure to meet its own transportation and energy needs. Dumb nations tend to become broke and the United States cannot afford to rely another century upon global warming and trade deficit causing dirty fossil fuel engines burning foreign gas in foreign made engines with foreign made steel. Actually it shouldn't take a genius to imagine a better and more productive U.S. national energy infrastructure yet that would improve the economy and the establishment probably prefer that America become a nation with millions of peons for cheap labor leveraged into homelessness and non-competition for owning land or free enterprise.
1/18/12
Ronald Regan; The Final Conservative Before The New World Order
I wanted to make a comment about the computer and internet era's effect upon U.S. and global manufacturing. With modern games theory and the Internet on line for the business market the age of gaming to win profit either short or long term with instantaneous trade, borrowing funds and virtual gaming of the system manufacturing has become a somewhat staid phenomena subject globally to the higher powers of concentrated wealth. Obviously national borders and currencies aren't insulated from the gaming power of concentrated wealth, commodities and owning poker-playing and quantitative computer driven trading. How can the U.S.A. develop a vigorous new ecological economic manufacturing and living policy when global gaming of fungible social reality has pervasively corrupted the integrality of state and local politics?
Ronald Regan was the final American conservative before the full flowering of the post-cold war computer driven trading system. Today conervatism has two basic sides-that of moral conservatism and that of global concentration of wealth with the principle of gaming the world economy and concentrating wealth phenomenally. Obviously there is nothing conservative about the latter-for it is an abandonment of national destiny for an existential global pursuit of greed.
In the new global era cheap labor is plentiful and in the United States cheap illegal and legal immmigrant labor has created a perennial high rate of unemployment concurrent with record Wall Street profits. Basically a high rate of unemployment is good for corporate profits by keeping wages down. With a comprehensive Mexican border control policy of zero immigration it might be possible to reduce the unemployment rate in the U.S.A. to 2% and increase wages significantly. Executive wages have increased in recent decades while comparative adjusted for inflation labor wages have decreased because in the supply and demand phenomenon of the U.S.A. the real immigration policy has been entirely in favor of the middle class and wealthy who employ illegal immigrants instead of paying real wages to American citizens. A corrupt U.S.A. is where the economy is at today.
Instant communications for the media and Internet corporate world globally have also allowed a reduction in the integrity of p0rivate property values. Once upon a time private real estate was secure enough with the only way one might be driven out through entirely legal means. In the New World order ad hoc social pressure from networked racketeering targeting individual property owners may compel home sale through real social pressure making the media of networking a kind of ad hoc government. Private land titles are only as good as the government that is the sovereign enforcer of the title and owners right of quiet enjoyment of his property.
The U.S. government did not intent private property for the poor and middle class to endure in the New World Order though. The Clinton administration allowed the commodification of home mortgages so that they might be bought and sold globally. Americans have lost hundreds of thousands of homes while the wealthy have profited and made home insecurity a permanent feature of the New World Order in the U.S.A.
Globally the New World Electronic order has not consolidated its impact upon the economies affected in myriad ways The effect of perennial political and economic destabilization may be new rounds of wars stimulated by incidentally rather than necessary economic insufficiencies of masses sometimes actualized as revolutions.
There are esse3ntially two aspects of the new wave of destabilization in an instantaneous electronic media environment today I wanted to mention. First is the ability of the masses to volatilize politic and economic reform. The second is the ability for game players to undermine free enterprise ventures at large and small scales through pervasive global trading.
In Alaska a given mine may produce 33,000 pounds of gold for a global corporation who will not invest anything locally in significant quantity, by will instead extract and relocate the non-renewable resource anyplace in the world for reinvestment in opportunely selected trading ventures that appear game theoretical winners. Of course the major investors will also have a high rate of profit paying just 15% on capital gains instead of an income tax on wages at 35%.
Working is discouraged for investing has far lower taxes. New World Order investing tends to be far more in gaming profits rather than construction of new manufacturing technology, or even of ecological economic sustainability. It is easier to invest and gain the system that build a business with hard work and have some global gamers take over with borrowed money. Capitalism has become corrupted to mean the concentration of global wealth and power even unto absolute monarchy under the most evil powers and principalities. Capital for Adam Smith was no more than an incidental yet desirable fruit of free enterprise activities of a generation revolutionarily democratic and opposed to the concentration of wealth by a few individuals socially.
Ronald Regan was the final American conservative before the full flowering of the post-cold war computer driven trading system. Today conervatism has two basic sides-that of moral conservatism and that of global concentration of wealth with the principle of gaming the world economy and concentrating wealth phenomenally. Obviously there is nothing conservative about the latter-for it is an abandonment of national destiny for an existential global pursuit of greed.
In the new global era cheap labor is plentiful and in the United States cheap illegal and legal immmigrant labor has created a perennial high rate of unemployment concurrent with record Wall Street profits. Basically a high rate of unemployment is good for corporate profits by keeping wages down. With a comprehensive Mexican border control policy of zero immigration it might be possible to reduce the unemployment rate in the U.S.A. to 2% and increase wages significantly. Executive wages have increased in recent decades while comparative adjusted for inflation labor wages have decreased because in the supply and demand phenomenon of the U.S.A. the real immigration policy has been entirely in favor of the middle class and wealthy who employ illegal immigrants instead of paying real wages to American citizens. A corrupt U.S.A. is where the economy is at today.
Instant communications for the media and Internet corporate world globally have also allowed a reduction in the integrity of p0rivate property values. Once upon a time private real estate was secure enough with the only way one might be driven out through entirely legal means. In the New World order ad hoc social pressure from networked racketeering targeting individual property owners may compel home sale through real social pressure making the media of networking a kind of ad hoc government. Private land titles are only as good as the government that is the sovereign enforcer of the title and owners right of quiet enjoyment of his property.
The U.S. government did not intent private property for the poor and middle class to endure in the New World Order though. The Clinton administration allowed the commodification of home mortgages so that they might be bought and sold globally. Americans have lost hundreds of thousands of homes while the wealthy have profited and made home insecurity a permanent feature of the New World Order in the U.S.A.
Globally the New World Electronic order has not consolidated its impact upon the economies affected in myriad ways The effect of perennial political and economic destabilization may be new rounds of wars stimulated by incidentally rather than necessary economic insufficiencies of masses sometimes actualized as revolutions.
There are esse3ntially two aspects of the new wave of destabilization in an instantaneous electronic media environment today I wanted to mention. First is the ability of the masses to volatilize politic and economic reform. The second is the ability for game players to undermine free enterprise ventures at large and small scales through pervasive global trading.
In Alaska a given mine may produce 33,000 pounds of gold for a global corporation who will not invest anything locally in significant quantity, by will instead extract and relocate the non-renewable resource anyplace in the world for reinvestment in opportunely selected trading ventures that appear game theoretical winners. Of course the major investors will also have a high rate of profit paying just 15% on capital gains instead of an income tax on wages at 35%.
Working is discouraged for investing has far lower taxes. New World Order investing tends to be far more in gaming profits rather than construction of new manufacturing technology, or even of ecological economic sustainability. It is easier to invest and gain the system that build a business with hard work and have some global gamers take over with borrowed money. Capitalism has become corrupted to mean the concentration of global wealth and power even unto absolute monarchy under the most evil powers and principalities. Capital for Adam Smith was no more than an incidental yet desirable fruit of free enterprise activities of a generation revolutionarily democratic and opposed to the concentration of wealth by a few individuals socially.
1/13/12
U.S.-Mexico Border Control Concepts
I of course have regarded the opportunity to create an ecospherically benign border control zone on the Mexican border as an opportunity to create jobs and fresh water for the American S.W. That was the salt-water desalinization with solar powered siphon and exploitation of the higher sea level on the Pacific than the Gulf of Mexico to fill a structure of border canals with evaporated-condensed water. I learned about the Columbia Basin project in Eastern Washington fairly early and saw the apple orchards and other farm production that followed the Columbia River water being made to flow to the desert. A new project might alter the dynamics of the advancing global warming desertification of the S.W. as far as water shortages go.
The comparison with the boundary issues with East Germany was fascinating. I visited Berlin before the Wall came down and haven't been to Europe since.
America has a different set of economic issues today, and capitalism's meaning has become corrupted and free enterprise reduced progressively as global corporations take over. I know that Mexican drug cartels and that war that has cost 47 thousand lives so far is rotten in Mexico and has a bad effect on the U.S.A. too.
Even in Alaska Mexican nationals are imported to work processing seafood again giving the advantage to the 1% class as labor is not allowed to tighten up and raise wages. Labor and ownership must be on the same rules and workers should have a fair chance to benefit from higher labor values from scarcity-they can't do that in the U.S.A. with legal and illegal cheap Mexican immigrant workers.
If there is a labor shortage and the fish don't get caught and instead return to spawn and build up larger, healthier numbers-fine-that's good for the oceans and while the oceans haven't turned to acid advantaged dead zones it would be good to try to restore a healthier ocean environment.
The amorphous political philosophy, meanings of political terms and dysfunctional economic theories work to the disadvantage of the United States. America is a political island in the stream that can end, along with the culture in it, and even the world ecosphere as the easy way through greed prevails to overcome political management of the nation's future and well being of the citizens.
The comparison with the boundary issues with East Germany was fascinating. I visited Berlin before the Wall came down and haven't been to Europe since.
America has a different set of economic issues today, and capitalism's meaning has become corrupted and free enterprise reduced progressively as global corporations take over. I know that Mexican drug cartels and that war that has cost 47 thousand lives so far is rotten in Mexico and has a bad effect on the U.S.A. too.
Even in Alaska Mexican nationals are imported to work processing seafood again giving the advantage to the 1% class as labor is not allowed to tighten up and raise wages. Labor and ownership must be on the same rules and workers should have a fair chance to benefit from higher labor values from scarcity-they can't do that in the U.S.A. with legal and illegal cheap Mexican immigrant workers.
If there is a labor shortage and the fish don't get caught and instead return to spawn and build up larger, healthier numbers-fine-that's good for the oceans and while the oceans haven't turned to acid advantaged dead zones it would be good to try to restore a healthier ocean environment.
The amorphous political philosophy, meanings of political terms and dysfunctional economic theories work to the disadvantage of the United States. America is a political island in the stream that can end, along with the culture in it, and even the world ecosphere as the easy way through greed prevails to overcome political management of the nation's future and well being of the citizens.
1/11/12
Mitt Romney & Muhammad Ali : Religious Deferments From Vietnam War
If a citizen takes a deferment from wartime military service ought he rightly be later eligible to command the military or be elected President. While conscientious objectors and religious ministers are Godly people-maybe (for some ungodly religions may be eligible for war-time deferments too such as the 5th Church of Hatred of the I.R.S. whose priesthood regards it as a holy mission to avoid paying taxes the abomination of government-plainly the Government would want not to offend the faithful and send them to battle in unrighteous corporate wars)
A democracy should have a little logic and consistence in its policies in order that the rich and the corrupt might not just have their way through slick passage through loopholes.
Muhammad Ali avoided the draft claiming to be a minister of the Nation of Islam. Mitt Romney got a draft deferment claiming to be a Minister or Missionary of Mormonism-and he spent a year in France during then war proselytizing the faith.
Ali of course had to litigate his conviction for draft evasion five years before getting an 8 to 0 Supreme Court decision overturning his conviction.
The idea that Mormons and Muslims should get arbitrary draft exemption makes one wonder if the religious reason is for being a member of a religion or particularly for believing that God does not want people to kill.
Perhaps the ending of the draft era was requisite if Mormons and Moslems would not be required to serve via draft. Yet Christians too should be free from draft as well so perhaps war falls to just godless atheists these days, though volunteer armies with large pay are the increasing corporate trend.
So should deferments from drafts be awarded for just a year at a time for religious reasons? Is conscientious objector status good for life or just for a year or while none is especially pious?
Individuals too should be free from a draft or receive a deferment or conscientious objector status is they regard God as more important than man.
Can one reasonably elect a conscientious objector President to command military forces? If religious missionary or ministering is sufficient reason not to be drafted even if one is not a conscientious objector, won't even Democrat Party members choose to make a sect of their political faith and perform ministering work to get draft deferments until some hypothetical war is over?
A democracy should have a little logic and consistence in its policies in order that the rich and the corrupt might not just have their way through slick passage through loopholes.
Muhammad Ali avoided the draft claiming to be a minister of the Nation of Islam. Mitt Romney got a draft deferment claiming to be a Minister or Missionary of Mormonism-and he spent a year in France during then war proselytizing the faith.
Ali of course had to litigate his conviction for draft evasion five years before getting an 8 to 0 Supreme Court decision overturning his conviction.
The idea that Mormons and Muslims should get arbitrary draft exemption makes one wonder if the religious reason is for being a member of a religion or particularly for believing that God does not want people to kill.
Perhaps the ending of the draft era was requisite if Mormons and Moslems would not be required to serve via draft. Yet Christians too should be free from draft as well so perhaps war falls to just godless atheists these days, though volunteer armies with large pay are the increasing corporate trend.
So should deferments from drafts be awarded for just a year at a time for religious reasons? Is conscientious objector status good for life or just for a year or while none is especially pious?
Individuals too should be free from a draft or receive a deferment or conscientious objector status is they regard God as more important than man.
Can one reasonably elect a conscientious objector President to command military forces? If religious missionary or ministering is sufficient reason not to be drafted even if one is not a conscientious objector, won't even Democrat Party members choose to make a sect of their political faith and perform ministering work to get draft deferments until some hypothetical war is over?
1/9/12
The One; Comparing the Eternal and Temporal
The terms or word referent labels probably don't mean the same to The One as it would in a human context.
Realization is surpassed by omniscience. Can an eternal being experience temporality? The 33 year life of Jesus Christ would be the closest approximation I can imagine. Can the temporal contain the eternal in understanding?
For us the question is like asking how a particle in a river always in motion can consider anything stationary. One might ask if being always in motion as a water molecule in a perpetual motion river circling around a space-globe in a zero gravity mall under a clever magnetic field might could realize it's stationary position relative to other molecules flowing with it, or if the molecule could realize it's timelessness because nothing ever seemed to change in the flow, and neither did it break apart under anomolous Van der Waalls bonds or another physical influence.
Like Plotinus' expression of The One in his 'The Enneads' there is a limit to describing a view that cannot be perceived from human experience. The One is improbably subject to space-time or relativity, as it contains those pluralistic aspects of things-for-others.
Realization is surpassed by omniscience. Can an eternal being experience temporality? The 33 year life of Jesus Christ would be the closest approximation I can imagine. Can the temporal contain the eternal in understanding?
For us the question is like asking how a particle in a river always in motion can consider anything stationary. One might ask if being always in motion as a water molecule in a perpetual motion river circling around a space-globe in a zero gravity mall under a clever magnetic field might could realize it's stationary position relative to other molecules flowing with it, or if the molecule could realize it's timelessness because nothing ever seemed to change in the flow, and neither did it break apart under anomolous Van der Waalls bonds or another physical influence.
Like Plotinus' expression of The One in his 'The Enneads' there is a limit to describing a view that cannot be perceived from human experience. The One is improbably subject to space-time or relativity, as it contains those pluralistic aspects of things-for-others.
1/8/12
Socrates: Innovative Philosopher or Destroyer of Democracy?
From what factually is known about Socrates and the state of Athens then he had that role of advocating for oppression of the demos. The happiness of people does not arise when they are enslaved or subjugated. Mankind naturally desires freedom rather than slavery
That Plato would advocate for female opportunity to oppress the masses as guardian-rulers may have been a political gambit to get feminine support-always important even today for bad political actions as well as good. Certainly women can reason well enough, however abstract reason doesn't compensate for lack of experience for either gender. In the 5th century B.C. childbirth was quite dangerous and in some places still is.
Why did Socrates want to abolish families and have the state raise progeny from mysterious liasons? Socrates might have ruminated about his first wife Xanthippe and alleged second wife Myrto and thought about the good points of a commonality of women in the Utopian Republic. He might have imagined that a prime role of philosopher kings would have been to impregnate lower classes so far as possible and outbreed undesirable characteristics such as the will for independence. In that idea he wouldn't be unique. Yet even from an evolutionary perspective diveristy is better than everyone having the same nose.
Women have tended to rule the home at times while men go out in the streets and fields to fight, strive or labor. The enfranchised agree not to kill one another, dominate the increments of sustainabilty or dump the excrements in the gutters-what could be bettter than that? Well, democracy can try to improve education and assure a fair basic social balance politically. The marketplace of ideas need be free of operant tyranny that excludes the masses from getting a natural selection of the best ideas, songs, poems or science fiction novels etc.
Eventually women too can rise to go out in the streets, fight, agree not to kill one another and labor-and they do. Maids from Mexico maintain homes for cheaper wages than Americans would demand from their middle and upper class employers. Everyone like exploitable labor-even philosopher-kings, the Supreme Soviets of the World and Boss Tweeds.
Set hierarchies are not invariably the most efficient structure for data processing alogirthms. Such are preclusive of much extraneous data and inertially tend to follow pre-determined courses without capibility of restructuring term values, concepts and so forth vital for social good.
The proposal for the education of female potential philosopher-kings may have been unrealisticly patronizing to entice Plato's prospects. The average life span was less than 25 I would guess in the 5th century B.C. One wonders how wise women might have become- guarded themselves as cloistered nun-warrior-Queens forming abstract ideas of the conduct of war and ideal social development planting and nurturing 5th century Athenians relying upon court favorite consultants perhaps-primordial lobbiests from abroad.
One might wonder if elites have a class thing regarding their self-bestowed concept of supremacy that requires that their women too are better than those cattle ruled. Catherine the Great was a competent elite ruler of Russia-quite promiscuous yet Socrates advocated against families and for state raising of all children-a very bee-hive concept that simply isn't very good. In some ways the Republic is a prototype for a fascist, Orewellian communist dictatorship the Khmer Rouge might have appreciated. One musn't forget that the new Kim of North Korea has already been decreed 'the genius amongst geniuses'.
The Roman version of the Republic had a Dictator for a year when war required transcending the joint consulship-a more realistic policy than having female war leaders in that day.
Some generals lead from the rear and others from the front. Alexander led from the front, as did Caesar when necessary. Elites though of a non-democratic sort have a greater tendency to lead in absentia from a comfortable harem, bar or pleasure dome sending the mere commoners to do the menial tasks such as war. On the other hand one might argue that female philosopher kings of a bureaucratic disposition would have been Amazon like warriors. I think war is a specialized occupation though that makes one less philosophical with rank-I am not persuaded that elite rulers can be trained to pursue the good for society and knowledge of war at the same time, nor that the guardians would not have the biased point of view that the good for society is when philosopher kings rule-rather like those tin-pot dictators for life of second and third world nations.
Socrates influenced people like Alcibiades to disrespect democracy and that cost Athenian lives such as in the war against Syracuse when Alcibiades decided to switch sides and turn traitor because he was relieved of command of the Athenian navy after a drunken night defacing statues of demi-urges in some temple (probably the Parthenon).
The Wall Street Quant traders and cdo packagers were/are the nation’s elites nurtured in misguided economic philosophy. Adam Smith’s capitalism was less accentuated than the concept of self-regulated social fee-enterprise. Free enterprise today should have regulations to preserve competition and access to capital by the masses as opposed to a reduction in concentration of wealth.
Corporations should be allowed to have no more than 5000 employees and individual could invest in no more than three corporations. It is possible to restore Adam Smith’s intentions in formalizing capitalism as an economic theory so that the economic good of the citizenry is maximized rather than that of a few. Smith and Hume were anti-aristocratic economic power instead of proponents of it.
One may admire Plato creating the foundation for philosophical realism with his realm of forms paradigm. Even Kripke in 'Naming and Necessity' keep a semblance of imperputability in names while Russell's theory of names is a forerunner of Quine's ideas about language as linguistic units derived from association with objects or events/procesesses etc.
Temporal change and classes of objects in the world of perpetual change does present the idea that some Univeral designs for objects exist that precede any particular expression in the temporal world. One learns through particle physics that select forms do exist for quanta. Only a certain amount of energy may exist in particular orbits, and radiation or fusion exists to renormalize those atoms. In some regards Plato was correct about a realm of forms in physics then after all. Socrates.
In spite of the brilliance of the realm of forms idea and laying the foundation of realism as well as advancing the classification of word and objects etc the will to elevate a Republic that isn't much more than primitive tribal rule is a regressive rather than a positive contribution to posterity. Modernity requires that discrete ad hoc procesing of data and education in ecopheric and social reality be common coin of mass thought as they pursue their own self interest aware that several billion other people are doing the same thing and that their are unintended, concatenated effects of those actions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The will of Socrates to subvert the Athenian democracy and have a regime change against the will of the majority was a dark side to the man. Socrates, like various supremists throughout history had a political personal egoistic eudeamon calling him to put his fellow citizen in chains held by the few, the proud and the rich including himself presumably.
Socrates had a inclination to support revolt against the government and was thrice convicted of fomenting insurrection. His philosophical method was political organizing to persuade others to end the existing government and subjugate the people. People that wish to subjugate one to political non-equal status are on the wrong side of things morally speaking.
-------------------------------------------------------------
The Athenian democracy was a utopian experiment-as much then as in 1776. Socrates sought to regress to a primitivist tribalism with philosopher-king co-chiefs, kyshatria-warrior guardians and helot-slaves. He might have been designing a modern corporation or zaibatsu of immense size.
Athens had no oppresion by the majority-all citizens were free and voters. Slaves of whatever origin were that or dead-what could one in that time do with captives of war and others not of one's tribe that one contacted? In world war I more than 50,000 soldier died of blood poisoning from infected blisters I believe. In the 5th century B.C. human physical contact tended to be more violent because any contact was dangerous medically speaking, as well as for other reasons of history.
Jingoism officially was invented by the British-and they were an aristocratic-democratic hybrid then. In 5th century B.C. Athens war newspapers and radio didn't yet exit for jingoitic utility. If one had a sword or a spear drill team one could have a crash at the foes of course-dash across the ground-yet it alsway ressulted in many deaths and killing off of proto-jigoites. The Spartans, very good at war gaming, were not invariably happy about going to the killing fields-heck, even abcessed tooth removal could be painful for 5th century do-it-your-selfers I would guess.
Achilles earlier beleived a warrior death was best, yet it was swift and life with cancer or a myriad other chronic diseases very common then were not. The Roman emperor Sula perished when worm rotted his guts enough that they fell out.
The Athenian democracy wasn't terribly militaritic either-I think that you have imbibed some more 20th century propaganda because of 20th century war historical evaluations made by people with inadequate historical understanding. The Persians attacked the Greeks,and of course later so did the Romans. Alexander was not a democrat.
Democracy does not need to be anti-intellectual. The United States is one of the best places for intellectual efforts. Anti-intellectual is a human trait rather than a democratic trait. In a free society an intellectual may live in a tent and read Quine while the unintellectual can visit Talledega for NASCAR and help advance global warming support (they should use electric cars at least).
That Plato would advocate for female opportunity to oppress the masses as guardian-rulers may have been a political gambit to get feminine support-always important even today for bad political actions as well as good. Certainly women can reason well enough, however abstract reason doesn't compensate for lack of experience for either gender. In the 5th century B.C. childbirth was quite dangerous and in some places still is.
Why did Socrates want to abolish families and have the state raise progeny from mysterious liasons? Socrates might have ruminated about his first wife Xanthippe and alleged second wife Myrto and thought about the good points of a commonality of women in the Utopian Republic. He might have imagined that a prime role of philosopher kings would have been to impregnate lower classes so far as possible and outbreed undesirable characteristics such as the will for independence. In that idea he wouldn't be unique. Yet even from an evolutionary perspective diveristy is better than everyone having the same nose.
Women have tended to rule the home at times while men go out in the streets and fields to fight, strive or labor. The enfranchised agree not to kill one another, dominate the increments of sustainabilty or dump the excrements in the gutters-what could be bettter than that? Well, democracy can try to improve education and assure a fair basic social balance politically. The marketplace of ideas need be free of operant tyranny that excludes the masses from getting a natural selection of the best ideas, songs, poems or science fiction novels etc.
Eventually women too can rise to go out in the streets, fight, agree not to kill one another and labor-and they do. Maids from Mexico maintain homes for cheaper wages than Americans would demand from their middle and upper class employers. Everyone like exploitable labor-even philosopher-kings, the Supreme Soviets of the World and Boss Tweeds.
Set hierarchies are not invariably the most efficient structure for data processing alogirthms. Such are preclusive of much extraneous data and inertially tend to follow pre-determined courses without capibility of restructuring term values, concepts and so forth vital for social good.
The proposal for the education of female potential philosopher-kings may have been unrealisticly patronizing to entice Plato's prospects. The average life span was less than 25 I would guess in the 5th century B.C. One wonders how wise women might have become- guarded themselves as cloistered nun-warrior-Queens forming abstract ideas of the conduct of war and ideal social development planting and nurturing 5th century Athenians relying upon court favorite consultants perhaps-primordial lobbiests from abroad.
One might wonder if elites have a class thing regarding their self-bestowed concept of supremacy that requires that their women too are better than those cattle ruled. Catherine the Great was a competent elite ruler of Russia-quite promiscuous yet Socrates advocated against families and for state raising of all children-a very bee-hive concept that simply isn't very good. In some ways the Republic is a prototype for a fascist, Orewellian communist dictatorship the Khmer Rouge might have appreciated. One musn't forget that the new Kim of North Korea has already been decreed 'the genius amongst geniuses'.
The Roman version of the Republic had a Dictator for a year when war required transcending the joint consulship-a more realistic policy than having female war leaders in that day.
Some generals lead from the rear and others from the front. Alexander led from the front, as did Caesar when necessary. Elites though of a non-democratic sort have a greater tendency to lead in absentia from a comfortable harem, bar or pleasure dome sending the mere commoners to do the menial tasks such as war. On the other hand one might argue that female philosopher kings of a bureaucratic disposition would have been Amazon like warriors. I think war is a specialized occupation though that makes one less philosophical with rank-I am not persuaded that elite rulers can be trained to pursue the good for society and knowledge of war at the same time, nor that the guardians would not have the biased point of view that the good for society is when philosopher kings rule-rather like those tin-pot dictators for life of second and third world nations.
Socrates influenced people like Alcibiades to disrespect democracy and that cost Athenian lives such as in the war against Syracuse when Alcibiades decided to switch sides and turn traitor because he was relieved of command of the Athenian navy after a drunken night defacing statues of demi-urges in some temple (probably the Parthenon).
The Wall Street Quant traders and cdo packagers were/are the nation’s elites nurtured in misguided economic philosophy. Adam Smith’s capitalism was less accentuated than the concept of self-regulated social fee-enterprise. Free enterprise today should have regulations to preserve competition and access to capital by the masses as opposed to a reduction in concentration of wealth.
Corporations should be allowed to have no more than 5000 employees and individual could invest in no more than three corporations. It is possible to restore Adam Smith’s intentions in formalizing capitalism as an economic theory so that the economic good of the citizenry is maximized rather than that of a few. Smith and Hume were anti-aristocratic economic power instead of proponents of it.
One may admire Plato creating the foundation for philosophical realism with his realm of forms paradigm. Even Kripke in 'Naming and Necessity' keep a semblance of imperputability in names while Russell's theory of names is a forerunner of Quine's ideas about language as linguistic units derived from association with objects or events/procesesses etc.
Temporal change and classes of objects in the world of perpetual change does present the idea that some Univeral designs for objects exist that precede any particular expression in the temporal world. One learns through particle physics that select forms do exist for quanta. Only a certain amount of energy may exist in particular orbits, and radiation or fusion exists to renormalize those atoms. In some regards Plato was correct about a realm of forms in physics then after all. Socrates.
In spite of the brilliance of the realm of forms idea and laying the foundation of realism as well as advancing the classification of word and objects etc the will to elevate a Republic that isn't much more than primitive tribal rule is a regressive rather than a positive contribution to posterity. Modernity requires that discrete ad hoc procesing of data and education in ecopheric and social reality be common coin of mass thought as they pursue their own self interest aware that several billion other people are doing the same thing and that their are unintended, concatenated effects of those actions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The will of Socrates to subvert the Athenian democracy and have a regime change against the will of the majority was a dark side to the man. Socrates, like various supremists throughout history had a political personal egoistic eudeamon calling him to put his fellow citizen in chains held by the few, the proud and the rich including himself presumably.
Socrates had a inclination to support revolt against the government and was thrice convicted of fomenting insurrection. His philosophical method was political organizing to persuade others to end the existing government and subjugate the people. People that wish to subjugate one to political non-equal status are on the wrong side of things morally speaking.
-------------------------------------------------------------
The Athenian democracy was a utopian experiment-as much then as in 1776. Socrates sought to regress to a primitivist tribalism with philosopher-king co-chiefs, kyshatria-warrior guardians and helot-slaves. He might have been designing a modern corporation or zaibatsu of immense size.
Athens had no oppresion by the majority-all citizens were free and voters. Slaves of whatever origin were that or dead-what could one in that time do with captives of war and others not of one's tribe that one contacted? In world war I more than 50,000 soldier died of blood poisoning from infected blisters I believe. In the 5th century B.C. human physical contact tended to be more violent because any contact was dangerous medically speaking, as well as for other reasons of history.
Jingoism officially was invented by the British-and they were an aristocratic-democratic hybrid then. In 5th century B.C. Athens war newspapers and radio didn't yet exit for jingoitic utility. If one had a sword or a spear drill team one could have a crash at the foes of course-dash across the ground-yet it alsway ressulted in many deaths and killing off of proto-jigoites. The Spartans, very good at war gaming, were not invariably happy about going to the killing fields-heck, even abcessed tooth removal could be painful for 5th century do-it-your-selfers I would guess.
Achilles earlier beleived a warrior death was best, yet it was swift and life with cancer or a myriad other chronic diseases very common then were not. The Roman emperor Sula perished when worm rotted his guts enough that they fell out.
The Athenian democracy wasn't terribly militaritic either-I think that you have imbibed some more 20th century propaganda because of 20th century war historical evaluations made by people with inadequate historical understanding. The Persians attacked the Greeks,and of course later so did the Romans. Alexander was not a democrat.
Democracy does not need to be anti-intellectual. The United States is one of the best places for intellectual efforts. Anti-intellectual is a human trait rather than a democratic trait. In a free society an intellectual may live in a tent and read Quine while the unintellectual can visit Talledega for NASCAR and help advance global warming support (they should use electric cars at least).
1/6/12
The 'Other' Socrates
There is a dark side to Socrates. The little known side may be common knowledge amidst some philosophers, yet it should be understood by the many as well as the few.
Socrates was a supporter of oligarchy and in opposition to the demos. It was the democrats that gave the philosopher the choice-Athens-leave it or die. Socrates choose death rather than to give up the principle of rule by the exclusive.
Bertrand Russell called Plato a fascist (during the Second World War). Plato's Republic was loosely modeled on the Spartan city-state. Yet of course Plato-Socrates wanted philosopher-Kings to dictate everything with a limited number of flunkies below in a rather Spartan configuration. The ordinary people were not helots of course, the men just should be cuckolded and the women imp0regnated by superior males-Socrates was an early formal eugenic supremist.
For most of the history of western civilization aristocracy has ruled and of course they advocate the extreme conservatism of 'The Republic'. How noble was Socrates in thrice being charged by the Demos of corrupting the youth of Athens-he was inciting them to revolt and restore the Oligarchy. Today of course the charge of’ corrupting youth' brings sniggers. Socialist believing corruption is hunkie dorrie want all of that they can get on the premise that it will undermine the conservative amongst us. We know the litany-unlimited sin is o.k. mankind evolved from lizards and hence it should today have a magical lizard's moral sensibilities.
Socrates did evolve the Socratic method. Maybe he refined some sort of water-boarding interrogation methodology that could work in polite society. Socrates wanted to prove that anyone he met was a moron or at least quite ignorant-any maybe he was right for the people were ordinarily ignorant and Socrates was a rare, thoughtful, intelligent aristocrat from a humble background.
Can we find sympathy for Socrates-son of a sculptor who worked on the Parthenon, rugged soldier, voluntary mystic of catatonic like states of deep standing contemplation-because he supported the rich and powerful of his day perhaps to get kickbacks of a financial nature-or at least to have an easy time of accommodations, food, parties and security?
If Socrates did not seek favors of the Buffets and Gates of his time, if the George Soros' of golden age Athens were just means to an end of converting Athenian liberty into a Spartan like domination by a pair of philosophers like Socrates and Plato, he was at least an individual who stimulated political philosophy and the inquiry into the nature of word meaning. It isn't too surprising that his grand-pupil Aristotle invented classical logic, the syllogism and formal scientific classification.
I guess Socrates wasn't all bad after all, yet of course, we like the moderns and several others fairly well in compensation, though of course none are God as is Jesus Christ.
Socrates was a supporter of oligarchy and in opposition to the demos. It was the democrats that gave the philosopher the choice-Athens-leave it or die. Socrates choose death rather than to give up the principle of rule by the exclusive.
Bertrand Russell called Plato a fascist (during the Second World War). Plato's Republic was loosely modeled on the Spartan city-state. Yet of course Plato-Socrates wanted philosopher-Kings to dictate everything with a limited number of flunkies below in a rather Spartan configuration. The ordinary people were not helots of course, the men just should be cuckolded and the women imp0regnated by superior males-Socrates was an early formal eugenic supremist.
For most of the history of western civilization aristocracy has ruled and of course they advocate the extreme conservatism of 'The Republic'. How noble was Socrates in thrice being charged by the Demos of corrupting the youth of Athens-he was inciting them to revolt and restore the Oligarchy. Today of course the charge of’ corrupting youth' brings sniggers. Socialist believing corruption is hunkie dorrie want all of that they can get on the premise that it will undermine the conservative amongst us. We know the litany-unlimited sin is o.k. mankind evolved from lizards and hence it should today have a magical lizard's moral sensibilities.
Socrates did evolve the Socratic method. Maybe he refined some sort of water-boarding interrogation methodology that could work in polite society. Socrates wanted to prove that anyone he met was a moron or at least quite ignorant-any maybe he was right for the people were ordinarily ignorant and Socrates was a rare, thoughtful, intelligent aristocrat from a humble background.
Can we find sympathy for Socrates-son of a sculptor who worked on the Parthenon, rugged soldier, voluntary mystic of catatonic like states of deep standing contemplation-because he supported the rich and powerful of his day perhaps to get kickbacks of a financial nature-or at least to have an easy time of accommodations, food, parties and security?
If Socrates did not seek favors of the Buffets and Gates of his time, if the George Soros' of golden age Athens were just means to an end of converting Athenian liberty into a Spartan like domination by a pair of philosophers like Socrates and Plato, he was at least an individual who stimulated political philosophy and the inquiry into the nature of word meaning. It isn't too surprising that his grand-pupil Aristotle invented classical logic, the syllogism and formal scientific classification.
I guess Socrates wasn't all bad after all, yet of course, we like the moderns and several others fairly well in compensation, though of course none are God as is Jesus Christ.
Moderate Red Wine Drinking to Reduce Risk of Breast Cancer?
Science Daily posted an article on a scientific finding that the risk of breast cancer may be reduced with the drinking of 8 ounces of red wine nightly. The report will be published in an April edition of the Journal of Women's Health.
The article pointed out that most alcohol consumption increases estrogen levels that are a risk factor for cancerous cell growth yet red wine, seeds and grape skin do not. With environmental estrogen levels also elevated by certain plastic drinking containers, could those plastic cups and bottles be a risk factor for breast cancer too?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120106105925.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+
The article pointed out that most alcohol consumption increases estrogen levels that are a risk factor for cancerous cell growth yet red wine, seeds and grape skin do not. With environmental estrogen levels also elevated by certain plastic drinking containers, could those plastic cups and bottles be a risk factor for breast cancer too?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120106105925.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+
On Infinities
Cantor's trans-infinite infinities indicate ordinal form in abstract relations, yet it is not necessary that there is a correspondence to anything actual from infinite series. A circle line may be subdivided infinitely forever with smaller and smaller numbers at each point on the line. Reality may be qualitatively transcendent over infinities though, and the evident Universe is simply a project of an indefinable teleology phenomenalized.
Infinities of the abstract sort often are infinite in one direction with ordinal structure (regular intervals or spacing/quantity) yet not in all dimensions. The circle may be infinitely reduced yet not expanded in the same area without fundamental change of investment.
The Universe is sometimes thought to have expanded from a smaller area. Obviously it is logically easier to imagine the Universe shrinking to an infinitely small point.
If the Universe may be regarded theoretically as a circular or spherical section of a two dimensional or eleven dimensional membrane, it is fundamental to imagine reducing that portion or area to a small point before releasing it to expand and resume its normal context state over time.
Infinities of the abstract sort often are infinite in one direction with ordinal structure (regular intervals or spacing/quantity) yet not in all dimensions. The circle may be infinitely reduced yet not expanded in the same area without fundamental change of investment.
The Universe is sometimes thought to have expanded from a smaller area. Obviously it is logically easier to imagine the Universe shrinking to an infinitely small point.
If the Universe may be regarded theoretically as a circular or spherical section of a two dimensional or eleven dimensional membrane, it is fundamental to imagine reducing that portion or area to a small point before releasing it to expand and resume its normal context state over time.
On the Dionysian Aesthetic Paradigm vs More Objective Criteria?
Reading Euripides' versions of the works of Sophocles is lively. The Bacchae roll right along with a fair field description of the salient point of the advance of the women under the influence of Dionysus. What can't one like about it? Would you regard Timon of Athens as Dionysian because of the strength of Timon's hatred of mankind, or is that in a Euripidean style?
Is Wagner’s Logen a reference to Attila the Hun? Attila made it to France and fought to a stalemate with a Roman Legion.
One comment on the ring cycle offers the opinion that Bakunin was the role model. Adolph Hitler and other political charismatics place the emotion of vengeance right there with Dionysian passion. Monomaniacal political passion can bring a high opportunity cost with it. Artists though seem to require devotion to their project-I find it difficult to associate Dionysian drunkeness with artistic passion. Was Jackson Pollock a Dionysian and Pablo Picasso an intellectual of cubist construction and meta-layered perspective placing subjective psychologic perception into the empirical world?
The work of a the passion of Christ when the word means perserverence through suffering may be the best example of artistic devotion to an aethetic cause if we allow real values to intrude into the aesthete. Passion with sobriety is the best kind.
I stipulate that being in some way compelled to attend an Opera instead of reading philosophy or cosmology would be a terrible fate. So is a succession of Presidents of the United States that would be guided by emotion or red flags stimulating deficit spending instead of rational, analytical informed opinion about ecological economics and the way to move socially in a Thomas Moore direction or at least with a George Luis Borges sort of amusement aesthetically with intellectual genius.
Some prefer irrational motivation for living, yet it requires a good healthy ecosphere to run amuck in decadence instead of one with a prospect for mass extinction. I believe one might sublimate the aesthetic of romanticism within an intellectual appreciation of beauty and avoid the excesses of Nietzsche-
Is Wagner’s Logen a reference to Attila the Hun? Attila made it to France and fought to a stalemate with a Roman Legion.
One comment on the ring cycle offers the opinion that Bakunin was the role model. Adolph Hitler and other political charismatics place the emotion of vengeance right there with Dionysian passion. Monomaniacal political passion can bring a high opportunity cost with it. Artists though seem to require devotion to their project-I find it difficult to associate Dionysian drunkeness with artistic passion. Was Jackson Pollock a Dionysian and Pablo Picasso an intellectual of cubist construction and meta-layered perspective placing subjective psychologic perception into the empirical world?
The work of a the passion of Christ when the word means perserverence through suffering may be the best example of artistic devotion to an aethetic cause if we allow real values to intrude into the aesthete. Passion with sobriety is the best kind.
I stipulate that being in some way compelled to attend an Opera instead of reading philosophy or cosmology would be a terrible fate. So is a succession of Presidents of the United States that would be guided by emotion or red flags stimulating deficit spending instead of rational, analytical informed opinion about ecological economics and the way to move socially in a Thomas Moore direction or at least with a George Luis Borges sort of amusement aesthetically with intellectual genius.
Some prefer irrational motivation for living, yet it requires a good healthy ecosphere to run amuck in decadence instead of one with a prospect for mass extinction. I believe one might sublimate the aesthetic of romanticism within an intellectual appreciation of beauty and avoid the excesses of Nietzsche-
Darker Northern Winters Evolve Larger Human Brains & Eyes-Stimulate Sales of Light Bulbs
The brains of Northerners from Scandanavia are largest and those from Micronesia smallest evidently because the visual cortex increases in size to see better in those month of darkness. Since mosquitoes fly evasively really well, and since the U.S. Congress plans to spend a trillion dollars buying 2500 F-35 Joint Strike Neo-Stealth fighters the next two decades, it is easy to discern that brain size does not necessarily coincide with intelligence.
Other scientific reports indicate that long-term memory supports or reinforces the ability of perception to recognize objects. Learning does allow an individual to discern elements of their perceptual field they may not otherwise perceive-such as the UFO parked discretely in the corner of a Wall-Mart lot, or investors on Wall Street exiting the exchange with large bags of other people's money.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-remembrance-future-long-term-memory-stage.html
Alaskans have taken up the go north for a bigger brain evolution in selecting its state Governors adroitly skipping electing anyone from the S.E. part of the state and instead looking to Fairbanks and even Barrow for the best prospects.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2019600/We-Northerners-knew-bigger-brains-southern-softies.html
Other scientific reports indicate that long-term memory supports or reinforces the ability of perception to recognize objects. Learning does allow an individual to discern elements of their perceptual field they may not otherwise perceive-such as the UFO parked discretely in the corner of a Wall-Mart lot, or investors on Wall Street exiting the exchange with large bags of other people's money.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-remembrance-future-long-term-memory-stage.html
Alaskans have taken up the go north for a bigger brain evolution in selecting its state Governors adroitly skipping electing anyone from the S.E. part of the state and instead looking to Fairbanks and even Barrow for the best prospects.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2019600/We-Northerners-knew-bigger-brains-southern-softies.html
Redundant Canadian Tar Sands Crude Pipelines and Larger Northern Brains Perfidy?
Building an ecospherically invasive, displacing pipeline from Canada across the U.S.A. in order that Tar Sands Oil can be refined and sold to Brazil as gasoline seems outright dumb. A much shorter, entirely Canadian pipeline to carry Tar Sands oil from Alberta Canada to saltwater in a British Columbia (well, a few miles short on a river) is already going ahead. One must wonder how stupid U.S. politicians are to let that sort of ecospherically corrosive project be considered at all.
Apparently U.S. economic and energy leadership is just moribund-what ever happened to President Obama's state of the art 'clean coal' vision? Can't some sort of high tech electric car power line in highway for smaller, faster cheaper battery recharging be built instead? The again, why not invest in the hydrogen infrastructure at last?
http://www.tarsandsaction.org/spread-the-word/key-facts-keystone-xl/
These Canadians as northerners probably have larger visual cortexes and eyes than southerners in the 48 states. They may be attempting to build a best case for them pipeline infrastructure for exporting oil and gas to foreign destinations. While the Canadians are America's brothers in revolution (well, almost, it was only a fluke of fate that Tory's led Canada to be on Britain's side instead of ours), and we should be concerned to help them maximize their economic potential, it would be an abrogation of the 'tough love' axiom to let them do harm to the ecosphere of Canada and the U.S.A. by constructing a superfluous pipeline. We already know that Hugo Chavez and Venezuela's radical force of the left and are investing in new exploration and sometime will get around to cracking crude for point sale of petroleum to South America while the Tar Sands oil is more likely to find better sales prospects in China-a nation that is the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter and doesn't mind some Tar Sands crude.
Apparently U.S. economic and energy leadership is just moribund-what ever happened to President Obama's state of the art 'clean coal' vision? Can't some sort of high tech electric car power line in highway for smaller, faster cheaper battery recharging be built instead? The again, why not invest in the hydrogen infrastructure at last?
http://www.tarsandsaction.org/spread-the-word/key-facts-keystone-xl/
These Canadians as northerners probably have larger visual cortexes and eyes than southerners in the 48 states. They may be attempting to build a best case for them pipeline infrastructure for exporting oil and gas to foreign destinations. While the Canadians are America's brothers in revolution (well, almost, it was only a fluke of fate that Tory's led Canada to be on Britain's side instead of ours), and we should be concerned to help them maximize their economic potential, it would be an abrogation of the 'tough love' axiom to let them do harm to the ecosphere of Canada and the U.S.A. by constructing a superfluous pipeline. We already know that Hugo Chavez and Venezuela's radical force of the left and are investing in new exploration and sometime will get around to cracking crude for point sale of petroleum to South America while the Tar Sands oil is more likely to find better sales prospects in China-a nation that is the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter and doesn't mind some Tar Sands crude.
1/5/12
On Morality
Morality also has been said to be what people actually do socially. That is one may define social conduct interactively in various spheres from the point of view as a social anthropologist-historian. Moral behavior is made or developed from a variety of sources including obviously history and tradition-experience of real world circumstances that have bound people together.
One might consider Navaho funeral behavior of the 19th century and note that the procedures of the Shamanistic tradition were regarding life rather than the afterlife, and that the customs of body washing with soap of the funeral participants after three days, of not looking north and of concern for evil spirits coincided with the avoidance of germs and communicable diseases that often accompanied death-the living had no biological explanation for or understanding of germs, yet their selected moral traditions roughly followed the better decontamination and social grief release procedures possible given the criteria.
Social behavior tends to adapt its moral guidelines appropriate for the times. One sees the changes in feminist politics and employment following Rowe vs. Wade and the changes in sexual practices after the marketing of birth control pills. Moral guidelines tend to be rules of conduct with less than a substantive codification into law, although moral norms are often made into laws.
Natural law is its own implicit moral criterion that emerges throughout human cultures although not uniformly. Revelations of a divine nature are on occasions instructions for individual and social behavior that one disregards only at one's peril, and there is no necessary causal link between the emergence of moral codes from direct divine revelation, although some of the latter have been found through investigation to coincide with reasonable historical grounds for emergence into being.
Philosophical definition of terms such as good and evil tend have ontological values that vary, and construction of logical propositions and formations for moral axioms to induct responsive behavior conformity historically have been of a subjective and temporal nature. Good is a concept that requires a particular definition-utilitarians and others have obviously considered what good is, and if the greatest good for the greatest number is truly moral when that premise is exploited to annihilate individual primacy in existential social worth. If a political order pursues a particular highest moral goal that is good, then it might justify any lesser evil to advance society toward that goal as good as well. All evil in support of an ultimate goal is phenomenally good as well. The opportunities to disclarify terms are evident and abundant in such abstract impersonal approaches to manufacture of moral values.
Abstract moral values made practice by elite imposition are sometimes examples of the elevation of abstract goals through equivocation to a moral good that may then be placed upon the society as a straightjacket. Nietchze's idea that the annihilation of traditional morality and of Christian values obviously adversely influenced Germany toward a self-destructive political course in the 20th century. Some have noted that the adoption of mass social moral values of anti-values tend to bring about the most rigid mass social conformity possible as one might find in a gang, militant terror organization or the Hitler Youth Movement-Even Stalin's Russia sought to impose a culling moral existential guideline that would have been a comfortable philosophical fit for the Khmer Rouge in Kampuchea.
The abstract construction of moral value in order to bring about political change is a common enough historical occurrence. Even today in the United States there is a possibility of a Presidential contest in 2012 between two non-Christians from different parties yet in a way from the same state of Massachusetts with each advocating a corporatist health care plan in a state with homosexual marriage. One might speculate that the operative new moral axiom for the godless atheism of Massachusetts is Darwin' gambit; the over-use of evolution as a tool for the controverion of morality for-itself.
The philosophical consideration of the range of behavior useful to human life in a criterion of phenomenal evolution is not limited to crass anything goes-ism. There are implicit physical and spiritual criteria of the empirical state of being that makes some intentional and unintentional behaviors good, and other bad. Then again, there are transcendent questions concerning morality that are a matter of faith and insight.
One might consider Navaho funeral behavior of the 19th century and note that the procedures of the Shamanistic tradition were regarding life rather than the afterlife, and that the customs of body washing with soap of the funeral participants after three days, of not looking north and of concern for evil spirits coincided with the avoidance of germs and communicable diseases that often accompanied death-the living had no biological explanation for or understanding of germs, yet their selected moral traditions roughly followed the better decontamination and social grief release procedures possible given the criteria.
Social behavior tends to adapt its moral guidelines appropriate for the times. One sees the changes in feminist politics and employment following Rowe vs. Wade and the changes in sexual practices after the marketing of birth control pills. Moral guidelines tend to be rules of conduct with less than a substantive codification into law, although moral norms are often made into laws.
Natural law is its own implicit moral criterion that emerges throughout human cultures although not uniformly. Revelations of a divine nature are on occasions instructions for individual and social behavior that one disregards only at one's peril, and there is no necessary causal link between the emergence of moral codes from direct divine revelation, although some of the latter have been found through investigation to coincide with reasonable historical grounds for emergence into being.
Philosophical definition of terms such as good and evil tend have ontological values that vary, and construction of logical propositions and formations for moral axioms to induct responsive behavior conformity historically have been of a subjective and temporal nature. Good is a concept that requires a particular definition-utilitarians and others have obviously considered what good is, and if the greatest good for the greatest number is truly moral when that premise is exploited to annihilate individual primacy in existential social worth. If a political order pursues a particular highest moral goal that is good, then it might justify any lesser evil to advance society toward that goal as good as well. All evil in support of an ultimate goal is phenomenally good as well. The opportunities to disclarify terms are evident and abundant in such abstract impersonal approaches to manufacture of moral values.
Abstract moral values made practice by elite imposition are sometimes examples of the elevation of abstract goals through equivocation to a moral good that may then be placed upon the society as a straightjacket. Nietchze's idea that the annihilation of traditional morality and of Christian values obviously adversely influenced Germany toward a self-destructive political course in the 20th century. Some have noted that the adoption of mass social moral values of anti-values tend to bring about the most rigid mass social conformity possible as one might find in a gang, militant terror organization or the Hitler Youth Movement-Even Stalin's Russia sought to impose a culling moral existential guideline that would have been a comfortable philosophical fit for the Khmer Rouge in Kampuchea.
The abstract construction of moral value in order to bring about political change is a common enough historical occurrence. Even today in the United States there is a possibility of a Presidential contest in 2012 between two non-Christians from different parties yet in a way from the same state of Massachusetts with each advocating a corporatist health care plan in a state with homosexual marriage. One might speculate that the operative new moral axiom for the godless atheism of Massachusetts is Darwin' gambit; the over-use of evolution as a tool for the controverion of morality for-itself.
The philosophical consideration of the range of behavior useful to human life in a criterion of phenomenal evolution is not limited to crass anything goes-ism. There are implicit physical and spiritual criteria of the empirical state of being that makes some intentional and unintentional behaviors good, and other bad. Then again, there are transcendent questions concerning morality that are a matter of faith and insight.
1/3/12
Mo Seeming to Gather for Rick Santorum
Rick Santorum seems to have the valuable MO going into the first primary contest of the 2012 Presidential season. if he wins or finishes second his candidacy may be well set to surge in South Carolina.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676705/iowa-caucus-rick-santorum-staffers.jhtml
Mitt Romney may alienate some voters because he received a Vietnam draft deferment as a 'Mormon minister'. While ordinary Americans were slogging though the muck of the rice paddies the heir of the American motors CEO got deferments like so many of his destined to wealth class in order to bring the Mormon faith to Parisians.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/21/9613042-character-matters?chromedomain=nbcpolitics
Avoiding ill-planned wars is not necessarily a bad idea, yet it is consistent with the yippification of Wall Street insiders seeking to concentrate class wealth as well. Many of that class are happy enough to send a well paid mercenary military to combat in profitable for corporate wars.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1676705/iowa-caucus-rick-santorum-staffers.jhtml
Mitt Romney may alienate some voters because he received a Vietnam draft deferment as a 'Mormon minister'. While ordinary Americans were slogging though the muck of the rice paddies the heir of the American motors CEO got deferments like so many of his destined to wealth class in order to bring the Mormon faith to Parisians.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/21/9613042-character-matters?chromedomain=nbcpolitics
Avoiding ill-planned wars is not necessarily a bad idea, yet it is consistent with the yippification of Wall Street insiders seeking to concentrate class wealth as well. Many of that class are happy enough to send a well paid mercenary military to combat in profitable for corporate wars.
1/2/12
On Free Will
Free will is a state of affairs existing for a sentient being within a particular context. One may make choices on Earth that are not possible on a planet with stronger gravity or alien oligarchs that insist that none besides themelves have free will.
Mathematics has conditional free will opportunities abundantly-even infinitely within some sets of numbers. One may make right or wrong combinations, placements or intervals and be free. Maybe cognizant coincidence of positive choices with intention indicates free will when the possibilities for error are rich.
Free will may be developed with increased knowledge and when range of intellectual selection/motion multiply.
Do any know how to deal with the global warming Siberian methane hydrate burp that may reult in release of a global warming gas 25 times more powerful than co2 and in a quantity of 1,400 billion tons? Free will in political intelligence is as restricted as in authoritarian ocieties sometimes even when they are nominally free socieities because the politicians are daft.
Mathematics has conditional free will opportunities abundantly-even infinitely within some sets of numbers. One may make right or wrong combinations, placements or intervals and be free. Maybe cognizant coincidence of positive choices with intention indicates free will when the possibilities for error are rich.
Free will may be developed with increased knowledge and when range of intellectual selection/motion multiply.
Do any know how to deal with the global warming Siberian methane hydrate burp that may reult in release of a global warming gas 25 times more powerful than co2 and in a quantity of 1,400 billion tons? Free will in political intelligence is as restricted as in authoritarian ocieties sometimes even when they are nominally free socieities because the politicians are daft.
Elija and Problems With Political Leadership
The United States in its 2012 Presidential primary election season seems fundamentally presented with slim pickins. Some of us would prefer that Jesus just rapture us out right now and let the godless atheists ruin the world their own way-possibly frightening everyone with mechanical robotic snakes slithering about every neighborhood in search of hate speech against the government.
Few plain Christian candidates with economic competence seem to have any interest in reforming the Christian Church into a better functioning priesthood of beleivers. The candidates advocate no cost moral positions (what does it cost to make abortion illegal again?) but ignore the other Christian points about being of service to the poor. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and said that leaders ought to serve. Today's candidates ask for capital gains and income tax cuts for the rich and have enough interest in creating free health care for the poor.
President Obama obviously brought sex change to the nation and little else-the nation's military is moving down the trail of homosexual marriages, homosexual basic allowance for quarters and so forth while the institution is itself a professional service without ordinary citizens interested in joining it via the draft.
Mitt Romney is the obvious best qualified candidate on economic and secular interests yet isn't a Christian-and that worries Christians eager to please God (see the excerpt from the King James version following). One doesn't want to gain the world yet lose one's soul-neither does one want to elect economically incompetent and /or corrupt politician exploiting Christians for political support.
2nd Kings -
"1Then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.
2And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease.
3But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron?
4Now therefore thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed.
5And when the messengers turned back unto him, he said unto them, Why are ye now turned back?
6And they said unto him, There came a man up to meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that thou sendest to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.
7And he said unto them, What manner of man was he which came up to meet you, and told you these words?
8And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite.
9Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down.
10And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
11Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly.
12And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
13And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.
14Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight.
15And the angel of the LORD said unto Elijah, Go down with him: be not afraid of him. And he arose, and went down with him unto the king.
16And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron, is it not because there is no God in Israel to enquire of his word? therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.
17So he died according to the word of the LORD which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram reigned in his stead in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah; because he had no son."
Few plain Christian candidates with economic competence seem to have any interest in reforming the Christian Church into a better functioning priesthood of beleivers. The candidates advocate no cost moral positions (what does it cost to make abortion illegal again?) but ignore the other Christian points about being of service to the poor. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and said that leaders ought to serve. Today's candidates ask for capital gains and income tax cuts for the rich and have enough interest in creating free health care for the poor.
President Obama obviously brought sex change to the nation and little else-the nation's military is moving down the trail of homosexual marriages, homosexual basic allowance for quarters and so forth while the institution is itself a professional service without ordinary citizens interested in joining it via the draft.
Mitt Romney is the obvious best qualified candidate on economic and secular interests yet isn't a Christian-and that worries Christians eager to please God (see the excerpt from the King James version following). One doesn't want to gain the world yet lose one's soul-neither does one want to elect economically incompetent and /or corrupt politician exploiting Christians for political support.
2nd Kings -
"1Then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.
2And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease.
3But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron?
4Now therefore thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed.
5And when the messengers turned back unto him, he said unto them, Why are ye now turned back?
6And they said unto him, There came a man up to meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that thou sendest to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.
7And he said unto them, What manner of man was he which came up to meet you, and told you these words?
8And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite.
9Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down.
10And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
11Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly.
12And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
13And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.
14Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight.
15And the angel of the LORD said unto Elijah, Go down with him: be not afraid of him. And he arose, and went down with him unto the king.
16And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron, is it not because there is no God in Israel to enquire of his word? therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.
17So he died according to the word of the LORD which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram reigned in his stead in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah; because he had no son."
'The One' in relation to Buddhist Atheism and .American Atheism
The atheism of Buddhism is not like that of American atheism. American atheism is a simple non-belief in anything besides the secular and immediately evident occasionally piled up with the whipped crème of historical and futurist extrapolation from the present. Buddhist atheism on the other hand is a kind of religion of belief in non-being. Buddhism’s has its own contradictions dissimilar from those of automobile driving consumerist atheist.
The 2nd century neo-Platonist philosopher Plotinus wrote of 'The One'. The One is what we would call God. Eternal and omniscient, omnipotent and source of all things, everything that exists is an emanation from The One. Buddhists have a sort of reasoning from the apparent trancendingly through its temporal illusoriness back toward the one nirvana of non-being. Plotinus in his 54 tractates named 'The Enneads' explained that the One emanates another figure named 'The Intelligence' who creates all the things that exist in various forms-no excluding necessarily apparent evolution within a temporal universe.
Plotinus charts reality from The One downward through a realm of forms to this world with far too many broken forms. Buddhist reason from this realm of broken forms upward or downward through to one state of non-being. The initial motivation of the Buddha was to overcome suffering in this world. Influenced by the Hindu concept of Maya or temporal illusion the Buddha sought to see through temporality and disregard the phenomena of pain.
Because belief in God is the eight heresy of Buddhism they are left in theory with an eventual pervasive nothingness of cosmology as the final state. While human mind is phenomenal and dissolves with life or even before, the experience of life and the contents of thought are all that human beings seem to have-so one must make one's thoughts count as far as possible for the good.
Buddhism presently shares a cosmological paradox with theoretical physics and cosmology in explaining how being even if temporal illusion-how anything at all exists. Descartes' had a similar philosophical challenge. Even if existence is an illusion it is an illusion of something, somewhere. The Universe may have always existed as a derivative of The One or it may have appeared in being as a creation from someone.
Christians believe that The One, or God created all that is in some way, in some order. Buddhists stop at the point of investigation of the negation of temporality as permanence and point to non-being as the normative state, while American atheists believe in Darwin' gambit as the mechanical universe's agent for issuing life. Christians and Buddhists might each be able to stipulate that the apparent world and universe of solid-state matter-energy is probabilistically entangled from some substrata of quantum uncertainty with exceedingly paradoxical and different criteria of space and time.
Consumerism as a label was an opening label in the class war of the godless atheist corporate and socialist ethos of broadcast power. Consumers vs. producers was an us-them paradigm useful for making workers feel useless and the rich, glorious. American atheism is a new and troublesome political front generated by the robotic surveillance snake-bots of power and idiocy.
The 2nd century neo-Platonist philosopher Plotinus wrote of 'The One'. The One is what we would call God. Eternal and omniscient, omnipotent and source of all things, everything that exists is an emanation from The One. Buddhists have a sort of reasoning from the apparent trancendingly through its temporal illusoriness back toward the one nirvana of non-being. Plotinus in his 54 tractates named 'The Enneads' explained that the One emanates another figure named 'The Intelligence' who creates all the things that exist in various forms-no excluding necessarily apparent evolution within a temporal universe.
Plotinus charts reality from The One downward through a realm of forms to this world with far too many broken forms. Buddhist reason from this realm of broken forms upward or downward through to one state of non-being. The initial motivation of the Buddha was to overcome suffering in this world. Influenced by the Hindu concept of Maya or temporal illusion the Buddha sought to see through temporality and disregard the phenomena of pain.
Because belief in God is the eight heresy of Buddhism they are left in theory with an eventual pervasive nothingness of cosmology as the final state. While human mind is phenomenal and dissolves with life or even before, the experience of life and the contents of thought are all that human beings seem to have-so one must make one's thoughts count as far as possible for the good.
Buddhism presently shares a cosmological paradox with theoretical physics and cosmology in explaining how being even if temporal illusion-how anything at all exists. Descartes' had a similar philosophical challenge. Even if existence is an illusion it is an illusion of something, somewhere. The Universe may have always existed as a derivative of The One or it may have appeared in being as a creation from someone.
Christians believe that The One, or God created all that is in some way, in some order. Buddhists stop at the point of investigation of the negation of temporality as permanence and point to non-being as the normative state, while American atheists believe in Darwin' gambit as the mechanical universe's agent for issuing life. Christians and Buddhists might each be able to stipulate that the apparent world and universe of solid-state matter-energy is probabilistically entangled from some substrata of quantum uncertainty with exceedingly paradoxical and different criteria of space and time.
Consumerism as a label was an opening label in the class war of the godless atheist corporate and socialist ethos of broadcast power. Consumers vs. producers was an us-them paradigm useful for making workers feel useless and the rich, glorious. American atheism is a new and troublesome political front generated by the robotic surveillance snake-bots of power and idiocy.
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