lights ablaze
manikins of bankruptcy
stooges of deceit
manage the precedence
of the rapt elite

Gore and murder
destruction amuck
desires of a geometer
hones its target
Bad luck

For those who dally
in the fields of dreams
the scarlet rain
from up above
Drains

The innards of a mortal soul
the manners of a hollow abode
left by the rafters in the field
a callous act, a shallow deal.

When the death is done
in pale despair
the apt intent
of those deceived

relays the myth
from below the ground
that soft is black
and white abounds

and as the Tory
and the hare
reduce it all
to a flight, a stare

and when the deluge
trickles down
the mystic gains
its thorny crown.

Some people wonder why the USA is so violent.  Mass murder occurs it seems every week.  Gun owners see no connection between murder and gun ownership.  It is often said that people kill people and not guns, but guns make the matter so much easier. 

Individuality is the fundamental driver for this behavior.  It is no coincidence that the US places higher emphasis on individuality than any other country in the world.  How does this work?

Individuality is the primary consequence of the personal monotheistic religions.  Few can see in this country why this is so because they have been trained from infancy to embrace individuality.  There are none so blind than those that can’t see. 

Individuality is reinforced by capitalism and it is in their interest to do so.  A consumer society must reinforce self-centeredness and vanity.  Conceit rules the day.  Self- love in the US is the primary form of love.  Love for others is a poor second.  This atomization is necessary for the institutionalization of competition.  Inculcating desire in the individual at the expense of the “other” is the pimary motivator for action.  As one of my professors said humming the Disney tune “Hi Ho Hi Ho it’s off to work I go” replacing it with “I own I owe it’s off to work I go” illustrated the human condition that exists in the US economy.  It was not that former president Bushes plea for people to “spend” as their patriotic duty simply encouraging others to acquire more goods so as to bring about greater happiness, but rather the admonition to spend was rooted in forcing people farther into the depths of debt forcing them to work harder and harder and enable even greater debt assumption.  Thus is the yoke of capitalism and wage slavery. 

People are inculcated with the desire to acquire material possessions.  This is no accident due to the materialistic worldview of techno-scientism.  As most know one’s personal worth is assessed based on their material acquisitions.  Keeping up with the Joneses is a standard and well known commercial affair.

But like Hegel’s supposition that all things lie wait in the constant state of transition, the capitalistic worldview holds traps for the capitalists themselves.  While the proletariats are consumed with modes of acquisiton to prove their worth to themselves and to God above, firearms are necessary to protect these material things from the aquisitive others and the government beyond.  The leveling of Socialism is often the battle cry.  It is fine when these unfortunates can be herded by the capitalists as they have in the past to support fascist regimes, but also this can backfire and result in a frontal attack on the capitalists themselves.

While perhaps it would be unfair to attribute to the capitalists the result of the weekly murderous rampage found easily in the press, the culpability of capitalism cannot be overlooked as being the result of class appeal and resulting ultimately in the other isms which are unpopular at the time.  Loss of the herd can have terrible consequences and I admonish the capitalists to take this into consideration when trying to drive the herd.  Too easily can the populace turn against the government and ultimately the capitalists if they clearly can see their lot.  Capitalists are encouraged to to be aware that that which drives the individual in the acquistion of goods can errrantly have the object of this conceit and anger turned against it.

And love, oh love.  For what is love?  To love so intensely one must be deeply attached to that which one wants to possess.  Likewise hate is a passionate feeling as well for those who desperately practice avoidance.  Love for the creator, vindictiveness and scorn for the created.  What an uncomfortable existence.  What then is one to do?

Our innermost psyche embraces the emblems of religion.  Like food and water it finds a place for us who are so alone.  Jesus lives in our lives and Jesus is implanted in our brains.  The emotions run rampant.  To serve Jesus is to serve oneself.  To deny him is to threaten ones very existence.  No wonder those who betray the popular conceptions of Jesus are cursed and damned.  Being damned is especially pronounced by apostates that reject popular Islam.  For Jesus to love us he must love ourselves truly.  For Jesus can love nothing else if it is not another.  Love is like that.  For to love oneself only without God or ideology is a form of narcissistic masturbation.

The irony is lost on this fundamentalist lot that Jesus in his portrayal is feminized.  Long flowing locks of hair.  Long gowns which adorn him and his disciples.  But Jesus is a holy icon.  He is almost neutered and no reference is made to his sexual preferences.  This idealization appeals to a  unity between both sexes.  Like the Virgin Mary who gives birth without the benefit of male impregnation, sex is taboo and repressed and objectifed in  a passion for the God Almighty.  One is reminded of the holy rollers writhing in extacy in the church aisles. 

Unfortunately like many philosophers Jesus was executed.  His teaching if they are indeed his are flowery, rhapsodic and wonderful.  Yet the brutal exection has become the purpose of his life.  I hope my life is remembered more for how i lived my life rather than how I died.  A tombstone looks so cold alone in the ground.

With the spread of the western worldview there is an attempt to indoctrinate other belief systems into our “natural” calling.  These heterogenists have no qualms about homogenizing the peoples of Asia, Africa and elsewhere in this shadowy mind altering belief.  At the beck and call of one’s master – the priest or pastor of the parish, these fundamentalist laity move as ordered to serve their holy masters.  And if asked they fall like lemmings off a cliff in protection of their God fearing beliefs.  Ideology is like this.  But ideological narcisism is not particular to western religion. 

In fact it is not particular to religion at all.  Atheist ideology killed more people in the 20th century than all other groups combined.  One only needs to look at Mao or Stalin or Pol Pot.  Radical communism is not different from fundamentalist religion.  Both are ideologically driven, both see the coming of a new age whether on earth or in heaven and both emphasize struggle and death to achieve the promised land.  Both being contrarian in nature this explains why the fundamentalists hate the communist and the communists hate the fundamentalists.  Well perhaps “hate” is too harsh because one would be more than happy to convert and “save” the other. 

The kinder and softer socialism is like those who embrace others with the love of Jesus.  But like the radical communists, the more radical fringe of the fundamentalists becomes hateful, tyrannical and murderous.  Just as the priests are out to save souls and are the most excellent of all, the doctors of Cuba are out to save the world from one’s physical ailments.  One caters to the soul and the other caters to the body but in fact both are ideological in nature. 

Both worldviews take hold in the psyche,  Whether we side with the communist homogeny or the christian heterogeny.  World business has already thrown heterogeny to the wind.  The world nature of business and greed trumps ideology and nationality.  The fundamentalist Christians rail against the one world government and pray for help from their savior to remain free.  Socialism in the US is manifested in their minds now in the debate over health care and is considered the biggest threat to the fundamentalists of their God given freedom.  But then is socialism taking over?

Hardly.  Only the amassing of capital is the owners creed.  Radical communism is not any more dictatorial than fundamentalist religious totalitarianism.  According to the capitalists, whatever gets the job done. Encouraging ideology among the masses but valuing only the acquisition of wealth for themselves the proletariat ideology serves the capitalist bosses well.  Threatened with the fear of slavery from the socialists or the socialists fear of being exploited by their capitalist bosses all people are kept off balance in a constant state of limbo, never finding their balance in the world that shakes constantly from financial earthquakes and aftershocks.  But as long as lip service is paid to the “love of Jesus” by the politicians or the martyrs of the revolution by the “communists” the capitalist bosses grow and thrive like a rapacious ivy run amok.

What were politicians thinking when they signed these free trade agreements?  Are they working for some foreign power?  How could they sell their constituents down the river?  Now the unemployment rate is over 10.2 percent nationally and the population is in an uproar.  But what is the complaint about anyways?  There is plenty of work.

The military is hiring.  The US with bases around the world and two wars and two impending conflicts there is no shortage of military employment.  So step right up and sign your life away.  Lucky for the rich that there is no forced conscription and that this military is all “volunteer.”  People that need to feed their families who have no gainful means of employment are stuck.

One wonders whether this is intentional.  The only possibilities for employment in the US generally is the war munitions plants or in the service using these weapons.  Also sales of these weapons still are in great demand around the world.  Well we may not export anything else but war munitions, but what else do we have to export if we control the use of these weapons.  The fact of the matter is that we need no manufacturing base in order to fulfill the basic needs of US citizens.  The vast armament of military weapons enable the US to take pretty much whatever it wants at will.  Using poor citizens, instilling in them patriotism while blinding them to the true intention of their mission, they serve as fodder for the ruling elite.  The military may offer menial pay but ultimately good benefits and a good retirement plan if you live and last to retirement.

I wonder if it is just coincidental that the impoverished economy is an intended result to enforce conscription.  At any rate it seems like an expected outcome, if it is not an intended outcome (come on the government knows what is happening) because of the massive taxpayers fortunes poured into the military services.   With the demand for troops and and the hazardous nature of military duty some incentive must be implemented.  What is better than the financial incentive.  Let’s face it, the military would have a difficult time reaching it’s quota without the dismal economy.  Universal conscription is not the preferred option because of the risk of a public outcry by the privileged classes.  The military industrial complex no longer is an aspect of US life but has become the only game in town.  The international business conglomerates have no allegiance to the US and it’s workers.  They happily abandon the US workers and happily subject them to world conflict, those being asked to lose their lives for the interest of business and the ruling class. 

The US simply provides the brute force that constrains those who would obstruct our policies of controlling the worlds resources.  But if the world conglomerates have no allegiance to the US worker then how are these spoils to be distributed?  Certainly the wheel for the war industry must be greased and the military work force must have the basics for life in order to serve their function in allegiance to their capitalist bosses.  Ultimately of course the capitalists are looking to acquire the greatest profits at the least expense.  If this means moving former US jobs to sweat shops in the third world so be it.

One might wonder why the US is awarded this function of being the world’s defenders of the capitalists.  Couldn’t this be outsourced too?  Some countries may not be so malleable when it comes to corporate influence.  The corruption of the US government is so pronounced it aint funny.  Bribery is legal.  What else would you call a politician that is bred from infancy with special interest money who is to serve their whole career for their oligarchical cronies.  If for a second they drop the ball they are consigned to obscurity as they would be attacked by the corporate media and all funding would be removed for future campaigns.  This spells disaster.  The fact of the matter is business owns the government and indirectly (well not so indirectly) the war machine.  Eventually the military itself may be outsourced if suitable corrupt and trustworthy governments can be found with a hungry military which is willing to die for less.   

Stay tuned, the next act is coming soon.

Another problem is that if something creates something then the thing it creates must be distinct from that which was created.  But when something is created the thing it creates is foreign to the creator.  If this creation is foreign to God then how can God be all-powerful?  It seems clear that the thing God creates is limited in contrast to God’s infinite power.  How can this be?  It seems that the thing that the infinite God creates must be divine itself, but if this is so how are we to decide that it is in fact separate?  Also closely related is the question of how can something created by God have nothing in common with God if God is infinite (e.g., encompassing all)?  This is one reason for the angels and later the Christ which tied together the infinite and the finite.

The one way to address these problems is to avoid at least directly that the connection between the creator is that which moves and the created  that which lies in stasis.  Asian thought addresses these issues in a different way.  In Taoism there is the trinity of Non-Being, Being and the 10,000 things.  Non-Being can be thought of as pure potentiality, like an acorn that grows into a great oak tree.  All of the great oaks potential lies in the acorn although it is clear that the great oak is not the acorn and are at least in this sense separate from the great oak but not the oak itself.  Likewise when thinking of the 10,000 things, actually representing all of the diversity in the world, especially within humankind, one can characterize the difference between individual (the 10,000 things), the gross aggregate components of the universe (e.g., Being) and creative potentiality (e.g., Non-Being)  where humans draw their difference from Non-Being and Being by it’s status as an ethical being.  Non-Being then is potential, and Being is existence then the individual is morality.  Morality is the individual human component and contribution to the infinite.  It is clear that humans could not exist without existence and this existence could not exist without the potentiality or possibility of  Non-Being (e.g., the potential of existence).  Likewise Non-Being would not be pure potentiality if it did not potentiate Being or existence.  And of course also Being would not be without the existence of “things” in the universe (e.g., human beings for example).  So we can see that each aspect of the Tao (e.g., Non-Being, Being and the 10,000 things) depend on each other and in fact are ultimately inseparable.  Yet by the same token the manifestation of each is unique (at least conceptually).  No causal factor is implied because there is no hierarchy of factors and all are necessary and essential (Non-Being, Being and the 10,000 things).  Since there is no primary mover then the uniquely western problem of which came first the chicken or the egg is not played out (e.g., the Aristotelian Mover and the Moved).  Non-Being is conceptual but dynamic rather than being a discrete entity and this serves well as illustration.

Hinduism has struggled with this problem between the moved and the mover.  It has tried to resolve this problem by stating that that which is infinite or eternal (e.g., Brahman) is that which is “real” but that which exists (e.g., the material world) is simply an illusion.  While not really solving the problem of the unmoved mover because the question is how can an illusion come out of that which is fundamentally real, but it is also clearly nonintuitive (and I think sometimes it is safe to trust our intuitions) where that which is intangible (atemporal and aspatial ) is that which is real and that which is tangible (the temporal and the spatial) is that which is an illusion.  Logically it is difficult to see why such things might be and seems difficult to defend. 

 Buddhism on the other hands simply throws out the metaphysical aspect of this discussion (e.g., God, the infinite,  Non-Being) and talks about the practical aspect of things where we live in the world and therefore our focus should address the problems of the world.  Unfortunately this seems to just ignore or throw out the foundational problem of the unmoved mover which moves something else.  Buddhism does advance the theory of dependent origination which escapes the problem of the unmoved/moved mover problem because everything that exists is dependent on everything else.  Therefore there is no need to posit that which is essential or primal.  But one problem that needs to be addressed it seems is why are things as they are?  How did things get to be as they are?  Are the things truly real if they don’t depend on everything else to exist?  This draws back on the question that “Do we really exist?”  Like Hinduism, Buddhism embraces the idea of reincarnation but if we do not exist essentially then what is reincarnated?  How can certain aspects of one’s lives be carried over to the subsequent existence?  It seems that Buddhism can’t have it both ways by ignoring both creation and the created, at the same time, by using dependent origination.

It is important to note that things do exist or at least seem to.  We are constantly getting sensory feedback of this fact.  It is easy to examine the logic of this fact.

For something to exist it must be composed of the aggregates of existence (e.g., your car, the stars, your house, your children, etc.).  If this were not true then of course nothing would or could exist.  If there were no existence then the potential of existence would not be part of the equation either because this potential must ultimately realize something or no potential is there as stated before.  But it is even simpler than this because there must be the things of existence for there to be existence for without existence we would arrive at the Buddhism void or nothingness.  This void or nothingness cannot be objectified so cannot even be talked about.  It is a mystical concept.  Many might claim, and they might be right, that to talk about this Void is impossible and therefore ridiculous to contemplate.  Ordinarily you are not going to get very far in a conversation when talking about the void.  At any rate it seems to talk about existence and the void as being the same in the same breath is to be non-intuitive and bizarre.

But it seems that we do exist, that is if we are not deluded.  Of course if we are deluded that fact “a priori” determines that we do in fact exist.  So ipso facto we do exist!  This reminds me of Descartes “I think therefore I am” but avoids the mind/body problem: (e.g., how can an atemporal aspatial “thing” [the mind] have a relationship between that and the spatial and temporal thing [the body] where in fact they never seem to meet).  The fact is that for there to be existence things must exist.  We avoid the Mover/Unmoved Mover dilemma.  We are drawn out of this monism (e.g., oneness) because if we do not and cannot assert the void and don’t believe that which we take as existing is not and cannot be illusion then existence is, can and must be distinct from some metaphysical construct.   For how could these “things” be at all if they did not exist.  It seems existence is the only logical answer.

So rest assured that you do exist because it now has been proven (as if you had any doubt in the first place).  I ‘m sure in fact you haven’t really questioned this unless you are on your way to the insane asylum.  Therefore a distinction need not be made beween the mover (e.g., the creator)  and the thing moved (e.g., that which finds itself in the state of stasis) because things must be as they are and cannot be any other way.  When you have an accident or enjoy a drink you can feel comfortable that your sensations and feelings are in fact yours and that they must be so.   But of course you already knew that!  

It seems in infinity all things remain possible and necessary (including existence) so then what is the nature of the infinite?

I found my book “The Yoga Party: Philosophical Writings” on the following site.  It is a book rental site.  It’s at Chegg.com  They didn’t even have the decency to offer me royalties.  And they put it up on their site without even asking permission.  I told them that I gave the book away (for now on Google Book Search) for free so I sure don’t want them making money on hard copies of it.  They are advertising it to rent but they are fishing for a copy.  On the site it states the following:

I have asked them to remove the listing.  This site caters to students and I think the emphasis is on non-fiction but my book is certainly not a text book so there is no figuring it out.  The kicker is they didn’t even include my name in the listing!

Beware

Nevertheless this blog will remain active.  I will rely more on speculative and analytical thought from a philosophical bent with an eye toward publishing another book not necessarily parallel with my book The Yoga Party: Philosophical Writings, although what this might exactly be remains to be seen.  When I write I write more about what I feel than what I think.  I know this seems contradictory.  It’s more inspiration than anything else.

So for now at least The Yoga Party: Philosophical Writings (as I told someone recently) will be something that I did once.  There comes a time I suppose when an author has to leave a book behind and work on something new.

Variety is the norm of existence.  Normalcy is the variant of judgment.  For to be normal implies a sort of standard deviation where the most congregate around the mean and those that vary from the mean are progressively more outlandish.  But if everything was the same in our selfish existence then how would we find difference?  Darwinism determines this variance.  One persons deformity is anothers adaptation.  Some might say that a blind man and a color-blind man have something in common, blindness, but the hawk would consider us blind too even in all our glory.

The robustness of a species depends on the gene pool and this gene pool enhances the chances for the species survival if it is broad and deep.  Such is the nature of the infinite too – all things compose the infinite and so the infinite cannot be a norm but rather simply a composition of the stuff of all.  It too is broad and deep.  So suffice it to say nothing is flawed.

If there is a flaw then it is not understanding the unity that composes all things.  To be blind to the forces of nature which tug at our loins ignores the material and spiritual outcropping and subsequent growth.  Underneath us all lies a creature that has been most successful up to this point in history although there is no assurance for the future.  To hold on to some divineness in order to become like an angel is impossible because there are no angels.  Well at least there are no angels in the sky.  To act in a manner that benefits all things is the noblest thing one can do.  But the dystopian spirit that surrounds us now cannot permit it.

To be flawed is human.  To achieve divinity is to strive for power over others or having divinity applied to one’s life is a strategy for others to gain power over others.  There is no other reason.  Our words speak for ourselves.  The blood sweat and excrement all comes from our physical form and none can escape this unless they do not live.  It is best to accept one’s position in life rather than setting one’s goal on the impossible.

The only things that can benefit all is to bring about understanding and compassion.  Without these things nothing useful is done.

Thanks