Friedrich Nietzsche said Perspective is Everything.* This PROJECT is an attempt to keep things in perspective.
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* The post-Modern attempt to put Nietzsche into perspective comes with that irony which hag-rides all our hopes. We credit FN with a critique (NOT comprehensive) of Civilization (NOT "Western") showing that the highest values in religion and morals have begun to lose their power to the all-embracing principle of self-aggrandizement. In fact, today we appreciate the realization that religion, morals, and even "philosophy" (even in its "prophetic" sense sought by FN) are simply expressions of a Will to power. Even the imaginary world expresses this Will, an attempt to develop the strength (we now think of it as "fitness") to survive unavoidable sufferings and misfortunes of existence. If we look "beyond Zarathustra", we see that all hierarchies are imaginary, masters are slaves, slaves master, and predators are prey. The Will is not in a vaccuum, and is actually interconnected to its surround, including other Wills. Can we have realistic ideals?
KENNEDY ASSASSINATION. Today, there have been more books written by amateur historians about the "conspiracies" involved in the Kennedy assassination than any other event in history. No other historical event is quite as interesting to people who feel compelled to publish their theories.
ReplyDeleteWHIPLASH. No-bone no-blood soft-tissue injuries resulting from high-way automobile collisions are an 8 billion dollar treatment industry in the US alone. This cost of treatment is borne largely by those who suffer from the whiplash itself. There is no "system" which effectively spreads this burden to all who benefit from roadways and cars. Insurance companies have their own agenda and business priorities.
ReplyDeleteAmerican "laws" do not compensate those who suffer from whiplash -- the substantive law of compensation for negligent torts may partially fund treatment, rarely pays wage loss, almost never pays for chronic pain (less than 1%), and never pays for the attorneys whose time is required if more than $1500 (the pay-out amount of 85% of claims) is appropriate. The life changes caused by pain and disability, even at low grades, are not even recognizable at law -- across impediments of speculation, procedural imposition on witnesses, etc. If an injury results in job loss or reduced income and as a result, financial obligations cannot be paid when due, few courts have awarded or inquired about compensation for the loss of credit and business reputation.
HERESIES OF THE RELIGIOUS. Just read "Legends of Modernity". Only in the letters of Czeslaw Milosz -- not in his speeches and poetry, nor even his book essays ("The Captive Mind" 1953 study of thinkers in totalitarian state) -- can you find the real heresy of a genuine Catholic: The more certain God seems to be, the more irreconcilable the belief in divine goodness, or even divine Creation, in the face of cruelty and injustice.
ReplyDeleteVery few can passionately pursue the real with any faith in an irreconcilable contradiction. It may be art, but it is not science, and may no longer be civilization. A kind of madness hangs over religion. It only relents, when you realize almost none of its non-real elements are "really" believed. Forgive them, they are not Mad, they are just pretending.