There is no excuse for refusing to honor Science and Religion, and their exceptionalist and universal roles in the life of any creature. Those creatures inhabiting the higher forms of Consciousness are expressing a longing for Truth and Faith, complimentary and opposed indices.
We are given only Scientific Truth and Religious Faith. We are not permitted "Scientific Faith"; we cannot give credence to "Religious Truth".
Consciousness is a vector. On this arrow we know we move to and from. Take our comfort in this Truth. Have Faith, as this is what we have.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
"Per Scientiam ad Justitiam" ("through science to justice").
Do not forget. The Nazi also confiscated the wealth of and attempted to destroy "homosexuals". Without evidence, and slapping the face of science, the Nazi targeted largely unarmed creative and productive people, and seized their property. The thugs funded their rise to power by stealing from hard-working but defenseless and law-abiding people.
Ironically, not only was Hitler part Jewish, but most of his cadre was remarkably repressed and sexually frustrated. Hitler never married and his mistress was sexually unsatisfied. Goering was an infamous cross-dresser and spent hours putting on his lipstick, foundation, and blush. Himmler surrounded himself with homosexuals and was notoriously uncomfortable around healthy people with "normal" relationships. The Nazi did persecute the gay population, but the fictional puffery of the Nazi is a pink swastika.
The brilliant scientist, Magnus Hirschfeld, was both gay and Jewish. His career of scientific and empirical study was destroyed by the Nazi. Hans P. Soetaert & Donald W. McLeod, "Un Lion en hiver: Les Derniers jours de Magnus Hirschfeld à Nice (1934-1935)" in Gérard Koskovich (ed.).
Ironically, another "school" of thought developed in Germany which was offended by science and particularly by the "feminine" side of men.
The other faction was organized by Adolf Brand, publisher of the first homosexual magazine, Der Eigene (The Special). Brand, Benedict Friedlander and Wilhelm Janzen formed the Gemeinschaft der Eigenen (The Community of the Special) in 1902. What divided these groups was their concepts of masculinity. Ulrichs' theory embraced a feminine identity. His, and later Hirschfeld's, followers literally believed they were women trapped in men's bodies.
The point is that not only were the controlling Nazis driven by a sexuality they did not understand, but they were themselves perverted by their own unwillingness or inability to BE who they were. How different the world could have been, had they been able to be gay.
Ironically, not only was Hitler part Jewish, but most of his cadre was remarkably repressed and sexually frustrated. Hitler never married and his mistress was sexually unsatisfied. Goering was an infamous cross-dresser and spent hours putting on his lipstick, foundation, and blush. Himmler surrounded himself with homosexuals and was notoriously uncomfortable around healthy people with "normal" relationships. The Nazi did persecute the gay population, but the fictional puffery of the Nazi is a pink swastika.
The brilliant scientist, Magnus Hirschfeld, was both gay and Jewish. His career of scientific and empirical study was destroyed by the Nazi. Hans P. Soetaert & Donald W. McLeod, "Un Lion en hiver: Les Derniers jours de Magnus Hirschfeld à Nice (1934-1935)" in Gérard Koskovich (ed.).
Ironically, another "school" of thought developed in Germany which was offended by science and particularly by the "feminine" side of men.
The other faction was organized by Adolf Brand, publisher of the first homosexual magazine, Der Eigene (The Special). Brand, Benedict Friedlander and Wilhelm Janzen formed the Gemeinschaft der Eigenen (The Community of the Special) in 1902. What divided these groups was their concepts of masculinity. Ulrichs' theory embraced a feminine identity. His, and later Hirschfeld's, followers literally believed they were women trapped in men's bodies.
The followers of Brand, however, were deeply insulted by Ulrichs' theory. They perceived themselves not merely as masculine, but as a breed of men superior in masculine qualities even to heterosexuals. The Community of the Special (CS) asserted that male homosexuality was the foundation of all nation-states and that male homosexuals represented an elite strata of human society. The CS fashioned itself as a modern incarnation of the warrior cults of ancient Greece. Modeling themselves after the military heroes of Sparta, Thebes and Crete, the members of the CS were ultra-masculine, male-supremacist and pederastic (devoted to man/boy sex). Brand said in Der Eigene that he wanted men who "thirst for a revival of Greek times and Hellenic standards of beauty after centuries of Christian barbarism."
One of the keys to understanding both the rise of Nazism and the later persecution of some homosexuals by the Nazis is found in this early history of the German "gay rights" movement. For it was the CS which created and shaped what would become the Nazi persona, and it was the loathing which these "Butches" held for effeminate homosexuals ("Femmes") which led to the internment of some of the latter in slave labor camps in the Third Reich
The point is that not only were the controlling Nazis driven by a sexuality they did not understand, but they were themselves perverted by their own unwillingness or inability to BE who they were. How different the world could have been, had they been able to be gay.
Monday, December 06, 2010
The Middle - the class position on prosperity
Why is there ONLY ONE "class" whose growth is helpful for everyone? The truth is, the Middle Class is the only class the everyone should cultivate and care about. The rich and the poor we have with us, whether or not we want them or try to grow them. In terms of peace and prosperity, only one class makes any difference. But exactly why is this so?
Our economy relies on strong consumers.
The poor are unable to buy, and rich rarely do -- they have everything they really need, and the rest they have the power to take without buying. Today, wealthy people put their wealth into off-shore accounts and engage in socially useless speculation and non-productive investments. For example, nothing is produced and the infrastructure of society is not enhanced by a "credit default swap" or a debenture or any "creative financial product". The rich and the poor are socially useless burdens, bless their hearts.
Hence, the great and unique economic contribution of the middle -- they have some money, and individually they do not have much power. The only real power they have is as consumers.
The more money consumers have, the more goods and services they buy. As their transactions increase, the need for sensible long-term infrastructure becomes clear. The need for roads, utilities, information, and even health care and schools, becomes obvious and self-fulfilling. Rising prosperity creates expectations and hopes, and as families are raised, the infrastructure takes shape which cultivates more prosperity.
The Middle class is the only class that cares about infrastructure. No one else needs hospitals and schools -- the poor need food and water, without which they would die before they could use health care and books. The rich of course, have their own medical care, and it is a historical fact that very few rich people have any personal interest in education or learning. The rich rarely educate themselves, much less provide information of any real use to anyone else.
The poor people are the first to celebrate their long-sought extinction. We cannot have "too few" who are living hand to mouth, or exposed to the exigencies of nature and trouble. The rich cling to their existence, and devote themselves to the extinction of the Middle Class, as if threatened by its mere existence. The rich classes thrill to the abundance of the poor. The rich appear to be uplifted by masses willing to serve them for pittances or for their forebearances -- for the privilege of not being beaten, or actively oppressed.
The Middle class stands alone, offering accessibility to the poor, and recovery from the rich, for the usurpations of both.
Our economy relies on strong consumers.
The poor are unable to buy, and rich rarely do -- they have everything they really need, and the rest they have the power to take without buying. Today, wealthy people put their wealth into off-shore accounts and engage in socially useless speculation and non-productive investments. For example, nothing is produced and the infrastructure of society is not enhanced by a "credit default swap" or a debenture or any "creative financial product". The rich and the poor are socially useless burdens, bless their hearts.
Hence, the great and unique economic contribution of the middle -- they have some money, and individually they do not have much power. The only real power they have is as consumers.
The more money consumers have, the more goods and services they buy. As their transactions increase, the need for sensible long-term infrastructure becomes clear. The need for roads, utilities, information, and even health care and schools, becomes obvious and self-fulfilling. Rising prosperity creates expectations and hopes, and as families are raised, the infrastructure takes shape which cultivates more prosperity.
The Middle class is the only class that cares about infrastructure. No one else needs hospitals and schools -- the poor need food and water, without which they would die before they could use health care and books. The rich of course, have their own medical care, and it is a historical fact that very few rich people have any personal interest in education or learning. The rich rarely educate themselves, much less provide information of any real use to anyone else.
The poor people are the first to celebrate their long-sought extinction. We cannot have "too few" who are living hand to mouth, or exposed to the exigencies of nature and trouble. The rich cling to their existence, and devote themselves to the extinction of the Middle Class, as if threatened by its mere existence. The rich classes thrill to the abundance of the poor. The rich appear to be uplifted by masses willing to serve them for pittances or for their forebearances -- for the privilege of not being beaten, or actively oppressed.
The Middle class stands alone, offering accessibility to the poor, and recovery from the rich, for the usurpations of both.
Saturday, December 04, 2010
Poem, of something rising
Oyez! All Beloved who gather here
Listen
is how the dream began
You striding across the Campo
down by the school-yard
And I opening
the heavy doors of a dark prism
Oyez! Beloved, it appeared, as if
the wood horses stopped in their grazing among the trees
being wheeled aside and light fell deep in the knell
to wolf and bear witness, as war burst out
of the belly up to the Bar.
I saw you as if a fragrance of my youth
had been spilt and splintered
upon the gold and scarlet song of a sunset.
I rode hard and wet upon the galloping emu of my hopes and found you feathers
and all perched and dry high among the rafters of birds winging back and forth
between the mud and the sky
Love comes in a dream to the bridging of us
to the meet of our desire
where you are this Appaloosa of my eye,
this reigning rein pulling an erasure across
my spotted memory of women who came and went,
and now is a tower together.
In my dream you were a moon beam
stuffed with personality like a congress making sausages,
a tube of round light being squeezed together from pig’s lips
and a turkey gobbling a language
and I dreamt I woke baffled
in the batter of something
Rising
Listen
is how the dream began
You striding across the Campo
down by the school-yard
And I opening
the heavy doors of a dark prism
Oyez! Beloved, it appeared, as if
the wood horses stopped in their grazing among the trees
being wheeled aside and light fell deep in the knell
to wolf and bear witness, as war burst out
of the belly up to the Bar.
I saw you as if a fragrance of my youth
had been spilt and splintered
upon the gold and scarlet song of a sunset.
I rode hard and wet upon the galloping emu of my hopes and found you feathers
and all perched and dry high among the rafters of birds winging back and forth
between the mud and the sky
Love comes in a dream to the bridging of us
to the meet of our desire
where you are this Appaloosa of my eye,
this reigning rein pulling an erasure across
my spotted memory of women who came and went,
and now is a tower together.
In my dream you were a moon beam
stuffed with personality like a congress making sausages,
a tube of round light being squeezed together from pig’s lips
and a turkey gobbling a language
and I dreamt I woke baffled
in the batter of something
Rising
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