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If you think I’ll be discussing basketball with you today… think again.
If you missed the cinematic grand opening… of “Hunger Games” yesterday… give yourself a point. If you, your children, or grandchildren… do not intend… to ever watch this movie – or if you’d never even heard of it before now – score yourself two. And count yourself blessed.
If you know of this past Thursday's World Water Day… consider yourself… both wary… and aware.
Well-being, defined correctly [but individually], begins by separating needs from wants – those things thought needful or born from necessity [because they are necessary to sustain life itself]… and those things thought desirous or wanted because they enhance or lend quality to well-being; or they bring about prosperity by contributing to wealth, health, and happiness.
Economy, defined correctly [but individually], is the efficient and responsible management of one’s own household [and, by extension, one’s own life]. Resources must be secured; and activities must be directed toward securing those resources thought necessary [first], then desirous [second].
Governing (managing or directing) all… is the Law; and here I’m speaking to true law… such as that which is natural [of nature], universal, scientific, and/or spiritual [divine]. It is law quite apart from the follies or conceits… of fallible men. As you know, for me, law is embodied in one symbolic word, CO[U]NT[E]R(A)CT – a word in which I also visualize [then internalize and digest] those other words… act, react, counter, country, contact [or contact], contract [or contract]… because I have considered this word etymologically. Synonyms for contact or contract include dialog and relationship… compact, understanding, covenant… promises broken or kept… affecting one’s promise… either thwarted, arrested… or fulfilled.
Now… last week [in March Hare], I ended the broadcast by making mere mention of a review in Le Quebecoise Libre [by Edward Younkins] of Henry Hazlitt’s 1951 science fiction novel… called Time Will Run Back: A Tale of the Reinvention of Capitalism.
This was after also mentioning the third best-selling novel of its day – after Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ – called Looking Backward 2000 - 1887… by American socialist Edward Bellamy.
The author of Economics in One Lesson, Hazlitt employs the science fiction medium to impart lessons concerning the nature of cause and effect… risk versus reward… and the philosophy of law as he contrasts it… with Wonworld, a Soviet-style, centrally-planned-and-tightly-controlled communist system… and Freeworld, a Western capitalist system with a market economy [and free enterprise]… and of human nature itself.
Society in Wonworld is made up of protectors, deputies, proletarians, and social unreliables. The protectors make up one percent of the population and are the top level officers. The deputies (intellectuals, managers, and technology experts) comprise about 10 percent of the population. It is only the highly ranked members who are treated well and are granted special privileges. Social unreliables are the 20 percent of the people who have committed crimes or who are incapable of being good proletarians. The proletarians, who make up the remainder of the population, are the so-called “rulers” of the nation. Marxist doctrine proclaims the emancipation of the proletariat, the oppressed class under a previous ideology.
Freeworld is incomparably superior to Wonworld with respect to war production. As a result, Wonworld surrenders and the war is over. [But here’s what I find disturbing about Younkins’ plot synopsis describing the conclusion in Hazlitt’s book] A constitution is written and a democracy is created. Peter decides not to run for election and appoints Adams to assume the leadership of the Freedom Party. For a while it looks like an eloquent candidate, who proposed a “Third Way” between capitalism and socialism, might win. In the end Adams’s party wins and he asks Parliament to name Peter as the first President.
Ideocracy… ideocrats… idiocy… and that pejorative – the word idiot. What is an idiot? You know I have a penchant for wordsmithing, a kind of a love for words combining literary studies, history and linguistics. For my own amusement I even invent words… such as the portmanteau, vocabularity – combining those words vocabulary and singularity… to conjure up a point of view… as it relates to language… and where the media [the cultural and technological milieu]… for its widespread abuse and misuse… seems to leading us today.
idiot
Devil’s Dictionary
A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot's activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but "pervades and regulates the whole." He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions and opinion of taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line.
Quotes
"In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made School Boards." - Mark Twain
"Why is it that wherever I go, the resident idiot heads straight for me?" - Gwynn Thomas
"It takes 50000 nuts to put a car together, but only one to scatter them all over the road." - Darryl Somers
“If the world be a global village, call me the village idiot.” – Lark In Texas
Etymology
Idiot as a word derived from the Greek ἰδιώτης, idiōtēs ("person lacking professional skill", "a private citizen", "individual"), from ἴδιος, idios ("private", "one's own"). In Latin the word idiota ("ordinary person, layman") preceded the Late Latin meaning "uneducated or ignorant person." Its modern meaning and form dates back to Middle English around the year 1300, from the Old French idiote ("uneducated or ignorant person"). The related word idiocy dates to 1487 and may have been analogously modeled on the words prophet and prophecy. The word has cognates in many other languages.
An idiot in Athenian democracy was someone who was characterized by self-centeredness and concerned almost exclusively with private—as opposed to public—affairs. Idiocy was the natural state of ignorance into which all persons were born and its opposite, citizenship, was effected through formalized education. In Athenian democracy, idiots were born and citizens were made through education (although citizenship was also largely hereditary). "Idiot" originally referred to "layman, person lacking professional skill", "person so mentally deficient as to be incapable of ordinary reasoning". Declining to take part in public life, such as democratic government of the polis (city state), was considered dishonorable. "Idiots" were seen as having bad judgment in public and political matters. Over time, the term "idiot" shifted away from its original connotation of selfishness and came to refer to individuals with overall bad judgment–individuals who are "stupid". According to the Bauer-Danker Lexicon, the noun ίδιωτής in ancient Greek meant "civilian" (ref Josephus Bell 2 178), "private citizen" (ref sb 3924 9 25), "private soldier as opposed to officer," (Polybius 1.69), "relatively unskilled, not clever," (Herodotus 2, 81 and 7 199). The military connotation in Bauer's definition stems from the fact that ancient Greek armies in the time of total war mobilized all male citizens (to the age of 50) to fight, and many of these citizens tended to fight poorly and ignorantly.
In modern English usage, the terms "idiot" and "idiocy" describe an extreme folly or stupidity, and its symptoms (foolish or stupid utterance or deed). In psychology, it is a historical term for the state or condition now called profound mental retardation.
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http://www.answers.com/topic/obscurantism
obscurantism
Obscurantism (French: obscurantisme, from the Latin obscurans, “darkening”) is the practice of deliberately preventing the facts or the full details of some matter from becoming known. There are two, common, historical and intellectual, denotations: 1) restricting knowledge—opposition to the spread of knowledge, a policy of withholding knowledge from the public, and, 2) deliberate obscurity—an abstruse style (as in literature and art) characterized by deliberate vagueness.
Obscurantism (French: obscurantisme, from the Latin obscurans, “darkening”) is the practice of deliberately preventing the facts or the full details of some matter from becoming known. There are two, common, historical and intellectual, denotations: 1) restricting knowledge—opposition to the spread of knowledge, a policy of withholding knowledge from the public, and, 2) deliberate obscurity—an abstruse style (as in literature and art) characterized by deliberate vagueness.
The term obscurantism derives from the title of the 16th-century satire Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum (Letters of Obscure Men), based upon the intellectual dispute between the German humanist Johann Reuchlin and Dominican monks, such as Johannes Pfefferkorn, about whether or not all Jewish books should be burned as un-Christian. Earlier, in 1509, the monk Pfefferkorn had obtained permission from Maximilian I (1486–1519), the Holy Roman Emperor, to incinerate all copies of the Talmud (Jewish law and Jewish ethics) known to be in the Holy Roman Empire; the Letters of Obscure Men satirized the Dominican monks' arguments for burning “un-Christian” works.
In the 18th century, Enlightenment philosophers used the term "obscurantism" to denote the enemies of the Enlightenment and its concept of the liberal diffusion of knowledge. Moreover, in the 19th century, in distinguishing the varieties of obscurantism found in metaphysics and theology from the “more subtle” obscurantism of Immanuel Kant's critical philosophy, and of modern philosophical skepticism, Friedrich Nietzsche said: “The essential element in the black art of obscurantism is not that it wants to darken individual understanding, but that it wants to blacken our picture of the world, and darken our idea of existence.”
Restricting knowledge
In restricting knowledge to an élite ruling class of “the few”, obscurantism is fundamentally anti-democratic, because its component anti-intellectualism and elitism exclude the people as intellectually unworthy of knowing the facts and truth about the government of their City-State. In 18th-century monarchic France, the Marquis de Condorcet, as a political scientist, documented the aristocracy’s obscurantism about the social problems that provoked the French Revolution (1789–99) that deposed them and their King, Louis XVI of France.
In the 19th century, the mathematician William Kingdon Clifford, an early proponent of Darwinism, devoted some writings to uprooting obscurantism in England, after hearing clerics — who privately agreed with him about evolution — publicly denounce evolution as un–Christian. Moreover, in the realm of organized religion, obscurantism usually is associated with religious fundamentalism, but is a distinct strain of thought independent of theologic allegiance. The distinction is that fundamentalism presupposes sincere religious belief, whereas obscurantism is based upon minority manipulation of the popular faith as political praxis, (cf. Censorship).
The obscurantist can be personally a scientist, a philosopher, a truly faithful person, a naturalist, or just agnostic, but, as one member of the society, believes that religion among the populace serves the aim of social control. To that effect, the obscurant limits the publication, extension, and dissemination of knowledge, of evidence countering the common-belief status quo with which the nation are ruled — the local variety of the necessary Noble Lie, introduced to political discourse by the Classical Greek philosopher Plato in 380 BC. Hence the “stable-status quo restriction of knowledge” denotation of obscurantism applied by pro-science reformers within religious movements, and by contemporary skeptics, such as H.L. Mencken, in critiquing religion.
Plato
The obscurant favors restricting knowledge (publication, extension, dissemination) among the populace, for the “greater good” of the nation and the City-State. Classical Greece (6–4 c. BC) provides an original and powerful source of obscurantism in The Republic (ca. 380 BC), wherein Plato proposes government via the Noble Lie — the necessary mythical justification for the status quo that guides the philosopher king in ruling society. To maintaining political stability, the Noble Lie naturally classifies people, determining their places in life and society, per the proportions of gold, silver, and iron, that each man and woman contained when formed in the earth; those meant to rule contained gold, whilst those meant to serve (soldiers, farmers, craftsmen et al.) respectively contained silver and iron.
It is noteworthy that Politeía (“City-State Governance”), i.e. "governing," not "government," is the original title of The Republic. From this philosophic source then derived Neo-Platonism, Christian mysticism, negative theology, and hermeticism, philosophies which use linguistic and logical strategies that indirectly speak about the ineffable — a concept inexpressible as thought, and only expressible as emotion. Historically, the idea that rulers and leaders know best is inherent to every form of totalitarianism. In the Skeptical Inquirer magazine (September–October 2004), the article “Obscurantism, Tyranny, and the Fallacy of Either Black or White” quotes Prof. Bergen Evans: “Obscurantism and tyranny go together.”
[Please read the rest from the link above. ~Lark;)]
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http://www.benbest.com/philo/diogenes.html
Diogenes of Sinope
By Ben Best
I have long been inspired by the apocryphal story that "Diogenes of Sinope" went about ancient Greece vainly searching for an honest man. But I have no interest in being his apologist. Since there is no authenticated historical documentation about him I will relate some of the tradition about his life more from the point of view of intrinsic interest than from concern for historical accuracy. A major source of information is the third century (AD) Roman doxographer Laetius Diogenes, from whom much that follows is taken.
"Cynicism" of ancient Greece and Rome derives its name from the Greek word for "Dog". Aristotle refers to Diogenes as "The Dog" and Diogenes seems to have accepted the nickname. Cynicism was not a "school of philosophy", but rather an "erratic succession of individuals" which can be said to have begun with the philosopher Antisthenes. Antisthenes, an intimate and admirer of Socrates, disclaimed refined philosophy believing that the plain man could know all there is to know. Antisthenes was probably more consciously philosophical though less clever than his pupil Diogenes. Antisthenes emphasized moral self-mastery and is said to have rejected government, property, marriage and religion. But while property was regarded as an encumberance by Antisthenes, Diogenes was not above stealing, claiming "all things are the property of the wise".
The objective of Cynicsm was self-sufficiency ("autarkeia") and the cynic virtues were the qualities through which freedom was attained. The most important virture was callousness or apathy, which had to be attained through training. Another virtue was ruggedness or endurance. The lower animals were to be emulated insofar as they were independent of clothing, shelter and the artificial preparation of food. Cynics sought to disregard laws, customs, conventions, public opinion, reputation, honor and dishonor. The Greek satirist Lucian represents a Cynic as saying: "Scruple not to perform the deeds of darkness in broad daylight. Select your love adventures with a view to public entertainment."
Diogenes was born in Sinope, an Ionian colony on the Black Sea. His father was responsible for the minting of coins and when Diogenes took to adulterating the coins with base metals he was banished from the city. He went to Athens with his slave Manes. Soon after, Manes fled. When Diogenes was advised to chase his runaway slave he replied, "It would be absurd if Manes can live without Diogenes, but Diogenes cannot get on without Manes".
In Athens Diogenes sought Antisthenes as his mentor. Antisthenes ordered him away and eventually beat him with his staff. Diogenes is quoted as saying, "Strike, for you will find no wood hard enough to keep me away from you, so long as I think you've something to say." The persistance of Diogenes broke the resistance of Antisthenes.
The record of explicit philosophy by Diogenes is meagre. He observed that if the flute-player or athlete were to devote their efforts towards training their mind or moral conduct the results would not be unprofitable. He also noted that just as those who are accustomed to a life of pleasure feel disgust when they experience the opposite, those habituated to a lack of pleasure seem to derive more pleasure from despising pleasure. He used to call the demagogues the lackeys of the people. He said bad men obey their lusts as servants obey their masters. He called love the business of the idle and said lovers derive their pleasure from their misfortune.
Diogenes did little philosophizing, but sought to live an exemplary life of autonomy. He lived in a tub and is said to have taken enormous pleasure in all that he did. He said Plato's lectures were a waste of time. Plato had defined Man as a "featherless biped". Diogenes plucked a fowl and brought it into the lecture room with the words "Here is Plato's man." In consequence of which there was added to the definition, "having broad nails". During an oration by Demosthenes Diogenes raised his middle finger and proclaimed "This is the great demagogue".
Insofar as Diogenes was known as "The Dog" throughout Athens, at a feast certain people kept throwing all the bones to him as they would to a dog. He played a dog's trick and urinated on them. It is said that Diogenes trampled upon Plato's carpets with the words "I trample upon the pride of Plato", who retorted, "Yes, Diogenes, with pride of another sort."
Being asked whether death was an evil thing, he replied, "How can it be evil, when in its presence we are not aware of it?" When someone declared that life is an evil, he said, "Not life itself, but living ill." To one who protested that he was ill adapted for the study of philosophy, he said, "Why then do you live, if you do not care to live well?" Seeing a youth dressing with elaborate care, he said, "If it's for men, you're a fool; if for women, a knave." Being asked what creature's bite is the worst, he said, "Of those that are wild, a sycophant's; of those that are tame, a flatterer's".
Having been invited to dinner, he declared that he wouldn't go — for the last time he went, his host had not expressed a proper gratitude. Someone took him into a magnificent house and warned him not to expectorate, whereupon having cleared his throat he discharged the phlegm into the man's face, being unable, he said, to find a meaner receptable.
Plato saw him washing lettuces, came up to him and quietly said to him, "Had you paid court to Dionysius you wouldn't now be washing lettuces." Diogenes with equal calmness answered, "If you had washed lettuces, you wouldn't have paid court to Dionysius."
One day he shouted out for men, and when people collected, hit out at them with his stick, saying, "It was men I called for, not scoundrels." Dio Chrysostom described Diogenes as terminating a discourse by squatting down and evacuating his bowels in the presence of his hearers. It is also said that he had no qualms about masturbating or performing other sexual acts in public.
Being asked why people give to beggars, but not to philosophers, he said, "Because they think they may one day be lame or blind, but never expect that they will turn to philosophy." He was asking alms of a bad-tempered man, who said, "Yes, if you can persuade me." "If I could have persuaded you," said Diogenes, "I would have persuaded you to hang yourself."
On a voyage to Aegina he was captured by pirates, conveyed to Crete and exposed for sale as a slave. When he was asked what he could do he replied, "Govern men." And he told the crier to give notice in case anybody wanted to purchase a master for himself. To Xeniades who purchased him he said, "You must obey me, although I am a slave; for, if a physician or a navigator were in slavery, he would be obeyed." Xeniades took him to Corinth, set him over his own children and entrusted his whole household to him.
Alexander once came and stood opposite him and said, "I am Alexander the great king." "And I, " said he, "am Diogenes the Cynic." When someone was extolling the good fortune and splendor another had experienced in sharing the suite of Alexander, Diogenes said, "Not so, but rather ill fortune — for he breakfasts and dines when Alexander thinks fit."
Alexander stood opposite him and asked, "Are you not afraid of me?" "Why, what are you, " said Diogenes, "a good thing or a bad?" Alexander replied, "A good thing" whereupon Diogenes said, "Who, then, is afraid of the good?" At another time Diogenes was sunning himself when Alexander stood over him and said, "Ask of me any boon you like." To which he replied, "Stand out of my light."
Alexander is reported to have said, "Had I not been Alexander, I should have liked to be Diogenes." As it turned out, both Diogenes and Alexander died on the same day in 323 B.C. Alexander was 33 and Diogenes was 90.
Insofar as Diogenes symbolizes a revolt against civilization I want little part of him. But I regard honesty as a paramount virtue. The distinction between the "artificiality" of civilized behaviour & integrity and that of affectation & pretence is a paradoxical one. Diogenes holds this issue before my gaze.
(See my essay Some Philosophizing about Lying.)
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http://video.answers.com/dr-michio-kaku-on-transporting-our-consciousness-into-robots-517068295
Dr. Michio Kaku on Transporting Our Consciousness into Robots
Answers.com
Pantheon.org
Eros
Eros, the Greek god of love and sexual desire (the word eros, which is found in the Iliad by Homer, is a common noun meaning sexual desire). He was also worshiped as a fertility god, believed to be a contemporary of the primeval Chaos, which makes Eros one of the oldest gods. In the Dionysian Mysteries Eros is referred to as "protagonus", the first born. But there are many variations to whom the parents of Eros really where. According to Aristophanes (Birds) he was born from Erebus and Nyx (Night); in later mythology Eros is the offspring of Aphrodite and Ares. Yet in the Theogony, the epic poem written by Hesiod, it mentions a typified Eros as being an attendant of Aphrodite, but not her son. Another legend says that he was the son of Iris and Zephyrus.
From the early legend of Eros it is said that he was responsible for the embraces of Uranus (Heaven or Sky) and Gaia (Earth), and from their union were born many offspring. It was also written that Eros hatched our race and made it appear first into the light (Birds, by Aristophanes). Although one of the oldest gods, he was a latecomer to Greek religion. He was worshiped in many regions of Greece, at Thespiae there was an ancient fertility cult, and in Athens he and Aphrodite had a joint cult. Also in Athens the fourth day of every month was sacred to Eros. Sometimes Eros was worshiped by the name Erotes (which is the plural of Eros); this personified all the attractions that evoked love and desire, this included heterosexual and homosexual allurements. Anteros (the Returner of Love also known as the god of Mutual Love) was the brother of Eros, which comes from the version of which Aphrodite and Ares are said to be the mother and father of Eros.
Eros is usually depicted as a young winged boy, with his bow and arrows at the ready, to either shoot into the hearts of gods or mortals which would rouse them to desire. His arrows came in two types: golden with dove feathers which aroused love, or leaden arrows which had owl feathers that caused indifference. Sappho the poet summarized Eros as being bitter sweet, and cruel to his victims, yet he was also charming and very beautiful. Being unscrupulous, and a danger to those around him, Eros would make as much mischief as he possibly could by wounding the hearts of all, but according to one legend he himself fell in love. This legend tells us that Eros was always at his mother’s side assisting her in all her conniving and godly affairs. The legend goes on to say that Aphrodite became jealous of the beauty of a mortal, a beautiful young woman named Psyche. In her fit of jealousy Aphrodite asked Eros to shoot his arrow into the heart of Psyche and make her fall in love with the ugliest man on earth. He agreed to carry out his mother’s wishes, but on seeing her beauty Eros fell deeply in love with Psyche himself. He would visit her every night, but he made himself invisible by telling Psyche not to light her chamber. Psyche fell in love with Eros even though she could not see him, until one night curiosity overcame her. She concealed a lamp and while Eros slept she lit the lamp, revealing the identity of Eros. But a drop of hot oil spilt from the lamp awakening the god. Angered she had seen him Eros fled and the distraught Psyche roamed the earth trying in vain to find her lover. In the end Zeus took pity and reunited them, he also gave his consent for them to marry. There are variations of this legend but most have the same outcome.
The Romans borrowed Eros from the Greeks and named him Cupid (Latin cupido meaning desire). Eros has been depicted in art in many ways. The Romans regarded him as a symbol of life after death and decorated sarcophagi with his image. The Greeks regarded him as most beautiful and handsome, the most loved and the most loving. They placed statues of him in gymnasiums (as most athletes were thought to be beautiful). He was depicted on every form of utensil, from drinking vessels to oil flasks, usually showing him ready to fire an arrow into the heart of an unsuspecting victim.
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Greek god of love. Though Hesiod declared him one of the primeval gods born of Chaos, he was later said to be the son of Aphrodite. His Roman counterpart was Cupid. Eros was depicted as a beautiful winged youth carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows. In later literature and art he became increasingly younger, ending as an infant. His cult centre was at Thespiae, but he also shared a sanctuary with Aphrodite at Athens.
He does not appear in Homer, but Hesiod includes him as one of the first created gods (see EREBUS), signifying the power of love over gods and men. Eros in this cosmogonic sense sometimes figures in the thought of the early Greek philosophers. In the lyric poets however he is the personification of physical desire, cruel and unpredictable, but embodying those qualities that inspire love, and hence young and beautiful. This Eros is the companion, often the son, of Aphrodite. His bow and arrows, first mentioned by Euripides, and later his torch, figure prominently in his role of mischievous boy assigned to him by the Hellenistic poets and artists. Quite often he is expanded into a plurality of Erōtes. Eros was not, however, simply a literary conceit; he was also an object of worship in several ancient cults. See also IRIS.
He was the personification of love in all its manifestations, including physical passion at its strongest, tender, romantic love, and playful, sportive love. According to some legends he was one of the oldest of the gods, born from Chaos and personifying creative power and harmony. In most legends he was the son of Aphrodite and Ares and was represented as a winged youth armed with bow and arrows. In Greek poetry Eros was often a willful and unsympathetic god, carelessly dispensing the frenzies and agonies of love. At Thespiae and at Athens he was worshiped as a god of fertility. In Hellenistic and Roman myth, he was represented as a naked, winged child, the son and companion of Venus. To the Romans he was Cupid, or Amor. Eros was sometimes attended by his brother, Anteros, who was said to be the avenger of unrequited love or the opposer of love. See also Psyche.
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Psychoanalysis
In ancient Greece the word Eros referred to love and the god of love. In his final theory of the drives, Sigmund Freud made Eros a fundamental concept referring to the life instincts (narcissism and object libido), whose goals were the preservation, binding, and union of the organism into increasingly larger units.
Eros the unifier is opposed to, and yet was blended into, the death instinct, an antagonistic force leading to the destruction, disintegration, and dissolution of everything that exists. "In this way the libido of our sexual instincts would coincide with the Eros of the poets and philosophers which holds all living things together" (Freud, 1920g, p. 50).
The term Eros, understood as a life instinct antagonistic to the death instinct, appeared for the first time in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920g), where Freud used it to establish a dynamic polarity that would define a new instinctual dualism. Freud wrote, "Our speculations have suggested that Eros operates from the beginning of life and appears as a 'life instinct' in opposition to the 'death instinct' which was brought into being by the coming to life of inorganic substance. These speculations seek to solve the riddle of life by supposing that these two instincts were struggling with each other from the very first" (p. 61). In this essay Freud refers to the doctrine of the Greek physician and philosopher Empedocles of Agrigento (c. 490-430 B.C.E.), for whom the production of all things results from the interplay of two forces, Love and Discord, conceived of as the impersonal forces of attraction and repulsion.
Yet Freud's theoretical innovation is more than the pure speculations of philosophy, biology, or physics. Revision of his concepts was called for by his experience in psychoanalytic practice. He posited within the organism a primal masochism derived from the action of the death instinct to account for certain clinical problems: ambivalence in affective life, nightmares associated with traumatic neurosis, masochism, and negative therapeutic reactions.
Freud's uses of the term Eros (86 of 88 occurrences, according to Guttman's Concordance) is contemporary with his final theory of the instincts developed after 1920. The word itself, with its multiple meanings, enabled Freud to combine many things that he had previously separated and contrasted: love between the sexes, self-love, love for one's parents or children, "friendship and love among mankind in general," "devotion to concrete objects and abstract ideas," and partial sexual drives (component instincts). This expanded concept of love led Freud to evoke, on several occasions (1920g, 1921c, 1924c, 1925e [1924]), "the all-inclusive and all-preserving Eros of Plato's Symposium" (1925e, p. 218)
Master Chuang
Zhuangzi (simplified Chinese: 庄子; traditional Chinese: 莊子; pinyin: Zhuāng Zǐ; Wade–Giles: Chuang Tzŭ) was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE during the Warring States Period, a period corresponding to the philosophical summit of Chinese thought — the Hundred Schools of Thought, and is credited with writing—in part or in whole—a work known by his name, the Zhuangzi. His name Zhuangzi (English "Master Zhuang", with Zi being an honorific) is sometimes spelled Zhuang Tze, Zhuang Zhou, Chuang Tsu, Chuang Tzu, Chouang-Dsi, Chuang Tse, or Chuangtze.
Life
The only account of the life of Zhuangzi is a brief sketch in chapter 63 of Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, where he is described as a minor official from the town of Meng (in modern Anhui) in the state of Song, living in the time of King Hui of Liang and King Xuan of Qi (late 4th century BCE). Sima Qian writes:
Chuang-Tze had made himself well acquainted with all the literature of his time, but preferred the views of Lao-Tze; and ranked himself among his followers, so that of the more than ten myriads of characters contained in his published writings the greater part are occupied with metaphorical illustrations of Lao's doctrines. He made "The Old Fisherman," "The Robber Chih," and "The Cutting open Satchels," to satirize and expose the disciples of Confucius, and clearly exhibit the sentiments of Lao. Such names and characters as "Wei-lei Hsu" and "Khang-sang Tze" are fictitious, and the pieces where they occur are not to be understood as narratives of real events. But Chuang was an admirable writer and skillful composer, and by his instances and truthful descriptions hit and exposed the Mohists and Literati. The ablest scholars of his day could not escape his satire nor reply to it, while he allowed and enjoyed himself with his sparkling, dashing style; and thus it was that the greatest men, even kings and princes, could not use him for their purposes. King Wei of Chu, having heard of the ability of Chuang Chau, sent messengers with large gifts to bring him to his court, and promising also that he would make him his chief minister. Chuang-Tze, however, only laughed and said to them, "A thousand ounces of silver are a great gain to me; and to be a high noble and minister is a most honorable position. But have you not seen the victim-ox for the border sacrifice? It is carefully fed for several years, and robed with rich embroidery that it may be fit to enter the Grand Temple. When the time comes for it to do so, it would prefer to be a little pig, but it cannot get to be so. Go away quickly, and do not soil me with your presence. I had rather amuse and enjoy myself in the midst of a filthy ditch than be subject to the rules and restrictions in the court of a sovereign. I have determined never to take office, but prefer the enjoyment of my own free will."
Writing
Zhuangzi is traditionally credited as the author of at least part of the work bearing his name, the Zhuangzi. This work, in its current shape consisting of 33 chapters, is traditionally divided into three parts: the first, known as the "Inner Chapters", consists of the first seven chapters; the second, known as the "Outer Chapters", consist of the next 15 chapters; the last, known as the "Mixed Chapters", consist of the remaining 11 chapters. The meaning of these three names is disputed: according to Guo Xiang, the "Inner Chapters" were written by Zhuangzi, the "Outer Chapters" written by his disciples, and the "Mixed Chapters" by other hands; the other interpretation is that the names refer to the origin of the titles of the chapters—the "Inner Chapters" take their titles from phrases inside the chapter, the "Outer Chapters" from the opening words of the chapters, and the "Mixed Chapters" from a mixture of these two sources.
Further study of the text does not provide a clear choice between these alternatives. On the one side, as Martin Palmer points out in the introduction to his translation, two of the three chapters Sima Qian cited in his biography of Zhuangzi, come from the "Outer Chapters" and the third from the "Mixed Chapters". "Neither of these are allowed as authentic Chuang Tzu chapters by certain purists, yet they breathe the very spirit of Chuang Tzu just as much as, for example, the famous 'butterfly passage' of chapter 2."
On the other hand, chapter 33 has been often considered as intrusive, being a survey of the major movements during the "Hundred Schools of Thought" with an emphasis on the philosophy of Hui Shih. Further, A.C. Graham and other critics have subjected the text to a stylistic analysis and identified four strains of thought in the book: a) the ideas of Zhuangzi or his disciples; b) a "primitivist" strain of thinking similar to Laozi; c) a strain very strongly represented in chapters 8-11 which is attributed to the philosophy of Yang Chu; and d) a fourth strain which may be related to the philosophical school of Huang-Lao. In this spirit, Martin Palmer wrote that "trying to read Chuang Tzu sequentially is a mistake. The text is a collection, not a developing argument."
Zhuangzi was renowned for his brilliant wordplay and use of parables to convey messages. His critiques of Confucian society and historical figures are humorous and at times ironic.
Zhuangzi's philosophy
In general, Zhuangzi's philosophy is skeptical, arguing that life is limited and knowledge to be gained is unlimited. To use the limited to pursue the unlimited, he said, was foolish. Our language and cognition in general presuppose a dao to which each of us is committed by our separate past—our paths. Consequently, we should be aware that our most carefully considered conclusions might seem misguided had we experienced a different past. Zhuangzi argues that in addition to experience our natural dispositions are combined with acquired ones—including dispositions to use names of things, to approve/disapprove based on those names and to act in accordance to the embodied standards. Thinking about and choosing our next step down our dao or path is conditioned by this unique set of natural acquisitions.
Zhuangzi's thought can also be considered a precursor of relativism in systems of value. His relativism even leads him to doubt the basis of pragmatic arguments (that a course of action preserves our lives) since this presupposes that life is good and death bad. In the fourth section of "The Great Happiness"
(至樂 zhìlè, chapter 18), Zhuangzi expresses pity to a skull he sees lying at the side of the road. Zhuangzi laments that the skull is now dead, but the skull retorts, "How do you know it's bad to be dead?"
Another example about two famous courtesans points out that there is no universally objective standard for beauty. This is taken from Chapter 2 (齊物論 qí wù lùn) "On Arranging Things", or "Discussion of Setting Things Right" or, in Burton Watson's translation, "Discussion on Making All Things Equal".
Men claim that Mao [Qiang] and Lady Li were beautiful, but if fish saw them they would dive to the bottom of the stream; if birds saw them they would fly away, and if deer saw them they would break into a run. Of these four, who knows how to fix the standard of beauty in the world? (2, tr. Watson 1968:46)
However, this subjectivism is balanced by a kind of sensitive holism in the famous section called "The Happiness of Fish" (魚之樂, yúzhīlè).
Zhuangzi and Huizi were strolling along the dam of the Hao Waterfall when Zhuangzi said, "See how the minnows come out and dart around where they please! That's what fish really enjoy!"
Huizi said, "You're not a fish — how do you know what fish enjoy?"
Zhuangzi said, "You're not me, so how do you know I don't know what fish enjoy?"
Huizi said, "I'm not you, so I certainly don't know what you know. On the other hand, you're certainly not a fish — so that still proves you don't know what fish enjoy!"
Zhuangzi said, "Let's go back to your original question, please. You asked me how I know what fish enjoy — so you already knew I knew it when you asked the question. I know it by standing here beside the Hao." (17, tr. Watson 1968:188-9, romanization changed to pinyin)
The traditional interpretation of this "Daoist staple", writes Chad Hansen (2003:145), is a "humorous miscommunication between a mystic and a logician". The encounter also outlines part of the Daoist practice of observing and learning from the natural world.
Another well-known part of the book, which is also found in Chapter 2, is usually called "Zhuangzi dreamed he was a butterfly" (莊周夢蝶 Zhuāng Zhōu mèng dié). Again, the names have been changed to pinyin romanization for consistency:
Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn't know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi. Between Zhuangzi and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things. (2, tr. Burton Watson 1968:49)
This hints at many questions in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and epistemology. [vague] The name of the passage has become a common Chinese idiom, and has spread into Western languages as well. It appears, inter alia, as an illustration in Jorge Luis Borges' famous essay "A New Refutation of Time", and may have inspired H. P. Lovecraft's 1918 short story "Polaris". It also appears in Victor Pelevin's 1996 philosophical novel Buddha's Little Finger.
Zhuangzi's philosophy was very influential in the development of Chinese Buddhism, especially Chán (known in Japan as Zen).
Anarchism
Zhuangzi said the world "does not need governing; in fact it should not be governed," and, "Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone." Murray Rothbard called him "perhaps the world's first anarchist".
Evolution
In Chapter 18, Zhuangzi also mentions life forms have an innate ability or power (hua 化) to transform and adapt to their surroundings. Since his writings give no scientific evidence nor mechanism of biological evolution, while those of Alfred Wallace and Charles Darwin do, his idea about the transformation of life from simple to more complex forms cannot be seen as being along the same line of thought. Zhuangzi further mentioned that humans are also subject to this process as humans are a part of nature.
Ask.com
What does communitarianism mean?
Communitarianism (~ism = school of thought) communism = cultural Marxism + crony capitalism = corporatism (fascism)... aka "utopian" "Third Way" Socialism (racketeering, organized crime; a kind of neo-feudal totalitarianism; a "collaborative governance" scheme in a despotic "scientific" dictatorship... of the "community"; technocracy, or a system of 21st century slavery; age-old "rule of the few over the many"; antithetical to the highest aspirations of the American people; contrary to the American Bill of Rights; modern-day piracy; British mercantilism; "legalized" plunder and slavery; puts into force and effect [then institutionalizes] most all the ten planks outlined by Marx and Engels in The Communist Manifesto; seeks to do away with... the Hippocratic Oath and the Golden Rule; "breeds" strict conformity... and then terrorizes... both "the individual" and "the family tribal unit" into submission and subservience to the new globalist "State"; abolishes nation-states and nationalities; a system of "arrested development"... and a crime... against humanity) See also: Agenda 21; sustainable development; Planned-opolis; The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America
~Lark In Texas
Timeline of Communitarianism
Fourth World Services, P.O. Box 1666, Denver, Colorado 80201-1666
By A. Allen Butcher
(May, 1995)
Lord James of Blackheath: The $15 TRILLION Dollar Money-Laundering Mystery
(XLF, SKF, GLD, SLV, AGQ, SPXU)
Jeff Nielson: Where did it come from? Where did it go? These are the two principal questions being framed today, after Lord James of Blackheath (a member of the UK House of Lords) unveiled documentation (and accusations) concerning a mounting of illegitimate cash: $15 trillion USD.
At the moment, only Lord James is asking these questions. However, if he gets his way there will be an official inquiry into this massive, money-laundering
operation. Already, Lord James possesses documents with the signatures of people like Alan Greenspan and Timothy Geithner on them, as well as massive transfers of funds to virtually every mega-bank in the U.S. and UK.
While Lord James (himself a former banker) is holding the “paper trail” for all of this dirty money, he himself has no firm ideas about either the source of the money nor the intent of all of these massive transfers (all in the $100’s of billions) to U.S. and UK banks. Perhaps I can help him out? [Related: ProShares UltraShort Financials ETF (NYSEArca:SKF), Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEArca:XLF)]
Regular readers will be familiar with some of my own speculation into U.S. money-laundering (and counterfeiting of its own currency). Of interest, my own theorizing was based on a series of logical deductions which implied that some massive money-laundering operation (of counterfeit currency) must be taking place in the dying U.S. economy. And now we have a detailed paper-trail on the largest (known) money-laundering operation in history.
To refresh the memory of regular readers and to inform new readers, back on January 3rd I published a commentary titled “Maximum Fraud in U.S. Treasuries Market”. In that commentary, I outlined a series of simple-yet-obvious deductions pointing out the following facts:
1) There are (virtually) no visible buyers for U.S. Treasuries on the planet (at any price).
2) Even if there were interested buyers, there are no sources of capital available to mop-up all the $trillions in supply being dumped onto the market each year.
3) Even if there actually were interested buyers, and even if they could scrounge the $trillions to buy this worthless paper, it is utterly absurd to suggest that these buyers would pay (by far) the highest prices in history for this paper at a time of maximum supply. It defies every basic principle of supply and demand.
4) Taking this scenario from “absurd” to outright insanity, the U.S. economy has never been less solvent in its entire history. This directly implies that U.S. Treasuries should be fetching the lowest prices in history – not the highest – just like the worthless bonds being flogged by Europe’s deadbeat-debtors.
In other words, by process of simple deduction it was totally obvious that a gigantic, money-laundering operation was being conducted, with the primary goal being to prop-up the totally fraudulent U.S. Treasuries market. All that was missing was a paper-trail to prove this fraud, and now Lord James of Blackheath has been kind enough to provide this.
Undoubtedly many readers will be skeptical of this, assuming that there would be no need to get into such a cloak-and-dagger (and blatantly illegal) process to pretend that worthless U.S. Treasuries still have value. Indeed supposedly these bonds have more “value” than at any time in history – despite the issuer of those IOU’s being hopelessly insolvent, and merely delaying its own bankruptcy.
In fact there is a very powerful reason why this fraud had to be conducted in the same, criminal manner in which the Wall Street crime syndicate launders countless $100’s of billions of dirty-money (mostly CIA drug cartel money) every year. The only way in which the Treasuries market could be propped-up in this illegal manner was by counterfeiting the banker-paper used to buy those bonds.
In turn, there are two absolutely compelling reasons why the banksters have been forced to resort to blatant counterfeiting in attempting to prevent their entire paper empire from imploding into nothing. First of all, every fiat-dollar (legitimately) brought into existence is created via inventing new debt. To conjure-up (another) $15 trillion legally would have required piling $15 trillion more in debts onto the insolvent balance sheets of Western governments. In fact it would only require a small portion of that amount to cause all of these debt-dominoes to immediately topple.
However, that is not the only aspect of utter terror which now grips these felonious financiers. The specter of hyperinflation hovers over these Vampires, a second but even more powerful force which can reduce all of this worthless fiat-paper to its real value (zero) in a matter of months/weeks/days.
As I explained in a separate commentary, it is a tautology of both logic and economics that any good which can be produced at zero cost and in infinite quantities (like the bankers’ paper currencies) is worthless. The logic is irrefutable. If such a good was not worthless, then infinite quantities of that good would/could be created (at zero cost) and then exchanged for any/every item of value on the planet. It would be nothing less than an act of total theft. Indeed, this precisely describes the entire bankster scam known as “fiat currencies”. [Related: iShares Silver ETF (NYSEArca:SLV), SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEArca:GLD), ProShares Ultra Silver ETF (NYSEArca:AGQ)]
Print up ever increasing quantities of their paper, at a lower and lower cost (now zero in the U.S. and Japan), and exchange all of that worthless paper for any/every item of value you can steal. With U.S. dollars now permanently being created at zero cost, the only factor preventing the U.S. dollar from instantly plummeting to zero is that the apathetic dolts in charge of our markets do not yet perceive that U.S. dollars are being created in (effectively) infinite quantities. However, pile another $15 trillion of this worthless paper onto the global market and that perception could change instantly. [Related: ProShares UltraPro Short S&P 500 ETF (NYSEArca:SPXU)]
I understand that for the average reader the mind simply rebels at the thought of our governments and (supposedly) respectable leaders of business demonstrating themselves to be no different (at all) from a Mafia crime-family. So let me once again summarize these parameters altogether:
a) There are no buyers for the $trillions of U.S. Treasuries (i.e. no one wants this paper).
b) There are no sources of (legitimate) capital to finance the purchases of these $trillions.
c) The U.S. government is so close to outright financial collapse that it cannot afford to pay any interest on its massive debts. An increase of U.S. interest rates by even 1% would send the U.S. economy into an immediate, deflationary death-spiral (as I have explained in many previous commentaries).
d) Debt-saturated Western government balance sheets cannot tolerate any further large increases in debt without a series of domino-like debt defaults.
e) Because of the factors above, the only way to prop-up the Treasuries market (and fraudulently maintain prices at the highest levels in history) was to create a mountain of unofficial/illegitimate money (i.e. counterfeit it), and then use that unofficial currency to buy-up these worthless Treasuries.
For those clinging to the belief that there must be some rational/legitimate explanation for the paper-trail uncovered by Lord James, he dispels that with some further observations of his own. To begin with, there are concrete financial protocols which have been created to integrate any/every new large batch of the bankers’ fiat paper into global financial markets. None of those protocols was followed.
Along the way with this scam, Lord James also pointed out that $100’s of billions in profits were generated, with none of those profits ever being recorded let alone reported (and taxed). In short, this is every bit as illegal as the $100’s of billions in heroin-trade profits laundered by Wall Street each year – from the poppy-fields of Afghanistan. For those pointing out that the fraudulent U.S. Treasuries market hasn’t (yet) required $15 trillion in funny-money to extend this Ponzi-scheme, obviously the banksters can come up with plenty of other uses for their counterfeited/laundered money.
Where do people think that the Plunge Protection Team comes up with its own capital for its daily manipulations of U.S. markets?
Ultra-leveraged Wall Street balance sheets (greater than 30:1) only required a drop in U.S. housing prices of 3% to take their entire paper empires to zero. U.S. housing prices have fallen more than ten times that far. We can only guess at how $trillions (in secret hand-outs) it has taken to delay the implosion of those fraud-factories even this long.
This also explains the fanatical desperation which the Federal Reserve has shown in fighting even the tiniest request for disclosure about its “lending operations”. When you’re secretly counterfeiting $trillions every year, the last thing you want to hear is anything that even faintly resembles the word “audit”.
The U.S. Treasuries market is nothing but a gigantic (and clumsy) fraud. Along with the motive which I have previously supplied for this fraud, Lord James of Blackheath has added “means” and “opportunity” through his own diligent investigations. If the Rule of Law was not already dead in the United States, there is more than enough evidence here to justify a formal (and public) inquiry. Don’t hold your breath!
Written By Jeff Nielson From Bullion Bulls Canada
Jeff Nielson is from Canada and is a writer/editor for Bullion Bulls Canadawww.bullionbullscanada.com. He has a personal background in law and economics. Bullion Bulls Canada provides general macro-economic and political commentary, since the precious metals markets are among the most complex (and misunderstood) in the world.
Bullion Bulls Canada also provides basic coverage of Canadian precious metals mining companies. Canada is the global leader in mining exploration, and Canadian-listed mining companies (on the Toronto Stock Exchange and Venture Exchange) are responsible for the majority of the world’s most-promising discoveries.
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The Real Cause of "Anti-Semitism"
Proof! "World Government" is a Banker Ruse
The "Jewish" Conspiracy is British Imperialism
Is the New World Order "Jewish"?
Rothschilds Conduct "Red Symphony"
Terminated! Freemasonry's Final Revelation
The Red Symphony Part 2
Central Bankers Seek Totalitarian Power
Bankers Demand We Obey Them
Was Hitler Just a Pawn?
Was Hitler an Illuminati Agent?
Hitler Took Offer Ludendorff Refused
March 17, 2012
(Disclaimer- I cannot confirm any of this information but pass it on for consideration.)
Comment by OJ
(henrymakow.com)
I've got a few more pieces to the puzzle if you don't know them already.
Hitler cooperated with Gen. Luddendorff in the failed Munich putsch/coup.
After that they parted, as Luddendorff became very skeptical about Hitler.
One of Hitler’s backers was (the Jew) Moses Pinkeles alias Trebitsch Lincoln.
Pinkeles had participated in the first failed post WW1 coup, the Kapp putsch. It is claimed that Pinkeles funded Hitler’s taking over of "Der Nationale Beobachter" = "The National Observer".
He contributed articles on the depravity of Jews. Pictures of Hitler and Pinkeles together can be found on the internet.
According to the recordings of Ludendorff’s wife, Mathilde, they were approached by the Jewish money power. They would sponsor his takeover of Germany and the whole of Europe if he so wanted.
He declined. He would have nothing to do with such people, being a fierce opponent of "The International Jew" and masonic groupings and power. He added in his notes that he knew whom they could buy, meaning Hitler.
Now to the "Russian" side of the equation. The first to come into power after the (Jewish) murder of the Czar, was the elected (Jew) Kerensky.
Characterized by (Jew) Trotsky as a "Bonapartist" (Bonaparte was of course another creation of the money power; his fall caused by not keeping in line with their bidding).
Ludendorff tried to warn about Hitler, and after the war, a number of German nationalists/Nazis, were sure they were betrayed from their very own top.
A lot of self-destructive actions were ordered from the Nazi top, the worst of course being their idiotic and arrogant handling of the war on the Eastern front.
"if you fight the Bolsheviks, you will win. If you fight Mother Russia, you will lose".
Said by a former Russian diplomat to the Nazi leadership before the war.
Notice also how Chaplin uses "The Double Cross" instead of the swastika in his "The Dictator" movie.
After Kerensky was in power for about 9 months, the Bolsheviks took over.
This happened without blood-letting, as the takeover was coordinated from back stage, by those controlling both parties.
I recommend viewing Juri Linas movie "In the Shadow of Hermes" about this and other aspects of the "Russian revolution". It is on YouTube, but the full length version has recently been censored away.
See about the Manhattan banksters funding of the commie bloodbaths.
Yes, they are ruthless and satanic!
There is even the possibility that Hitler would have been allowed to take over Europe, at least for some time. But when he put the bankster agent Hjalmar Schacht, (Mason for sure, and even spoke Hebrew to get along in the banking world according to some sources) on a sidetrack in early 1939, he was doomed like Napoleon.
I would also point out, that Hitler did indeed give the farmers and workers very good conditions, a thing the Commies promised, but never delivered on.
That's why he had such a great backing by the general public, where such "minor items" and "luxuries" like freedom of speech and politically independent courts weighed less in the eyes of the public.
Until about 1934, one could still see a Marx portrait on Nazi flags and insignia, and Trotsky's term "permanent revolution" discussed within the Nazi party.
Another point: the Nazis closed down all Masonic lodges, and confiscated their holdings in 1934. Except the purely Jewish lodge of B'nai Brith was allowed to exist until 1936.
How come?
Who gave the order to bring the leader of B'nai Brith, rabbi Mendel Schneerson out of the Warszaw ghetto? Someone high up in the Nazi hierarchy, perhaps Canaris?
The same rabbi Schneerson answered, when asked about the Holocaust:
"A rotten branch on the tree of Jewry needed to be cut of".
The Schneerson rebbes, being ritual schaechters, figure in various cases of ritual murder.
They play all sides of the game as far as they can.
The German social democratic party of Germany was founded by Marx's teacher Johann Jacob Moses Hess.
This Hess came up with the term national socialist, but only Jews were allowed to be nationalists; all other should give up their nationality and become internationalists.
Read Moses Hess's book "Rome and Jerusalem" (Berlin 1862), there are a lot of forebodings of elements of the Nazi Reich to be found there.
NY Times
ON THE TRAIL OF TREBITSCH LINCOLN, TRIPLE AGENT
By BERNARD WASSERSTEIN; Bernard Wasserstein teaches history at Brandeis University. He is the author of ''The Secret Lives of Trebitsch Lincoln,'' to be published next month, from which this essay is adapted
Published: May 08, 1988
Hjalmar Schacht
Dr. Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht (22 January 1877 – 3 June 1970) was a German economist, banker, liberal politician, and co-founder of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank under the Weimar Republic. He was a fierce critic of his country's post-World War I reparation obligations.
He became a supporter of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, and served in Hitler's government as President of the Reichsbank and Minister of Economics. As such, Schacht helped implement Hitler's policies of redevelopment, reindustrialization, and rearmament.
He was forced out of the government by disagreements with Hitler and other prominent Nazis in December 1937, and had no role during World War II. He became a fringe member of the German Resistance to Hitler and was imprisoned by the Nazis after the 20 July plot. After the war, he was tried at Nuremberg and acquitted.
In 1953, he founded his own bank, and advised developing countries on economic development.
Salon
“The Hidden Hitler” by Lothar Machtan
Critics have been far too quick to dismiss this controversial new book alleging that Hitler was gay.
Meet the Real Adolf Hitler
Were Illuminati Jews Responsible for Holocaust?
The satanic plague devouring humanity originated with the Sabbatean-Frankist cult, a Satanic Jewish heresy based on the Cabala that absorbed half the Jews in Europe in the 17th/18th Century, including the Rothschilds. By pretending to convert, many Satanists infiltrated and subverted all important religions, organizations and governments. They are the progenitors of the Illuminati, of Zionism, Communism, Fascism and they control Freemasonry. The NWO is their goal. In 1981 Rabbi Gunther Plaut described Illuminati founder Jacob Frank in a novel, and implied that the Nazis were Sabbateans.
<|>
Countdown to World War Three
<|>
Tablet Magazine
American Messiah
It’s been 16 years since Menachem Schneerson’s death, but in a sense the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe is with us more than ever
By Adam Kirsch|July 20, 2010 7:00 AM
David Grossman
Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman is an author who has specialized in the study of the psychology of killing, which has been termed 'killology'.
In February 1998 Grossman retired from the military as Professor of Military Science at Arkansas State University. His career includes service in the US Army as a sergeant in the US 82nd Airborne Division, a platoon leader in the 9th Division, a general staff officer, a company commander in the 7th (Light) Infantry Division as well as a parachute infantryman, a US Army Ranger and a teacher of psychology at West Point.
Grossman's first book, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society is an analysis of the physiological processes involved with killing another human being. In it, he reveals evidence that most people have a phobic-level response to violence, and that soldiers need to be specifically trained to kill. In addition, he details the physical effects that violent stresses produce on humans, ranging from tunnel vision, changes in sonic perception, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Grossman argues that the techniques used by armies to train soldiers to kill are mirrored in certain types of video games. The conclusion he draws is that playing violent video games, particularly Light gun shooters of the First-person shooter-variety (where the player holds a weapon-like game controller), train children in the use of weapons and, more importantly, harden them emotionally to the task of murder by simulating the killing of hundreds or thousands of opponents in a single typical video game.
His second book, On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace, is an extension of the first, intended to provide coping strategies for dealing with the physiological and psychological effects of violence for people forced to kill in their line of work (soldiers and police officers).
Grossman uses blunt language that draws the ire of gamers - during the heights of video game controversy, he was interviewed on the content of his books, and repeatedly used the term "murder simulator" to describe first-person shooter games.
Since his retirement from the Army, Grossman has founded the Killology Research Group and continues to educate law enforcement officers and soldiers in the techniques he has studied for improving outcomes in lethal encounters. He also speaks at civilian events on ways to reduce violence in society and deal with the aftermath of violent events such as school shootings.
The Police Policy Studies Council
The Dave Grossman Debate
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He is very popular with police and military audiences.
He is a very likeable guy.
But, are there problems with his reasoning?
And, are some of his stated opinions actually detrimental to the law enforcement community?
READ & DECIDE!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dateline: August 11, 2001
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following is a detailed analysis of ideas that were exchanged between Lt Col. Dave Grossman, and Tom Aveni between August 8th and 11th, 2001. The questions and comments raised were pertinent to Grossman's stated positions, from various sources, though many were derived from his 4-hour presentation at the Southern Police Institute's Annual Alumni Conference, in Palm Beach Gardens, July 27, 2001.
Debate transcript continues at the above link…
PPJ Gazette
By Marti Oakley
The latest assault on the American public and formerly free states of the United States of America, has been launched. Obama constructed and issued the Executive Order referred to as National Defense Resources Preparedness. Under this Order, [National Defense] is clearly laid out. It is clear that the federal government, all of its unlawful agencies, agents, private corporations operating in fraud as “public service” agencies, our military, all of our resources, our labor, our skills, energy, commerce, production, agriculture etc., are now focused on defending the federal government……..from us.
This order is the fulfillment of Obama’s “We can’t wait” strategy wherein Obama
The Chief Executive has just declared: Congress is irrelevant
GlobalResearch.ca
POLICE STATE USA: New Obama Executive Order Seizes U.S. Infrastructure and Citizens for Military Preparedness
By Brandon Turbeville
In a stunning move, on March 16, 2012, Barack Obama signed an Executive Order stating that the President and his specifically designated Secretaries now have the authority to commandeer all domestic U.S. resources including food and water. The EO also states that the President and his Secretaries have the authority to seize all transportation, energy, and infrastructure inside the United States as well as forcibly induct/draft American citizens into the military. The EO also contains a vague reference in regards to harnessing American citizens to fulfill “labor requirements” for the purposes of national defense.
Not only that, but the authority claimed inside the EO does not only apply to National Emergencies and times of war. It also applies in peacetime.
The National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order exploits the “authority” granted to the President in the Defense Production Act of 1950 in order to assert that virtually every means of human survival is now available for confiscation and control by the President via his and his Secretaries’ whim.
The unconstitutionality of the overwhelming majority of Executive Orders is well established, as well as the illegality of denying citizens their basic Constitutional and human rights, even in the event of a legitimate national emergency. Likewise, it should also be pointed out that, like Obama’s recent Libyan adventure and the foregone conclusion of a Syrian intervention, there is no mention of Congress beyond a minor role of keeping the allegedly co-equal branch of government informed on contextually meaningless developments.
As was mentioned above, the scope of the EO is virtually all-encompassing. For instance, in “Section 201 – Priorities and Allocations Authorities,” the EO explains that the authority for the actions described in the opening paragraph rests with the President but is now delegated to the various Secretaries of the U.S. Federal Government. The list of delegations and the responsibility of the Secretaries as provided in this section are as follows:
(1) the Secretary of Agriculture with respect to food resources, food resource facilities, livestock resources, veterinary resources, plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment and commercial fertilizer;
(2) the Secretary of Energy with respect to all forms of energy;
(3) the Secretary of Health and Human Services with respect to health resources;
(4) the Secretary of Transportation with respect to all forms of civil transportation;
(5) the Secretary of Defense with respect to water resources; and
(6) the Secretary of Commerce with respect to all other materials, services, and facilities, including construction materials.
One need only to read the “Definitions” section of the EO in order to clearly see that terms such as “food resources” is an umbrella that includes literally every form of food and food-related product that could in any way be beneficial to human survival.
That being said, “Section 601 – Secretary of Labor” delegates special responsibilities to the Secretary of Labor as it involves not just materials citizens will need for survival, but the actual citizens themselves.
How the Elite Rule and their Goals
video short
IRS may share tax info with police to fight fraud
(Reuters) - A surge in tax refund fraud and identity theft has prompted the Internal Revenue Service to consider sharing more tax return information with police, a senior official told a congressional hearing on Tuesday.
In a move that could spark concerns over personal privacy, the IRS said it is considering a pilot program in Tampa, Florida, where identity theft and refund fraud are rife.
"We are limited in what we can supply to local law enforcement," said Steven Miller, deputy IRS commissioner for services and enforcement.
Tax return information is normally kept tightly secret by the IRS. Under the program, exceptions could be made, with the permission of victims of identity theft and tax refund fraud, so that bogus tax return documents could be shared with police.
Tampa has seen a rash of identity theft and tax refund fraud cases since last year, totaling $130 million in stolen funds. Suspected wrongdoers steal Social Security numbers and file returns seeking tax refunds, using an abandoned home or another phony address as a delivery point.
Democratic Senator Bill Nelson of Florida held the hearing to tout his legislation to allow more taxpayer information sharing between the IRS and local law enforcement.
No date has been set for the Tampa program to begin, according to IRS.
In 1976, Congress made it a crime for IRS workers to share taxpayer information.
"There was a reason why we are limited in providing to local law enforcement, in an unfettered matter, tax returns," Miller said. "Congress has treated tax return information as sacrosanct."
Nina Olson, the national taxpayer advocate at the IRS, supported some information sharing, but cautioned that once local law enforcement has access to taxpayers' returns, they could be shared with other people.
Congress should modify the IRS information-sharing prohibition but limit the disclosure of the information for any purpose other than law enforcement, she said.
After reading this article, people also read:
UPDATE 1-U.S. IRS forms 'SWAT team' for tax dodger crackdown Mar 20, 2012
Bernanke says gold standard wouldn't solve problems Mar 20, 2012
Florida state workers face random drug tests under new law Mar 20, 2012
U.S. top court backs landowners, limits power of EPA Mar 21, 2012
U.S. space tourism set for takeoff by 2014, FAA says Mar 20, 2012
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The World is Thirsty because We are Hungry
The Nation
90 Degrees in Winter: This Is What Climate Change Looks Like
By Bill McKibben
NextWorld TV
Harvesting Rainwater in L.A.
NatGeo / Forbidden Knowledge TV
Doomsday Preppers - Episode 2
I Hope I Am Crazy
Episode 2 of "Doomsday Preppers" explores the lives of otherwise ordinary Americans who are preparing for the end of the world as we know it. Unique in their beliefs, motivations, and strategies, "preppers" go to whatever lengths they can to make sure they are prepared for any of life's uncertainties. National Geographic assesses their chances of survival if their worst fears become a reality.
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The One-Straw Revolution
Masanobu Fukuoka (1913-2008) was a farmer and philosopher who was born and raised on the Japanese island of Shikoku. He studied plant pathology and spent several years working as a customs inspector in Yokohama. While working there, at the age of 25, he had an inspiration that changed his life. He decided to quit his job, return to his home village and put his ideas into practice by applying them to agriculture.
Over the next 65 years he worked to develop a system of natural farming that demonstrated the insight he was given as a young man, believing that it could be of great benefit to the world. He did not plow his fields, used no agricultural chemicals or prepared fertilizers, did not flood his rice fields as farmers have done in Asia for centuries, and yet his yields equaled or surpassed the most productive farms in Japan.
In 1975 he wrote The One-Straw Revolution, a best-selling book that described his life’s journey, his philosophy, and farming techniques. This book has been translated into more than 25 languages and has helped make Mr. Fukuoka a leader in the worldwide sustainable agriculture movement. He continued farming until shortly before his death in 2008, at the age of 95.
After The One-Straw Revolution was published in English, Mr. Fukuoka traveled to Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States. His interest turned to rehabilitating the deserts of the world using his natural farming techniques. Mr. Fukuoka is also the author of The Natural Way of Farming and The Road Back to Nature. In 1988 he received the Magsaysay Award, often referred to as the “Nobel of Asia,” for Public Service.
Sowing Seeds in the Desert by Masanobu Fukuoka
This revolutionary book presents Fukuoka’s plan to rehabilitate the deserts of the world using natural farming, including practical solutions for feeding a growing human population, rehabilitating damaged landscapes, reversing the spread of desertification, and providing a deep understanding of…
The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka
Call it “Zen and the Art of Farming” or a “Little Green Book” Masanobu Fukuoka’s manifesto about farming, eating, and the limits of human knowledge presents a radical challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food. At the same time, it is a spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system...
FoodFreedomGroup.com
The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming
By Masanobu Fukuoka
From “Four Principles of Natural Farming”
Make your way carefully through these fields. Dragonflies and moths fly up in a flurry. Honeybees buzz from blossom to blossom. Part the leaves and you will see insects, spiders, frogs, lizards, and many other small animals bustling about in the cool shade. Moles and earthworms burrow beneath the surface.
This is a balanced rice-field ecosystem. Insect and plant communities maintain a stable relationship here. It is not uncommon for a plant disease to sweep through this area, leaving the crops in these fields unaffected.
And now look over at the neighbor’s field for a moment. The weeds have all been wiped out by herbicides and cultivation. The soil, animals, and insects have been exterminated by poison. The soil has been burned clean of organic matter and microorganisms by chemical fertilizers. In the summer, you see farmers at work in the fields, wearing gas masks and long rubber gloves. These rice fields, which have been farmed continuously for over 1,500 years, have now been laid waste by the exploitative farming practices of a single generation.
Four Principles
The first is NO CULTIVATION, that is, no plowing or turning of the soil. For centuries, farmers have assumed that the plow is essential for growing crops. However, non-cultivation is fundamental to natural farming. The earth cultivates itself naturally by means of the penetration of plant roots and the activity of microorganisms, small animals, and earthworms.
The second is NO CHEMICAL FERTILIZER OR PREPARED COMPOST.* People interfere with nature, and, try as they may; they cannot heal the resulting wounds. Their careless farming practices drain the soil of essential nutrients, and the result is yearly depletion of the land. If left to itself, the soil maintains its fertility naturally in accordance with the orderly cycle of plant and animal life.
The third is NO WEEDING, BY TILLAGE OR HERBICIDES. Weeds play their part in building soil fertility and in balancing the biological community. As a fundamental principle, weeds should be controlled, not eliminated. Straw mulch, a ground cover of white clover interplanted with the crops, and temporary flooding provide effective weed control in my fields.
The fourth is NO DEPENDENCE ON CHEMICALS.** From the time that weak plants developed as a result of such unnatural practices as plowing and fertilizing, disease and insect imbalance became a great problem in agriculture. Nature, left alone, is in perfect balance. Harmful insects and plant diseases are always present, but do not occur in nature to an extent which requires the use of poisonous chemicals. The sensible approach to disease and insect control is to grow sturdy crops in a healthy environment.
* For fertilizer, Mr. Fukuoka grows a leguminous ground cover of white clover, returns the threshed straw to the fields, and adds a little poultry manure.
** Mr. Fukuoka grows his grain crops without chemicals of any kind. On some orchard trees he occasionally uses a machine-oil emulsion for the control of insect scales. He uses no persistent or broad-spectrum poisons, and has no pesticide “program.”
Cultivation
When the soil is cultivated, the natural environment is altered beyond recognition. The repercussions of such acts have caused the farmer nightmares for countless generations. For example, when a natural area is brought under the plow, very strong weeds such as crabgrass and docks sometimes come to dominate the vegetation. When these weeds take hold, the farmer is faced with a nearly impossible task of weeding each year. Very often, the land is abandoned.
In coping with problems such as these, the only sensible approach is to discontinue the unnatural practices which have brought about the situation in the first place. The farmer also has a responsibility to repair the damage he has caused. Cultivation of the soil should be discontinued. If gentle measures, such as spreading straw and sowing clover, are practiced, instead of using manmade chemicals and machinery to wage a war of annihilation, then the environment will move back toward its natural balance, and even troublesome weeds can be brought under control.
Fertilizer
I have been known, in chatting with soil-fertility experts, to ask, “If a field is left to itself, will the soil’s fertility increase or will it become depleted?” They usually pause and say something like, “Well, let’s see . . . It’ll become depleted. No, not when you remember that when rice is grown for a long time in the same field without fertilizer, the harvest settles at about 9 bushels (525 pounds) per quarter acre. The earth would become neither enriched nor depleted.”
These specialists are referring to a cultivated, flooded field. If nature is left to itself, fertility increases. Organic remains of plants and animals accumulate and are decomposed on the surface by bacteria and fungi. With the movement of rainwater, the nutrients are taken deep into the soil to become food for microorganisms, earthworms, and other small animals. Plant roots reach to the lower soil strata and draw the nutrients back up to the surface.
If you want to get an idea of the natural fertility of the earth, take a walk to the wild mountainside sometime and look at the giant trees that grow without fertilizer and without cultivation. The fertility of nature, as it is, is beyond reach of the imagination.
Cut down the natural forest cover, plant Japanese red pine or cedar trees for a few generations, and the soil will become depleted and open to erosion. On the other hand, take a barren mountain with poor, red clay soil, and plant pine or cedar with a ground cover of clover and alfalfa. As the green manure* enriches and softens the soil, weeds and bushes grow up below the trees, and a rich cycle of regeneration is begun. There are instances in which the top four inches of soil have become enriched in less than 10 years.
For growing agricultural crops also, the use of prepared fertilizer can be discontinued. For the most part, a permanent green manure cover and the return of all the straw and chaff to the soil will be sufficient. To provide animal manure to help decompose the straw, I used to let ducks loose in the fields. If they are introduced as ducklings while the seedlings are still young, the ducks will grow up together with the rice. Ten ducks will supply all the manure necessary for a quarter-acre and will also help to control the weeds.
I did this for many years until the construction of a national highway made it impossible for the ducks to get across the road and back to the coop. Now I use a little chicken manure to help decompose the straw. In other areas, ducks or other small grazing animals are still a practical possibility.
Adding too much fertilizer can lead to problems. One year, right after the rice transplanting, I contracted to rent 1 1/4 acres of freshly planted rice fields for a period of one year. I ran all the water out of the fields and proceeded without chemical fertilizer, applying only a small amount of chicken manure. Four of the fields developed normally. But in the fifth, no matter what I did, the rice plants came up too thickly and were attacked by blast disease. When I asked the owner about this, he said he had used the field over the winter as a dump for chicken manure.
Using straw, green manure, and a little poultry manure, one can get high yields without adding compost or commercial fertilizer at all. For several decades now, I have been sitting back, observing nature’s method of cultivation and fertilization. And while watching, I have been reaping bumper crops of vegetables, citrus, rice, and winter grain as a gift, so to speak, from the natural fertility of the earth.
*Ground-cover crops such as clover, vetch, and alfalfa, which condition and nourish the soil.
Coping with Weeds
Here are some key points to remember in dealing with weeds:
As soon as cultivation is discontinued, the number of weeds decreases sharply. Also, the varieties of weeds in a given field will change.
If seeds are sown while the preceding crop is still ripening in the field, those seeds will germinate ahead of the weeds. Winter weeds sprout only after the rice has been harvested, but by that time the winter grain already has a head start. Summer weeds sprout right after the harvest of barley and rye, but the rice is already growing strongly. Timing the seeding in such a way that there is no interval between succeeding crops gives the grain a great advantage over the weeds.
Directly after the harvest, if the whole field is covered with straw, the germination of weeds is stopped short. White clover sowed with the grain as a ground cover also helps to keep weeds under control.
The usual way to deal with weeds is to cultivate the soil. But when you cultivate, seeds lying deep in the soil, which would never have germinated otherwise, are stirred up and given a chance to sprout. Furthermore, the quick-sprouting, fast-growing varieties are given the advantage under these conditions. So you might say that the farmer who tries to control weeds by cultivating the soil is, quite literally, sowing the seeds of his own misfortune.
“Pest” Control
Let us say that there are still some people who think that if chemicals are not used, their fruit trees and field crops will wither before their very eyes. The fact of the matter is that by using these chemicals, people have unwittingly brought about the conditions in which this unfounded fear may become reality.
Recently, Japanese red pines have been suffering severe damage from an outbreak of pine bark weevils. Foresters are now using helicopters in an attempt to stop the damage by aerial spraying. I do not deny that this is effective in the short run, but I know there must be another way.
Weevil blights, according to the latest research, are not a direct infestation, but follow upon the action of mediating nematodes. The nematodes breed within the trunk, block the transport of water and nutrients, and eventually cause the pine to wither and die. The ultimate cause, of course, is not yet clearly understood.
Nematodes feed on a fungus within the tree’s trunk. Why did this fungus begin to spread so prolifically within the tree? Did the fungus begin to multiply after the nematode had already appeared? Or did the nematode appear because the fungus was already present? It boils down to a question of which came first, the fungus or the nematode?
Furthermore, there is another microbe about which very little is known, which always accompanies the fungus, and is a virus toxic to the fungus. Effect following effect in every direction, the only thing that can be said with certainty is that the pine trees are withering in unusual numbers.
People cannot know what the true cause of the pine blight is, nor can they know the ultimate consequences of their “remedy.” If the situation is meddled with unknowingly, that only sows the seeds for the next great catastrophe. No, I cannot rejoice in the knowledge that immediate damage from the weevil has been reduced by chemical spraying. Using agricultural chemicals is the most inept way to deal with problems such as these, and will only lead to greater problems in the future.
These four principles of natural farming (no cultivation, no chemical fertilizer or prepared compost, no weeding by tillage or herbicides, and no dependence on chemicals) comply with the natural order and lead to the replenishment of nature’s richness. All my fumblings have run along this line of thought. It is the heart of my method of growing vegetables, grain, and citrus.
About the book and author
Masanobu Fukuoka was a revolutionary farmer in his native Japan, insisting that his unconventional “do-nothing” technique was best for agriculture. The One-Straw Revolution (2009) is his manifesto, explaining not just his principles of healthy cultivation but his beliefs about the spiritual qualities of farming.
Next World TV
Permaculture Farm Production
Agro Ecology
Helen Atthowe runs the Biodesign Farm in Montana. She used to be an organic farmer. Now she has created a veganic forest garden based on a functioning forest ecosystem. You might call it Permaculture Farming... but is that a contradiction in terms? She calls it Veganic Permaculture.
They are developing a farm production system based on natural nutrient cycles, farm grown fertilizer and conservation water management, biological insect and disease control and weed ecology.
The goal is to increase profitability by decreasing labor and land requirements while striving to mimic the ecological principles that make native plant systems sustainable. Their methods include reduced tillage, increased species and genetic diversity, closed nutrient cycles and creation of a more diverse habitat.
"Our idea of an eco-system farm is to try and manage inter relationships rather than to try and manage crops." she says.
"Veganic Permaculture is a willingness to balance my existence with the natural world. It means respecting the basic right of life for all things, from the soil microorganisms whom I try not to disturb with tillage, to the birds, butterflies, and insects whom I do not poison with insecticides, the weeds who are not killed with herbicides, and the animals who are not killed for food." she says at her website*.
She works with the eco-system instead of trying to control it. They use a living green mulch ground cover - perfect habitat for spiders and ground beetles and other beneficial insects...which led to all kinds of other animals showing up.
Unexpected surprises, but all good for the eco system in the long run!
--Bibi Farber
Farm Wars
Too High to Fail
Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution
GREENMEDINFO.COM
When Science Confirms Traditional Medicine!
Unbeknownst to the general public, billions of dollars of drug company and government grant money has flowed into finding lead compounds for new drug development over the past 50 years. Although much has been learned about the power and relative safety of natural substances in preventing and treating disease in the process, natural substances rarely if ever find the sustained capitalization necessary to make it through the additional FDA hurdles required for drug approval, which costs over 800 million dollars per drug.
Inadvertently, some of the very same companies and interests which would like for natural substances not to receive the same drug-approval status available to the synthetic ones, are funding research that prove basic vitamins, foods and spices are at least as effective, sometimes more effective, and often much safer and affordable than the drugs they are developing to replace or supplant them.
This means that tens of thousands of studies have already been performed demonstrating that natural substances may prevent and/or treat disease, at least in the test tube and animal models. GreenMedInfo.com, contains close to 20,000 of these. What is even more amazing is that these scientific results often confirm the traditional uses for these natural substances in ancient Indian medicine, Chinese medicine, and countless other folk medicine traditions around the world. This can only make their use more compelling for individuals or healthcare practitioners, as folk medicine contains many thousands of years of tried and true human experience applying these substances to diseases – often with great success.
Over the course of the past few years of indexing, GreenMedInfo.com has been collecting studies that confirm the traditional use of a natural substance for medicinal purposes. This section is called “Science Confirms Tradition” and contains 43 studies. We are looking to greatly expand this section in the future. If you happen to find any relevant studies while diving for clinical pearls on Pubmed.gov, please send us an email, or get involved as a GMIpedia contributor. We have designed a parser that will enable you to enter studies into our database directly, in exchange for a professional membership and a few other perks we can disclose if you are interested.
Thanks as always for supporting the world’s largest, open source, evidence-based natural health resource. Enjoy the studies below!
Welcome To The Website Of Royal Rife
This Website Reviews the Work History of Dr. Royal Rife as reported in
The MEDIA & MEDICAL Journals Between 1930-1971
Rife.org (Download)
The Rife Machine Report
A History of Rife’s Instruments and Frequencies
Introducing The Finest Rife Research Instrument Yet
The BCX Ultra
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Alchemy Angles
Fast Buckwheat Burgers
Alchemy Angles
Raw Walnut Kale Chips
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I. A. Richards
Ivor Armstrong Richards (1893-1979), English-born American semanticist and literary critic, crusaded to have "Basic" English adopted as a fundamental English vocabulary.
On Feb. 26, 1893, Ivor Armstrong Richards was born at Cheshire. He was educated at Clifton College in Bristol and Magdalen College in Cambridge. In 1922 he became a lecturer in English and moral science at Cambridge and four years later was made a fellow of Magdalen. He had collaborated with C. K. Ogden and Charles Woods, Cambridge psychologists, on the Foundations of Aesthetics (1921). With Ogden he collaborated on The Meaning of Meaning (1923), a pioneer study in semantics, in which they established that what is known as "meaning" resides in the recipient as well as in the originator of the thought.
Richards's first independent book, Principles of Literary Criticism (1924), was revolutionary in the development of modern criticism. Deriding "bogus" esthetic terms, like "beauty" which has no "entity," Richards held that all value judgments reside in the communicant, not in the object or poem itself or in the communicator or poet. His principles of judgment are developed from this position. Science and Poetry (1925) treats, in terms of vocabulary, experiences that he terms "critical" and "technical." In 1926 he married Dorothy Eleanor Pilley.
In 1929 Richards published Practical Criticism, a report on the sad results of testing value judgments by presenting a class with specimens of writing whose authorship was not revealed. In 1929-1930 Richards was visiting professor at Tsing Hua University, Peking. He was a lecturer and later a professor at Harvard, retiring in 1963. During the 1930s he wrote Mencius on the Mind (1932) and Coleridge on Imagination (1935), careful examinations of the systems of these protean thinkers. He also completed Interpretation in Teaching and How to Read a Page (both 1934).
Richards joined his former collaborator C. K. Ogden in a crusade for the use of "Basic" English, which consisted of the 850 words most commonly used in the English vocabulary. To elaborate on his theories, Richards wrote three tracts: Basic English and Its Uses (1943), Nations and Peace (1943), and So Much Nearer (1968). His translations into "Basic" included The Republic of Plato (1942), Tomorrow Morning, Faustus! (1962), and Why So, Socrates? (1963). Two volumes of verse, Good Bye, Earth (1958) and The Screens (1960), won him the Loines Poetry Award in 1962.
Further Reading
The best treatment of Richards is W. H. N. Hotopf, Language, Thought, and Comprehension: A Case Study of the Writings of I. A. Richards (1965); see also Stanley Edgar Hyman, The Armed Vision: A Study in the Methods of Modern Literary Criticism (1948). For the English reaction to Richards see D. W. Harding and F. R. Leavis in Eric Bentley, ed., The Importance of Scrutiny (1948). Collections of his works include: Internal Colloquies: Poems and Plays of I.A. Richards (1960-70) (1972); Poetries: Their Media and Ends: a Collection of Essays by I.A. Richards (1974), published to celebrate his 80th birthday; Richards on Rhetoric: I.A. Richards, Selected Essays (1929-1974) (1991); New & Selected Poems by I.A. Richards (1978); and Complementarities: Uncollected Essays (1976).
Marshall McLuhan
(Born July 21, 1911, Edmonton, Alta., Can. died Dec. 31, 1980, Toronto, Ont.) Canadian communications theorist and educator. He taught at the University of Toronto from 1946 to 1979 and became popular for his aphorism the medium is the message, which summarized his view of the potent influence of hot media television, computers, and other electronic information disseminators in shaping styles of thinking and thought, whether in sociology, art, science, or religion. He regarded the printed book, a cool medium, as fated to disappear. His highly influential works include The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), Understanding Media (1964), and The Medium Is the Message (with Q. Fiore, 1967).
Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), Canadian professor of literature and culture, developed a theory of media and human development claiming that "the medium is the message."
Herbert Marshall McLuhan was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on July 21, 1911. His father was a real estate and insurance salesman, his mother an actress. McLuhan studied first engineering and then literature at the University of Manitoba, earning his B.A. degree in 1933 and M.A. in 1934. He then continued his studies in medieval education and Renaissance literature at Cambridge University, which granted him the M.A. degree in 1940 and the Ph.D. in 1942. After several years of teaching in American universities, McLuhan returned to Canada and became a full professor at the University of Toronto in 1952.
In a series of books written while he was at Toronto, McLuhan set forth his "probes" and "explorations" about the way communication influences society. He frankly declined to follow the rules of systematic social scientific empiricism or the rigorous logic of theory building, preferring instead to draw upon his wide erudition and his flair for popularizing his ideas. His books became influential and were highly controversial.
McLuhan's theories consisted of a core of related propositions. He argued that human communication media are extensions of one or more of the senses and that use of these media re-arranges the sensory balance by stressing one sense over another. The self-definition of a culture (or a person) can thus be traced, says McLuhan, to the media that the culture relies on. To emphasize the importance of the sensory reorganization imposed by a medium, McLuhan claimed that "the medium is the message," which he later extended to the metaphor that "the medium is the massage."
In The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man (1951), written before McLuhan's theories had reached their full development, one can see the brilliant attempt of a professor of literature to demonstrate to his students the ideologies that are invisibly (and therefore influentially) built into the content and structure of popular culture. Drawing mainly upon newspaper and magazine advertising, McLuhan argued that images of mechanical technology had come to dominate popular consciousness, so that human beings reduced themselves to mechanical and instrumental objects.
The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962), which won the 1963 Governor-General's Award for critical writing, is a study of the results of introducing movable type into the culture of 15th-century Western Europe. McLuhan argued that the invention of print culture made possible the creation of the public and the organization of the public into a nation. Movable type also changed the culture by altering people's sensory balance, emphasizing a visual fragmentation and linearity consistent with mechanical print.
McLuhan became famous with the publication of Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964). In this book McLuhan made his most comprehensive statement of his theory. He argued that "the medium is the message," in the sense that the 'message' of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs. The railway did not introduce movement or transportation or wheel or road into human society, but it accelerated and enlarged the scale of previous human functions, creating totally new kinds of cities and new kinds of work or leisure. This happened whether the railway functioned in a tropical or a northern environment, and is quite independent of the freight or content of the railway medium. The airplane, on the other hand, by accelerating the rate of transportation, tends to dissolve the railway form of city, politics, and association, quite independently of what the airplane is used for.
Understanding Media also advanced McLuhan's notions of the narcotizing effects of media and of the distinction between hot and cool media. McLuhan claimed that when one of our senses is "extended" through a new medium, our sensory balance is altered in such a way that the other senses become dimmed or "narcotized." The hot versus cool distinction claims that hot media deliver information in high definition, and hence require little effort from the receiver. Cool media, on the other hand, provide little information, forcing the receiver to fill in what is missing to make sense out of the message, thus demanding a high degree of participation by the receiver. McLuhan wrote that, just as the change from oral and manuscript cultures to print culture had altered history, so, too, the change from print to electronic culture (television, computers) would, apart from whatever messages might be sent on television or computers, bring about a fundamental alteration in human consciousness.
McLuhan became a sensation in the popular press and among academics from many different disciplines. His ideas and methods were widely debated. Some critics pointed out that McLuhan was not as original as he seemed, having borrowed and perhaps distorted his fundamental premises about technological determinism from Toronto economist and historian Harold Innis. Others derided his views as utopian or mythical, or pointed out that, though it might be true that a medium has some structural influence as a medium, McLuhan was wrong to ignore the content, purpose, and context of particular messages, such as books, films, television shows, poems, songs, and paintings. McLuhan's refusal to respond to his academic critics with systematic proof, his grandly historical scope, his utopian tone, and the difficulty of translating his ideas into theory and research led to a decline of his enormous influence on academic and popular discussions of media. But, as one of his critics pointed out, "if he is wrong, it matters."
Further Reading
The following works of McLuhan are important to understanding the development of his theories: The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man (1951); The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962); Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964); and The Medium Is the Massage (1967). For the essential works of Harold Innis, which exerted a strong influence on McLuhan, see Innis, The Bias of Communication (1951) and Empire and Communications (1950, 1972). Good examples of the debate about McLuhan can be found in Raymond Rosenthal (editor), McLuhan: Pro and Con (1968) and in Gerald Emanuel Stearn (editor), McLuhan: Hot & Cool (1967). On McLuhan's place in communication theory, see Richard L. Johannesen (editor), Contemporary Theories of Rhetoric: Selected Readings (1971) and Stephen W. Littlejohn, Theories of Human Communication (1978).
Out of Orbit
The Life and Times of Marshall McLuhan
"Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media with which people communicate than by the content of the communication."
- Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan, one of Canada's most influential and controversial figures, burst into the centre of media circles in North America with his strange and prophetic pronouncements - "electric light is pure information" - on advertising, television and the emerging computer age.
Marshall McLuhan Full Lecture
The medium is the message
Herbert Marshall McLuhan (*1911 - +1979) lecture recorded by ABC Radio National Network on 27 June 1979 in Australia.
For the best resource collection of his work check out the page McLuhan on Maui (MOM) here: http://www.mcluhanonmaui.com/
The best documentary about McLuhan (in four parts) is definitely CBC's Life and Times: Understanding McLuhan here:
People seriously studying his work I can point to Douglas Hofstaedter. His work resembles McLuhan’s understanding on the basic mechanics behind the mind:
Further elaboration on the process chiasmus upholds for analogy and the role of metaphor as linguistic device under-grinding its mechanics might find ample references in Patricia's PhD Paper Chi-thinking: Chiasmus and cognition here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/19115184/Chithinking-Chiasmus-and-cognition
Note that she departs from Mark Turner's assumption of the parable as a substitute for chiasmus.
Then of course there is the great Noam Chomsky who McLuhan mentions in his letters as "stuffing language into grammar". Transcripts of his theories on language and the mind can be found here: http://hotbookworm.wordpress.com/category/literature-feast/language-and-the-r...
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Slavery was Legally Established in America—by a Black African!
By David Duke
The awful and inhumane institution of slavery—so often exclusively blamed on European peoples—was in fact legally established by a black African in Virginia in
1655, official records have shown.
The institution of slavery—as morally reprehensible as it is—is one of the psychological weapons which the Jewish extremist controlled mass media continually use to incite racial hatred and instill guilt in European Americans.
Yet the reality is that the first legal recognition of slavery was created in the colony of Virginia by a court case launched by an African, Anthony Johnson.
Up to that time, there were no perpetual slaves in America, only “indentured labor.” The institution of indentured labor—where someone worked for a certain period of time, usually to pay back a debt or the cost of passage to the New World. Once that time period was up, the laborer was “free” to go.
This is the reason why a large number of the first “slaves” or indentured laborers in early America were white, another fact often suppressed in modern “history” books.
The indentured laborer system was also applied to Africans purchased from Atlantic slave traders. All masters were required to free their servants after their time was up and seven years was the limit that an indentured servant could be held.
Upon their release they were granted 50 acres of land of their own to start a farm—and this included any African.
This system was ended in 1655 when one of the free Africans, named “Anthony Johnson” (a European name he adopted) brought a court case against one of his own indentured servants, a fellow African.
Johnson was brought to the US to work on a tobacco farm in 1619, and upon his release, he set up his own farm on his allocated 50 acres. By 1651, he held 250 acres and five black indentured servants.
Three years later, in 1654, one of these black indentured servants, named John Casor, was about to end his period of service when Johnson told him that he was unilaterally extending his period of service.
Casor simply left Johnson’s farm, and took a paid job with a white farm owner, one Robert Parker.
Johnson brought suit in Northampton County court against Robert Parker in 1654 for detaining his “Negro servant, John Casor,” saying “Hee never did see any [indenture] but that hee had ye Negro for his life”. In the case of Johnson vs Parker, the court of Northampton County upheld Johnson’s right to hold Casor as a slave, saying in its ruling of 8 March 1655:
“This daye Anthony Johnson negro made his complaint to the court against mr. Robert Parker and declared that hee deteyneth his servant John Casor negro under the pretence that said negro was a free man. The court seriously consideringe and maturely weighing the premisses, doe fynde that the saide Mr. Robert Parker most unjustly keepeth the said Negro from Anthony Johnson his master … It is therefore the Judgement of the Court and ordered That the said John Casor Negro forthwith returne unto the service of the said master Anthony Johnson, And that Mr. Robert Parker make payment of all charges in the suit.”
Thus the first legal in perpetuity slave-ownership in America was established—by a black man.
Casor became the first legal permanent slave and Johnson the first legal slave owner, as opposed to the holder of indentured labor.
This court case set the precedent for the 1670 law, passed by the Virginia colonial assembly, which permitted free whites, blacks, and Indians the right to own blacks as slaves.
By 1830 there were 3,775 black families living in the South who owned black slaves. By 1860 there were about 3,000 slaves owned by black households in the city of New Orleans alone.
Sources:
Sweet, F.W., Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise and Triumph of the One-Drop Rule. Backintyme. p. 117, (2005)
Billings, W., The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century: A Documentary History of Virginia, 1606–1700. Pgs. 286–287. (2009)
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Waters Flowing Eastward
The War Against the Kingship of Christ
By L. FRY (Paquita de Shishmareff)
It was in the 1950-5 that the Catholic theologian and writer, the Reverend Denis Fahey of Dublin offered to edit a new edition of Mrs. Fry's book. During his lifetime he was unable to allow his name to appear as its submission for Eccleiastial Censorship might have led to complications. The foreword and appendices and a number of notes to the present edition were the work of Father Fahey.
The authoress, Mrs. L. Fry, was married to one of the aristocrats of Czarist Russia and she suffered harrowing experiences in the days of the Bolshevist Revolution. This first-hand knowledge of Communism in action has given authority to her writings. For many years she was associated with the work of the late French priest Monseigneur Jouin, helping him in his researches into the atheistic and Judeo-Bolshevist plot against Christianity.
1st Edition
1931
2nd Edition Revised
1933
3rd Edition Revised
1934
4th Edition Revised
1953
5th Edition Enlarged
1965
6th Edition
1988
Copyright 1988 Flanders Hall Publishers
The ABC of the Federal Reserve System
Why the Federal Reserve System was Called into Being, the Main Features of its Organization, and How It Works
By Edwin Walter Kemmerer, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics and Finance in Princeton University
With a Preface by Benjamin Strong, LL.D.
Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
(1918)
Book Six
The Gallic Wars
By Julius Caesar
