Callers: Jim In Ft. Worth, Chris In Las Vegas
http://www.voluntaryist.com/lefevre/beans.html
Abstain From Beans
http://www.voluntaryist.com/lefevre/beans.html
Abstain From Beans
By Robert LeFevre — (1911 - 1986)
In ancient Athens, those who admired the Stoic philosophy of individualism took as their motto: "Abstain from Beans." The phrase had a precise reference. It meant: don't vote. Balloting in Athens occurred by dropping various colored beans into a receptacle.
To vote is to express a preference. There is nothing implicitly evil in choosing. All of us in the ordinary course of our daily lives vote for or against dozens of products and services. When we vote for (buy) any good or service, it follows that by salutary neglect we vote against the goods or services we do not choose to buy. The great merit of market place choosing is that no one is bound by any other persons selection. I may choose Brand X. But this cannot prevent you from choosing Brand Y.
When we place voting into the framework of politics, however, a major change occurs. When we express a preference politically, we do so precisely because we intend to bind others to our will. Political voting is the legal method we have adopted and extolled for obtaining monopolies of power. Political voting is nothing more than the assumption that might makes right. There is a presumption that any decision wanted by the majority of those expressing a preference must be desirable, and the inference even goes so far as to presume that anyone who differs from a majority view is wrong or possibly immoral.
But history shows repeatedly the madness of crowds and the irrationality of majorities. The only conceivable merit relating to majority rule lies in the fact that if we obtain monopoly decisions by this process, we will coerce fewer persons than if we permit the minority to coerce the majority. But implicit in all political voting is the necessity to coerce some so that all are controlled. The direction taken by the control is academic. Control as a monopoly in the hands of the state is basic.
In times such as these, it is incumbent upon free men to reexamine their most cherished, long-established beliefs. There is only one truly moral position for an honest person to take. He must refrain from coercing his fellows. This means that he should refuse to participate in the process by means of which some men obtain power over others. If you value your right to life, liberty, and property, then clearly there is every reason to refrain from participating in a process that is calculated to remove the life, liberty, or property from any other person. Voting is the method for obtaining legal power to coerce others.
Lady Justice depicts justice as equipped with three symbols: a sword symbolizing the court's coercive power; a human scale weighing competing claims in each hand; and a blindfold indicating impartiality.
http://www.answers.com/topic/john-rawls
John Rawls
U.S. political philosopher. He taught at Cornell University (1962 – 79) and later at Harvard University. He wrote primarily on political philosophy and ethics. His Theory of Justice (1971) is widely recognized as the major work in 20th-century political philosophy. In that work and others Rawls sought to develop a conception of justice appropriate to a democratic society. He believes that utilitarianism, which enjoins maximizing overall happiness, inadequately protects freedom and equality, the core liberal and democratic values. Following Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant, he appealed to the idea of a social contract: he depicted justice as the result of a hypothetical agreement among free persons acting from a position of equal right. To insure a fair, impartial agreement, Rawls situated parties to it equally by imposing a "veil of ignorance": parties do not know any particular facts about themselves and others (e.g., their talents, social class, wealth, or religious and other values) or even facts about history or their society. From this "original position" Rawls contends that free persons would agree to a liberal egalitarian conception of justice, or "justice as fairness." This conception comprises two principles: (1) certain basic liberties, such as freedom of thought and association, are so important that they take precedence over other social values, such as economic efficiency and improving the welfare of the poor; (2) offices and positions of authority are to be open to all under conditions of equality of opportunity.
Amazon
A Theory of Justice: Original Edition
By John Rawls
(1971)
Editorial Reviews
John Rawls draws on the most subtle techniques of contemporary analytic philosophy to provide the social contract tradition with what is, from a philosophical point of view at least, the most formidable defense it has yet received ...[and] makes available the powerful intellectual resources and the comprehensive approach that have so far eluded antiutilitarians.
--Marshall Cohen (New York Times Book Review )
I mean ...to press my recommendation of [this book] to non-philosophers, especially those holding positions of responsibility in law and government. For the topic with which it deals is central to this country's purposes, and the misunderstanding of that topic is central to its difficulties.
--Peter Caws (New Republic )
The most substantial and interesting contribution to moral philosophy since the war.
--Stuart Hampshire (New York Review of Books )
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Internet Reformation
The Daily Bell
The Internet Reformation is the culmination of the power and glory of Western civil society and free-market thinking. It is the apogee of all that is best in a sweep of history that began with the ancient Greeks and has culminated in the hearts and minds of millions of young men and women who industriously add to its impact every day via additional code, non-mainstream news or fundamental scientific commentary.
It is NOT an "Internet Revolution." The Internet Revolution is a standard "pat" phrase of the powers-that-be about the so-called empowering effects of technology. The Internet Reformation is a much more deeply disruptive concept. It is truly a revolutionary one, affecting every aspect of human society and human relationships with modern elites. It is focused around the insights generated by the Internet itself.
This concept is based on what happened during the era of the Gutenberg press. Almost from the beginning, the Gutenberg press was a revolutionary technology. As soon as people used the press to print Bibles, readers began to discover that the Holy Word differed considerably from what they'd been taught by the Catholic Church.
Until then, Bibles had been fairly rare. They were printed in Latin or Greek, and copied down by hand with elaborate engravings. The Catholic Church and its important functionaries and bureaucrats possessed Bibles. Priests performed Mass with their back to the congregation. The ceremony was a highly Romanized one, as the West had come to conceive of Rome within its most corrupt and centralizing phase, and highly controlled.
But printing Bibles in moveable type changed the power relationship entirely. Now, anyone could own a Bible and they were easily reproduced and increasingly inexpensive. Almost immediately, then Bibles began to be translated into "vulgate" and eventually the King James Version (English) would become a dominant variant. But in the meantime, the damage was done. First came the Renaissance and then the Reformation and finally the Age of Enlightenment, three powerful rolling waves of free-thinking that transformed the face of human society, first in the West and then around the world.
The changes ushered in by the Gutenberg press were fundamental. The Renaissance began the reconfiguration by allowing for the rediscovery of the scientific orientation of Greece and Rome. This set in motion a series of events that has not yet ceased to reverberate.
The fundamental motivating force of the Renaissance was to emphasize natural observation, and this can be seen in the obsession with great artists such as Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci who returned to the original source of knowledge whenever possible. This led both artists to dissect corpses rather than to rely on the standard anatomy books of the day, such as they were. Da Vinci's great scientific speculations were based on first-hand observation not sterile theory argued in debating halls.
The Reformation launched a second wave of attacks on the West's business as usual. But it actually involved the same animation. The Gutenberg press allowed readers to examine source material by making the sources available. This was the revolutionary act. The Renaissance emphasized conclusions derived from that fundamental inspiration. The Reformation in its way emphasized sources too. It sought, in its most radical incarnations, to strip out the interpretative layer of Church doctrine by emphasizing the Word of the Bible itself.
Martin Luther began this process in 1517 by publishing his Ninety-Five Theses attacking much of the ecclesiastical structure of Catholic Church. Interestingly, the Reformation's initial phase is seen as ending in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia that put a stop to the religious wars by emphasizing the primacy of the nation state. The Treaty of Westphalia was overturned by the Security Council of the United Nations in 2005, when that body adopted R2P, which mandates that the "West" in aggregate interfere with a nation's sovereignty to "protect" citizens. The powers-that-be have therefore launched a counterattack on national sovereignty even as the Internet Reformation begins to gather power and undermines business as usual.
The Reformation was also known as the Protestant Reformation because despite its formal end-date of 1648, its ripples continue to spread and ultimately gave rise to the establishment of the New World, and the American and French Revolutions. Each wave of the so-called Protestant Revolt further deconstructed the formalized church and suggested doctrine that brought man closer in touch with God.
This process eventually led to the most radical sects such as the Quakers and "Shakers" that did away with Church trappings entirely and simply allowed the individual worshipper to communicate with God as he or she saw fit. The Quakers sometimes used to shed their clothes and worship nakedly in a penultimate effort to remove barriers to the spiritual conversation.
All across the world, the modern Internet Reformation is beginning to reshape the way people relate to power in the modern age. While it is not so obvious as during the era of the Gutenberg press, there is formal doctrine accepted by Western societies that is beginning to shatter. That formal doctrine may be termed regulatory democracy and it has been leavened with numerous assumptions that on closer inspection turn out not to be true. It is the Internet itself that allows for information to spread that undermines the various precepts of regulatory democracy.
Every social order needs a formal elite to organize and animate it. In the high Middle Ages, the hierarchy consisted of the Catholic Church leaders along with Royal families throughout Europe, as well as powerful merchants and bankers. In the modern era, the hierarchy is much less obvious and consists, from available evidence of the great banking, modern banking families led by the Rothschilds based in the City of London along with attendant Zionist influences and abetted by corporate interests and the so-called Dark Nobility and Dark Church.
It is this hierarchy that promulgates regulatory democracy and its various dominant social themes – the fear-based promotions that the Western power elite uses to control the conversation and to further centralize power and authority worldwide. Just as the Catholic Church leaders dreamed of one Pax Romana around the world, so does today's power elite dream of one world order driven by regulatory democracy.
The fear-based themes are many and include many scarcity memes among them. The world is commonly held to be running out of food, water, oil and energy. It is in imminent danger of plagues, unusual weather and asteroid strikes. In these and many other instances, the solutions that are heralded are focused directly on additional governmental agencies, preferably global ones. An entire global infrastructure is gradually being erected that includes an international court, a global legislature (UN), a global military (NATO) and various international agencies to adjudicate trade disputes and the like.
At the center of the new global order is central bank itself, printing money-from-nothing, perpetually devastating the economies of nation states through monetary (and price inflation) and through its ruin, creating the necessity for a global currency and a single global central bank, presumably the IMF. Within this latter meme, gold and silver are held to be barbaric elements, not needed anymore in a fiat money world.
In fact, what the Internet is increasingly showing us is a way to return to basic freedoms. The Internet in its various incarnations has already distributed information showing many of the precepts of regulatory democracy to be false. There is likely plenty of oil and gas around the world and it may be abiotic and reoccurring as well; its availability has simply been manipulated by the powers that be. Alternative sources of energy have likely been suppressed, but over the next decades may become available. Global warming has been shown to be another elite promotion and does not exist as popularly promulgated. Food and water, also supposedly in short supply, are being manipulated by the power elite within its highly controlled global markets. The War on Terror that the elites have begun is an evident and obvious falsity and the Internet reveals this in various ways every day.
Like the radical information that spawned from the Gutenberg press, the impact of the information available to counteract elite modern memes is not immediately visible but over time has a devastating effect. Human beings do have a kind of Hive Mind (via intimate communications between families and friends and various cultural exchanges) and once additional information is made available, that Mind incorporates it.
There are downsides. The power elite profits from the centralizing effects of technology. Spymasters and dictators profit from aspects of technology as they always have. And yet the positive elements are likely unstoppable as well. There is little possibility at this point of the Internet being shut down as simplistic formulations might have it. Instead, as with the Reformation itself, the Internet Reformation will continue to advance, undermining the memes of the powers-that-be and even creating, perhaps, a critical mass of decentralizing influences.
It is decentralization that the modern power elite fears most because decentralized spheres of influence are impossible to control. Unfortunately the Renaissance and Reformation were all about the decentralization of control built on the availability of real knowledge and a return to primary sources that undermined the "experts" of church and state.
The same process is occurring today. It may not be that any one Martin Luther emerges to create a formal Reformation but the larger evolution continues. (There is apparently some evidence that Luther himself was sponsored by a Venetian banking faction of the day to split the power of the church.) Essentially, however the power of the information being unleashed is what will carry the day in numerous manifestations. It is impossible for power elite memes to stand against the availability of information now presented online. It is beyond control, beyond collecting, beyond dampening.
Tomorrow's knowledge base may look much different than today's – and in fundamental ways. Ironically, the 20th century so celebrated by the centralizers must at least to some degree give way to a decentralized Renaissance in the 21st. Yes, the powers-that-be will fight back as they already are via wars and social chaos, just as the Catholic Church responded with its Counter-Reformation; but eventually they may be forced to take a step back as they have before.
Ironically, the proverbial dye was likely cast when America's DARPA dark-technologists invented the Internet but did not foresee, apparently, the evolution of the personal computer that would utilize it to allow average individuals to gain access to all the knowledge of the world. This may stand as one of the great miscalculations of the modern elite. It helped create a second wave of modern information technology that has already begun to undo a myriad of world-centralizing plans.
A new city (predicted in ancient Indian prophecies) has been discovered underwater off the coast of India – though the news has been much suppressed. Humankind is thousands of years older than the Western powers-that-be maintain. The current apogee of human achievement may not be the current one and certainly not the best-of-all-possible worlds. As the underlying certainties crumble, so do the building blocks of the modern elite themes – and the certainty of ongoing centralization.
In fact, the European Union is failing, various serial wars of conquest are not going well, the fear-based memes of the elite are continually being debunked by an Internet that adds more to humankind's real knowledge base every day. It will take decades if not centuries to control the damage that has already been done (from an elite standpoint), and what has been done cannot be undone.
There is a new Reformation taking place throughout the world, led by electronic communication technology. It is not being commented on by the nightly news, nor written about in the mainstream media. But if you understand the trends and look closely, you can see it playing out every day in every part of human culture. It is already convulsing the world. Out of these labor pains a new and freer society is being born.
A new enlightenment is taking place – a fundamental reforming of societies' knowledge base. It is far more important and fundamental than a "technology revolution." It is rewriting the basic relationship that human beings have with their knowledge base and with its impact on their lives. The centralizing architecture erected by the Anglo-American elites is even now being undermined. The darkness is lifting as it lifted long ago during the Renaissance. An Internet Reformation is coming. It will have numerous unpredictable ramifications. In fact, its dawn is already here.
http://momsstuff.posterous.com/
Fine Collector Plates
Fine Collector Plates
Image Shown: 1939 New York World's Fair (Tiffany)
RARE Tiffany Cigar Stand (Circa 1920's)
atomism
Philosophy
1. The ancient theory of Democritus, Epicurus, and Lucretius, according to which simple, minute, indivisible, and indestructible particles are the basic components of the entire universe
2. A theory according to which social institutions, values, and processes arise solely from the acts and interests of individuals, who thus constitute the only true subject of analysis
Philosophical doctrine that material objects are aggregates of simpler parts known as atoms. Atomism in the strict sense is characterized by three points: the atoms are absolutely indivisible, qualitatively identical apart from shape, size, and motion, and combinable with each other only by juxtaposition. Atomism is usually associated with realism and mechanism; it is mechanistic because it maintains that all observable changes can be reduced to changes in the configuration of the atoms that constitute matter. It is opposed to holism because it holds that the properties of any whole can be explained in terms of those of its parts.
holism
• The theory that living matter or reality is made up of organic or unified wholes that are greater than the simple sum of their parts.
• A holistic investigation or system of treatment.
In the philosophy of the social sciences, the view that denies that all large-scale social events and conditions are ultimately explicable in terms of the individuals who participated in, enjoyed, or suffered them. Methodological holism maintains that at least some social phenomena must be studied at their own autonomous, macroscopic level of analysis, that at least some social "wholes" are not reducible to or completely explicable in terms of individuals' behaviour (see emergence). Semantic holism denies the claim that all meaningful statements about large-scale social phenomena (e.g., "The industrial revolution resulted in urbanization") can be translated without residue into statements about the actions, attitudes, relations, and circumstances of individuals.
My body is not a machine!’ ‘Treat the whole person!’ ‘The whole is different from the sum of the parts.’ ‘Reductionism is wrong, because organisms possess properties at a certain level of organization that cannot be explained in terms of properties at lower levels.’ ‘How people work, love, or vote is not determined by our genes!’ These are holist views.
The term ‘holism’ was coined in 1926, from the Greek holos (whole), by the South African statesman General Jan Smuts. But whilst the period between the World Wars was a heyday of holist creativity in biology and medicine, approaches that we can identify as holist are much older. Holism was the unquestioned orthodoxy of the Western tradition of practicing medicine and investigating nature for the two millennia before the nineteenth century. The body was a complex system, in dynamic equilibrium with its environment, and disease a state of imbalance. Mechanistic approaches were canvassed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but they left this ancient model largely intact. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, it could be taken for granted no longer. From palatial new laboratories, mechanistic science reigned increasingly triumphant. Living organisms, once models for the entire cosmos, were now themselves modeled on industrial machines. The nervous system functioned like the telegraph, the eye like a photometer.
As the ‘century of science’ drew to a close, and especially after World War I, various scientists and intellectuals, professionals, and cultural critics pronounced a crisis of scientific confidence. They began to question the achievements of a science that was not just mechanistic but increasingly specialized and fragmented, industrialized and bureaucratic, and to express skepticism, unease, and even horror at its methods. Whilst the scientific factories efficiently probed and shocked, dissected and sliced, crushed and ground bodies into new facts, the most important problems of life, and of living, appeared to cry out for solution in vain. In reaction against ‘machine science’ holists produced new ways of knowing and healing, approaches that sought to respect rather than take apart and analyze the whole. This holism was a collection of self-consciously defensive or oppositional interventions by a wide variety of people, united — if at all — only by what they were against.
Many of the leading holists were themselves scientists. In answer to the general fragmentation of knowledge about the body, they preached synthesis and interdependence. Opposing the claims of mechanistic reductionism, they asked what kind of science could do justice to the complexity of living organisms and their purposiveness. Relativity and quantum theory were beating the old mechanistic physics on its own ground, they observed; surely it was passé still to be modelling animals on locomotives? Some embryologists, for example, followed Hans Driesch in arguing that no machine could compensate for loss of parts in the ways that embryos did. He embraced vitalism, teaching that the development of a harmonious whole embryo was guided by a non-spatial and immaterial ‘entelechy’ — but other biologists came up with organicist approaches that gave the whole embryo priority over its parts whilst remaining safely within materialist bounds. In academic psychology the Gestalt theorists, Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Köhler, claimed that not atomistic sensations but structured wholes are the primary units of mental life. And, like many holists, they were not content to reform scientific theories but also took up the challenge of finding appropriate paths to knowledge in science. Gestalt experimentation in Weimar Germany investigated the variation among perceptions not between but within individual subjects, and so opposed the administrative, classifying style of science embodied in intelligence testing that was becoming dominant in the US. The Gestalt psychologists prided themselves on doing rigorous science, but some holists explored alternative ways of knowing, such as intuition, that to most scientists smacked of the irrational, of the frankly unscientific.
Especially in medicine, holists concentrated on setting acceptable terms for the relations between the new laboratory sciences and their professional practice. Early-twentieth-century medical élites, for example, cultivated the clinical art as a mark of a gentleman. It would temper the cold precision of scientific medicine — and prevent the physician becoming a mere technician. Against the specter of specialized and bureaucratic state medicine they defended traditional doctor-patient relationships and a medicine of the whole person. In many ways from the other side but also holistic, the mid-twentieth-century ‘social medicine’ of Oxford professor John Ryle criticized the dominant anti-bacterial and surgical strategies as narrow and blinkered. The social medicine movement showed the dependence of sickness on the social variables of lifestyle and environment, and called for medicine to move beyond the hospital and the laboratory. More widely, as people confronted the extension of mechanistic science and technology into their lives, many were moved to ask how they could avoid becoming mere cogs in its machines, and to wonder what new insights might re-enchant a world that science appeared to be emptying of meaning.
The political geography of twentieth-century holism was extremely complex. Conservatives and liberals, fascists and communists, feminists and male chauvinists, racists and internationalists were all known to help themselves to holist rhetoric. Variously opposing alienation, atheism, bureaucracy, democracy, free-market capitalism, industrialism, mass culture, and metropolitan life, some holists have sought to defend human individuality as an absolute, whilst others have subsumed individuals into groups, be they classes, nations or — as most notoriously in Nazi Germany — races. Holists have traditionally opposed the treatment of human beings as machines, but historian Jeffrey Herf has shown that in Weimar and Nazi Germany some reactionaries succeeded in reconciling their ‘hunger for wholeness’ with a cult of technology.
Holism was marginalized after World War II, but since the late 1960s holist approaches have attracted renewed interest. Many holists are outside and opposed to official science and medicine, especially in the alternative health, environmentalist, feminist, animal rights, and New Age movements. But, though generally elusive, much more holism can be found in mainstream science and medicine than their dominant reductionism would suggest. Scientists continue to model bodies on machines, but in the age of digital computers machines can do things of which turn-of-the-century holists never even dreamed. The language of DNA is among the most reductionist ever invented, but the intricacies of gene regulation can warm the cockles of a holist heart. Just as hard-headed reductionists have pragmatically factored in some complexity, so holists have typically had to accept some reductionist means. The very terms are treacherous — but the opposition endures.
— Nick Hopwood
patristic literature
Patristics or Patrology is the study of Early Christian writers, known as the Church Fathers. The names derive from the Latin pater (father). The period is generally considered to run from the end of New Testament times or end of the Apostolic Age (c. 100 CE) to either 451 CE (the date of the Council of Chalcedon),[1] or to the 8th century Second Council of Nicaea, see also First seven Ecumenical Councils.
Key persons
Among the persons whose writings form the basis for Patristics, i.e. prominent early Church Fathers, are Justin Martyr (c.100-c.165), Irenaeus of Lyons (c.130-c.200), Clement of Alexandria (c.150-c.215), Tertullian (c.160-c.225), Origen (c.185-c.254), Cyprian of Carthage (d. 258), Athanasius (c.296-c.373), Gregory of Nazianzus (329-389), Basil of Caesarea (c.330-379), Gregory of Nyssa (c.330-c.395) Theodore of Mopsuestia (c.350-428), Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Pelagius, Vincent of Lérins (d. bef. 450), Cyril of Alexandria (d.444), Nestorius (died c.451).
Key theological developments
Major focuses for these theologians during the period are in chronological order: Christianity's relationship with Judaism; the establishment of the New Testament Canon; Apologetics ('defense' or 'explanation' of Christianity); and doctrinal discussions that sought to achieve consistency of faith, in particular within the Christianised Roman Empire. Following the scholar of Christianity Alistair McGrath (1998), several major areas of theology can be seen to have developed during the Patristic Period: the extent of the New Testament Canon, the role of tradition, the fixing of the ecumenical creeds, the Two Natures of Christ, the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of the Church, and the doctrine of Divine grace.
Eras of the church fathers
The church fathers are generally divided into the Ante-Nicene Fathers, those who lived and wrote before the Council of Nicaea (325) and the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, those who lived and wrote after 325. In addition, the division of the fathers into Greek and Latin writers is also common. Some of the most prominent Greek Fathers are Justin Martyr, John Chrysostom, and Cyril of Alexandria. Among the Latin Fathers are Tertullian, Cyprian, Jerome, Ambrose of Milan, Gregory the Great and Augustine of Hippo.
Locations
See also: Early centers of Christianity and Pentarchy
The major locations of the early Church fathers were Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and the area of western north Africa around Carthage. Milan and Jerusalem were also sites.
Obstacles to 21st century understanding
Scholar of Christianity Alister McGrath notes four reasons why, in the early 21st century, understanding Patristics can be difficult: (1) Some of the debates appear to have little relevance to the modern world; (2) The use of classical philosophy; (3) The doctrinal diversity; (4) The divisions between East and West, i.e. Greek and Latin, methods of theology, for example the extent of use of classical philosophy.
The terms Neo-patristics and Post-patristics refer to recent theologies according to which the Church Fathers must be reinterpreted or even critically tested in light of modern developments, since their writings reflected that of distant past. These theologies however are considered controversial or even dangerous by Orthodox theologians.
Patrologia vs. patristica
Some scholars, chiefly in Germany, distinguish patrologia from patristica. Josef Fessler, for instance, defines patrologia as the science which provides all that is necessary for the using of the works of the Fathers, dealing, therefore, with their authority, the criteria for judging their genuineness, the difficulties to be met within them, and the rules for their use. But Fessler's own Institutiones Patrologiae has a larger range, as have similar works entitled Patrologies, for example that of Otto Bardenhewer (tr. Shahan, Freiburg, 1908). On the other hand, Fessler describes patristica as that theological science by which all that concerns faith, morals, or discipline in the writings of the Fathers is collected and sorted. The lives and works of the Fathers are also described by a non-specialized science: literary history. These distinctions are not much observed, nor do they seem very necessary; they are nothing else than aspects of patristic study as it forms part of fundamental theology, of positive theology, and of literary history.
Relations with Judaism
Patristic bishops of the patristic era such as Augustine argued that the Jews should be left alive and suffering as a perpetual reminder of their murder of Christ. Saint John Chrysostom used Jesus' words in Luke 19:27 to call for the murder of Jews in Chrysostoms Eight Homilies Against the Jews:
The Jewish people were driven by their drunkenness and plumpness to the ultimate evil; they kicked about, they failed to accept the yoke of Christ, nor did they pull the plow of his teaching. Another prophet hinted at this when he said: “Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn heifer.” … Although such beasts are unfit for work, they are fit for killing. And this is what happened to the Jews: while they were making themselves unfit for work, they grew fit for slaughter. This is why Christ said: “But as for these my enemies, who did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and slay them.” [Luke 19:27]
Steven Katz cites Chrysostom's homilies as “the decisive turn in the history of Christian anti-Judaism, a turn whose ultimate disfiguring consequence was enacted in the political anti-Semitism of Adolf Hitler”. James Parkes called the writing on Jews "the most horrible and violent denunciations of Judaism to be found in the writings of a Christian theologian". Chrysostom's sermons against Jews gave momentum to the idea that Jews are collectively responsible for the death of Jesus.
Christianity and Judaism
Although Christianity and Judaism share historical roots in the Second Temple period, these two religions diverged profoundly in the first centuries CE. Christendom places emphasis on correct belief (or orthodoxy), focusing primarily on response to the New Covenant that the Christian Triune God made through Jesus. Judaism primarily places emphasis on the right conduct (or orthopraxy), focusing primarily on how to respond to the Mosaic Covenant that the One God of Israel, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, made with the Israelites, as recorded in the Torah and Talmud. In other words, Christians obtain individual salvation from original sin through repentance of sin and receiving Jesus Christ as their God and Savior through faith, rituals and sacraments, that express their New Covenant with God. Jews individually conduct in accordance with Holy Scripture and collectively participate in an eternal dialogue with the living God of Israel through tradition, rituals, prayers and ethical actions, that express their nation's covenant with God. Mainstream Christianity worships a Triune God who also is human. Judaism emphasizes - since almost some 4000 years until now - the Oneness of God and strictly rejects - since almost some 1800 years until now - the Christian concept of God in human form.
* This article only considers the mainstream Christian views, in contrast to, to mention just a few, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Adventism, Early Christianity or Nontrinitarianism. * This article only considers the mainstream Jewish views, in contrast to Karaite Judaism.
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
By Robert D. Putnam
(1995)
Drawing on vast new data that reveal Americans’ changing behavior, Putnam shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from one another and how social structures—whether they be PTA, church, or political parties—have disintegrated. Until the publication of this groundbreaking work, no one had so deftly diagnosed the harm that these broken bonds have wreaked on our physical and civic health, nor had anyone exalted their fundamental power in creating a society that is happy, healthy, and safe.
Like defining works from the past, such as The Lonely Crowd and The Affluent Society, and like the works of C. Wright Mills and Betty Friedan, Putnam’s Bowling Alone has identified a central crisis at the heart of our society and suggests what we can do.
Slate Magazine – July, 1996
The ABCs of Communitarianism
A devil's dictionary
By Fareed Zakaria
Sometime over the last two years, someone somewhere must have decreed that the intellectual buzzword of the '90s was to be "communitarianism." Only five years ago, communitarianism was an obscure school of philosophy discussed in faculty seminars; today, its ideas are splashed across People magazine and on network TV. "Community" and "civil society," the two mantras of the movement, are part of everyday political discourse.
Curiously, in a climate of polarized political discourse, everyone is a communitarian. The movement's cheerleaders can be found across the political spectrum, from Hillary Clinton to Barbra Streisand to Pat Buchanan. On the left, large liberal foundations like Ford and Carnegie, the bellwethers of political correctness, throw millions of dollars into projects relating to these ideas. (The result, predictably, is that the magic words "community" and "civil society" are sprinkled liberally now in all proposals for research grants, as in "The East Asian Balance of Power--The Neglected Role of Civil Society.") On the right, Policy Review, the journal of the resolutely conservative Heritage Foundation, announced last year that it was reorienting itself to focus on civil society.
What is communitarianism? Where did it come from? How come everyone seems to agree it is good? It's actually all quite simple. You just need to remember your ABCs.
*************
A Is for Aristotle. He is probably started it all. In his treatise on government, The Politics, he famously wrote that "man is by nature a political animal," meaning that human beings can best fulfill themselves as part of social and political groups, not as isolated individuals sitting at home watching TV (well, the fourth century B.C. equivalent). Usually regarded as the original conservative philosopher, Aristotle is popular now with "troubled liberals" who worry that modern societies, organized around an individualistic, rights-based creed, leave human beings feeling "hollow at the core."
Of these troubled types, Harvard University political philosopher Michael Sandel is perhaps mostly closely identified with communitarianism. Along with serious scholars like Michael Walzer and unserious publicists like Amitai Etzioni, Sandel criticizes "minimalist liberalism"--the tradition made most famous by John Stuart Mill--for too easily celebrating individualism and materialism at the expense of social and moral issues. In his new book, Democracy's Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy, Sandel tries to revive an alternative American path, the Republican tradition, which, he says, focused on character-building and citizenship. While their critique of liberalism's reluctance to introduce morality into politics is trenchant, left-wing communitarians like Sandel themselves are reluctant to advocate strong remedies--say prayer in public schools or laws against divorce--and rely instead on vague statements about the value of community life and neighborhoods.
Conservatives have few such inhibitions. Former Reagan official and intellectual firebrand William Bennett agrees with everything that troubled liberals say is wrong with modern society. His answer, however, is not to talk about nice neighborhoods, but instead, to talk about Virtue. Actually, he writes about it, and since his Books of Virtues, collections of morally instructive tales from all over the world, are relentless best sellers, one has to assume someone is reading them.
The advantage that Bennett and others, like neo-conservative writer Ben Wattenberg and Christian Coalition spokesman Ralph Reed, have is that while liberals spend a great deal of time analyzing the problem--liberalism's value-free politics--they are wary of actually filling the vacuum with any kind of absolutist morality. They are, after all, liberals. By contrast, conservative communitarians have solutions. Both groups talk up abstract virtues like honor, commitment, and thrift, but conservatives then propose specific policies that put into law their moral and religious preferences in order to deal with all sorts of issues: unwed mothers, absent fathers, unruly schoolchildren, gay lovers, and so on. It's a game liberals can't win.
*************
B Is for Bowling. One of the most important debates among academics and policy wonks over the last two years has been, is it better is bowl together or alone? In "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital," a now-legendary article written in 1995, Harvard's Robert Putnam pointed out that league bowling in America has been declining for decades, while individual bowling is on the rise. This, he contends, is a symbol of the decline of community spirit and the rise of atomistic individualism.
Part of the reason that Putnam's article resonated so strongly outside elite circles--People magazine profiled him in a bowling alley--is that in using the example of bowling, that staple of 1950s, Putnam touched on a powerful chord of nostalgia for the America of that golden decade. A new book by Alan Ehrenhalt, The Lost City, is subtitled Discovering the Forgotten Virtues of Community in the Chicago of the 1950s.
Ehrenhalt's book may be the best of the new literature on community, because rather than waxing poetic about community in the abstract, he describes actual communities. The result is a vivid picture showing that the strong bonds that developed in those fabled neighborhoods of yore were kindled by conditions that we might find discomforting today--fear of authority, lack of choice, and poverty. People stayed in neighborhoods, for example, because they could not afford to move, and because other neighborhoods would not accept them easily. They attended church services and neighborhood social events because small banks, schools, and other community institutions were run by a local elite that enforced a certain kind of conformity. Porches and stoops, those symbols of a vibrant social life, stopped being used as gathering places for a rather practical reason--air conditioning. Ehrenhalt himself advocates a return to the choice-free, obedient life of the 1950s, but while seductive in the abstract, it sounds more and more confining on close examination. Imagine having to go to parties with your local bank manager so that you could get a mortgage.
Hard-core left-wingers are horrified by this rise in nostalgia about the 1950s, a decade that was seen, not so long ago, as a grim period of pre-enlightenment, racist, sexist, capitalist boredom. The Nation's Katha Pollitt takes Putnam's very example, the shift from league bowling to ad hoc bowling, and suggests that "[that] story could be told as one of happy progress from a drink-sodden night of spouse-avoidance with the same old faces from work to temperate and spontaneous fun with one's intimate friends and family." Hmm. "Temperate and spontaneous fun" sounds like something one might have to do in a work camp. And the occasional "drink-sodden night of spouse-avoidance"--for both sexes--is probably key to enduring marriages.
B, by the way, could also be for "baseball," but it turns out that baseball leagues have been growing steadily over the last decades. And the number of soccer clubs has been rising meteorically as well. The simplest explanation for this rise might be the desire for a little exercise.
***************
C Is for Civil Society. Civil Society has nothing to do with Emily Post. It's a term used to describe that part of society that exists between the family and the state--voluntary organizations, choral groups, Rotary clubs, etc.
Alexis de Tocqueville noticed in the 1830s that America was brimming with them, and argued that they were good for democracy. This celebrated hypothesis has by now become a theological certitude in the minds of most American intellectuals. It recently received powerful empirical support from Robert Putnam, whose 1993 book, Making Democracy Work, documented that northern Italy is civil-society rich and southern Italy, civil-society poor. Certainly the north has been better governed than the south for centuries, but that is not to say that is has been a better democracy. After all, Italy has not been a democracy for that long. There was that fellow, Mussolini, and before him, the emperor. Perhaps civil society is good for efficient government rather than democratic government. Memo to Lee Kuan Yew…
Of course, civil society could also be the Mafia, the Michigan militia, Hamas, the Nation of Islam and other such groups involved in communal projects. But when most civil-society boosters talk about the concept, they use it to mean--arbitrarily--those groups that they like. So the left points inevitably to nonprofit do-good organizations, and the right talks about church groups.
Consider the difference between the conservative writer Francis Fukuyama and left winger Benjamin Barber, who, in their recent books, praise civil society extravagantly. In Fukuyama's Trust, he argues that private companies are an important part of civil society and that nonfamily business activity is a key indicator of a politically and economically healthy society. But for Barber, the author of Jihad vs. McWorld: How the Planet is Both Falling Apart and Coming Together--and What This Means for Democracy--a book President Clinton has read and praised--business, far from being part of civil society, leads the assault on civil society. "Who will get business off the backs of civil society?" Barber asks. Now it isn't clear why firms don't fulfill most of the functions of civil society. Indeed the term "civil society" originated with writers like Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, and David Hume in England and Scotland in the 18th century as a way to describe private business activity. On the other hand, you don't hear many conservatives proclaiming the virtues of Greenpeace.
Communitarianism was supposed to be a third way, neither liberal nor conservative, that charted a new course for philosophy and politics. But as this primer suggests, it has become a collection of meaningless terms, used as new bottles into which the old wine of liberalism and conservatism is poured. Community means one thing if you are a conservative and another if you are a liberal--the same with civil society, and even bowling. Call it politics as usual.
“Communitarianism”
Encyclopedia of Community: From the Village to the Virtual World
Vol 1, A-D,
Karen Christensen and David Levinson, eds. (Sage Publications, 2003) pp. 224-228.
By Amitai Etzioni
Communitarianism is a social philosophy that maintains that society should articulate
what is good–that such articulations are both needed and legitimate. Communitarianism is often
contrasted with classical liberalism, a philosophical position that holds each individual should
formulate the good on his or her own. Communitarians examine the ways shared conceptions of
the good (values) are formed, transmitted, justified, and enforced. Hence their interest in
communities (and moral dialogues within them), historically transmitted values and mores, and
the societal units that transmit and enforce values such the family, schools, and voluntary
associations (social clubs, churches, and so forth), which are all parts of communities.
Among early sociologists whose work is focused on communitarian issues (all though
they did not use them) are Ferdinand Tönnies (1955-1936), especially his comparison of the
gemeinschaft (community), and gessellschaft (association); Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), who
studied the socially integrating role of values and the relations between the society and the
person; and George Herbert Mead (1863-1931), who studied the self. Other early relevant
sociological works are those of Robert E. Park, William Kornhauser, and Robert Nisbet.
While the term communitarian was coined only in the mid- nineteenth century, ideas that
are communitarian in nature appear much earlier. They are found in the Old and New
Testaments, Catholic theology (for example, the emphasis on the Church as community, and
more recently on socialist doctrine (for example, writings about the early commune and about
workers’ solidarity) and subsidiarity–the principle that the lowest level of authority capable of
addressing an issue is the one best able to handle it. In essence, moral judgments are best made
at the community lever rather than from the higher governing bodies.
Variations on the Theme of Communitarianism
All communitarians uphold the importance of the social realm, and in particular of
community, though they differ in the extent to which their conceptions are attentive to liberty and
individual rights. Early communitarians, such as Ferdinand Tönnies and Robert Nisbet, stressed
the importance of closely knit social fabric and authority. Asian communitarians are especially
concerned about the values of social order. They argue that to maintain social harmony,
individual rights and political liberties must be curtailed. Some seek to rely heavily on the state to
maintain social order (for instance, leaders and champions of the regime in Singapore and
Malaysia), and some on strong social bonds and moral culture (as Japan does). Asian
communitarians also hold that the West's notion of liberty actually amounts to anarchy; that
strong economic growth requires limiting freedoms; and that the West uses its idea of legal and
political rights to chastise other cultures that have inherent values of their own.
In the 1980s, Charles Taylor, Michael Sandel, Michael Walzer, and Robert Bellah and
his associates criticized the excessive individualism of classical liberalism exemplified by the
United States under President Reagan and Britain under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. In
1995, Alan Ehrenhalt’s book The Lost City: The Forgotten Virtues of Community in America
questioned the value of enhancing choice, achieved at the cost of maintaining community and
authority. In his book Bowling Alone (2000), Robert Putnam identified what he deemed “social
capital” – the element of communities that forms affective bonds among people – and stressed
the importance of “bridging social capital,” in which bonds of connectedness are formed across
diverse social groups.
In response to the breakdown in the moral fabric of society engendered by excessive
individualism, Amitai Etzioni and William A. Galston began to organize working meetings to
think through communitarian approaches to key societal issues. They, along with Mary Ann
Glendon, Jean Bethke Elshtain, and other figures from academia and politics, issued a platform
endorsed by a wide range of leading Americans. Deeming themselves “responsive
communitarians” in order to distinguish the movement from East Asian, authoritarian
communitarians, Etzioni formed the Communitarian Network to study and promote
communitarian approaches to social issues and began publishing a quarterly journal, The
Responsive Community. The new communitarian movement has been credited with having
influenced public leaders and elected leaders of various persuasions in a number of Western
countries.
Concerns of Communitarians
Communitarians also pay much attention to the relationship between the self and the
community. Political theorists depict the self as “embedded,” which implies that the self is
constrained by the community. Responsive communitarians stress that individuals who are well integrated into communities are better able to reason and act in responsible ways than isolated
individuals, but add that if social pressure to conform rises to high levels, it will undermine the
individual self.
Communitarians pay special attention to social institutions, several of which form the
moral infrastructure of society: families, schools, communities, and the community of
communities. Infants are born into families whose societal role is to introduce values and begin
the development of the moral self. Schools’ role is to further develop the moral self and to
remedy moral development if it was neglected or distorted by the family.
Defining Community
Several critics argue that the concept of community is of questionable value because it is
so ill-defined. In The Myth of Community Studies, edited by Colin Bell and Howard Newby,
Margaret Stacey argues that the solution this problem is to avoid the term all together. Bell and
Newby argue, “There has never been a theory of community, nor even a satisfaction definition of
what community is” (Bell & Newby 1974, p. xliii). In another text, Bell and Newby write, “But
what is community? . . . [I]t will be seen that over ninety definitions of community have been
analyzed and that the one common element in them all was man!” (Bell & Newby 1973, p. 15).
Amitai Etzioni argued that community can be defined with reasonable precision.
Community has two characteristics: first, a web of affect-laden relationships among a group of
individuals, relationships that often crisscross and reinforce one another (as opposed to one-on-one
or chain-like individual relationship); and second, a measure of commitment to a set of
shared values, norms, and meanings, and a shared history and identity – in short, a particular culture. David E. Pearson stated, “To earn the appellation ‘community,’ it seems to me, groups
must be able to exert moral suasion and extract a measure of compliance from their members.
That is, communities are necessarily, indeed, by definition, coercive as well as moral, threatening
their members with the stick of sanctions if they stray, offering them the carrot of certainty and
stability if they don’t.” (Pearson 1995, p. 47).
Criticizing and Defending the Concept of Community
Critics also suggested that those who long for community ignore the darker side of
traditional communities. “In the new communitarian appeal to tradition, communities of ‘mutual
aid and memory,’ and the Founders,” writes Linda McClain in “Rights and Irresponsibility” in
the Duke Law Journal, “there is a problematic inattention to the less attractive, unjust features of
tradition” (McClain1994, p. 1029).
Communities, critics write, use their moral voice to oppress people, are authoritarian by
nature, and push people to conform. According to Will Kymlicka, this oppression can entail the
community prescribing roles of subordination, roles that limit people’s individual potential and
threaten their psychological well-being (Kymlicka 1993, pp. 208-221). Derek Phillips adds:
In their celebration of the ecstasy of belonging, communitarian writers exhibit a
frightening forgetfulness about the past. They fail to acknowledge that the quest for
community often involve domination for some and subordination for others. In attacking
post-Enlightenment liberalism and the politics of rights, communitarian theorists threaten
to rob individuals of their most basic protections against abuses of power. In emphasizing
the importance of community for people’s everyday lives, communitarians fail to see that
it is attachment rather than membership that is general human value. (Phillips 1993, p.
195)
Amy Gutmann pointedly remarks that communitarians “want us to live in Salem”
(Gutmann 1985, p. 319), a community of strong shared values that went so far as to accuse
nonconformist members of witchcraft during the seventeenth century.
Communitarians counter that behind many of these criticisms lies an image of old, or
total, communities, which are neither typical of modern society nor necessary for, or even
compatible with, a communitarian society. Old communities (traditional villages) were
geographically bounded and the only communities of which people were members. In effect,
other than escaping into no-man’s-land, often bandit territories, individuals had few opportunities
for choosing their social attachments. In short, old communities had monopolistic power over
their members.
New communities are often limited in scope and reach. Members of one residential
community are often also members of other comminutes – for example work, ethnic, or religious
ones. As a result, community members have multiple sources of attachments, and if one threats
to become overwhelming, individuals will tend to pull back and turn to another community for
their attachments. Thus, for example, if a person finds herself under high moral pressure at work
to contribute to the United Way, to give blood, or to serve at a soup kitchen for the homeless, and
these are lines of action she is not keen to follow; she may end up investing more of her energy in
other communities–her writers’ group, for instance, or her church. If a person who has recently
been divorced is under severe censure by his church community, on the other hand, he may well
take on extra hours at work. This multi-community membership protects the individuals from
both moral oppression and ostracism. However, incongruity between the values of a person’s
multiple communities may substantially weaken the moral voice; thus the importance of the next level
moral community.
In short, the moral voice is most powerful when people are members of only one
community, but it can be overwhelming in such cases. It is more moderated when individuals are
members of several comminutes, but it still may suffice to undergird a good part of the social
order, as long as the various communities share at least some core values.
For the same reason it is a valid criticism to argue that a total and monolithic community
can drive people to conformism, if this means that such a community will push people to
sacrifice large parts of their individual differences in order to follow shared values. But total
communities are rare in contemporary societies, while multi-community attachments are much
more common. To worry, in this context, about traditionalism is like worrying about the effects
of excessive savings in an economy long plagued by debts and deficits and rather reluctant to
mend its ways.
Another facet of the same basic criticism is the charge that communities are authoritarian.
Derek Phillips, for instance, remarks, “Communitarian thinking . . . obliterates individual
autonomy entirely and dissolves the self into whatever roles are imposed by one’s position in
society” (Phillips 1993, p. 183). As the political scientist Robert Booth Fowler puts it, critics “see
talk of community as interfering with the necessary breaking down of dominant forces and
cultures” (Fowler 1991, p.142). Some critics mean by this that communities are totalistic, a point
already covered. Others mean that they are dominated by power elites or have one group that
forces others to abide by the values of those in power.
Communitarians find that this criticism has merit, but it is misdirected. There are
communities both past and present that have been or are authoritarian. The medieval phrase Stadt
luft macht frei (“the air of the cities frees”) captures what the farmers of traditional villages must
have felt when they first moved into cities at the beginning of the industrial era. (Poor working
conditions and slums aside, being away from the stricter social codes of their families and
villages seems to have given them a sense of freedom, which in some cases led to anarchic
behavior.) Totalitarian communities exist in contemporary communities, such as North Korea.
However, most contemporary communities, especially in communitarian societies, are not
authoritarian even when they are defined by geography. Also relative ease of mobility means that
people often choose which community to join and within which to live. Agnostics will not move
into a Hasidic community in Brooklyn, and prejudiced whites will not move into a neighborhood
dominated by the Nation of Islam.
Dominance by power elites and other forms of authoritarianism are not basic or inherent
features of community, but reflections of the way it can be distorted. To be fully or even highly
communitarian, communities require authentic commitment of most – if not all – of their
members to a set of core values. To attain such a commitment, the values that are being fostered
need to be truly accepted by the members and responsive to their underlying needs. If some
members of the society are excluded from the moral dialogue, or are manipulated into abiding by
the moral voice, or if their true needs are ignored, they will eventually react to the community’s
lack of responsiveness in an antisocial manner. In short, communities can be distorted by those in
power, but then their moral order will be diminished, and they will either have to become more
responsive to their members’ true needs or transform into some other noncommunitarian, social
pattern.
Still other critics have accused communitarians not merely of overlooking the less
attractive features of traditional communities, but of willfully longing to revive these features.
According to Michael Taves, the communitarian vision concerns itself mostly with “reclaiming a
reliance on traditional values and all that entails with regard to the family, sexual relations,
religion, and the rejection of secularism” (Taves 1988, pp.7-8). According to Judith Stacey,
“centrists” and communitarians have enough in common with former U.S. Vice President Dan
Quayle to make people on the left uncomfortable (Stacey 1994, pp. 119-22).
Early communitarians might be charged with being, in effect, social conservatives, if not
authoritarians. However, many contemporary communitarians, especially those who define
themselves as responsive communitarians, fully realize and often stress that they do not seek to
return to traditional communities, with their authoritarian power structure, rigid stratification, and
discriminatory practices against minorities and women. Responsive communitarians seek to
build communities based on open participation, dialogue, and truly shared values. Linda
McClain, a fair critic of communitarians, recognizes this feature of the responsive
communitarians, writing that some communitarians do “recognize the need for careful evaluation
of what is good and bad about [any specific] tradition and the possibility of severing certain
features . . . from others” (McClain 1994, p. 1030). And R. Bruce Douglass writes, “Unlike
conservatives, communitarians are aware that the days when the issues we face as a society could
be settled on the basis of the beliefs of a privileged segment of the population have long since
passed” (Douglass 1994, p. 55).
Finally, communitarians have noted that communities need to be embedded socially and
morally in more encompassing entities if violent conflict among them is to be avoided. Society
should not be viewed as composed of millions of individuals, but as pluralism (of communities)
within unity (the society). The existence of subcultures does not undermine societal unity as long
as there is a core of shared values and institutions.
Further Reading
Introduction to Communitarianism
Cohousing, Ecovillages, Communal Societies, and other Intentional Community Designs
COMMUNITARIAN VALUES as AMERICAN LUXURIES *
There are different ways to view the effort to build community. One view, that our only choices are chaos or community, suggests that building intentional community is a necessity in order to assure our long-term survival. A less fatalistic view is that building community, of any kind, is the effort to create luxuries that cannot otherwise be enjoyed. These luxuries can also be called “communitarian values.”
As fifty years of the post-war housing industry has shown, communitarian values are luxuries that we do not absolutely need if all that we are trying to do is acquire housing. Today, however, the challenge is to build a social fabric that provides, in addition to mere shelter, a culture that engenders in the individual an appreciation of others and a sense of responsibility for the environment we share.
Communitarian values focus upon providing a safe and nurturing environment for children and seniors, community food service, and other collective services, such as building and auto maintenance, where people work together for mutual advantage and efficient resource usage. Communitarian values are experienced in neighborhood forums where people resolve disputes or discuss opportunities or challenges from within or from outside of the community. Communitarian values are supported by architectural and land use designs that encourage the random kindnesses and senseless acts of beauty that encourage interactions among people, and the development of friendships and other primary and secondary social bonds.
As the effort to build community must seek to counter the generations of acculturation to the paradigm of home as moated castle, a new paradigm may be created in order to replace the materialistic American Dream and the paternalistic “domestic mystique,” with a more transcendent American Dream focused upon the egalitarian “community mystique.” Presenting communitarian values as a set of luxuries that money alone cannot buy can serve this end. Consider the priceless value of the peace of mind that comes with knowing on a first name basis everyone in your neighborhood, because you talk and work with them regularly in day-to-day living. This we might call the “trust luxury.” The informal ambience of the common spaces, serving to facilitate interactions among people, we might call a “social luxury.”
Consider too how the fellowship of community respects the spiritual ideals of brother- and of sisterhood, of living by the Golden Rule, or of practicing a love-thy-neighbor ethic. The opportunity to conform our lifestyle to our spiritual ideals can be cast as a “spiritually correct luxury,” while the focus upon sharing and ecological design is presented as a “politically-correct luxury.” And more than mere luxury, intergenerational community where both young and old are encouraged to care for the other, in comparison with the usual pattern of age segregation in America, is cultural elegance. Visiting other communities around the world is a “holiday luxury.” All of these and more are communitarian luxuries available to everyone.
* Edited from, “CoHousing as an American Luxury,” by A. Allen Butcher printed in CoHousing, Summer, 1996.
A PHILOSOPHY OF HAPPINESS
In the pursuit of happiness, many people realize that good health, a personal outlook of optimism, personal control over one’s own life, physical activity, and the quality of relationships we enjoy are all more important than personal wealth alone.*
Through interweaving our concerns, cares, sadnesses, joys and loves with those of others, all of the elements of happiness, including health, optimism, control, activity and relationships, can be concentrated into a mutually supportive dynamic. Communitarianism then becomes a philosophy of happiness as the individual realizes that the well-being of others is important to the securing of their own personal happiness. **
This introduction to communitarianism presents ways of understanding how people have collectively expressed and are living various philosophies of happiness. All communitarian designs share basic values of mutual aid, sharing and cooperation, yet their methods run the full spectrum of social and cultural designs. This brochure offers a set of definitions of terms and a classification structure for various intentional community designs.
* John Stossel, “Happiness in America,” ABC, 20-20, April, 1996. See also: Amitai Etzioni, The Spirit of
Community: The Reinvention of American Society, Touchstone, 1993. The Communitarian Network, 2130 H St. NW, Ste. 714, Wash. DC 20052, (202) 994-7997
** See: Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being, Van Nostrand, 1968, and, Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1790, as quoted by Francis Moore Lappe in “Self and Society,” Creation, March/April 1988.
The Daily Progress / Charlottesville, Virginia
Mindset of county schools is off
Yes, “Out of the mouths of babes oft come gems” is a traditional saying, validated by our cultural heritage.
It comes to mind via the recent notoriety of the Woodbrook third-grade students/Kid-Pan-Alley musical ode to communitarianism and economic class envy. The lengthy “did they really write that all by themselves?” affirmations, denials and publicity led to the eventual confession by KPA founder Paul Reisler that he was responsible for introducing the political elements into the students’ song. Thus in this instance, bogus “gems” were planted in the mouths of innocent babes.
The official pronouncements of the Albemarle County School Board served to defend and preserve the illusion that the school kids had done this all on their own. Rather than reacting with public doubt, indignation and investigation, Chairman Stephen Koleszar’s position (“Albemarle third-graders' Occupy song draws criticism,” The Daily Progress, Jan. 3) seemed to indicate that producing such a third-grade politically oriented ditty was a bit of business as usual for Albemarle County students.
The official Albemarle County School Board web page lists six “Strategic Goals.” The No. 3 goal includes: “our employees must be the best that they can be.” Is allowing KPA entry into the third-grade classroom and allowing its message of political indoctrination an example of “the best” that can be expected of that teacher and her supervisors?
Perhaps School Board goal No. 1, “preparing students to succeed as members of a global community,” sets the tone for the classroom. None of the goals listed includes preparing students to be, first of all, good citizens of the United States and to understand their unique American heritage. Instead, the focus is on the one-world mindset of the United Nations.
I hope that this incident might serve to cause the School Board to reconsider and redirect its excellence efforts closer to home, and to alert parents as to what passes for a self-proclaimed “world-class educational system.”
Dutch Christian Conservatives Dominated By Communitarianism
Hans Bleker, the former Chairman of Dutch Christian Democrats CDA, claimed in an interview with influential Dutch weekly Elsevier that:
"Immigrants and their children are closely allied to Christian democrats because of their communitarian ideas and that the party should not propose or support cuts to the development aid budget"
Some, like @kustawbessems, see this as an attempt to become party leader by playing nice to the current party leadership that claims to want to pull the party to the left. It's amazing how Christian Democrats have the nerve to present communitarianism as an ideology that could attract immigrants to the party. As I have argued time and time again, communitarianism is responsible for the rise of xenophobic anti-immigration and anti-immigrant sentiments inside Dutch society. Its emphasis on Judeo-Christian values was aimed at co-opting anti-Muslim sentiments. This strategy was the basis of Balkenende's electoral victories.
The Dooyeweerd School of philosophy plays an important part in shaping the ideological direction of Christian Democrats and their two parties inside the Netherlands: CDA & ChristenUnie. Professor Roel Kuiper is deeply involved in this school of thought and Senator for the ChristenUnie. Both on immigration and integration the Dooyeweerd School has aligned itself with communitarian prime-minister Jan-Peter Balkenende. The reaction to Obama quoting Psalm 46 spoke volumes. Obama was obviously playing out his strategy to win over the communitarian vote when his press secretary wrote this 9/11 release:
"The President chose a scripture which he believed was most appropriate -- he believed it was particularly appropriate to use -- to read scripture this morning. And he chose a passage that talks of persevering through very difficult challenges and emerging from those challenges stronger."
Jan-Peter Balkenende quotes on 9/11:
"Bitter experience has taught us how fundamental our values are and how great the mission they represent"
In stark contrast to what Dutch Reformed Professor Ad de Bruijne wrote concerning 9/11:
"… Sign on the wall, which points to the reality that God's severe judgment over the western world is inevitable"
Just read the blog by Denny Burk, associate professor of biblical studies at Boyce College to understand that communitarianism has taken over the evangelical wing of the GOP. To claim, as Denny Burk implies, that Abraham Kuyper would have been a compassionate conservative today is cynical. However, Christian Democrat Hans Bleker took it to another level of cynicism to claim communitarianism to be attractive to immigrants. Abraham Kuyper and his struggle for democratic development should be understood as an ideological answer to European conservatism, French revolution liberalism and communism, not a movement to impose "Christian values" on the rest of the population. Abraham Kuyper challenged both the conservative elite in his own party (and beyond) AND the disenfranchised reformed masses which created his path to victory in a world dominated by easy solutions (communism, national-socialism).
On both sides of the Atlantic communitarians have virtually taken over the major parties, Democrats and Republicans in the US, social- and Christian democratic parties in Europe.
Hostility towards big government was traditionally an important part of reformed Christian politics in the Netherlands. I could dig up examples of resistance against the US (after the Second World War), the EU and communism. Will Senator Jim DeMint's vote against indefinite detention be the turning point away from this dead end street of communitarianism among Christian conservatives? Muslims like Democrat Rep. Keith Ellison's father and Muslim immigrants in the US are coalescing around Ron Paul precisely because he fights this narrative of foreign interventionism and Judeo-Christian superiority complex.
51% of Hispanics have a favorable opinion of Ron Paul against 25% of Mitt Romney. Muslims say Ron Paul is their kind of Republican. The reality behind those numbers hasn't yet fully sunk in with Christian conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic. It's a vote of no confidence against communitarian panderers like Marvin Olasky, D.C. Innes and Michael Gerson. Abraham Kuyper would turn in his grave if he knew communitarians claimed to be his heirs. Or as pastor Baptist Voddie Baucham states: The President is not “Pastor in Chief.”
Posted by Vincent Harris
NPR Books
'Cultural Revolution Cookbook': A Taste Of Humanity
How One Former Vegan Learned To Embrace Butchering
NextWorld TV
Make Your Own Laundry Detergent
Infographic: Why the movie industry is so wrong about SOPA
Ron Paul Love from famous people
Mantiq al-Tayr
Not just for the birds
Obama Runs for Office in Israel
Meta-Religion
Israel, Suicide Nation
By M. Junaid Alam
From: www.dissidentvoice.org
March 29, 2004
Politics, being the art of deception, must certainly recognize Israel as its Da Vinci. Its smug self-portrait as a ‘civilized democracy’, rendered with brushes dipped deeply in the oil paint of antipathy for Arabs, has won much admiration among impressionable Americans. Galvanizing and amplifying latent Western hatred of Muslim Arabs in order to rally the West under the banner of ‘Judeo-Christian civilization’, and intimidating doubters by abusing the memory of the Holocaust to claim special ‘unique victim’ status, Israel intones, ‘Stand with us because we are white and bomb towel-heads in F-16s just as you do, and don’t dare stand against us because you once persecuted our forefathers and should atone for your sins – by abetting ours.’
The result of this most cynical ploy is that the Palestinians, dark-skinned victims of Israel’s perpetual campaign of ethnic cleansing, torture, theft, and humiliation, are always grotesquely caricatured as mindless savages with a fetish for suicide attacks. There is, however, one major credibility problem with this racist rhetoric: Israel itself is in the process of committing suicide.
ROCKCELLARMAGAZINE
Director Oliver Stone On History. And America, Jim Morrison & Ron Paul
An Exclusive Interview
In this candid conversation with Rock Cellar Magazine, Oliver Stone discusses On History, the new book he co-authored with Tariq Ali, the activist/intellectual who inspired Mick Jagger to write Street Fighting Man.
Stone also chats about his related TV documentary series, rock ’n’ roll, his preference in the current presidential race (Ron Paul?), and oh…the fall of the American empire…
[Note: Tariq Ali is an avowed Marxist… ~Lark]
The Independent
Sarah Churchwell: So much for Republican 'family values'
Partisan politics has so poisoned the system that cognitive dissonance is a way of life
Newt Gingrich mentions "Homeland Security" 5 Days After 9/11?!?!
video short
UN Small Arms (Gun Confiscation) Treaty to be Ratified by the US Senate in 2012
video short
commune
A relatively small, often rural community whose members share common interests, work, and income and often own property collectively
The people in such a community
The smallest local political division of various European countries, governed by a mayor and municipal council
A local community organized with a government for promoting local interests.
A municipal corporation in the Middle Ages
Often Commune
The revolutionary group that controlled the government of Paris from 1789 to 1794
The insurrectionary, socialist government that controlled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871
[French, independent municipality, from Old French comugne, from Medieval Latin commūnia, community, from neuter of Latin commūnis, common]
In medieval European history, a town that acquired self-governing municipal institutions. Most such towns were defined by an oath binding the citizens or burghers of the town to mutual protection and assistance. The group became an association able to own property, make agreements, exercise jurisdiction over members, and exercise governmental powers. Communes were particularly strong in northern and central Italy, where the lack of a powerful central government allowed them to develop into independent city-states. Those of France and Germany were more often limited to local government.
commune (kôm'yūn), in medieval history, collective institution that developed in continental Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. Because of the importance of the commune in municipal government, the term is also used to denote a town itself to which a charter of liberties was granted by the sovereign or feudal overlord. Although in most cases the development of communes was inextricably connected with that of the cities, there were rural communes, notably in France and England, that were formed to protect the common interests of villagers.
Development
To build defenses, regulate and improve trade, raise taxes, and maintain order, organization of an urban area was necessary. The earliest attempts at united action of the burghers involved the forming of associations in which the burghers swore an oath binding themselves together in a personal bond of mutual support and defense. The communes grew in power and, as autonomous corporate entities, became extremely influential in organizing city government. By the late 12th cent., when cities were well established, all who chose to live in them had to take an oath acknowledging the authority of the communes.
Because the town was located on land belonging to a king or emperor (see feudalism), the town owed allegiance to its lord and paid him tribute and, in wartime, service or money payment. Suzerains often favored the communes as sources of wealth and confirmed their rights in liberal charters. Disputes, nevertheless, frequently arose between communes and their overlords. In the struggle between kings and nobles, the kings usually strengthened the communes and sought alliances with them. However, in the 16th and 17th cent., when European states (notably France and Spain) became centralized, the privileges of the communes were gradually withdrawn.
The extent of their liberties and the details of their organization varied widely. A common feature was the elected council. The magistrates were usually called consoli, podestàs, and capitouls in Italy and S France, échevins and jurés in N France and the Low Countries, Senatoren and Ratsherren in Germany. Corporations and guilds gained a prominent share in the government. Militia insured the defense.
Important Communes
The earliest communes arose in N and central Italy. In the struggle between emperors and popes, the communes forming the Lombard League gained a great deal of independence and became almost synonymous with the cities themselves. In the 14th cent., however, the communes were usurped by local tyrants. The commune of Rome was established by Arnold of Brescia in 1144. In the Low Countries, e.g., in Flanders, communes arose very early and enjoyed very wide privileges. In S France, Avignon, Arles, and Toulouse were outstanding examples of self-governed communes, as Barcelona was in Spain. In Germany, cities such as Frankfurt, Cologne, Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Lübeck became republics immediately subject to the emperor (imperial and free imperial cities). Others, such as Magdeburg, held charters that became models for numerous towns in N Germany, Bohemia, and Moravia.
heraldic visitation
Heraldic Visitations were tours of inspection undertaken by Kings of Arms in England, Wales and Ireland in order to regulate and register the coats of arms of nobility and gentry and boroughs, and to record pedigrees. They took place from 1530 to 1688, and their records provide important source material for genealogists.
Visitations in England and Wales
Process of visitations
By the fifteenth century, the use and abuse of coats of arms was becoming widespread in England. One of the duties conferred on William Bruges, the first Garter Principal King of Arms was to survey and record the armorial bearings and pedigrees of those using coats of arms and correct irregularities. The officers of arms of England made occasional tours of various parts of the country to enquire about matters armorial during the fifteenth century. It was not until the sixteenth century that the process began in earnest.
The first provincial visitations were carried out under warrant granted by Henry VIII to Thomas Benolt, Clarenceux King of Arms dated 6 April 1530. He was commissioned to travel throughout his province and was given authority to enter all homes and churches. Upon entering these premises, he was authorized to "put down or otherwise deface at his discretion...those arms unlawfully used".[4] He was also required to enquire into all those using the titles of knight, esquire, or gentleman and decided if they were being lawfully used.
By this writ, Henry VIII also compelled the sheriffs and mayors of each county or city visited by the officers of arms to give aid and assistance in gathering the needed information. When a King of Arms, or his deputy, visited a county, his presence was proclaimed by presenting the Royal Commission and the local gentry and nobility were required to provide evidence of their right to bear arms. The Sheriff would collect from the bailiff of each hundred within his county a list of all people using titles or arms. These were summoned to the visitation and the hope was that none would escape the enquiry. The people that were summoned were to bring their arms, and proof of their right to use the arms. Their ancestry would also be recorded. Where an official grant of arms had been made, this was recorded. Other ancient arms, many of which predated the establishment of the College of Arms, were confirmed. The officer would record the information clearly and make detailed note that could be entered into the records of the College of Arms when the party returned to London. These volumes now make up the Library of Visitation Books at the College, which contain a wealth of information about all armigerous people from the period. If the officers of arms were not presented with sufficient proof of the right to use a coat of arms, they were also empowered to deface monuments which bore these arms and to force persons bearing such arms to sign a disclaimer that they would cease using them.
The visitations were not popular with the landed gentry who were required to present proof of their gentility. Members of this class grew in power after the installation of William III in 1688, and further commissions to carry out visitations were not issued by William or his successors. This cessation of the visitations did not have much effect on those counties far removed from London. Over the period of visitations many of these counties were rarely visited. Those closer to London were more frequently subject to inspection. Also, there was never a systematic visitation of Wales.
Sibel Edmonds’ Boiling Frogs
US Presidential Elections:
Dog & Pony Show, or, A One-Man-Owned Cock Fight
You Only Get to place your Bet while the Cock-Owners Take it All
Many referred to our uber costly and glitzy presidential race as ‘A Dog & Pony Show.’ I certainly saw, and still see, the appropriateness of this characterization of our presidential race: A Dog & Pony Show. But I had, and still have, my own characterization that applies equally well, and actually goes even deeper: A One-Man-Owned Cock Fight.
A Cock Fight is a contest in which gamecocks usually fitted with metal spurs are pitted against each other. Here is a bit more expanded description:
A cockfight is a blood sport between two roosters (cocks), held in a ring called a cockpit. Cockfighting is now illegal throughout all states in the United States, Brazil, Australia and most of Europe.
The combatants, referred to as gamecocks, are specially bred birds, conditioned for increased stamina and strength. The comb and wattle are cut off in order to meet show standards of the American Gamefowl Society and the Old English Game Club and to prevent freezing in colder climates. Cocks possess congenital aggression toward all males of the same species. Cocks are given the best of care until near the age of two years old. They are conditioned, much like professional athletes prior to events or shows. Wagers are often made on the outcome of the match. While not all fights are to the death, the cocks may endure significant physical trauma. In many other areas around the world, cockfighting is still practiced as a mainstream event; in some countries it is government controlled.
…
There are variations and regionally based differentiations in cockfighting shows and betting-gambling, but the two main ones are based on one owner-two cocks or two-owners-two cocks.
I happen to view our presidential race as a one-owner-two cocks show.
Obama Returns to Familiar Theme in Case for 2nd Term
NY Times
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s election-year State of the Union address on Tuesday echoed a theme that has run through his career: Government and citizens are responsible together for the common good, even as they celebrate individualism and free markets.
s an obscure Illinois state senator, as a United States senator and as president, Mr. Obama has even used the same phrases to describe a communitarian credo rooted in American tradition, but vying always in his telling with a Darwinian alternative: you’re-on-your-own economics.
And now he is framing the 2012 election as a choice between the two approaches.
“We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well while a growing number of Americans barely get by, or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same set of rules,” Mr. Obama said as he opened his annual address.
Montgomery Blair Sibley
Write-In Candidate for President of the United States
ARE YOU A SLAVE?
Machines That Speak
By Jim Kirwan
Jewish man gets caught red handed spraying anti-Jewish hate messages in New York
Brother Nathaniel Kapner
Has Jewry Infiltrated The Local Police?
video short
NPR And PBS Anti-Iranian Propaganda
By Stephen Lendman
Search: “Illuminati” @ LaRouchePub.com
The Mind Has No Firewall
TIMOTHY L. THOMAS
"It is completely clear that the state which is first to create such weapons will achieve incomparable superiority."
-- Major I. Chernishev, Russian army
Biophysical Warfare - The Mind Has No Firewalls
By Tim Rifat
12-10-01
The US Army War College published an article called The Mind has no Firewalls, sent to me by Harlan Gerrard - America's leading mind control expert - who asked me to comment on the American military's drive to dominate the mind. It is well known that microwave mind control using the TETRA system, based on CIA mind control research, is in the process of turning the UK into matrix-land. The 30,000 plus transmitters will zombify the population and police, and dissidents can be terminated by implanting them with Digital Angel and using computer controlled microwave weapons targeted on their home, street, shopping mall, car, trains-to covertly kill all subversives.
Unfortunately for the US military and NATO controlling the mind does not end with microwaves and ELF. This is just the beginning of a new series of weapons which target the mind. Since the mind resides in the biophysical field and the brain is just wet-ware which runs holographic AI (Artificial Intelligence) programmes, the new cutting edge of 21st Century strategic warfare will in involve targeting and elimination of the enemy's biophysical field (mind) so that the wetware - brain - has no firewalls for the mind (biophysical field) and can be taken over and/or destroyed by the biophysical field of a remote influencing adept.
The development of remote viewing using Soviet protocols can enable remote influencing adepts to scan the minds of the NSA and find out, in detail, the secrets of their research into anti-gravity, inertialess drives, beam weapons-Since the NSA use mind controlled psychics who have been implanted and subject to severe trauma to cause a multiple personality, targeting the chip in the NSA remote viewing zombies renders these creatures inoperable; one can also project into these creatures' minds false remote viewing images so they see what you want them to see - they enter a 'Matrix' where you are the AI. The NSA are therefore totally vulnerable to having their biophysical fields destroyed and their wet-ware filled with the biophysical worms similar to those found on Microsoft's software. The result of this is that no secret US arsenal is a secret and that by using the fact that the mind has no firewall, one can control the NSA and make them act and think in total synchrony with the matrix that has been imprinted upon them.
The Russians have released information that the West is dominated by a clique of ultra-rich financiers whose network is around $300 trillion. Conspiracy experts point the finger at the Rothschilds amongst others, be that as it may - the author keeps his own council on who they may be - this group that owns through the Western multinationals, Federal Reserve, Bank of England, World Bank and International Monetary Fund, gives opposing forces superb leverage if they can use biophysical warfare on the handful of families who own the West. By remote viewing these families, one can destroy their biophysical fields and impregnate their wet-ware (brain) with a host of biophysical viruses and worms so that they destroy the West, which they own, by presumptive action and foolish aggression whose outcome the remote influencing adepts can finally control via the matrix within which they can entrap this elite. Countries such as Russia, which worship the dollar, can extort the $300 trillion by systematically remotely killing these elite to frighten them into transferring their money.
Research by scientists has found that the heart is controlled by a part of the brain which, when damaged, causes heart attacks. Implanting biophysical worms destroys this brain centre and can cause heart attacks in the victim; similarly, the use of telekinesis can be used to burst capillaries in the elites' brains to cause massive cerebral haemorrhages. If this was not bad enough, the biophysical field has as a component the morphogenic field which controls all aspects of DNA synthesis transcription and morphogenesis; targeting the DNA using morphogenic aspects, one can induce oncogenes into the elite to be switched on, giving them cancer, or one can dismantle their immune system to give them AIDS-like diseases. The morphogenic field can also reconform the isomers of prions, so one can give the elite new forms of Creutzfeldt Jacob Disease and/or Alzheimer's. Their families can be targeted by changing their DNA so they become subject to any hereditary disease you wish and they can be made sterile, so the elite dies out.
Biophysical warfare is, therefore, the most effective way of strategically dominating the West.
Russia, China and India are not ruled by a handful of people and can therefore survive, if the US and NATO had the knowledge of a counter-offensive targeted at their top people, new people would just take the reins of power. In the West there has been a millennia-long drive of a small clique of financiers to take over and own everything; eliminating them and their families would leave a vacuum which would plunge the West into chaos. Idiots such as bin Laden, Arafat and the Hamas madmen seem to be congenitally impaired when it comes to intelligence and think that physical force can undermine the West, which has predominance in military hardware - may the Arab fanatics rest in peace. The dominant force of warfare in the 21st century will be the fact that the mind has no firewalls and whoever commands the biophysical realm of warfare will dominate the planet no matter how many carrier battle groups, SDIs-the USA may possess.
Leading contenders for dominance of the planet in the 21st century, in the author's opinion, will not be the US and the West, but Putin's 3rd World Russia which has yet to come to terms with the Soviet Union's destruction. The author contends in his latest book, Remote Viewing, published by Vision 2001 (info@visionpaperbacks.co.uk) that the destruction of the Soviet Union was brought about by a backlash of its psychic warfare programme, which according to some CIA spokespeople, ran at half a billion dollars during the 1980's. Those of you who have seen the 1950's film Forbidden Planet will remember that an Earth starship lands on a planet where a super-advanced race had built the planet by a psychotronic amplifier which boosted their psychic and mental powers; unfortunately dark forces in their psyche became manifest using this technology and destroyed them. The author contends that the Soviet Union are boosting the psychic power of its remote influencers using psychotronic amplifiers released from their subconscious; these monsters of the id drove the Soviet Union mad and caused it to dismantle itself when in fact psychic warfare was being directed to destroy the West.
Fortunately for the Russians, the UK and the West are systematically mind controlling their population using TETRA and other technologies which as an upshot has caused the destruction of significant portions of Westerners' biophysical fields. By remote viewing MI5 and other British secret police it can be seen that they have no biophysical bodies, which is caused by the misuse of the microwave devices and weapons which were developed to kill and mind control Catholics in Northern Ireland. It is therefore child's play for a remote viewer to spot British Intelligence agents as they possess no biophysical fields and are just lumps of meat which, for want of a better word, can be called 'zombies'. The TETRA system, which will be deployed across the UK, will inevitably cause the destruction of the biophysical fields of the entire UK population, making biophysical warfare easy to use in Britain, as the targets are just walking wet-ware with no firewalls. Similarly, the process is occurring in the USA so that the NSA, who are in the front line of deploying mind control against civilians, are similarly affected.
The globalisation protesters, who in my opinion are as stupid as bin Laden and Arafat, now face imprisonment in the West as they will be reclassified as 'terrorists'. Violence has been shown to be useless against the elite who own all the multinationals, as they thrive on conflict and the globalisation protesters will act as slave labour in privatised prisons, boosting the profits of multinationals and their elite owners. The elite will be happy for protests like Seattle and Genoa, in the future, so they can put millions of Westerners into corporate slave camps to undercut the cheap wages in the Far East. It maybe an idea for these global protesters to get their minds together and focus them on the elite who will benefit from any sort of protest.
China and India may use biophysical warfare to further their strategic interests as a war with the West over resources is inevitable. China can easily retake Taiwan by using remote influencing on the elite to force them to impose draconian sanctions on Taiwan that this island has to return to China simply because it is being bankrupted. The author states that overt violence maybe counter-productive to geo-political and strategic goals and that targeting biophysical warfare on the mind may prove the most effective means of projecting power in the 21st century.
DARPA Has a Simple Solution to Authentication: Reading Users' Minds
Don't worry about passwords, fingerprints, retina scans -- your brain is unique
The TETRA System:
Mass UK Mind Control Technology and the Zombification Of Britain's Police is Now A Reality
By Tim Rifat
The new Home Office microwave system called TETRA is to be the mainstay of British police force communications and will be placed in every major population centre. The British Government is spending 2 1/2 billion pounds on a 400 MHz pulse modulated microwave transmitter network which broadcasts 17.6 Hz into the brains of all Britain's police and anyone living near the planned 30,000 transmitters.
The first place these transmitters will be deployed is Glastonbury. The effects of these transmitters, which entirely duplicate CIA research in optimal mind-control technology, are:
1. Destruction of short and long-term memory by disrupting calcium reflux from synapses, due to the effect of the 17.6 Hz ELF.
2. Disruption of synaptic neural networks, leading to behavioural and character changes.
3. Manic behaviour, followed by nervous exhaustion after use, or exposure.
4. Disruption of higher brain function, leading to the so called 'zombification'.
5. Enhanced suggestibility.
6. The development of pre-cancerous cells, which can lead to long-term tumour growth.
7. Effects on the Limbic System, leading to emotional and behavioural modification.
8. ELF frequency in the TETRA system strongly affects calcium ions, causing them to efflux out of brain cells due to psychotron resonance.
Since these ions are the chief factor in long and short term potentiation of synapses, the brain cell junctions, and are crucial to memory and cognition, use of the TETRA system on such a scale could cause irreversible brain damage by disturbing not only calcium ions but sodium and potassium ions, all vital to nerve and brain function.
The TETRA system will also flood the New York and London Underground, so commuters will regularly be exposed to behavioural modification during Rush Hour.
The UK Government is now spending £2.5 million to fully implement a nation-wide deployment of CIA mind-control technology.
The TETRA system pulses at 17.6 Hz broadcast at 400 MHz which is essentially the Pandora Project funded by the CIA in the late '60s and early '70s. Dr. Ross Adey, the chief researcher on the Pandora Project has released a video to leading UK researchers which proves that not only does the TETRA system cause ELF zombification by massive release of calcium ions in the cerebral cortex and the nervous system, but the activated calcium ions also cause massive hormonal disturbances which lead to frenzied imbalances, emotional and physical states.
This system will be used by all UK police and emergency services by the end of the year, as the Home Office has sold off all police frequencies, so they are forced to use the new system.
Use of the TETRA system by the police will lead to psychotronicaly controlled officers who may be totally controlled in any situation and are very useful for states of economic or social chaos where extreme and violent behaviour is needed without any conscious or moral compunction - so-called police robots.
30,000 transmitters will be placed around the country to maximise the effects on the local UK population - mass mind control.
Anyone who has complained of these transmitters has received a letter from the Government informing them that if the transmitters are not positioned where the Government wishes, there can be no guarantee then of police protection, which will lead to higher insurance premiums for the householder.
A leading UK newspaper tried to run this story, but had the item quashed by high-level Government intervention. _____
Report by Tim Rifat - UK's leading psychotronic expert, 6-24-1
http://axiomamuse.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/department-of-homeland-security-wants-a-persistant-stare/
AxXiom for Liberty
How free do you want to be?
Department of Homeland Security Wants a Persistent Stare
It’s not just for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars anymore. The Department of Homeland Security is interested in a camera package that can peek in on almost four square miles of (constitutionally protected) American territory for long, long stretches of time.
Homeland Security doesn’t have a particular system in mind. Right now, it’s just soliciting “industry feedback” on what a formal call for such a “Wide Area Surveillance System” might look like. But it’s the latest indication of how powerful military surveillance technology, developed to find foreign insurgents and terrorists, is migrating to the home front.
The Department of Homeland Security says it’s interested in a system that can see between five to 10 square kilometers — that’s between two and four square miles, roughly the size of Brooklyn, New York’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood — in its “persistent mode.” By “persistent,” it means the cameras should stare at the area in question for an unspecified number of hours to collect what the military likes to call “pattern of life” data — that is, what “normal” activity looks like for a given area. Persistence typically depends on how long the vehicle carrying the camera suite can stay aloft; DHS wants something that can fit into a manned P-3 Orion spy plane or a Predator drone — of which it has a couple. When not in “persistent mode,” the cameras ought to be able to see much, much further: “long linear areas, tens to hundreds of kilometers in extent, such as open, remote borders.”
[Read more…]
Cambridge University Press
Can Might Make Rights?
Building the Rule of Law after Military Interventions
By James Stromtheth, David Wippman and Rosa Brooks
A Project of the American Society of International Law
(2006)
The Daily Bell
VIDEO: Directed History, the War on Iran and Gold-for-Oil
Strike-the-Root
They Stole His Money, Her Money & Mine Too
Column by Doug Herman
http://www.strike-the-root.com/how-1-took-americas-wealth-and-how-to-get-it-back
Strike-the-Root
How the 1% Took America's Wealth--
and How to Get It Back
Column by Glen Allport
http://republicbroadcasting.org/?p=19009
Strike-the-Root
How the 1% Took America's Wealth--
and How to Get It Back
Column by Glen Allport
http://republicbroadcasting.org/?p=19009
The Disease Machine: Why Drug Makers Keep You Sick
GreenMedInfo.com
The Cure for Cancer Begins With Understanding It
Mark’s Daily Apple
My Top 6 Anti-Inflammatory Foods
1. Wild Fish Fat
2. Pastured Animal Fat
3. Red Palm Oil
4. Cruciferous Vegetables
5. Berries
6. Turmeric
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Probiotics in foods not containing milk or milk constituents
America After Dark: Desperate Meth Heads, Rampant Human Trafficking And Millions Of Criminal Predators Searching For A New Victim
When the sun goes down every night, America becomes a very frightening place. There are communities all over the country where drug dealing, human trafficking and gang violence have gotten so out of control that authorities don’t really know what to do about it. In America tonight, thousands of meth heads will break into homes as they desperately search for enough money for another hit. In America tonight, thousands of children will be sold for sex at truck stops and on street corners. In America tonight, millions of criminal predators will be searching for a new victim. From the top levels of the federal government all the way down to the most depraved criminals on the street, America is rotting. Once upon a time our tremendous affluence masked the moral decay that was happening in this nation, but now that the economy is falling apart the damage to the fabric of our society is being revealed. We have become a nation of addicts, junkies, thrill seekers and predators. When we finally see the U.S. economy fully collapse, millions of desperate, angry and depraved monsters will take out their sick frustrations on all the rest of us.
Survival Blog
Alternative Foods in Famines, by ShepherdFarmerGeek
Nature's Wonder Drug Curbed by Illuminati
"My father, a high-level Freemason, told me how man's knowledge of seeds was the "key" to controlling the Kingdom of not just heaven, but also the Kingdom on earth."
The Illuminati can be attacked on their vulnerable flank, the suppression of cannabis. This would undermine their pharmaceutical and medical monopolies.
<|>
flax hemp chia quinoa amaranth sunflower seeds | kamut rye basmati rice maize | dulce kelp red algae chlorella spirulina salt
lentils adzuki beans pinto beans fava navy beans garbanzo beans turtle beans cannellini beans split peas
dried chiles almonds pine & Brazil nuts spices | garden fruit, herb & vegetable seeds
sprouting seeds
<|>
Tax Evaders Renounce U.S. Citizenship
Rather than deal with the complexities of U.S. tax law, Americans living overseas are increasingly renouncing their citizenship in order to avoid paying their income taxes.
According to National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson, approximately 4,000 people gave up their citizenship from fiscal year 2005 to FY 2010. Renunciations increased sharply within the past three years, from 146 in FY 2008 to 1,534 in FY 2010. And during the first two quarters of FY 2011 alone, 1,024 Americans ditched their citizenship.
The advocate’s report cites two reasons for the renunciations. First, many taxpayers abroad say they are confused “by the complex legal and reporting requirements they face and are overwhelmed by the prospect of having to comply with them.”
Second, others have accused the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of “bait and switch” tactics, telling Americans they can resolve their unpaid taxes under an “older voluntary disclosure programs with the promise of reduced penalties, only to find themselves subjected to steeper penalties.”
According to tax attorney Andrew Mitchel, another factor has been a change of law in 2008 that means “non-U.S. citizen, nonresidents can now annually visit the U.S. for 120 or more days without becoming taxed as U.S. residents (under the pre-2008 rules, visits to the U.S. for more than 30 days during any of the 10 years following expatriation caused the individual to be treated as a U.S. resident for that year).”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Taxpayer Uncertainty Prompts Citizenship Renunciations (by Michael Cohn, Accounting Today)
2011 Annual Report to Congress (National Taxpayer Advocate) (pdf)
More (Wealthy) Americans Are Renouncing Citizenship (by Catherine Rampell, New York Times)
How To Take Our Country Back I - Strategy
video tutorial
The Federal Reserve System is designed to create, increase, and perpetuate debt, and simultaneously reduce the real value of your money, income, savings, and investments. This 1-hour seminar provides, in simple terms, the essential information that every American needs to know if we are to restore the American Dream. Watch, then get your family and friends to do the same.
“Highly recommended!” ~Lark
Taroscopes / Research Links
Genuine Christianity Now
"Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." Leviticus 25:10
Zionism: A Conspiracy Against Jews
June 27, 2004
Is the New World Order "Jewish"?
February 12, 2005
Meta-Religion
Zionism Conspiracies | Secret Societies
Judaism and Zionism
They aren´t the same
By Alan Stang
Published originally at EtherZone.com
Secret lives of the oligarchs
For months the Berezovsky vs Abramovich case has provided a tantalising glimpse into the shadowy world of Russia's super-rich.
Was Mr. Berezovsky intimidated into selling off his ownership stake in Mr. Abramovich's valuable commodities companies for a "mere" £800m – "nothing" as he claims, and so is entitled to a further £3.5bn of the profits? Or was he no more than a "political godfather", entitled to no more than a series of mysterious "krysha" payments? The Russian word for roof, implying physical, and in this case political protection, has hung over this trial, and it is still not entirely clear quite what it means. We shall have to wait and see.
But in the meantime, here are some of the highlights of the biggest private litigation in English legal history, and one that has shed piercing light on the otherwise dark and secretive world of the Russian oligarchy.
Roy Tov: Netanyahu at Wannsee, Who Won WWII?
“This is Hitler's biggest victory,” Moshe said
Prison Planet Forum
Mao was a Yale Man
“By about the year 2000 Communist China will be a “superpower” built by American technology and skill.”
-Antony C. Sutton, American Secret Establishment published 1984
Student Mao Zedong & Yale in China
"The fundamental difference between a "New World Order" under the United Nations and an independent United States are nowhere more clearly indicated than in our 'Declaration of Independence' affirmation that "men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." The UN's total exclusion of God means that rights do not come from God, (but) that they proceed from government, and government can take them away.
Skull and Bones reaches to all the leaders around the world and this may explain Bush's obsessive support of China, regardless of the human rights violations and arsenal buildup.
"Skull and Bones is a secret fraternity at Yale University which restricts their membership to only fifteen per year. The society was formed in 1832 by General William Russell, whose shipping firm later dominated the U.S. side of the China opium trade. Yale University was founded by Eli Yale, who made his fortune working for the opium smuggling British East India Company.
"Skull and Bones became the recruiting grounds and preserve of the most important New England-centered families--families who also made their money in the opium trade. These families, whose sons regularly join Skull and Bones, include the little known, but powerful, Coffins, Sloanes, Tafts, Bundys, Paynes, Whitneys. They are a dominant element of the U.S. 'Eastern Establishment' to this day. The Bush family is one of a cluster of lower-level Establishment families controlled by these interests.
"George Bush, the first U.S. diplomatic representative to the People's Republic of China back in 1973, was a member of Skull and Bones. So was his father, brother, son, uncle, nephew, and several cousins. Winston Lord, the Reagan-Bush administration Ambassador to China was a member; so was his father and several other relatives. James Lilley, the current Ambassador to China, is a member of Skull and Bones, as was his brother. With the exception during the Carter administration, every U.S. Ambassador to Beijing, since Kissinger's deal with Mao Zedong was a member of the Skulls and Bones.
In 1903, Yale Divinity School established a number of schools and hospitals throughout China that were collectively known as 'Yale in China.' It has since been shown that 'Yale in China' was an intelligence network whose purpose was to destroy the republican movement of Sun Yat-sen on behalf of the Anglo-American Establishment. The Anglo-American "Establishment" hated Sun, because he wanted to develop China. On the other hand, they loved the Chinese communists because they intended to keep China backward, and were committed to the production of drugs. . One of 'Yale in China's' most important students was Mao Zedong.
"During World War II, 'Yale in China' was a primary instrument used by the U.S. Establishment and its Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to install the Maoists into power.
'Yale in China' was run by OSS operative Reuben Holden, the husband of Bush's cousin, and also a member of Skull and Bones. "The Maoists made China into the world's largest opium producer.,
"'Yale in China' was also closely associated with the New York-based Union Theological Seminary, which has been a center for U.S. subversion of Asia According to Branton, they were literally wolves in sheep’s clothing Every prominent radical leader operating in Korea today was trained at Union Theological. Union Theological was dominated for twenty years by Henry Sloane Coffin, a U.S. intelligence executive from the Sloane and Coffin families. He was a Skull and Bones member as were a dozen of his relatives.
"Nor should it be forgotten that Averill Harriman, the former Ambassador to Moscow who did so much to build up the Soviet Union, was a member of Skull and Bones. Harriman was also a business partner of Prescott Bush, Sr., the father of Maoist enthusiast George Bush."
According to geopolitical and economics researcher, Dr. Antony Sutton in his book 'The Patriot Review', not only did the Skulls and Bones help to build up the Communist movement in China, but they gave financial aid to the Soviet Union communists as well. This power cult has for centuries been playing a "two ends against the middle" type of game, attempting to control America (the thesis) and Russia (the anti-thesis) and other countries or movements, carefully pitting them against each other at the lower levels in order to keep the populations of the world in a state of confusion and despair, to the point that they will - hopefully - resign themselves into accepting the New World Order "synthesis" as the only alternative to solve the very "problems" which 'they' the New World Order initiators, created in the first place!
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World War III Has Begun – It`s the First Asymmetric War Long Awaited by Pentagon Think Tanks
-Wayne Madsen
☢ Low-Dose Radiation ☢ Department of Energy Study
video short
Then And Now - How Things Have Changed
Antediluvian Princess’ [aka Spiritual Architect’s] Commentary on…
Genes, Giants, Monsters, and Men: The Surviving Elites of the Cosmic War and Their Hidden Agenda
By Joseph P. Farrell
Vigilant Citizen
Doda and Vintage: Bringing the Illuminati Agenda to Eastern Europe Pop
The Illuminati Agenda in popular culture has become a worldwide phenomenon and it hasn’t spared Eastern Europe. Doda’s “Bad Girls” and Vintage’s “Trees” are two examples of very symbolic music videos that are extremely popular in Russia and Poland. We’ll look at these two video and see how their symbolic content is completely on-par with the world elite’s agenda.
What is called “the Illuminati” functions on a global scale, so it is only natural that its propaganda machine is also deployed on a global scale. While the American and British artists reach most of the world, “regional” stars are also used to propagate the elite’s Agenda to specific ethnic groups. Previous articles on Vigilant Citizen have described the Illuminati symbolism found in music from Korea, Japan, Latin America and Russia. Despite the difference in culture and language between these countries, today’s globalized mass media machine manages to expose the entire world to a specific Agenda and to a precise set of symbols.
Eastern Europe is obviously not exempt from the media machine. Not unlike the rest of the world, pop stars are often handpicked, signed to international record labels and put in the spotlight using videos that are in line with the Illuminati Agenda. In this article, we will look at Doda’s “Bad Girls” and Vintage’s “Trees”, two videos that, despite their limited market, have managed to get a lot of airplay and millions of YouTube views. Although not in the same language, both videos are a direct reflection of the philosophy and the goals of the Illuminati and act as a kind of “local distributors” of the elite’s Agenda. Let’s look at the message of these videos.
Bad Girls
The video takes place in a setting that the Illuminati loves: A futuristic dystopian police state. Cameras and “tele-screens” everywhere, police in riot gear and a faceless ruler: This imagery is present in pop videos around the world.
The “hero” of the story is Doda, a half-human half-robot, who emerges from some kind of transhumanist scientific lab. The promotion of the merger of humans and robots is a staple of the agenda, as seen in the article, “The Transhumanist and Police State Agenda in Pop Music”.
Vintage - "Derevya/Trees" (English Subtitles)
Psycheocracy (Selection of Leaders based on personality)
The New Conservatism|Childmind
"But select capable men from all the people--men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain -- and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens."
Exodus 18:21
Mabel Royce
OFFICIAL UFO'S ANCIENT ASTRONAUT MAGAZINE
November, 1976 Page 46
BLOOD OF THE GODS
The Holocaust Dogma of Judaism
Keystone of the New World Order
By Ben Weintraub
How to be a Brilliant Thinker
Exercise your mind and find creative solutions
By Paul Sloane
(2010)
http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-to-learn-things-automatically
Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence
OK, this one’s right out of The Matrix and The Manchurian Candidate.
Imagine watching a computer screen while lying down in a brain imaging machine and automatically learning how to play the guitar or lay up hoops like Shaq O’Neal, or even how to recuperate from a disease — without any conscious knowledge.
Researchers at Boston University (BU) and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan used decoded functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to induce visual cortex activity patterns to match a previously known target state and thereby improve performance on visual tasks.
“Adult early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning,” said lead author and BU neuroscientist Takeo Watanabe, director of BU’s Visual Science Laboratory.
Neuroscientists have previously found that pictures gradually build up inside a person’s brain, appearing first as lines, edges, shapes, colors and motion in early visual areas. The brain then fills in greater detail to make a red ball appear as a red ball, for example. Researchers studied the early visual areas for their ability to cause improvements in visual performance and learning.
“However, none of these studies directly addressed the question of whether early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning,” said Watanabe. So they used decoded fMRI neurofeedback to induce a particular activation pattern in targeted early visual areas that corresponded to a pattern evoked by a specific visual feature in a brain region of interest. The researchers found that repetitions of the activation pattern caused long-lasting visual performance improvement on that visual feature — without the subject’s active involvement. The method could be used for improving memory or motor (muscle) skills, the researchers suggest.
But that’s where is gets a bit scary. “In theory, hypnosis or a type of automated learning is a potential outcome,” said Kawato. “However, in this study we confirmed the validity of our method only in visual perceptual learning. So we have to test if the method works in other types of learning in the future. At the same time, we have to be careful so that this method is not used in an unethical way.”
Uh, ya think?
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.2&thid=13519ad0e72c03c9&mt=application/pdf&url=https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui%3D2%26ik%3Ddca63b2732%26view%3Datt%26th%3D13519ad0e72c03c9%26attid%3D0.2%26disp%3Dsafe%26zw&sig=AHIEtbR8AGxk9By_ms9Plcioz0o7BXvx3g
Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence
How to learn things automatically
OK, this one’s right out of The Matrix and The Manchurian Candidate.
Imagine watching a computer screen while lying down in a brain imaging machine and automatically learning how to play the guitar or lay up hoops like Shaq O’Neal, or even how to recuperate from a disease — without any conscious knowledge.
Researchers at Boston University (BU) and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan used decoded functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to induce visual cortex activity patterns to match a previously known target state and thereby improve performance on visual tasks.
“Adult early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning,” said lead author and BU neuroscientist Takeo Watanabe, director of BU’s Visual Science Laboratory.
Neuroscientists have previously found that pictures gradually build up inside a person’s brain, appearing first as lines, edges, shapes, colors and motion in early visual areas. The brain then fills in greater detail to make a red ball appear as a red ball, for example. Researchers studied the early visual areas for their ability to cause improvements in visual performance and learning.
“However, none of these studies directly addressed the question of whether early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning,” said Watanabe. So they used decoded fMRI neurofeedback to induce a particular activation pattern in targeted early visual areas that corresponded to a pattern evoked by a specific visual feature in a brain region of interest. The researchers found that repetitions of the activation pattern caused long-lasting visual performance improvement on that visual feature — without the subject’s active involvement. The method could be used for improving memory or motor (muscle) skills, the researchers suggest.
But that’s where is gets a bit scary. “In theory, hypnosis or a type of automated learning is a potential outcome,” said Kawato. “However, in this study we confirmed the validity of our method only in visual perceptual learning. So we have to test if the method works in other types of learning in the future. At the same time, we have to be careful so that this method is not used in an unethical way.”
Uh, ya think?
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.2&thid=13519ad0e72c03c9&mt=application/pdf&url=https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui%3D2%26ik%3Ddca63b2732%26view%3Datt%26th%3D13519ad0e72c03c9%26attid%3D0.2%26disp%3Dsafe%26zw&sig=AHIEtbR8AGxk9By_ms9Plcioz0o7BXvx3g
Political Corruption in America
An Encyclopedia of Scandals, Power, and Greed
By Mark Grossman
(2008)
Profits from Power
Readings in Protection Rent and Violence-Controlling Enterprises
By Frederic C. Nelson
(1979)
