Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.
Why do they act this way? For two main reasons. First, they are slaves to a great tyrant (i.e., "Superior Oaf") who has it in his power to make their own lives sufferable or miserable depending on whether they do his bidding. Second, they typically see themselves as being outsiders to life as we know it, and so think nothing of trashing the lives of others. Further, such an order and way of doing things furnishes them extraordinary power and prestige where they might otherwise have little or none. Meanwhile, to bolster their position, various propaganda is planted among us to think that crime and evil is the only safe and reliable way to wealth and riches; especially for those who are not especially gifted, educated, or given to doing work, and that evil is a necessary component of life and which rather than be got rid of must be accomodated; much like accepting that a disease is necessary rather than, instead, trying to find a cure for it.
In Part 2, chapter 25, sec. 1 of his Rousseau and Revolution, Durant further tells us:
"In Sweden Gustavus III protected the Jews in the peaceful practice of their religion. Many Jews, fleeing from persecution in Poland or Bohemia, found refuge in England. Their number there rose from 6,000 in 1734 to 26,000 in 1800, of whom London had 20,000. Their poverty was extreme, but they took care of their own poor, and maintained their own hospitals. Jew-baiting was a popular sport; it declined when the Jews took up boxing and one of their number became the national pugilistic champion."
Which I think only goes to encourage the view that in the case of Jewish piety versus Greek athleticism, it was and is well for one to develop its own powers in that which its ancient counter-part excelled. Yet this idea, of course, not everyone has found acceptable. Many of the Jews in the time of the Maccabees, for instance, decried Greek athletics and gynasiums. Yet even though they were right in most other points of their revolt and disdain of heathen ways; I think in this, from the long-term view, they were mistaken. And yet, by the same token, it took Christianity to get the Greeks to adopt Jewish piety -- so, interestingly, both at first largely scorned and demurred to the other's way in any case; only to later find that for the sake of their better health and strength, the soul and body required and requires a more proper balance between the two.
The "new" Batman and Robin, and which interpreted allegorically, would seem to support my thesis that the mad magician posseses all the real power, and that so-called (& billion dollar) "Speelburg" is more or less merely included as sidekick for comic effect.
The above for sale just now on ebay. If interested, see:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Magician-Among-Spirits-Harry-Houdini-SIGNED-first-ed-/300637302301?pt=Antiquarian_Collectible&hash=item45ff612e1d
The Holy Hoodlum -- For him Christianity is the idea that someone needs and must tortured (and or murdered.) In this way, he sees himself a fulfilling a divine and scripture based function in this already crime filled universe.
Nature always remembers poetry when even when man forgets it.
In their comments on Immanuel Kant's DREAMS OF A SPIRIT-SEER & OTHER WRITINGS, an amazon.com reviewer ("oakshaman") writes:
"This work is often described as Kant's most 'mysterious'. The mystery lies in the fact that here in this treatise the Great Professor of Metaphysics unreservedly admits in the existance of 'immaterial natures in the world', i.e. spirits and a spirit world. There is nothing mysterious about this statement, it is just that modern readers refuse to accept it. I've never understood why this should be so hard for some, since Kant's System of critical idealism is perfectly consistent with this view. Kant claimed that we could never know the true nature of the world around us, the true causes of sensations. He always held that there is a real world that we can never accurately know. This real world corresponds with a 'spirit world', or if you prefer, a platonic world of Ideals lieing outside of our human perception of time and space. Kant unmistakably states that 'We should ... regard the human soul as being conjoined in its present life with two worlds at the same time....' Nothing could be more unambiguous, especially considering his references to the writings of Swedenborg.
"I think that this book has been largely ignored because it is just too divergent from the rational empiracism of the modern scientific mind. The scienitfic materialist conveniently ignores the fundamental questions of material 'reality' that Kant couldn't ignore. Furthermore, when the Prussian government banned this work it set into motion the series of events that culminated in the profound physical and spiritual disasters of the 20th cetury- and beyond.
"It may yet be proven that the ideas in this forgotten book are far more 'real' than the modern materialist concensus of reality...."
I would remark in response that it is a potentially dangerous error to equate the spirit people Swedenborg writes about with Kant's noumena -- regardless of Kant's own view.* To do so would be like saying "Man is an heavenly angel" -- which in one sense (or in an unusal given individual circumstance) may be true, but in another is clearly not. Moreover, the substance of which spirit people are made, even if related somehow to Kant's noumena, is in many instances -- if not strictly speaking all -- something quite gross and palpable by comparison; as say between coarse woolen cloth and gossamer; or between coal fire smoke and clean, pure air. I would then, just in passing, strongly caution against such juxapositions and likening spirit people to noumena.
* Later Note. I mean in reference to that expounded in this book, and which I have not yet had time to read. This said, inasmuch as (some) spirit people are perceptible and potential objects of visual and physical (as in "tactile") sensation, they are by Kant's own definition not noumena. However, as obvious as this may be seem to some; others, not surprisingly and on the other hand, will require having this distinction brought out for them. We encounter this as a problem, for one example, in instances where metaphysics is casually associateed with things like astrology, the tarot, and new age crystals, etc.
This and in susbequent weeks (on the weekends) I will be posting some "Christian" Apocrypha. Most apocrypha is at best fictionalization of history for didactic purposes (with possibly some clues or hints to unknown actual history); with perhaps, in a given instance, the added charm of being an amiable and naive form of literary expression (much like folk art.) At its worst apocrypha might be a scurrilous forgery with gnostic intentions. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't, easy to say which. In making my selections, I've striven to focus on the former and ignore entirely that apocrypha which there is reason to suspect it of being of the latter sort.
The following is taken from The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (c. 192 A.D.), believed by some to have been the work of Ebionite (early sect of Jewish) Christians; and was something popular with late 17th-early 18th century New England Puritans.
1. The record of the words of Issachar. He called his sons, and said to them: Hearken, my children, to Issachar your father; give ear to my words, you who are beloved of the Lord. I was the fifth son born to Jacob, even the hire of the mandrakes. For Reuben brought in mandrakes from the field, and Rachel met him and took them. And Reuben wept, and at his voice Leah my mother came forth. Now these mandrakes were sweet-smelling apples which the land of Aram produced on high ground below a ravine of water. And Rachel said, I will not give them to you, for they shall be to me instead of children. Now there were two apples; and Leah said, Let it suffice you that you have taken the husband of my virginity: will you also take these? And she said, Behold, let Jacob be to you this night instead of the mandrakes of your son. And Leah said to her, Boast not, and vaunt not yourself; for Jacob is mine, and I am the wife of his youth. But Rachel said, How so? For to me was he first espoused, and for my sake he served our father fourteen years. What shall I do to you, because the craft and the subtlety of men are increased, and craft prospers upon the earth? And were it not so, you would not now see the face of Jacob. For you are not his wife, but in craft were taken to him in my stead. And my father deceived me, and removed me on that night, and suffered me not to see him; for had I been there, it had not happened thus. And Rachel said, Take one mandrake, and for the other you shall hire him from me for one night. And Jacob knew Leah, and she conceived and bare me, and on account of the hire I was called Issachar...
5. Keep therefore the law of God, my children, and get simplicity, and walk in guilelessness, not prying over-curiously into the commands of God and the business of your neighbour; but love the Lord and your neighbour, have compassion on the poor and weak. Bow down your back unto husbandry, and labour in tillage of the ground in all manner of husbandry, offering gifts unto the Lord with thanksgiving; for with the first-fruits of the earth did the Lord bless me, even as He blessed all the saints from Abel even until now. For no other portion is given to you than of the fatness of the earth, whose fruits are raised by toil; for our father Jacob blessed me with blessings of the earth and of first-fruits. And Levi and Judah were glorified by the Lord among the sons of Jacob; for the Lord made choice of them, and to the one He gave the priesthood, to the other the kingdom. Them therefore obey, and walk in the simplicity of your father; for unto Gad has it been given to destroy the temptations that are coming upon Israel.
6. I know, my children, that in the last times your sons will forsake simplicity, and will cleave unto avarice, and leaving guilelessness will draw near to malice, and forsaking the commandments of the Lord will cleave unto Beliar, and leaving husbandry will follow after their wicked devices, and shall be dispersed among the Gentiles, and shall serve their enemies. And do you therefore command these things to your children, that if they sin they may the more quickly return to the Lord; for He is merciful, and will deliver them even to bring them back into their land.
7. I am a hundred and twenty-two years old, and I know not against myself a sin unto death. Except my wife, I have not known any woman. I never committed fornication in the haughtiness of my eyes; I drank not wine, to be led astray thereby; I coveted not any desirable thing that was my neighbour's; guile never entered in my heart; a lie never passed through my lips; if any man grieved, I wept with him, and I shared my bread with the poor. I never ate alone; I moved no landmark; in all my days I wrought godliness and truth. I loved the Lord with all my strength; likewise also did I love every man even as my own children. So ye also do these things, my children, and every spirit of Beliar shall flee from you, and no deed of malicious men shall rule over you; and every wild beast shall you subdue, having with yourselves the God of heaven walking with men in simplicity of heart.
And he commanded them that they should carry him up to Hebron, and bury him there in the cave with his fathers. And he stretched out his feet and died, the fifth son of Jacob, in a good old age; and with every limb sound, and with strength unabated, he slept the eternal sleep.
~ The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (c. 192 A.D.)
