#1

March 21, 2010
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METAPHYSICAL SPECULATIONS
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Perhaps Existence or Reality and God are one and the same
if only because they share one very important quality in common,
namely, total indifference.
One way to explain this indifference is to say that
if we were to add up the positives and the negatives in a man's life,
the result will be zero.
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The end of being is nothingness,
and from nothingness to being again.
From stardust to existence
and from existence to stardust again.
From here to eternity.
A cycle whose beginning is shrouded in mystery
and whose end is invisible and inconceivable,
very much like God Himself.
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Scientists speak of the Big Bang.
But so far no scientist has ever ventured to speculate
about the nature or dimension of existence before the Bang.
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The dead enter a timeless realm
in which a second is as long as a billion years.
In cosmic time, a life lasts no more than a fraction of a second.
The purpose of life – assuming it has one –
is to experience the human dimension,
and of dimensions there may well be an infinite number.
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Nothing is impossible to an Almighty God,
the creator of the Universe only a small fraction of which
we can see even with the most powerful telescopes and microscopes.
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Am I trying to explain the meaning of life?
No! Only doing my utmost to come to terms with Reality,
which is beyond our comprehension
and will remain so until we die, perhaps even after...
assuming there is an after.
The rest is propaganda.
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March 22, 2010
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READING TOYNBEE
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“Private intellectual enterprise, unlike private economic enterprise, lives by co-operation not by competition.”
Translated into every-day language and applied to us, this simply means, Armenian writers dig their own graves if they continue to crap on one another as Oshagan did on Zarian, and as Oshagan's disciples continue to do so to this day.
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“It is always easier, both intellectually and morally, to debit one's ills to the account of some outside agency than to ascribe the responsibility to oneself.”
What Toynbee is saying here is this: if you paint the opposition all black and yourself all white, as our dividers and Turcocentric ghazetajis tend to do, you will be believed only by those you have brainwashed and no one else.
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What follows is one of my favorite passages from THE STUDY OF HISTORY:
“In the life which Man has made for himself on Earth, his institutions, in contrast to his personal relations, are the veritable slums, and that taint of moral obliquity is still more distressing in the least ignoble of these social tenements of the Human Spirit – for instance, in the churches and the academies – than in such unquestionably malignant institutions as Slavery and War.”
As I see it, what Toynbee is saying here: wars and massacres are extensions of the lies taught in schools and preached in churches (including temples and mosques); or again, there is more evil in legitimizing and promoting intolerance than in violations of human rights and in crimes against humanity, including genocide. But whereas war criminals are occasionally arrested, tried, found guilty, and punished, or are assassinated, hanged, or commit suicide, rabbis, bishops, and imams go on preaching their venom unmolested.
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March 23, 2010
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VOODOO
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In his VOODOO HISTORIES: THE ROLE OF THE CONSPIRACY THEORY IN SHAPING MODERN HISTORY (New York, 2010, page 340), David Aaronovitch writes, conspiracy theorists are masters of writing “history for losers” in which they try to prove that “their defeat is not the product of their inherent weakness, let alone their mistakes; [but] it is due to the almost demonic ruthlessness of their enemy.”
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Understanding reality is an endless process. After millennia of thinking and research some of the most important questions in science and philosophy remain unanswered. A partisan (and it makes no difference wheter he is a religious or a political partisan) is one who operates on the assumption that he knows all he needs to know; he has understood reality or its most important aspects, and all that remains to be done is to gather more evidence in order to strengthen his case. He confuses a fraction of reality with reality, his nation with mankind, and one side of an issue with all sides. He is a dogmatist and like all dogmatists he is intolerant, narrow-minded, self-righteous and prone to violence. Even when he speaks for peace and the brotherhood of all men he is prepared to kill and die. He is more of a preacher and propagandist than an observer and analyst. Which is why arguing with a partisan might as well be synonymous with making an enemy.
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Reason unites. Emotion divides. Reason unites because it is predictable and it obeys laws of universal validity. We all agree that 2+2=4.
Emotion divides because it is unpredictable and inconsistent.
We all do not and cannot agree on matters of taste, faith, or anything else that is outside reason’s orbit.
Even when we disagree, reason tells us "to agree to disagree," because consensus
(which means working together rather than thinking alike) is better than conflict.
I say therefore, Let us reason together.
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March 24, 2010
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TAKING CARE OF #1
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A power structure is as invisible as a glass wall. You feel its presence only when you bump into it and shatter your glasses or flatten your nose. That is why, from a very early age, you are taught obedience and respect for authority. That is also why you are constantly reminded you can't fight City Hall, it is heresy to contradict those who speak in the name of God, don't rock the boat, the law is the law...
A power structure knows the only way to take care of itself is by controlling the educational system, and by rewriting history.
And yet, every single privilege we enjoy today as citizens of a democracy we owe to dissenters like Socrates (who dedicated his life to proving those who pretend to know better are ignoramuses), Martin Luther (who dared to question the infallibility of the Pope), and Solzhenitsyn (who by exposing the criminal nature of Soviet despotism, undermined its legitimacy).
What about our own dissidents?
The short answer is: they have been ignored, buried, and forgotten by our commissars, who, with the blessings of our “popes,” continue to be in charge of our destiny as a nation today.
I suspect one reason we are constantly reminded of massacres is to let us know that we owe the fact that we are no longer being massacred to the statesmanship of our leaders. As for the fact that we were massacred at the turn of the last century: we should in no way ascribe it to their abysmal ignorance, arrogance, and incompetence.
They assert their legitimacy is by painting themselves all white and their enemies all black; and their dupes, who invariably outnumber those who can think for themselves, are more than willing to believe them. Hence the popular adage: “There is a sucker born every minute.”
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