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I see around me two "opposing" forces, which are both trapped by the same concepts. On one side are the proponents of big government, on the other are the proponents of big business. Both suffer from the same flaws.
( Read more... )
-- James |
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I've been trying to listen to people on both sides of this debate, and I thought it was time I posted some of my own thoughts and questions.
( Read more... )
We have a leader right now who has made great claims about government transparency, but who has come to the table seeking to make changes so fast that not even the legislators know what they are going to do. We have no concrete plan but are on such a short timetable that we are trying to throw something together before doing any of the due diligence. I would love to see our leadership start by examining some of these systems which are already in place, and start debate on some of these foundational issues, and then, from there, with the public behind them, move to reform healthcare in a manner that is consistent with what we have learned from examining the world as it is, be that single payer health care, mandatory health care, informing people better of their options, just building more hospitals, or perhaps, hopefully, something we have not yet considered which becomes apparent when we begin by really examining things as they are.
-- James |
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Blatant Plug below. If you're not interested in beautiful wooden boats, or woodworking, then don't click. I was keeping this as my guilty little pleasure for a while, but I thought specifically that ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) fraterseraphino and lord_whimsy, and hopefully some of my other friends might appreciate it.
( Read more... )
-- James
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As an experiment I'm posting the same question to LJ and Facebook. I'm curious what type of responses I'll get in both places.
How do you reconcile Chapter 3 of Liber AL with Liber Librae?
Thanks :)
-- James |
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Remember that unbalanced force is evil; that unbalanced severity is but cruelty and oppression; but that also unbalanced mercy is but weakness which would allow and abet Evil. Act passionately; think rationally; be Thyself.
Liber Librae
It seems a common thread, especially amongst gay men, including Crowley, to aspire to "manliness" There are a number of indicators of this manly virtue, but I think two that I need to work on right now are
1.) to be able to gracefully give and receive an honest compliment.
2.) to be able to gracefully give and receive honest criticism.
If I can not only do these two, but do both without implying a one sided nature to anyone, indicating that I am down to partisanship and a complete opposition or a complete acceptance of a party line, then I think I've advanced pretty far from where I've started. I'm working on it.
-- James |
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Apparently I am no longer getting emailed when someone replies to one of my posts. If you have replied and not gotten an answer, I apologize. I am going back through my posts now to see what I missed.
Thank you.
-- James
Jul. 29th, 2009 @ 03:43 pm
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| » On the cause of tirades |
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Twice this week I have "gone off" on a tirade against respected friends.
Examining cause and effect, I think I must be far worse than those who set me off, for such small triggers to set off such a large explosions; The fault I find is mine, for the thousand faults I unleash upon my friends, I did not once bring up when I saw the individual crimes committed, but rather kept tabs, counting it against them till I found need to unleash. Thus, the avoidance, and hence cowardice here is my own, and the trigger is my own karma come back to haunt me.
Am I then to retract (were i able) words which are still true, and thus make myself a liar?
Am I to stand by them at the cost of a long earned friendship and the suffering of one I respect?
Or is it possible to find a middle ground where I can admit that I was wrong to act the coward in the moment, but still save up a persons grievances like so much loose ammo and fire them back at them, without pretending the grievances are not there, but accept to work them out as they occur going forward?
It is. I can admit that I have had problems with their actions, but understand that they have had issues with mine as well. I can be honest in the moment, hold them accountable in an instant for things when they come up, but then be willing to let them go, and address issues as the thing themselves, or perhaps even as an indicator of a pattern, but certainly not as a trigger to unleash for every past unrelated problems. If I find myself holding onto these things, it is not they who are hampered by their actions, it is I who am hampered by my own.
It is easier in the moment to ignore a thousand problems I honestly have, if to address them makes me uncomfortable. However, in so doing, I allow them to take hold, and I begin to set up in my own mind an enemy which is not really there, a phantom I am constantly dancing around. I project motive and occulted secondary actions onto this beast within my head and create monsters from missed steps and minor human foibles. These beasts exist only to me, and it is merely to me they do harm.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law! Until I am willing to determine if these friends missteps in any way affect me doing my Will, and either to cause change right then in accordance with Will, or to truly drop that which does not affect me, I will be forever hobbling myself and my relation to everyone and every thing around me.
The warnings against becoming a busybody are numerous in the writings of the prophet, but likewise, we read about traditional "Yama" in Liber Aba:
"Some of these are only the 'virtues' of a slave, invented by his master to keep him in order. The real point of the Hindu 'Yama' is that breaking any of these would tend to excite the mind."
And I think we can see this in the interference with others as well. The enemy is, as always, cowardice, which drives the slave to the breaking point, where lashing out, they hurt no one more so than themselves. Doing this, they set their own advancement back doubly:
First in not confronting that which disturbed their mind in the first place, be it internal or external.
Secondly in allowing themselves to come completely unglued and become the busybody in the exact method which is prescribed against, losing ones focus on Self, and projecting instead out into the lives of other people, rather than to build themselves up.
The word of sin is restriction. That which it is my Will to do, I must do, whatever it be. The word of Choronzon is dispersion and distraction, and this is a prime example of allowing ones self to be torn to pieces by such trivial things as should not matter to any experience magician.
Now to reconcile this with my own previous thoughts on politics...
-- James
Jul. 28th, 2009 @ 06:54 pm
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| » Thelemic Government and Personal Work |
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The concept of Thelemic hierarchy is one which obviously consumed a great deal of Crowley's thoughts, and one which I don't really understand at present. He speaks often of what it isn't, and puts forth a theory for what it might be, but as of yet, has not really happened.
I suppose there has not been a purely democratic, or purely communist, or purely socialist culture or government, but I believe there have been Catholic and are right now Islamic cultures and governments which rule according to the precepts put forth by their holy books. How to do this with texts which break from the slave traditions.
While Crowley was a fan of the spirit of American Individualism, we can find his disdain for American government all through his writing. I think we can learn FROM the old aeon, but we certainly can not point to the governments created in the old aeon, and on egalitarian concepts, which rejects the inherent difference of all people, as being inherently Thelemic in nature.
To look at what a Thelemic government must be, we are left with the Blue Equinox and a number of his letters to members of the early OTO.
I was told the other day that these materials do not necessarily hold up in the light of today's world, and that we are left instead with a process where our leaders move through the initiatic path and from personal revelation form the Thelemic government of our Day. While this was certainly true of Crowley, he was also the LOGOS and he did not claim through divine vision to be creating the new Christianity, nor the new Islam, but rather Thelema, which consumed these slave religions and was instead something new. For so long as we claim to be a thing, anything, be it Thelemic, Christian, or otherwise, we must have some metric of that which is and is not that thing.
To this end, if someone, through personal revelation, comes to believe something which is directly contrary to the holy books, they are, despite personal revelation not Thelemic. The same is true of government. Giving leadership freedom to lead people away from their personal Will is not Thelemic.
America has been called "The Great Experiment" however, in today's secular world, we have turned to "Science" as the new religion, and just as Crowley predicted, not only do we see
"four hundred years hence perchance will some disciple of Lamarck {151} be torn to pieces in the rooms of the Royal Society by the followers of Haeckel, just as Hypatia, that disciple of Plato, was torn to pieces in the Church of Christ by followers of St. John. "
But the proponents of this great experiment, despising the present state of the endeavor, will not see the failure inherent from the start, and try through sheer force of ignorance to separate the effect from the cause. No, ladies and gentlemen, we must be willing to see the results of the experiment for what they are, and to proceed with steadfast bravery to the next experiment, not necessarily with trust that it will produce the utopia we all seek, but rather with the hope that we might learn from it, and refine, creating ever more subtle experiments as time goes on, and approaching the truth we seek.
Who will admit that when the founding fathers wrote: "it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness" That is exactly what we got, not liberty, but "Safety and Happiness" for the masses, at the cost of individual liberty, and a dragging down of any star into the gutter of commonality.
The founding fathers of America did liberty a great service in taking a great leap in their time, but for so long as we cling to the ideals they held we stop ourselves from standing on their shoulders to continue the great work of freedom beyond that which they, being firmly ensconced in the last aeon, were even capable of conceiving.
Crowley, after a lifetime of study had proposed a brilliant new experiment which, to misquote better men than I, has been found too difficult, and hence not tried, rather than being tried and found too difficult.
What would the result of such an experiment be in today's world? Would it solve all our ills? I do not know. I know only that we can try it and find out, or we can not try it, and not know.
I have withdrawn all but completely from the OTO, so where does this put me? Am I in a place where I can criticize those who are doing something? Well, I am, but it does no one any good, as they surely won't listen, and Crowley was clear on how well he loved the busy body. So the question then becomes, do I join the war, and win others to the side of personal freedom in the form of Thelemic government, or do I opt out entirely, do my own thing, and pretend it does not affect me as the badge of Thelema is attached to old aeon egalitarianism, dragging every star down to the gutter just as the name of Christianity is affixed to everything in popular politics?
Perhaps I am brilliant beyond belief, as, at only the grade of Minerval I have already reached the crisis point which I have seen eject better men than myself from the fray. Now the trick is to stall and stall till I have no way to be effective, then sulk off to join the masons, or to stand up like a man and do something.
Jul. 27th, 2009 @ 12:20 pm
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| » Photos from the Sun and Moon |
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I tried this on facebook, but it just didn't work out, so here's a more coherent attempt to flesh out these concepts.
Albert is a fashion photographer. His more recent work includes the fabulous and fantastic Tarina Tarantino "catalogs". When he goes to photograph something, he has in his minds eye what he wants to create, and then goes about setting up the shot. He will use any tool at his disposal, whether that means (sometimes) Photoshop in post, or far more often, bold, intentional lighting, artful makeup and set design, and creative angles to manifest his vision on film. I associate this with the work of the wand and of the sun.
The theoretically pure photo-journalist sets out to capture what is really happening, and to take something which already exists in the wild, frame it in context, and share this experience they had with the rest of the world. I associate this with the work of the cup and of the moon. The moon never shows the sun exactly, but expresses itself through it's reflection of the sun.
One thing worth noting is that journalistic photos can be incredibly moving, and are quite often of a far harsher reality than the creative shots seen, at least, in the mainstream media. This is because we find it ok, and in many cases consider it an obligation to be aware of the horrible things going on in the world (The Nik Ut photo from Vietnam being a prime example)
Different types of photography require different ethics. For a journalist to Photoshop an image significantly is a huge ethics breach, whereas sharing other peoples most emotional moments is an everyday part of their job, and a great achievement. It's worth noting that the photojournalist can not help but express himself through his photos, not just in what he feels is worth shooting, but in how the shot is framed and the context it is placed in. Further, outside of the "pure" art, both types of photographer must put their material in a specific venue, and that speaks volumes about what they are trying to accomplish with their work.
Just as the journalist can never omit the creative portion completely, or be truly objective, neither can the creative photographer avoid documenting his own surroundings, as he is a product of them. Looking at art, one sees the environment, as it flows through the artist without them destroying the effect through effort. Looking at journalism, you see what someone wishes to create, but tries to give the greatest power to by attributing it to outside forces.
-- James
Jun. 29th, 2009 @ 12:16 pm
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| » Standards |
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There's a Heineken ad that says simply "You are who you are when no one is looking".
When I got out of the Army, for about 3 years, I woke up at dawn, and moved "with a sense of purpose", as my DS would have said. When I took the train into Union Station, my friends would enjoy that it was such a fast paced deal, and I was upset at how slow and disorganized it was.
My LJ changed dramatically when I started keeping company of people I looked up to and people who held themselves and their peers to a higher standard. However, when I did this, I started using Twitter and Facebook as an outlet for my lowbrow fun. I wasn't really holding myself to a higher standard, I was picking one place to play at a higher standard. Yesterday, I got a friend request from keith418, and my initial reaction was one of hesitation, and, to a very small degree, fear. What if he saw the lower standard I hold myself to over there? What if he realized who I really am, wouldn't I be shunned and destroyed?
I wanted facebook to be this safe place I could decompress and post short rants, and make fart jokes. I didn't want people who I respected. I didn't want people there who wanted me to improve myself. If they were there, I'd be confronted with the standard I sometimes play at, except I'd be confronted in a "safe" place where no one held me to any standards. Sure, I had friends I respected there, but they already knew me, they were "Safe". Other people had only seen me as I presented myself elsewhere. They only knew of the higher standard I tried to hold myself to sometimes.
This got me thinking about the reaction a few of my friends have gotten at local bodies. If the local body is more of an Living room than a studio, then what are we going to get out of it? Is it going to drive us to higher heights, and exalt us, or is it going to become the place we regress? How will we react to people who want us to follow De Cultu, or to study the material? We're going to wish they'd just go away and let us relax, and our behavior will reflect this.
The Star Sapphire space is divided into sections. One section is an office, another a living room/library, another a temple, and a third for eating and drinking. Which do we spend most of our time in? How do we want people to deal with us?
My politics don't match my philosophy. I can check one against the other, to test what I really commit myself to, but the more I surround myself with those who will help me hold myself to my own theoretical standards, not only do I "play" at these higher standards, but the higher my "resting" standard becomes, and my real world actions start to match my theoretical philosophy. This will beat me down, and drive me nuts, but like basic, the result will be stronger. If I fail to subject myself to these people, and to hold myself to this higher standard, my standards will still change, but they will only descend.
-- James
Jun. 26th, 2009 @ 10:38 am
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| » More Whimsy |
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lord_whimsy has a great little write up on Michael Jackson, and the difference between being pathological and being transgressive. Further, if we're going to be transgressive, we need roots, or we end up with exactly what he describes Here.
I like this guy. (His plant shots are pretty good too)
-- James
Jun. 25th, 2009 @ 06:13 pm
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| » sharing the fun. |
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brendan831 recently introduced me to lord_whimsy's "Affected Provincial's Companion" which has some really fun stuff inside it. His LJ also has fun tidbits like this little bit on Italians and their Summer suits. I'm not sure how serious I'd take any of it, but it's great fun, and has spawned a number of small potential projects going in my head, some of which might even see fruition. =)
When I saw the post on the suit, I needed to share, as I knew some of my friends (with better style than myself) would get a kick out of it.
-- James
Jun. 23rd, 2009 @ 12:32 pm
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| » Thoughts on Energy and Learning. |
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Potential energy is energy that is stored within a system. It exists when there is a force that tends to pull an object back towards some original position when the object is displaced. This force is often called a restoring force. For example, when a spring is stretched to the left, it exerts a force to the right so as to return to its original, unstretched position. Similarly, when a weight is lifted up, the force of gravity will try to bring it back down to its original position. The initial steps of stretching the spring or lifting the weight both require energy to perform. According to the principle of conservation of energy, energy cannot be created or destroyed; hence this energy cannot disappear. Instead, it is stored as potential energy. If the spring is released or the weight is dropped, this stored energy will be converted into kinetic energy by the restoring force — elasticity in the case of the spring, and gravity in the case of the weight.
(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potential_energy )
How does this apply to social movements, groups, and people? How does it apply to occult philosophy?
( Read more... )
Jun. 23rd, 2009 @ 12:14 pm
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| » Help Iranian Twitterers |
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If you're on Twitter, set your location to Tehran & your time zone to GMT +3.30. Iranian security forces are hunting for bloggers using location/timezone searches. The more people at this location, the more of a logjam it creates for forces trying to shut down Iranians' access to the internet.
Please pass this on...
(most recently from doveserpent11)
Jun. 20th, 2009 @ 05:55 pm
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| » Banksy |
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My friend introduced me to Banksy. If you have a second to actually watch this video, many of the pieces are worth while.
This guy's got balls.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-499346/Graffiti-artist-Banksy-strikes--Bethlehem.html
Jun. 17th, 2009 @ 11:12 am
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| » Geeks, Goals, and social movements. |
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Strom Carlson does a rant on Why Your Mother Will Never Care About Linux
In it, he talks about people who build identify around the tools they use, as opposed to what they accomplish with them, and the defensive attitude this creates, which becomes hostile to any meaningful expansion, and to any development outside of a very specific circle.
I keep hearing people use the words "magic" and "religion" interchangeably, but I thought this simple rant was an interesting way to view them, and of course, to view my own interactions with critics.
It's simple, and most of the rant is just a rant, but his gripes aren't limited to the *nix community, and I thought some of the cross-over geeks here might appreciate it.
-- James
May. 18th, 2009 @ 11:22 am
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| » Light dawning Art Thou |
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Oh, child of Earth! Pass from Darkness into Light!
( Image Cut )
May. 18th, 2009 @ 11:09 am
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| » Magick and the Art of Automobile Maintenance ? |
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ANY required change may be effected by the application of
1.) the proper kind and degree of Force
2.) in the proper manner,
3.) through the proper medium
4.) to the proper object.
Every failure proves that one or more requirements of the postulate have not been fulfilled.
( Read more... )
May. 15th, 2009 @ 02:05 pm
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| » In defense of satanism |
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Recently there's been a bit of talk about Satanism in Thelema, and it's given me pause to re-examine some beliefs I've had from childhood, and, not surprisingly, found them childish and lacking. I've seen better men than I examine if Thelema is satanic, and what that means, but I didn't understand why. I've given it some thought, and here are my initial ideas...
I am inclined to propose that you should prepare a formula, to be presented at your lectures, by which any person can publicly renounce the errors of Christianity and so on, and accept the Law. Such a person should at that time burn a copy of his old ‘sacred book’, Bible, Mrs. Eddy, or what not, and be marked by you with The Mark of The Beast, to wit, the Acid on the Pulse of the Left Wrist.
AC to CS Jones, April 1, 1919
I know quite a few ex-Christians who are not openly hostile to Christianity, nor are they ok with it. They merely snark and whine about it. This behavior is not that of someone who has dealt with their demons and moved on, but of someone who's still under the thumb of the God of their youth.
( Read more... )
-- James
May. 13th, 2009 @ 02:29 pm
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| » Conway's Life |
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In 1970 John Conway invented a computer simulation called "Life" in which, a grid was populated, then a set of simple rules determined if a given space would live or die.
When I was 10, I duplicated his program, first in applesoft basic, then again on a PC. By the time I was 13, I had a more complex version using a large pallet of colors, instead of a binary life or death state and had every pixel average itself with the pixels around it. I fully expected the screen to go a flat gray in a very short number of iterations. Much to my surprise, it rather took on an "oil spill" like set of constantly shifting rainbow patterns.
At the time, I was really perplexed. If every pixel was influenced by all the pixels around it, wouldn't they shift into a uniform condition? It quickly became apparent that the initial state of a given pixel ensured that it would never actually coincide completely with those around it, but would take on a relation to them instead, and from this relation, ideas colors would move across the board, being pass from pixel to pixel, with the same deviations every time, such that I could watch endless rainbow waves crossing my screen.
I may need to do a web version of this soon. :)
-- James
Apr. 30th, 2009 @ 11:25 am
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