ENLIGHTENING OURSELVES AND OUR TIMES ......

The enlightenment , is identified  with an intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries within Europe . A movement that carried some distinctive ideas , engaging a wide array of readers and thinkers . One of these ideas , and a major philosophical side of the enlightenment , was religions , and the relationship with their gods , as well as their influence on the human kind .

Most enlightenment thinkers were hostile to religion , condemning it as an irrational  delusion , later circles of irreligious thinkers and writers , especially in the first decades of the 18th century produced works like      " Treaties of the three impostors " , in its final issue in 1721 , where they described  and identified ; Moses , Christ , and Mohammad as impostors who had deceived their people .

The irreligious enlightenment considered in many instances , that certain nations , had elevated one god above others , thus becoming monotheistic and monotheists , and this monotheism invariably tended to extreme enthusiasm and fanaticism , where in their fanaticism , monotheists were characteristically more brutal and less tolerant than polytheists and atheists .

David Hume strongly believed that all three monotheistic religions advocates and adherents , of elevating their supporters and themselves to the next world above the present one , with a morality of self denial ,  exactly  a major source of most of our ills in our actual modern times .  While and according to Spinoza , humans are part of nature , and god and nature are simply different , albeit of the same substance . God therefore  exerts no external providential  power over nature , nature is always determined in itself .

The religious institutions and hierarchies could be respected , only when they apply , and genuinely accept , learning how to live with the total liberty of the individual conscience , and any strongly held belief . The enlightenment argued and showed through historical facts , that the ancient Babylonians , Egyptians , Greeks and Romans , and more so Chinese , were by far more tolerant than the peoples of all three monotheistic religions throughout their histories , and unfortunately more so in our 20th and 21st century .

The enlightenment's contribution to historical understanding of religion , and to arguments of toleration , is exactly what is missing in our modern  Musslem and Jewish thinking , and practises toward others . Some pockets of the same type of behavior exist and is evolving steadily in some Christian societies , all leading to ; "The triumph of barbarism and religion" to borrow Voltaire's words.


My as always appreciative words for your times and help in spreading the blog to other intelligent minds .         

SHOW TIME ELECTIONS ......

As a matter of fact , the way things are progressing in the election process in the U.S. between and inside the two parties is rather comic but satisfying , pleasing or let's say positive in a sense .


Let me explain myself , and why I find them so ;  on the Republican side , I find Mr. Trump , contrary to most of his GOP  candidates , and establishment , almost reasonable , and surely the least dangerous , again compared to Ted Cruz , or the failed by now Marco Rubio , even some of the others with less apparent rhetoric , but deep old and archaic convictions .


Mr. Trump is the most independent and pragmatic , a demagogue with many naïve , laughable slogans and childish ideas , a little fascist for sure , but far from being totally indoctrinated in any ultra right or religious fanaticism . His penchant for some extreme right and religious blind conservatism and fascist behavior are only temporary acts , played and meant strictly to carry him through the election faze .


Ted Cruz would be for sure the destructive one with hidden dangerous fanatical ideas , leading the country into its darkest moments , and reversing the clock centuries back . And that is mostly what is infuriating the old guard and the establishment towards the two candidates , but not the general masses.


On the Democratic side only two are the possible nominees , I have a net penchant for Mr. Sanders , as obviously shown , that the country is ready and looking forward for some stronger jolt , or to borrow a wall street expression " a corrective measure ". While I have no doubt or illusions that Mrs. Clinton , is going to be nominated , and the final winner of the presidential elections .


She will be a strong president , maybe a bit too strong , with an incline for intrigues and dubious and questionable affairs , my major objections to her , are her strong affiliations to Wall Street and the corporate world . and as well her very strong relations and convictions with Israel , and more so the actual NEO CON Israel and its blind and crazy practises .


The longer Mr. Sanders stays on , in the campaign , the better , for Clinton and to a lesser degree for Trump , as he alone can steer the conversations , and show them both and their intelligentsia as well as their electorate what America and mostly younger America is longing for , in shaping the future .


If and when it's final , that the fight is going to be between Trump and Hillary , I have practically no doubt about the winner , and I will contribute with all I can to help elect our first woman president . But somehow I keep surprising myself by thinking that any of the three candidates could be OK. in a sense . And on a scale of  1 to 10 ; Bernie comes to 2 , Hillary to 4 , and Trump to 10 , but the three of them have a place at least on this scale , no other comes close .


Whether Mr. Trump's nomination will totally wreck the Republican party and further separate the core from the fringes , no one can really predict , but it surely looks to be a serious possibility , while on the other side the two contestants are only adding to Democrats' coherence and future lucid vision , albeit some serious differences and interests . it could be quite interesting to see a ticket of both , Hillary as president and Sanders as vice president , the president fixing our foreign policies and international affairs , and Sanders more into fixing internal policies !!


A final note , Mr. Trump is surely not directly responsible for many ugly scenes and vulgar rhetorics all through the campaign , he is simply reiterating loudly what the Republican party and many of its constituencies have been saying , thinking and doing for some long years now .




Thank you all for your time and help spreading the blog .


 

UNFINISHED BUSINESS .....

White House hopefuls  Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio , plus 13 other republican U.S. senators demanded today , that ISIS fighters be sent to the Guantanamo Bay detention center , which would boost its population , while Pres. Obama moves to close it .


These acts and demands bring back the old discussions about closing the Guantanamo prison and facilities . Just to mention one aspect of the debate , the cost of each prisoner to us tax payers , is in excess of 6 million Dollars per inmate per year , so a quick calculation of the costs to maintain about 300 of them locked up in Guantanamo is closer to 2 billion Dollars , funny !!! How funny for a Republican rich politician trying to cut on every dime for public health , education , infrastructure fixing and social security for the seniors , to be so very OK. with an extra 2 billions per year for maintaining an obsolete prison for few hundred terrorists .


If we are absolutely short of reasonable space for them , let me propose two solutions ; We ask our top ally , Israel , who owe us a lot in money , arms and everything else to take some of them , interrogate them and eventually dispose of them as they see fit , and the rest we send to Syria 's Assad , whom we are trying lately to revamp , some of the regime's specialized high ranking officers would gladly oblige and do whatever we ask them for , as both countries and regimes are top qualified masters at treating prisoners , and all at a small fraction of the costs .


Holding prisoners for years without charge or trial is of no concern to some , as well as any human right violation that goes against our most fundamental values .






-----  We should exercise some cautiousness in totally antagonizing  our  neighbor , Mexico , and all its smaller affiliates of Latino descenders countries , they are going to be here , close and very close to us for ever , long after some of our politicians and aspiring ones expire , we do not need to absolutely poison all of our neighborhoods with stupid electoral inflammatory rethorics .
 We do not need as well , to turn ourselves into total religious fanatics and colour haters , whether all monotheistic and other religions , white , blacks ,red or yellow , who ever needs and cherish this type of life can emigrate to Saudi , Israel , Iran or Africa , or even the newly reemerging Christian Russia .


----- The biggest farcical charade , turning us into a mockery nation , in tune with  Lebanon not being able to elect its president for two years , is the absurd game of refusing to discuss or confirm any candidate for the supreme court , to fill the gap after the sudden vacancy , why can't we just keep the supreme court out of politics , and out of the usual bickering . Liberal , conservative or anything in between should be the norms and the limits , and all of these could be discussed and solved , maybe some of our fanatical politicians ought to go and live in Lebanon as well , fulfil their emptiness and have their fill .  Let's hope some cool heads will prevail .


----- and finally , why  don't we once and for all , learn and apply the international Metric system , even Britain did so , NASA and the whole scientific society are there naturally , it's only our old us and our old politicians resisting the switch to a kilo instead of a pound ,  a meter in lieu of an inch and a foot , a liter instead of gallons ,and kilometers instead of miles , it's the same mentality still governing us in most aspects of our life and politics , we are paying  for our pounds  and ounces and being defrauded at every supermarket check-out point .


Our issues and social problems and old ways could be discussed  and solved , and should be , let's not put our democracy and our  recent supremacy in leading the world into the future , let's not put it all in jeopardy , let's not lose it all for partisanship and stubborn bickering , we can in my honest opinion be again a very moral nation and very close people , something we're not at these moments .


As always , my thanks to all , for your time and help spreading the blog .