A BLOGGING AFFAIR ....

ERASMUS (c. 1466 - 1536)  the Dutch  philosopher wrote ;  " Creep not upon the earth , my brother, like an animal . Put on those wings which  Plato says are caused to grow on the soul by the ardor of love .  Rise above the body to the spirit , from the visible to the invisible , from the letter to the mystical meaning , from the sensible to the intelligible , from the involved to the simple . Rise as by rungs until you scale the ladder of Jacob .

A blog , as a literary work , [ as I often describe them] is not a telegram , or an e-mail , and definitely not a twitter or the like ; it shouldn't have  necessarily a message to convey , any more than events or characters . In place of themes , one would often disperse and  circulate  random non-objective symbols and obscure literary allusions throughout the  article .

Only well informed readers , and insiders can decode these allusive references , the fact that some words or pictures are unclear is not a problem for them , but a virtue . Sometimes to be serious a blog  must be  ambiguous , elusive , enigmatic , indeterminable  and even  opaque .

Length is irrelevant to classification . The point is not quantity of words , but their connection to the events  and  characters presented in the work .

Most of the times , people reason  by  doubting , and that leads to questioning , and by questioning  they learn the truth . That is an axiom I follow in reasoning and writing blogs .

We are all  seekers of truth , we all want to know why and how . Man is the asking animal . And some of us live and strive by the why  and  the why why !!




A quick explicit explanatory thought . Thanks for your attention . 

A WORLD IN PROGRESS !!!

WE have a common sky . A common firmament encompasses us . What matters it by what kind of learned theory each man looketh for the truth ? there is no one way that will take us to so mighty a secret .     SYMMACHUS , roman thinker , A.D 384.

The new  Christianity , writes the author  Michelle Goldberg , is a "total ideology" ; the goal is the take over of  "every aspect of public and private life,"  including but not limited to government , science , history , culture , and relationships .  It holds that the secular authorities in the United States must be replaced by men of faith , who will refashion American life  according to God's teachings . U.S civil law  holds  Pat Robertson , must be replaced by biblical law .

" Christian politics ," writes George grant - director of Coral ridge Ministries (Florida) - " has as it's primary intent  the conquest of the land  (America ), of men , families , institutions , bureaucracies , courts , and governments  for the kingdom of Christ ."

As in all forms of totalitarianism and aspiring theocratic movements , the  fundamental purpose of  this  theocracy is to spread the ideas  regarded as holy , and eliminate opposition to them .  Such a purpose requires  a thoroughgoing reorientation  of the national mind ,  entailing thought control .  The result will be a nation conditioned to forget facts , understanding , liberty and individualism , while remembering  Jesus , God , and his earthly representatives  in the church ,  writes L. Peikoff .

IT  adds up to a historic popular  feeling that ;  something  fundamental has gone wrong with the United States . The only possible fix , the new  Christians tell us , is authentic  religion . What they seek is  revolution across  the whole of  American  culture , in the  name of a mode  of thought  that has not  ruled here since  the time of the puritans ,  again quoting  Mr Peikoff .

Because it is defined in  terms of fundamental  principles , the new  Christianity  is not , as some think , inherently  provincial , rural  uneducated poor people . The new Christian movement is in all aspects of  American societies .

IF we replace every word in the previous paragraphs saying  Christian , by the word Musslem , and every Jesus with a Muhammad or  Moses , and every America by Arabia  or Musslem world ,  wouldn't we reach the same frightening conclusions ?  and watch  the  same scenarios only in different parts of the world ??   Are we then  to blame  and condemn   Abraham and the prophets  for  all this  or our own  modern religious  narrow  mindedness .

" God is dead ,"  said  Nietzsche  in the nineteenth  century . A recent  book title gives the twenty-first- century's  reply ;  " God is back."




I  owe  L. Peikoff  for his  insightful  and deep analysis of the American progression and future .  As usual my gratitude for your time and patience .  

MUSSLEM REIGN AND SALAFISTS....!!

Today in many parts of the  Arab and  Musslem world , science , arts , and modern social concepts , are largely unknown or ignored , and of little  interest to them . Truth about  religion , the soul ,  eternity and early Islamic  modes of living , they believe , are incomparably more important than truths about the body, nature , or contemporary sciences , since these  pertain only to the darkness that constitute this world .

Only a handful of individual  Musslems across the Arab world gained  fragments of new scientific knowledge . No Arab or Musslem thinker of the last few centuries produced or even upheld  a theory of the physical world as a whole , not even  in rudimentary terms . It is an era without scientists , without artists or creators  of futuristic and human  progress ideas .

Whereas the world is striving to produce more of these inspired futurists , the Musslem and Arab world in general , is condemning  what little they know of it  as immoral , to them , it is not insignificant , but a threat , such worldly interests might provoke God's wrath , endanger  one's salvation , and is not  compatible with the  prophet's own times and way of life .

Although man in general  in our modern times , cannot claim to understand  much about  God's plan , the Musslems and their salafists , often refer to it .  Explanation of most events , they believe , is one that identify , as far as possible , the Divine's will  and hands in these events , whether it's political , social , family issues or the well being of individuals and or whole societies .




Some sad reflections on the situation governing a large segment of the world population . thanks for your time and patience , salamat.

PLEASING THE GODS ....

Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's  and unto God  that  which is God's . On this all brilliant thinkers agreed through out history . But how much is God's , and  when is it due ?? on this , the mixed-up men , being  very mixed-up , could not agree .

Many  confused - very confused and mixed up indeed - men and women in the Arab world , and the general Islamic world , are now facing and living this dilemma , of how much  is due to God , and how to render it .

How to live their lives , progress through life , raise and educate their children and prosper economically , and build stable and happy societies ,  and at the same time please their God , with offerings , rituals and principles , thousands of years old , only favored by Gods thousands of years old .

I say and repeat Gods , but I only mean the One God of most of our worldly religions . As most , or dare I say, all  followers share these same exact feelings of being  extremely mixed up  as to how , and what to do , regarding the ;  " how to please God in our actual times ."

The Christian who burned Korans not long ago in Florida, is trying to please his God, as the Jewish or Copt or whatever , who created that retched video were trying their way to please their God, or those barbaric attacks on diplomatic missions an the killing of diplomatic staff perpetrated by Muslim mobs who were all trying hard to please their god .


Some reflections on the not too inspiring events of the Arab and Muslim world , again thanks for your patience and time .

AMERICAN RELIGIOSITY !!!

WE all  admit that most Americans can be safely categorised as conservatives and religious  , or at best religiously conservatives . Following most religious sects or different denominations , most or all answer to the same higher authority .

All these religious denominations without exception  ask men to sacrifice themselves  to a transcendent entity , such as the One , God , or the state whether religious or civil . The good life , therefore , consists for the groups and individuals alike ; for each man's renunciation of personal , worldly desires in order to serve a higher truth , and a better community here on earth .

Religious leaders , thinkers and congregations are often described as advocates and proponents of faith over reason , and thus as non  or anti rationalists .

The American people , in good numbers , nowadays are turning and more so than ever before , as anti establishment and/or anti government and higher organising bodies in their lives , with more evident disrespect toward leaders of any kind .

In trying to relate the one and the many , it seems that our solution  is to write off the many as unwanted , undesirable  and unreal , and interpret literally the one as a self-sufficiency , championing  the one   without the many .

So as  Americans, represented by tea partiers and ultra conservative write wingers , are we turning away from religious substance and core principles ? are we reinventing new social/religious dogmas or a new creed to suit our modern selfish temperaments .




Simply some observations from our times, thanks for your time .
 

THE ARAB AND SYRIAN UPRISING....

THE point of life nowadays in the Arab world and more so in Syria, is the daily living of it.

When one reads about the Syrian revolution , you smell smoke , pictures of fire , accompanied by images of death , bad death  ,  somber pictures of carboniferous towns and cities , villages and the country side . You get a sense that fire  and death  are elements of destruction and rebirth .

  Syria  didn't just fall to the revolution in March 2011 , it burnt slowly ,  and keeps burning , slowly and fiercely . Revolutionary events do not just happen , they ignite .

Such historical outcomes , do not happen according to any grand  historical design , nor to well orchestrated conspiracies from other forces , not even from well designated enemies .  They are  merely  collective acts of  countless  individuals who at a certain point , for a moment , were struck by a moral purpose in their lives . Their dignities .

The obligation to resist and uproot a regime that had been fed on the appetite for domination , subjugation  and  extermination , is the essence of it all . This is exactly why , the images of fire and death in Syria are elements of both , destruction and rebirth .




Syria has been lately a lot on my mind, it's people , their revolution , and it's  desolate and hopeless regime . As usual , thanks for your attention and time . Salamat .

Hatred and violence......

There is nowadays an obscure e-mail circulating parts of the Arab world, whereby the Shiia are more dangerous than the Jews,  implying worse or lower than the Jews !!.  So and according to Sunni Musslems the Shiia today are more dangerous and have reached  the new low. 

Now according to Jews and Musslems, [ both direct descendants of Abraham] the Christians were the norm for low and danger,  Hindus of course consider the Musslems to be at the bottom , so would a Dutchman after the brutal killing of the popular Amsterdamer film director. 

Catholic and Protestant hatred decades ago  helped start and form America, but time didn't  really help it heal or subside from social fabrics whether it's here in the U.S. or in old Europe.  The lynching of  young Palestinians  by Jewish teenagers few days ago and the non intervening of hundreds of bystanders on the streets of Jerusalem, are again and again a despicable act of violence and a  picture of this hatred and lack of assimilation.

Maronites, Alawites, Druze, when is it all going to end ??

The world today , whether it's the Middle-east or Europe, north America or Asia the ex Soviet-union or Africa or the Balkans is living  it's religiosity, it's religious violence and hatred ,  and sadly it's all there to stay.

The  twentieth century has brought with its end two of the oldest legacies of our times,  " revealed religion and ethnic nationalism ",  when we thought that such things were done with and gone from most of our lives.

We should perhaps have known better , We believed in the transformative power of reason . Maybe it's our fate in life, that, there would always be some sort of unstoppable and undefeatable racial or even a biological obstacle to true assimilation .




Thanks for your attention and time, salamat.