Hi M(ustbe)T(uesday),
MT: note: this is my second reply to this post. .. having spent well over one hour this morning in choosing…some unknown key
NS: Your persistent effort to reply is appreciated. Your persistent failure to save as you go is mourned mightily.
M(entioningT(orturers): Waterboarding seems to be rather a favorite cruelty of his (Cheney’s) which gives him a 'wonderfully' demonic sneer whenever he is seen to use the word.
NS: You’re right! I believe I’ve noticed that sneer, now that you mention it. All these by-pass surgeries; I’m not fooled in the least by his pretensions of actually possessing a heart.
MT: My hope is your second day on the craft track was successful and gave that left foot a home to boot (!).
NS:
Thank you, for your well wishes. I constructed the right footstool last, since (like yourself) my second efforts more often come out 'right.'
M(ystified)T(houghts): Gadz, man! A mystical twosome living under the same roof! You must have a large enough home to afford two mystical heads to expand freely without another's interruptions.
NS: Neither time nor ‘space’ is an issue for we mystics, since we deny both mind and body, and comprise one and the same empty Self.
M(emorable)T(ravail): But I must apologize to S9 and sadly report that I have no memory of exchanging comments with her.
NS: No need to apologize, she would have forgotten what you were apologizing for anyway. I fear we are all forgetting to remember as well as we once did. An hour ago I went to retrieve my chocolate-cucumber bread; since thankfully this time I had remembered to set the timer and needn’t await notification from the smoke alarm. But alas, I forgot to turn on the oven.
‘Set timer, set oven.’ Ever so much to remember.
MT: What is this 'good' I see in that statement? Good is a comparison with bad, which equals two, which equals (mercy! Can I say it?) duality.
NS: One cannot do dualistic English, nor can one do the dualistic world, without recourse to duality, my dueling friend. ‘Advaistism’ (Non-dualism), like Taoism, recognizes the inseparable Yin/Yang structure of thought and its imagined creatures. Ironically, a “dualist” is someone who conceives of dualities as singularities. E.g. a Christian holds that one day evil will be abolished and that good alone shall reign; causing a Taoist snicker.
M(entioning)T(ranscendence): After all, we both agree (perhaps I may include S9 ?), the ALL is indivisible and without hu'man qualities such as a good and a bad.
NS: Yes, S9 can safely be included in your conclusion. Can we include SooZen, as well? I’d hate to leave her divisible, and with hu’man qualities, where neither apply. Self, not being a concept, remains inconceivable.
When Bodhidharma was asked: “Who are you,” he answered: “I have no idea.”
MT: Although I have no reason to disagree with your friend, Chuang, I must remind what he is saying can only be found the same way old Chuangster did – self-searching. True he is duly noting what he has found on his personal pilgrimage as all who seek must do.
NS: “Self-searching is needed to locate one’s Self, but not necessarily in order to live one’s life wisely. We’ve all heard the sound of sound advice (e.g. “go with the flow.”), realized and unrealized alike.
MT: I may hijack that word (“emotive”) for some special purpose somewhere down the line, if you don't mind, of course.
NS: I tend to restrict my vocabulary to public words that are well clear of any copyright protection by the time I access them. If anything, I’d say ‘emotive’ is much more your word by natural rights than ever being mine, my emotive friend. So, what the hey, emote away.
MT: My latest Stream is founded in 'what if'... the basis of the entire Stream.
Ns: Thanks for the head-sup. ‘What if’ I’d missed it?
MT: She: “Of course not, dummy..”
NS: I see your wife too has pet names for her inferior fraction.
MT: I cannot visualize your response to being booed down, amigo. Did you report this incident to S9 when you returned home?
NS: My response was a shrug. What else is left for a stranger in a strange land to do? Yes, I shared the amusing event with S9, my fellow philosopher & estrangee.
MT: Why put emotions in the children department, isolating it from our hu'manness at any age?
NS: Children are human too. Generally, our capacity, and propensity, to reason develops as we gain adulthood, but our emotions themselves, whether under reasoned control or not, seem to remain much as they were throughout childhood. My Spiritualist minister, Rev Miller (now resident ‘on the other side’) pointed this fact out to me years ago. I’ve experienced nothing emotional, from within or without, to challenge this assertion, have you?
MT: “NS, the time has come, my friend, when I must ask you, 'What is your last name?'”
NS: I’ve lived under assumed names for years, and like Shakespeare’s rose, I smell as sweet by any other you might choose to lend me. It’s probably best to leave a bit of mystery for such a dull and open book as I already am.
MT: but I do dread seeing those who really had nothing to party to begin with about join in the delayed suffering that lies ahead.
NS: And, I as well. It seems we live among a very selfish population that is eager to spend like mad to secure ’their’ illusory safety from imagined terrorists, but fears for the budget when the prospect of assisting less fortunate fellow taxpayers is presented.
MT: Gadz, man! You've kept your true age under wraps, eh, going all the way back to ancient Egypt! Impressive. Has your wife been a passenger all along with you..?
NS: Of course. Why else would our daughter have called her, “Mummy”?
MT: the Panic of 1837 which among other things, this writer spoke of the housing bubble being burst due to rampant speculation that triggered the same response as today's housing market did not too long ago.
NS: “Nothing new under the sun,” saith the preacher. Read enough history, and one gets pretty jaded by the cries of impending doom.
”These are the end-times, just as they were in our father’s day, and in his father’s day as well.”
MT: Where my own discomfort and complaint comes into play is when I hear of the large corporations who wield their influence (power) to make the playing field in their own reflection,
NS: Who among us does not, whether as individuals or members of an organization? Only that apathetic individual should throw the first stone.
MT: I also have objection to the 1%'ers who buy votes in our government which may not favor the majority but only favor themselves.
NS: Are you speaking about illegal ‘bribes’?
MT: the Corporate Giants, as example, have doled out huge amounts of benefits and payroll that maybe up to 300% and more than the working class
NS: As an owner, and creditor, I am as adverse to these exorbitant ‘gifts’ that management gives itself as are the workers. I’m not sure what can be done about it, especially when Uncle intrudes into the market’s natural cure for waste and excess by injecting taxpayer’s money to support the foolishness.
MT: There is the inherent problem with greed that seems to creep in regardless of controls
NS: I’m of the Gordon Gecko school, “greed is good.” It’s just a pejorative term for ‘ambition.’ I suspect the fault lies with the ‘controllers’ rather than the ‘controls.’ Why fault the laws, if the police don’t fairly enforce the ones we already have. ‘Greed’ is like the fire (burning often over 500 degrees F) I have in my living room. It requires the application of firm limits, not a smaller flame to heat my home.
MT: But as our older age continues approaching, so does our realization that our past accomplishments are only that – accomplishments that have passed. It is the present which has been either missed or avoided my so many, often finding a refuge in work for a future rather than in enjoying now while it is available.
NS: Every choice we make cancels most of the alternatives. Only children plan on being President and a fireman all at the same time. For some, the stimulation of a career offers the greater allure, especially when young. Others, choose family first, and wonder at what they might have accomplished in a career. Alternative desires must pay the price with latter regrets. I can’t see how it can ever be prevented(?).
MT: When you write: ‘Capital’ does not deal in consumption, does not allow for the fact that capital is the reason consumption occurs. Without capital, no consumption.
Ns: I don’t disagree that the two are connected. I am claiming that there are differing perspectives given over to: ‘money for personal expenses,’ and ‘money as a tool.’ Yes, billions are “excessive” in light of the former, but no amount is excessive in light of the latter. It would be like saying that a giant steam shovel is excessive when anyone should be able to feed themselves with a spoon.
MT: Money (capital) must move or else it will become stagnant... not gaining in value.
NS: With inflation and taxes, like rust never sleeping; capital must run just to stay even.
MT: The good capitalist enterprises ruthlessly competes for our wants to create more money to create more wants to make more money to create more wants.... ad infinitum, or so the wanting capitalist hopes. Are we in any agreement here, amigo?
NS: Are your wants in someone else’s hands? Socrates claimed he felt rich whenever he visited the market -- there were so many things offered that he felt no need for. I never blame a salesman for trying to encourage a sale. Even the serpent in the garden of Eden was just doing his job. If the purchase was ill considered, blame the individual whose job it was to give consideration to making it. That was his job, and he should have been doing it; not blaming others for not doing his job along with theirs.
MT: Now that I've offered some of what I think, does that gain any credibility with you?
NS: You are ever credible with me, Cecil. Please take no offense, as none was intended. I just felt my expressive efforts were inadequate to the task. Not to sell you on ‘my’ pov, but to clearly present a capitalist pov for your inspection, and refutation (if required). I’ve no doubt that capitalism can be faulted with sound reason, as can any ism.
Cripes, this is getting way toooo long; apologies. I'll give you a "Crazy Cloud" quote next time. I best bail. Bye.
One day I began a search of reviews for 'Bad Boy....' and came up with a review by Rotten Tomatoes who positively without any hestitation to 'see this movie!' I sent #1 son a link to that and he responded within the same day that Rotten Tomatoes was a trustworthy reviewer (and I wasn't???) enough so that he quickly order the movie. He watched it once with his wife and one more time alone... loved it! As he told his old decrepit dad, "I really enjoy strange, offbeat, weird movies and this really was all that.." Thanks, son. 
, let me add that what I have reported to you, N(early) S(entient), this urgency to find a cure for dis-ease applies to society as well. Society can sit and listen to reasons for their unemployment or their upcoming loss of housing, they can sit and listen to why their insurance will no longer cover their illness or any number of other things, but deep down within, society is worried about one thing... getting well. To Hell with any b.s. that does nothing to cure the ills of society. Words can only do so much and go so far before they are just faint echoes ricocheting off the walls of complacency with n'er an ear to listen.... until that ear is cured.
