non sum

[stilltrucking]

I just started reading it too. This bit from the introduction.

DID BAUDELAIRE BELIEVE IN GOD?

I don’t know. But he jotted down one of the more interesting theological claims I’ve come across. “God is the only being,” he wrote, “who in order to reign need not even exist.

Flowers of Evil

Pretty bummed out by the news. I stopped getting the newspaper and blew up my TV. found some good news today. Nothing to do with this.

The only good news I found today.

Flowers of Evil

Now, here’s a case where genetic modification is actually a good thing: scientists have developed a tobacco plant that turns red when it detects nitrogen oxide leaks from landmines. It takes about ten weeks for the plants to change color. The plants will also help researchers determine whether an area has been successfully cleared.
http://earthfirst.com/genetically-modif ... and-mines/

[mnaz]

God and humanity. Who created who?



And Jeezus.... 80 million frickin' landmines still buried? Holy crap.
Interesting article.

[stilltrucking]

We don't need no stinking improvised explosive devices.
"The United States stopped manufacturing landmines in 1997, but has one of the largest stockpiles" We have not signed the Ottawa Mine-Ban Treaty.

Poem of The Landmine Museum


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“I do not wish to be happy at present, just to be aware.” Camus.

Started with Crazy Mike and Freud. This looking for answers, for reasons, for happiness.

Now I am going with Sisyphus and Camus. I no longer wish to be happy. Just to be aware. Philosophy is just another pissing contest for me.

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide." If we judge the importance of a philosophical problem by the consequences it entails, the problem of the meaning of life is certainly the most important. Someone who judges that life is not worth living will commit suicide, and those who feel they have found some meaning to life may be inclined to die or kill to defend that meaning. Other philosophical problems do not entail such drastic consequences.

Camus rejects suicide. He said Sisyphus was cool trudging down the hill after his rock.

[mnaz]

Philosophy-- "a route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing"-- Ambrose Bierce, Devil's Dictionary. What a sarcastic bastard!

[stilltrucking]

I ran out of road.

[Non Sum]

"Philosophy" has all sorts of definitions for all sorts of definers, from "pissing contests" spanning "roads to nowhere." I take the term at its most literal: a 'love of wisdom' (Sophia).

No true 'love' of any sort (agape, philos, eros) can be willed into existence. One is either blessed/cursed with it, or not. My own bias may be blinding me, but I find it hard to conceive of 'wisdom,' whether 'practical' or 'speculative,' as a "curse." How could she be?

To be given the great gift of love, not just for 'knowledge,' but for its disstillation, essence and marrow -- the ultimate purport and meaning of things; whatever could be greater than that

"To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts; but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates." (Thoreau)

[stilltrucking]

You know what heaven is to me? To have a passionate teacher who wants to share the joy he finds in his subject matter. be it French Literature or the Greek Classics.
I went to the night school of JHU in Baltimore. The professors were moonlighting from their day jobs at JHU.

I had a French professor like that. We translated the Stranger.
Camus says the only serious philosophical problem is suicide. I think Camus put some thought into murder too. God knows I have.
Amazing Grace, that led me to that Quaker Meeting, Nashville headquarters for the Southern Baptists. Everybody and their brother were getting saved in the seventies. Me too, but I did not have it in me to be a Baptist.

I never read Thoreau, but I like that quote a lot.

[Non Sum]

ST: You know what heaven is to me? To have a passionate teacher who wants to share the joy he finds in his subject matter. be it French Literature or the Greek Classics.

NS: One can always become that teacher, and at the very same time become that teacher’s ideal student. Then, both teacher and student share an independent heaven all his own.

ST: I had a French professor like that. We translated the Stranger.

NS: My French would never have been up to the task of translating ‘L’Etranger.’ Though I did read a translation of it in English lit, while in community college, and Voltaire’s ‘Candide’ in simplified French at about the same time.

ST: Camus says the only serious philosophical problem is suicide.

NS: He begs the philosophical problem of whether destroying one’s own body results in one’s actual demise. I.e. is suicide even possible?

ST: I think Camus put some thought into murder too. God knows I have.

NS: Still, the same issue: is death actually possible?

ST: I never read Thoreau,

NS: You’ve been denying yourself a great treat. You might enjoy his essay, ‘On Civil Disobedience.’ Try to read ‘Walden Pond’ before your suicide. It may show you a better way to go.

[SadLuckDame]

Jack, I'll be like your student, if you'll want one, but promise me you'll not go out on a suicide. I want you around and I don't like wearing black. This will be a tough one to imagine out or away for the day.

[stilltrucking]

At my age suicide seems silly
Why hurry
I already got one foot in the grave

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The Savage God Is an Interesting Book, I read it back in the seventies when I still thought I could understand why people do away with themselves. Before I knew Freud was a suicide.





I am thinking about what you wrote about the guy who threatens you with suicide.
Self murder, when the rage turns inward, sometimes suicide is a hostile act. Revenge.
Teach me dame, you teach me I will teach you we'll teach each other till we both turn blue.

I hope I get around to reading Walden.

For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

[Non Sum]

ST quoteing Ecclesiastes: "For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow."

NS: While there is good wisdom to be found in the 3 'Greek' books of the Bible (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon), this is not an example of it. Do you, ST, find it a sentiment that is defensible? I find it to be utter

NS (Non Sense).

[mnaz]

Nothing new under the sun. Wasn't that the main point of Ecclesiastes? Or at least one of the quotables?

I have a copy of Walden... have yet to get through it. Thoreau had a ponderous writing style. Many great nuggets, like the "mass of men leading lives of quiet desperation" and such, however...

[stilltrucking]

Never been able to read it either mnaz as many times I ventured as many times I failed.

Oh I like it fine non sum, the preacher can defend himself, don't need no defense from me. One of things that has perplexed me is the belief that one has to defend god.

Theys say the Greeks gave us historical science and the Hebrews gave us historical religion. And what we have now is the about the worst of both worlds.

The Old Testament is a wonderful book like a "Norton Anthology of Near Eastern Religions." as e_dog calls it

"Optimism nauseates me" Ignatius Reilly in John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces.

Van Morrison I got to check that out Cecil.

[stilltrucking]

Do I sound defensive?

I can think of how "the improvers of mankind" have increased sorrow. Can you think of any knowledge that has increased grief?



Here is an example I would give of sorrowful wisdom, the insights of Freud the archeologist of our souls and how they have been used to mold public opinion. Geobbles had several books by Bernays (Freud's nephew) on his library shelf

Check out The Century of The Self, the BBC documentary.

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I have to read this again when I am not stoned and see what I just wrote/said. Sometimes I feel like the bear in the old Pogo comic strip who could write but not read. Pogo had to read him back what he had written.

[stilltrucking]

Cecil wrote

Van Morrison came out with an album/CD by that name, Philosopher's Stone. Damn good. Never read Colin's book, tho. Did you enjoy it?

Yes I liked it a lot the first time I read it back in the seventies . I tried reading it again a few years ago but lost interest after a few pages.


It is about phenomenology, the paranormal, telekinesis, telepathy — sort of.
Husserl writes about the flux of consciousness, about the magic of childhood before we have settled our accounts with reality. I liked that bit a lot. I guess that is what Collin Wilson was riffing on.

Thank you so much for telling me about this song.

Out on the highways and the by-ways all alone
I'm still searching for, searching for my home
Up in the morning, up in the morning out on the road
And my head is aching and my hands are cold
And I'm looking for the silver lining, silver lining in the clouds
And I'm searching for and
I'm searching for the philosophers stone
And it's a hard road, Its a hard road daddy-o
When my job is turning lead into gold
He was born in the back street, born in the back street Jelly Roll
I'm on the road again and I'm searching for
The philosophers stone
Can you hear that engine
Woe can you hear that engine drone
Well I'm on the road again and I'm searching for
Searching for the philosophers stone

Up in the morning, up in the morning
When the streets are white with snow
It's a hard road, it's a hard road daddy-o
Up in the morning, up in the morning
Out on the job
Well you've got me searching for
Searching for, the philosophers stone
Even my best friends, even my best friends they don't know
That my job is turning lead into gold
When you hear that engine, when you hear that engine drone
I'm on the road again and I'm searching for the philosophers stone

It's a hard road even my best friends they don't know
And I'm searching for, searching for the philosophers stone