Our collective imagination is a canvas worth trillions of dollars.  What is being painted on the canvas of your imagination today?  Is it heavenly or is it hell?

Documentary Of The Week: Eisenhower.

Click the title.

The bible is not the issue.

The bible is not the issue.

In a new movie plot, when ego becomes more important than human life or safety, you have Anti-Christ. Cain may have been the first.  You could argue that the morality in the word of God is non-democratic and that it is out of place in modern times and  with the respective social mores. The Torah does not condone homosexuality. But, there is a certain morality that keeps everyone safe; including their children and it is in the laws that are based on the Torah that is also found in the bible.  You could say one bad experience has turned you away from religion and you chose to be a homosexual or to just do whatever you want. You could just do what you want so long as your neighbor's children are unaffected by you doing what you want. That was the experience of Lot in the bible. It was the experience of Nazi Germany. Lot wanted someone to answer his 911 calls and save him and his children. Some research suggests that Lot did not  give his children over to the hordes to save the angels. Angels have a spiritual version of  infra-red goggles and big guns and they can take care of themselves usually. Also, someone with an agenda altered the definitions of homosexual and heterosexual sometime ago. The world is not perfect and the law says that children should be kept safe. Most people believe in this whether or not they suffered victimization.  Those laws are based on the word of God, the Torah and the bible  essentially. It is undertstandable that if you were victimised by someone, you might remain angry in spite of that person's religious back ground. You would be angry whether or not they read  or own the book "angels and demons" but what you suffered was certainly demonic and the bible also does not condone any such experience. Most Christians would mourn with you as some of them may or may not know your experience.  But, it would be hard for you to accept their testimony if you knew they have a copy of your  lap-dancing girls gone to the border((bien chose ou mal chose?) video when you were a lap dancer ten years ago and still in college.    The point is that you would not have modern times  and society without the word of God. The laws based on the word and the social peace it provides enable a way of life, safety and prosperity.  Can you imagine what would happen if you told the police that your dog was stolen by some people and they just hung up and this is after you showed them the security video from the infra-red cam that you bought at Walmart? You could see it was the couple down the road and so can they. You thought they might be gay since they had the multi-colored flag on their vehicle and on their jeans but they weren't really gay and comprised a guy and a woman. It seems they were singing "Let it go" when they walked out of the  front yard while on video.  You would be very disappointed and would ask what is happening to your tax dollars. What if they told you to have some pride and not worry about the dog since there are more important issues at stake?  Where would you be and what you do since your dog was stolen and you intended to take your dog to grade 3 class at dog school in the morning.  Your pursuit of happiness is just ruined. Everybody needs a minimum degree of morals to keep their loved ones, their dogs, their loved ones and their loved ones safe.  The morals equal safe society, safe food, safe swimming pools, school cross walks, amusement rides, pool cues, balls and infrastructure.  See Lord Atkin in Donoghue and Stevenson(1932).  The issue is not the word of God, the Torah or the bible. Epicureanism could equal an amoral society but amorality may not be commercially and communally viable. The rainbow flag may amount to a prayer for healing and recompense for wrongs  un-redressed and visited upon the vulnerable as forgiveness remains uneasy.   It might be naked, prideful contagion. There is a rainbow in the bible.  But, there is nothing wrong with a 24 hour food channel and a bible channel right beside it to give you the faith, prayer and encouragement to beat your "ten  strudels a day" habit.  The morals that the torah and the bible  purport are  something that everybody needs including Ben and Jerry's so that they can keep their rainbow flavored ice cream clean and sale-able and their dogs safe.

Word processors, robots and computers do not eat. People do and they need safe places and markets in which to be workers and consumers.  Govern-mentally funded universal health care to help the company balance sheets  is really friendly and  hire two people for every word processor and robot purchased by the big company down the road and you will have your consuming to keep it all going.    



It is the continuing policy of Londinium TV Channel to discuss everything in a light hearted manner and to let everyone know that homosexuals are human beings. It is also to share the gospel. They should be as well respected in public as any bible believing Christian. Hatred is not tolerated against homosexuals and nor should anyone tolerate anyone, including homosexuals, perpetrating crimes of anger, passions and violence.
Warren Lyon, Editor.
Londinium TV Channel.





 

Just imagine what TV and the airwaves would have been like if a certain political leader succeeded in all of his campaigns during World War 2.

So much angry language....not enough clean Quaker Harvest Crunch!

While We're Young(the movie) is sort of an angry but thoughtful alternative sequel to Meet The Parents if you wish. The language is authentically "High school hall way" but the issues of life, faith, faithfulness and family resonate quite religiously. It's a good, reflective collaboration of morals, intellectual property and enterprise. How do we know who really wrote the essay or script? Well, everybody knows. But, in asking the question, it doesn't give anyone the right to hand in work that does not belong to you and expect to disdain and denigrate the academic process. Moreover,it does not give you the right to use someone's film as your entry at a film festival. Picasso said the devil has an ego and as an artist, the devil only steals and is nothing but a thief.

The early British Latin dialect probably developed similarly as the dialect of Gaul (the ancestor of Old French). In particular, Latin stressed short i developed first into close-mid /e/, then diphthongised to /ei/. The combination -ond- also developed regularly into -und- in pre-Old French. Thus, he concludes, the remaining Romans of Britain would have pronounced the name as Lundeiniu, later Lundein, from which the Welsh and English forms were then borrowed. This hypothesis requires that the Latin form have a short i: Londinium.   

Special Music Presentation.

The Judeo-Christian Values are important  as Christian church members advocated for free schooling, lunches, libraries and social benefits including the orphan benefits. But, many people have turned and decided that they do not have enough evidence that God exists. Go and remember the Baptist or Pentecostal minister who advocated for free schooling.

Happy Father's Day: 1 Thessalonians 1.

Chocolat et un verre du lait avec cole're?

It begins with chocolate chip cookies and ends with Oreo cookies.
It begins with baked pomme de terre and and ends with french fries.
It begins with a special carbonated tonic drink and ends with coke zero.

It begins with "page 3" and concludes with an epicurean empire that watches you in your hotel rooms, bedrooms and home toilets with great interest from kindergarten maybe.  The movie "Fury" was about technology and the soul of the future.
There is nothing wrong with an empire. Some empires exist by sheer economic power, productivity and influence alone.  But, an empire is not justified simply because it is empirical. There are good books and bad books, good messages and bad messages; good empires and evil empires. The message of some empires is just death.  The movie "Fury" was about self introspection and examination of the direction that the future should take.  The word is peace.  You can't have someone touching up your  wife in a supermarket aisle, at church or temple( Judaic/ Christian/Muslim) in front of you. That is civil war and an end to civic health or peace in the Word.   War is good for the civic health of the nation simply because there is a civic health. What maintains the civic health is a commitment to that health and the word of peace.  Maintain that health. If you have someone to forgive, then forgive that someone instead of creating a community of non-forgiving people that console each other in a common experience of victimization or ostracization who simply ostracize and victimize people who are not a part of that community and believe in the potential for peace for everyone where everyone is invited and with a simple code; that you love your neighbor as your self and do unto others as you would have others do unto you. It is not perfect as humans are not perfect but if you end peace, you will  have nothing to petition for your hope in a government-ally protected right to make a claim for a right. There will be no citizen with any legislation  upon which they can make any claims. But, there may be an empire.  The western Judeo-Christian/American dream as enunciated by the American founding fathers in addition to English and French people is not dead according to the community of New York ( instead of the gangs of New York).                  

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

Zoo by James Patterson is a Warning to Good Writers Everywhere

I do not ordinarily write negative book reviews. This is mostly because these days I can read nothing but good books by friends of mine, and if one of them happens to be less good than I'd like, the author is still a friend, so I don't write anything at all.

(Note: if you've given me a book and I haven't reviewed it, I'm sure it's because I didn't have time to write the review, because obviously the book you gave me was excellent.)

 

I'm making an exception for Zoo, because I don't know James Patterson, and because this book is so bad we can learn from it.

 

Here, in short, is what I found: POV errors, tell-don't-show, artificial pacing, bad dialog, dimensionless characters, horrible science, and arrogant moral posturing wrapped around an interesting premise and three decent action scenes. 

 

If you'd like to see for yourself, there's a free sample available here that gives you the first twenty-three chapters. Note, however, that the average chapter length is maybe 1000 words (see "artificial pacing" above), so it's not like you're getting all that much book for your no money.

 

SPOILER ALERT: human-induced ecological collapse is a neat premise. The accidental generation of a pheromone that makes all mammals (except humans!) hate humans is a bit of a stretch. That it can be turned off in a few days of blackout-by-fiat is ridiculous. The way in which these premises and plot-whoppers are worked into the preachy, disappointing finish isstupefyingly clumsy to the point of being insulting. Ecologists and "green" folks everywhere should bury all the remaindered copies of this book, because the best use it can serve for our ecology is as a carbon sink. 

 

Fortunately, all the electrons in my Kindle version of the book can be recycled.

 

The publisher says "Zoo is the thriller he was born to write." That's a little bit like saying "this cardboard box is the mansion he was born to build," or "this steaming pile of excrement is the meal he was born to eat." My only consolation for having my intelligence insulted by Patterson is that Patterson's publisher has inadvertently insulted him with the glowing praise.

 

Now, for all the dissing I've heaped on Mr. Patterson, I suspect his only real failing was putting his name on this "co-authored" book in the first place. I don't know how much of Zoo was written by Patterson, and how much by Michael Ledwidge, but it would not surprise me one bit if every one of the ham-handed, amateurish mistakes made in the writing were made by somebody who does NOT, in fact, have sixty-plus New York Times bestsellers under his belt. 

 

If you're a fan of Writing Excuses, you're probably well-equipped to critique the first 23 chapters and learn from the exercise yourself. But if you want to read something you can learn from, try reading the first three Jim Butcher novels and observing how much better he gets with each one. You'll enjoy the exercise a lot more.

http://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/zoo-book-review

So the new idea is that some people will answer one question in an exam with 6 questions and will expect to get a passing grade although they were told that they are actually throwing out 5/6s of the potential marks available. Then, they wish to watch other people write all the questions, satisfy the examiner with disciplined study to a tune of 80% but receive the same grade as the student who only wrote one question and this is to achieve their cheeky and rebellious sense of arithmetical and emotional equality. But, if the issue is equality, then every one has an equal chance to follow the tutor's advice prior to the exam, an equal chance in preparation and an equal chance to practice in advance of the exam with the practice exam from the exam bank or from the tutor.   There is no doubt that the man who wrote one question and passed the exam is superior in every sense of the word and it is not likely that any student aware of the colour of his tanned reeboks will attempt such a feet and expect the 80%.  They could answer all of the questions and see what the examiner says. Presumably, the examiner is not interrupted in his duties by some other version of his university student population.

Darwin and Faith: Darwin is only one scientist.  His experience and testimony does not circumscribe that of all other scientists who have benefited from better technology, experience and opportunity to see the miracle of God in creation; creation that follows an evolutionary process over seven stages, ending with a higher species in being called man.  His experience or testimony does not define the experiences of every other truly humble mind. The word of God gives us the precise detailed synopsis of creation. Science gives us the  minute details as they corroborate.  The bible does say that life came out of water.  See Genesis 1:20 or day five of creation. See the link below on where life originated.

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/origsoflife_03

In 1879 John Fordyce wrote asking if Darwin believed in God, and if theism and evolution were compatible. Darwin replied that a man "can be an ardent Theist and an evolutionist", citing Charles Kingsley and Asa Gray as examples, and for himself, "In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God.— I think that generally (& more and more so as I grow older) but not always, that an agnostic would be the most correct description of my state of mind."^[85]

Those opposing religion often took Darwin as their inspiration and expected his support for their cause, a role he firmly refused. In 1880 there was a huge controversy when the atheist Charles Bradlaugh was elected as a member of parliament and then prevented from taking his seat in the House of Commons. In response, the secularist Edward Aveling toured the country leading protests.^[86] In October of that year Aveling wanted to dedicate his book onDarwin and his Works to Darwin and asked him for permission. Darwin declined, writing that "though I am a strong advocate for free thought on all subjects, yet it appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against Christianity & theism produce hardly any effect on the public; & freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men's minds, which follows from the advance of science. It has, therefore, been always my object to avoid writing on religion, & I have confined myself to science. I may, however, have been unduly biased by the pain which it would give some members of my family, if I aided in any way direct attacks on religion."^[87]

On the Origin of Species reflects theological views.^{[citation needed]} Though he thought of religion as a tribal survival strategy, Darwin still believed that God was the ultimate lawgiver,^[10][11] and later recollected that at the time he was convinced of the existence of God as a First Cause and deserved to be called a theist. This view subsequently fluctuated,^[12] and he continued to explore conscientious doubts, without forming fixed opinions on certain religious matters.^[7]

Darwin continued to play a leading part in the parish work of the local church,^[13] but from around 1849 would go for a walk on Sundays while his family attended church.^[14] Though reticent about his religious views, in 1879 he responded that he had never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a god, and that generally "an Agnostic would be the more correct description of my state of mind."^[7]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Charles_Darwin

Special Documentary Of The Week.

Documentary Of The Week: 101st Airborne.

Special Video Presentation.

There is the story of a medical intern who goes on a drug filled hiatus with one of her patients. There is the story of the drug dealing school teacher who had a bad relationship with his annuity agent and who justifies it all on the attainment of the dream. It seems that certain story lines cannot pass through the sensor boards until they approximate the average experience of the average household. This is unheard of in terms of viewing material and would have made Ray Kroc and Colonel Sanders shudder. Where is Mrs Crabtree or Mrs. McGillicuddy?

“Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it.”

Will Durant.


“Time sanctifies everything; even the most errant theft, in the hands of the robber’s grandchildren, becomes sacred and inviolable property. Every state begins in compulsion; but the habits of obedience become the content of conscience, and soon every citizen thrills with loyalty to the flag.”


Will Durant.

“History, said Bacon, is like the planks of a shipwreck; more of the past is lost than has been saved.”


Will Durant.


“A nation is born stoic, and dies epicurean (google epicurean). At its cradle (to repeat a thoughtful adage) religion stands, and philosophy accompanies it to the grave.”
Will Durant.


“…..we need not expect to have better states until we have better men; till then all changes will leave the essential thing unchanged.”

Will Durant.


“Here,” (with the OT prophets) “for the first time in the literature of Asia, the social conscience takes definite form, and pours into religion a content that lifts it from ceremony and flattery to a whip of morals and a call to nobility. With Amos begins the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Will Durant.

“They” (the OT prophets) “offered to the unfortunate of the earth a vision of brotherhood that became the precious and unforgotten heritage of many generations.”


Will Durant.

The 9:00 O' Clock dramas are becoming quite unusual these days on that specialty channel.

Adam was the first Adam and Eve was the first Eve. Christ came as the second Adam and stood, overcoming where Adam fell. Eve also has a second chance to get it right as the bride of Christ (in living by the communicated word of God). On the solid rock you stand. See Matthew 7 as the second Eve defends her mother's first stance and gets it right as she stands on the serpent's head and tells the devil and his minions. She tells the devil to step off in binning Cosmo and that he will not have dominion. Cain also could have stood for his mother but he argued.  Information and knowledge without God's guidance is death and shall not be a cause for division in our families. He inspires and leads us to create and to innovate. It is easy to forget the role He plays or the need for God when you live in a peaceful infrastructure and society for quite a long time based on His immutable principles. You incubate spontaneously in His civil peace(not war) and then forget your need for Him maybe.  God is a natural covering for our minds and souls such that we are naked and not ashamed in His covering. Unfortunately nakedness is not the cure for that original sense of distance from that natural and umbilical sense of covering that is essentially spiritual. You might have the answer but the rest of fallen nature may be several millenniums behind your comfort-ability to preach about the garden by walking around naked on the High streets as proof of your all-knowing and entitled claim to enlightenment. We do need Heaven and a "garden before the fall" in a globalized world of Babel so how do we give naked Adam, alligators, scorpions, swans and his gorillas their naked, un-fallen peace in a fallen world? Without question, it is very difficult to preach the gospel naked in a fallen world and  it is of no purpose(as you are likely to offend and cause misunderstanding) but you could try it at a nudist camp or in some states where it is legal to walk around nude on the high or main street. God's word is, no doubt, perfect in its inspiration. As such, we can be naked but not ashamed in our communities only when all of nature has healed and aspires perfectly and metaphysically to following the perfect God given natural law. In that world, when it arrives, Cain does not kill Abel and Eve could never hear a devil tell her that her husband is hiding happiness from her in praying that they follow the word of God with all of His innovative unveiling of wisdom in perfect timing.  They will be partners, friends, neighbors and mates in the same household. You only need one. Whales, frogs, E. Brokovitch (what a tasteful black dress from Talbots) and Elephants just mate. They don't ogle and objectify.  The frogs will ultimately survive our argument with God concerning our nature and continue to reproduce; that is if our argument becomes nuclear, total and destructive.  The Lord is your maker.

Psalms 101 and Mark 3.

Keep the commandments. Read Psalms 101 and Mark 3. There is no law against saving life. There is no law greater than the importance of saving or preserving life.

Special Video Presentation.

If you eat pork for cash and you are in the church, who are you to advocate it to anyone else who does not feel so inclined or who are you to judge them if they receive grace and sip a little french red merlot tea with dinner?

Matthew 18:21-35

Matthew 18:21-35New International Version (NIV)

The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.[a]

23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold[b] was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.[c] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Footnotes:

Matthew 18:22 Or seventy times seven
Matthew 18:24 Greek ten thousand talents; a talent was worth about 20 years of a day laborer’s wages.
Matthew 18:28 Greek a hundred denarii; a denarius was the usual daily wage of a day laborer (see 20:2).

Saul suffered from a case of Herodism. The long term cure was worship with David as the lead musician and repentance in the kata forms of Abraham. Saul was eased by the worship but what about the kata forms? He did not make repentance a habit. Certainly David and also Hezekiah, in study, may have learned something from this for later on in life. They will have a pill for Herodism soon at Walgreens. Some Modern tv content may be the cause of infection.

Paul the apostle, while being a child of Benjamin( therefore a child of Israel), spends much of his theology pointing out the life in faith as a child of Abraham; Abraham who was led by and through personal relationship. Christ's message concerned returning to such personal relationship to heal what may have become a heightened movement of life that centred on the written law. By Christ's teaching, the concern is that personal relationship with the heart of God had been supplanted in the hearts and minds of the people. He began His public ministry by reciting Isaiah 61. Abraham lived His life, after his encounter with God, in and through the spirit of the Lord or by the living Word. See Romans 11. The emphasis is on being a child of Abraham in the new covenant. See 2nd Corinthians 3:6. See Hebrews 12:24.

Movie Of The Week: The New Jesus Movie(2013)

Click the title.

The cross is prophetic in that a Messiah and His coming was foretold but His prime directive did not involve a rebellion or recapturing of any old order but the heralding of a way of life, values and culture that would span the globe as a Judeo-Christian culture. Evidence of the same appears in the uniform commercial code that delivers a collection of uniform promises(do unto others as you would have them do unto you) that enables modern commerce. This commitment to a code based on such promises is essentially an economic as well as a  political social contract and it is global in addition to having domestic influence in domestic politics(social contract).   What symbolizes His work is His death on a cross and this is important every day even though it may not be Easter. If he died by guillotine in the 16 Century, it is doubtful whether a guillotine would memorialize His life and sacrifice while we are in need of constant reminders in a world full of distractions. However, there is another remarkable symbol chosen before the cross and celebrated by the early church that involved a fish that encapsulated both his death in sacrifice and also His regenerative message of life. The fish is always a symbol of  regenerative life with or without Christ since out of water came life.

The fish was chosen before the cross  as a symbol of the early church while the cross is first and foremost a symbol of death. Nonetheless, it is a symbol of the church and of unity under the blood of Christ and is now a symbol of  not only sacrifice but of regeneration.  Remember life in remembering the cross.

Saul suffered from a case of Herodism. The long term cure was worship with David as the lead musician and repentance in the kata forms of Abraham. Saul was eased by the worship but what about the kata forms? He did not make repentance a habit. Certainly David and also Hezekiah, in study, may have learned something from this for later on in life. They will have a pill for Herodism soon at Walgreens. Some Modern tv content may be the cause of infection.

Globalization; It can be heavenly as a system of unifying, umbrella principles that allow for convergence, systematization and standardization. It is not necessarily a biblical Babylon but Babylon of history is emblematic of this convergence. In the new testament, it is prophetic symbolism. The language represents this convergence as babel; a language of many inputs. It is always adding new words to its lexicon. It is also mentioned in the new testament but as a symbol to depict a phenomena. It is globalization. It is capable of resembling our expectations of a heavenly magnanimity in safeguarding the meaningfulness of human life. This is to contrast any decent into negation or a fog of nihilism that leads to circling backward into negation until there is cannibalizing nullity. The breaking of natural, metaphysical laws causes this circling backward in historical progression. See the book of Genesis. You go back to where you started although previously, you could have called someone on your cell phone to help. Now, you have no networks or satellites in the chaos. The system that gives hope is lost in a nihilist fascism. The parent that does not have custody of the children is awarded child support but everybody knows the answer in the legislation or the jurisprudence. Hopefully, society agrees once more to go forward with a social contract; one with certain safeguards. Safeguarding the rules and principles is essential to its fruition and maintenance for the various populations and societies involved. Real authority is exercised in safeguarding the system and trying to figure out those who choose their ego over honoring the safeguards and due process. There is sufficient technology and legislation to achieve this to ensure the safeguarding of the meaningfulness of human life. Cultures that do not celebrate this meaningfulness tend to fall back into a circular pattern of socio-moral digression instead of linear, peaceful progression. They do not progress. When the circle is global in a global phenomena , it is war and conflict on a global scale. World War 1 and 2 are examples. It can be heavenly where people are allowed to enjoy the natural progression of life, having a wife and children. This is globalization on a micro scale since families are the building block of any society and culture and those societies that honor this thrive. They had a 90 percent marriage rate and a 1 percent divorce rate some time ago. They still do today if you look very closely. Have you noticed that the wicked witch of the west and Maleficent were both green and most likely with envy? It is because they did not respect the meaningfulness of human life, rejected every potential spouse or their actual spouse, claimed it as authority in the home, frustrated their weddings and then they want to share their misery. See the Passion For The Christ(movie). They chose atomization and singleness instead of a nucleus of a family. Everything revolves around them to death. This is not the message of globalization. The message is human family.

The information Super Highway.... It is highway 101.

Laclau and Mouffe provide a greater sense of the new specific­ity of the political, where ideas of a ruling class are no longer the dominant or hegemonic ideology and have been replaced by a "...field of styl­istic and discursive heterogeneity without a norm."^[i] This is an important consideration as the way in which political decisions are made and conflicts are resolved have begun to reflect social heterogeneity through the inclusion of new and once marginal­ised voices in the political process.^[ii]  This is the result of transformations in social relations which have provided the framework necessary for the question­ing of subordi­nate relations and the demanding of new rights,^[iii]  Leading to the politicization of social relations and a new logic of equival­ence which extends itself from workers struggles to struggles of women, racial, sexual, and regional minorities ^[iv]as they merge into a unique and indivisible struggle of all groups against subordina­tion and marginalisation.^[v] Through a new common sense which changes the identity of the different groups, the interests of all groups are articulated equivalently, where the free development of each is the condition for the free develop­ment of all.^[vi] In the present, there is also an attempt to depoliticise economic, social, and political decisions, making them the responsi­bility of experts, restricting the subversive nature of the democratic struggle.^[vii]  This is seen in the anti-egalitar­ian, hier­archical, neo-liberal defence of the free market economy^[viii], challeng­ing the attempt to eclipse a "universal", epistemological discourse^[ix] by the dis­courses of the resis­tance of marginal populations^[x] which provide the foundations for what Laclau and Mouffe have called the "democratic revol­ution."^[xi]  Nevertheless, the thoughtful, kinder and gentler Prince(Eisenhower) must hone his virtu to win the new game of the politics of inclusion ; a new politics of the present(as Laclau and Mouffe demonstrate) which is not "zero sum" and which gives the subordi­nated the hope for improvement in the human condition while Rousseau assures us that the pursuit of the knowledge of self is still a worthy and spiri­tually fulfilling enterprise. Similarly, Machiavelli lamented the loss of an order(Roman) that celebrated human equity.   Eisenhower's legacy demonstrates a celebration of this regard.  May the "uncertain" follow as the "third way" is quite synonymous with the "way" as in cast your net on the other side.   

Epictetus informs us least about the present conditions. While providing us with proverbial and ecclesiastical writings, he works within a paradigm of divine reason and absolute concepts of truth; both of which have been discluded in the Postmodern discourse. Moreover, he does not provide any insight into the end of grand narratives, the decentering of the humanist subject, micropolitics, simulacrum, or any of the other characteristics of postmodernism.   The ancient concept of self in relation to the postmodern concept of self is one of great contrast.  In many senses, the postmodern concept appears to be a fulfilment of the ancients' warnings and fears of what would happen to men who lack the knowledge of self.  To answer this question, I used Alcibiades, Epictetus, Jameson, and Kroker.  

The ancient concept of self found in Plato and Epictetus is that of a divinely rational and spiritual being which lives in conflict with his physical nature.  These theorists teach us that if a man is to live a just or right life, self knowl­edge is a necessity, enabling him to take care of him­self.^[xii]  They also demonstrate that deception of self can only occur, leading to mistakes in life, when one is ignorant and possesses the conceit of knowledge^[xiii].  A man ignorant of his own needs will fall into error and lead a life of misery. As a result, the admittance and embrace of one's ignorance is the first step one must take to acquire self knowledge.  Unless we are convicted that we do not know anything, we will continue to make errors out of a state of false knowl­edge.^[xiv]  Upon recognition of our ignorance, we can begin to inquire and to examine ourselves and our true nature.^[xv]  Essential­ly, knowl­edge of the self should bring man into acquaint­ance with vir­tue.^[xvi]   It is through the acquisition of virtue that a man will know how to take care of himself and others, pursuing a path of human develop­ment that will lead to improvement as opposed to corruption.

Both Plato and Epictetus see human development as the improvement of one's soul and not as the improvement of things which one may possess.^[xvii]  As a result, they both express the necessity for men to make contact with that which is divine.  Plato says that a man who knows that he does not know, entrusts his affairs to a superior being^[xviii] which for him is God as he places faith in his divine oracle.^[xix]  Although these theorists concepts of God are not the same, they both place man under the charge of the divine.  For Epictetus, man is under the charge of reason which is that part of the divine imparted to men in creation.^[xx]  In their writings, there is an evident relation­ship between human develop­ment and self knowledge.  Man and mankind can develop so that they either improve upon their condition or become corrupted.  The course of human development which one takes is dependent upon the extent of the knowledge of self which one acquires.  The knowledge of the things of this world without the knowledge of self, will result in a man pursuing knowledge to satisfy his desire for riches, power, and wealth,^[xxi] leading to debauchery as opposed to betterment. 

If human development is simply motivated by the desire to find ways to acquire more comforts, wealth, riches, and might, it will lead to misery as men are ignorant and become increas­ingly ignorant through their pursuit.^[xxii]  As Plato said, it is "...not he who has riches, but he who has wisdom that is delivered from his mis­ery."^[xxiii] As a result, the soul will develop in accord­ance with its materialistic or its spiritual goals.

In a negative manifestation of the Ancient's concept of self, Postmodern man lives in plato's "cave" of delirium, false con­sciousness, virtual reality, depraved emotion, and fragmented existence as Jameson and Kroker demonstrate.

Jameson tells us that man, as the centred subject, has been dissolved by seeking increasing efficiency, developing a postmodern world of organisational bureaucracy.^[xxiv]  He possesses a decentered psyche and no longer experiences alienation and anxiety in addition to other human emotions but is a fragmented being where, although there is no longer a self present to do the feel­ing^[xxv], one can experience intensities; "...free floating and impersonal and (which­) tend to be dominated by a peculiar kind of euphoria."^[xxvi]  These inten­sities are fed by man's new appetite for a world transformed into images of itself and never ending spectacles.  Postmodern society is the society of the "cave" where mental space is that of a degraded "objective spirit"^[xxvii] and where cultural production only represents society's ideas and stereotypes about the past.  The dim fire light of Plato's cave makes it difficult to not only see and know oneself but to emerge from one's hovel and look upon the "putative real world"^[xxviii] illuminated by the elucidat­ing sun.  All that postmodern man sees is a trace of his mental images of the past and of reality upon the confining walls of the society of the simulac­rum which has colonised his unconscious through media and advertising.

Assuming to know, we have become self deceived, as the ancients warned.  And by seeking to improve things as opposed to the self, we have come upon the "...ultimate contemporary fetishisation of the human body...acquiring a glossy skin, a stereoscopic illu­sion."^[xxix]  Through seeking to relentlessly improve things and not the soul, we have crushed human life altogether through technology; that alienated power which turns back on us and against us and seems to "...Con­sti­tute the massive dystopian horizon of our collective as well as our individual praxis."^[xxx] The ancients warned us that if human improvement is motivated only by the attainment of comforts, it would lead to misery.  And without the knowledge of self, there is nothing left "...but that which is deplor­able and reprehensible..."^[xxxi]. We fulfil our addiction to images of the past, stereotypes, or texts, removing any "...practi­cal sense of the future and of the collec­tive project, thereby abandoning the thinking of future change to fantasies of sheer catastrophe and inexplicable cataclysm, from visions of "terrorism" on the social level to those of cancer on the personal."^[xxxii] As we glorify­ and shape ourselves for the "Almighty" commodity, "having" has become more important than being(Debord) and all we can look forward to is imaginary tranquillity at the price of real happi­ness(Rousseau).

Through virtual reality, postmodern man can buy imaginary tranquillity.  HE has become "...crash bodies always on the hunt for a new techno-thrill."^[xxxiii], not self knowledge.  HE has come to a point where he has been born into the "cave" or electronic cage of virtual reality.  He has "..always lived virtually...(where he)...have never had direct knowledge of a (natural) world outside the electronic frontier."^[xxxiv]  These observations give credence to the ancients exhortations, albeit, in a negative sense. But, HE will get a sense of the  real world once he works  in Latin America, England or Europe.  He will also have a wife and seven children. 

The self, as Kroker demonstrates, has become virtual such that it is purely aesthetic, disappearing into the "...electronic vortex of the floating self (and) is finally liberated of (fixed) identity, of determinate gender, of (localised) history, and of (bodily) subjectiv­ity...which means the triumph of illu­sion...(while)...the virtual self...vanishes down the electronic highway from nothing to nowhere."^[xxxv]

The information highway is like the tree of the  knowledge  of good and evil. You have to be careful how to take a bite.  Postmodern man is the willing practitioner of this new world of the floating self, spasm, and of organs without bodies as he accepts and pursues the material promises of this world which purport maximum informa­tion, wealth and mobility, but which, in fact, give us little under­standing and (lead to) alienated masses harmonious­ly dependent on elite command centres.^[xxxvi] 

Essentially Postmodernism is the phenomenon of the continuing realization of  tensions in the emergence of new technology and their application in societies where these societies are founded on bedrock values that sustain their existence. The book of Eli (movie) demonstrates this circle of tension in emergence, application(either for life or death)  and the bedrock values that are called upon to sustain.    It cannot involve the undoing of such values or the term postmodernism would be a synonym for nihilism. It would be civilizational antithesis, undoing and a lamentation;  not a celebration and progression forward with a maintenance of essential mores, values and beliefs via the media. Postmodernism is not an undoing or undressing of the essence. It is to maintain the shield and decorum in spite of technological change in every facet of life and this will  include the court room.   Postmodernism is the adjustment between new entertainment and information technologies and the traditional values that make the development of such technologies economically viable and a subject of consumer demand. There is little society (civil or otherwise) or abundant economic activity in any economy without such values.  Postmodernism is not nihilism. However, this new virtual experience has given us a techno-skin and has shut down a whole range of human experiences, replacing them with thrills and intensities as Jameson concurs.  We have come to a historical place where technology is the latest and most grisly manifestation of Nietzsche's will to power, leaving the self as a torn and fragmented victim.  Nevertheless, Kroker says that to "Know your self" is still an attainable goal but that self recognition is not so much about knowing the self but about becoming aware and "...discovering anew the shock of the real."^[xxxvii]  We now see that the phenomenon of the "will to power" can be abused as Horkeimer and Adorno point out in the observation that mankind is becoming more barbaric.  It is synonymous with Chompsky's Manufacturing of Consent.  All the same, knowing the self  is about walking out of the "cave" of the electronic cage of virtual reality and into the real (if not the natural) world.  Yet, as the ancients say, the knowledge of self is a process of training of the spirit as an athlete trains the body for competition. There may be a circle of dna within human beings that militates toward destruction and cannibalism such that if we do not aspire to our higher breadth of nature in being( Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16), there is tragedy. We may need a supernatural helper  to overcome this loop of dna and one was offered some time ago to achieve this. The media can also help to maintain this aspiration as there is much evidence in the world about the depravity of human nature. See World War II. The media does not have to reflect this dark light.  It begins with awareness and awareness begins with the acceptance of ignorance and, in the postmodern, the shock of the real. "Media" in Spanish means "half " or "half truth".  It is not the real.   So let it be that man leaves the illusions of the simulacrum, the "cave", and of virtual reality so that he may begin to pursue knowledge without assuming to know and hopefully realise a new humanity not filled only with the "hope" of catas­trophe and holocaust but improvement within the human condition.  Humanity is an achievable goal.

April 25th, 1994-Warren A. Lyon.

---

[i]Jameson, Op. Cit.; p. 17.

[ii]The inclusion of new voices within the political process was witnessed in canada during the nation wide deliberations and negotiations involving the CharlotteTown and the Meech Lake  Accords which considered the interests and concerns of various regions, women's groups, native rights, and the concerns of other special interest groups.

[iii]Ernsto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. (p. 165.)

[iv]ibid; p. 165, p. 181.

[v]ibid; p. 182.

[vi]ibid.; p. 183.

[vii]ibid; p. 173.

[viii]ibid; p. 175.

[ix]ibid; p. 191.

[x]ibid; p. 192.

[xi]ibid; p. 193.

[xii]Plato, Alcibiades. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1892)p. 499   

   Epictetus, Dialogue in Common Sense. (New York: Philosophical      Library, 1974) p. 39)

[xiii]Plato, OP. Cit.; p. 483 and Epictetus, OP. Cit.; p. 58-p. 59.

[xiv]Plato, Op. Cit.; p. 486

[xv]Epictetus, Op. Cit.; p. 37.

[xvi]Plato, Op. Cit.; p. 507.

[xvii]Plato, Op. Cit.; p. 502. and Epictetus, Op. Cit.; p. 36.

[xviii]Plato, Op. Cit.; p. 483.

[xix]Plato, Op. Cit; p. 508.

[xx]Epictetus, Op. Cit.; p. 39.

[xxi]Plato, Op. Cit.; p. 502, p. 506., Epictetus, Op. Cit.; p. 36

  

[xxii]Epictetus, Op. Cit.; p. 103.

[xxiii]Plato, Op. Cit.; P. 506.

[xxiv]Jameson, p. 15.

[xxv]Jameson, p. 15.

[xxvi]ibid; p. 16.

[xxvii]ibid, p. 25.

[xxviii]ibid.

[xxix]ibid. p 34.

[xxx]ibid., p. 35.

[xxxi]ibid; p. 48.

[xxxii]ibid., p. 46.

[xxxiii]Arthur Kroker, Spasm (Montreal: New World Perspectives, 1993)p. 43

[xxxiv]ibid., p. 37.

[xxxv]ibid., p. 38.

[xxxvi]ibid., p. 42

[xxxvii]ibid., p. 151.

So after you have videoed everything you can to explore the video and film medium, how do you feel?  You have degraded the sanctity of the human being and thereby yourself in the process.  It is 1936.   Your real profession is chiropractic care with art collection. Maybe you don't feel very good about anything or very authoritative any longer after videoing the most unusual things( as dramatized and aired on the Dish Network) or the mundane and most natural phenomena between birds, bees and frogs and you yearn for a sense of eternal closeness while you get very upset with anyone who happens to read Job 31 and Psalms 101 habitually as a way of life and maintains his household accordingly. Why doesn't he or she feel like you? The year is 1936 and you decide that there could be others outside there some where who can't find their way back spiritually so you write a book to, somehow, justify your hellish existence where the only way to maintain or find that lost sense of dignity is to where a uniform that is made out of really thick wool material and good cowhide leather where ever possible. You could have read Paradise Lost and believed that the Lord can forgive anyone who does not deny His power(the abominable sin) and this power includes the power to forgive. You would have to ask and mean it determinedly. He answers such a one. The devil was too proud to ask, too proud to accept it and too determinedly independent, rebellious and angry to submit to a God for His forgiveness. In this, he did not believe and denied God's power. Believe this prophecy; many anti-christs shall come.  Google it.

After watching ten hours of World War II color film footage, there were many lessons to be learned.

What follows is an actual movie proposal:

After watching ten hours of World War II color film footage, there were many lessons to be learned. After the lessons and observations, someone notices that there seems to be an anticipation for a third such conflict to hasten further globalization. The evidence of globalization was noticed in the various Bugs Bunny cartoons. The whole entire world does not speak English. There is room for a French sophisticated cat or skunk and for a Spanish speaking mouse or super hero. If you can't ride a subway for a while, watch Bugs Bunny and you might feel a little closer to your neighbor. It is only enjoyed by those with the highest average Iqs and you will be accepted by everyone. It is like the New York and London Times best seller list put together. You are also likely to get a job of sorts.   Aside from the observations, the anticipation of something tremendous possibly involving a third such global conflict continued inappropriately as an undercurrent in society so a few directors( a team of them) decided to embark on the largest film project ever that dramatizes and depicts the third truly global conflict but not the end of the world; not that such a conflict should ever happen. There are too many good ideas on the shelf and too much common sense in the world for anyone to sacrifice human life  in and "end of the world as we know it" due to an ego or two who have not learned how to communicate  with their fingers fast enough by text to resolve conflict or by using those slide and pull tablet smart phones where you have to pull and slide sometimes for ten minutes before you can do anything. A dial pad button on all such phones could help. Who knows?  It will be twenty hours with ten parts  and it will remind everyone why they celebrate VE day ! Hurray!     One interesting twist in the plot line will involve Grand children of Nazi deserters who joined western military establishments and who were trained to be very loyal,it is believed, like in Salt; the movie.

Did you know Hitler used to strangle people in private, videoed it and then put snippets of his evil on a large film screen during his rallies?   It supported his reign of absolute terror. He was not elected democratically and even if he was, it would mean that he was not commensurately representative of the freedoms associated with democratic governments and institutions. It is an evil notion to suggest Hitler was elected democratically. A fascist abuse of the electoral process is not democratic.

The river Frog...the frog burps and says "love ya neigba" or "ribbit." He met a dark tree frog and light tree frog. The lighter tree frog tried to make himself white by breaking all the natural laws in hurting the darker tree frog. He asked the tree frogs if they understand the river. He also asked the tree frog with the copper-tone account if he thought this was apartheid South Africa? The dark tree frog did not buy any copper-tone but he ate lots of mint leaf as it helps the frog breath. "Try the Chinese tadpoles and call it a day and just decide to feel good about yourself. You must have tried the norse type already and you are still not satisfied with yourself. Just get a mate and have some children. The river flows and is natural but if you hurt other frogs in your environment to try and change yourself or achieve some false notion of acceptance, you must have damaged the tree in the process. River frogs don't want that nonsense. The tree feeds you." The river frog was white. Now, all the frogs have to learn how to live by the river where all frogs and their tadpole like origins originated. This did make the river frog happy since he could not stand festering ignorance in his world and it seems to get worse these days when you live too far away emotionally from the river.

There is the phenomena of Cain and Abel in every society and economy...

There is the phenomena of Cain and Abel in every society and economy. As such, all societies and economies are managed economies to ensure that the abuses and the violence that could take place in un-managed, raw market phenomena do not occur, leading to the stalling detriment of the economy. In this way, economic life remains viable for the majority and feeds into a robust and vibrant economy. Cain chose not to repent and refused a relationship with God; hence the violence. With out a doubt, vegetables could always go well with barbecue lamb and ultimately Cain was accepted. God spoke to him and simply said "cast your net on the other side." Why would you kill your brother simply because your Heavenly Father loves you enough to talk to you? There is always next year to try and win a barbecue contest. Sibling rivalry is the most evil emotion in the whole, entire world according to the word of God.

So many phones; not enough humanity!

So many phones; not enough humanity! A commitment to the ten commandments and the teachings of Christ give us the civil society in which people can be creative. Let us not forget that the final denominator is humanity. Enjoy Londinium TV Channel!

As you accept Jesus as the sacrifice for your sins...

As you accept Jesus as the sacrifice for your sins( or as the real person you wish to conceive of as an outlet for your anger), it does not mean that you need to stop smoking right away or to do anything else to change your life. You cast your anger, beatings and abuse on Jesus while you do whatever want to do all day long and you may just decide to stop smoking when you want to. At least you are not mistreating another human being or using another human being as an outlet for your anger. Who knows what might happen afterwards but you might decide to hold a door open for someone someday but maybe not right away and that's okay. At least it's much more cost effective than that other way you heard about as explained by your Grandfather who is now a preacher and much happier. He explained how he stole someone's running shoes in high school and then killed the same person after he became an ironing board store owner in the 1960's. He referred to the person as "his beat up". He repented and his bad angers went away. As your habit of anger dissipates(your husband, dog or son might know-usually those closest to you), you will develop the habit of adoration.

Special Documentary Movie Of The Week: Iceland...