September 20, 2010 archive

The Weaving

In Politics, Morality, and Spirituality (which I just realized, unfortunately, that when acronimized is P.M.S.) I wrote the following…

Now, humanity faces its greatest “Evolve or Die” moment yet. Up until the 1950’s, it had always been about whether a particular society or subset of humanity would survive the unmerciful ravages of evolution. When we acquired the capacity to wipe out all of humanity either through Global Thermonuclear War or now, befouling our atmosphere to the point where the earth is unsuitable for human life, evolution had always been sort of local.

Now all of our eggs are in one basket. And since we have managed (so far at least) to evolve far enough to not have actively killed ourselves, we will see if we can evolve enough to not passively kill ourselves. In the nuclear evolutionary exam, all we had to do was NOT push The Button.

In our current test, we have to evolve far enough and fast enough that we can learn to use foresight and actually cooperate to not kill ourselves. The medium for that will at least include politics.

But it will also involve evolving a new morality (since a large scale agreed upon morality is basically non-existent, having been most notably disposed of during the Bush Years) that we can all agree is valid….otherwise, it will just be more head bashing by whoever is greediest for the remaining resources on the planet.

Up until now, our mostly regional religious beliefs have furnished us with the morals that protect society in general from the worst excesses of the brutality inherent in humanity….to the extent anything has.

But as the planet has shrunk, now our various moralities and religions are at war with each other. And as they war, the planet dies.

In order to solve this problem humanity is being forced to evolve a new shared set of morals, which must necessarily be based on a new shared spirituality (Though I doubt that is the right word.)

If one even casually studies the root texts of the worlds religions and moral systems, it becomes obvious very quickly that there are many more shared realities than conflicting ones. In fact the deeper you go past the imposed dogma of later generations and organizations….there are indeed very few actual differences in the moral codes presented therein.

Most notably, in my opinion, (and I freely admit that I am no expert) is the current nexus of warfare and religious persecution. As far as I can see, there is actually little of “Sharia law” in the Koran, and what is there is one thing…and what is being passed off as Sharia today are nearly all later interpretations. Interpretations made for the most part by both Christian and Muslim men who are trying to use, as is the age old tradition, religion to politically control the masses. Or even to take them to war against each other.

Yes you can find sections in both the Koran and the Bible (and many other religious tracts)that can be interpreted as being hateful, or urging violence and war, etc. But the message of both books, indeed all or nearly all “holy books,” is that it is Peace and Love that are to be valued, that should be striven for. Peace, Love and the Creation of beauty are the highest functions, the greatest aspirations of Human Kind……and the root of every, if not all, religious and philosophical work of note is some variation on “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Cain and Abel revisited.

The ancients dealt in concepts of God, gods, heart, soul, good and evil; even winged sphinxes and mixed human and divine beings. God and humans communicated directly according to antediluvian myth. The commentaries by pre-modern scholars were about ethics, morality and the nature of G od. Later, philosophers posited essences and values, logic and existence and a rationalization to life.

Mad… as a Hatter

Amusing little post at alternet this morning…. seems to suit my mood today. Not to say that I’m mad, lol, more like… the kind of tired that I’m easily amused.

I’m mad at both of the parties. All of the parties. Political parties and birthday parties and tailgate parties. I’m mad at Democrats because they’re the polar opposite of mad and I’m mad at Republicans because they’re mad at me. And if my maddish spews hurt them, tough. Because they’re not as mad as I am. I’m so mad I’ll bite off both my hands one finger at a time if that’s what it takes. To prove I’m mad. Which I am.

read the whole post: Tea Party War Cry: I’m Mad and I Don’t Want to Hear Your ‘Facts’

Open Medicine

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S01E04: H.R. 1751, The DREAM Act

This is cross-posted from Main Street Insider

One page summary below the fold…

Docudharma Times Monday September 20




Monday’s Headlines:

The well is dead, but Gulf challenges live on

New footage shows tigers can thrive in Himalayas

USA

Sickle cell testing of athletes stirs discrimination fears

Investors seeing farmland as safer bet than stocks

Europe

Sweden’s ruling coalition heads for minority government

Across Europe, support for populist parties is on the rise

Middle East

Netanyahu’s ‘catastrophic success’

US troops still forced to bolster Iraqi forces in battle

Asia

Japanese Playing a New Video Game: Catch-Up

Prostitutes of god

Africa

World leaders warned that approach to African aid needs a total rethink

Obama amps up intervention to prevent Sudan war

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning



An Opened Mind XXVIII

If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail.

– Heraclitus


Circuit

Perspective Be Damned

Escher had it right

when he showed us that

it was all about perspective

Up and down are relative notions

as are darkness and light

Is this reality simply

the reflection of another?

But even Maurits

would be hard-pressed

to find validity

in the fabric

of truth and untruth

woven to justify

this war

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–December 7, 2005

Late Night Karaoke

4chan Attacks MPAA and RIAA in Mass Cyber Disobedience

(Crossposted from The Free Speech Zone)

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Over the last 36 hours or so, the ‘Anonymous’ masses and many unaffiliated sympathizers joined forces to attack the MPAA’s website. Continuing with ‘Operation Payback’, today an attack will be launched on the RIAA. The ultimate in decentralized protests will go ahead and there’s not a lawyer or police force in the world who can do anything about it. Is this the protest of the future?

http://torrentfreak.com/4chan-…

Short answer?  Yes.