Thursday, December 23, 2004
The Metaphysics of Love by Arthur Shopenhauer. Link here.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Priests, jackals of suffering.
When there's smell in the air of death and laments of suffering, there jackals and vultures start to crowd. And priests.
On religious inquiry
Talk to any devout of this world, of any religion, and, in most cases, they will express a deep, even inspired, conviction that their God is the one and only, while the others are only empty images and idols.
They will possibly give you examples, which they will rattle off with enthusiastic, possessed eyes. Examples that to them are the irrefutable proof of their assertions. Examples taken from the Bible, or the Koran, or the Book of Mormon, or from the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh, the Confucian canon, the Granth of Guru Gobind Singh and many others.
They will appear enlightened and inspired when stating that what can be read in their holy book is the one and only truth, talking of the one and only God.
But they will invariably skim over a very simple, surely irrefutable truth: every single sacred book written in the world was written by human hands.
And whatever those books state, however interesting from a cultural or even ethical point of view, however inspiring, draws its foundation from ungrounded metaphysical claims. Claims deemed, arbitrarily, as the sole truth that others, the 'poor humans who do not share my religion' will not ever know. As I am the one who possesses the absolute truth, others are doomed to darkness, if not to the flames of hell. Some Christians even call those who don't share their belief 'unsaved', which is really quite disgustingly self-glorifying. It cannot be contested that similar claims, and the consequent intolerance originating from them, have been - and still are - a co-factor of blitheful slaughtering amongst populations in the world. Certainly the devouts would say that, for God, that's understandable, even a duty: the armies of a given God have all rights to crush the unfaithful !
There is no doubt that the pretensions and 'a priori' claims related to religions, particularly dogmatic religions, represent a constant factor of prejudice, intolerance and violence. There is no doubt that they represent a dangerous mental habit, in which people grow into since birth, able to sustain irrationality and lack of understanding in the world.
Anyone should be entitled to follow his own heart and mind, and it is absolutely fair that any inquiry should be made to perfect one's vision of reality, even inquiries into religion. But between heart and mind, it is the latter that should not be subservient, as this can lead to dreadful outcomes of arbitrariness, intolerance and violence. Which we still experience nowadays.
Never should the mind be a slave of irrationality and ungrounded claims. Never should the mind humiliate itself into thinking that what humans have written thousands of years ago, as a result of ancestral ignorance and fears, and that has reached the present days - sustained by desire of hope or comfort, or mere habit - have a validity that goes beyond that of a, hopefully interesting or helpful, cultural heritage.
The teachings of Christ or Buddha or whoever (not necessarily excluding each other) can be a source of ispiration and growth (much like any work of art or inspired writing). But the pertinacious belief of possessing the absolute truth can only be a source of disasters.
However, whoever feels an insupressable spiritual need, and really can't help believing in a supernaturaly being, should always ask himself or herself: am I listening to a God, or I am simply following the words of fallible humans? Am I listening to God, or am I simply following, sheepishly, objectionable human views inherited from a past of ignorance, prejudice and fear? Do I really believe in God, or am I really believing in some humans who merely appointed themselves as its/his/her exclusive representatives?
Friday, December 10, 2004
Half of the world population will speak English by 2015. But the world is to become more multi-lingual.
Excerpt from tes.co.uk:
English learning is set to rocket with half the world' population speaking the language by 2015, new research revealed today.
Two billion people will start learning English within the next 10 years and three billion will speak it, a study for the British Council estimated.
But by 2050 the boom will be over and the English language teaching industry will have become a victim of its own success, David Graddol' report The Future of English said.
[...]
The fact that more people can speak English is also not necessarily good news for native speakers who cannot speak other languages as well.
It is only one of the languages people are learning and the world, far from being dominated by English, is to become more multi-lingual.
Chinese, Arabic and Spanish are all popular and likely to be key languages in the future, Mr Graddol said.
German is also apparently being used more as a foreign language, particularly in parts of Asia.
[...]
[Read the whole article here]
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Poor kids dressing like they're rich
Rich kids dressing like they're poor
White kids talking like they're black
I tried it with Charlene
And I spent three days on my back
From Campaign of hate by The Libertines
Monday, December 06, 2004
I really had to post this picture of some cousins of the human species enjoying a bath at the hot springs of Yamanouchi, in the central part of Japan (Kimimasa Mayama/Reuters photograph from the Corriere della Sera online). This picture reminds either of a very distant past or of a possible future of our species too.
Sunday, December 05, 2004
Very interesting interview with Stanley Aronowitz, author of How Class Works, on Il Manifesto (in Italian), on the lack of capacity by the Democratic party to tackle the problems of the working classes in the USA and to elaborate strategies and alternatives to neoliberism.
Also, on the same newspaper, the account of a conversation amongst Massimo Cacciari, Tonio dell'Olio, Carlo Molari e Mario Tronti on "Politics and Prophecy". Excerpt:
Ma la profezia diventa credibile soltanto se viene annunciata nel mondo, se è integralmente immanente, se annuncia non la fede illimitata nella venuta della Gerusalemme celeste, ma la rottura delle certezze storiche, la spaccatura dei confini dentro i quali la politica ha condannato la potenza degli uomini, quella contenuta nella loro cooperazione. «La profezia, diceva Marx, è la produzione di un futuro di una parte sociale contro un'altra, il ruolo che il movimento operaio ha ricoperto per più di un secolo» ribadisce Tronti. E si rivolge alla «dura cervice dei popoli» aggiunge Cacciari citando il libro di Samuele: «Il profeta cerca di dissuaderli dall'eleggere un re, ma inutilmente. Il popolo è portato quasi naturalmente a servire. Ed è questo che il profeta denuncia: il non volere essere liberi, ma soltanto schiavi degli uomini».
I would think twice (no wait... thrice) before sending a kid to a Catholic Church or school
Again, news of abuses by Catholic clergy
From CNN.com:
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The Diocese of Orange in Southern California will pay 87 victims of clergy sexual abuse about $100 million, the largest payout so far in the Catholic Church's abuse scandal, multiple sources told CNN.
[...]
Another victim, Joelle Casteix, said the money is secondary. She said the court documents detailing the abuse that will be released are most important aspect of the settlement.
"People tend to think that perhaps things aren't as bad as it's portrayed in the press," she said.
"But the truth is, it's a hundred times worse than anyone ever imagined. And when those documents get out it will be a very great day for survivors and a very interesting day for the Catholic Church."
[...]
With a settlement reached for victims in suburban Orange County, the focus of the scandal in Southern California is expected to shift to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
The archdiocese faces nearly 500 claims of abuse involving more than 200 priests and church officials.
"Los Angeles has a far bigger problem that Boston ever had," said Richard Sipe, a clergy abuse expert and former priest.
"The breadth and depth of the sexual activity and corruption in L.A. is unequaled by any other archdiocese in this country."
The Los Angeles Archdiocese is also the subject of a grand jury investigation. District Attorney Steve Cooley has vowed to stop at nothing to find out whether a conspiracy existed to hide abusive priests.
Read the whole article here.
Sooner or later it will become clear to everybody that abuses are intrinsic in the Catholic Church: an organization that lives on hypocrisy and duplicity. Unless the whole Catholic Church changes, abolishing celibacy and proposing a more mature vision of human sexuality not vitiated by dissociation and rejection of the corporeal dimension of the human being, these abuses (not found to this extent in any other religion) will continue. Until then, parents should really avoid sending kids to Catholic structures.
In an organization with likely 10% of abusers (in some dioceses), over 50% homosexuals (likely psycho-sexually immature when part of the clergy, and attracted to young post-pubeshent minors), over 50% of priests engaging in clandestine sex (often perverted), the risk is too high. Who would send one's kids to structures related to the most formidable factory of sex-starved, forcedly and unnaturally obliged to celibacy, perverted and duplicitous 'ministers of God' ? Only those blinded by faith and ignorance.
The Axis of Hypocrisy of some Saint George W. Bush's supporters
What is the most disgusting aspect of some self-proclaimed custodians of virtue, Christian faith and American democracy? Their stubborn propensity to deny mistakes, brutality, violence, negation of the most elementary human rights when the responsible party is that which they unabashedly and dully support, namely the semi-theocracy of George W. Bush. The first president who has been able to induce people to say "Amen" after nonsensical statements of theatrical Texas-style piety. The first president able to exploit the blind and unconditional devotion of masses of people grown up with Sunday's ceremonies, Old Testament (the New Testament is too 'liberal'), capital punishment, guns, beer, Nascar car races and perhaps some occasional lynching of blacks and gays.
These people, many of whom 'pious' evangelists and conservative Catholics are so in love with W. that even if his administration perpetrates the worst atrocities, they have any excuse ready for him. That's what's faith is all about. Creating excuses, fabricating facts, eluding evidence, to support "the One", unconditionally.
They turn their eyes blind when it comes to the tortures of Guantánamo Bay (people detained for years without legal assistance and without even knowing why, and often frightened, exposed to heavy forms of physical and psychological coercion. See my post on Nov. 30). They may be slightly saddened by the tortures of Abu Ghraib prison, but deep inside their sadness is more for the stain on their dignified facade of virtue, than for the actual human suffering involved: after all the people tortured were not Americans or Christians!). And the imposition of a "Pax Americana" thorugh an illegal war is, in their pious eyes, just. Even if it has caused over 100,000 deaths.
Their sense of representing the purest example of morality remains unshaken. If crimes are committed by others, those crimes are considered an indubitable sign of their intrinsic evil (hence the axis of evil concept). If crimes are committed by Americans they are just unfortunate errors, in the eyes of these God and W.'s devouts. They are intrinsically good, the others intrinsically evil.
Now some other examples of "unfortunate errors" have emerged. This time, committed by the Navy SEALs (see pictures below). Of course the devout supporters of W. will not spend a breath of complaint against their Saint and Father W. (who has confirmed the pious cardinal Rumsfeld in his post). They will perhaps dedicate a few prayers on Sunday in their churches, to cleanse their conscience, to feel good, to be able to maintain their masquerade of self-indulgent and hypocritical morality.
Pictures published online by La Repubblica (see here also for other pcitures).
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Gutta cavat lapidem, non vire sed saepe cadendo (Ovidius, Ars Amatoria)
