Time has come to remind everybody of a few basic things about this blog:
1) I don’t “endorse” everything I post here
2) The only stuff I “endorse” is the articles I sign with my name
3) Controversy is good if it makes you think
Two articles I posted recently got me into hot water with some of you: Andrew Kroybko’s article on Armenia and Belarus and Sakari Linden’a article on Karelia. Both of these articles were posted in the “Guest Posts” section which should already indicate to everybody what I did not “endorse” them. In fact, I personally disagree with both of these articles (and with many others I posted in the past).
You might want to know why I would post something I disagree with. Would I just post anything here? No, not “anything”. But if an article is well-written and on a topic which receives too little attention, then I will most probably post it in the hope of eliciting interest and a healthy debate. I would note that my Research Assistant Scott did an absolutely superb job challenging some of Linden’s arguments. And this is exactly what I was hoping for.
Now some of you do not approve of this approach and that is okay. But I fully expect to post things I don’t agree with in the future (as I have often done in the past). And here is a superb example of that:
This morning a friend emailed me a number of links including this absolutely superb anarchist video. Now, let it be clear: I am absolutely not an anarchist and I am completely and unapologetically what the anarchists call a “statist”. And yet, I would say that I fully agree with about 80% of what this videos says. 80% that is a lot, don’t you think?
Still, like with Marxism, while I agree with the critique offered in this video, I do not agree at all with the (naive) notion that all evil comes from the state and that removing the state is the solution to rid ourselves from all evil. I don’t like utopian ideologies and utopian “solutions”, but I do often full concur with the outrage utopists feel when they look at our world. So today I am going to post this excellent video not because I “endorse” it, but because it made me think and because I hope that it will make you think too. Questioning our certitudes is one of the most noble and, I would add, Christian thing anybody can do. Did Saint Paul himself not write “examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good” (1 Thess 5:21)?
There was one graffiti on my high-school wall which said “the glitter of certitudes leads me to murder“. I don’t know who wrote that, but I remembered that many times later in my life when questioning my certitudes brought me to the realization that I was wrong and my certitudes false. Those lucky few who are always right can definitely dispense with doubt, an open debate and questioning, but those who, like myself, have been wrong too many times to count vitally depend on that opportunity to question our certitudes.
Anyway, here is that video. I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I did.
The Saker
PS: I have no idea how this lady ended up on this video’s thumbnail, but I suspect that this was an attempt to “bait” the zombies into watching the video by appealing to something they “understand” (so to speak). And no, I do not “endorse” this kind of “baiting” either.
This is off topic, but also very important. Mother from Gorlovka is begging the world to stop Poroshenko and the war on the innocent people
Anna Tuv was at home having breakfast
with her husband, mother, daughter, son
and their newborn baby, on the morning
of May 26 in Gorlovka (aka Horlivka), a
town of over 250,000 people in the
Eastern Ukraine Province of Donetsk,
when “punitive shelling” by the Ukrainian
Army in her suburban civilian neighborhood,
destroyed her home, killing her daughter
and husband and blowing off her arm, in an
area where there are no “Ukrainian Rebel”
forces present.
She describes her daughter as being “blown
into two.”
The report about this war crime can be seen
here.
Video: (4 minutes):
“I Beg the World: Stop the Ukrainian Regime.”
http://www.ForbiddenKnowledgeTV.com/page/27301.html
free debate: Anarchists are so self righteously refreshing because the Fox News white tribal triumphalism lies heavy on the land. thanks, Saker. Those millionaires that he so blithely says are worthy of self respect are busy using their discretionary money ( the laboring poor live from paycheck to paycheck) to buy influence in the government he so hates. But, then, I tend to look to class analysis first. In defense of social security, it was working class struggles of the 1930’s that forced the wealthy in the USA to set up this as a savings account ( which their government has raided and claim it is now “broke” because of selfish baby boomer “entitlement” claims). Don’t buy the con and don’t buy the divide and conquoer. Retired people worked and paid into it and get barely enough to live. Also, part of the con of the “cost of living ” increases is to base them on bogus markers of inflation that are fixed and so to squeeze those pesky old folks who just need to hurry up and die. These elders have nothing to do with the usury state that so oppresses the young.
Face it many people in the US know that they benefit from the system that oppresses the world..yes, they are content with the scraps that are tossed to them. But there are many who do “get it” I’d say about 1/3 of the country and many are young and many are women ( single) or of color. Don’t Scorn: Organize.
Mozgovoi started community gardens and had the elders working them to feed the militias, themselves and the community. Plus he wrote good poetry ( i assume, it translates well into English) and he sang, he sang and kept his heart open…This last very important.
Buddha said:
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
So, after much deliberation what do I see:
Russia is a capitalist hellhole run exactly the same way as the West by a ruling elite. This elite (Western&Russia) stand over the murder of thousands of innocents in Donbass while we argue that it is either a “long game – have patience” or otherwise.
The innocent continue to die while some argue that Jesus (& St Paul) was better than Buddha whereas Buddha would argue on behalf of Epicurus:
“Logical problem of evil[edit]
The originator of the logical problem of evil has been cited as the Greek philosopher Epicurus, and this argument may be schematized as follows:
If an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent god exists, then evil does not.
There is evil in the world.
Therefore, an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God does not exist.
This argument is of the form modus tollens, and is logically valid if its premises are true, the conclusion follows of necessity. To show that the first premise is plausible, subsequent versions tend to expand on it, such as this modern example:
God exists.
God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent.
An omnibenevolent being would want to prevent all evils.
An omniscient being knows every way in which evils can come into existence, and knows every way in which those evils could be prevented.
An omnipotent being has the power to prevent that evil from coming into existence.
A being who knows every way in which an evil can come into existence, who is able to prevent that evil from coming into existence, and who wants to do so, would prevent the existence of that evil.
If there exists an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God, then no evil exists.
Evil exists (logical contradiction).”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil
Futile.
Well, Buddha also said that reality is an illusion, which is evidently false (just slap yourself in the face, it’s a nice proof of material reality). But then it was probably the later corruption of the teachings.
What we call God as such can only create and nurture, there is neither good nor evil from that POV, just “existence/life”. The classification into good and evil is simply a burden of our material reality, stemming from the basic fact that we must consume other life to feed ourselves, which makes us evil per default (maybe this is meant by the “original sin”?). And being as stupid and blind as we are born, that sets the whole chain of events into motion, which eventually also produce the evil part.
Good or evil is a choice that we can make (= free will as defined in most religious books), though only after we learned and grew enough to realize it.
“which is evidently false (just slap yourself in the face, it’s a nice proof of material reality”
not so fast 2015, http://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html :-)
“This paper argues that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. It follows that the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation. A number of other consequences of this result are also discussed.”
“An omnibenevolent being would want to prevent all evils.”
there’s your false premise.
“there’s your false premise”
am, er, ah, um.
Ask yourself this: If you created a sapient being, would you want it to follow your every word to the letter? Unless you wanted mindless slaves, of course you wouldn’t.
This issue is already present in our artificial intelligences. Without the ability to think and act on their own, they can’t properly handle conflicting commands or scenarios outside their intended parameters. They also lack the ability for growth, as individuals and a collective.
“The problem is choice.”
Poppadrop e.g. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/omnibenevolent:
“All-loving, or infinitely good, usually in reference to a deity or supernatural being, for example, God.
The omnibenevolent God, by definition, was unable to withhold forgiveness from his people.”
Now, if you still can’t agree with that then the “lesser” form of omnibenevolence would be to not create the sapient being you refer to at all – no?
More simply, if the human creator was all of omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent that creator would not create the AI.
Now, if you still can’t agree with that then the “lesser” form of omnibenevolence would be to not create the sapient being you refer to at all – no?
Touché, salesman. Granted, this still leaves our spiritual conundrum unanswered. Do we believe that our higher authority is, while not omnibenevolent, still benevolent enough to care about our own benevolence? Do we believe that authority does not care or exist and we should all “Do as thou wilt?”
Poppadrop,
for me there is no conundrum.
If indeed God or Allah is the deity then, I believe, it has mis-described its own nature. That makes it untrustworthy (no better than the creature it created).
PS: “N.W.O. – “Communism by the backdoor pt1” – very interesting video, but I don’t link it to the present discussion.
Do you really find all human beings as untrustworthy? You don’t know anyone who’s benevolent enough to be trusted?
And the reason I brought up the NWO is because not trusting anyone, believing that a benevolent higher power does not exist is at the root of their ideology of doing whatever one wants. They filled that vacuum of authority with malevolent man-gods like Big Brother and the Almighty Dollar – powers that regularly reward evil and punish good. That’s much worse than a benevolent enough God.
Winston: “No. I believe it. I KNOW that you will fail. There is something in the universe – I don’t know, some spirit, some principle – that you will never overcome.”
O’Brien: “Do you believe in God, Winston?”
Winston: “No.”
O’Brien: “Then what is it, this principle that will defeat us?”
~ “1984,” George Orwell
Poppadop,
I know some very trustworthy individuals and others who are very untrustworthy.
I despise the ruling elite and the “man-gods” you describe. I also despise being lied to (which is what the Abrahamic religions deities, at least, do).
In short, I consider both the “man-gods” and these organised religions with much the same contempt.
To that extent I wonder why the NWO would bother replacing religion with the “man-gods” you describe.
Why not just continue to push religion and sell more indulgences?
A modern version of the same deal I guess.
“I despise the ruling elite and the “man-gods” you describe. I also despise being lied to (which is what the Abrahamic religions deities, at least, do).”
Remember that you are getting God’s information second-hand, and those you trust might lie to you for a good reason. For example, Christian Universalists do not believe God sends anyone to hell forever. This is logically more in keeping with God being forgiving and mostly benevolent. However, this may encourage some to commit evil knowing there is no “afterlife in prison” sentence.
“Why not just continue to push religion and sell more indulgences?”
In reality, the Abrahamic religions are diametrically opposed to the NWO religions.
“And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”
~ John 2:13-16
“Those who devour usury will not stand except as one stands whom the Evil one by his touch Hath driven to madness. That is because they say: “Trade is like usury,” but Allah hath permitted trade and forbidden usury. Those who after receiving direction from their Lord, desist, shall be pardoned for the past; their case is for Allah (to judge); but those who repeat (The offence) are companions of the Fire: They will abide therein (for ever).”
~ The Qur’an, Sura 2:275
The money changers and usurers cannot keep getting away with that contradiction, so they fashioned more suitable gods and religions.
Poppadrop,
“Remember that you are getting God’s information second-hand”
So what’s the first hand version?
I personally don’t doubt that the holy books are man made mind-control drivel – but they are posited as the revelation (simply means that God, for example, communicated to mankind what “He” is like and how we can have a right relationship with “Him”.)
http://www.christianministriesintl.org/articles/Bible-the-Inspired-Word-of-God.php
“If you do not believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, if you do not believe that the Bible is of a supernatural origin, than I challenge you to a test.” I said to the student, “I challenge you to go to any library in the world, you can choose any library you like, and find 66 books which match the characteristics of the 66 books in the Bible. You must choose 66 books, written by 40 different authors, over 1500 years, in 3 different languages, written on 3 different continents. However, they must share a common storyline, a common theme, and a common message, with no historical errors or contradictions.” I went on to say, “If you can produce such a collection of books, I will admit that the Bible is not the inspired word of God.” The student’s reply was almost instantaneous, he emphatically stated, “But that’s impossible!”
In summary, since God/Allah is not all of omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent then the description of their nature (whether man-made or directly from the deity) exposes the deity as a cad http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cad
Excellent! Bravo.
There is no logical contradiction. Your starting premise (God exists) was a fantasy, a transient mental exercise to begin with, not a “fact” you believe in (Evil exists). You can not exercise philosophical reasoning by ignoring the foundation one’s mind is standing on at its very moment.
A spiritual/metaphysical authority or force that exerts power based on our good/evil actions does not necessarily need to be God. Anon could have been arguing for a less… personified phenomenon like karma or the Force…
Therefore logic may not be the only valid way of thinking
“Therefore logic may not be the only valid way of thinking”
Agreed – we (or most, at least) don’t live our lives with a boolean truth table in vision.
However, in this case I can’t see how your comment adds to the debate – can you expand on, please?
There is so much involved with this I can’t begin to explain it all.
Logic… which logic based on which premises? There are number of logics besides the old reductionist Aristotelian stuff with excluded middle. And that doesn’t work out too well even in particle physics.
There is Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, chaos and complexity theory, cybernetics, semiotics, holistic thinking, non-linear causality, and a bunch of other things which modify or contradict standard Boolean logic. And other modes of thinking as well, based on different axioms and methods.
I prefer ignosticism (with an i): there are things one can’t even validly think or talk about.
Try to expand but I am no philosopher – prefer feeling. Where is the logic in heroism, in
love of music, in painting? Just feeling to me. Why should religion not be the same? Hope this is not off topic,( to do with human motivations and achievments).
I am one of the uncomfortable posters, I am aware of that. I have a short fuse and tend to get emotional with provocateurs and I’m sorry regarding that. They often succeed to drag me down to their level of “conversation”, but alas – often they really don’t understand any other language. Add to that the fact that english is a foreign language for me and that it’s not easy to formulate stuff as I really would like to. I am trying to choose more civil ways ofexpression, getting better – slowly but surely :)
Thanks for your open-mindedness and your acceptance of severely diverging views, this site is truly an exception regarding that.
Oh and I have nothing against nice ladies in videos, with intelligent people it will not help closing their sale at all. Jenny McCarthy above is simply one hell of a girl, regarding her visuals.
Jenny McCarthey has fake boobs.
I’ve never understood the appeal of fake hoo-haws.
No problem with that at all if they look/feel good.
Natural ones keep better. Personally I admire Jenny for her courageous stance on vaccines. Not many people dare oppose the medical mafia.
I started watching that video and quickly was discouraged from watching more by the immature ranting and oversimplicity. When he got to the point about drug dealers being virtuous I guessed he never had any reliable knowledge in that area. It also seems he doesn’t know what anarchism is either. Going by the root words and it’s origins, it means ‘no chiefs’ and not is not chaotic, but democratic, if done properly. It is also very diverse (I tend to align myself with ararcho-socialism or social anarchism, which quite different from what some other people calling themselves anarchis mean by ‘anarchism’).
SO let’s say a million people get together and decide they want a central government, for a variety of reasons. Is the ‘anarchist’ going to jump up and say they have n right to do that? Or perhaps the question should be raised as to what sort of central government — state — would be best and who should control it and who should it be accountable to?
watching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB9rp_SAp2U
Noam Chomsky (2013) “What is Anarchism?”
Is time better spent.
Q&A for Chimksy’s talk is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1q9wuYEu1g
and I also see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__vv6eRj2-k which is decent 10 minute summary — but understanding anarchism, left libertarian, etc., takes time since it’s complex.
Understand that anarchism is one of the most misused and abused words around — even worse than is socialism and communism.
Chomsky is leftist/statist. It is in his interest to denigrate anything outside this realm. When it comes to drug peddler vs government crook the reasoning is simple…who is the bigger criminal deserving more jail time? The one who sells drugs on the street for few hundred bucks a day or the one that sells the nations for millions?
Chomsky is an anarchist / left libertarian — has been for years.
As for ‘bigger crooks’ I won’t support either, although there are lots of ‘drug dealers’ who are just selling a little pot — but others are just violent organized gangsters (I helped a friend get away from that scene). Often eneough a government crook is just a gangster who worked his way up the ladder. I don’t think making comparisons like in the video is very helpful with this.
Chomsky is a gatekeeper.
I wish anarchists and others finally stopped throwing women under the bus for the sake of creating common ground between men. We need women to remind us about the basics of everyday life, common courage and community and to give us direction.
(BTW) realenews often has good material — worth checking the site periodically)
Controversy can get a person fired…
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=14003
Teaching About Political Prisoners Will Get You Fired!
Marylin Zuniga gives this exclusive interview after being fired for teaching about political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal during Black History Month – June 10, 2015
…
Massive propaganda about the evil Nazi’s in the last year.. So what’s the British plan?
Also they are now pushing the soviets as weak and defeated and hitlers biggest blunder was to declare war on the USA 4 days after pearl harbor.. As if it actually made a difference. More of the USA #1 and how it is the savior of the world. I think they are preparing to turn the Nazi’s to Russians when the time is right. No ne will believe the British defeated Japan and Germany so using your boss as the one who won WW2 makes sense.. And when Ukraine is mired in Nazi’s and of most of eastern Europe, you would want to keep them out of sight instead of prominently displaying them as the ultimate evil. And in other news al queda is asking the US for help and US senators are asking Obama to help them. This guys cant remember more than 5 minutes.. After a decade of bad mouthing their creation, now they are back to openly helping them.
If the Russians want to keep fighting the bank, then they are the Nazis.
“This war is for the fundamental principles of future world structure. We are opposing to those people… that ‘world elite’ which plans to establish technogenic based neo-slavery system seriously and forever. Under such world disorder, there will simply be no place for majority of people. Every ordinary fighter realizes it here. That’s what has started here; that’s what has started here in Novorussia.”
~ “Pro-Russian rebel” Gennadiy Dubovoi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDQ6LaTQzSI
And as long as Ukraine’s “Nazis” are helping the bank, then they are not the Nazis. After understanding that All Wars Are Bankers’ Wars, none of this is terribly surprising.
Wow this is the worst revisionist history I have seen yet and form the American history channel no less.. No wonder Americans have no clue. 250,000 German troops are trapped in Stalingrad.. And it was all because of the greatest industrial country in the world, the USA.. So if all the numbers are divided by 4 and their own victories are multiplied by 4, then well.. Oh wait, Custer and his 50 merry men against 2500 warriors from the Indian plains tribes. Custer almost won.. decimating the mostly women and children in their teepees.. But alas.. he could just not kill them fast enough. WTF? This is 2015!!!!! When I keep saying US school books are worthless as an instrument of learning, it is more than just revisionist and error prone propaganda pieces, but no one can use them to develop or learn anything. it would be wrong. When I was studying it was because they did not want the soviets stealing text books and teaching from them so carefully constructed errors were put in technical and scientific publications. The professors would correct them on the fly in class as if they were some minor error in printing. Everyone knew but no one said anything. Not even the students. Everyone was in on the game.
Cher Saker,
Vous qui lisez le français, je vous propose de lire le résumé de la vie de Jean-François de La Harpe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_de_La_Harpe) avant de lire son ouvrage de controverse qui, me semble-t-il, devrait vous permettre “de réfléchir” au sens ou vous l’entendez dans cet article. Voici donc où l’on trouve l’original de son “Fanatisme dans la langue révolutionnaire” http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k45263f/.
Vous avez toute mon admiration, et pour votre amour de la vérité et pour votre art de la communiquer. Je ne saurai trop vous remercier ni vous encourager.
Piotr
[TR:Dear Saker,
You who read French, I suggest you read the summary of the life of Jean-François de La Harpe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_de_La_Harpe) before reading his controversial book, to me it seems, this should allow you to “think” in the sense that you hear in this article. Here is where we find the original of his “Fanaticism in revolutionary language” http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k45263f/.
You have my admiration, for your love of truth and your art of communicating. I cannot thank you or encourage you enough.
Piotr]
Hmm
I found something finaly after wading thrue a massive wall of ……… idiocy and downright sniveling drivell for decades, but sometimes patiens is an forgotten virtue, knowledge usually comes in lumps, like been kicked in the ass.
hehe
SO.
I will avoid repeating things but read this article first.
http://armstrongeconomics.com/archives/21577
amen to all of it
And then the next level is this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFTMiVs4VhY
Sacret gemoety and the unifying feild.
The flower of life, now you to, knows.
This rings of energy interlocs, and we interlocks with everything else that is surounding us.
Animals is energetic sensetive, to an mutch higher degree than moust humans are, as they inluence us we inluence them.
Our reality is more a greater whole than its parts, a collective reality witch WE are just one tiny part of, resting on this reality.
Like the Radio analogy o consciousness created realitys, what gives this the information requred to sloq it down just anouf the be combined is whats the core of us, the energetic entety witch controlls everything.
I agree on further imlications, and some of it is been missunderstud, deliberatly or not, but we live in a reality, where we arent alone, the onion analogy works (the ancient vedic one, where everything is interwoven), but from time to time, others may pass this one, and since we are creatures of perseptions, this will be “alien”, and we can encounter them in dreams as well since we are of an race of a more limited band of perseptions, others have higher level and controlls realitys we dont have axsess to as normal begins.
There are gates to cross to be able to even penetrate a litle of what we humans are capable of.
My God, is more than this narrow, Gandalfian old fart sitting on a chair and watching eveyone thrue an massive array of flattcreens.
huh
My god is more fndamental, its the enitiatore, the enabler of realitys, the tree of life, witch devours and creates.
And we have realitys upon realitys, depending on where in the stream we are.
All of my encounters have been done while dreaming aka Lucid dreaming, but sometimes, by changse or not, I dont know, we gett a glimes of the other side.
Thats all I know.
But stil, I havent encountered any demons, nor god/angels or that matter, I dod it my self, it took decades to breake the Ludic dreaming part.
Druggs, well thats done 20 years after the first break thrue, and a few times, all to confirm whats been know, all thos new and highly enlightening, since its visuale.
The truth is, our entire reality, the one we persive right now, can be altered within an hartbeat to anything, and I mean anything, even unimagiable things, untinkable things, and you havent moved at all, then what happends.
Its you, but stil not able to unfould the consciousness required, nothing of real worth comes easy, our mother earth and our heavenly father have hidden it, and the tool, is love.
As the darkness tool is violence and hatered.
You reap what you saw, it goes both ways.
peace