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The MoA Week In Review – OT 2024-202
Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:
Palestine:
Ukraine:
Selections:
Andrew Kloster @ARKloster – 23:57 UTC · Aug 24, 2024
BREAKING: Cornel West is dropping out and endorsing Trump.
“A brother can’t in good conscience endorse a pro-war, fake black, code-switching hussy whose ancestors owned slaves. I’m proud to stand with Donald John Trump.”
U.S. Navy Defeat:
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Other issues:
Boeing:
Free Speech:
Color Revolution Watch:
Use as open (not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine) thread …
Why are foreign cultures worthy of respect and preservation? I shall try to put up this question, and argue that it can’t be easily solved either of ways.
The problem starts with how we account for worthy achievements generally. We can’t simply claim none but our personal own, as we live among others; and if we recognize achievements of others, we also will need to account for history and tradition in which we’re finding us (for instance, whoever came up with the idea to make bread from flour and water certainly deserves a commendation). In one word, a living culture is essentially always present whenever we begin to entertain this kind of questions.
However, this culture which gives us a framework of reference to ponder various achievements is strictly in some kind of connection to us; while it may be distant, it can’t be entirely separate, as then it wouldn’t play into our question to begin with. This connection also ties us to our own moral measures when we’re facing ethical conduct of different cultures than the one we find ourselves presently in.
The point to weigh and decide, then, is this one: can we make sure that our self-ideal of worthy achievements of human civilization is universal, i.e. the ideas we fancy are so refined, sophisticated and powerful that we may use them to judge any and all ideals of worthy achievements among whichever people we may come across? Of course not, I dare say.
Exclusive monotheist religions, metaphysical materialism, or the (by now refuted) theory of a universal grammar for that matter have a level of pretense that goes as far as claiming such universality, if however more or less explicitly. This kind of view also corresponds to one of the problematic roots in western civilization, from where no end of poisonous delusions keep entering society, culture and political conduct right up to this day.
Alas. If we accept the above, we find ourselves in the company of Wilhelm von Humboldt, the linguist of the two famous brothers, who declared that linguistics has the task to collect all languages and strengthen them, so as to facilitate a process in which all of them may be able to preserve their unique and absolutely incomparable features of thought and observation. – Again, this should be the default assumption of how different languages actually work, and if you believe otherwise, I’d like to challenge you to give your argument before proceeding to slash everything that is, to try and boil it down to 1 (‘one ring to bind them all’) in a black magic melting pot.
From this now follows the final step of my not very elegant but also important argument, which is to realize that with the above we cannot hope to codify (in language) a body of ethics that could aspire to ever be truly universal. It’s simply not possible, and if it is tried anyway, there will be heartbreak, loss, and quite probably terror. It’s for this reason that nations with their own laws, codified in their respective languages, are bound to be sovereign entities among others; not withstanding a possible body of international law that covers some aspects of global national statehood, while other laws are held up to reflect particular and local cultural traditions.
But it’s not just a legal technicality. There are profound aspects of human reasoning and spirituality in play here, and we’re ill advised to refuse listening to what others have developed through their own experience of tradition and history; while disregarding them outright is of course barbaric.
If anyone wants to lead this all back to China/Tibet debate, I suggest to start with the non-interference principle, as it came out of the Westphalian peace, and is upheld by China today, among others. Tricky stuff.
Posted by: persiflo | Aug 29 2024 0:30 utc | 237
@Scorpion 238
it is hard not to argue that Divine Providence had a hand in his narrowly escaping death.
Okay, I’ll try.
Suppose God sent an angel to gently push Trump’s lock, or otherwise that he nudged him using his own finger tip – could you tell those cases apart? How? – No, not really.
In Parapsychology, there is report of encounter with non-bodily beings, such as spirits, ancestors, a genius loci here and there, group souls as animals have (ask a shaman), etc etc. Do those beings influence our decision-making by subtly interfering with our own pre-conscious states, emotionally or otherwise? The answer is quite clearly yes, so I say. Carl Jung calls this space the collective subconscious; I myself toyed with the term ‘intentional sphere’, or realm, for a while.
There is also a fairly specific “type” of paranormal experience which occurs somewhat often, or perhaps (likely) is reported more than others, that shows in moments of acute danger. It’s blurry when trying to define it as a notion, but in extreme cases figures show up and give clear, immediate symbols to facilitate a reaction. Hans Bender describes a classic case where a motorist is saved from a chance accident by an apparition of a policeman holding up his traffic sign thingy. But mostly such nudging would remain below the level of clear conscious awareness, as happens all the time in traffic, in team sports, or in communication with animals such as horses and dogs.
From a systematic point of view, such intuitions can not really be separated into categories of encounter (with another) vs precognition (by self); anyhow it enters the mind at times. So Trump having God’s personal safety guarantees, some flock of guardian angels, or sheer good luck there can’t be told apart, at least not from this single instance. As there are reports of Trump being an extraordinary trickster, I’d assume he would have some paranormal talents, so such an intuition in a moment of danger is not that far-fetched actually. Stranger things have happened, though mostly will go unreported.
Actual divine support is not a required assumption, btw. Bad folks have these kind of intuitions, too. They also manifestate things just as well as everyone else, as it seems.
To give another case for comparison here, do you remember that Inka legend which saw a guy with a pale horse appearing over the beach and bring a huge change? It’s likely a real premonition, but the notion went not fully clear, and so it couldn’t serve as a warning; as was either radiated by the turmoil and emotions in the future (a powerful mental energy blob), or indeed as a real warning by interested third parties. Again, these cases appear with some regularity, take as an example the revelations of Fatima.
Interestingly enough, these observations make for a strong case towards the reality of our free will. To quip, even God has merely his advise for us. – Gyiane, care to comment on that? I’d really like to hear that put into words from your view!
Posted by: persiflo | Aug 29 2024 2:19 utc | 240
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