December

Throw a well-aimed stone and the ripples in the proverbial pond outline the frame of a coherent picture. I think I have been played. Now, enter the repercussions.

Cielo e terra

Birthday: the unfortunate event of entering this time and space, and this god-forsaken rock of a planet at the ass-end of the galaxy

Independence Day

Taken from the tower of the Villa Sirk'aho, 6th December 2010

Anima

Today sunrise is godlike,
the last spirit to fall is coming home
The hardwood floor feels like marble,
so cold, so empty, and without soul
Your head against the window,
you wish for the night to fall
The light burns your tired eyes,
you feel nothing at all

Silence comes to tell you why the moment never came,
the rest is different loneliness, it has no name

And I wonder if it rains in Paris tonight,
like it rains down in my hemisphere
I wonder if this all remained the same, remained undone,
should I board a plane for an easy out here

The beauty of the old world, the towers and walls of stone
a church to heal this hurt in, or a Christmas all alone
And I don't speak the language, I can't understand a word they say,
right now it doesn't bother me, I am a ghost here without a name

The soundtrack for this evening,
through the laughter and smoke comes her holy ghost
Shining through all the annui, all the broken dreams
and all the perished thoughts
"Get out of my heart", I cry into the night,
but there is nothing but rain and remand
I can almost touch this flame withering, with trembling hands I can

Tonight I take it to the streets, let the cruelness of sidewalks disappear,
for they are broken, broken like everything in my heart
In a world where it always rains, each night is like a demand,
no, "no one, not even the rain, has such small hands"

Written gradually during 2000 and 2001. Edited and revised on the 5th of December 2010. Out of everything I have ever written, both musically and lyrically, I feel "Anima" has always captured, at least to me personally, something significant. After ten years I still find it relevant and worth a form of evolution.

The Distance to Here

Oh desert speak to my heart
Oh woman of the earth
Maker of children who weep for love
Maker of this birth
'Til your deepest secrets are known to me
I will not be moved
I will not be moved

"Don't try to find the answer
When there ain't no question here
Brother let your heart be wounded
And give no mercy to your fear"

Adam and Eve live down the street from me
Babylon is every town
It's as crazy as it's ever been
Love's a stranger all around

In a moment we lost our minds here
And lay our spirit down
Today we lived a thousand years
All we have is now

Run to the water
And find me there
Burnt to the core but not broken
We'll cut through the madness
Of these streets below the moon
These streets below the moon

And I will never leave you

'Til we can say,
"This world was just a dream
We were sleepin' now we are awake"
'Til we can say

In a moment we lost our minds here
And dreamt the world was round
A million mile fall from grace
Thank God we missed the ground

Run to the water
And find me there
Burnt to the core but not broken
We'll cut through the madness
Of these streets below the moon
With a nuclear fire of love in our hearts

Yeah, I can see it now lord
Out beyond all the breakin' of waves
And the tribulation
It's a place and the home of ascended souls
Who swam out there in love!

Run to the water
And find me there
Burnt to the core but not broken
We'll cut through the madness
Of these streets below the moon
With a nuclear fire of love in our hearts

Rest easy baby, rest easy
And recognize it all as light and rainbows
Smashed to smithereens and be happy
Run to the water (and find me there)
Run to the water

--Ed Kowalczyk

Absolute

I am a railroad track abandoned,
with the sunset forgetting I ever happened,
that I ever happened.
-- Jeff Buckley, "Opened Once"

Abandoned [Redux]

Abandoned

Cathedral

Necessity

You do what you have to do, and then some.

A most hallowed day, Holla-ween

Sabbath, n. A weekly festival having its origin in the fact that God made the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh.

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

October

"Cynic, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be."
Ambrose Bierce, in The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

"Cynic - a disappointed idealist"

This aforementioned thought, cynic - a disappointed idealist, has echoed and lingered in my thoughts for a week now. It is lifted from Neil Peart's "Ghost Rider", though the thought itself is not attributed to Mr. Peart himself. I cannot bring myself to remember whose idea it was in the first place, and in this context it hardly does matter.

I cannot call myself an idealist. There has never been a point in my existence where I have felt that I believe vigorously, blindly and strongly enough in a human-made abstraction (an idea) to justify such a predicament. I have come close though for another version of the aforementioned phrase is "Cynic - a disappointed romantic". An idealist, or a romantic for that matter, is a person to whom the natural world is not enough. It is through abstractions that the human beings make the world a better place for themselves, or condemn themselves to a dystopia beyond anyone's darkest dreams. I'd rather stay in the middle, that is to say, on the threshold of what is real. Taking one's head out the proverbial ass of second tier metaphysical constructs of sophists is never a wrong thing to do. The world might look a tad bit bleak, but I'd rather stare at the abyss of how-things-are than fill my conscious thought with delusions, and ad-hoc through another goddamn day filled with self-deception, self-forgetting and self-gratification.

There was a time when I thought I could narrow down the raison d'être into two simple words, and their absolute meaning, "to love and to learn". To place one's foundation of mental perception of existence upon something so fragile is frankly ingenuous, not to mention foolish and stupid. There is no amount of consolation and hope in this world to mend the wounds when that tower of nonsense falls. While I do think that such things as "to love" or "to learn" are important, for the lack of a better word, they simply are not robust enough to serve as a solid foundations of living, or meet the proper qualification of being alive. It is something only an idealist, or a romantic, would consider to be a plausible solution for Weltschmerz. These things, of course, mean different things to people. I know individuals who are more than happy to be tourists in their own life, some of them acknowlege it, and some of them are even proud of it.

It is not my profession to tell people how to live, but I suffer the consequences of the sleepwalk of others every day, and so does everyone else, whether they acknowlege it or not.

Absorbing (October)

Reading:
"Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work", Paul Babiak & Robert D. Hare

Listening:
"Snakes & Arrows", Rush
"Shatter, Eparistera Daimones Accompanied", Triptykon

Observing:
"R30", Rush

Playing:
"Assassin's Creed II", Ubisoft

Dependence

"Rely on what someone does, not what they claim to do."

Eidetic

A phamtom image of days of yore. I might be getting old, sentimental, or both.

Thus Saith the Professor

"Young enough not to care too much
About the way things used to be
I'm young enough to remember the future ---
The past has no claim on me

I'm old enough not to care too much
About what you think of me
But I'm young enough to remember the future
And the way things ought to be"

--Neil Peart, RUSH, "Cut to the Chase" from the album "Counterparts", October 19, 1993, Anthem/Atlantic (1993-10-19)

Epistle

I have found out that I love the mechanics of writing, but I have, and continue to, violate the spirit of the letter.

Absorbing (Again)

Listening:

Nek: "L'Anno Zero"

This is an interesting album. I am not a huge fan of Italian pop/rock, but these songs played non-stop when I was working in Ristorante Papà Giovanni almost ten years ago. There are no words to describe my gratitude and love for the people I worked with back then. This album is the soundtrack of those hallowed days.


Clint Mansell: "The Fountain Soundtrack"

The soundtrack to Darren Aronofsky's masterpiece of a movie "The Fountain". Speechless in presense of this beauty.


Hans Zimmer: "The Inception Soundtrack".

I have never liked Hans Zimmer's music in movies. The atonal "wankwankwank" of the string section is usually a minor nuisance until it gives me one hell of a headache. This however is exceptionally good by any standards for stand-alone listening. Guitars by Johnny Marr. Need I say more?

September

More of the same, I am afraid.

To this, add a shit-storm of uninformed decision making, general incompetence and sightlessness bordering metaphysical anopia.

Could someone remind me which planet I am on again? And, while you are at it, when does the next transport leave?

August

An uncontrollable free-fall through the days. The month started with a landslide of difficult decisions, pulling all-nighters too many in a row, and simply too much on my plate all the time. If there is a signicant moment somewhere buried there, I have failed to notice it.

The question is: how much more of this I can take? I thought I had reached a limit in early July, but that period seems like a cakewalk compared to this. Should I consider this a challenge? Should I improvise, adapt and overcome? Should I take whatever is thrown in my general direction like I usually do: by the horns and bend it until it screams mercy, or simply is resolved and defeated? No quarter here, mate.

A kind soul noted only a few days ago that I live a "charmed life" amidst an interesting conversation. It is curious to note that I never view my existence here that way. Being pummeled by an endless row of difficult cases, nasty decisions, and trying to get some order into this disarray can hardly be considered "charming" or "charmed". But then, life is what you make it. [With a reference to Mark Hollis]

Get your ducks in a row.

The Farm: Ark Of The Witch

So it begins...

The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore

Thursday, September 2 2010

In(de)ception

Sunday the 29th of August, afternoon.

Silence is the sound of a metaphysical structure collapsing. However, this silence has acquired a voice, and I fear that the message it delivers is a one to be afraid of.

I can almost hear the walls giving in.

Zen

The End of the Summer Days

Winged Life II

Cloud (Strife)

11th of August 2010, somewhere between Porvoo and Liljendal

Attic[a]

11th of August 2010, Downtown Helsinki

Jubileum

An anniversary of sorts, and I still don't get it.

Probably never will.

Paragon

The current paradigm of economy:

“a soulless matrix of numbers, which bow down to an unsustainable ideology of mindless growth and perpetual expansion…at any cost.”

--unknown author

Metaphysical Monthly July

Troubled arisings.

In my travels in this time and space I have encountered numerous things that contradict my idea of "common sense". The latest addition to this list of "File Under WTF", and the phenomenon I have sometimes serious issues with, is the behavioral patterns of human beings. And to be even more precise; it is the the adapted behavior models and patterns that keep troubling me time after time. Well, all behavior models are adapted, that can be said without any doubt, but when human beings adapt behavioral models from the contemporary mainstream entertainment, that's where things start to go south faster than anyone can say "errare humanum est".

It is completely beyond my reasoning why someone would, even if subconsciously and against better judgement, imitate a soap-opera when reacting to an impulse brought forth to their attention.

What about fantasy literature and fiction in general? Can anyone spell "Stephenie Mayer"?

I have witnessed a chain of events, from the abysmal beginning to the awful end, that was a real life adaptation of the Twilight-saga, both as an analogy and as an actual manifestation. Oh well, of course, without the vegetarian vampires and warewolves. Everything else, even the sad, adolescent and needy mindset was straight from that complete wreck of a novel (or a shitty movie), not to mention the complete lack of any understanding of causality, responsibility and real-life consequences of choices made. In the Twilight-saga books and movies, because they are fantasy books and movies for teenagers, all the choices the characters make therein do not have plausible effects and repercussions as they would in the real-life environment. The characters' motives written in the books, or seen on the silver screen, are even more removed from the ordinary world. I see it as a terrible flaw and mistake from the authors behalf, or as the author's complete inability to understand how the world actually operates. Others might see it as a part of how books of the given genre should be written and some might see it as a sort of half-assed dramatic effect which is an integral part of the fairy tale. Whatever the case, I do not think Stephenie Mayer ever intended her books to be an operations manual to real-life events for adults.

In my view, when life starts to imitate art (and I mean this in the loosest possible sense of the word), repercussions that are punishing and harsh start to emerge. I have failed to explain this phenomenon to myself so far. Why would anyone think that fantasy literature and garbage from TV produce plausible and benevolent solutions? Given the matter some consideration, I discovered that I have actually answered the question in my essay "Remembrance".

If we imagine a situation where the all the players of the game live in the same fantasy-marinated world, one can actually get away with it to a degree. If the "rules" of the game are agreed by everyone, and accepted without criticism, the situation becomes a never-ending story where lies and half-truths become a standard way of operating, and life becomes a strange border world of liminalized realms where different rules of engagement, and different "truths", are applied to different arisings. It only takes one sane individual to bring the whole fortress of metaphysical nonsense crumbling down. If that sane individual has been played; the repercussions are punishing and harsh.

But then, "we may do whatever we like, providing we can pay the bill."

Bring it on.

July (Delphian Redux)

All this has happened before, and all of it will happen again. Although this time, a month earlier it was prophesied to happen.

Preposterous, vain and utterly unnecessary.

Rhetoricus

The Mars Volta: "With Twilight As My Guide"

How appropriate...

Hallowed

30th of June 2010, the sky over downtown Kuusankoski

Teflon

"I just don't know the layman's terms
to call the mess you breed.
What thaws beneath the surface
soils blood to your family tree."

--Cedrix Bixler-Zavala

Winged Life (Redux)

Half-Light

Winged Life

Reflection

Substitute

It is curious to note how substitution takes place, while the underlying mechanism, purpose and intent remain the same. It is even more curious to observe how these substitutes are supposed to be completely different things than the so-called originals.

It is said that throughout the human life the total quantity of vices remain the same. Feel free to apply to other things as well.

Nothing actually changes, only the appearance thereof.

Absorbing

Nine Horses: "Snow Borne Sorrow"
The Mars Volta: "Octahedron"
Triptykon: "Eparistera Daimones"
Puscifer: "C is for (Please Insert Sophomoric Genitalia Reference Here) EP"

June

Steel grey clouds race through the sky like the wings of solitude, hanging low and tired. If there ever was a scene that portrays my current outlook of life, it has to be this. The morning arrives like an uninvited guest and I am sleepless still.

I am frayed of exorcising these hackneyed ghosts.

May

It is almost beyond comprehension just how many things can go south during one month.

Wonders never cease.

April

30th of April 2010, downtown Helsinki.

One of the most meaningful meetings I have attended in a while. It has to be noted that the premise and the attendees were something I had not expected. Thus, I arrived unprepared. By the above mentioned I do not mean anything negative as I was simply taken by surprise. It has to be noted that such a meeting with people whom happen to be very good at what they do, and also happen to be pleasant company, is a rare privilege. I am truly honored and humbled.

Prior to the meeting a wonderful encounter with a dear friend from the days of yore. A previous life re-visited.

Chain(s)

"Noticing > choice > decision > action > repercussions."

--Robert Fripp

"Identification > you think you have a choice, your ego has already chosen > hesitation > you think you have actually decided something > action > consequences > repercussions, if you have actually understood that a choice was made at some point."

--Yours Truly

Metaphysical Monthly April

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/why_we_havent_met_any_aliens/

Creation

From an empty room to an another, in the silent corner of my mind,
I stand in the blinding light, afraid to open my eyes...
-20th of June 1992, midday on the corner of 34th and Park, New York City

I can trace back the moment it all began - the urge to write; to create something immaterial. I still remember in the most vivid detail the pandemonium which is the heart of Manhattan.
Lately I have been visiting the absolute origins of the linear path which has lead to the current. The "past" holds no sentimental value to me whatsoever. I look back in order to see if I understood my choices correctly.

It has been stated the there is no actual past, nor future. There is only now. That could considered to be true in the sense of the fact that thoughts themselves are not necessarily bound to time. The perception and sense of time are derived from multiple gravity vectors originating in the heart of our galaxy. These vectors are perceived by human senses, and are therefore simply nothing but multiple electrical signals interpreted by the brain. In much shorter words: the perception of time is dependent on outside impulse entirely. Time would be, in itself, an emergent phenomenon found between two extremes of certain mass/velocity -scale, and might not actual exist outside those conditions at all.

However, I firmly believe that every responsible being in the four-dimensional space-time continuum is a product of choice. Choices cannot be made in a massive timeless cluster without causality, and one cannot, of course, alter the premise of the immediate surroundings upon entering this world. Hence, the word "responsible" in the beginning of this paragraph. I deeply resent any fatalistic ideas of destiny, and the supposed grander scheme of things. Human existence is deeply flawed and chaotic. In my humble view, one can only derive any sense meaning or reason, by applying responsibility and understanding causality. By causality, I simply mean, deeper understanding of one's own choices, and the reactions they create. To be awake and to be aware, and then to understand what the aforementioned actually means.

That would be something like seeing past one's own choices. Things do not just happen. Get over it.

March

Martius "of Mars",

the original beginning of the year, and the time for the resumption of war.

How appropriate.

Absorbing (Redux II)

Listening:
- Danny Vaughn: "Traveller"
- Porcupine Tree: "The Incident"
- Opeth: "Blackwater Park"
- Opeth: "Ghost Reveries"
- TransAtlantic: "Whirlwind"
- Devin Townsend Project: "Ki"
- David Sylvian/Robert Fripp: "Damage"
- David Sylvian/Robert Fripp: "The First Day"

Reading:
- the local newspaper
- Bill Hicks: "Love All The People"

Watching:
- the not-so-gently falling snow
- BBC: "Top Gear"

Home

Arriving Somewhere (Redux)

Arriving Somewhere (but not here)

Wisdom (Redux)

"We attract to ourselves the life that we live."

"We attract to ourselves the quality of life that corresponds to our quality of being alive."

-- from Robert Fripp's diary, Tuesday, 2nd February 2010

Absorbing (Redux)

Viewing:
- Ergo Proxy: Meditatio I-IV

Absorbing

Reading:
- "In the Dark Places of Wisdom", Peter Kingsley
- "Metaphysics", Aristotle
- "Why We Suck", Dr. Denis Leary

Listening:
- "The Road Less Travelled", Danny Vaughn
- "Addicted", Devin Townsend Project
- "Battlestar Galactica Season III Soundtrack", Bear McCreary

Metaphysical Monthly

In the Gurdjieff-spawn Fourth Way mythos man is seen as a psycho-physical machine, an entity, mostly driven by its arcane programming. The path of enlightenment is reserved only to those who can decipher their programming, and silence the ghost in the shell whispering in their ears to “survive, feed, mate, repeat”. This is the programming at cellular level making possible the very survival of human race as species. In the Jungian-Freudian terms the ghost in the shell is ego and id. In the Buddhist tradition, which without a doubt influenced Gurdjieff a lot, ego is the individual or self, and it is considered an illusion, which helps to perpetuate all illusion. I have to admit that I do not particularly enjoy the Buddhist tendency of describing undesirable things as an illusion. To persist, that the less flattering attributes in human beings, in this world in general, do not actually exist, although they somehow manifest themselves very clearly, does not make them suddenly disappear in the light of Illumination.

That is not enlightenment; that is denial. 



If, as a rule,



a human being, as a psycho-physical entity, in order to survive as a race, needs a complicated scheme of automated lower brain-functions, distributing signals through the neural network, and utilizing hormones to get the desired things done, and then feeding back signals interpreted by the brain as “pleasure” or “fulfillment”,



how can all that be an illusion?

How can those functions “help to perpetuate all illusion”?



Before getting metaphorically slaughtered by Buddhists, I'd like to point out that I do understand the meaning behind "the illusion" the ego supposedly creates and perpetuates. In my opinion it refers to the feedback ego creates in a situation where perception produces a reality which is more desirable to a person than the actual reality or truth. I've met a lot of people in my time whose point of views contradict the common consensus of how the world operates, and they cling on to these fabrications of their own minds with tooth and nail in fear that their own personal universe collapses if they accept the facts and realities such as they are. Meaning, such as they are in the conscious-free reality. Prime examples would be a found in followers of every single religion.

My argument is that these functions in human beings are manifest for a reason. They are not a flaw of error, or something that needs to be fixed. Everything under the sun operates with a premise of functionality and according to the law. If one was to retire to a temple and go "Ooom" until the cows come home, how does that person participate to this world? Leave all your worldly possession behind, put on an orange skirt, and be so goddamn spiritual that you can actually see a halo around your head. Where's the purpose? One could, of course, argue that "well, at least he's not putting a cap on someone's ass or committing rape, robbery or other not-so favorable things".

One could easily mistake that for escapism, or as an inability to function in the world. 



The “job description” of the ego and id is to make you perform you actually do not want to do. Human beings are lazy and comfort seeking creatures. But if one would recognize those attributes and functions, analyze them and learn how to understand them, would an individual become somehow more aware of him/herself, and would those crystallizations lead to a “better individual”? I don't see how that is possible. Understanding how quantum mechanics work doesn't actually make anyone a physicist. It takes a great deal of trial and error, work, sweat and tears before a craftsman can emerge, be it a quantum physicist or an enlightened man. How does that appeal to an ego/id ridden human? All too much work? Thus, man in his great wisdom invented self-help. 

The heaps of self-help books produced since the 30's all offer one -pony tricks to make oneself “happy”, or “wealthy”, and all the other nonsense, modern world seems to value. The alarming amount of authors of that crap claim some sort of “antiquity” and supposedly invoking wisdom literature dating as far back as 2500 BC “as a validation of their particular enumeration of fundamental human needs“. It is a common misconception that the "ancients" knew something the contemporary do not. First of all, looking at the history of mankind on this planet, 4500 years is not a long time. 2500 BC is yesterday, not "ancient". Secondly, if one was to look how the human beings saw the world, their immediate surroundings, and their interaction with the aforementioned, it is very different. The very same way the 1960's are different than 2010's, not to mention the beginning of the 20th Century. The way human beings saw, and experienced the world around 2500 BC is more close to 10000 BC than to 2010 AD. It is so fundamentally flawed to try to make a comparison between modern day individualistic needs versus the needs of the so-called "ancients".

The most appalling example of this supposed "ancient wisdom" is the Rhonda Byrne's best selling “The Secret” featured in two episodes of Oprah.
The book claims that by using the "Laws of Attraction", an individual can become wealthier, healthier, and happier. This is how it is supposed to work: 



you identify what you want,

you ask the universe for it, 

you feel and behave as if the object of your desire is on its way, 

and you are open to receive it.



Excuse me? It most certainly brings to mind Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce's definition of the verb “to pray”:



“To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.” 



And I've always thought that one would actually need to work in order to gain anything in this life.



The analogue “man is like unto a machine” is albeit an interesting one, though one has to keep in mind that every single analogue is man-made and therefore holds no significance, or absolute value, in universal context. In this case it is however even more accurate, since man did create machines. If we explore this thought and analogue further and bring it to the contemporary world, we could argue that instead of a soul, man has software. How is software produced? It is written. Can software write itself? It most certainly can and it does. If we picture DNA as writing, or a code that can actually write itself, and under certain conditions the code manifests itself in flesh resulting more code.

The limits of man are therefore dictated by this code, or if thought as a mathematical formula, man's maximum participation to this world cannot exceed the outcome of the given equation.

Would this be the revered "Logos" of the Greek myths? The word of God? I wouldn't go as far to claim that it is, but human beings do create by writing. Without the ability to identify things and events as an abstraction through the means of a common language, the modern world wouldn't exist. If the greatest achievement of mankind is written and spoken word, then it would be logical to assume that man would portray the gods he created with the same attributes and qualities deemed the most valuable. If you look at the gods of the antiquity, especially the Greek gods, after creating the world what was their purpose? Get drunk and fuck everything that moves, and plot against one another. The Sumerian gods? Get drunk, quarrel over nonsense and then send a flood to wipe out the mankind for being annoying and too noisy. That does make sense. Where are the old gods when you need them? The Judaeo-Christian god? The Good Lord's favorite sports, according to the scriptures, was mistreating his own people, rape, murder and ethnic cleansing. All too human, say I. There's of course the Egyptian creation myth where Atum actually masturbated the world into being. He was said to be lonely and decided to relieve his loneliness. In later times the followers of Ptah stated that "Ptah spake" the world and all the gods into existence, very much in the same manner the Good Lord in the Good Book did. That somehow would make sense, but at the same time, all too human. In the Egyptian lore it was the god Thoth, who gave mankind the gift of wisdom through language and writing. This is the very same god the Greek later identified with Hermes. Hermes would later become the revered Hermes Trismegistus, Hermes the thrice-great, the father of magick, divine writing and divine language, and wisdom through thought. If you look closely, there just might be a pattern, and its stench is unmistakably human.

I recently read Peter Kingsley's "Reality", and in that book, it is stated that "true wisdom" cannot be produced through the Aristotelean reasoning. To be more accurate, the book suggests that any kind of brain activity is not needed at all. In the book the author tediously makes his case through the first 300 pages. What he actually proposes could be represented much fewer words as follows:

In a poem written by Parmenides, a philosopher/prophet who lived in the city of Velia around 400 BC, it is claimed that a metaphysical reality, the underworld, the realm of the dead actually exists. True wisdom is only found there, and the gateway to nether world is reached through "incubation", "Incubation" means lying perfectly still, in suspended animation, for hours/days/weeks/months at a time. The "divine" wisdom is handed out by a deity/deities with all too human attributes. Kingsley claims that this is "the astonishing reality that lies unsuspected at the origins of the western world". The idea's that Parmenides represented were later further developed by Plato. Then, along came Aristotle who pretty much destroyed Plato. Kingsley claims that the original ideas of Parmenides were altered and distorted by Plato and Aristotle, and pretty much dismisses the two as charlatans and thieves, and their way of finding the true meaning of things through argument, reason and logic would be somehow flawed. So. here we have a nice conspiracy theory at work as well. It is admitted that Plato wrote quite a lot of crap, but to suggest that a logical evolution of ideas by each generation would be somehow wrong, or they would automatically mean that some form of "original wisdom" has been "corrupted" can only serve one purpose. Here comes the punch line:

There is a huge problem in what Kinsgley proposes: in order for the hypothesis to be plausible, the whole story, including the deities and whatnot, needs to be read and understood literally. If it is treated as an allegory, it is open to debate and interpretation. If the hypothesis is placed under any kind of scrutiny, it falls apart. It is then a matter of faith and belief. It is therefore a religious dogma, and a bad one at that. The author claims that the underlying message is that the reality as we know it, does not exist. Everything we experience is not real. I would go as far as to agree that the metaphysical structures built by mankind are not real. Culture and cultural phenomena, sociopolitical structures, religion and racial distinctions, to name a few, are fabrications, and therefore are not "real" in a reality outside human perception. Kingsley's literal interpretation of "not real" also means that everything he has ever produced is not real. Does that also mean that he is full of shit?

Kingsley throws around the word "divine" like he would know what it means. He also claims that "logic" for Parmenides meant a different thing that to his predecessors. For Parmenides "logic" was supposedly "divine logic" given from the underworld. The only problem here is that "divine" is a human fabrication, and so is the underworld. Kingsley however does not stop here. He claims that human existence is "divine life unlived" (sic). This is something only someone dwelling in the lap of modern western world luxury would, and could, think of. The very idea of thinking about metaphysics can only occur inside a stable, civilized and advanced society. There is absolutely nothing wrong about ideals. and reaching a higher ground, but to suggest a "divine life" to someone barely holding on in a third world country ravaged by war, famine, and disease, is so fundamentally demented and flawed. Most of the population in this planet live in such conditions. The constant fear of violence, oppression and rape is not "real"? The divine wisdom and logic that comes from the nether world will help these people how exactly?

A whole book based on a bad Greek poem suggesting that fabrications of one's own imagination
are the source of god-given ancient wisdom. Everyone seems to forget the fact that the world was very different 2500 years ago. However, there are things that do not seem to change. Human beings dream of photons, quantum mechanics and artificial intelligence in the beginning of the 21st Century. But then, how is the "divine wisdom" from the underworld any different that "channeled messages" from the aliens? How come the content of the messages is always something that is already known? Where, and what, is the much revered "divine/extraterrestrial" wisdom?

The next time you (or the local village lunatic) see an UFO at the drive-in, or meet a goddess, I suggest asking the following questions:

what is the mass of the Higgs Boson, and how to solve P vs NP, the Hodge conjecture, the Riemann hypothesis, Yang-Mills existence and mass gap, Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness, and the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture.

And, just to be crystal clear on this one; "take me to your leader" (and then anal probing), and "divine love" are not suitable answers.



Helios Panoptes

Into the light, I command thee!

Delphian

All this has happened before, and all of it will happen again.

February

A year ago the dark February whispered a prophesy and I refused to believe. What was then only a hint of intention and unfulfilled potential, would cast a long shadow under which I still remain today. The fork in the road approaches with undeniable inevitability, and soon, very soon, I will not have the strength to cast another spell that would send the crossroads further down the road.

In the raging storm that is indecision, indifference is a safe haven.

Hollow

If a thought is a circle, then the reality perceives itself through the eyes of the beholder.

January

December