Sadly one (or some) have to be so articulate to convey themself to the people who are and have been primed to only look up to popular perfect specimens before giving a listen.
Sadly one (or some) have to be so articulate to convey themself to the people who are and have been primed to only look up to popular perfect specimens before giving a listen.
John Sharkey, Susan may be right. After all, if Christ were to come to America as a flesh-and-blood human being, would he be recognized by any but a few ordinary people? It seems improbable that he'd be recognized by many, maybe most, of those who like to think of themselves as Christians. Many of them would prefer Trump...
What's for certain is that he would be in grave danger.
Likewise anyone like Navalny, even purified by suffering as he was. So purified that he was able to withstand Putin's personal version of the death of a thousand cuts -- and always come out from the punishment cell laughing and mocking Putin and his tormentors. He was, paradoxically, far, far stronger than those who killed him but could not touch his spirit.
*
To John Margolis -- to whom, apologies for answering his good point here -- I'd say that almost all human beings are flawed, and the greatest and the best often have flaws to match their qualities. But we already do have many good people, sound, upstanding human beings, and we neglect or -- as you point out -- ignore them.
Wrong gender, wrong color, wrong age, wrong appearance, wrong tribe. And, as you suggest, the kind of profile that corresponds to people's notions of Mr. Right -- note, Mister, never Ms.-- is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Such people will come into their own after the Satanic figures have been put where they belong.
At this juncture, when we are dangerously close to joining the Russians, the Ukrainians and other victims of the most cruel oppression, we desperately need inspirational figures. I hope some are already waiting in the wings.
I hope, too, that -- whatever the price they and we must pay -- they will be heard and followed. And... WE SHALL OVERCOME!
Not quite "nothing". Let's leave that to the likes of Hitler and DT -- minus quantities with immense compensatory powers gained from resentment that enable them to give voice to all the pent-up rage and hatred lying in the depths of the collective unconscious.
Navalny was an unequalled communicator, one who allied verbal mastery with brilliant, biting humor. He quite naturally built up good teams, although it is said that a team member may have betrayed him into returning to Russia prematurely, acting in the belief that he would not be arrested. This seems somehow improbable to me. He must have known all the precedents, must have known what he faced.
He knew too that killing a man's body is not difficult, killing his spirit, the ideas he represents, is almost impossible. Life is not like a Western movie in which all the villains bite the dust and the hero rides off into the sunset.
Perhaps as Caesar ruled the world that Jesus emerged and technically facilitated his killing which ushered in the rest of Christianity and its history -The Holy Roman Empire didnтАЩt quite help Democracy flourish but ironically somehow we are here today wishing our country and perhaps one party could both help God out and also stay out of what goes on in that endeavor (please excuse the ambiguities and rabbit holes zzzz)
My reply to you (was) disappeared. But I shall come back to you now. One moment...
Sorry, John, got sidetracked.
Basically, Constantine, a later Caesar, saw in Christ's religion a marvelous tool for the unification of a vast and diverse empire, and while the imposition of political and social unity gave immense power to both Church and Empire and went a long way to creating a great new civilization, it suppressed essential aspects of Christ's teaching and replaced them by compulsory belief in myths that don't hang together and are completely at odds with that teachingтАФwhich remains radical, and utterly subversive of the world we have built for ourselves, a world that is now falling apart.
So much so that the term тАЬChristianтАЭ seems often to be a misnomer, as what is taught now and has been for centuries is in basic respects deeply opposed to what Jesus taught and often consists of all that he preached against.
The Reformation was an attempt to get back down to basics but, even there, fundamentalism, gross literalist misinterpretation of the metaphors, the parables used by Jesus in his teaching, has tended to paint a dualistic picture of a deity separate from and above his creatures, essentially transcendent, while neglecting the lifeblood of the Gospel message, GodтАЩs indwelling presence in and among us. In other words, a living message, buried under a vast heap of doctrinal detritus. One that could hardly be more relevant for Westerners.
How so? Because monotheism and the consequent belief in one truth underlie the growth of our cultures and our powerтАж while our present exclusive focus on appearances and externals and neglect of all thatтАЩs inward, the very nature of the mind that perceives phenomena, even the unfathomable complexity of the human brain that mediates our perceptions and tries to understand what it perceives, lies at the root of todayтАЩs vast turbulent confusion, the worldwide crisis of civilization, of survival.
I'm a concerned foreigner, a Brit living in exile. I have no vote in the US.
My concern is that, such is American power that the whole world is directly affected for better or for worse by who holds power in Washington and how they exercise it.
I love my country, but in geopolitical terms it has become a mere sideshow.
Carnegie was opposed to helping people who fell on hard times because he thought it would make them lazy. TodayтАЩs American Oligarchs still believe in that useful, guilt-assuaging trope. ThatтАЩs why the GOP wants to cut Food Supports, Medicaid, and criminalize homelessness. They believe they are eliminating disincentives to work. I find that odd, as hunger, homelessness and illness donтАЩt tend to make for good workers. These <mostly> wealthy men have jumped on the bandwagon of greed and cruelty. We certainly canтАЩt afford to put one back in the Oval Office - let alone allow them to decide how their тАЬexcessтАЭ wealth (would they believe that there is such a thing as excess wealth??!!) would be spent for the тАЬbettermentтАЭ of society!!
Thanks, Torquil. Thessalonians 2, chapter 3, verses 11 and 12, and 14 and 15. тАЬWe hear there are some which walk among you disorderly, not working at all, but are busybodies. . . .such we command and exhort. . .that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.тАЭ (If that doesnтАЩt work, try shunning . . .) тАЬYet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.тАЭ
Sadly one (or some) have to be so articulate to convey themself to the people who are and have been primed to only look up to popular perfect specimens before giving a listen.
John Sharkey, Susan may be right. After all, if Christ were to come to America as a flesh-and-blood human being, would he be recognized by any but a few ordinary people? It seems improbable that he'd be recognized by many, maybe most, of those who like to think of themselves as Christians. Many of them would prefer Trump...
What's for certain is that he would be in grave danger.
Likewise anyone like Navalny, even purified by suffering as he was. So purified that he was able to withstand Putin's personal version of the death of a thousand cuts -- and always come out from the punishment cell laughing and mocking Putin and his tormentors. He was, paradoxically, far, far stronger than those who killed him but could not touch his spirit.
*
To John Margolis -- to whom, apologies for answering his good point here -- I'd say that almost all human beings are flawed, and the greatest and the best often have flaws to match their qualities. But we already do have many good people, sound, upstanding human beings, and we neglect or -- as you point out -- ignore them.
Wrong gender, wrong color, wrong age, wrong appearance, wrong tribe. And, as you suggest, the kind of profile that corresponds to people's notions of Mr. Right -- note, Mister, never Ms.-- is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Such people will come into their own after the Satanic figures have been put where they belong.
At this juncture, when we are dangerously close to joining the Russians, the Ukrainians and other victims of the most cruel oppression, we desperately need inspirational figures. I hope some are already waiting in the wings.
I hope, too, that -- whatever the price they and we must pay -- they will be heard and followed. And... WE SHALL OVERCOME!
Granted the power of a charismatic leader, but realize they are nothing without an intelligent, committed team, from top ... to "bottom....
I'm sure you meant "nothing without".
Not quite "nothing". Let's leave that to the likes of Hitler and DT -- minus quantities with immense compensatory powers gained from resentment that enable them to give voice to all the pent-up rage and hatred lying in the depths of the collective unconscious.
Navalny was an unequalled communicator, one who allied verbal mastery with brilliant, biting humor. He quite naturally built up good teams, although it is said that a team member may have betrayed him into returning to Russia prematurely, acting in the belief that he would not be arrested. This seems somehow improbable to me. He must have known all the precedents, must have known what he faced.
He knew too that killing a man's body is not difficult, killing his spirit, the ideas he represents, is almost impossible. Life is not like a Western movie in which all the villains bite the dust and the hero rides off into the sunset.
Yes, i corrected the typo. I was thinking in terms of wielding political power. thanks for comments on Navalny.
Perhaps as Caesar ruled the world that Jesus emerged and technically facilitated his killing which ushered in the rest of Christianity and its history -The Holy Roman Empire didnтАЩt quite help Democracy flourish but ironically somehow we are here today wishing our country and perhaps one party could both help God out and also stay out of what goes on in that endeavor (please excuse the ambiguities and rabbit holes zzzz)
My reply to you (was) disappeared. But I shall come back to you now. One moment...
Sorry, John, got sidetracked.
Basically, Constantine, a later Caesar, saw in Christ's religion a marvelous tool for the unification of a vast and diverse empire, and while the imposition of political and social unity gave immense power to both Church and Empire and went a long way to creating a great new civilization, it suppressed essential aspects of Christ's teaching and replaced them by compulsory belief in myths that don't hang together and are completely at odds with that teachingтАФwhich remains radical, and utterly subversive of the world we have built for ourselves, a world that is now falling apart.
So much so that the term тАЬChristianтАЭ seems often to be a misnomer, as what is taught now and has been for centuries is in basic respects deeply opposed to what Jesus taught and often consists of all that he preached against.
The Reformation was an attempt to get back down to basics but, even there, fundamentalism, gross literalist misinterpretation of the metaphors, the parables used by Jesus in his teaching, has tended to paint a dualistic picture of a deity separate from and above his creatures, essentially transcendent, while neglecting the lifeblood of the Gospel message, GodтАЩs indwelling presence in and among us. In other words, a living message, buried under a vast heap of doctrinal detritus. One that could hardly be more relevant for Westerners.
How so? Because monotheism and the consequent belief in one truth underlie the growth of our cultures and our powerтАж while our present exclusive focus on appearances and externals and neglect of all thatтАЩs inward, the very nature of the mind that perceives phenomena, even the unfathomable complexity of the human brain that mediates our perceptions and tries to understand what it perceives, lies at the root of todayтАЩs vast turbulent confusion, the worldwide crisis of civilization, of survival.
Peter, don't forget to vote.
I'm a concerned foreigner, a Brit living in exile. I have no vote in the US.
My concern is that, such is American power that the whole world is directly affected for better or for worse by who holds power in Washington and how they exercise it.
I love my country, but in geopolitical terms it has become a mere sideshow.
Carnegie was opposed to helping people who fell on hard times because he thought it would make them lazy. TodayтАЩs American Oligarchs still believe in that useful, guilt-assuaging trope. ThatтАЩs why the GOP wants to cut Food Supports, Medicaid, and criminalize homelessness. They believe they are eliminating disincentives to work. I find that odd, as hunger, homelessness and illness donтАЩt tend to make for good workers. These <mostly> wealthy men have jumped on the bandwagon of greed and cruelty. We certainly canтАЩt afford to put one back in the Oval Office - let alone allow them to decide how their тАЬexcessтАЭ wealth (would they believe that there is such a thing as excess wealth??!!) would be spent for the тАЬbettermentтАЭ of society!!
I donтАЩt remember God saying that. Pretty sure Jesus said nothing of the sort. тАЬLet them starve?тАЭ Their children, too?
Thanks, Torquil. Thessalonians 2, chapter 3, verses 11 and 12, and 14 and 15. тАЬWe hear there are some which walk among you disorderly, not working at all, but are busybodies. . . .such we command and exhort. . .that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.тАЭ (If that doesnтАЩt work, try shunning . . .) тАЬYet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.тАЭ