Armenio Pereira
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(not our merit , nor our fault)
Being born human, it’s not easy to relinquish one of the foremost – if not the foremost – human trait: to have prejudices.
Everything humans do is transient – I don’t know why the things we do which are destructive leave a longer lasting impression than the constructive ones.
(Or maybe I do know: in general, the human brain has a yin slant.)
To spice things up, let me add that the human brain has been shifting: the masculine brain is turning increasingly yin, while the females’ brains are becoming increasingly yang (the I Ching rules!)
(Please spare me: if you are a regular here then you do have a “negative” bias brain.)
And then you might ask, “so what?” To which my reply would be: have you ever considered why the slant, why the drift?
If humans are a chaotic feature then we couldn’t be more dumber.
(That’s why I believe in The Everlasting Dissatisfaction, aka God; I’m able to derive some comfort from being part of a major purpose, none whatsoever from being part of an obtuse random figment of the Chaos.)@TAE Summary
“Justice” and “ethics” are just useful components of the human internecine, and each one of us use those to the best possible extent of our perceived interests and our real capabilities; to be considered inimputable isn’t only a matter of insanity, but it can also be a means to rig the “justice” by the usual suspects.You don’t use a nail clipper to cut down a tree; God wants to apply a major overhaul on the planet: other than a meteorite, humans seem like a rather adequate tool for the purpose.
On one hand, living entities – including human beings – are hardwired with preservation instinct; on the other hand, “free will” proponents contend that said instinct can be overruled by free will (criminals and martyrs would then be among the most evolved human beings, if “free will” is to be considered the main human trait.) The question is: why would anyone equipped with free will would choose to continuously override his/her survival instinct by consistently engaging in extreme sociopathic behaviour?
My answer: they don’t choose, because there’s no free will; they – and all of us – are servants to The Everlasting Dissatisfaction.@John Day
Acceptance & Denial, and you don’t even know why.
(no hard feelings; deny you must, accept I will.)No “good” vs. “evil”, only “good POV#1” vs. “good POV#2” vs. “good POV#n…” and in the end, as history gets written by the victor, “good” always win, right?
That’s why, in the end, everything will always be “fine”.
When all you need to remain alive is to ingurgitate some edible food from time to time, philosophy is as useful as a “smartphone”, a book or a car (well, with a car there’s always the roadkill as a putative source of proteins.)
What do you call a truth no one believes in? A lie?
(Yep, Cassandra – those pesky Greeks had it all figured out a couple thousand years ago, without resorting to the ironically named devices… I wonder how they did it.)
Those who recklessly took the shots.
Those who suspected there was something fishy, and did nothing effective (i.e., using brute force) to stop the former.
Humans do not compute.
(not our merit : not our fault)
Why am I doing the things I do? Because God wants me to. Why are you?
Protons & Electrons, Good & Evil, Acceptance & Denial: there isn’t One without The Other. You didn’t create them, it’s not up to you to chose: God makes the choice for you; freedom is an illusion – God made that one too.A blessing, a curse & a million paths to and fro: The Everlasting Dissatisfaction is here, is now, is all.
(Are you free to born when you wish? Will you die when you chose? If so, congratulations then – and my sympathies too: you are God – how does it feel?
… fair enough: reality has this penchant to hit us like a ton of bricks.)(Bonus) Religious trinities laid bare:
– Denial (The Father/Contraction/Thesis/Yang)
– Acceptance (The Son/Expansion/Antithesis/Yin)
– A million paths to and fro (The Holy Ghost/Limit/Synthesis/Change)Contraction – Expansion – Limit : The Heart
We’re all servants of the Heart – accept it if you can, deny it if you must.I remember when infections were transmitted by small critters: fleas, mosquitoes, the sort. Then came the bats, pangolins, and now monkeys. What’s next? Giraffe herpes? Whale mumps?
Life’s inherent contradiction: you fight for a thing that’s not yours to keep. From there, all the human drama unfolds.
The paradoxical solution: do nothing to extend life, do nothing to waste it.(Such a fine line between appreciation and zealotry, and most of us aren’t even funambulists.)
Everything’s working according to God’s plan.
Be grateful if you can – be disrespectful if you must.
God is (Change) – You are (an agent of Change)
As above – So below
Nothing more – Nothing less
The food you deemed so tasteful not long ago soon to become loathed
manure, yet so precious for the land to remain fertile.
Nothing remains precious forever – Nothing remains noxious forever
Some things anew – Some things decay
Everything changes – The Everlasting Dissatisfaction remains.We, humans, are advancing, some say.
Towards what?
If we don’t know the destination how can we assess the progression?
Are we moving forward, backwards, or simply going nowhere faster than we were yesterday?There’s no freedom, only Acceptance & Denial (and the journey back & forth between the two.)
The Universe is a Heart, quiet & monotonous at The Center/Core (Acceptance’s abode), exciting and dangerous at the throbbing Periphery/Frontier (the land of Denial.)
We are prisoners of the Heart and of the everlasting peregrination between The Center & The Periphery.[We all do the same: we try to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.
We can’t escape Sameness.
We all have different strategies on how to achieve it, we all try to do it differently.
We can’t escape Difference.
Pleasure & Pain, Good & Evil, Symbiosis & Parasitism, Cause & Effect: The Dualistic Engine.
We can’t escape it – we can’t rig it – we can’t destroy it – we can’t understand why it exists.There’s no freedom, only the everlasting peregrination between The Core & The Periphery. The Center assuages us with its quietness, weary us with its monotony: we leave, frontier bound. We love The Frontier for its excitement, hate it for its perils, so we leave, centresick (homesick for Acceptance.)]
Some will understand these words, while others will be infuriated by them; that’s OK, because while I’m returning to The Center, longing for Acceptance, others are leaving for The Periphery, summoned by Denial; our expectations are wildly different, we can never meet on common ground. That’s how it’s supposed to be: for the Whole to hold, the Parts must be out of sync. [Do you know how a structure responds to an increased amplitude when the frequency of its oscillations matches its natural frequency of vibration? That’s right, it collapses (Yep, the walls of Jericho, the 1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge and the London Millennium Bridge cases comes to mind.)]
A better future?
Fully embrace The Now regardless of any reasonable doubt.The human condition reduced to one single question:
– How far are you willing to go to ensure the next meal?
The – often tacit – answer to this question is the history of your life.
(allegories)
You do what you can to prevent, hasten or delay change; there’s nothing one can do to prevent, hasten or delay change. Ultimately you want to rig change, unaware that change is subtly, then abruptly, managing you. The more you try to affect change, the more the change will have an impact on you. Change’s a river, you’re the margin: the margin tries to tame the river, the river wears the margin away; in time rivers move elsewhere, new margins emerge, old ones disappear.
Rivers make margins, only to erode them;
Changes make things, only to have them to fade away.(madness is freedom : freedom is madness)
The body can’t escape the cause-effect chain; it is doubtful that the mind can. But if it can, is the non-causal space the land of the non-sequitur?
(who wants to be free?
who wants to be insane?)Fact: There’s a shortage of fossil fuel derived products (and several other raw materials and basic goods.)
If you enjoy wasting time in speculative matters, you can ponder:
– Are fossil fuels (with an EROI>1) reaching an end?
– Do TPTB have a vested interest in curtailing the supply of fossil fuels (and other basic goods)?What are you going to do about it?
Keep on whining?What to do?
At this point in time you have three major options (all else is small potatoes, and a stupid waste of time). Let me outline those for you:Option a) You are an extremely wealthy person; you recruit an army, hire someone to train the army, equip it and off your army go to build a nation/empire for you: you kill your enemies, kill their sons, rape their daughters and erect the land of Love & Prosperity or the home of Evil & Usury, it doesn’t matter which: your nation will thrive, reach a plateau, and collapse. End of story.
Option b) You’re friends with an extremely wealthy person; you talk your rich friend into recruiting an army, training the army and so on and so forth, your friend’s empire will thrive, yada-yada-yada, collapse. End of story. (Don’t forget to make the necessary arrangements to nail a cushy job in your friend’s empire; you’ll risk becoming a sycophant – aka doormat – but hey, that’s life, right?)
Option c) Prepare to face the demise at peace with yourself and, if you are of a religious disposition, with your Maker.
In short: You can
a) build your own nation, the nation of your dreams;
b) join the army of your dreams;
c) wake up.If you are reading this, then stop fooling yourself: option c) is the only worthwhile thing to do. Paraphrasing John Michael Greer, wake up now and avoid the rush later. Better still if it can be done peacefully and on one’s own terms.
Radical acceptance: accept death – yours, and of the people and things you love.
Truth is we don’t know The Truth.
The Tao’s ineffable.
God’s within, yet out of reach.
Not much to talk about, if you can’t accept this.Sweet fantasies,
sour realities,
unless lemonade’s
your thing.(7 : God’s pH)
We all do the same
(we do it all the same):
We do what we can to become
what we’re supposed to be.
What are we?
A bittersweet degree.Everything comes from God.
What reasons do I have to be grateful for some things, and displeased with another?
Radical Acceptance: no questions – no doubts.A heroic freedom fighter to one, an imbecile in a clown custom to another – it doesn’t matter: humans are not meant to escape dualism’s confinement. Here’s a clue, though: everything is necessary, until it ceases to be.
(You’re welcome)
What sort of monsters hide inside those who obsess on seeking monsters in everyone else?
(the soul & a bitter passion’s fruit)
Incipient Daedalus
building up impromptu labyrinths
where the Minotaur of rancor awaits
to tear down to pieces
the inner child.The “true miracle” is the symbiotic dance of the inner child with the private monster.
Planning on becoming a skeletons-digger? Bring forth yours’ first.
(a paperboy’s miracle)
Morning papers; evening papers, too.
The nostalgia for having time & money to spare on newspapers,
time & patience to read ’em too.We’re modern, maybe humans
cheering on dehumanization.
What kind of humans are we
breeding on such expectations?(Mnemosyne . farewell to arms)
Water always find a way.
Water is an alien invader;
humans, the ultimate bio weapon developed by Earth to derail Water’s plans.
Tarnished and polluted, Water will depart.
Weapons, once again, become a thing of the past.(“me-me-me-me-me!” Yeah, get over it.)
(acsacsin)
“Celebrate Life”, they say.
Oh Life! Mighty killer! Hooray…
No need to deplore,
contradictions galore.(mindfulness ? foolishness)
Day succeeds night,
night follows day.
Every time memories are created
everyday (we and) they fade away.(all) Symbols are aesthetic superstitions
Symbols are superstitious memories.Sweet memories – life preservers;
bad memories – mind corroders.Memory’s a corrosive embalmer.
@V. Arnold
How kind of you, comparing me to Bosco.
But no, my flame will never shine as brightly as Mr. Horowitz’s.
Cheers
(the delicate filigree)
To have only “right” thoughts, to use only “just” words… how sensible would it be: for all intents & purposes, to speak less, to think slow.
(to my mind, all interpretations are skies)
Planets & Stars
Comets & Satellites
Real Fantasies
Opposite Realities(I will never reach the Moon)
(flawed pearls)
humans look at Reality
a baroque’s all they see
not pearl, nor empty shell
Reality’s both
and both it shall* baroque: irregular in shape (said of pearls)
(the love of convenient “truths”)
Humans & Truth / Oil & Water / Immiscible realities
Truth: We all love it when it vindicates us; we hate it when it don’t.
How can anyone in its right mind be expected to embrace such a love/hate relationship?
We’re not made to do it: we will never fully accept truth for what it is; we can only briefly tolerate it, and in very small portions.Truth is like fugu sashimi: it needs to be served in such thin slices that it becomes indistinguishable as a whole; also, like fugu, truth can induce localized numbness and, in some cases, be a lethal poison.
(Corollary) The Truth (if you know what it is): avoid it whenever possible; otherwise, use it with extreme caution and at your own peril. (Lies, on the other hand, can be swallowed frequently and preferably whole: all in all, what are life’s enemas, emetics and morning-after pills good for anyway?
(fertile deserts . barren oases)
Catastrophes with benign outcomes;
good intentions with bad consequences.
We should be sick & tired by now of knowing what Reality’s all about.
And yet, we keep flogging the dead horse, nurturing the unreal concept that any day now ‘dry’ will overcome ‘wet’, ‘high’ can expel ‘low’, “evil” will surrender to “good”.Signal Vs. Noise
Can you tell the difference?
Can you see/hear/feel the sign(s)?
Are the signs “good” or “bad”? Or rather, “impartial”?
In real life, what the hell does “impartial” mean anyway?
We’re part of something; we’re made of parts; we can’t be “impartial” – we don’t know what “impartial” is.
Only God’s impartial (and to some, God doesn’t even exist. Beware though, ’cause The Watcher doesn’t care if the watched are unaware.)Noise Vs. Signal
Short-circuited, feedback, overflowed
Minds are damaged
Minds are flawed
Minds are broke(n)
(soon) Our minds are closed.‘Are minds close?
(nah) Nope!
Our minds are closed.’Minds : Close(d)
What drives a creator? He/she looks around and is not satisfied with what’s there: ‘Something has to be done!’ And creation gets in motion.
God’s the Supreme Creator, The Everlasting Dissatisfaction – we fail to see this because we’re drenched in dualism and intoxicated by hope, the path required to fulfill our purpose as thoughtless lawbreakers.
Whether one believes in a perfect Universe or in an imperfect one, coming to terms with the transient nature of ourselves and our achievements requires an hefty – some will say cruel – dose of hopeless selflessness, one that many simply can’t seem to bear, or are unaware of.
“Wisdom” is not a collective aptitude, just a “mellow curse” of the lonely (and “madness” its “hardcore” version.)Cheers
(trouble ashore . worries galore)
Earth is a flooded quarry at which God throws pebbles (humans among those.)
One of these days the pile of pebbles – or one large enough – is going to rock the joint.
Prepping will save nobody – to pray may.[Praying is not begging (for mercy, or for anything else.) Praying is finding answers (a mantra, if you will) suitable to pacify the “I”.
To each its own: different people, different mantras. Find yours – you’ll be fine.]We all do asset management: God provided each one of us with a portfolio, we do what we can to increase gains and soften losses; some fare better than others; some do a finer job hedging their bets.
Either way, never mind (be at ease): no one stays a poor player (nor a wealthy one) forever; winners & losers trade places all the time. In the long(er)-run, patience(concrete faith) outperforms/outshines gold.(More religious than this and someone will have to lend me the cassock – or taqiyah.)
In human consciousness, religion(faith) is upstream from science, that’s why it will always be purer, closer to men’s soul.
(The deeper understanding of our purpose in this universe)
Code of Ur-Nammu (circa XXII-XXI centuries BCE)
Code of Hammurabi (circa XVIII century BCE)We have been breaking laws (almost) since day one.
Natural laws, religious laws, fair laws, secular laws, haphazard laws, unreasonable laws, local laws, you name it: we try to break ’em all. We break laws while they are being written down.
Why?
What for?
We don’t know.
Maybe it’s that thingy/tool of mass destruction some of us call “free will” and feel so proud of.The “gift” which was bestowed upon us, the human “super power”, is to be thoughtless lawbreakers: we march against the Universe, we rebel against God, and yet we don’t know why; not our merit, not our fault.
NATO expansion towards east.
(memorandum of conversation between M. Gorbachev and J. Baker)Inches? Who’s talking about inches?
The memorandum holds true: not an inch – NATO expanded for miles and miles.(what the heck is a star that doesn’t want to shine forever?)
Conservatives can’t prevent change; progressives can’t control it. Due to the constraints with which they were conceived, humans are unable to successfully tackle a third way. Their fate is sealed.
You can fight it or accept it.
Resisting means trying to change others; accepting means trying to change the self.
Resistance is hard and futile; acceptance is harsher and yet, smooth (once achieved.)
Either way, things shine, and then fade.The fire burns bright until the watcher sleeps (and sleep he must, ’cause sleep is granted, awaken’s not.)
(transient victories/defeats, forever ties)
The plight of the scientist/rationalist: without enough pills and nuts & bolts, mankind, and the Universe, will never be fixed.
The Universe: is it recycling (perfect Universe), or is it refining (imperfect Universe)?
If the Universe is a full-fledged, self-contained recycling unit, then humans (and everything else, for that matter) are a random, disposable feature.
If the Universe is a self-improving entity then humans are a transient, disposable tool.Either way, coping with our transient nature seems to be our greatest conceptual ordeal.
Anecdotal corollary: There are not enough resources in the Universe to support two eternal entities – God and Man; one will destroy the other, otherwise both will perish. Place your bets, Ladies & Gents.
What to do?
Do nothing, nothing at all (in the strictest sense, or just keep doing whatever you do.)
You either are part of a perfect whole, therefore you’re perfect yourself, or you are an imperfect part of an imperfect whole and if the whole doesn’t know what perfection is, how will you ever?
(It’s neither your fault, nor merit.)The part of the world which has America as its role model will vanish, and only a savage world will remain; the world will lose a huge chunk of its charm but it will retrieve some sanity. It could be worse.
(the secret of happiness)
‘I just want them to be as numb as possible.
They will learn to feed themselves; that’s all.’(Curiosity and its bastard sibling, hope, are the archenemies of tranquility.)
I have no animosity towards you, no feelings for you: you are what you have to be; it’s neither your fault, nor merit.
Did you build all the things you have used to become the splendid creature you think you are?
No? Then it’s not your merit. (You’re just a sophisticated scavenger/necrophagous.)
Did you foresaw all the bad consequences from your deeds?
No? Then it’s not your fault. (You’re as clueless as the rest of us.)(I’m on “this side” because the “other side” is dumb, drab and humourless; being on “this side” doesn’t force me to be a fanatic nor to stop pondering on human nature.
I’m part of the relevant assets on “this side”: someone who appreciates the ‘pros’ without dismissing/overlooking the ‘cons’.
If you still want to kick me out from “this side”, it’s all good: being a part of the “undistinguished side”, avoiding the pitfalls of both sides (while coming up with some of our own) is also a valuable experience.)(humans are clueless, sophisticated scavengers/necrophagous)
Restlessness, a creator’s tools of the trade; God is the Supreme Creator: His restlessness is Eternal.
Flowers and thorns: some praise the flower, some whine about the thorn, some accept the whole of Creation.
God’s will trumps free will. Radical Acceptance knows no anxiety.Thank you all for the comments and kind words.
(against Mr. fixit; deleveraging the positive self)
(To whom it may concern)The tragedy of mankind is that even highly intelligent people like yourself can’t seem to understand the Basic Universal Principle: there’s no positive(good;pleasure) without negative(evil;pain).
I’m quite convinced you can easily accept that the atom is formed by both positive and negative particles (among other), and you can also readily entertain the prospect that messing around with the bond between them is not usually a neatly sound idea.
Nevertheless, you wake up every single day with the fierce determination to separate your negative self from your positive self.
How do you cope with that?
By projecting the negative onto the other, then proceeding to destroy the other and voilà: negative’s gone. Next, with the negative irreparably enmeshed within the self, you will keep on projecting, and off you go, into the never-ending quest for the negative other.(‘I get “all” the “main” things “right”. Why can’t everybody trip like I do? Why can’t you be like me?’)
(Tip of the hat to Richard Patrick, Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland)And then there are some, even clever than you are, who deftly use this generalized blindness (meaning, they are using you) to serve their own knavish intents.
All in all, it’s not a big deal: we all live in The Unavoidable; some will be willing and sometimes, able to slow down The Dualistic Engine, some can only crank it up.
There’s no universal peace of mind; only
The Everlasting Dissatisfaction.(I got it “wrong”, of course; otherwise, how could you have it “right”?)
Can you answer the following:
– What are we building civilization (culture, knowledge, technology, science) for?Do you have an answer? And if you do, what place does it have for “free will”?
I can answer it for you:
– We build civilization for the greater comfort of the flesh. There you have it: body over mind – that’s “free will” for you.Civilization: the triumph of the Flesh.
(This is not against or for civilization, just a simple reminder to not bother to chastise everyone else with any “good & evil” puffery, “priestly” flackery.)
