Saturday, August 16, 2008

We are carpet moths!

The edges of the carpets I my house were becoming thin. I wondered why, only to discover that carpet moths were eating away the wool in the carpet, leaving the edge bear. Not knowing what too do, I resorted to google, as always! Most of the sites (except the ones selling carpet-moth pesticide) said that pesticide wasn’t necessary, and that merely disturbing them with the vacuum was good enough to get rid of them. After all, they only live at the edges of carpets, never in the middle where people walk and the floor is constantly disturbed.

Humans are also just like this. If we are not disturbed then we flourish. If the political system is stable, then we flourish. If the economy is stable, we flourish. With stability comes accurate planning, careful consideration, and long-term fruitfulness. Politicians know this, and so to win votes, they try to create a stable system, especially economically. Or at least, a system that appears and feels stable. To do this, they will (and do) do anything they can get away with, like lying about statistics (unemployment, inflation), and so use the media to try to present stability. But of course, they only try to achieve the illusion, the feeling of stability. Only good politicians try to actually create stability, and because of unrealistic expectations of the populace (fuelled by the media and ignorance) and the pressure of corporations, there is no room in the world today for good politicians, except at possibly the local level, the level where they have minimal impact (so is not worth it for corporations to work to change the situation).

But the same is also true: humans don’t flourish in times of instability. The US policy in the Middle East for the pasts few decades is to ensure there is instability. Only if there is instability can the greatest looting of resources (oil) in history continue. Only when people in their day to day lives have to worry about food and shelter, will they not have the energy to concern themselves with political injustice, to come together and organise, to throw off the oppressor and thief that the US and Britain are.

This is nothing new. This knowledge has been known by politicians for generations. It is, by now, official policy: cause chaos to steal resources and power, cause stability to get a happy population and thereby win votes.

This is the way we work. It is the way life woks. Abusing this is the speciality of politicians, corporations and economic theorists. And it is up to you, the person, to be aware of this policy and not let yourself become subject to it: to work to stop it happening to you. I hope that by publishing this I am contributing to people protecting themselves from this evil. I hope those who read it do not use this knowledge for abuse.

He who abuses this is evil. He is a rapist. He is cruel and revels in torture. And sadly, he is rich and powerful.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Life by Word, Life by Image

Just a short post to link to pictures of my travels. Click to view them!

picasaweb.google.com/thugsb

Thursday, June 19, 2008

ICS Essays

These are all the essays I wrote for classes at ICS. The syllabus for most of the classes can be viewed here.
If you find any of them helpful, please leave a comment. And if you use them at all, please let me know!
They all received between a B+ and A grade, the thesis itself receiving an A.
Apologies for any formatting issues - if you would like a OpenOffice, Word or PDF version, please ask and I'll be happy to send them.

Fall 2005
John's Word - Biblical Foundations
Evil Sins - A Critique of Herman Dooyeweerd's Concept of Evil - Reformational Philosophy
Evil Relations - An Experience of the Trinity - The Divine (at) Risk
Evil Times - An Ecological Critique of the Doctrines of Individual Salvation, Dispensationalism, Creationism and Obliterationism - Christianity and the Ecological Crisis

Spring 2006
Reforming the Bible -Postmodern Canonicity - Inter-Disciplinary Seminar: Dialogue and Difference
Opening My Other Eye - Postmodernism and the Diversity of Religion - Postmodernity
CreatorCreation - Boundary and Distinction - GodSexWordFlesh & Postmodern Post-Freudian Psychoanalysis

Fall 2006
Why The Tortoise Can Fly - Knowledge as Mythology in Allen, Ansell, Moltmann and Swimme - Inter-Disciplinary Seminar: Art, Knowledge and Life
From Ground to Ocean - (Ful)filling the Abyss - The Ground of Be(com)ing / The Horizon of Hope: Creation, Time & Eschatology

Spring 2007
Jesus Divines/d (God) - Christological Godding - God Inc.: Christology/Humanity/Incarnation
The Big B's - Guided Reading

Fall 2008
From Ground to Ocean - Robinson and Keller at the Beginnings of Divinity - MA Thesis
If you wish to receive a copy of my thesis, I am more than happy to send it to you. Please leave a comment with your email address and I will send you a copy (you can immediately delete your comment if you are afraid of spammers - I receive a copy of the comment by email as soon as it is posted).

Creative Commons License

Monday, June 16, 2008

Just a thought...

Dissolving the Ego is great. It is the direction of love, of the Divine, of connection with the world and with others. But those with power in the world seem to have over-developed egos (enabling them to separate themselves from others, the earth, even their own bodies), and since they make the laws (and bombs) it may be necessary to have an ego and not dissolve it. Necessary for our own (cultural and artistic) survival. Sad, but (maybe) true.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Fractalic Time of Life

We are fractals. Generation to generation. We are self-similar, yet never self-same. We are a repeating cycle, in time, of the generational continuation. My fathers and my mother’s life is like my life - coming to know parents, growing up in a home, growing into an adult, going through various life experiences, death of parents, etc. Those two parts of the fractal coalesce, with tinges and influences of other's (spirals), and as the fractals goes (zooms in), you seem a similar pattern just down the line of spirals. That's us. Who we interactive with, what part of the fractal they are on, gives a huge amount of influence into us. And our job is to create ourselves in a way that is beautiful, in a dance with those around us. To survive, don't just physically be a fractal (as the fern and the shell), but be a fractal in time, mutating enough in every generation to be so significantly self-different (yet self-similar), that you can learn and adapt to survive. That's what every male-female species has learnt, including plants, animals, birds, etc. And at this scale of fractal, everything is more varied, diversity flourishes. But so do diseases, like war - as the ability to kill has increased in influence of the spirals, it has so increased in the influence and scope of its clutches. We must find a cure for that affliction. Somehow, the healthy spirals must find a way to love, to nurture, to cure this disease that afflicts us. It is our ability to exercise complete freedom in each moment, to create the spiral as we live (not think) we should. That freedom, based on previous experiences and influences, to create something new.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Stuese and Engl-ish

We all speak different languages. What I speak, and what language this blog is written in, is generally called 'English' because I speak the language called 'Engl' - ish. Most of the time, what we (Engl-ish speakers) mean is pretty similar, and so communication happens. But sometimes we can say the same words yet mean completely different things by it. Let's take an example.

If I think of the word 'potato', I immediately think of a brown, lumpy food. As I start to think further, I realise that it is a root vegetable (it was the root of a plant, and it fits into my category of it being a vegetable). The word 'blight' also comes into my head, because of the discussions I've had over the past few weeks with people who farm potatoes (and blight has been a problem for them). This also makes me think of tomatoes, because they are in the same 'family' and also suffer from potato blight (an interesting, memorable and surprising fact as far as I was concerned).

If I ask you to think of the word 'potato', then undoubtedly you'll think different thoughts. You'll also probably start off by thinking about the brown lumpy thing. But then maybe you'll remember that you have just run out of potatoes and need to go buy some (and you'll also remember you need to buy a light bulb, for example). And then your thoughts may drift to the time someone threw a potato at you, and your resentment towards them. Michael (or whoever it was, if it even happened) always was an asshole.

So the word potato started off by giving us very similar thoughts, but quite quickly (in this example) our thoughts diverged and the word had many different and varied connotations for us.

If I write the word 'Helvirid', you probably won't recognise it. As it is, it bears very little meaning for you. If I now tell you that helvirid refers to the kind of sunset you sometimes see where the sky goes through shades of purple, red, yellow, blue and even includes tinges of green (specifically), then that word will take on a little more meaning for you. Indeed, next time you see that special kind of sunset you'll probably think of this word (or try to remember what it was). You see, words in themselves have no (or very little) meaning. It is only when they are given a context and related to other words, feelings or experiences that it can begin to make sense.

(Helvirid is actually a completely new word that I have just invented and decided would be a good addition to Stuese – my own language. (Sunsets need more words to describe their beauty anyway.) It is not found in Engl(ish), yet you may accept it into your own language if you think it is good enough – that is still an open question. It derives from Helios (Greek, meaing the sun) and viridis (Latin, from which we get 'verdant', green). But the point would still apply if I used the word 'Hesperian', which does indeed appear in the Engl-ish dictionary. I'm guessing that before reading this you had not encountered the word (no offence if you had), and so that word was previously not a part of your language (even though it was in English).

Here's an example from my own life. In 2003, when a person would say 'guitarist', most Engl-ish speakers would think of musicians who played the guitar. They may even have some positive feelings towards the word, as they liked guitar music, knew a guitarist, were a guitarist, or wanted to be. For me, however, at that time in my life, the word 'guitarist' had entirely negative connotations. A few times, it even caused me to shudder with disgust. For that word had two meanings to me: a) The self-promoting, proud singer at the front of my church (and many churches) was a guitarist, and that person (and many like him) was just there to gain glory for themselves, which seemed to me to be completely contrary to Christianity, and therefore should not be in church; and b) It referred to the idiots at Moody Bible Institute who would go and play the guitar in the public plaza/square, because (as they said) they just loved to praise God – those super-spiritual bastards were just there to win over the girls, and for some fucked up reason, a huge number of girls fell for them (and being single, that was just irritating – can't the girls see they're assholes?). So here we have a case where a fairly 'normal' and 'neutral' word had massively different connotations between the common Engl-ish speaker, and me, the speaker of Stuese.

Words with multiple, complex and deep meanings to them (like love, friendship, happiness, sex, truth, reality, God, etc.) will always be a little bit misunderstood, because we all bring significantly different connotations and experiences to those words. So when talking about those areas, they will always involve complex conversations and probably a frequent amount of misunderstanding. However, as you talk with a person more and get used to their particular language and connotations, and as you come to understand them more, your language will become closer to theirs, and so the frequency and depth of misunderstandings will decrease.

When it comes to talking philosophically (or linguistically, theologically, etc.), similar problems arise. In my Moody degree (if you can call it that), I memorised and regurgitated facts – the information that I learnt changed me very little. But at ICS, I wanted to be changed, and it was a very healthy environment that promoted that kind of life change. But the life change occurred largely through linguistic changes. I spent 2.5 years learning different meanings and different connotations to words, and then I used those words myself. They became a part of me. I didn't forget (most of) the other connotations I knew previously (and so I can still speak Engl-ish), but Stuese changed a great deal because so many words gained new connotations, and those new connotations have changed my life. Indeed, a great many philosophical books written recently focus on the meanings of just one or two words (e.g. Martin Buber’s Ich und Du (I and Thou/I and You (depending on translation), Erich Fromm’s To Have or To Be, Sigmund Freud’s Das Ich Und Das Es (meaning The I and The It, although it is commonly translated The Ego and The Id, etc.).

But is there a point to changing out language? I think so. I have learnt these other connotations, and I am now convinced I am a better person for it. I am convinced that many of the previous (more conventional) ways of speaking that I used were doing damage, or were not very healthy.

We can see that the society around us is messed up and pretty sick. I am convinced that part of the sickness is in the language used, and part of the cure is to change our language. I want to spread philosoph-ish, because I think it will lead to healthier lives, both for individuals, and for society. I think that many connotations in philosoph-ish are pretty good remedies for society, if only people would learn to change their language.

PS. This entire blog post was written in Stuese. I hope that you have the necessary tools to translate it into something you can understand, but if you don't, post a comment, and I'll try to explain it again. Unfortunately I will always be limited to writing in Stuese, but I'll do my best.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Creatio Ex Omnia

We are created out of everything. Our actions, our thoughts, our lives – all of this is created in the continuous and Eternal Now (The idea of the Eternal Now mentioned here primarily emerges from Martin Buber’s I and Thou and John Robinson’s Thou Who Art.), created from everything. The Now is created from all-that-was-just-before-now-and-is-no-more-(except-as-memory). Our decisions, made in the freedom of Now, are also decided within the limitations of omnia, of all. All-that-is-no-more is preserved in the Now, which is the collective memory of omnia, of all. Our ability to decide is based upon the pre-existing conditions, as the context for our decision.
I cannot decide to be in Canada now (except by linguistically changing my categories – which doesn’t help me get closer to my girlfriend), because I am in Scotland – that is the context, and the context limits my ability to decide. My Now, sitting on a bed in Scotland (when I wrote this), is created out of everything-that-just-was. The molecules, electrons and photons are (somewhat) limited by their manifestations-just-before-this-Now. And yet, even they have freedom (and since freedom depends on some level of conscious awareness of the surroundnigs, even they are conscious).
If you wish to create something, then you must work towards creating the situation where its creation is a possible decision. To create guitar music, you must have a guitar (at least present, regardless of economic/social ownership). To play good guitar music, you must have a guitar and be a good guitarist, so set up that situation by practising. To create a new song that can be repeated, you need a guitar, the ability to remember what you played (recording it in human memory or e.g. magnetic tape memory), and you need to create the situation of being inspired (whether that means going into the woods, playing/singing about experiences you remember, or whatever). New guitar music that is good do not just emerge into reality – they are created by decisions made in ‘friendly’ situations.
We are created by everything. And so everything has had a part in creating us. If you’re a good person, you’re not a good person because you happen to be a good person. You’re a good person because you have repeatedly made good decisions, and yet those good decisions have only been made possible because the situations were created (by omnia, by everything) for you to make them in – the context deserves a lot of the credit or the blame for the decision (that’s why we have Acknowledgements). For the decider is just a small part of the all, the omnia that is creating.
That which has made me/is making me is not me – it is omnia, the one-that-is-all-(and-includes-me). This One is still creating.
I, the universe, create myself in the eternal Now. I, Stuart, am defining and creating myself in the Now through the decisions I make.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Food for Fought: The Real Problem With GM

The real problem with GM is not necessarily the genetic modification itself. OK, we don't know whether the GM crops are more or less health, and we don't know whether GM food is detrimental to the health in the long term, because it largely hasn't been tested. But humans have been doing genetic modification for a long time - not in the lab manipulating the molecules, but in the field, manipulating the healthier, bigger grains or fruits to grow more. For example, in pre-industrial, agricultural Peru, there are 2000 potato varieties, with as many as 50 varieties per village - all of which stem from genetic modification by peasant farmers. (Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America, 1977 [1996], 177)

No, the real problem with GM is human freedom. Large agribusiness companies, like Monsanto, are the developers of GM seed, and they patent that seed so that it belongs to them. Farmers then have to pay Monsanto to use their seed. This doesn't seem like much of a problem, at this stage. But we have to look deeper.

Monsanto, et al, have developed terminator seed - that is, seed that will produce fruit one year, but the fruit it produces is infertile, meaning that farmers then have to re-buy seed the following year, and cannot re-plant what they have just grown. This traps farmers into buying seed yearly. Pretty bad, but again, not the end of the world, especially if their net profits are still up.

The next stage is that Monsanto sues farmers who don't use their seed if some of it happened to land (and grow) on the farmer's land. This happened in Canada, where a farmer was sued after seed, probably from a passing truck (although it may have been purposely planted by Monsanto), landed in a farmer's field - Monsanto then trespassed on his property, collected samples of the crop, and successfully sued him for not paying for their seed when he was growing (just a tiny bit of) their crop. This farmer then had to burn all the rest of his seed (generations of carefully grown and carefully improved seed), because of fear of continued sueing. They destroyed the farmer's life, destroyed the farmer's life work of seed-improvement. This is not unique, and not even unusual - hundred of farmers have reported threat-letters from Monsanto, and have reached settlements that they are not allowed to discuss.

The next stage, once farmers give in and buy Monsanto's seed, is for Monsanto to spread disease that their seed is protected against - any farmer with Monsanto's seed gets a good crop, any without is blighted and yields little or no harvest - forcing them to get Monsanto's seed. This, to the public knowledge, has not yet happened, although it is well within the companies ability and moral structure - it is likely, if not to have already happened, that it will happen soon.

At this point, Monsanto have a virtual monopoly on almost the entire world's food production. As we require food to live, Monsanto also have vast control over our life - if a nation disobeys them, they take away the (terminator) seed, spread blight, removing the food, and so the nation dies.

What is at issue in GM debates is the very freedom of human life. What Monsanto will tell you is that they're just trying to end world poverty. Don't believe them. They're on the path to the domination of human life, and they know it. And they want it. And they are willing to destroy lives to get it. This, if anything, is a cause worth fighting.

Some may say that the activists who destroy fields of GM crops are terrorists. They are not. They are activists, fighting for human freedom where government and society is failing. The real terrorists are the GM companies in their quest for global control. Stop them, and fight to make them illegal - fight to make them stop.

For more info, watch the documentary film The Future of Food (trailer, torrent download, torrent 2). Or go to GMWatch.eu.

Monday, February 18, 2008

DVD, CD and mp3 Morality

It has now come to the point where it is immoral to buy music or movies.

When an artist creates something, it seems fair that they should be the ones who benefit financially from their creation. This idea is why so many people are for the artist's protection via copyright law (copyright is better called Usemonopoly, for that is both a truer name, and reflects the attitudes of the intellectual property lawyers and discussion).

Musicians have ceased to gain real money from the sales of recorded music. If you wish to help an artist out, go to their concert or performance. For the recorded music industry have succeeded in taking away the money from the musicians, meaning that when you buy music (either online or on a CD) you are not giving money to the art, but to the corporation who reproduced their art. You are fueling the pockets of CEO's and contributing to the growth of already-oversized corporations. It is these rich CEO's and these large corporations who are fueling our desire for more, who are brainwashing us into consumerism, and so who are destroying the earth. It is immoral to contribute to this trend, and so it is immoral to buy music.

The same goes for movies. Of course, if the band/movie is a very small deal, and if the CD/DVD cases look homemade, or if the music is sold directly from the artist's website, then they probably get most of that money. This would again be moral, and it’s not immoral to invest your money in those artists.

At the cinema you'll often see an advert showing a thief steal a hangbag, and comparing that to steal movies. But is this a fair comparison? No. The crucial difference is that after stealing a handbag, the owner of the handbag is left without it. After downloading music or movies, the owner still has it.

Therefore, because it is moral to download media, and generally immoral to buy it, I recommend thepiratebay, isohunt, and these websites (for streaming TV and movies) to get you started. Of course, you'll need a torrent program to download this, for which I recommend the open-source Azeurus (if you have a fast computer), or old versions of uTorrent (for the low-resources option - my personal choice).

Sadly the law has not yet caught up to the morality of the situation. If you vote for the Pirate Party, then it may eventually do so. But law moves slowly, and so for a long time you'll be choosing to either be legal and immoral, or illegal and moral. For the sake of the earth, the poor, and the artists, choose to be moral!

Also see this excellent Harper's article (for a fuller, better essay regarding some of these issues).