"This is what God said: 'I promise that never again will all people and animals be destroyed by a flood. I am putting my rainbow in the clouds. And when the rainbow appears, I will see it and remember this promise of mine.'"
for despite all claims to an omniscient God, God in fact has something of a bad, or at least imperfect, memory. it is a memory that needs reminders of promises, the promise alone unable to substantiate itself. God needs aids as we need them. this imperfect memory defeats, first of all, assumptions of omniscience, knowledge being only sustained memories, and complete knowledge entailing a working memory of anything and everything, alpha and omega, first and final cause. the act of forgetting -- Forgetting being actually inherent to everything -- could not be a possibility were it a true case of omniscience. so, God does not know all (and indeed CANNOT know all anyway, as a thorough study of prophecy would show).
secondly, God's imperfect memory begets an altogether different reading of the scriptures, if they are indeed supposed to be God's Word. the bible is no less a historical telling by way of selective memory than the histories of humankind produced by its own imperfect collective memories. were we even to propose that God would be at least less inclined to error in his telling than humans, it would no more depreciate the weight, the heavy burdenous weight, of the condition of a possibility (and therefore SOME probability) for error; nor can it stave off the more immense problem that with limited memory (of any sort!) there is inherently, indispensibly, a perspective, a point-of-view, and necessarily, simultaneously, a bias in what is Told. alternate histories must therefore have alternate Gods, differentiated and distributed by people (or, the more likely case, pre-differentiated and pre-distributed by something human but unconscious or subconscious), people who themselves have points of view and biases. God(s) must be pluralistic. monotheism in its strong form then can only exist emically, in those cases of violent (abridging, omitting) isolationism, in self-limiting; in its weak form, monotheism must equate itself with pluralism of a sort, a closet monolatrism, whereby, just like "Love", only the name and the act of signification itself of SOMETHING (always something different) can serve a base for union.
2009/10/23
2009/10/09
archiving a few notes from the past (couple of) year(s)
i've decided to copy some scribblings down here from a year or so of English bookreadings, podcast lectures, etc., as i sip through teeth a third cup of my own concoction of asparagus tea. these notes are not in full, not even a substantial fraction of the notes i've taken, and i know that i have many more in other journals; but the mad archiving machine has already awaken -- and some is better than none.
+ lectures on history by Rufus Fears:
--> "Signposts" of education in history:
"1 - Despite the importance of doing so, we do not learn from history.
2 - Science and technology cannot immunize us from history's lessons.
3 - Freedom, which Americans believe is longed for by people worldwide, is not a globally shared value. By contrast, desire for power, whether wielded as a despot, or as a benevolent empire or superpower, is a universal value.
4 - Known as the cradle of civilization, the Middle East has also been the graveyard of empires, no matter what their intention, as the Romans and so many others have learned.
5 - America will experience the same ultimate destiny as the memorable democracies, republics and superpowers of the past.
6 - Religion and spirituality -- and the lust for power -- are the most profound motivators in history.
7 - Nations and empires rise and fall not because of anonymous social and economic forces but because of decisions made by individuals.
8 - A true statesman possesses four qualities: a bedrock of principles, a moral compass, a vision, and the ability to build consensus to achieve that vision."
--> Three freedoms [paraphrased]:
national freedom -- independence from other nations
political freedom -- power of vote and rights as a citizen
individual freedom -- liberty to pursue happiness and live the way you wish (so long as it doesn't hurt others)
America's greatness stems from a balancing of these three freedoms.
[note: the mistake i belive Fears is making is in limiting his synopses of other countries to "not wanting freedom" -- that it "may" (as though he means to say 'will' and not the hypothetical 'would') be difficult to "transplant" our sense of freedom (that is, the balance of the so-called three freedoms) and way of living to other countries... as though he believes his own story of us as a "chosen people." he's also not being fair to the diversity of nuances to freedom, depending in part on culture. upon asking one of my japanese friends what kind of feeling she associates with the idea of freedom, she replied, "loneliness."]
--> 'Superpowers bring destruction upon themselves by getting too involved in others' business.' -- the lesson of hybris [hubris] (theological concept of "outrageous arrogance" -- later to mean "sin" in christianity -- at the base of which is free will.
[note: Fears believes we (Americans) are "the last great hope for mankind" -- based on the words of Abraham Lincoln. he also believes in an unchanging "human nature" -- and that this is what makes "the lessons of history eternally valid" (like laws of physics). "There's nothing wrong with wanting your country to be number one." i find this to be a very poor value in regard to international relations and international cooperative development. it's one thing to be loyal to one's country; it's another to proclaim oneself the best based on a limited perspective based on an even more limited set of values. Fears would obviously not like the notion of compassion much in this context.]
+ DECONSTRUCTION IN A NUTSHELL, by John D. Caputo:
"If a community is too welcoming, it loses its identity; if it keeps its identity, it becomes unwelcoming." (113)
"To give a gift requires that one then forget, and asks the other to forget, absolutely, that a gift has been given, so that the gift, if there is one, would vanish without a trace. If time is a calendar, a ring or annum, a circle or cycle, then the gift callus upon us to tear up the circle of time, to breach the circular movement of exchange and reciprocity, and in a 'moment' of madness, to do something for once without or beyond reason, in a time without time, to give without return.
"But that is impossible. To be sure. The gift is impossible; indeed, 'gift is another name for the impossible.' That is why we love it so much, like mad." (144)
[note: a thorough understanding of what Derrida means by "impossible" is important will shed light on the full message here. 'Im-/in-' having the same function here as 'important', 'impassioned' or as 'invenir' ('to come'), a 'coming into', thus a sort of 'into the possible' or 'making possible' (because, as a singularity, a singular event, each and every time, it isn't possible yet, is never entirely possible).]
"Learn BOTH to give AND to exchange; learn to see that each depends upon, invades, and interweaves with the other, and learn to keep watch, to see what is what, as far as that is possible. Know how impossible the gift is, how much it tears you out of yourself, and know how much you are intruding into your gift." (146)
--> "Commit yourself even if commitment is the destruction of the gift by the gift...give economy its chance." -- Derrida
"The relation to the other -- even if it remains asymmetircal, open, without possible reappropriation -- must trace a movement of reappropriation in the image of oneself for love to be possible, for example. Love is narcissistic." -- Derrida
"Justice and the gift are impossible, THE impossible, which is my passion, that BY which I begin and am impassioned." (149)
+ THE MYSTERIOUS FLAME OF QUEEN LOANA, by Umberto Eco
"To remember is to reconstruct." (25)
"Remembering is a labour, not a luxury." (?)
"To think that there are lunatics who drink to forget, or take drugs. Oh, if only I could forget it all, they say. I alone know the truth: Forgetting is dreadful." (?)
"To be intensely educated about the horror of sin and then to be conquered by it. I tell myself that it must be prohibition that kindles fantasy. Thus I decide that, if I am to escape temptation, I must avoid the suggestions of an 'education in purity': both are the devil's stratagems, and each sustains the other. This intuition, however heterodox, hits me like a whip." (396)
+ PATTERN RECOGNITION, William Gibson:
"There must always be room for coincidence, Win had maintained. When there's not, you're probably well into apophenia, each thing then perceived as part of an overarching pattern of conspiracy. And while comfortaing yourself with the symmetry of it all, he'd believed, you stood all too real a chance of missing the genuine threat, which was invariably less symmetrical, less perfect. But which he always, she knew, took for granted was there." (304)
+ DUNE, Frank Herbert:
"There is in all things a pattern that is part of our universe. It has symmetry, elegance, and grace -- those qualities you find always in that which the true artist captures. You can find it in the turning of the seasons, in the way sand trails along a ridge, in the branch clusters of the creosote bush or the pattern of its leaves. We try to copy these patters in our lives and our society, seeking the rhythms, the dances, the forms that comfort. Yet, it is possible to see peril in the finding of ultimate perfection. It is clear that the ultimate pattern contains its own fixity. In such perfection, all things move toward death." (380)
"Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretension. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man." (126)
"Prophecy and prescience -- How can they be put to the test in the face of the unanswered questions? Consider: How much is actual prediction of the 'wave form' (as Muad'Dib referred to his vision-image) and how much is the prophet shaping the future to fit the prophecy? What of the harmonics inherent in the act of prophecy? Does the prophet see the future or does he see a line of weakness, a fault or cleavage that he may shatter with words or decisions as a diamond-cutter shatters his gem with a blow of a knife?" (277)
this will be all for now. fingers are tired, tea is gone, and i have other things to handle. peace, and happy readings.
+ lectures on history by Rufus Fears:
--> "Signposts" of education in history:
"1 - Despite the importance of doing so, we do not learn from history.
2 - Science and technology cannot immunize us from history's lessons.
3 - Freedom, which Americans believe is longed for by people worldwide, is not a globally shared value. By contrast, desire for power, whether wielded as a despot, or as a benevolent empire or superpower, is a universal value.
4 - Known as the cradle of civilization, the Middle East has also been the graveyard of empires, no matter what their intention, as the Romans and so many others have learned.
5 - America will experience the same ultimate destiny as the memorable democracies, republics and superpowers of the past.
6 - Religion and spirituality -- and the lust for power -- are the most profound motivators in history.
7 - Nations and empires rise and fall not because of anonymous social and economic forces but because of decisions made by individuals.
8 - A true statesman possesses four qualities: a bedrock of principles, a moral compass, a vision, and the ability to build consensus to achieve that vision."
--> Three freedoms [paraphrased]:
national freedom -- independence from other nations
political freedom -- power of vote and rights as a citizen
individual freedom -- liberty to pursue happiness and live the way you wish (so long as it doesn't hurt others)
America's greatness stems from a balancing of these three freedoms.
[note: the mistake i belive Fears is making is in limiting his synopses of other countries to "not wanting freedom" -- that it "may" (as though he means to say 'will' and not the hypothetical 'would') be difficult to "transplant" our sense of freedom (that is, the balance of the so-called three freedoms) and way of living to other countries... as though he believes his own story of us as a "chosen people." he's also not being fair to the diversity of nuances to freedom, depending in part on culture. upon asking one of my japanese friends what kind of feeling she associates with the idea of freedom, she replied, "loneliness."]
--> 'Superpowers bring destruction upon themselves by getting too involved in others' business.' -- the lesson of hybris [hubris] (theological concept of "outrageous arrogance" -- later to mean "sin" in christianity -- at the base of which is free will.
[note: Fears believes we (Americans) are "the last great hope for mankind" -- based on the words of Abraham Lincoln. he also believes in an unchanging "human nature" -- and that this is what makes "the lessons of history eternally valid" (like laws of physics). "There's nothing wrong with wanting your country to be number one." i find this to be a very poor value in regard to international relations and international cooperative development. it's one thing to be loyal to one's country; it's another to proclaim oneself the best based on a limited perspective based on an even more limited set of values. Fears would obviously not like the notion of compassion much in this context.]
+ DECONSTRUCTION IN A NUTSHELL, by John D. Caputo:
"If a community is too welcoming, it loses its identity; if it keeps its identity, it becomes unwelcoming." (113)
"To give a gift requires that one then forget, and asks the other to forget, absolutely, that a gift has been given, so that the gift, if there is one, would vanish without a trace. If time is a calendar, a ring or annum, a circle or cycle, then the gift callus upon us to tear up the circle of time, to breach the circular movement of exchange and reciprocity, and in a 'moment' of madness, to do something for once without or beyond reason, in a time without time, to give without return.
"But that is impossible. To be sure. The gift is impossible; indeed, 'gift is another name for the impossible.' That is why we love it so much, like mad." (144)
[note: a thorough understanding of what Derrida means by "impossible" is important will shed light on the full message here. 'Im-/in-' having the same function here as 'important', 'impassioned' or as 'invenir' ('to come'), a 'coming into', thus a sort of 'into the possible' or 'making possible' (because, as a singularity, a singular event, each and every time, it isn't possible yet, is never entirely possible).]
"Learn BOTH to give AND to exchange; learn to see that each depends upon, invades, and interweaves with the other, and learn to keep watch, to see what is what, as far as that is possible. Know how impossible the gift is, how much it tears you out of yourself, and know how much you are intruding into your gift." (146)
--> "Commit yourself even if commitment is the destruction of the gift by the gift...give economy its chance." -- Derrida
"The relation to the other -- even if it remains asymmetircal, open, without possible reappropriation -- must trace a movement of reappropriation in the image of oneself for love to be possible, for example. Love is narcissistic." -- Derrida
"Justice and the gift are impossible, THE impossible, which is my passion, that BY which I begin and am impassioned." (149)
+ THE MYSTERIOUS FLAME OF QUEEN LOANA, by Umberto Eco
"To remember is to reconstruct." (25)
"Remembering is a labour, not a luxury." (?)
"To think that there are lunatics who drink to forget, or take drugs. Oh, if only I could forget it all, they say. I alone know the truth: Forgetting is dreadful." (?)
"To be intensely educated about the horror of sin and then to be conquered by it. I tell myself that it must be prohibition that kindles fantasy. Thus I decide that, if I am to escape temptation, I must avoid the suggestions of an 'education in purity': both are the devil's stratagems, and each sustains the other. This intuition, however heterodox, hits me like a whip." (396)
+ PATTERN RECOGNITION, William Gibson:
"There must always be room for coincidence, Win had maintained. When there's not, you're probably well into apophenia, each thing then perceived as part of an overarching pattern of conspiracy. And while comfortaing yourself with the symmetry of it all, he'd believed, you stood all too real a chance of missing the genuine threat, which was invariably less symmetrical, less perfect. But which he always, she knew, took for granted was there." (304)
+ DUNE, Frank Herbert:
"There is in all things a pattern that is part of our universe. It has symmetry, elegance, and grace -- those qualities you find always in that which the true artist captures. You can find it in the turning of the seasons, in the way sand trails along a ridge, in the branch clusters of the creosote bush or the pattern of its leaves. We try to copy these patters in our lives and our society, seeking the rhythms, the dances, the forms that comfort. Yet, it is possible to see peril in the finding of ultimate perfection. It is clear that the ultimate pattern contains its own fixity. In such perfection, all things move toward death." (380)
"Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretension. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man." (126)
"Prophecy and prescience -- How can they be put to the test in the face of the unanswered questions? Consider: How much is actual prediction of the 'wave form' (as Muad'Dib referred to his vision-image) and how much is the prophet shaping the future to fit the prophecy? What of the harmonics inherent in the act of prophecy? Does the prophet see the future or does he see a line of weakness, a fault or cleavage that he may shatter with words or decisions as a diamond-cutter shatters his gem with a blow of a knife?" (277)
this will be all for now. fingers are tired, tea is gone, and i have other things to handle. peace, and happy readings.
2009/10/03
the GoodHost
to my dear friend Kayoko, whose birthday was yesterday...
age and
pretty dresses
as she walks
into the
room
abandoning
for only A Moment
those at home
fend
forthemselves for
a
couple of hours,
by plastic
"Such a Shame,
that boy,
what
a
Bright Young Man
he was becoming,"
sipping her tea&Conversation
with the nod of
her host
A tart smell
ofage and
pretty dresses
as she walks
into the
room
abandoning
for only A Moment
those at home
they need her
After All, leaving
them toAfter All, leaving
fend
forthemselves for
a
couple of hours,
she comes for
tea
and Conversation,
"Have you heard?"
she doesn't see the flowers
stem ends
piercedtea
and Conversation,
"Have you heard?"
she doesn't see the flowers
stem ends
by plastic
and soaked
in dirty water --
in dirty water --
when she does finally
she tones silently
How
Pretty! they are --
she tones silently
How
Pretty! they are --
"Such a Shame,
that boy,
what
a
Bright Young Man
he was becoming,"
sipping her tea&Conversation
with the nod of
her host
a neighbor,
a neighbor-hood-equal,
smelling older, who
cannot Afford
to
leave
the house
a neighbor-hood-equal,
smelling older, who
cannot Afford
to
leave
the house
"And
How Is
your
husband?"
How Is
your
husband?"
a carnation
wilts slightly,
almost but not
quite imperceptibly,
nods with
the host,
nods
to sleep
to death
wilts slightly,
almost but not
quite imperceptibly,
nods with
the host,
nods
to sleep
to death
"Yes..."
a pair of
swallows
skirt by the window
and
land for a
moment's gaze inwards
Time to return.
They need
me after all" --
a pair of
swallows
skirt by the window
and
land for a
moment's gaze inwards
the host, as she is
a GoodHost
draws the
curtain over
the
outside
"Well, it'sa GoodHost
draws the
curtain over
the
outside
Time to return.
They need
me after all" --
she hardly
notices
the
dandelion
she steps on
on her
way out the
front gate.
notices
the
dandelion
she steps on
on her
way out the
front gate.
Inside
the arrangement
bends forward, bows
down
betrays itself
and the GoodHost
with
dew tears,
the arrangement
bends forward, bows
down
betrays itself
and the GoodHost
with
dew tears,
a Couple of Hours
After All,
is an eternity
for flowers.
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