If — in my own head — I hit a universal note just about right in Facebook or other conversation, I may simply wrench it from context and publish it here in this category as a mix of observation and, I hope, a writer’s wisdom.

FTAC – “With every generation, a little more freedom is won.”

28 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by commart in FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation

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I’ll venture a serious answer: history only repeats itself IF the reporting historians have used the same psychographics to describe key actors and movements across the ages.

From both a Jewish and modern psychological perspective, Pharaoh encountered by Moses was and remains a template for what we call “dictator” or “malignant narcissist”. I understand there’s a Scientology position coinciding with a Jewish metaphysics proposing that all the souls that ever were — all the types of people — are here all the time and through the ages.

In essence, we’re upgrading the weapons but fighting old battles.

Within the Jewish ethos, the Passover Haggadah with which I grew up noted that “in each generation, a little more freedom is won.” That, of course, is a liberal and progressive statement directly out of the soul of Judaism. No wonder so many autocratic personalities — dictators, generals, and kings, among others — have wanted to kill it and us across time. Bringing the whole world down on their heads, their ranks grow always a little smaller and ours a little more inclusive, enlarged, and ennobled.

FTAC – Solstice Season

27 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Religion

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America, correspondence, culture, hellidays, history, Jewish, the holidays

Referenced HuffPost piece: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judith-greenberg-phd/christmas-gifts-in-a-jewish-home_b_2362999.html

“S.” is a Pakistani civil servant who corresponds with some western writers, at least two Jewish ones.

In the above referenced piece, Judith Greenberg writes, “One of my new friends, S., a reader from Pakistan, teaches me over and again about the gift of writing. She responds to my blogs with thoughts about her own experiences with writing, also full of heart.”

The use of italics and an initial are mine, and S., so far as I know, is a he (this by way of a profile picture elsewhere).

Hi, S.,

It’s good to see you reading The Huffington Post.

Welcome to America!

I wrote a song a long time ago titled “Solstice Season”.

The truth is in Christian-majority America, everyone celebrates or experiences Christmas: the atmosphere of it is pervasive; however, it’s the Christians who go to Mass on the 25th, and the rest of us have a cheerful day — or try to wherever life has placed us — as it’s just about impossible to go on with anything mundane.

For going out, there are always a few Chinese restaurants open for business as usual — and for them, the traffic may be a gift.

For other enterprises, the staffing is sketchy but paid well for the holiday time. For example, around here, the groceries stores are closed but convenience stores may fill in in a pinch.

Hanuka, the not-quite-coinciding Jewish holiday, may have evolved into the present cheerful children’s gift-giving holiday in relation to Christian practices; however: the Hanuka menorah has an ancient past:

JERUSALEM — Israeli archaeologists have uncovered one of the earliest depictions of a menorah, the seven-branched candelabra that has come to symbolize Judaism, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Friday. The menorah was engraved in stone around 2,000 years ago and found in a synagogue recently discovered by the Sea of Galilee.
Pottery, coins and tools found at the site indicate the synagogue dates to the period of the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem, where the actual menorah was kept, said archaeologist Dina Avshalom-Gorni of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/11/archaeologists-find-early_n_283333.html

The Jewish holiday and tradition — and Maccabee story — are completely culturally and historically authentic. It’s the manner of the celebration that may be responsive to the Christian flavor of the season.

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When the “European Invasion” displaced the indigenous of the continent, the settlers could not imagine, I’m sure, developing an American culture separate from the European one, but that is what has happened in every area of expression even as the Christian tradition asserts itself at this time of year (and at Easter). “American Transcendentalism” and the unconscious and seldom self-conscious relationship with the earth itself, something in the air and shared with the indigenous love of the land, may comprise the larger part of the American spirit.

To really head off on this topic, I need my full typing skill, but I think there is in every human a primitive love of being alive with the land and with nature.

As in Rome, as before Constantine, as it has been always on this continent, EVERYONE knows the shortest day of the year, the bitter cold weather to come, the longer days to come too, and poor or rich, by way of donations or presents, from home to the homeless shelters, the country gets cozy and enjoys itself.

Perhaps all is not not quite as bright as I paint it — there’s tragedy too revolving around the “Hellidays”, an immense period of review, a difficult time for the dysfunctional within families that have been somewhat artificially forced to gather for a meal, a most depressing time for those on the outs with society, and an unsafe period for those with problems plus alcohol and drugs and fast cars and such (and those unlucky to be in their path) — but all that too is America at this time of year.

Celebrate the differences, my friend: take it all in. We’re all here on an hospitable “blue marble” floating in a universe that for as far out as man can see is overwhelmingly inorganic .

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FTAC: Empathy is not a Given – A Note on Conscience and Language

07 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation

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conscience, consciousness, language, power

It took me a long time to realize that “empathy is not a given in human affairs” — not even between brothers. The development of a quality — empathy’s an interesting one — requires motivation (for me: wanting to be a writer). Moving sideways but down the same line: “conscience” is also a quality developed in language out of perceived personal and social necessity. Essentially, it’s a code of behavior. The kicker, imho, involves a simple two-part argument about language itself: language behavior clinically observed may be predictable — it will have nouns and will be rule-based; however (!), language invention may be wild (it is, I assure you and will provide reference if necessary) and it’s that invention in language in which each culture suspends itself.

A friend who had cared for a senile and dying parent for some time said to me about her experience, “Can you imagine what it must have been like to be in the presence of an elder suffering from senility without the concept of senility?”

You may see where this may go with regard to excesses, cruelties, and sadism on the part of cultures that have invested heavily in the legitimacy of absolute power or who haven’t registered as problems bipolar mania, for example, or messianic delusion (we could build a long list of concepts not shared across cultures and therefore invisible from one to the other).

Remember this event? http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/28/libya.gadhafi.nanny/index.html

How could somebody do that? How could an entire family hide it (or, sadly, do similar things)?

Somebody had convinced themselves they had the privilege and right, and that was their consciousness and conscience.

Yesterday, another “malignant narcissist” had his military prepare nerve gas for use, probably, in his own state — estimated impact if released in an urban area: 100,000 dead within minutes. In that monster’s head, he may have the privilege and right and cause to drop those weapons in relation to his own (going colloquial here) “head trip”. Assad’s cloak has been Soviet Era Ba’ath Party ideology and encouragement, and — the same as with Saddam — it has helped him endorse his own grandiose delusions.

I’ve wandered long here and apologize if it’s too much. Nonetheless, if “language has a power” it’s this power to produce our story and suspend us — person and culture — in it, and the content of it, whether it defines a strong leader, a good man, greatness in some way, perfidy in another may determine what will matter to us and how conscience will work or seem to be absent altogether.

FTAC: Conflict, Language, and Pricks

07 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Philology, Psychology

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conflict, cultural evolution, global, language, psychology

A Facebooker said, “Conscience does not work in vacuum. Impact of incidents do occur over our reasoning and may even our truthfulness get shattered.” [STET].

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We may be more organized and programmed by the possession of language than we know.

The behavior itself is transparent (unless deliberately observed); the arrangement of associations between symbols may be taken for granted (“Everyone knows that . . . .”) until interrupted by a work of art, poetry, or war; the social grammar — what is good to say, what is not, and when or under what circumstances — of a language (language culture) has also a transparency to it as the earliest embedded thoughts, positions (attitudes), and behaviors (from how to greet to when to lie) have a “low level” or essentially subconscious life in the mind.

Those who study or work with acknowledged or well accepted as existing psychopathology (DSM present and approved, one might say) frequently apply a term to whether a person afflicted (e.g., by bipolar disorder; schizophrenia; narcissistic personality disorder, and so on) recognizes the presence of his problem. If he does, we say he “exhibits insight” and that’s helpful; if not, “he hasn’t a clue” — and others may be invited or obligated to intervene for the health of (now) the patient and for the defense of everyone in his path.

As psychology takes an interest in the life of the mind of the person, the field enjoys a convenient restriction: the concern is with the person. However, the person may turn out a leader of others, one well enough to charm and seduce, and then demonic, wicked, or wild enough to make a mess. The smaller figures — e.g., Charles Manson — are easily the subject of conversation; the larger ones — e.g., Constantine — become a little less touchable.

We have to find our way.

I feel the species will tend toward health and survival on a cooperative basis elicited by, no better word than this one, pricks.

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A smaller world with more potent weapons bodes ill, but the challenges may be met by a rapidly globalizing consciousness — in large numbers, we’re working with one another across innumerable barriers and miles, and that’s going to have an effect on normative behaviors and on the invention (through language) of a global culture sufficient to rein in or shape what in earlier days would have been more isolated events with equally isolated cultural antecedents.

FTAC: A Passing Thought on Inclusion

06 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by commart in A Little Wisdom, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Politics

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civilizational process, conflict, evolution, exclusion, inclusion, societies

From an evolutionary standpoint, inclusion wins. It simply involves more coherent and cooperative human energy against exclusive and deeply subordinating missions. Unfortunately, arranging, defending, securing, and expanding the building blocks that sustain exclusive identity (because few humans turn out internationalist androids) in inclusive regions takes a lot of time. While that process organizes itself within global culture, the casualties climb and the refugee camps fill where that spirit remains yet insufficient.

FTAC – Off the Bus – On the Bus

27 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Israel

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Arab, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Revolution, Spring, springing back

The cause:an article telling about Israeli Defense Force personnel removing Palestinian laborers from Israeli buses. Such brush over the context, which was last week’s bombing of bus in Tel Aviv: M.O. –> leave a package under the seat; give it a wake-up call with a cell phone.

I had two comments:

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Leaving the conflict to fester requires defensive actions against terror, and by definition, all of such actions (activities, policies) are intended to get in the way of the next explosion. The only way this ends is with, unbelievably, a pro-Israeli revolution from within the Arab ranks and the Ummah, as hard a thing to imagine as ever can be imagined, but with autocrats from Assad to Erdogan (add Morsi, possibly) failing their own states and Hamas exacting its toll on every business it can reach (add in the Ayatollah and Nasrallah for the headaches they’re creating in their own neighborhoods), something like it can happen and perhaps must.

In the U.S. southern states of 1860, there wasn’t a landowner who could not imagine life without plantations and slaves; by 1865, that world was gone forever.

And good riddance.

The adaptation of liberal humanism around the world (credit ancient Greece with the spirit) involves the desire for credible explanations about things and, possibly too (it’s easy to forget those old playwrights) integrity. When the lies stop, everyone will be welcomed on the bus.

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The problem here is the criminal controls the behavior. In old revolutionary circles — probably in contemporary ones too — sitting around and thinking up ways to provoke authorities into initiating excessively brutal crackdowns was the way toward seducing “the masses”. What may be changing — I think it is — is the world surrounding the world of the would-be old school (atheist or religious) revolutionary, who may be boasting (inventing) their triumphs while losing their stride. For a while, true of both stars in the sky and in Hollywood, they’ll burn brighter before going out.

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FTAC – Comment on an Hamas Missile Battery

26 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation

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dictator, dictators, malignant narcissists, mixed multitude, Moses, Pharaoh, political, politics, power

I am becoming a defender of Islam.

One of my Facebook buddies wrote in relation to the Hamas missile battery pictured to the left, “I love to hear the muslim’s [STET] cry about how offended they are! They can start a war by launching rockets at Israel and then they cry about it when they get retaliation for their acts.”

By now it should dawn on the infidel (and “The People of the Book” AKA “The People of the Five Books” AKA “the people who have written thousands of books” AKA “the people who write books, grow up to be doctors, and win Nobel Prizes out of all proportion to their small number” AKA etc.) that whatever Islam is or will be, it’s most conservative expression goes hardest on Muslims, and they’re not unaware of this.

So I responded:

All legacies in culture, language, philosophy, and religion evolve, and it’s good that they do. While we Jews have been a leading part of that — a light among the nations — ours may be not the only nation or only light, and it may be part of our character-in-eternal-myth to find that light in others as well.

Some, like Hamas and Hezbollah, make finding that light difficult for us, but it would be a mistake to think for a minute that others do not suffer before the strident and violent expressions in speech and in reality of such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Taliban, not to completely equate the two but to suggest than an INCLUSIVE universalism is greater in latency within our species than so many attempts by fascist entrepreneurs to leverage exclusive and deeply narcissistic programs, whether by way of nationalist or religious ambitions, into their own power or wealth. Some get away with what they do on the backs of others: Robert Mugabe foremost to my turn of mind. 🙂

I’ll tell you a not-so-secret secret: it’s not the dictator who destroys his people; it’s the dictator’s people who allow themselves to be destroyed, either in their humanity or in fact.

So it is with Hamas and others: they’re gettin’ rich (or they’re getting weapons, at least) while “their people” are allowing themselves to “get owned” in the worst ways imaginable. The day will dawn when they know they can fight back and will.

Contributing to that thought this morning was this reported this morning in the Los Angeles Times: “I’m demanding that Morsi sit down with the opposition and listen to the different people of Egypt. He must also retract his decree and reform the police system,” said Arafat Moawad, a protester in Tahrir. “He needs to do these things in order to become a president for all Egyptians. Now, he is just a president for [his] Muslim Brotherhood movement.” (“Egyptian stock exchange falls, protesters converge on Tahrir Square”).

To be clear: there is the voice (supported on the “Arab Street” by the presence of the body) protesting both the latest power grab by dictator wannabe (President-for-Life) Morsi and, associated with him, the ascendance of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

It’s not the dictator, is it?

Dictators, generally speaking, are but common assholes who have managed to elevate themselves above all others — not for nothing do we call them “malignant narcissists” — by way of intimidation, theft, and murder.

It’s The People, Los Pueblos, the Every Man and Woman, who allow them their outrageous license, which I believe they do in relation to their own cultural or social disorganization and lack of comprehension and prescience. No one alone and innately possessed of a decent ethics and humanity can stand up to a thug; anyone alone, however, may band with others to shut down the same, and then, when that happens, the movement, the True Revolution, may be called an expression of righteous political will, this provided the same is itself possessed of a broad scope and related insight.

From the Haggadah with which I grew up: “With every generation, a little more freedom is won.”

Moses left Egypt with not only the Jews but a “mixed multitude” — i.e., all who wished to abandon the world constructed around and for Pharaoh, as malignant a narcissist as any who has ever existed. That story, intact, transmitted faithfully across generations for now thousands of years, remains eternal, true, and adaptable.

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Category Archives: FTAC – From The Awesome Conversation

FTAC – “With every generation, a little more freedom is won.”

FTAC – Solstice Season

FTAC: Empathy is not a Given – A Note on Conscience and Language

FTAC: Conflict, Language, and Pricks

FTAC: A Passing Thought on Inclusion

FTAC – Off the Bus – On the Bus

FTAC – Comment on an Hamas Missile Battery