Monkey Orthodoxy

Thursday June 18, 2009 • 3 Comments 

Five monkeys inside the cage
A banana on a string is all the covetage.

One climbs the stair to reach the prize
Five splashed with water to realize

It matters not which compatriot climbs
The penalty of wet they all must find

Tread up the rise will one primate go
Four then pounce in a monkey row

Fear they will the dastardly spray
Show they will corporate dismay.

No more water to come from above
Insert new thinker with his want of love

Monkey sees, and monkey do
Climb the stairs for his primate food

Surprise and horror and wonder and shock
As friends go ape and put him in the dock

Assaults persist till the lesson is learned
Tread not the stairs or suffer the spurn

New comes again a chimp to the congregation
Straight for the Banana not thought of sedition

Hazing and vitriol and violence expand
The previous victim raising the most energetic hand

Primates arrive till the first five are gone
Violence ensues but who knows the wrong

Water never comes; a penalty of ambition
But the conformist mind will not broach tradition

From beyond the grave the dead rule the mind
For those who live are forbidden to find

A path, a way, a means to above
To possess what is given, the object of love

Ask why we tread not upon the rise,
Is it the sacred that compels: “Be still our minds”?

Or the fear of force, the historic demagoguery
The senseless fraud of Monkey Orthodoxy?

 

 

 

********
This story is a well know business metaphor. I don’t know who created or started it. I found the business version here.

The poem is mine copywrite 2009 and is not for use or transmission without express written permission.

Filed Under Just Because


Moral Seduction

Thursday June 4, 2009 • 41 Comments 

by John Immel

 

For months I have been advocating that “They Who Shall Not Be Named,” are bit players in the unfolding historical drama, resurrecting ideas that have always led to corruption, destruction and death.  I submit that the political and religious arenas are inseparable, inevitable extensions of specific philosophical assumptions.   I have been pointing out that we are hearing moral and spiritual ideals advocated in the public arena from our political leaders: moral and spiritual ideals that ultimately reduce men to slavery.

How can morality and spirituality be used to shackle humanity?  Christians like to say that such things are the means to freedom and liberty.  Are you sure? 

President Obama gave a speech on May 17, 2009 to the graduating class at Notre Dame.  This speech is not policy statement, or economic tutorial, or social state of the union.   It is something very else. 

Read the whole speech.  I am not, and never will be, a filter for the minds of people.  To the utter contrary, I am advocating the tools of effective thinking so that individuals can think and find the truth for themselves.  To that end I am providing two links. One from the New York Times.  (Transcript)

 The second is a page from www.Spiritualtyranny.com  for when the NY Times sees fit to eliminate this speech from its active web pages.  (Transcript)

The seduction begins … with the suggestive flash of the eyes  

President Obama: “Your generation must decide how to save God’s creation from a changing climate that threatens to destroy it. Your generation must seek peace at a time when there are those who will stop at nothing to do us harm, and when weapons in the hands of a few can destroy the many. And we must find a way to reconcile our ever-shrinking world with its ever-growing diversity — diversity of thought, diversity of culture, and diversity of belief.”

 Seduction implies familiarity 

Differences, Disparity, Dissimilarity: the mantra of the global culture.  Right and wrong does not exist.   No superior ideas can be advocated.  Beliefs are sacrosanct because they are … beliefs.  Culture is the ethnic Holy of Holy’s unassailable, defended by the moral indignation of anything “racial.”  No matter what stands out, what deviates, no matter what bankrupt thoughts, ideas, actions may exist we must reconcile … in the name of Diversity.   

President Obama: Moreover, no one person, or religion, or nation can meet these challenges alone. Our very survival has never required greater cooperation and greater understanding among all people from all places than at this moment in history.

Survival is predicated on the understanding of what and whom?  

Survival is predicated on understanding right and wrong?

Survival is predicated on understanding superior ideas and the inferior cultures that they destroy?   

No, survival is predicated on understanding that we are all incapable, all outmatched for the challenge: no person, religion, or nation can face the challenge of survival.  

Unfortunately, finding that common ground … is not easy. And part of the problem, of course, lies in the imperfections of man — our selfishness, our pride, our stubbornness, our acquisitiveness, our insecurities, our egos; all the cruelties large and small that those of us in the Christian tradition understand to be rooted in original sin.

Seduction proceeds with tender touch of familiar

Irenaeus, a Bishop in Lyons, developed the concept of “Original Sin” in second-century.    His theory said that the “Fall” of Adam was not rebellion against God, or a squandering of a created perfect state, but rather humanities failure to rise to greater things.  For Irenaeus evil comes from God, serving a good purpose. Things that seem evil-death et al-are divine intentions and without such things, we would never repent. 

Augustine, some 250 years later, would advance what has become the “Orthodox” creed: humanity was really present at Adam’s sin and therefore all have sinned because “Original Sin” was physically transmitted from parent to child through the act of sex.  The result was a genetic weakening or enfeebling of the will and a corresponding inheritance of utter depravity.  The consequence of this state is an inability to do good, or respond to God without Grace.  

This is the definition with which most of you are familiar. 

Seduction implies much … and defines little

We too often seek advantage over others. We cling to outworn prejudice and fear those who are unfamiliar. Too many of us view life only through the lens of immediate self-interest and crass materialism; in which the world is necessarily a zero-sum game. The strong too often dominate the weak, and too many of those with wealth and with power find all manner of justification for their own privilege in the face of poverty and injustice.

Altruism is the moral assertion that sacrifice is man’s highest ethical action.  He must help, serve, or benefit others by actions necessarily at the expense of self interest.  Applied to it’s logical conclusion individuals can never have a vested interest in an action or outcome.  So to determine if an action is moral ask this simple question: Who benefits?  As long as there is no self interest man is executing ethical action.

And it was quite an eclectic crew — Catholic and Protestant churches, Jewish and African American organizers, working-class black, white, and Hispanic residents — all of us with different experiences, all of us with different beliefs. But all of us learned to work side by side because all of us saw in these neighborhoods other human beings who needed our help — to find jobs and improve schools. We were bound together in the service of others.

While many of you would openly argue with Ireneaus definition of Original sin, very few of you would have the nerve to argue with Augustine’s doctrine. That would open a whole wormy can that no one wants to pick through with fish hooks.

Altruism: we might read the Dictionary definition and occasionally some blogger in his underwear will pound out the word to the Ethernet, but the content, the practice of the word isn’t discussed. But you would know its substance if you heard it, because the moral predicates advocated from many, many fronts.  So imbedded in our cultural and philosophical assumptions is Altruism, that it never occurs to us to challenge the moral ideal.  

And something else happened during the time I spent in these neighborhoods — perhaps because the church folks I worked with were so welcoming and understanding; perhaps because they invited me to their services and sang with me from their hymnals; perhaps because I was really broke and they fed me. (Laughter.) Perhaps because I witnessed all of the good works their faith inspired them to perform, I found myself drawn not just to the work with the church; I was drawn to be in the church. It was through this service that I was brought to Christ.

I want you to notice this juxtaposition.  Notice that the assumption of Original Sin and the assumption of Altruism create an unassailable moral and ethical barrier. 

To argue for self: any expression of self is to be condemned by conventional moral mandate.  

To argue against the doctrine of Original Sin…  Oh, never mind, let’s not be silly.  

Who is going to raise their hand and suggest that Augustine got it wrong?  Who is going to suffer the threat of heresy and the subsequent bonfires kindled in their honor?  Who is going to argue with 1600 years of Church “orthodoxy”? 

Even if a person did make the argument:  who would have the nerve to actually listen? Wouldn’t that make the listeners enter the line to become honorary S’mores? 

So, let us just accept the fates and not speak such absurdities.  Let us just ignore the fruit of the doctrine displayed for the world to see for over two millennia.   Since we are all moral, spiritual and intellectual cripples, the fruit must not be the fruit that we can see.  It must mean something else.  Besides, what could be wrong with the doctrine, such a staple of the Christian faith?   It matters not the answer to such a question.  Put it out of your mind.  No one will ask the question and fewer still will listen to the answer. 

Seduction redefines

The question, then — the question then is how do we work through these conflicts? Is it possible for us to join hands in common effort? As citizens of a vibrant and varied democracy, how do we engage in vigorous debate? How does each of us remain firm in our principles, and fight for what we consider right, without, as Father John said, demonizing those with just as strongly held convictions on the other side?

Seduction makes intimacy is the most reasonable action

 He wrote, “I do not ask at this point that you oppose abortion, only that you speak about this issue in fair-minded words.” Fair-minded words.

And I said a prayer that night that I might extend the same presumption of good faith to others that the doctor had extended to me. Because when we do that — when we open up our hearts and our minds to those who may not think precisely like we do or believe precisely what we believe — that’s when we discover at least the possibility of common ground.

What is the common ground for all humanity?  Original Sin and Altruism is the only place for humanity to abandon itself-the only place of agreement; the starting place of our philosophical ideals, the focus our metaphysical and epistemological integration.  Submit yourself, therefore under the might hand of others-be told by others how high to jump, how far to travel, how much to sacrifice in a never ending saga of slow agonizing self destruction-because your adversary, your SELF walks about seeking to devour you.  

You won’t object, so don’t pretend indignity. 

How can you object? 

Oh great Archimedes, where is your place to stand upon that you might “raise the world?”  What is the foundation of your resistance?  You laid down your mind upon accepting depravity as the fundamental state of your existence.  Is your appeal now to Reason?  Will you now assert your independent “Will” to engage the debate?

 Surely you jest! 

A “Depraved” reason, and a “Bound” will is the sum and substance of your arsenal?? 

Aaa ahahahahahhaha…   the comedy is entertaining but your hubris has shown you for an intellectual fraud.  Only a “Depraved” soul with admittedly corrupt faculties cannot see the absurdity, the glaring flaw in that foundation.  Your very doctrine destroys your weapon.

So try again to find the edge underneath the bulwark.

Can you find a failure in Altruism? 

By the Altruistic moral standard, any personal benefit is immoral.  What did the preacher of morality say:

We too often seek advantage over others. We cling to outworn prejudice and fear those who are unfamiliar. Too many of us view life only through the lens of immediate self-interest and crass materialism; in which the world is necessarily a zero-sum game. The strong too often dominate the weak, and too many of those with wealth and with power find all manner of justification for their own privilege in the face of poverty and injustice.

Men who defend themselves, the right to self, and all its substance are nothing but a self serving immoral wretch’s who have yet to grasp the self absorption the full immorality of their existence.

Are you now going to argue that the individual should have SOME moral value?  How will you justify your assertion?  Will you validate your argument by claiming it’s done on behalf of others?  Others should have self value but not  you, because you will sacrifice in their behalf?

Aaahahahaha… again with the comedy. 

What good does it do to concede the moral principle and argue for a reprieve?

The impossibility of the altruistic doctrine has made it vogue to advocate a micro step towards individual value.  No one can live a truly “sacrificial” life therefore we must do SOME things for OURSELVES. So we wink and nod at a mutual unethical conspiracy ignoring the bootlegging done to stock the Moral Speakeasy.    Notice that this argument concedes that actions for self are still immoral; it is no argument at all, but a moral equivalency: an ethical don’t ask don’t tell.  

Any time an argument concedes the premise that dispute is lost. 

Seduction is designed to make you feel out of control

Are you feeling trapped in a maze?  Are you unable to see your way past the fortifications that are being used to harness your soul?

This is by DESIGN.

When political figures begin to erect the ethical bulwark of Original Sin, and Altruism they have departed from policy statements and entered the realm of moralistic homily.  When they hijack disembodied bible ideas the Second Coming in not close, and neither is a God ordained righteous government.    

For if there is one law that we can be most certain of, it is the law that binds people of all faiths and no faith together. It’s no coincidence that it exists in Christianity and Judaism; in Islam and Hinduism; in Buddhism and humanism. It is, of course, the Golden Rule — the call to treat one another as we wish to be treated. The call to love. The call to serve. To do what we can to make a difference in the lives of those with whom we share the same brief moment on this Earth.

The political figures are laying the foundation for the very tyranny that will make the streets turn crimson. 

Seduction is designed to make you loose your mind

This generation, your generation is the one that must find a path back to prosperity and decide how we respond to a global economy that left millions behind even before the most recent crisis hit — an economy where greed and short-term thinking were too often rewarded at the expense of fairness, and diligence, and an honest day’s work.

It is no accident that the first assault is on prosperity, on economics, on fairness.  All good seductions appeal to our erogenous zones: those places in our thinking that bring passionate response. They know many people hold the moral expectation that money is immoral and its pursuit a manifestation of selfishness and greed.   The political seducers know you will be quick to agree with their altruism, faulting those who HAVE (substance) have with an abuse of their depraved nature.

Covetousness is a philosophical erogenous zone.  It will lead you to support policy initiatives that will TAKE from some to give it to another.  You will use altruism to call it righteousness because it “serves” someone other than yourself.

You will absolve yourself of envy because the rich don’t put in an “honest days work” but heap materialism upon their greedy selves from unfairness and exploitation.  You will license the government to steal and believe you have done God’s work, cheering as yet another rich person sacrifices for the greater good: as they too feel the pain of what it is to struggle in life. 

… Until seduction turns to denouement

Now, understand — understand, Class of 2009, I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away. Because no matter how much we may want to fudge it — indeed, while we know that the views of most Americans on the subject are complex and even contradictory — the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable. Each side will continue to make its case to the public with passion and conviction. But surely we can do so without reducing those with differing views to caricature.

 Open hearts. Open minds. Fair-minded words.

It will never occur to you that you cut your own throat because you let others define  fair minded words and fair minded expression.   You moderated your speech.  You curtailed your method of expression.  You believed that people were justified in turning from truth merely because they didn’t like the communication method.  You bought the notion that Altruism required temperance in expression, and that certainty violated the essence of a depraved soul.  Accepting the moral predicate destroyed your power to speak.   Accepting the doctrinal predicate gives you no voice against the face of duplicity.

You will stand to advocate life: an unborn self.  You will advocate that abortion destroys two selves: the child that will never breathe once and the woman who goes a lifetime breathing the pain of her choice.   

But now it is too late, because Government is saying that women MUST sacrifice for the Greater Good.  They must have abortions to curtail population, to feed those already alive, to raise the standard of living for all.  It is selfish to want 4 children. Then it is selfish to want 3 and then 2 and then maybe, just maybe, the Government will let you have one child… if it serves others. 

Where will you stand on that day?  The bulwark of Original Sin and Altruism has long since sold you into slavery but you didn’t know it.  Will you rail at the Governmental injustice on that day from your front door?   In your house? 

Ahahahahaha… the comedy never stops. 

On that day the god’s of Original Sin and Altruism will mock you in your calamity. 

The Government will have long since taken your stuff, and told you how much to eat, and when to eat, and what to wear, and how much to sacrifice.  There will be no defending the unborn on that day, because the only thing left to defend is the scrap of whatever someone else has deemed you can keep. 

They gods of Original Sin and Altruism will frolic at the self blood letting as they revel in the endless propitiation. 

The power of the individual was eradicated from the earth.  Because it is to the individual that God’s blessing was bestowed: “Be fruitful and multiply, rule and subdue the earth…”

It is the individual that raises a voice to defend the unborn. It is the individual that resists the tides of tyranny.  It is the individual who utters the words without regard to being “fair minded,” to destroy the insidious ideas that incarcerate humanity.  It is individuals that distinguish between skin color and the failed ideas that drive a culture.  It is to individuals that ideas come, and ambition springs, and industry grows, and quality of life expands, and prosperity matures.

Here is the secret that political seducers do not want you to know:  property is the power to disagree.  Wealth is the power to stand in the face of those who differ.  Without property you are a pawn in the games of Histories Hitler’s and their partners in crime the Mystic Despots. 

If you want to champion any superior idea…

If you want to fight for any just outcome… 

If you want to advocate for the lives of the unborn…

then you had better start paying attention to those who want to abort your property first.  The moral bulwark being advocated in seductive homilies is about to destroy our very lives by destroying our very livelihoods.

And so, for all our technology and scientific advances, we see here in this country and around the globe violence and want and strife that would seem sadly familiar to those in ancient times.

Violence and want and strife would be familiar to the folk of ancient times.  That is because  the reasons for that violence, want and strife are sourced in the exact same philosophical assumptions of ancient times.  Collectivism, also known as Tribalism, also known as, Sectarianism, also known as Socialism, also known as Communism, also known as the “Greater Good,” has always been the source of political, social, and religious, corruption, death and destruction.  

Original Sin and Altruism is the moral and ethical bulwark that has tyrannized the masses for millennia.  This is how Histories Hitler’s join forces with Mystic Despots by using morality as cudgel to drive the depraved masses into the holding pens.  No need to send in the High Priest to offer sacrifice because the people will do the blood letting themselves.

 This is the moral seduction: depraved man’s highest ethical action is sacrifice.

Filed Under Altrusim and Original Sin, Tyrants


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