The Unreadable Splodge.

Continued discussion of the book "Reformation" by Dermott McCulloch. Which of course is not that bad really!

To return to a discussion of the "unreadable splodge" referred to elsewhere - there is extensive and over-wrought discussion of the significance of the word "Catholic" - a necessity in this topic.

Nowhere are the following two facts simply stated.

 i) It is a Greek word simply meaning "Universal."

ii) The word appears (effectively on its own) in the Nicene Creed of 325 AD.

Neither is it stated clearly that the term and concept "Reformation" come directly from the Catholic/Universalist tradition - "semper reformandum."

It hardly needs to be said that this book shows a degree of bias. Most pointedly with regard to events in Renaissance England.

It may be more helpful to talk of "Universalists" and "Dissenters"; as much as "Catholics" and "Protestants".

-----------------------------------------

2018.

I am now much more of a cultural Christian. If I have a sympathy for Catholicism it is merely out of a desire for unity and humanity, rather than any kind of dogma.

Ironing out the Ironies of Professor Antoknee A C Kerching

Reflections on a "Feemonger"....

Genuinely saintly humanist A. C. Grayling ("Kerching")'s new university is at the moment concerned with making money to some extent.
An irony is he is very pro-atheist.
Oxford and Cambridge were granted their licenses to teach independently of the Church by the Pope and hence are sort of religious foundations in origin.
Medieval universities were never concerned in any major way with making money when they were founded and not for a long time afterwards. On the contrary they were an attempt to escape from worldliness to some degree.

By the way the writing of Antony as "Antoknee" is not just humor. It is a way of pointing out AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN that the English language NEEDS SPELLING REFORM like HUMANS NEED WATER TO LIVE!!
Why does the word KNEE have a "K" in it at all?

I wouldn't pay a penny to any educational institution whose medium was English in present form.
As I say - I would NEVER EVER teach ANYONE English in present form.

It could appear that in his consideration of the question of university funding - only Oxbridge and US Universities are mentioned. The question of university funding in the rest of the Solar System or even the rest of the Galaxy does not feature in the discussion.
He says that "Oxbridge" charges too little and is only charging such a small amount because it is still officially state-funded etc.
Hence he undermines the idea of state higher education across the board.

By the way - the education of children and the question of philosophy at school don't seem of great importance either.

Not a lot of people know this.....

HOMO HABILIS, HOMO ERECTUS, HOMO SAPIENS....

These are LATIN terms.

In English they could be rendered as MAN SKILFUL, MAN ERECT, MAN WISE...

Note that the Latin terms maintain the SEPARATION of the elements involved. ....

The (more Germanic) constructions

"homosexuality" "psychopathology" "neuroscience" "psychotherapy" "psychiatry"........

.....include TWO elements combined into ONE word.

In my opinion, there are often TWO elements that CANNOT be combined in any way - and hence certainly not into ONE word in a healthy way.

(Germanic languages supposedly are more amenable to science due to this facility with SYNTHETIC language - id est combining concepts or words into ONE word. Whilst this can be helpful it can perhaps lead to major conceptual error in my opinion.....).....

Language does matter.

To take "homosexuality" - this comes from the GREEK "homo" = "same" + "sexuality" etc.


By the way, "homo" is LATIN for "[hu]man".
And "homo" is GREEK for "same, equal, like, similar" (Opposite of "Hetero" - "different").

[Possible sauce :) of confusion.]

T.B.C.

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All of which reminds me of the "KISS" principle.....

K.I.S.S. "Keep It Simple, Son" - is often a good principle. :D

Simplicity should not be a pejorative element in things necessarily.....

"Keep things as simple as possible - but no simpler" (Albert Einstein). Good science! ......

======================================================================

(Incidentally, one can't help see the similarity between the phenomenon of "squashing" two words together into one as described above, and features of Orwell's invented dystopic language "Newspeak"......)...

Sex Worker Pride Marches.

I have never ever been to a "Gay Pride" march, which seems to be one of the only regular
festivals in a modern city.
It makes me sad to reflect that Gay Pride marches are one of the few regular and prominent festivals that exist in modern cities.

I never ever attend - for various reasons.

Sex workers are an even more ubiquitous and even more necessary part of the world than homosexuality.
But when will we have regular Sex Worker Pride Marches to defend and celebrate sex workers?

Full legalization of sex work is the way forward.
No consensual sex acts should be illegal.
This is after all the same principle that allowed for the legalization of homosexuality.
This principle that no consenting sex act should be prohibited is after all the principle that allows many people to tolerate the behavior of homosexuality.
It is applicable a fortiori in the case of sex work.

----------------------------

I.U.S.W.

INTERNATIONAL UNION OF SEX WORKERS

www.iusw.org

-----------------------------

It is a measure of how totally and utterly (metaphorically) sick our "society" is that a "Heterosexual Pride March" would probably be a) banned as pornography and b) poorly supported and, c) condemned as discriminatory.

Because of the encroachment and oppressive domination of some misguided forms of feminism and the ideology of homosexual rights, it seems to be that Heterosexual Pride Marches are maybe even needed, such is the battering that mere normality has been forced to take.

Yes, I am for full toleration of homosexuality but I am against "Gay Pride" marches as I feel that they are an imposition of a minority's behaviour onto society as a whole.
I feel that Gay Pride marches are an example of a tyranny of a minority.

Why should anyone have to share in a supposed pride in a behaviour that they may not approve of?
It is perfectly OK for gay people to feel proud of their behaviours if they want to - but why should they feel a need to impose this pride on society as a whole?
That is precisely what is done at Gay Pride marches. Homosexuality is imposed on everyone. There is no room for dissent from approval of it.

I wouldn't agree with people marching against homosexuality in supposed "Shame" marches either as I believe that homosexuality should be tolerated.
However, whilst I do believe that homosexuality should be tolerated by society and state, I do not believe it should be illegal to express disapproval of homosexuality either.

.....

Sofa is back on the Nut

The Sofa is back on the Inter Nut.

Joining you again all on the blogging and internut community *big hugs* - feels more real than any other community I am supposed to be in.
Though of course it is not.

Anyway, after having tried some other options I am back on here laying down the blogs. After trying some other options and realizing that they aren't options - and nor is blogging - I am back.

Hardcore and harsh ranting certainly will not. And after about 7 goes at "Twitter" there will be no return to the rollercoaster of bullshit.

Citizen Sofa.

29/05/12

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I have now returned to the rollercoaster of bullshit. If only just to keep an eye on it.

@citizen_sofa

June 2017.

For 99.99% per cent of human existence cars did not exist!

I was thinking the other day of how much I hate cars - depending on the definition. In fact I think all the time about how much I hate cars. Because I do. I fucking hate them basically.
Well I often feel bad about it for a few moments because our domination by these accurse`d objects seems to be to some extent inevitable.
And then I remember a fact that even seems forgotten by the most ardent opponents of these evil lumps of shit. For 99.99% of human history they simply did not exist at all.

Charter for Compassion - a great idea!

http://charterforcompassion.org/

Beginnings of a post on Spinoza

Spinoza was very influenced by Descartes.... who was also of course a mathematician - Cartesian Co-ordinates......

He set himself the bold task of working everything out - as many philosophers do..... And as most prominently his recent predecessor Descartes did.

He used geometry and geometric principles.........
.... to create an entire system of The Universe and Humanity and Human Emotions.....

Surprisingly successful he was too....

A Fascinating Encounter

I am reading snatches of "A History of the Modern World" by the English historian Paul Johnson.

An excellent and well-argued book by a truly excellent historian.

Another excellent book by him is "The Offshore Islanders: A History of the English People." But a discussion of that is for another post.

One thing I can't keep myself from splurting out a post on is this.

Joyce and Proust actually met.

Yes these two archetypal modernist writers actually briefly met.

Yes. These two wordy, long-winded generators of hefty rambling tomes - the two writers that you are supposed to have read but that maybe you haven't really - the foremost French one and the foremost one in English - actually met!

This event is related by Johnson. It took place in Paris on May 18th 1922.

It sounds almost like a fantasy but apparently something like the following happened.

Joyce blandly proclaimed that he hadn't read a single word of Proust's voluminous work and that - to put it mildly - this did not concern him in the slightest.

Proust was very offended by this. He didn't know what to say. So he shot back that neither had he read a single word of Joyce's work.

LOL!!! - as they say.

In another work Joyce dismisses Proust's work - which is supposed to be quite philosophical - with the (German) pun "Prost bitte".

Well I am rejoicing at not having either Joyce or Proust on my reading list.
.........

In the interests of balance the event is recounted somewhat differently here:

http://westrow.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/proust-and-joyce-meet/

What I am Reading

Just a note to say I am reading "The Origins of Totalitarianism" (c.1950) by Hannah Arendt. A very clever lady.

Very readable and lucid prose. Excellent, excellent stuff.
She argues a point at the start that I had never really encountered. That is - systematised and ideological "anti-Semitism" is mainly originated in political nationalism and in the development of the Nation State of the Europe of the 1800s. Before this it did not really exist. I have never really heard that before.

Took a peak at the final chapter where she discusses the idea of loneliness and/or isolation. The point is made that it is possible to be lonely in company - in the sense that people feel lonely when they have the feeling of a lack of relatedness to others, inability to relate to others; and a feeling of superfluousness. The opposite of feeling respected or esteemed by oneself or others to some degree - things that are quite needed for a happy life.

Arendt points out that this loneliness of the individual was fostered under totalitarian regimes - the main ones for her here are Nazism and Bolshevism. Yet she speaks of it at the time that she is writing - 1950.

I can't help thinking it's not always a coincidence that people today feel a lack of rootedness and a superfluousness. The type of totalitarianism we seem to live under today is capitalism. And its ideology is the utter dogshit that is contemporary "economics".

An amazing quote from the beginning of Chapter 8:
"Nazism and Bolshevism owe more to Pan-Germanism and Pan-Slavism (respectively) than to any other ideology or political movement."
Hannah Arendt.

Just want to say that Hannah Arendt was a wonderful and very clever lady and had some of her origins in Hannover - a wonderful town with a wonderful town hall that looks like a massive birthday cake.