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http://aliasinkhorn.stumbleupon.com/review/36371219/

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:24:29 -0700

Keyserling's Europe (1928) and Spengler's Hour of Decision (1934)

Continued from previous post

From the page: "... IV. Like another, later analyst of modernity in its agony, Eric Voegelin, Spengler sees at the root of Liberalism-Nihilism the perversion of a religious idea. "All Communist systems in the West are in fact derived from Christian theological thought: More's Utopia, the Sun-State of the Dominica Campanella, the doctrines of Luther's disciples Karlstadt and Thomas M�nzer, and Fichte's state-socialism... Christian theology is the grandmother of Bolshevism." The materialism - which is again a type of nihilism - of Marxism and socialism never contradicts the case for liberalism-nihilism as a perversion of Gospel themes. "As soon as one mixes up the concepts of poverty, hunger, distress, work, and wages (with the moral undertone of rich and poor, right and wrong) and is led thereby to join in the social and economic demands of the proletarian sort - that is, money demands - one is a materialist." But, this being Spengler's point, one may have the belief-attitude with respect to one's materialist doctrines that the fanatic of God has for his mental idol, with the concomitant fierceness and ruthlessness. The end of real Christianity is "renunciation." With reference to the sentence of Adam, writes Spengler, the Gospel tells men, "do not regard this hard meaning of life as misery and seek to circumvent it by party politics."

In a precise description of the modern, immigration-friendly, general-welfare state, Spengler remarks that "for proletarian election propaganda," an opposite principle to the Gospel one is required: "The materialist prefers to eat the bread that others have earned in the sweat of their face." When the Gracchan rabble dominates from below so that the demagogues might manipulate from above, then it will come to pass that "the parasitic egoism of inferior minds, who regard the economic life of other people, and that of the whole, as an object from which to squeeze with the least possible exertion the greatest possible enjoyment" will seek its bestial end in "panem et circenses." Once the majority descends to vulgar consumption through extortion - and through a mere pretence of work under the welfare-umbrella of "the political wage" - then the society has doomed itself. It can only lurch in the direction of its inevitable demise. Even the keen-eyed will not want to confront reality. They will, as Spengler writes, "refuse in horror" to believe what they see. Spengler might have been thinking about a letter from his correspondent Roderich Schlubach dated 9 October 1931. Schlubach writes: "I frankly admit that much of what you prophesied [in The Decline] has taken place. The decline of the West seems to be at hand, and still I do not believe in an end of the world, only in an entire change in our circumstances..."

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http://aliasinkhorn.stumbleupon.com/review/36203465/

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:58:11 -0700

Witty Remarks from Jay Leno

According to Fed Chairman Ben Benanke, the recession is over. Where is that 'you lie' guy when you need him?

They used to say a recession is when your neighbor lost his job, and a depression is when you lost yours, but now they say a recession is when Wall Street gets bailed out, and a depression is what you get thinking about it.

There's been a big scandal at A-Porn . . . I mean ACORN.

ACORN is an organization that gets government money to help poor people. Well, now they're in trouble. These two filmmakers went to ACORN posing as a pimp and prostitute saying they wanted to buy a house and run it as a brothel. ACORN gave them advice on how to do it and how to avoid prosecution and how to avoid paying taxes. If they want to get away with prostitution and not paying taxes, they should go to Congress. These are the professionals.

New House rules say members of Congress cannot call the president a liar or hypocrite, and they cannot say he is dishonest. To which President Bush said, 'Hey where were these rules when I was president?'

http://aliasinkhorn.stumbleupon.com/review/35562377/

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:59:23 -0700

http://aliasinkhorn.stumbleupon.com/review/35263839/

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 01:33:21 -0700

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http://aliasinkhorn.stumbleupon.com/review/35208274/

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:21:08 -0700

..Milarepa

"My religion is to live - and die - without regret."

http://aliasinkhorn.stumbleupon.com/review/34854075/

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:27:07 -0700

"... As for us, we forgot to be afraid of the lightning, the thunder, and the downpour, just as a droplet in the ocean has no fear of a hurricane. Insignificant yet grateful, we became part of this world - a primal world in creation before our eyes..."

~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

http://aliasinkhorn.stumbleupon.com/review/34404575/

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:21:25 -0700

http://aliasinkhorn.stumbleupon.com/review/34345635/

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:40:28 -0700

For You My Love

I went to the market, where they sell birds
and I bought some birds
for you
my love
I went to the market, where they sell flowers
and I bought some flowers
for you
my love
I went to the market, where they sell chains
and I bought some chains
heavy chains
for you
my love
And then I went to the slave market
and I looked for you
but I did not find you there
my love

~ Jacques Pr�vert

http://aliasinkhorn.stumbleupon.com/review/34118859/

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:19:40 -0700

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THE SPEECH OF THE UNKNOWN, cont.

"Sign–for that declaration will go forth to American hearts forever, and speak to those hearts like the voice of God! And its work will not be done, until throughout this wide Continent not a single inch of ground owns the sway of a British King!

"Nay, do not start and whisper with surprise! It is a truth, your own hearts witness it, God proclaims it.–This Continent is the property of a free people, and their property alone. [17-second applause] God, I say, proclaims it!

"Look at this strange history of a band of exiles and outcasts, suddenly transformed into a people-look at this wonderful Exodus of the oppressed of the Old World into the New, where they came, weak in arms but mighty in Godlike faith-nay, look at this history of your Bunker Hill-your Lexington-where a band of plain farmers mocked and trampled down the panoply of British arms, and then tell me, if you can, that God has not given America to the free?

[12-second applause]

"It is not given to our poor human intellect to climb the skies, to pierce the councils of the Almighty One. But methinks I stand among the awful clouds which veil the brightness of Jehovah's throne. Methinks I see the Recording Angel-pale as an angel is pale, weeping as an angel can weep-come trembling up to that Throne, and speak his dread message-

"`Father! the old world is baptized in blood! Father, it is drenched with the blood of millions, butchered in war, in persecution, in slow and grinding oppression! Father-look, with one glance of Thine Eternal eye, look over Europe, Asia, Africa, and behold evermore, that terrible sight, man trodden down beneath the oppressor's feet-nations lost in blood-Murder and Superstition walking hand in hand over the graves of their victims, and not a single voice to whisper, "Hope to Man!"'

"He stands there, the Angel, his hands trembling with the black record of human guilt. But hark! The voice of Jehovah speaks out from the awful cloud-`Let there be light again. Let there be a New World. Tell my people-the poor-the trodden down millions, to go out from the Old World. Tell them to go out from wrong, oppression and blood-tell them to go out from this Old World-to build my altar in the New!'

[11-second applause]

"As God lives, my friends, I believe that to be his voice! Yes, were my soul trembling on the wing for Eternity, were this hand freezing in death, were this voice choking with the last struggle, I would still, with the last impulse of that soul, with the last wave of that hand, with the last gasp of that voice, implore you to remember this truth-God has given America to the free!

[13-second applause]

"Yes, as I sank down into the gloomy shadows of the grave, with my last gasp, I would beg you to sign that Parchment, in the name of the God, who made the Saviour who redeemed you-in the name of the millions whose very breath is now hushed in intense expectation, as they look up to you for the awful words-`You are free!'"

[9-second applause]

O many years have gone since that hour-the Speaker, his brethren, all, have crumbled into dust, but it would require an angel's pen to picture the magic of that Speaker's look, the deep, terrible emphasis of his voice, the prophet-like beckoning of his hand, the magnetic flame which shooting from his eyes, soon fired every heart throughout the hall!

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http://aliasinkhorn.stumbleupon.com/review/34118904/

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:19:17 -0700

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THE SPEECH OF THE UNKNOWN, cont.

The work was done. A wild murmur thrills through the hall.–Sign? Hah? There is no doubt now. Look! How they rush forward–stout-hearted John Hancock has scarcely time to sign his bold name, before the pen is grasped by another–another and another! Look how the names blaze on the Parchment–Adams and Lee and Jefferson and Carroll, and now, Roger Sherman the Shoemaker.

And here comes good old Stephen Hopkins-yes, trembling with palsy, he totters forward-quivering from head to foot, with his shaking hands he seizes the pen, he scratches his patriot-name.

Then comes Benjamin Franklin the Printer....

And now the Parchment is signed; and now let word go forth to the People in the streets-to the homes of America-to the camp of Mister Washington, and the Palace of George the Idiot-King-let word go out to all the earth-

And, old man in the steeple, now bare your arm, and grasp the Iron Tongue, and let the bell speak out the great truth:

FIFTY-SIX TRADERS, LAWYERS, FARMERS AND MECHANICS HAVE THIS DAY SHOOK THE SCHACKLES OF THE WORLD!

[13-second applause]

Hark! Hark to the toll of that Bell!

Is there not a deep poetry in that sound, a poetry more sublime than Shakespeare or Milton?

Is there not a music in the sound, that reminds you of those awful tones which broke from angel-lips, when news of the child Jesus burst on the shepherds of Bethlehem?

For that Bell now speaks out to the world, that-

GOD HAS GIVEN THE AMERICAN CONTINENT TO THE FREE-THE TOILING MILLIONS OF THE HUMAN RACE-AS THE LAST ALTAR OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN ON THE GLOBE-THE HOME OF THE OPPRESSED, FOREVERMORE!

[10-second applause]

Are we not bought with a price?

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