I´m sure there is nothing to be worried about here. Right? From Canadian TV.
Saturday, January 4, 2020
Nothing to be worried about, I´m sure
I´m sure there is nothing to be worried about here. Right? From Canadian TV.
The unknown panentheist
“The
Religion of Solidarity” is a short text written by Edward Bellamy when he was
24 years old. It was posthumously found among Bellamy´s papers by his
biographer Arthur E Morgan and subsequently published. Bellamy is, of course,
famous for his utopian novel “Looking Backward” (1888). One of the serious lacunas
in my knowledge of things large and small is that I never actually read it.
Back in the days, the novel triggered an entire political movement, known as
Nationalism (with a capital N). Most of its members soon joined the more successful
Populists.
I
expected “The Religion of Solidarity” to be a materialist-positivist-populist
screed of some kind. It isn´t. Unexpectedly, it turns out to be a spiritual
text, obviously based on Emerson and the New England Transcendentalists. And
while the little piece isn´t *that* interesting, I admit that Bellamy was a
better writer than Emerson, Thoreau and Alcott. In a note appended much later,
Bellamy writes that he tried to live according to the principles expounded upon
in “The Religion of Solidarity” all his life. He even asks for the text to be
read at his funeral!
Bellamy
reflects at length at the opposition between the individual and Spirit (my
term), the latter being infinite and immortal. The “centripetal” and “centrifugal”
forces are said to be basic to the universe, one leading to unity with Spirit
or impersonal consciousness, the other moving in the direction of
individuality. The most common mistake of men is to live as if the individual is
immortal. This is said to characterize Napoleon and Caesar, whom Bellamy
doesn´t seem to fancy. The Christian idea of individual immortality is
criticized. That the Spirit is real can be sensed in nature mysticism, poetry,
love and sexual union. The text gives the impression of
being written by a desperate young man longing to live life to the fullest and prove
himself thereby – which, of course, it was.
Interestingly,
it´s not entirely clear what Bellamy *really* wants to do, based on his
insights into the immortality of the universal soul. We somehow expect the future
prophet of socialism and industrial armies to say something, well, socialist
and industrial army-ish. Instead, Bellamy rather says the opposite. Since our
individuality counts for nothing compared to the infinite Spirit, we may as
well live our lives with a certain reckless abandon, indifferent to our fates,
since we are ultimately nothing and yet immortal at the same time. Later in the
text, however, Bellamy sounds more serious-minded, and draws the obvious
conclusion that since everything is One, the moral thing to do is to identify
with the One and sacrifice yourself for the One. Patriotism, oneness with
Nature and ultimately an oneness with the entire cosmos is said to follow from
this. Friendship and family is also said to be important.
Well,
thank you.
The text
is incomplete, or rather Bellamy misplaced a few pages, in which he attempted
to reconcile his essentially pantheist perspective with belief in a personal
god. His argument strikes me as “panentheist”. Just as humans are both personal
and impersonal at the same time, a Supreme Being might be both. To find Edward
Bellamy of all people in a gallery of panentheists is intriguing, to say the
least.
With
that, I end my little reflection.
A Theosophist in Bombay
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“The
Spirit of Zoroastrianism” by Henry Steel Olcott is a peculiar pamphlet
published in 1913 by the Theosophical Society based in Adyar, Madras, India.
The author is better known as Colonel Olcott and was a co-founder of the
Theosophical Society, together with the more well known Madame Blavatsky. The
content of the pamphlet is a speech given at Bombay (Mumbai) already in 1882. Very
little information on the background to Olcott´s colorful speech is available
on the web, but I did manage to glean a few things…
Olcott´s support
for the Theravada Buddhists in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) is well known. I´ve
previously reviewed the so-called Buddhist Catechism written by the American
colonel. Less well known are his contacts with the Parsees of Bombay, i.e. the Zoroastrian
community. Apparently, the Parsees were split in several factions when Olcott
and Blavatsky arrived in India, the Theosophists throwing in their lot with the
“orthodox” faction that still upheld the ancient traditions of Zoroastrianism,
as opposed to the “heterodox” reformers who called for modernization and craved
for Western knowledge. However, it´s obvious from Olcott´s speech that he
didn´t uncritically embrace orthodox Zoroastrianism either. For instance, he
does call for modern scientific education. More interestingly, Olcott
reinterprets Zoroastrianism in “modern” terms. Miracles associated with
Zoroastrian saints are accepted, but explained in terms of “magnetic” energies
(compare Mesmer). The seemingly idolatrous worship of fire is explained in
terms of fire being the force which penetrates and propels the entire cosmos. In
this way, the ancient Zoroastrian priesthood becomes a kind of “scientists”,
more advanced in some ways than modern scientists.
Olcott
doesn´t seem interested in the actual Zoroastrian religion (except some of its
rituals), probably because he considered it exoteric. On the esoteric level,
Zoroastrianism is the religion of the Magi, which in turn lies behind Judaism
(including the Kabbalah), Christianity and Greek philosophy. He probably
believed that at its esoteric core, the religion of Zoroaster wasn´t all that
different from the peculiar ideas promoted by Blavatsky. At several times in
the speech, Olcott wants the Parsees to support an expedition to Armenia, where
a monastery is said to own ancient documents which can prove the Theosophists
right.
One thing that surprised me when reading the presentation is that Olcott
is extremely straightforward. He sharply criticizes, almost reams out, his
Parsee listeners. The Parsees are admonished to give more money to the education
of their children and youth, instead of squandering it on “stupid tamashas” (a
kind of theatre plays). They are also called upon to translate their Persian
scriptures into Indian vernacular and English, and the priests are criticized
for not understanding their own religion (including prayers in the Persian
language). A funny detail is that Olcott refers to the Bohras, a Shia Muslim
group, as “infidels”. I get the impression that Bohras and Parsees were
competitors in Bombay, both traditionally being merchants. Another weird detail
is that Olcott (an American) brags about Blavatsky´s friendship with the Russian
governor of Armenia (Blavatsky was indeed Russian). In British-controlled
India, such a statement could have been seen as potentially seditious!
I don´t
know what eventually happened to Colonel Olcott´s attempts to reform the Parsee
community on crypto-Theosophical lines, but since the Parsees are still
thriving in modern Mumbai, I assume they somehow put their act (and their
tamashas) together. As for the Theosophical Society, they continued playing an
often unsung role in Indian history, Theosophical leader Annie Besant even
being elected president of the Indian National Congress…until being eclipsed by
the movement around a certain Gandhi. But that´s another story, as they say.
Make the zodiac Greta again
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Greta
Thunberg celebrated her 17th birthday yesterday. So *that´s* the
explanation! She´s a Capricorn!
I should
have known.
Only a
Cap can be so super-serious that he or she tries to save the world at the age
of 16, and doesn´t understand why nobody else gives a damn. The weird sarcastic humor is also a typical Cap trait. Yes, Greta has that too – hi there, Sharon!
I happen
to be familiar with this problematique, since I know at least one other
Capricorn with similar tendencies. Yes, that would be, ahem…myself.
However, there is one obvious difference between my horoscope and Greta´s. OK, I haven´t checked hers, but if you believe in astrology (as a card-carrying Cap, I obviously don´t), Uranus is crazy planet. And I happen to have it in a *very* prominent position in my horoscope. Even apart from the fact that my progressed sun is probably in Aquarius right now…
By contrast, Gretish Thunbergish is 100% Saturnine.
However, there is one obvious difference between my horoscope and Greta´s. OK, I haven´t checked hers, but if you believe in astrology (as a card-carrying Cap, I obviously don´t), Uranus is crazy planet. And I happen to have it in a *very* prominent position in my horoscope. Even apart from the fact that my progressed sun is probably in Aquarius right now…
By contrast, Gretish Thunbergish is 100% Saturnine.
I suppose
this explain why Greta is busy saving the world, while I´m busy trolling her
from a blog named after the Ashtar Command.
No hard
feelings, I hope.
Here we go again
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Varje gång Trump försöker att INTE vara världspolis är han "rysk agent". Och varje gång han ÄR världspolis får *exakt samma personer* kalla fötter och skiter ner sig totalt när han dödar ryska allierade i Irak och så vidare.
Proffstyckarnas proffstyckeri betyder visst ingenting i verkligheten. Eller också har de alla drabbats av "Trump Derengement Syndrome" alias TDS.
Vad vill de att Trump skall göra egentligen? Lämna över tyglarna till Hillary Clinton...? *Då* är äventyrspolitik mot ryska allierade helt okej. Cuz reasons. Eller?
Är jag den ende som slutat läsa morrontidningen eller vad...
Veckans Machiavelli
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Titta vem som plötsligt hyllar "den muslimska republiken" Iran...
Trump dödade iransk general som krossade IS
De har ju en av ottomanska rikets allierade i sitt tidningshuvud, fast Iran är väl mer åt safavid-hållet?
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
My predictions for the 2020´s
Everyone is making predictions for the 2020´s and I decided to chime in. Well, almost. I already predicted everything (yes really) so I will simply link to the relevant blog posts. Remember: a prediction is not a prophecy. I could be wrong. In fact, I *want* to be wrong! With that caveat, here we go...
TL;DR: Be careful what you wish for!
HAPPY NEW YEAR
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM SWEDEN!
OK, I know the picture is from Taiwan 2009 but who cares? LOL.
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