Index 
(ON) Letter to Neil Stienberg: Measure for Measure
(J) Epistemology Jim: When my friend from MCC, Jim the doctor, says he would do this or that if this or that were true, I remind him he can’t know that, i.e. what he would do. So when anyone say I will or would do something, I say, “sure” but think, “perhaps”. The Empiricist Creed: Hypothetical actions or conditions are not testable by observation. Only conditions that exist, are. Also not testable are conditions that are only inferable from observations of conditions that are, including observations of paper of other memory recording of conditions. Government From the Chicago Sun Times today: Alderman on removing the iconic Wrigley Field Scoreboard, “I’m just here to help poor folk. Them rich ole Rickerts (3 of them in the top 10 billionaires, recent Forbes list) make enough money so they can afford to tear down that iconic scoreboard so my good friends and neighbor can enjoy the games (and make lots of money for the rooftop owners). By the way, you could replace it with a newfangled electronic gizmo that will blast ads all over the stadium and make you Rickerts millions of more dollars. So we all gain, more money for all. What’s the problem?" One Rickert brother says, “We never had intent to remove the scoreboard”, but when he leaves the room he says softly, “Yeah”, smiling like the Sun Times photo. Appearance and Reality Idea of "Other" Page 20 column by Mary Mitchell: First sentence, “It is surreal to see a 6-month old baby laying in a casket.” What in God’s name are you trying to tell me, Mary Mitchell. I think you confuse reality and sur-reality. Babies die all the time. That is not surreal; that is real. Perhaps it is surreal to you because you think such infant deaths should not happen. Perhaps you even believe further that in some other place and time that bad things don’t happen. Perhaps you even believe as Plato and the Vedas taught us that this world is more real than the corrupt world we live in. Perhaps that is why this world is surreal, whereas God’s heaven is the real world. Perhaps, but I doubt it. What cruel, cruel god would trick us so. Art as Purpose Vignette for stage play: Why is it of any concern to the alderman? Alderman = State; Rickerts=Private. Of course the answer is power, treat of “community action”, i.e. “law”, but, “Let’s all work together, we all want more money”. After “Yeah”, the old man (now woman) says, “Patience, Mr. Rickets, let the idea grow that the “icon” is dust, most will soon believe it, so the loud mouths will protest before and after, but still come to the games. Patience, the sheep will follow, the wolves will follow the sheep." | Thought Process The Dragon’s Lair: Hanging or nailed to walls of the lair, perhaps alive as Prometheus because we have made them into immortal gods:
Commerce The sage, ISTMRN turns disadvantage to advantage, or as the corporate adage, adversity to opportunity. Sometimes this requires obsequiousness, sometimes humility, often also subservience, graciousness, honor, bravery, humor, respect, but also oft times deceit, dominance, arrogance, threats, and cowardice. Garret Hardin, author of Tragedy of the Commons, to which I might add (if he hasn't already) as way are found to increase the common’s material wealth, time is bought for morality destruction to continue. Bob Bellah in his wonderful book, Religion in Human Evolution, draws attention to the “tension between the transcendental and the mundane”. The BIG question is, from whence that tension? “Is the transcendent really real?” I take the distinction to be between the world of the senses and the world of the imagination. I often call the world beyond the senses the “other world”; other have called it light (enlightenment), God, truth, justice, or ….. well nearly anything I cannot see, hear, or touch such as heaven, hell, love, compassion, hate, and all such abstractions, though I may “feel” them in my heart (xîn in some Chinese), whatever that is. Appearance and Reality Idea of "Other" Rolling Stones We seem to want the unreal to be real, but say it’s a work in progress, so come back tomorrow or maybe next week. “cuz you see, I’m on a losing streak, I can’t get no.” (hats off to the Stones) |