“Wanting to reform the world without discovering one’s true self is like trying to cover the world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes.”
— Ramana Maharshi
Category Archives: Art and Ideas
Arch Crawford on The Mars-Uranus Cycle
Veteran star-gazer and market timer, Arch Crawford, on the Mars-Uranus cycle and its indications for the period August 1. 2010 to March 2011.
Ayn Rand On Love And Self-Sacrifice
“It is not self-sacrifice to die protecting that which you value. If the value is great enough, you do not care to exist without it.”
— Ayn Rand
Tom Lehrer: Poisoning Pigeons In The Park
I just discovered the delightful pianist and satirist, Tom Lehrer, via Roderick Long’s blog. A mathematician (BA magna cum laude from Harvard, a phi beta kappa, and teaching stints at MIT, Harvard, and Wellesley, although he never finished his doctorate), Lehrer was employed at Los Alamos and the National Security Agency and then lectured widely in political science and musical theater. There are dozens of great pieces of his posted on youtube, on everything from Werner von Braun to World War III. To my ears, Lehrer sounds a bit like Danny Kaye (another of my favorites) – for the politically savvy.
The lyrics of this song, “Poisoning Pigeons In the Park,” perfectly capture the macabre sangfroid toward cruelty and wanton destruction that the corporate-state tries to inculcate in the population.
Atheist Ayatollahs And The New Fundamentalism
The new atheism is as bigoted as that old-time religion, says a Kentucky pastor:
“Atheists remain a tiny minority, but they’re far more vocal and combative than they used to be, an approach advocated by Dawkins and others. They have every right to state their views. Continue reading
Freedom as “Lila”
“Brahman is full of all perfections. And to say that Brahman has some purpose in creating the world will mean that it wants to attain through the process of creation something which it has not. And that is impossible. Hence, there can be no purpose of Brahman in creating the world. The world is a mere spontaneous creation of Brahman. It is a Lila, or sport, of Brahman. It is created out of Bliss, by Bliss and for Bliss. Lila indicates a spontaneous sportive activity of Brahman as distinguished from a self-conscious volitional effort. The concept of Lila signifies freedom as distinguished from necessity“
— Ram Shankar Mishra, in “The Integral Advaitism of Sri Aurobindo”
Muse: The Uprising – An Anti-Globalist Song
Muse – THE UPRISING – Song writer: Matthew Bellamy
Bellamy, who sings and plays great acoustic and electric guitar, is also a gifted pianist steeped in classical music. You can hear classical influences in the long stretches he quotes from Chopin on this album and in frequent quasi- Baroque interludes. Youtube also has clips of Bellamy playing Rachmaninoff and Liszt on the piano, as well as a Villa-Lobos etude for the guitar and Tarrega’s beautiful Recuerdos de la Alhambra
The political positions Bellamy takes are just as interesting as his art. Perhaps, he’s come to them from the experience of having an uncle murdered by the IRA. Bellamy considers 9-11 a false-flag operation, thinks the call for war with Iran “takes things to a Nazi level”, and refers to the CIA mind-control operation MK Ultra on the same album as Uprising.
A remarkable and brave young artist, first, to bring these notions into popular music, and then, to stand firmly behind his political convictions in public interviews.
(Bellamy says Uprising was inspired by the G20 protests in London in 2008)
Paranoia is in bloom,
The PR transmissions will resume,
They”ll try to push drugs that keep us all dumbed down,
And hope that we will never see the truth around
(So come on) Continue reading
War: Survival Of The Unfittest
“Only in the case of primitive peoples does war lead to the selection of the stronger and more gifted, and that among civilized peoples it leads to a deterioration of the race by unfavorable selection.”
Through Cowardice We Shall All Be Saved
Cinematical.com (via Greg at Our Holy Cause) has a synopsis of the underrated 1964 movie, “The Americanization of Emily,” with its ironic antiwar message: Continue reading
Mark Twain’s Battle Hymn Of The Republic
The Battle Hymn of the Republic Updated
by Mark TwainMine eyes have seen the orgy of the launching of the Sword;
He is searching out the hoardings where the stranger’s wealth is stored;
He hath loosed his fateful lightnings, and with woe and death has scored;
His lust is marching on. Continue reading