Kant argued that reason would bring about perpetual peace in a benign global political order. Another great philosopher, Bertrand Russell, saw things rather differently when asked about the prospects for world peace:
“After ages during which the earth produced harmless trilobites and butterflies, evolution progressed to the point at which it has generated Neros, Genghis Khans, and Hitlers. This, however, I believe is a passing nightmare; in time the earth will become again incapable of supporting life, and peace will return.”
I don’t presume to enter those ranks. I’d like to think that humans have the capacity to do much better than what Russell forecast, even if not to achieve Kant’s ideal.
— Noam Chomsky
A primary defense against class war is an educated, informed public. Public education has come under harsh attack during the neoliberal years: sharp defunding, business models that favor cheap and easily disposable labor (adjuncts, graduate students) instead of faculty, teaching-to-test models that undermine critical thinking and inquiry, and much else. Best to have a population that is passive, obedient, and atomized, even if they are angry and resentful, and thus easy prey for demagogues skilled in tapping ugly currents that run not too far below the surface in every society.
— Noam Chomsky
The MAD system (mutually assured destruction) enabled a form of security, lunatic but perhaps the best short of the kind of social and cultural transformation that is still unfortunately only an aspiration.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the MAD system of security was undermined by President Bill Clinton’s aggressive triumphalism and the Bush II-Trump project of dismantling the laboriously constructed arms control regime. There’s an important recent study of these topics by Benjamin Schwarz and Christopher Layne, as part of the background to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They review how Clinton initiated a new era of international affairs in which the “United States became a revolutionary force in world politics” by abandoning the “old diplomacy” and instituting its preferred revolutionary concept of global order.
The “old diplomacy” sought to maintain global order by “an understanding of an adversary’s interests and motives and an ability to make judicious compromises.” The new triumphant unilateralism sets as “a legitimate goal [for the U.S.] the alteration or eradication of those arrangements [internal to other countries] if they were not in accord with its professed ideals and values.”
The word “professed” is crucial. It is commonly expunged from consciousness here, not elsewhere.
In the background lies the Clinton doctrine that the U.S. must be prepared to resort to force, multilaterally if we can, unilaterally if we must, to ensure vital interests and “uninhibited access to key markets, energy supplies, and strategic resources.”
The accompanying military doctrine has led to creation of a far more advanced nuclear weapons system that can only be understood as “a preemptive counterforce capability against Russia and China” (Rand Corporation)—a first-strike capacity, enhanced by Bush’s dismantling of the treaty that barred emplacement of anti-ballistic missile systems near an adversary’s borders. These systems are portrayed as defensive, but they are understood on all sides to be first-strike weapons.
These steps have significantly weakened the old system of mutual deterrence, leaving in its place greatly enhanced dangers.
How new these developments were, one might debate, but Schwarz and Layne make a strong case that this triumphant unilateralism and open contempt for the defeated enemy has been a significant factor in bringing major war to Europe with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with the potential to escalate to terminal war. ...
Historical analogies have their limits of course, but there are two pertinent ones that have repeatedly been adduced in this connection: The Concert of Europe established in 1815 and the Versailles treaty of 1919. The former is a prime example of the “Old Diplomacy.” The defeated aggressor (France) was incorporated into the new system of international order as an equal partner. That led to a century of relative peace. The Versailles treaty is a paradigm example of the “revolutionary” concept of global order instituted by the triumphalism of the ‘90s and its aftermath. Defeated Germany was not incorporated into the postwar international order but was severely punished and humiliated. We know where that led.
— Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky on Why This Is the Most Dangerous Point in Human History
It's no coincidence that LSD was (re)discovered in the midst of the horrors of WWII; it was a gift from above, a chance to reclaim the once-lost Eleusinian Mysteries and find our way back to Transcendence. Instead, the Shadow turned entheogens into a means of mere intoxication.
“[A]mong the many exceptional and divine things your Athens has produced and contributed to human life, nothing is better than those [Eleusinian] Mysteries. For by means of them we have been transformed from a rough and savage way of life to the state of humanity, and have been civilized. Just as they are called initiations, so in actual fact we have learned from them the fundamentals of life, and have grasped the basis not only for living with joy, but also for dying with a better hope.” — Cicero
https://misharogov.medium.com/eleusinian-mysteries-a22e899cfd41
“[H]ow can one describe, as other than oneself, that which, when one saw it, seemed to be one with oneself? This is no doubt why in the [Eleusinian] Mysteries we are forbidden to reveal them to the uninitiated.” — Plotinus
https://misharogov.medium.com/light-9ac43e91e63
“If you die before you die, you won’t die when you die.” — Greek saying
The huge number of idiots who believe the UkroNazi lie that Russia is going to blow up its own nuclear power plant ZNPP is frightening.
Russophobia is a dangerous mental disorder.
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_3496930794082636461688507475.webp
Can we, humanity as a planetary collective, accept Christ's ethics of non-violent resistance to conscienceless demons, aka evil? We can, but that will pave our way to the end of everything truly humane and hence Christian in a global dictatorship stabilized by terror.
"The Sermon on the Mount should be a mandatory requirement, but following that requirement will lead to the destruction of all. The respectful consistency in following the commandments of faith is visibly revealed to us in the martyrs and saints as something that cannot be in this world, except as its end. This is why theology becomes a work of composing compromises, reinterpretations, twists, to cover up the conflict between the requirements recognized, given in revelation, and one's own conduct not even approaching those requirements, and to make possible existence as duration and peace. Independent philosophizing appeals to honesty in order to either resolutely follow, or resolutely not follow the commandments." — Karl Jaspers
Buddhism is more radical:
"[Bodhisattvas] may know the state of mind of another [person], knowing, “This person here possesses [the intention to at this point commit some great] nonvirtue...” If [they know that] there is no other means to deter [this person] from that [nonvirtue] and know and are aware that this person will definitely go to a pleasant realm if they kill [this person], while [this person] will definitely go to a miserable realm if they commit that [nonvirtuous] action, they shall give rise to the following mind-set: “I gladly accept going to a miserable realm due to committing this action [of killing that person] in such a way. However, through inflicting a little bit of suffering upon this [person] in their present [life], I shall make them attain [much greater] happiness in future [lives].” In this way, despite killing [this person], by virtue of their giving rise to a mind-set that resembles [that of] a physician, there is nothing nonmeritorious [for bodhisattvas in killing this person] but their merit will increase greatly. Since their merit will increase greatly, [such bodhisattvas] will swiftly attain unsurpassable completely perfect awakening. Such is very profound." — Vasubandhu
"[E]ven if bodhisattvas commit the ten kinds of [nonvirtuous] actions such as killing through these kinds of skill in means, they do not incur any wrongdoing through this but generate immeasurable merit and also fully and perfectly realize unsurpassable completely perfect awakening. Furthermore, their miraculously created physical and verbal actions should also be understood as the profound discipline of bodhisattvas. They may [do things such as] assuming kingship and establishing sentient beings in the vinaya through displaying all kinds of harming sentient beings. By way of manifesting all kinds of consecutive lives, they display benefiting other sentient beings through harming sentient beings other than those. Through that, preceded by a mind-set full of confident clarity, they accomplish the maturation of others. This is the distinctive feature of the profundity of the discipline of bodhisattvas." — Asanga
Ultimately, it is up to each individual to decide which ethics to choose.
If Nazi #Ukraine blows up the #ZNPP, it will put itself on the same diabolical level as Nazi Germany, and #Russia will be morally obliged to burn it to the ground. Such an unprecedented act of nuclear terrorism will require radical punishment. No mercy for conscienceless demons.
Without a new leap of faith in Transcendence humanity is doomed to run down the spiral of dehumanization. Without the conceptual support of ontological idealism such leap is impossible. All believers must understand that God is Consciousness, and Consciousness is all there is.
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_2325061260328210801688383041.webp
The realization that Consciousness is all there is is an existential shock that forever changes the course of one’s life. Most people are carefully avoiding this shock, they want God to stay dead, and so the Shadow triumphs.
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_9220170143748862841688382980.webp
The problem with accepting the truth of ontological idealism is the problem with accepting the fact that Transcendence—transcendent consciousness-in-itself—is real. The Shadow in us resists this truth, it wants God to stay dead, so we can keep playing our demonic games.
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_9353307950567536071688382901.webp
Those who think that politics is more important than #metaphysics are BLIND, for the fundamental problem of humanity, from which all other problems stem, is humanity's false understanding of the nature of the empirical reality of phenomenal consciousness.
To Foreign Policy Veteran, the Real Danger Is at Home
Richard N. Haass says the most serious threat to global security is the United States.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/01/us/politics/richard-haass-biden-trump-foreign-policy.html
The secret of evil is the secret of freedom... At the basis of the world lies irrational freedom, in the very depths of the abyss. And out of these depths pour the dark currents of life.
— Nikolai Berdyaev
The crisis of modern culture began long ago. It has been recognized by its great creators. Wars, revolutions, and external catastrophes only revealed to the outside the internal crisis of culture. ... The crisis of culture lies in the fact that it cannot remain religiously neutral and humanistic, that it must inevitably become either a godless, anti-Christian civilization or a sacred, ecclesiastical culture, a Christian transformation of life. And this presupposes a creative process in the life of the Church, the disclosure of the Christian truth about man and his vocation in the world, as well as the final disclosure of the mystery of creation, the mystery of cosmic life.
— Nikolai Berdyaev
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_8110270394138893941688252028.webp
'Why are we tempting nuclear annihilation?' Watch Max Blumenthal address UN Security Council
https://thegrayzone.com/2023/06/29/nuclear-annihilation-max-blumenthal-security-council/
Why the World Is on the Brink of Great Disorder
By Ray Dalio
"Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself." — Rumi
"Only the pure soul can truthfully live in this tension: to know about the possible ruin and still remain tirelessly active for all that is possible in the world." — Karl Jaspers
https://nostrcheck.me/media/public/nostrcheck.me_7763239516916184451688118280.webp
– Я тебе должен сделать одно признание, – начал Иван: – я никогда не мог понять, как можно любить своих ближних. ... Чтобы полюбить человека, надо, чтобы тот спрятался, а чуть лишь покажет лицо свое – пропала любовь.
– Об этом не раз говорил старец Зосима, – заметил Алеша, – он тоже говорил, что лицо человека часто многим еще неопытным в любви людям мешает любить.
— Достоевский, "Братья Карамазовы"
Читая, вспоминал Сведенборга, который интуитивно увидел истину трансцендентальной феноменологии о лице (и теле вообще) как феноменальной репрезентации трансцендентального субъекта, "зеркале души":
"[W]e can see in the human face what correspondence is like. In a face that has not been taught to dissimulate, all the affections of the mind manifest themselves visibly in a natural form, as though in their very imprint, which is why we refer to the face as ‘‘the index of the mind.’’ This is our spiritual world within our natural world." — Emanuel Swedenborg
Всё у всех написано на лицах. Не видят этого только те, кто не хочет видеть.
"Только от человека далекого будущего можно было бы ожидать, что он станет исследовать себя перед зеркалом." — Карл Ясперс
I have started a Substack as a mirror of my Medium blog. Philosophy only.