Thoughts that should never have seen the light of day.<\/p>\n
\nThe great majority of human beings grope about during their whole lives among these data of their own existence rather as one gropes one\u2019s way between heavy chairs and tables in a darkened room. And what is tragic about their condition is that perhaps only because their lives are passed in this shadowy gloom can they bear to live at all. It is just as if their seeing apparatus had become finally adapted to this twilight state: it is a state of non-vision which is not, however, a state of quite complete non-awareness. \u2026 all of us tend to secrete and exude a sort of protective covering within which our life goes on. ~ Gabriel Marcel<\/strong>, The Mystery of Being<\/em><\/p>\n
When we set out to speak about truth, as when we set out to speak about God, we are in danger of speaking about something which is not truth, but is merely its simulacrum. ~ Gabriel Marcel<\/p>\n
Truth is the whole Universe realizing itself in one aspect. ~ Frances Bradley<\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
How to Pronounce My Name<\/h2>\n
See How to pronounce Calogero<\/a> for the correct pronunciation. The most common spelling is \u201cCalogero\u201d, which in Greek means \u201cBeautiful old man\u201d. For some reason, our family uses an \u201co\u201d instead of the \u201ca\u201d; so make a minor adjustment to the first syllable.<\/p>\n
They Call me the Trickster<\/h2>\n
Apparently the word is out that \u201cthe Gornahoor guy is a trickster\u201d<\/a>. Of course, a real trickster would put in his writing unacknowledged references to obscure works, deliberate mistakes to hide his real intention, and half-completed thoughts that need to be teased out.<\/p>\n
Someone else wrote this:<\/p>\n
\n[his review of Submission] is pretty good but the author seems to think that Rediger is a real person and that Gu\u00e9non lecteur de Nietzsche is a real dissertation, which he claims to have accessed and read. Does he not know that Rediger and his dissertation are both fictional?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Obviously, I was the victim of an elaborate hoax. Someone claiming to be in possession of that dissertation showed it to me, but without leaving me a copy. It fooled me because the quality was quite high.<\/p>\n
Sophistry and Philosophy<\/h2>\n
Socrates distinguished between the Philosopher, the lover of wisdom, and the Sophist, a commercialized simulacrum of wisdom. The philosopher\u2019s quest is the knowledge of the Whole, the Sophist is a partisan whose goal is to promote partial knowledge as knowledge of the whole. The philosopher relies on justice, the sophist on power. The power of the sophist resides in the widespread confusion between what we would like to be the case and what is actually true; the confusion is the perversion of the understanding.<\/p>\n
The entire news apparatus in the West is based on sophistry. That is, commentators are paid to promote specific opinions. Often, there will be two opposing opinions, so the passive viewer believes he can synthesize a knowledge of the whole out of that. Rather, what is more common, is that the viewer will cheer for one side or another, as though watching a sporting match.<\/p>\n
But what sporting match is played without referees or umpires? Hence, a news show should have referees who will issue red and yellow cards for errors of fact and logic. Yet, that assumes there is an objective truth and that logic has power. Curiously, the ideal of pure reason is now under attack as a trick used by white males as a form of control<\/a>.<\/p>\n
On Being Intelligent<\/h2>\n
The philosopher Thomas Nagle<\/strong> famously posed this question: What is it like to be a bat? He didn\u2019t ask the more mysterious question, What is it like to be intelligent?<\/p>\n
The Quest for Adolph<\/h2>\n
I saw episode one (of several) on the History Channel about the quest to find Adolph Hitler in Argentina. Since the obsession of that Channel on Hitler and space aliens puts Miguel Serrano in the mainstream, I decided to watch it. Its premise was based on some recently released 70 year old FBI files, full of hearsay. They even hired Robert Baer<\/strong> of Syriana<\/em> fame as the project leader. Has anyone seen the Syriana<\/em> outtakes that claim Baer\u2019s first wife was a secret agent?<\/p>\n
Well, the show was so bad, I stopped watching. Meanwhile, Wikileaks<\/strong> uncovered the results of a secret quest to find a Nazi base in Antarctica.<\/a> They must be hiding something.<\/p>\n
Sniffing your Neighbor\u2019s Anus<\/h2>\n
Last month I stumbled upon a \u201cbright\u201d blog, having been mistakenly informed that it was a serious site. It was the same old, same old: atheism, science, consciousness as \u201cnothing but\u201d the firing of neurons. He made an interesting point that experiments have shown that there are neurons firing even before there is conscious awareness of a thought. Now from the esoteric perspective, that is not surprising, since the True Self is hidden and what we take to be our \u201cconscious\u201d self is secondary. Of course, the goal is to reverse that. I thought about adding a comment with that thought, but fortunately a wiser neuron dissuaded me.<\/p>\n
The unanswered question, however, is why neurons have such different effects: what is the point of excruciating pain and sexual ecstasy? Do the neurons know? That is just a revival of ancient Gnosticism, viz., an evil Demiurge trapped consciousness in matter, while leaving it totally ineffective. What then is the point of pain? Why do we feel fear and anxiety if the conscious self is helpless to do anything about it?<\/p>\n
Clearly, he believes he is just a mammal. I am happy to concede that about him, but that does not imply that all beings who look human are just mammals.<\/p>\n
He then claimed that homosexuality is \u201cnatural\u201d, since animals in nature perform such acts. \u201cThat is the only definition of \u2018natural\u2019\u201d, he asserted. Now it may be natural, but mimicking dog behavior is not a good argument. Our religious leaders used to tell us to imitate the saints, or even Christ, but never animals. So this is what they call progress.<\/p>\n
Apparently he is a flop with chicks, based on some of his rants. Perhaps he should try sniffing the behinds of the women in his office to get in their good graces. After all, it works for dogs, so it must be perfectly natural.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Socrates distinguished between the Philosopher, the lover of wisdom, and the Sophist, a commercialized simulacrum of wisdom. The philosopher\u2019s quest is the knowledge of the Whole, the Sophist is a partisan whose goal is to promote partial knowledge as knowledge of the whole. Continue reading