tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post9223312713853450227..comments2024-03-28T09:59:13.754-07:00Comments on bionic mosquito: Other Pathsbionic mosquitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12002548958078731031noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-5036101877608093872019-11-21T10:23:17.195-08:002019-11-21T10:23:17.195-08:00"By insisting specially on the immanence of G..."By insisting specially on the immanence of God we get introspection, self-isolation, quietism, social indifference – Tibet. By insisting specially on the transcendence of God we get wonder, curiosity, moral and political adventure, righteous indignation – Christendom. Insisting that God is inside man, man is always inside himself. By insisting that God transcends man, man has transcended himself." - G.K. ChestertonA Texas Libertarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02980539931923054404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-91063695084654675482019-11-16T08:21:08.438-08:002019-11-16T08:21:08.438-08:00One clear difference between yoga (as described ab...One clear difference between yoga (as described above, not necessarily the modern version) and Christianity is that the adherents of yoga attempt to escape from the seedier (carnal, sinful) side of life, but believers in Christ are taught that they can and should overcome this aspect of their nature. Yoga is escapist and irresponsible. Christianity is overpowering and accountable. <br /><br />1. Yogis seek to avoid pain and suffering by attempting to separate from it. Christians embrace the reality of pain and suffering, then act to alleviate it, not only in themselves but also others.<br />2. Yogis seek to divorce the spiritual from the mental and physical. (Bionic, is that correct?) Christians are urged to bring everything into submission to the mind of Christ.<br />3. Yogis are doomed to an eternity of a never-ending quest to disengage the man from himself, ever learning but never coming to the truth. Christians are declared free definitively at the moment of conversion. They are promised that their efforts are not in vain and that they will see the results within their own lifetime.<br />4. Purusha is impossible to define and has no qualities we can recognize. Salvation is easily explained and lays out the concept right up front. <br /><br />This list could go on and on, but these will suffice. <br /><br />“…sacrifice was useless. The gods were also imprisoned by nature, so it was pointless to ask for their help.” -- Karen Armstrong<br /><br />This is an ironic statement. It would be funny if it wasn’t so serious. The Indian culture is imbued and shot through with literally thousands of ‘gods’, which people worship. If the gods were impotent and it was useless to ask for their help, then why are there so many gods in Hindu culture today? Everyone has the god(s) they worship and it is quite possible that they have made up their own which no one else recognizes. This may be due to the fact that, <br /><br />“...yoga was not available to all – demanding hours of effort every day, and this after the countless hours necessary to achieve mastery. Householders need not apply – there was no time.” -- BM<br /><br />I dare say that yoga was probably only seriously pursued by a small minority of the population, while the rest (extremely poor, extremely rich, businessmen, civil administrators, hedonists, etc.) were either unable or unwilling to follow that path. Because of their ignorance of the liberating gospel of Christ, the people who did not embrace yoga simply created their own gods in an attempt to escape from the pain, poverty, and misery within which they lived.<br /><br />One final difference. Yoga has done nothing to positively impact its society or to alleviate the misery endemic to India. Christian principles have changed the world, lifting countless billions out of poverty, squalor, and hopelessness. Rogerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08156823478509665137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-27770903159338450652019-11-14T10:36:15.182-08:002019-11-14T10:36:15.182-08:00Besides not having a public face, I am not terribl...Besides not having a public face, I am not terribly comfortable at such things. In any case, Rothbard really has nailed this one with his recognition that there are objective ethics required beyond the NAP if liberty is the goal.bionic mosquitohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12002548958078731031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-18587788462269730442019-11-14T09:07:34.708-08:002019-11-14T09:07:34.708-08:00I'd really love to see/hear a deep discussion ...I'd really love to see/hear a deep discussion between you and Roderick Long on libertarian ethics.<br /><br />From his wiki: "According to Long, he specializes in "Greek philosophy; moral psychology; ethics; philosophy of social science; and political philosophy (with an emphasis on libertarian/anarchist theory)."[8] Long supports what he calls "libertarian anarchy"<br /><br />I think it would be a fascinating discussion. I would probably donate some money to Mises or some organization to put it together/host it if you and he were game.Nick Badalamentihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14015961786370759940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-55560535767617654782019-11-13T20:32:37.225-08:002019-11-13T20:32:37.225-08:00Anonymous,
Two men who lived what you describe i...Anonymous, <br /><br />Two men who lived what you describe in your third and fourth paragraphs, the Apostles John and Paul, actually had their reality blown away when they had a "personal glimpse of authentic and profound spiritual revelation", i.e., when they literally saw Jesus the Christ. They were changed forever and went on to write half the New Testament, which effort has profoundly changed the entire world's reality. I think it is safe to state that their own personal egos were not reinforced through the experience, but rather humbled and destroyed in favor of something far superior. <br /><br />I constantly examine myself and my beliefs, including those learned from others. Learned, not borrowed/stolen. I do not purge them all, however. Instead I keep what is good and builds on what I believe to be true and discard anything which is not compatible with that understanding. <br /><br />The main problem with purging everything you believe is that you will never know the truth about anything. You will never have anything which you CAN believe in, since you must, by your own admission, discard that as well in favor of something else, which must also be challenged and purged. Life then becomes an empty quest of challenging and discarding everything which might be believable. Or, as 2 Timothy 3:7 describes it, "...always learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." A life spent this way is a life of utter futility, completely wasted and empty. <br /><br />How will you know if you find anything which is true? By what standard do you measure the truth? How do you make a decision about whether anything is believable? There are only two answers to these questions--either your own squishy subjective opinion which reinforces and inflates your personal ego or a hard objective, immutable Truth which does not. There is no other choice.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Rogerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08156823478509665137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-29987380419192425062019-11-13T09:52:40.169-08:002019-11-13T09:52:40.169-08:00Yeah, you weren't the most cordial to Hornberg...Yeah, you weren't the most cordial to Hornberger, but I understand your frustration. Hornberger's response just smacked of effeminate obfuscation. 'You see, what we should really be talking about is what your question says about you rather than what my answer to your question is.' I'm paraphrasing 1000 words.<br /><br />Anyway, I'm way off topic, so I'll close it off here. Just wanted to get your two cents, which I always find extremely valuable.A Texas Libertarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02980539931923054404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-61504851612531687292019-11-13T09:00:37.506-08:002019-11-13T09:00:37.506-08:00Your last paragraph made me laugh. I don't kn...Your last paragraph made me laugh. I don't know if he is married, has children, etc.<br /><br />I know I contributed something negative to my exchanges with him, but I really found it all to be a waste of time. It's one reason I just quit that entire line of writing - engaging in debates / discussions with other libertarians. I didn't like how I felt after, so for the most part I have stopped this angle.<br /><br />Hornberger never took me up on this:<br /><br />http://bionicmosquito.blogspot.com/2017/08/open-borders-for-israel.html <br /><br />Big surprise.bionic mosquitohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12002548958078731031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-31577410562475192372019-11-13T07:54:12.770-08:002019-11-13T07:54:12.770-08:00I looked back through your posts on Hornberger, an...I looked back through your posts on Hornberger, and the comments. Yeah, I can see why you lost respect. Things got a little heated. He definitely dodged the question on numerous occasions, like a typical leftist intellectual would: 1000 words to dodge a 10 word answer they don't want to own up to.<br /><br />I had a correspondence with him recently via email, and I had a similar experience. He basically ignored my arguments and said that I had a policy position in mind beforehand of stemming immigration and was looking for a quasi-libertarian justification, simply taking for granted that his position was THE libertarian position.<br /><br />Anyways, I sent him an email wishing him luck on his presidential bid, because he's good on pretty much everything else. He thanked me and said he could not respond to the specifics of my email because apparently at FFF, they have "erected a wall" between FFF and political activism.<br /><br />I said hey no problem! I'm in favor of walls!<br /><br />Do you know if he's married with children? I didn't see anything about that on his campaign website bio, which I thought was a bit odd. Maybe that's just me. Please don't tell me he's gay. You remember what I said about being in two victim groups? Gay + Jew/black/trans/Muslim does not equal a good outcome.<br /><br />Normally I wouldn't care, but if this guy wants to be my chosen leader, I'd like to know if he had the stones to face the insanity of a woman, dive in anyway, and get some kids out of the deal.A Texas Libertarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02980539931923054404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-9816690905095909252019-11-13T07:36:22.294-08:002019-11-13T07:36:22.294-08:00"I cannot find a higher "ego" than ..."I cannot find a higher "ego" than believing that truth will be found within" - BM<br /><br />Exactly.<br /><br />"Challenge your sense of 'self,' your ego. Challenge all your beliefs, esp those created by others that you have borrowed/stolen. Purge them all. Find your own. Challenge those, too. See what happens." - Anonymous<br /><br />You can follow your will and your wind and you might just go where no one's been, but I can tell you that the destination you'll find swinging on that spiral is no where I'd want to end up in.<br /><br />I hope someday you can see past yourself to see the truth of Jesus Christ.A Texas Libertarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02980539931923054404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-26250867388832164562019-11-13T03:24:15.982-08:002019-11-13T03:24:15.982-08:00Jesus gave a good example of purging ego. His pur...Jesus gave a good example of purging ego. His purging also happened to offer benefits to all of mankind by doing so - something that the purging of ego in other traditions doesn't offer.<br /><br />I cannot find a higher "ego" than believing that truth will be found within. Purge all beliefs founded by others and find your own, as you suggest? Even the lowliest creatures on earth aren't so egotistical.bionic mosquitohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12002548958078731031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-13861443526605150202019-11-12T21:35:33.990-08:002019-11-12T21:35:33.990-08:00Re: foundations of freedom/liberty in other cultur...Re: foundations of freedom/liberty in other cultures... I suspect the main point of contention is that which several other cultures deeply address: the ego.<br />The ego, being an accumulated sense of 'self' based on one's life experiences, is fraught with all manner of haphazard and conflicting beliefs, assumptions, opinions and whatnot, and coupled with many shades of cognitive bias. There is nothing trustworthy at all about it.<br />As well, with one's sense of 'self' always being re-formed and redefined as time goes by (essentially it boils down to 'believed-in' beliefs coming and going over time), there is nothing foundational or secure about its operations or its conclusions. Therefore, we engage in a constant reaching for something new and better to believe in. We like to 'believe' that our endless search for new and better beliefs somehow relates to some kind of personal progress... that we are making our way to somewhere important, developing rarified understanding of Very Serious Issues.<br />But all of this carefully stacked inverted pyramid of ego can instantly come crashing down with a personal glimpse of authentic and profound spiritual revelation. IOW, our treasured mental house of cards can easily be blown down from a breath of the Divine. In that moment, our precious beliefs and stories vaporize, as we are transported into a Reality far beyond our relatively primitive attempts at mentally hacking together something passable (believable!) that makes sense of our world, our life, our purpose.<br />People who have touched on these Divine revelations come back to our reality and oftentimes attempts to speak and write about what they have seen. If they happen to do a particularly good job of it, perhaps it becomes Tradition, which will be endlessly tweaked, tinkered with and repeatedly mistranslated. Regardless, they become sacred books. These books make it easy to swallow a comprehensive set of ready-made beliefs; IOW, more ego reinforcement.<br />The only way out is inward. Challenge your sense of 'self,' your ego. Challenge all your beliefs, esp those created by others that you have borrowed/stolen. Purge them all. Find your own. Challenge those, too. <br />See what happens.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-28926392836273874232019-11-12T16:20:14.099-08:002019-11-12T16:20:14.099-08:00ATL, to the extent I do something more with the bo...ATL, to the extent I do something more with the book, I expect some day I will go through and edit and extend - and perhaps something of this Axial Age will enter. We will see.<br /><br />Hornberger is very good on almost everything. But I lost respect for him in our discussions on immigration - he couldn't address objections at all. I did go to his statement at his campaign website, found this interesting:<br /><br />"There is one —and only one — solution to the immigration morass in which our nation is mired: economic liberty and free markets."<br /><br />He has the same disease as Walter does: it takes economic liberty and free markets to make the idea of open borders a libertarian idea - he says so himself; we have neither, of course. At least Walter admits this to be true but doesn't care - he still wants open borders.<br /><br />As to open immigration being "the immigration system of our American ancestors for more than 100 years..." the situation was much more nuanced than he pretends it to be. When the country had relatively open immigration, it also had economic liberty and free markets (for the most part). Also, the immigrants were of similar cultural background - necessary if you didn't have government support.<br /><br />I have written about immigration history in the US. Worth looking at if for no other reason than seeing the time-lapse map referred to in the beginning of the post.<br /><br />http://bionicmosquito.blogspot.com/2017/08/united-states-immigration-history.html <br /><br />bionic mosquitohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12002548958078731031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-721184383338765602019-11-12T12:31:54.658-08:002019-11-12T12:31:54.658-08:00Maybe tangent is the wrong word. I just meant your...Maybe tangent is the wrong word. I just meant your treatment of the Axial Age in relation to the 'Search for Liberty'. Is this part of a new chapter (or chapters) in the book? It seems like it could be. Or is this just a discussion following through on your contentions in the book?<br /><br />"but does the underlying cultural foundation support such a view? Because the underlying cultural foundation will beat some thin political idea every time."<br /><br />That is the key question isn't it? It's a question I'd like to see Dr. Block and Jeffrey Tucker address. <br /><br />Speaking of thin libertarians, (and this definitely is a tangent!) I'm sure you're aware Jacob Hornberger is running for President on the LP ticket. I wonder how he'd weigh in on this discussion? He's a Christian, so I'm not sure that he would reject our contention that Christianity is the root of liberty, but he is also an open border lib, so he does seem to have the egalitarian (leftist) streak in him a bit.<br /><br />I checked out his <a href="https://jacobforliberty.com/positions/all/" rel="nofollow">campaign positions</a>, and they're all very good, except of course his confusion that open borders is the only consistent libertarian policy.<br /><br />Would you consider voting for him (not that our votes matter much anyway) despite his position on borders? I know you've had a correspondence with him on the issue of borders and have written quite a few posts on that discussion, though I have not gone back over it recently. <br /><br />I think that I would, at least consider it strongly. I don't see anyone else better in the running.A Texas Libertarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02980539931923054404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-60802167535606059772019-11-12T11:45:57.606-08:002019-11-12T11:45:57.606-08:00ATL, I am not sure I am seeing this as a tangent, ...ATL, I am not sure I am seeing this as a tangent, but maybe so...<br /><br />I am using the book to explore a couple of ideas:<br /><br />1) to what extent was there commonality in this search for God? As God is in all men's hearts, all men seek him - albeit without always having the blessing of divine Scripture / Revelation.<br /><br />2) What of a foundation for liberty? Sure, we can say libertarianism is universal, blah, blah, blah...but does the underlying cultural foundation support such a view? Because the underlying cultural foundation will beat some thin political idea every time.<br /><br />So...no other book in the works. Not yet.bionic mosquitohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12002548958078731031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648884752216444797.post-85075510427191521352019-11-12T10:03:52.061-08:002019-11-12T10:03:52.061-08:00I like the tangent you've taken recently with ...I like the tangent you've taken recently with Karen's books. Will this be an addition to your book or is this book 2? I doubt she'd agree with your conclusions about Western society, Christianity and freedom, but her work is worth reading.<br /><br />The Asian philosophies have always struck me as variants of the philosophy of the slave. The inward focus of all of them seems to dissuade practitioners from influencing outward events and circumstances. I'm not sure how effective self-immolation really is at combating tyrannical government, and even this seems to be a contradiction of their inwardly focused philosophy. Shouldn't they be concerned about their own inner peace rather than lighting themselves on fire? Finding inner peace regardless of the outer environment will lead to a peaceful contented slavery to masters who do not share your philosophy (or only do so dishonestly).<br /><br />There were many Christians who advocated a similar philosophy, those who saw that the faithful's proper attitude in society was to be "passive obedience." But other Christians saw things differently and resisted (passively or actively) kings who violated the example of our true King.<br /><br />Christ is not only our personal example of how we should behave, but He is our example of how our kings, *government, or other authority figures should behave. When they deviate from this example, we know they have ventured into the realm of injustice at best or tyranny at worst. <br /><br />*By 'government' I don't mean the state, but any organization tasked with enforcing property rights in a just manner.A Texas Libertarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02980539931923054404noreply@blogger.com