Tag Archives: painting

Hate Groups

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I’ve been thinking lately about the increasing numbers of people who attach themselves to groups that organize on the basis of condemnation of certain others. The groups I’m thinking about profess to be Christian organizations, but whose Christian ideals don’t include acceptance of non-white races or those of differing sexual orientation or equality of the sexes. Such groups believe there Americal would be better off without these others and, given the opportunity condemn and harass them.

Consider the Christian Nationalists whose narrow interpretation of their Bible determines the US is a Christian nation first and foremost, other faiths do not belong and given the power these people would drive the others from the country.

Then there are the Orthodox Christians, followers of the Eastern Church, emphasizing male dominance, are antisemitic, anti-gay rights and inclined toward violent rhetoric spread through the social media. The 4th of July this year saw hundreds of masked members of the Patriot Front march in Washington DC. These folks are an alt-right group opposed to a pluralistic society and distain a social inclusive America.

All such organizations are hate groups. Rather than seek common ground they oppose social unity, displaying an arrogance they support with Biblical cherry-picking and a sense of racial superiority, attitudes one can only assume is generated from fear of the Other.

Quantum Realities

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If Schrodinger’s cat experiment offers plausability to the existence of two simultaneous realities, does the quantum world open up existences to worlds that can only be imagined? Could time fluctuations create parallel worlds and multiply dimension fracturing time and space into unimaginable complexities splintering the here and now?

SciFi fodder for sure, but the quantum world can’t be ignored. 85% of what makes up the physical universe is dark matter or energy, invisible substance that does not emit or absorb light but provides the gravitational underpinnings that hold the planets in place and the universe together.

Or so it is supposed; there is little but conjecture, albeit offered by the most knowledgeable theoretical physicists, to justify belief in any sort of universal order. Enter the spiritual realm.

Alive and Dead?

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Irwin Schrodinger’s thought experiment poses the paradox: A cat in a box bombarded with photons (the photons being particles and/or waves) and containing a cyanide capsule (triggered by particles but not waves) will be alive and dead, that is, in a ‘super position’ until the box is opened and the condition of the cat observed.

The implication is that multiple realities exist and will only become one in the presence of an observer. Which means, I guess, we all determine our own reality.

It makes me think about the importance of assuming personal responsibility for one’s existence.

What Good is Critical Thinking

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Wondering lately about what it means to exercise critical thinking. Daily occurrences will produce events that require judgements. Often such mental requests should be denied, go unanswered because as soon as they’re thought about they {the critical assessments) will take hold, become of greater importance than if they would have been ignored or denied and more than likely such critical assessments are of little importance anyway, requiring, nevertheless, intellectual energy almost always better spent on positive actions.

A lesson I must concentrate on relearning.

Transcendence

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Our first camping trip of the season with our small camper has me noticing the variety of large camping trailers and vans filling the parks this month. I’m struck by the names of some of these large mini-homes that are being directed into the nicely designed private campsites the state parks offer.

I’m wondering how the campers who are bringing these camping luxuries are thinking about the experience they’re expecting to have. Names like Transcend, Escape, Flight and the like suggest a vision the owner might have of finding his way beyond everyday existence to an alternative reality, at least for a few days, where the children will be happy and occupied where one can sit near an open campfire in contemplation, exchanging pleasantries with equally serene neighbors while enjoying well-functioning wifi access, warm toilets and showers.

Reality, of course will eventually set in as one tires of the long walk to the restrooms, replenishing the camper’s water reservoir, chopping wood and starting fires; the bed could be a bit more comfortable. It’s time to return home, let one’s colleagues know about roughing it while enjoying ‘the great outdoorsman’ status.

I guess it’s no wonder why so many people do it.

Quantum Mechanics

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I’ve been reading about quantum mechanics, not so much what it is but rather how the theoretical physicists of the early 20th C attempted to explain it. Years were spent attempting to derive mathematical explanations for how tiny invisible sub-atomic entities exist, interact and behave, and what form they assume in time and space.

The elusiveness of the endeavor led some theoretical physicists to determine that quantum existence was a closed system beyond the known structure of physical science, an idea refuted by brilliant thinkers such as Albert Einstein.

Still, the observed behavior of sub-atomic entities defied explanation. They could be waves or particles, their position and momentum impossible to determine with certainty. The thought experiment offered by Erwin Schrodinger emphasized the counterintuitive dilemma by suggesting photons presented into a closed box in which a cat was placed with a cyanide capsule triggered by particle but not wave suggested multiple scenarios: a cat dead in one, alive in another not reduced to a single truth until viewed by an observer, exacerbating the mystery of what quanta truly are, which leaves us within an unknowable realm beyond the reasoned three-dimensional world our limited intellects can conceive.

Altruistic Evil

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……….. is savagery against one’s fellows in the name of God. Religious zealots fed by xenophobic fervor label those of different beliefs their enemies, infidels, therefore anti-God, deserving of extermination. These Others are demonized through false narratives creating the perception of a sub-humanity, an animal nature deserving to be sacrificed.

Examples of this behavior abound throughout history: The Old Testament God directing destruction of entire people He denounced as unbelievers; witch hunts in the Middle Ages resulting in the burning of countless people; French Catholic mass murder of the protestant Huguenots in the 16th Century and during the second world war the Nazi intent to exterminate the Jewish people, murder most foul perpetrated without regard for our common humanity.

It is clear that the demonizing of the Other continues to plaque us as evidenced by the xenophobic cruelty that today’s populist politics is perpetrating in the name of God. Such simplistic reductionism has me wondering how long humankind will survive.

Contemplation

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Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, denigrates ‘paid employment’ as an unacceptable lifestyle, that, he says, absorbs and degrades the mind. He means, I guess, that a regular job with regular hours occupies so much of one’s being there’s little time for what is truly important: contemplation.

Jumping ahead a couple of millennia, Henry David Thoreau arrived at a similar conclusion. H. D. determined, living as he did in a small cabin in the woods, that to live one’s life fully, within the natural world one must resist the draw of materialistic society.

And certainly, many more individuals throughout time have opted for a life on the fringes of society to pursue an existence of deeper personal meaning. What they have provided us, through their disciplined, frugal lives, is a vision of beauty and meaning that benefits us all.

Social Darwinism

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After Charles Darwin’s, “On the Origin of the Species” was published in 1859, thinkers saw the need to reconcile the idea of life evolving, human from animal, with the conventional understanding of mankind as God’s creation, superior and soul-bearing destined for life ever after.

As popular thinking slowly grasped the notion that survival in a changing world required adaptation, that only the fittest organisms would survive and thrive, unfair advantage was taken. Within the social milieu of the late 19th century western world, evolutionary thinking justified rampant social inequalities, unequal wealth distribution, as properly rewarding the most fit.

Such a philosophic stance produced an uneven playing field favoring ‘robber barons’ who undermined and swallowed up competition. Any sense of moral empathy for the harsh working conditions of the common laborer became subordinated to the pursuit of wealth despite the dictates of the Christian Church. Individualism became the rule; acquire what one could despite societal needs.

Within two decades, it became apparent that singular selfishness will lose out to a shared cooperative existence and that empathy, innate in the human animal, will produce stability. Morality and ethics are necessary components for mankind to realize life’s primary goal: a degree of happiness.

Not sure if the lessons are being learned.

Plato’s Republic

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Plato’s Republic is a dialectical exercise in defining the ideal society.

A Guardian class consisting of the best and most fit physically and mentally is to be selected at a very young age to receive an education through a carefully ordered curriculum that will instill those qualities most favorable to preservation of the state. These Guardians will learn to put the state first above all other considerations, will distain personal gain while living in communal groups without material advantage. the best of these Guardians will be chosen to lead as philosopher kings, ensuring justice for all in this Ideal State.

What could go wrong?

It was argued among the dialecticians that human nature, being what it is, drawn to personal gain, when beyond observation of the populous, will be compelled to forego the practice of justice to gain material advantage. Who will dominate: the just, being good and wise, satisfied with the status quo or the unjust, the bad and ignorant who seek personal gain?

Morality emerges as a potential control factor. (Plato’s)Socrates identifies the soul existing in all people containing the Good as presented in the perfection of the Forms from which the imperfections of the material world are but flawed copies.

Plato’s allegory of the cave relates mankind’s lack of understanding: prisoners chained facing a dark wall, unable to turn, experience only shadows of reality. Not until they are allowed to turn can they see the beauty and complexity of the world. Such is the state of man.