Death is paradoxically a part of life. One cannot possibly evaluate the richness of existence if uncoupled from the mystifying potential of non-existence hovering living reality. The cyclic threat of death and its unknowable negation, incites one to reap every breathing moment the harvest of life’s yield. Poets seem possessed by the theme of death, perhaps owing to their command or unique observation of life. There seems a necessity to seek in the nether world some consolation, or a jus...
Separation of church and state is somewhat like separating the mind from the brain. The mind might very well be the inspired corner of the brain, giving it fresh insight into normal observations managing the mundane, or even leading to an entirely new concept and direction. Some would be tempted to call this inspiration the spiritual quality of thought and thus attribute this to divinity or a single God. However, they would be wrong; for it would debase divinity as just another element of the...
The greatest danger facing the nation today is not terrorism but the wave of followers of messianic leadership. True, as in Osama bin Laden, this leads to terrorism, or in the case of the likes of Saddam to brutal totalitarianism, but in more ostensibly sophisticated nations or groups of people, brutality is clothed in the subtlety of misshapen values. In this country the early settlers were apostates of European religion and had suffered persecution; so naturally they founded their col...
With the exception of enthusiasts for reality shows, or odd balls like Picasso, rappers and heavy metal “artists,” Americans have always believed with Keats’ “beauty is truth, truth beauty,” even though we like to add the conditional clause, of course, that beauty is in the eye of the beholder to allow for different tastes. Still, to be honest a fat man is beautiful only if he dons a Santa Claus suit, or fat woman sings the blues. A pot-bellied defensive lineman is unbecoming no matter how go...
It is tempting to admit that there is such a thing as political philosophy untainted by ideology. Ideology is a pattern of particulars driven by precepts that have little to do with philosophy which presupposes universals. Neither totalitarianism nor democracy is relevant to philosophy because they evolve out the morass of preferential human behavior and beliefs from which precepts evolve. A totalitarian state develops ad-hoc organization of opportune power by the precept of distrust in the m...
How can modern man rediscover his inborn instincts to stay with things — not chase them — to rediscover paradoxically the Tao, by swimming up the stream of Bergson’s élan vital into the rapids of "the endless risks of thought." Yet to Bergson life is more a matter of change than of position. Why then the concern for space, place, and position? Time, change, without a backdrop, without a perspective, without a medium, is for the confinement of an all embracing One that is not of this sensory...
According to Dewey educational theory is scarred by Either-Or opposition that is a development from within and formation from without and that education is a process of overcoming natural inclinations and substituting in its place habits required under external pressures. The latter view is what students object to most. It is degrading to their “material endowments.” What many teachers do not seem to realize is that students do have endowment and that it is the function of the teacher to ste...
Once Iraq and Afghanistan are no longer headlines — wishful thinking perhaps — the US should end the state of “war” on terrorism so that it is not relegated to the meaningless equation of wars on drugs, poverty, and AIDS. The undeniable fact is that terrorism is an unspeakable crime against humanity by unscrupulous ideologists and murderous followers who operate under the pretense of cause célèbre even though it has nothing whatever to do with the subversion of a government. For instance, i...
Only humankind is able to express mental experiences symbolically. Fear, danger, glee and instinctive love are inner experiences of even the animal kingdom, though these experiences cannot be specifically articulated other than by limited rather generic sounds and body language, which it is assumed would lead to much confusion were it not for the miracle of natural instincts. In the human field, an emotion of fear that is subsumed as a notion of terrorism is universally delineated despite t...
Human nature from time immemorial has questioned the substance of its existence. What is consciousness and why can it not satisfy the curiosity of what is one’s inner being? No matter the degree of philosophic intentionality of the self there is always a haunting reflection of another. Because of this human nature invariably turns to what seems the invisible within, an incomprehensible mysterious phenomenon that seems an integral element of whole being. There are three epistemological p...
Out of the punishing darkness of savagery and tribal warfare is the speculation that a godlike charismatic figure with a sense of subtle punishment emerged to the awe of the tribe. One who stole meat longer lost a hand, but perhaps was scaffolded for a time without nourishment or gorged till he puked; the woman who committed adultery was quaintly tortured until she revealed the co-perpetrator who was then by the husband humiliatingly switched on the bareback and penis. The wife, if impregnated...
The pursuit of happiness is a nebulous phrase that requires examination. First, happiness to one is another’s sadness: marriage is symbolic of an enduring love or simply contrived convenience, pregnancy brings great expectations and paints color on the face of a mother-to-be, or brings depression and drooping lips. Happiness itself is volatile because in the dynamics of daily living it is always under duress. When things go well, there is a sort of honeymoon of happiness, but soon the hug, bec...
“The aim of a presidential campaign is enlightenment, not confusion.” “Ethics is a study of what constitutes propitious behavior for the benefit of all.” “Blogging is a process by which personal views become public in the market of ideas and in touch with the sensitivities of others.” “Political science is a study of public corruption and the path to corrective measures.” “Religion should inspire the soul to engage in matters of the heart and mind of other souls.” “Tr...
Many progressives urge Kerry to get tougher with respect to Iraq — “cut and run,” deadline for troop withdrawal — echoing Kucinich. McGovern tied that in ‘72 with Vietnam and where did it get him? Only in ‘68 would it have been possible with the charisma of Robert Kennedy. Kerry is no RFK. Besides, there is no comparison — no aerial bombing killing millions, no 30,000 US troops [at RFK time] killed — even though the same knuckle headed policy exists. What the progressives fail to take into accou...
When feeling good about life we are able to block out the bad, which we know is ever lurking, yet somehow we are blest — the bad is for others. The young mother in a grocery aisle turns her back on her child secured in a shopping cart and is confident that the child will still be there — missing children are for others. When we drive by a serious traffic accident, we are momentarily saddened by the awful things that happen to others, yet we are comforted by automobile commercials that motivate...