YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
― Buddha Siddhartha Guatama Shakyamuni
This nation, as well as most nations, fall far short of actualizing these sage words of advice from Buddha Shakyamuni. True 2600 years ago and remains equally so today. Especially in trump's MAGA USA.
ReplyDelete"Les non-dupes errent!" - Jacques Lacan
ReplyDelete"those who do not let themselves be caught in the symbolic deception/ fiction and continue to believe their eyes are the ones who err most"
In Pensées, Blaise Pascal argues that custom (habit, culture, and repetition) shapes human belief and behavior far more powerfully than pure logic or intellectual reason. He famously writes, "Custom is our nature," suggesting that what we consider natural is often just deeply ingrained habit.
ReplyDeleteCore Concepts of "Custom" in Pensées
Second Nature: Pascal suggests our primary nature is malleable. Custom acts as a "second nature" that can completely overwrite or define the first.
The Machine (The Automaton): Humans are not purely rational. We have a mechanical, bodily side—the "machine"—that is trained through physical repetition, ritual, and social conditioning.
Persuasion Beyond Logic: Reason can provide a temporary proof, but it is easily forgotten. Custom provides the day-to-day stability that keeps us convinced.
Source of Identity: Pascal points out that custom is what makes people become Christians, Turks, soldiers, or artisans. It is a product of geography and environment, not objective truth.
Role in Religious Belief
Pascal uses this psychological insight to offer practical advice for those who want to believe but lack faith. He advises them to bypass the intellect and train the "machine":
Act as if you believe: Take holy water, go to mass, and mimic faithful actions.
Train the habits: Physical rituals naturally deaden intellectual skepticism over time.
Align the faculties: True conviction requires both the mind (reason) and the habit (custom) working together.
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"Virtue is a habit, and not a faculty or a passion."
- George Boole, "An Investigation of the Laws of Thought"
Now that's something that will fry the circuits in the closed minds of white Christian nationalists and other fundamentalists.
ReplyDeleteAny appeal to reason instead of faith scares them. Critical thinking is Satan's domain to them.
"Physical rituals naturally deaden intellectual skepticism over time."
DeleteThe same goes for rituals based on myths or false beliefs.
At least Pascal understood how Trump rallies deaden intellectual skepticism.
His "wager" is a fallacious game of self interest based on the premise there's a Christian God with the only sure winners being the clergy and conservative rulers, no matter how many children they molest or innocent people they punish.
from "The world as oppressors and oppressed", by Dave W.
Delete"Shooting Protestors and Concentration Camps for Peaceful Immigrants: and Other Conservative Values", by Joe Conservative
Delete"Protecting Pedophiles Is Anti-Woke", by Joe Conservative
Delete"MAGA Patriotism: Beating Cops to Overturn Elections", by Joe Conservative
Q.E.D.
DeleteYou gotta love the kayfabe. Faces vs Heels.
Delete-FJ, placing your faith in qoutes rather than Iin logic and reason confirmed by your own observation and experiential knowledge?
ReplyDeleteThat would ceetainly explains a lot.
Do you understand quantum physics, Les? if you think you do based on your own observation and experiential knowledge, then you clearly don't.
Delete"Virtue is a habit, and not a faculty or a passion."
- George Boole, "An Investigation of the Laws of Thought"
Yes I do. And your ignorance and reified authoritarian whack job beliefs simply proves you DON''T.
DeleteYou have a quantum day now ya hear?
I fully admit that I do not understand it, even after 30 years working at NASA. My observations and experiential knowledge wasn't nearly enough.
Delete:)
DeleteHere's your Monday Moment of Zen...
ReplyDeleteYesterday, while on Meet the Press and discussing voter fraud, Sen Roger Marshall of KS was presented with the same evidence I've repeatedly cited here and elsewhere that since the 1980s, the conservative Heritage Foundation, nor anyone else, has found not found any evidence of voter fraud at a level that would have changed any election and only 100 total instances of non citizens voting.
When asked by the host to cite just one example of fraud that the "Save America Act" would have prevented, Marshall stated "Yeah, right, I guess we just look at this differently, I think again I'm going back to the election process needs to be trustworthy, that the election process is important to the survival of this nation..."
What is a sitting Senator saying when our elections have been repeatedly shown to be free of fraud and fair, talking about when he says our elections need to be trustworthy?
When pushed to again to cite evidence of fraud, Marshall conceded during the interview that "fraud will never end our democracy," but argued that the primary issue is the belief or fear among "some" Americans that "fraud is possible."
He states "some Americans" believe fraud is possible and as such, for them, in politics, "the perception here is reality."
Maybe he needs to consider why some Americans don't trust our elections and why they believe something that is not true..
Because it sure isn't because of non citizen voter fraud, facts or, as he himself conceded, evidence.
A Zen moment indeed when a politician accidentally tells the truth.
Mob Don seems to have broken all Ten Commandments. He'd break more if he could find some. His peasants still worship him. Go figure
ReplyDeleteIt is simple, uncomplicated, and for thinking individuals requires only a moment of thought. It's about control, power, and an attempt to guarantee white privilege remains the entrenched reality in America for the foreseeable future.
ReplyDeleteRacists and white supremacists fear at their core the changing demographics of a nation that always been a melting pot of ethnicity, cultures, religions, and beliefs. It happens to be the very reason this nation is what it became. Unfortunately the. Moron in. Chief and his worshipping MAGA cult see things through their white supremacy lens.
...Oppressors and Oppressed, redux.
DeleteSimplicity provides no answers. It obscures more than clarifies.
Actually -FJ... YOU provide no answers. Only trollish BS.
DeleteI don't know why Joe Conservative keeps coming here. Well, besides reporting on what I post to his favorite echo chamber hostess. No one is allowed to disagree with the person who runs that blog, so Joe is very comfortable posting there.
ReplyDeleteZ and I often disagree. She simply insists that people disagree politely. She's a lot more tolerant of right wing rants than left wing ones, though. The opposite is true here.
DeleteBut then again, she was forged at FPM, back when it was always a no-holds-barred political knock-down drag out forum. Before "moderators" ruined it. When posters like mr. ducky, socrates, et al drove the conservatives crazy...
"She simply insists that people disagree politely."
DeleteThat's not true. She simple insists that you do not introduce facts that contradict her ideology. I've read enough of her commentary to know that anyone who criticizes Trump or the Trumpublican Party is labeled as "haters." She's also allows her commenters to use racial slurs against minority politicians and others.
No matter how politely one would present counter arguments at her blog, she would not allow those counter arguments. She will not tolerate pushback to what she posts.
That's why I call her blog an echo chamber.
"When posters like mr. ducky, socrates, et al drove the conservatives crazy..."
Yeah. Having facts and evidence does that to conservatives these days. I'll bet she and her pals actually believe Democrats (or as her hero, Trump, calls them "Dumocrats,") cut up the Reflecting Pool, because the biggest lying liar to inhabit the WH told them so. LOL!
Facts that contradict the narrative....Sounds familiar...
DeleteAnd she probably believes the pool narrative based on the message that was burned into the ground less than 50' away from it...
The vandals signed their work.
No -FJ... Z does not simply agree that people agree agreeably. She she's disagreements from libs as inherently "nasty" Never have I ever attacked anyoe there, or at her old site, with any language calling them unAmerican, idiots, America haters, commies or worse. But that is standard and language, as it was at AOW for how favored commenters could treat dissent.
DeleteShe and her crew regularly call ppl like us America haters and more.
You're as misguided as she, and the rest of the crew there is.
She simply insists that you do not introduce facts that contradict her ideology.
ReplyDeleteShe also allows her commenters to use racial slurs against minority politicians and others.
She sure as hell does all of that. Little of value is to be found on her rightwing Christian Nationalist trump worshipping weblog. But, it's a great site for those who submerge themselves in rightwing propaganda.
How many racist slurs are made here against Trump every week? Kayfabe is Kayfabe. Holier than thou Kayfabe is the most ridiculous kind.
DeleteThere he goes again. The racist white criminal president is the "real victim" of racism. This is the voice and ugly dark heart of white nationalism.
DeleteMAGA Jews are the most vile of racists. -FJ and Stephen Miller would make Himmler proud.
“Calling Donald Trump "orange" is generally not considered racist because orange is not a recognized race, and the term typically targets his personal use of makeup or tanning products rather than a natural, race-based skin tone.”
DeleteBesides, Donald Trump has used every racist trope and slur against anyone he believes does not show him enough undying fealty.
Have you forgotten the pictures of Mr. and Mrs. Obama as apes that he reposted? He calls, women piggy, stupid, ugly, fake and every other epithet that can be hurled against anyone who is superior in intellect to him.
How noble of you to defend the biggest bully, taunter, abuser, and troll to ever defile the Oval Office. I guess you weren’t around when Trump‘s UFC fighter called Michelle Obama, a man. I don’t remember you running here and whining about that personal slur to the former First Lady. But here you are, ever the defender of Trump‘s delicate feelings.
-FJ... list them. Please list the "racist slurs" made here against Trump "every week".
DeleteI'm sure they will match up nicely to Halfrican, Magic Negro, Watermelon man, Mike, Mooch, Moslem, Obammy, and more, all on regular display at other blogs when the name Obama comes up.
Please tell us what "racist slurs" we've used here that rise to the level we've seen used towards the Obamas.
Balls in your court -FJ.
Kayfabe... give me a break.
Dave M., we know that -FJ and Joe Con do not try to engage in a dialog. Very often, whenever I post something against Trump and Trumpism, they come running with "whataboutisms" instead of addressing the subject.
DeleteTheir "raison d'etre" is and always has been contrariness and being a disrupter.
My question is, what moral and leadership qualities do those remaining Trump supporters seen in him?
You won't interpret them as racist, because its' "acceptable racism". Calling white people "white supremacists" is perfectly acceptable. Implying they are "racist" for having pride in their heritage if white, but not if black, is another. It's the double standard.
DeleteTo answer Shaw's criticism I see the most essential quality in DJTs leadership is a willingness to take calculated risks. That's something that "surplus salaried" bureaucrats have "learned" NEVER to do. Take responsibility for being "wrong". What a concept. OWNERSHIP. And we know how much socialists and communists hat PRIVATE OWNERSHIP!
:White supremacy is defined by major institutions, such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), as the belief that white people are inherently superior to other races and should dominate society. Applying this label to someone who explicitly advocates for these ideas is an assessment of their expressed beliefs, not an act of racism.
DeleteDonald Trump doesn't "take calculated risks." He operates on impulse and his "gut feelings." Just look at the Iran War debacle, the Reflecting Pool fiasco, his failed tariff policies, his hideous deportation and mass ICE operation THAT KILLED AMERICAN CITIZENS ON THEIR STREETS! The freezing of federal grants and the gutting of the federal workplace.
Only a blind cultist could possibly think those are "calculated" risks. Explain Trump's "calculation" behind not understanding how Iran had the power to close the Strait of Hormuz and disrupt the entire economy on the planet. Everyone knew this "calculated" risk but the willfully stupid Trump.
Trump has never ever taken responsibility for any eff-up of his in his miserable-failure of a life. He learned that tactic from his mentor, Roy Cohn. And Trump himself has said never admit a mistake and never apologize.
Your claims about Trump in you comment are not just illogical; they're laughable. And I often wonder why you feel the need to defend such an obviously psychologically damaged and immoral human being.
The ADL is the LAST organization qualified to define "racism", give Israel's Jewishness Supremacist apartheid ethno-State.
DeleteAnd people stupid enough to interfere in ICE's deportation operations deserve what they get, IMO.
The risks taken in Venezuela seem to have paid off. It never would have happened under Biden.
DeleteDJTs leadership...Take responsibility for being "wrong". What a concept.
DeleteThis is a joke, right?
As if... Since when has Trump or his Cartel EVER taken responsibility for being wrong? Why not start with taking responsibility for his vandalism by SUVs on the reflecting pool?
The ADL is correct in defining racism in this instance. You’re incorrect.
DeleteAs for Venezuela, your on the side of criminality and the Felon-in-Chief’s crimes:
Leading international law experts and the United Nations classify the U.S. military invasion of Venezuela and the abduction of its head of state as violations of international law. These actions have drawn widespread legal and geopolitical scrutiny, with key issues including:
Crime of Aggression: Legal scholars widely categorize the U.S. military strikes in Caracas as a violation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which strictly prohibits the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any sovereign state.
Violation of Sovereignty: Experts state that abducting a foreign leader (Nicolás Maduro) from his own country, and subsequently declaring that the U.S. will "run the country," circumvents normal, treaty-bound extradition procedures and usurps state sovereignty.
Immunity of Heads of State: Under long-standing international law standards, sitting heads of state have legal immunity. The United States' circumvention of this has raised serious concerns about setting a dangerous precedent for the global rules-based order.The operation prompted immediate international debate, with a United Nations Human Rights Council investigative team noting that while Maduro's government has been accused of serious domestic human rights violations, that does not legally justify a military intervention that violates international law.
Like the international bully and felon in the White House, you believe laws and treaties are for other people. And, it appears, you believe the ends justify the means, which is a philosophy that every tinpot dictator and tyrant believes as well.
The means matter just as much as the ends. Using unethical means—such as violating human rights, torturing, or breaking international law—often undermines the intended moral goal and damages a state's long-term reputation, something Trump never thinks about, evidently.
I take the kayfabe man's utterances with a grain of salt. Cultists are Cultists and their belief in the cult leader becomes their identity.
ReplyDelete