Posts
THE ABSURD TIMES
And this is for the somewhat more educated who understand the absurdity of the moment.
Absurdity Triumphs for Now
by
Honest Charlie
We have reached a new period of Absurdity and I freely admit that I am puzzled as to how to report it. I put a meme up just to help, if it does. I’ll try to say a bit about the absurdity now. I believe it was Voltairei who said that life is a tragedy to those who feel and a comedy to those who think. I do not particularly disposed to feeling these days, in face it is far too much effort, and so I finally find it amusing, but hardly a real comedy. Tacked on at the end is a discussion of religion for the new readers and for the Christian Nationalists.
Let us start with one of the more disgusting and vile, a congressman from Ohio. He not only says there in no difference between the Biden 10 pages or more that were returned as soon as noticed and the 30 to 50 boxes of papers down in Trump’s property, many marked TOP SECRET and which he has called MINE! Now, there are probably many right-wing fools and cowards who will believe him and buy into this “conspiracy” and “dauble standard”. I mean it. They actually equate the two. Now when Jimmie Carter wrote his WHITE HOUSE DIARY, he was careful to write it in the East Wing (officially his home at the time) so that it could not be claimed as government property. I can not even imagine him taking any government property home to Georgia, but that may be because at the time I would not take anything to Georgia.
Well, I can not help but move away from that ass from Ohio. He reminds me much of Dennis Hastert. Hastert was a (pardon the expression) Republican, an ex-wrestling coach, and liked to play with college-age naked wrestlers. He left politics as soon as the secret came out. Now, Jim Jordan is of that same party, and ex-wrestling coach, and there were remarks about how he liked to stare at naked wrestlers in the shower while he was a coach. The University had other problems with sex exploits, so this never went anywhere, but I do wonder what is going to happen every time he strips off his jacket in congress. But, he does shave – himself. I really do not want to spend any more time on him.
But we can not simply point to one poser the discuss this morass of muck. Another, postures himself as a self-made man, and has been noted several time, is rather a self made-up man, usually known as George Santos. He actually represents everything that the term “Republican” stands for, as well as several other politicians. It is overwhelming to remember and list all of his fabrications, but one was quite clear as somebody has a video of it. Santos was being interviewed and announced that he attended Baruch College on a Volleyball Scholarship. The host announced that he also went to that College, but did not pursue the topic. He says he was Magna cum laude, I believe, but it doesn’t matter as he never went to college.
He proclaimed that his grandmother was a holocaust surviver and felt that he was therefore Jew-ish. Oy! Fur dem Goyem? Enough of this one. His mother died on 9-11 in the twin towers and then again (sorry, I forgot the occasion) later. He loaned himself $700,000 for his own campaign for his new job of introducing rich people to each other (as best I can understand it). He said he worked for two Wall Street firms, but they never heard of him. I recently saw a video-clip of him: He was on the network program run by Steve Bannon who had to be in court for fraud as he misused the money he raised to build the wall on the border with Mexico. In that program, Mat Gaetz substituted for Bannon and the two of them got along quite well. I did wonder whatever to Mr. Gaetz’s violation of the Mann Act (I think it’s called, illegal to transport a minor over state lines for sex purposes), but that wasn’t the purpose here. He is a Republican problem and I think, therefore, we should start a fan-club for him. (Just to add one other point, he is also known as Anthony Devalde (I kid you not).
Now, they are also afraid that Democrats are coming for their gas stoves. Lock your doors and demand a warrant for anyone to enter your home! (Actually, that’s a good idea anyway.) They don’t seem to know that the debt ceiling has to be raised, or better yet done away with. It needs to be raised so that we and pay the money we have already spent. It’s about the only analogy they are capable of understanding is that it is like a credit card bill, but you send a note to MasterCard saying “sorry, we need to make budget costs”. The difference here is that if we do not pay our bills as a country, we could very well create a world depression.
If we were to take these fools one at a time, it would be too much typing. Let’s take a State, say Missouri. Awhile back, I discussed Iran and the stupidity of forcing women to cover their hair and imposing the death penalty. Well, let’s look at Missouri. Not many people realize this, but we are talking about two states. Missouri is comprised of areas all by the I70 highway and includes Kansas City and St. Louis. Parts of Columbia are also Missouri. The rest of the state is Mizzourah. Which voted for Trump by double digits. The legislature just instituted a rule that female lawmakers must cover their arms. It also has the death penalty, but has not yet joined the two. Moreover, no one has indicated why this is the rule, but who cares? Also, abortion is illegal so far as anybody really knows. I believe Kentucky passed a law forbidding Sharia law, but our Constitution would do that anyway. Enough.
Well, too much of this. Let it not be said that McCarthy lost a vote for speaker 15 straight times!
On Religion
I started out to publish this because of too much misunderstanding about religion and so many new readers since it was first published about 9 years ago:
GOD'S DEATH -- POSTMORTEM BY NIETZSCHE
It reminds me of a remark of Tom Lehrer as saying that "Most patriotic Americans are feeling like a Christian Scientist with appendicitis." I am actually finding it either amusing or laughable. On the other hand, when I realize that so many Americans take this nonsense seriously, it can become quite depressing.
One also remembers Bernard Shaw's dictum "Beware of the man whose God is in the skies." The problem is, of course, that these people simply state things as fact as coming from the word of God, and yet God does not have a phone number and is not available for confirmation.
Some time back, there was a great deal of consternation over the phrase "God is Dead!" Many people knew it somehow came from the German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche, but that was about it. They hated the idea, considered it blasphemy, and the kinder of them took pity on him and those who agreed. However, they never really understood what was meant by that phrase.
We are going to change all that right now.
First, an amusing bit a graffiti:
"God is Dead." – Nietzsche
"Nietzsche is Dead." – God
And thus it remained until the final statement, understood only by those who knew a bit about the subject:
"I was born posthumously." -- Nietzsche
And there it has stood for some time. (Yes, Nietzsche actually prophesied that.)
It seems quite clear that many of these people never read past the first mention of God's death in the Prologue to Book One of Zarathustra. In fact, many of them do not realize that the character Zarathustra was invented by Nietzsche and undergoes a change during the course of the work. He took the name of Zoroaster, the mystic, because he had experienced no prophet with whom he more intensely disagreed, and it is worth mentioning as well that the transliteration of Zoroaster is often Zarathustra, or something quite close to it.
I take it that few readers of Nietzsche also realize that he was trained as a classical philologist and studied a wide variety of languages. He was especially interested in pre-Homeric writers.
So, with this in mind, let us look at a few passages where Zarathustra discusses God's death. Nietzsche is nearly impossible to translate to anyone's satisfaction, but Walter Kaufmann, who came to Nietzsche hating everything he stood for BEFORE he did the translations, manage to translate him into sense in English and thus understanding what he actually stood for and changing his mind radically. R. Hollingsdale and M. Cowan have also produced excellent and scholarly accepted translations. I am providing my own, just because I don't want to bother worrying about the absurdity of "fair use" and because I want to translate it the way it came across to me originally. If you can read the original German, ignore the translation. Nietzsche abounds in plays of words, puns, double-meanings, and like to joke a great deal and one who takes everything seriously and as the last word will be helplessly lost.
Here is that first mention:
Als Zarathustra aber allein war, sprach er also zu seinem Herzen:
"Sollte es denn möglich sein! Dieser alte Heilige hat in seinem Walde
noch Nichts davon gehört, dass _Gott_todt_ ist!" -
Einst war der Frevel an Gott der grösste Frevel, aber Gott starb, und
damit auch diese Frevelhaften. An der Erde zu freveln ist jetzt das
Furchtbarste und die Eingeweide des Unerforschlichen höher zu achten,
als der Sinn der Erde!
OR
When Zarathustra was alone he spoke thus to his heart: "Could it be possible! This old saint in his forest not yet heard that God is dead!"-
Sacrilege was the greatest crime of blasphemy against God, but God died, and so also those blasphemers. To blaspheme the earth is now the role and the entrails of the unknowable to ensure higher life as the meaning of the earth!
The key to that now is that the idea of God is dead, blasphemy is to be stupid enough to attack quantitative evolution, a leap upwards from Mankind. (I know, you can have your own interpretation.)
One of my favorite, however, comes at the end of the third book, after Zarathustra has absented himself from man twice before and gain a better perspective on things.
Ist es denn nicht _lange_ vorbei auch für alle solche Zweifel? Wer
darf noch solche alte eingeschlafne lichtscheue Sachen aufwecken!
Mit den alten Göttern gieng es ja lange schon zu Ende: - und wahrlich,
ein gutes fröhliches Götter-Ende hatten sie!
Sie "dämmerten" sich nicht zu Tode, - das lügt man wohl! Vielmehr: sie
haben sich selber einmal zu Tode - _gelacht_!
Das geschah, als das gottloseste Wort von einem Gotte selber ausgieng,
- das Wort: "Es ist Ein Gott! Du sollst keinen andern Gott haben neben
mir!" -
- ein alter Grimm-Bart von Gott, ein eifersüchtiger vergass sich also:
Und alle Götter lachten damals und wackelten auf ihren Stühlen und
riefen: "Ist das nicht eben Göttlichkeit, dass es Götter, aber keinen
Gott giebt?"
Wer Ohren hat, der höre. -
Also redete Zarathustra in der Stadt, die er liebte und welche
zubenannt ist die bunte Kuh. Von hier nämlich hatte er nur noch zwei
Tage zu gehen, dass er wieder in seine Höhle käme und zu seinen
Thieren; seine Seele aber frohlockte beständig ob der Nähe seiner
Heimkehr. -
Or
II is long passed for all such doubts? Who may still wake up those old light-shunning things!
With the old gods, it went so long since come to an end: - and verily, a good joyful Deity-end they had!
Their "falling asleep" is not to death - that is probably lying! Rather, they laughed themselves to death once!
That happened with the most godless word of a God himself, - The word: "I alone am God! Me! Thou shalt have no other gods before me! "-
- An old grim-beard of a God, a jealous old fart, forgot himself thus. And all the other gods then laughed, and shook upon their thrones and shouted: "Is this not just divinity that there are gods, but no God exists? "
Who hath ears to hear, listen!
And that is it. Obviously, Nietzsche did not write "fart," but it fits! You can supply whatever you like there – try Langenschiedt's (or however it is spelled).
Later on, Zarathustra offers details as to how God died (as it is, I skipped over about 15 different versions between the first one and the last). In Book 4, after another hiatus in his life, Zarathustra speaks much more calmly and evenly as his audience is comprised of only the "highest" of mankind.
Probably the most salient reason is that God died of pity for man after he saw man nailed to the cross.
Nowhere does God mention the morning after pill.
iIn Paris, France (there is one in Texas that has caused many problems with the term “french fries, but that is besides the point here) I attempted to ask one of the policemen where Rue de Voltaire could be found. He was extremely polite, even saluted me, clicked his heels, and bent slightly, and I tried again. He then said Agh! Voltargghair! Or something like that. I nodded vigorously, joping he did not consider me a German (they seem to have a long memory there) and he pointed upward to the street sign and, sure enough, we were standing at the very corner. We both laughed and I nodded to him, said Danke, and left him, somewhat puzzled.
THE THREAT HAS BEEN MADE
BY
Honest Charlie
We have reached a new period of Absurdity and I freely admit that I am puzzled as to how to report it. I put a meme up just to help, if it does. I’ll try to say a bit about the absurdity now. I believe it was Voltairei who said that life is a tragedy to those who feel and a comedy to those who think. I do not particularly disposed to feeling these days, in face it is far too much effort, and so I finally find it amusing, but hardly a real comedy. Tacked on at the end is a discussion of religion for the new readers and for the Christian Nationalists.
Let us start with one of the more disgusting and vile, a congressman from Ohio. He not only says there in no difference between the Biden 10 pages or more that were returned as soon as noticed and the 30 to 50 boxes of papers down in Trump’s property, many marked TOP SECRET and which he has called MINE! Now, there are probably many right-wing fools and cowards who will believe him and buy into this “conspiracy” and “dauble standard”. I mean it. They actually equate the two. Now when Jimmie Carter wrote his WHITE HOUSE DIARY, he was careful to write it in the East Wing (officially his home at the time) so that it could not be claimed as government property. I can not even imagine him taking any government property home to Georgia, but that may be because at the time I would not take anything to Georgia.
Well, I can not help but move away from that ass from Ohio. He reminds me much of Dennis Hastert. Hastert was a (pardon the expression) Republican, an ex-wrestling coach, and liked to play with college-age naked wrestlers. He left politics as soon as the secret came out. Now, Jim Jordan is of that same party, and ex-wrestling coach, and there were remarks about how he liked to stare at naked wrestlers in the shower while he was a coach. The University had other problems with sex exploits, so this never went anywhere, but I do wonder what is going to happen every time he strips off his jacket in congress. But, he does shave – himself. I really do not want to spend any more time on him.
But we can not simply point to one poser the discuss this morass of muck. Another, postures himself as a self-made man, and has been noted several time, is rather a self made-up man, usually known as George Santos. He actually represents everything that the term “Republican” stands for, as well as several other politicians. It is overwhelming to remember and list all of his fabrications, but one was quite clear as somebody has a video of it. Santos was being interviewed and announced that he attended Baruch College on a Volleyball Scholarship. The host announced that he also went to that College, but did not pursue the topic. He says he was Magna cum laude, I believe, but it doesn’t matter as he never went to college.
He proclaimed that his grandmother was a holocaust surviver and felt that he was therefore Jew-ish. Oy! Fur dem Goyem? Enough of this one. His mother died on 9-11 in the twin towers and then again (sorry, I forgot the occasion) later. He loaned himself $700,000 for his own campaign for his new job of introducing rich people to each other (as best I can understand it). He said he worked for two Wall Street firms, but they never heard of him. I recently saw a video-clip of him: He was on the network program run by Steve Bannon who had to be in court for fraud as he misused the money he raised to build the wall on the border with Mexico. In that program, Mat Gaetz substituted for Bannon and the two of them got along quite well. I did wonder whatever to Mr. Gaetz’s violation of the Mann Act (I think it’s called, illegal to transport a minor over state lines for sex purposes), but that wasn’t the purpose here. He is a Republican problem and I think, therefore, we should start a fan-club for him.
Now, they are also afraid that Democrats are coming for their gas stoves. Lock your doors and demand a warrant for anyone to enter your home! (Actually, that’s a good idea anyway.) They don’t seem to know that the debt ceiling has to be raised, or better yet done away with. It needs to be raised so that we and pay the money we have already spent. It’s about the only analogy they are capable of understanding is that it is like a credit card bill, but you send a note to MasterCard saying “sorry, we need to make budget costs”. The difference here is that if we do not pay our bills as a country, we could very well create a world depression.
If we were to take these fools one at a time, it would be too much typing. Let’s take a State, say Missouri. Awhile back, I discussed Iran and the stupidity of forcing women to cover their hair and imposing the death penalty. Well, let’s look at Missouri. Not many people realize this, but we are talking about two states. Missouri is comprised of areas all by the I70 highway and includes Kansas City and St. Louis. Parts of Columbia are also Missouri. The rest of the state is Mizzourah. Which voted for Trump by double digits. The legislature just instituted a rule that female lawmakers must cover their arms. It also has the death penalty, but has not yet joined the two. Moreover, no one has indicated why this is the rule, but who cares? Also, abortion is illegal so far as anybody really knows. I believe Kentucky passed a law forbidding Sharia law, but our Constitution would do that anyway. Enough.
Well, too much of this. Let it not be said that McCarthy lost a vote for speaker 15 straight times!
On Religion
I started out to publish this because of too much misunderstanding about religion and so many new readers since it was first published about 9 years ago:
GOD'S DEATH -- POSTMORTEM BY NIETZSCHE
It reminds me of a remark of Tom Lehrer as saying that "Most patriotic Americans are feeling like a Christian Scientist with appendicitis." I am actually finding it either amusing or laughable. On the other hand, when I realize that so many Americans take this nonsense seriously, it can become quite depressing.
One also remembers Bernard Shaw's dictum "Beware of the man whose God is in the skies." The problem is, of course, that these people simply state things as fact as coming from the word of God, and yet God does not have a phone number and is not available for confirmation.
Some time back, there was a great deal of consternation over the phrase "God is Dead!" Many people knew it somehow came from the German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche, but that was about it. They hated the idea, considered it blasphemy, and the kinder of them took pity on him and those who agreed. However, they never really understood what was meant by that phrase.
We are going to change all that right now.
First, an amusing bit a graffiti:
"God is Dead." – Nietzsche
"Nietzsche is Dead." – God
And thus it remained until the final statement, understood only by those who knew a bit about the subject:
"I was born posthumously." -- Nietzsche
And there it has stood for some time. (Yes, Nietzsche actually prophesied that.)
It seems quite clear that many of these people never read past the first mention of God's death in the Prologue to Book One of Zarathustra. In fact, many of them do not realize that the character Zarathustra was invented by Nietzsche and undergoes a change during the course of the work. He took the name of Zoroaster, the mystic, because he had experienced no prophet with whom he more intensely disagreed, and it is worth mentioning as well that the transliteration of Zoroaster is often Zarathustra, or something quite close to it.
I take it that few readers of Nietzsche also realize that he was trained as a classical philologist and studied a wide variety of languages. He was especially interested in pre-Homeric writers.
So, with this in mind, let us look at a few passages where Zarathustra discusses God's death. Nietzsche is nearly impossible to translate to anyone's satisfaction, but Walter Kaufmann, who came to Nietzsche hating everything he stood for BEFORE he did the translations, manage to translate him into sense in English and thus understanding what he actually stood for and changing his mind radically. R. Hollingsdale and M. Cowan have also produced excellent and scholarly accepted translations. I am providing my own, just because I don't want to bother worrying about the absurdity of "fair use" and because I want to translate it the way it came across to me originally. If you can read the original German, ignore the translation. Nietzsche abounds in plays of words, puns, double-meanings, and like to joke a great deal and one who takes everything seriously and as the last word will be helplessly lost.
Here is that first mention:
Als Zarathustra aber allein war, sprach er also zu seinem Herzen:
"Sollte es denn möglich sein! Dieser alte Heilige hat in seinem Walde
noch Nichts davon gehört, dass _Gott_todt_ ist!" -
Einst war der Frevel an Gott der grösste Frevel, aber Gott starb, und
damit auch diese Frevelhaften. An der Erde zu freveln ist jetzt das
Furchtbarste und die Eingeweide des Unerforschlichen höher zu achten,
als der Sinn der Erde!
OR
When Zarathustra was alone he spoke thus to his heart: "Could it be possible! This old saint in his forest not yet heard that God is dead!"-
Sacrilege was the greatest crime of blasphemy against God, but God died, and so also those blasphemers. To blaspheme the earth is now the role and the entrails of the unknowable to ensure higher life as the meaning of the earth!
The key to that now is that the idea of God is dead, blasphemy is to be stupid enough to attack quantitative evolution, a leap upwards from Mankind. (I know, you can have your own interpretation.)
One of my favorite, however, comes at the end of the third book, after Zarathustra has absented himself from man twice before and gain a better perspective on things.
Ist es denn nicht _lange_ vorbei auch für alle solche Zweifel? Wer
darf noch solche alte eingeschlafne lichtscheue Sachen aufwecken!
Mit den alten Göttern gieng es ja lange schon zu Ende: - und wahrlich,
ein gutes fröhliches Götter-Ende hatten sie!
Sie "dämmerten" sich nicht zu Tode, - das lügt man wohl! Vielmehr: sie
haben sich selber einmal zu Tode - _gelacht_!
Das geschah, als das gottloseste Wort von einem Gotte selber ausgieng,
- das Wort: "Es ist Ein Gott! Du sollst keinen andern Gott haben neben
mir!" -
- ein alter Grimm-Bart von Gott, ein eifersüchtiger vergass sich also:
Und alle Götter lachten damals und wackelten auf ihren Stühlen und
riefen: "Ist das nicht eben Göttlichkeit, dass es Götter, aber keinen
Gott giebt?"
Wer Ohren hat, der höre. -
Also redete Zarathustra in der Stadt, die er liebte und welche
zubenannt ist die bunte Kuh. Von hier nämlich hatte er nur noch zwei
Tage zu gehen, dass er wieder in seine Höhle käme und zu seinen
Thieren; seine Seele aber frohlockte beständig ob der Nähe seiner
Heimkehr. -
Or
II is long passed for all such doubts? Who may still wake up those old light-shunning things!
With the old gods, it went so long since come to an end: - and verily, a good joyful Deity-end they had!
Their "falling asleep" is not to death - that is probably lying! Rather, they laughed themselves to death once!
That happened with the most godless word of a God himself, - The word: "I alone am God! Me! Thou shalt have no other gods before me! "-
- An old grim-beard of a God, a jealous old fart, forgot himself thus. And all the other gods then laughed, and shook upon their thrones and shouted: "Is this not just divinity that there are gods, but no God exists? "
Who hath ears to hear, listen!
And that is it. Obviously, Nietzsche did not write "fart," but it fits! You can supply whatever you like there – try Langenschiedt's (or however it is spelled).
Later on, Zarathustra offers details as to how God died (as it is, I skipped over about 15 different versions between the first one and the last). In Book 4, after another hiatus in his life, Zarathustra speaks much more calmly and evenly as his audience is comprised of only the "highest" of mankind.
Probably the most salient reason is that God died of pity for man after he saw man nailed to the cross.
Nowhere does God mention the morning after pill.
iIn Paris, France (there is one in Texas that has caused many problems with the term “french fries, but that is besides the point here) I attempted to ask one of the policemen where Rue de Voltaire could be found. He was extremely polite, even saluted me, clicked his heels, and bent slightly, and I tried again. He then said Agh! Voltargghair! Or something like that. I nodded vigorously, joping he did not consider me a German (they seem to have a long memory there) and he pointed upward to the street sign and, sure enough, we were standing at the very corner. We both laughed and I nodded to him, said Danke, and left him, somewhat puzzled.
