"Something momentous is happening ...
I highly recommend bookmarking these two of my favorite authors: Chris Floyd and also Arthur Silber. Please take some time on both of these pages reviewing past works/archives.
Chris Floyd offers this review for Arthur's long awaited "Tribalism" series ..IMHO one of the very few honest, human writers today!
*********
"Something momentous is happening over at "Once Upon a Time." Arthur Silber has at last begun his long-awaited series on "Tribalism": the deep-rooted, deep-rutted, largely unconscious mental-emotional structures that lock human beings into such horrifically destructive modes of behavior, on every level, from the most intimate and individual to the most public and universal."
Silber's investigation promises to take us the very heart of our darkness -- to throw glimmers of light on possible exits from the shadows. It can't be, and shouldn't be, reduced to a few excerpts, so do yourself a favor and get over there to read the whole thing. There you will be challenged, enlightened, provoked, stirred -- made to think and feel. There, the lunacy of trying to fool the self -- a madness that fuels the ever-churning fires of hegemony -- is set aside, and the courage to face a world gone wrong, from the inside out, is on remarkable display.
read full review and bookmark Chris's blog~ I promise you will love it
http://chris-floyd.com/
then do the same here on Arthurs blog~bookmark and review this newest but also past archived articles
The Ravages of Tribalism Part I
http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2009/01/ravages-of-trib...
The Ravages of Tribalism Part II
http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2009/01/ravages-of-trib...
Thank you. I have
Thank you. I have bookmarked these sites and will continue to follow them. He raises some excellent points that have made me rethink how I approach parenting my boys. Thank you!
Great! I am so happy
for all the responses to this brilliant writer/philospher!!! I have been fascinated for weeks going through all his works and I am still not done!
I believe there will be more parts to the "tribalism" essays to come.
For a great comment on parenting ..see ErinS.Meyers post below.
FYI I dont know if you saw this that I responded to on the "religion" threads posted by TXRedneck but you will enjoy this: The Bland, Meaningless and Unthreatening Religion of the Ruling Class ~Arthur Silber
in part>>
"You might recall that the threat Jesus represented to the powerful elites of his time was so extreme that they killed him because of it. But in a pattern that is repeated over and over again throughout history, the ruling class found a very clever way to disembowel the threat Jesus represented, once they had disemboweled the individual in question. The ruling class appropriated the religion he had preached, purged it of each and every element that criticized them, and repackaged it as a bland, easily digestible pablum"
http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2008/03/bland-meaningle...
*****
"I truly wish that real life would no longer surpass the worst excesses of my nightmarish imaginings... Arthur Silber **
"I think we are living in a world of lies: lies that don't even know they are lies, because they are the children and grandchildren of lies." ~ Chris Floyd
Indispensable.
I do so hope many people can find the time to study this material, reading, and re-reading slowly if necessary, to best gain a deep understanding of a generational dynamic currently IN EFFECT. These articles linked in the post are tightly condensed distillates of vast human narratives striving toward enlightenment, spanning the millennia of our earthly struggle.
On a personal note:
Not every family, parent/child, relationship suffers this 'thing'. I myself, as both child and adult, consider it fortunate (yes, fortunate) to have witness and experience of both bad and good examples in my own upbringing, and the upbringing of others. The good is great and lasting while the bad is stunning in its swiftness and extent to which 'damage' can be inflicted.
A good example I often relay, is of a friend who says she tried her best, as she says, to resist at nearly all cost, the use of the word "NO!" to her young toddling son. Instead, even in his youngest years, she employed the philosophy of describing likely consequences of his actions, instead of her desire one way, or the other. The toughest part for her, and I imagine would be for any loving parent... is the split-second choices to be made when the potential for serious physical harm might be more than just a bumped head or bruise.
Yet, when he first tried to grab after a kitchen knife, she said "sharp!" He only had to grab it once the wrong way, to forever remember that "sharp" could have him in a big band-aid for a week. The same was used for "hot", "heavy", "slippery", "won't taste good", even "that can make you sick" (which over time became the building blocks for truly understanding ever larger concepts like "poison", and "can get you run over by a car, and die.").
If a person unfamiliar with the success of this philosophy can first overcome the initial "horror" imagining such child rearing (and yes, risks associated with a life complete)... I can attest to the "out-come" of this now grown man's demeanor and stunning good health... and his seemingly effortless self-reliance... and, good nature toward others.
My friend's son, and my friend herself, make an extreme example... for their complete story is quite a bit more expansive, yet by no means an isolated or rare case. Others I've know have demonstrated the success of this part of the philosophical spectrum in families of five and fifteen. With the highest percentage, these kids have turned out to be some of the most well adjusted, joyful, contented, self-sufficient, compassionate and brightly intelligent adults standing head and shoulders above their neighborhood peers raised by the currently 'common' (patriarchal-authoritarian, guilt-blackmail) way. THAT 'way' has led, again in the greatest percentage, to; deliquesce, drug ABUSE, self-neglect, college and household debt, discontentedness, ill-manner, and near BLIND SUPPORT OF LIES TOLD BY AUTHORITY, to truly disturbing proportions.
As for myself, I used the word "fortunate", because although I personally endured extremes of both good and BAD philosophical upbringing, some kind of fortune permitted me to weigh (if only with the intellect of a child) the conflicting "lessons", somehow understanding that no matter what the immediate consequence of the moment of either reward or punishment, that regardless, someday, the choice would be mine as to what I would internalize, for MY life, and the upbringing of MY children.
My parents today strike me as largely blank (maybe a kind of self-preservation response) to my occasional 'reminiscing' about this or that incident/address from when I was younger. At first, I was a touched miffed at their vague and changing recollections. Over time comes more wisdom however, so remembering the choice I granted myself, I can likewise forgive their failings and 'drop it' from being shoved in their face, while still thanking them for their successes regardless.
Amazing to me how some might still insist "there are no real choices in life".
ErinSMeyers
Your last line intrigued me in particular due to a phone conversation I had over the weekend with someone I learned (during the course of the conversation) thinks exactly in that way. Stunning to me, but then I learned (I do not know this person well, but we're members of a organizing group here) that this same person is an atheist and a Marxist--not surprising that the two always seem to go together; indeed, Marxism relies on godlessness IMO for its essential premises.
Anyway, how dreadful a life it must be to think that no choices exist or that if they do, they're in the hands of someone else...
Funny you should mention that:
The last line I quoted is near verbatim from a person I acquainted with briefly. He too claimed to be something of a "materialist-marxist-athiest-mathmaticalist" 'something-something' or other along those lines. I did not originally want to be so explicit about the person who said it, but since you bring it up, I'll go a bit further.
The primary reason I didn't include the marxist-athiest stuff, is the VERY same reason I avoid (as best I can) using other highly charged words and phrases such as; "Democrat, Republican, Capitalist, Communist, Christian, Jew" and so forth. This fellow I knew briefly, was by nearly all measure... a VERY decent fellow. Hard working, kind, thoughtful, humorous, intellectual, clever, endearing, courteous... I could go on. So much so, he and I had no trouble entering into one of my favorite workplace diversions... workshop philosopher's debate.
He was good. Not just once did I find myself taking his bait (intentional or not) steering the debate away from hard-core sticky-wickets (my personal brew of choice), and over toward his invitations deep into the weeds of isms and what I considered half-rate pseudo-intellectual jargon. So I stopped him cold and said finally "Hold on there. You and I are clearly having a good time, however we're moving ever further and more often AWAY from some little details I think you and I should focus upon. Tell me again about this "no choice" thing you mentioned."
Seeing as he complied to my request with full force, instead of avoiding or distract/delaying from it, I consider that what he said next was something he genuinely believed himself, and not something of just passing dabble or read from a script. He went on, at length, describing with versatility and numerous examples (a kind of measure for whether someone has simply learned by rote, or more internalizes a held position), his strong opinion that ALL people are nothing but a product of the material world/enviornment, operating upon a strict computer-logic like decision making process, void of whimsical choice, slave to a reward/punishment calculous, although admittedly compounded by the complexity of innumerable individual experiences, thus accounting for the variations in individual valuation of "reward vs. punishment" in mathematical measurement quantification.... "choice" is nothing but a fancy notion, again nothing but a construct of imagination, imagination is not real, real is the material world, reward/punishment drives our choices even though individually we may have quantified them inversely between individuals... thus therefor, "choice" does not exist. So on and so forth.
I tried briefly to test him against himself, with ideas of love, fear, 'pay it forward for karma's sake' type stuff...
He was either ready and 'on' to my petty challenges, and thus avoided the bait. Or, he was tragically bound within an uninspired circular logic of hell.
I politely informed that I therefor had no choice but to chose not to accept his explanation, and cited the lack of time we had to address in necessary fullness the queer notions in the fullest of details they deserved, such as said before, things like love, inspiration, valuation, sacrifice, taught vs. acquired wisdom, vision, facts/lies/truth... and that I was much too baffled by the implied processing power of the chemical brain's logic circuitry to handle such quantum calculations with split-second timings required. But that if I could only get my head around that, maybe someday I could/would come to appreciate the brilliance of his sterile world-view. Or something or other to that effect.
He was a very nice fellow. I have no idea what books he was reading, or for that matter... NOT reading.
Marxism, Socialism, Capitalism, Communism, Nationalism, Corperatism, Fascism... you name it... they can ALL have a presentation high-lighting their up-sides and shadow playing their down-sides. Each contains (as anything must) threads of truth and some kind of cogently internally-consistent logical structure.
But without those soft, touchy-feely squishy bits about dignity, liberty (to fail even, if one so chooses), inspiration and maybe even something vaguely describable as the galactic-karmic-soul-food of the sexy goddesses of mother nature's harem for love... I'm not buying it.
Oh wait, I forgot to be ironical... I CHOOSE not to buy it.
Check out this
Joseph Campbell http://www.mythichero.com/joseph_campbell.htm
WE ARE GOING TO WIN!
___.---.___
.' ( ) '.
) /)' '( )
',_( ';-;'\_,'
|-|
(")
Good stuff
I haven't read all of the material, but in Tribalism I, I did read the material at the imbedded link, "truth is to be destroyed". In there, Silber talks about racism in America in "white vs. black" and "white vs. indigenous people" terms when I thought his premise was tribalism...Does tribalism not lead to racism; isn't that his premise, which means, I thought, that it crosses skin color and culture, yes? Or am I missing something?
terrific post
bump for Liberty*)
(Better) to be confused in the search for truth than fully confident and sound asleep in a dream of lies. ~ Michael Nystrom
http://www.votenader.org/blog/2008/09/10/statement-to-ron-pa...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/57925480@N00/2660779139
Website:
http://www.libertypoet.com/
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/LibertyPoet
"How can we justify to the unemployed and underemployed in the United States the incredible cost of maintaining a global empire?" - Dr. Ron Paul
Nystrom's best quote!!
I had forgotten it...so thanks for making your new tag line!! Those words sum up why I come to Daily Paul !! I wish he would make some Daily Paul T-shirts, mugs...etc...with that quote on them!!!
( I hope you read the Tribalism essays I posted! )
*****
"I truly wish that real life would no longer surpass the worst excesses of my nightmarish imaginings... Arthur Silber **
"I think we are living in a world of lies: lies that don't even know they are lies, because they are the children and grandchildren of lies." ~ Chris Floyd
bump
I am very excited to go see this - sounds similar to what I have been working on and I have been DESPERATE to find another person who has "gone there" before me!
Thanks!
Truth exists, and it deserves to be cherished.
paul4won! I actually had you in mind
when I started reading the long awaited "Tribalism" essays!!! I know you will follow all links and go "down the rabbit holes". Silber ...more than anyone I have found so far lately.. is the most brilliant, honest and critically thinking human I have had the pleasure of reading!! Don't know how many parts will be in this essay ( he is very, very ill now )...but stay tuned! Check out his archives for more great essays!
Peace!
*****
"I truly wish that real life would no longer surpass the worst excesses of my nightmarish imaginings... Arthur Silber **
"I think we are living in a world of lies: lies that don't even know they are lies, because they are the children and grandchildren of lies." ~ Chris Floyd
Bedtime bump for love and compassion.
Great weekend-end reading. Check it out, well worth the time.
Chris
Think for yourself. Question authority.
Was reading Empire Burlesque and Silber
for along time and lost touch. Thanks for the reminder.
Colchester, New London County, Connecticut
Thanks LB I will bookmark
Thanks LB I will bookmark for later.
WOW I have to comment again
WOW I have to comment again I've just gotten into reading "The Ravages of Tribalism Part I" first and it is RICH! Bookmark this people. We're always asking why don't people listen or understand; this eloquently evaluates these questions...
krmaya~ you will be hooked
on reading all through the archives on his site...a brilliant writer!! It is a sad thing he is very ill ...I hope he will be able to finish the Tribalism series as he has been wanting to write it for so long! I am still reading his archives after two weeks to catch up on all his writings!!
I love the the way he links previous articles and references within his stories ( reminds me of LibBerte's style of going thru rabbit holes )
*****
"I truly wish that real life would no longer surpass the worst excesses of my nightmarish imaginings... Arthur Silber **
"I think we are living in a world of lies: lies that don't even know they are lies, because they are the children and grandchildren of lies." ~ Chris Floyd
This'll take some time, so here is a bump
"human" writers as opposed to????? dog, cat, alien??? I don't know! NOW what am I missing? :)
Just read it please!
Please? I think you will see... once you read it and think about it!
peace!
*****
"I truly wish that real life would no longer surpass the worst excesses of my nightmarish imaginings... Arthur Silber **
"I think we are living in a world of lies: lies that don't even know they are lies, because they are the children and grandchildren of lies." ~ Chris Floyd
Ok, ok, ok
I'm going to, I'm going to! I'm just bumpin' ya and foolin' around until I get the chance. Got company. It's my bd. Super bowl is on. Like I said, I have company! Gettin' there. Sounds fascinating.
Tks!
Surprises and everything!
Human ..as opposed to monsters or monster apologists
or willfully ignorant, asleep, a sheep, zombified, missing a moral center...etc...
Heres a good one to read on being human
Missing the Moral Center~Murdering the Innocent
http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2006/10/missing-moral-c...
*****
"I truly wish that real life would no longer surpass the worst excesses of my nightmarish imaginings... Arthur Silber **
"I think we are living in a world of lies: lies that don't even know they are lies, because they are the children and grandchildren of lies." ~ Chris Floyd
'... Looking For The Answer...'
‘… Are We Human …’
“… there is no message we're receiving
let me know is your heart still beating
are we human or are we dancer…”
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/79769#comment-863546
Thanks Belle for the heads up.
Would that be
inhumane things written by so called humans? Or are we talkin' 'bout wanttabe humans? Maybe we have some writings by aliens that I don't recognize. Very possible.
Blessed be the peacemakers
Bump*)
http://www.votenader.org/blog/2008/09/10/statement-to-ron-pa...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/57925480@N00/2660779139/sizes/l/
Website:
http://www.libertypoet.com/
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/LibertyPoet
"How can we justify to the unemployed and underemployed in the United States the incredible cost of maintaining a global empire?" - Dr. Ron Paul
Good nite bump
Hoping some will at least bookmark for later?!
Peace~
*****
"I truly wish that real life would no longer surpass the worst excesses of my nightmarish imaginings... Arthur Silber **
"I think we are living in a world of lies: lies that don't even know they are lies, because they are the children and grandchildren of lies." ~ Chris Floyd