[Khaled]
On the other hand, if I read the recipe,
understand it, then I can put it away, and be
free to follow it, be creative improvise if
needed, and improve on it. We get hang up on
measurements, and that's what kills it.
[Arlo]
Exactly. This reminds me of how Pirsig described
"gumption" in ZMM. "[Gumption] describes exactly
what happens to someone who connects with
Quality. He gets filled with gumption. The Greeks
called it enthousiasmos, the root of
"enthusiasm." which means literally "filled with
theos," or God, or Quality. See how that fits? A
person filled with gumption doesn't sit around
dissipating and stewing about things. He's at the
front of the train of his own awareness, watching
to see what's up the track and meeting it when it
comes. That's gumption." (ZMM)
[Khaled]
I Think both the American and the Islamic
fundamentalists movements are a reaction to an identity crisis.
[Arlo]
Very true.
There is a saying I've quoted before. "He who has
not even a knowledge of common things is a brute
among men. He who has an accurate knowledge of
human concerns alone is a man among brutes. But
he who knows all that can be known by
intellectual energy is a God among men."
(Proclus, I believe is the source). You can see,
clearly I think, the biological, social and
intellectual levels apparent in this.
I point this out because many throughout the
ages, including the Christian Apostle Paul, have
speculated that the "great masses of man" will
always consist primarily of "brutes" with small
percentage being "men", and an even fewer still
being "Gods". Paul said of that the great mass of
man are "children, to be fed with milk", while
the occasioned emergence of a wise man, a "God
among men", "were men to be fed with meat."
Manly Hall, who has composed a comprehensive
review of philosophy, theosophy and mythology
related to "esotericism", has also agreed that
"exoteric religion" (literalism) is needed to
keep men in line, to keep them (like sheep) from
chaos and self-destruction. But the few wise men
in every age are capable of "ascending to the
mysteries" and being opened to the "esoteric" meaning behind the stories.
Paul's and Manly's cynicism towards the "great
mass of man" is paralled by neoconservative
ideology, which panders to the
literalist-fundamentalists tendencies in the
West, and is explained by the BBS as such.
"Strauss believed that the liberal idea of
individual freedom led people to question
everything—all values, all moral truths. Instead,
people were led by their own selfish desires. And
this threatened to tear apart the shared values
which held society together. But there was a way
to stop this, Strauss believed. It was for
politicians to assert powerful and inspiring
myths that everyone could believe in. They might
not be true, but they were necessary illusions.
One of these was religion; the other was the myth
of the nation." (The Power of Nightmare)
Here to is agreement to your statement that
American Fundamentalism is a mix of "nationalism"
and "religion" branding itself as the One True
Morality. ("And in America, that was the idea
that the country had a unique destiny to battle
the forces of evil throughout the world." (BBC))
My point is saying all this is that many voices
have said that "literalism" or "fundamentalism"
will always be the path of the many. In more
optimistic moments, I believe the failure has
been in "religious leaders" selling out to social
power rather than concerning themselves with the
true enlightenment of their congregations. We
certainly see this more evident in Western
European history, where religion has exerted
tremendous social power, and we see it vividly in
the Middle East where power brokers peddle
literalism to its extreme to secure and wield
power over the many. But I do believe that this
is a point in history that CAN be overcome, that
nationalistic and tribal "literal" readings of
mythology will seem as quaint to us one day as believing in unicorns or gnomes.
What do you think?
[SA]
The "towards literalism" is a perception that
forgets that one must provide something of
themselves, and it is towards something, in a
sense, 'out there' where the human quality has no
input in the song. As music enlivens a drama, so
does the tune of ones heart play as a music
instrument drumming open a cosmic frequency that plays continuously.
[Arlo]
As always, you've taken dry rhetoric and recast
it in beautiful prose. "Literalization" is the
movement towards the static, "metaphoricity" is
the movement towards the Dynamic. Perfect.
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