Ernie: Good questions.
About positive virtues from my parents, let me simplify. This is something that always comes to mind each time I make criticisms. For the fact is that there can only be a mixed report, a combination of good and bad. Mother in her last years was demented, or progressively a victim of dementia. Not my diagnosis, it was Evangeline's to begin with. Thinking about it I concluded that Evangeline was quite right. This said, there was one overriding virtue mother inculcated in me from years ago, no nonsense about anything. Always seek proof and if there is no hard evidence, forget it. She forgot all about that during her last years, but before, say, 2000, I'd say she was very consistent about this. About my father... Mother was domineering and father was passive (most of the time) with respect to mother. I never knew what to make of this until beginning to study eastern religions. To be sure, dad was a Catholic but his background was from a culture that had once been partly Hindu and partly Buddhist -mostly by way of the Majapahit Empire, viz basically today's Indonesia -which outright controlled a swath of the southern Philippines and otherwise was a major influence in the economy of the rest of the archipelago. Kind of like paintings of Mary by Chinese Christians. Yes, she wears pretty much the garb of Mary as seen in western art, but her face is as Chinese and any face gets. My impression is that Philippine Catholicism as understood by many Filipinos, is like that, namely, Buddhist beneath the surface, or imbued with ideals from the Upanishads. This is a little murky because some obviously Christian traditions also stress patience and acceptance of one's lot in life as virtues, but for whatever reasons the Asian analogy made the most sense to me. Mostly because the Catholic Church in the islands was, in origin, the Church of the Inquisition. So, to make a long story short, I think that a major impetus for me to go further into study of Buddhism than I might otherwise have gone came from my dad's example of fortitude / perseverance. Which is a major Buddhist virtue. This said, my oldest sister, the normal one, as best as I can fathom her views, saw in father a source of compassion -but combined with weakness. Hence Rita's recent era choices of male partners of one kind or other, were weak -or very weak. And, yes, I can see where she saw weakness; I think that was partly right. And my guess is also that this was partly because of the strong racial prejudices of the time, that is, the 1950s and early 1960s. Being assertive would have been sure to cause any number of problems that dad would not have been able to cope with. Non-assertiveness, even if the prime cause was prejudice, then could work its way into other areas of life. I remember a flight with dad back in the 1950s where the plane landed in Louisville for a stopover. Dad had to use the rest room and his choice was the "Negro" men's room. In Chicago that never was a formal problem but, for sure, there was no certainty... But it always seemed to me that there was far more to it than weakness. But my sister, like many other people, had only limited interest in religion even if she was very tolerant of most religions, but, still, what she studied was next to nothing. She could not possibly make the connection to Buddhism or the Upanishads. I'm also unsure about how far to take my amateur psychologizing so let me cease and desist. These are my impressions, anyway. ----- About Saint-Simon, that I know of he never said that politics was a blood sport but he didn't have to. He was lucky to get through the French Revolution alive (among other things he was a relative of the deceased but still famous Duc de Saint-Simon) and he stood trial during the Bourbon restoration for sedition. He was acquitted but was under no illusions about the dangers he faced. I mean, France ca 1790-1825: It was no time for anyone with political ambitions who was unwilling to face dangers of different kinds, year after year. Thanks for the apology; but I never thought that you had ill-intent. It was just "how it sounded." As if I never make mistakes ( LOL. ROTFUL) and as if my comments never sound over-the-top. Guilty of being human. Billy ________________________________ From: Centroids <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, February 11, 2019 2:24 PM To: Billy Rojas Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: oikotics [ RC ] Liberalism and its inconsistencies Hi Billy, > > Your rather off-handed generalization is the problem. I sincerely apologize. I only remember all the negative things you said about your family. Which were many. :-) What were the positive values you got from them? What was your relationship with your father like? I feel some stake in that, since you say I remind you of him (at least physically). Apologetically, Ernie PS. Do you think Saint-Simeon would say politics was a blood sport? -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
