#I fear you must understand the different between author intent + good faith reading and audience perception + paranoid reading

[bowiestarzzz]

God I genuinely don’t get why people hate Nightheart so much. Every reason they have is they’re actually just angry at the authors not at Nightheart lol. Like you’re allowed to hate whatever character u want but I just saw a comment saying the fandom should scalp every Nightheart fan alive and it’s like woah okay. Jesus he’s just a cat dude

[moonlitgleek]

How do you feel about Alicent Hightower? I used to feel some sympathy towards her, mostly because she's smarter than both Rhaenyra and her son, but she lost me with her cruel treatment of Aegon III in F&B. (Though tbh for someone who asked for peace twice, it felt OOC to have her be so petty and vengeful later on, it seemed that GRRM wanted to sideline her and couldn't find a better way to do so than turning her into a Hysterical Woman).

My feelings towards Alicent are complicated. Certainly, I’m not prone to thinking that a person who constantly refers to Rhaenyra as a whore, wishes for her death in childbed and lets her own husband rot while she plans a takeover is a good person. However, I’m somewhat bothered by how she gets discussed in fandom because more often than not, it’s Alicent’s desire to see her son succeed to the throne despite Viserys’ expressed wishes to the contrary that gets singled out as something to condemn. I get that it’s the root of a lot of Alicent’s actions thereafter, but of all the crappy things she did or said, wanting her son to be king is a weird thing to hold against her imo considering that any lady in her position would have had the same expectation. Alicent was not an outlier in either expecting or advocating for a son to come before a daughter of the same generation. It really did not matter who Viserys married; his wife was always going to expect her trueborn son to inherit ahead of his sister, though of course the way she went about it might have differed. Viserys I set up a a rather knotty succession debate then did nothing to resolve or mitigate it so a conflict over the throne on his death was always going to happen irrespective of the identity of his wife. It might or might not have been as bloody as the Dance of the Dragons, but it was assuredly happening.

That said, I disagree with your assessment of Alicent’s treatment of Aegon III being OOC. Alicent was not remotely a kind or a peaceful person by nature. I’m generally iffy on how much credit to give her for her peace offers considering she only proposed the idea of a Great Council when she was defeated and in Rhaenyra’s control - where was that willingness when she had control of King’s Landing after Viserys’ death and Rhaenyra’s loyalists were being thrown in the black cells and/or killed? The thing to note about Alicent’s peace offers is that her motives were purely personal; she tried to broker peace after the tide started turning towards the blacks and her children were in terrible danger.

Words of these plans [to kill Daeron the Daring and his dragon] soon reached the ears of the Dowager Queen, filling her with terror. Fearing for her sons, Queen Alicent went to the Iron Throne upon her knees, to plead for peace. This time the Queen in Chains put forth the notion that the realm might be divided; Rhaenyra would keep King’s Landing and the crownlands, the North, the Vale of Arryn, all the lands watered by the Trident, and the isles. To Aegon II would go the stormlands, the westerlands, and the Reach, to be ruled from Oldtown.

Rhaenyra rejected her stepmother’s proposal with scorn. “Your sons might have had places of honor at my court if they had kept faith,” Her Grace declared, “but they sought to rob me of my birthright, and the blood of my sweet sons is on their hands.“Bastard blood, shed at war,” Alicent replied. “My son’s sons were innocent boys, cruelly murdered. How many more must die to slake your thirst for vengeance?”

Alicent’s twisted logic aside, peace for her was explicitly tied to the safety of her own children, all of whom were in perilous positions at this point as far as she knew. But not only did Alicent dismiss the loss of Jace and Luke as inconsequential due to their bastardy, she deliberately misconstrued Luke’s death because Luke didn’t die at warbut was cruelly murdered by Aemond, and completely ignored young Viserys’ presumed death.Rhaenyra naturally rejected Alicent’s peace because why should she be interested in sparing her brothers’ lives when her brothers killed her sons? But Rhaenyra’s rejection of Alicent’s offer meant that the two factions continued to clash, and two of Alicent’s sons were killed by Rhaenyra’s supporters whereas Helaena committed suicide after a depressive episode suffered as a result of Daemon’s “a son for a son” vengeance. Alicent’s pleas for her sons’ lives were rebuffed and she ended up losing two of them as the third suffered permanent injuries. In that context, I find it logical that Alicent would be as uninterested in any scenario that spared Rhaenyra’s Aegon as Rhaenyra was in one that spared Alicent’s sons. Too, it is very in-character for Alicent to pursue vengeance; don’t forget that she had previously demanded that the 5-year-old Lucerys’ eye be put out as a punishment for him taking out Aemond’s eye, so the willingness to maim children as a form of vengeance and a statement wasn’t new to Alicent. The bad blood that turned this war into a circle of vengeance and violence long preceded Viserys I’s death.

I’d also disagree that Alicent’s vengeance was an attempt from GRRM to sideline her, simply because Alicent was not sidelined at this point. For all intents and purposes, she acted as a regent in her sons’s absence. She was the main political authority in King’s Landing prior to Aegon II’s return from Dragonstone. It was Alicent who negotiated the reclaiming of the Red Keep during the Moon of Madness. It was her who proclaimed a curfew, had the City Watch reformed and had the three pretender kings arrested. It was her who betrothed Aegon II to Cassandra Baratheon and accepted Corlys Velaryon’s fealty on Aegon’s behalf.It was her machinations, along with Larys Strong, that prevented Alyn Velaryon from attacking Aegon II on Dragonstone and succeeded in bringing him back to King’s Landing. Even after Aegon’s return, Alicent remained a power player in his court and a constant presence in his councils.

With his half-sister slain and her only surviving son a captive at his own court, King Aegon II might reasonably have expected the remaining opposition to his rule to melt away…and mayhaps it might have done so if His Grace had heeded Lord Velaryon’s counsel and issued a general pardon for all those lords and knights who had espoused the queen’s cause. Alas, the king was not of a forgiving mind. Urged on by his mother, the Queen Dowager Alicent, Aegon II was determined to exact vengeance upon those who had betrayed and deposed him.

Though years would need to pass before Morning grew large enough to be ridden to war, the news of her birth nonetheless was of great concern to the green council. If the rebels could flaunt a dragon and the loyalists could not, Queen Alicent pointed out, smallfolk might see their foes as more legitimate. “I need a dragon,” Aegon II said when he was told

“Your Grace,” the Sea Snake said, when the rump of the once proud green council had assembled, “you must surrender. The city cannot endure another sack. Save your people and save yourself. If you abdicate in favor of Prince Aegon, he will allow you to take the black and live out your life with honor on the Wall.”

“Will he?” King Aegon said. Munkun tells us he sounded hopeful.

His mother entertained no such hope. “You fed his mother to your dragon,” she reminded her son. “The boy saw it all.”The king turned to her desperately. “What would you have me do?”

“You have hostages,” the Queen Dowager replied. “Cut off one of the boy’s ears and send it to Lord Tully. Warn them he will lose another part for every mile they advance.”

“Yes,” Aegon II said. “Good. It shall be done.”

Alicent was not sidelined at all. The one decision she took that Aegon went against was agreeing to the betrothal between Princess Jaehaera and Aegon the Younger, and that can’t really be described as him going against her wishes because Alicent was negotiating in bad faith with Corlys Velaryon and had no intention of allowing Aegon to actually wed Jaehaera. Aegon listened to her in all else.

Finally, I wouldn’t characterize desiring vengeance as a sign of a hysterical woman, especially not in the context of the Dance where Martin had previously contrasted the reaction of men and women to the loss of a child, doubling down on his pattern of broken mothers in having both Rhaenyra and Helaena fall into depression and retreat from court in the aftermath of Luke and Jaehaerys’ death at the same time that Daemon and Aegon II swore vengeance. Because men get to act while women get to break. If there is a problem in Alicent’s characterization here, I’d say it is in her ultimate fate being an imprisonment where she “spent more time weeping than reading or sewing. One day she ripped all her clothing into pieces” which may be understandable in the context of the story but is also a part of a consistent problematic pattern in the narrative.

[huilianwrites]

Longing

Book Title: The Handmaid’s Tale

Author: Margaret Atwood

ISBN: 978-0-7352-5330-8

In a new government called Gilead, a woman finds herself in a role despised by most of Gilead’s inhabitants. A handmaiden, whose job is to provide children to Commanders who cannot get children from their wives. In this new government, children are the most precious commodity, and women are only valued by their ability to provide these children. The handmaids were women who had committed transgressions in the past, and this providing of children to those who might not have them otherwise are their penance. 

This book follows Offred, a name that is not her own as it signifies her belonging, ‘of Fred’, as she does her last posting as a handmaid. We go back and forth on her story of how things are happening now, how things had been before, and her longing and somehow unlonging of these things before. We follow her as she does her routine as a handmaid, only for it to get disrupted because her Commander wanted more from her. He wanted companionship and opinions, and Offred could not, did not, reject. As this happened, more disruption appear as Serena Joy, the wive of Offred’s Commander, offered Offred to have sex with their chaffeur, Nick. Handmaids are not supposed to have sex with anyone except their commander, and even then only at their most fertile for the express intention of having children. This is a transgression, but Offred went along with it to see a photo of her daughter that she had before Gilead, and eventually to find companionship herself in Nick, even as she compared it to the companionship and love she felt before with her husband. In the end, Serena Joy found out about Offred’s time with the Commander, and Offred was taken away by people, led by Nick. She did not know whether or not this means death or life. 

General

It was an experience, reading this book. I have more or less heard about this book from somewhere in the internet, and so when I found this on the library, I took it and borrowed it. It felt so intimate, reading this book, because it was more or less Offred’s diary. She was not allowed to read and write, as women in Gilead was not allowed words, so it was said that this was a recording of her story. Gilead is a society that exaggerate our own society’s faults; it was what we could have become, and still can become if we forget ourselves. The descent into this society was gradual, and each step seemed like a logical outcome of the previous one. It would have taken just one step for our society to turn into something like this, and even though this book was written in 1985, it is still very real today, or even more real today. It started with a ‘war’ and ended up in a dystopian society. 

Having said that, it was also encouraging to see that within this society, there are still people who are willing to help. People who are willing to fight. People who are willing to risk themselves for others. From the people who were described in the beginning of the book as having been hanged for fighting against the government, to the Mayday community, to those who fought as their own faith had commanded them to fight, there are still people who are willing to do so. It may be because of their morals and faith, it may be because of their desperation, it may be because they do not want to surrender to this regime, but there are still people who fight. And even though it would seem that this fight is not enough, that there are always people who will betray them, who will use them to their own advantage, it was still encouraging to see people fighting for something, because it was something that this world, today, needed to see. People are fighting, both in fiction and in real life right now, and that in itself is something we must take care to always have. 

There is also the distrust, but at the same time trust, to people in their community. Who can tell which is which? We see this from Offred’s interactions with Ofglen, the handmaid pair she has been assigned to. Who can you trust, and who should you distrust? It is a question that will haunt you until the end of your days, even here. The people you trust might end up breaking it, maybe of their own volition, but also maybe because they were forced to do so. The people you distrust may end up being the one you trust most of all. It was something that this book explores in depth, who can and can’t you trust. Even in the end, when Offred was taken away, she chooses to trust, because what else could she do? She took this promise of Nick to heart.

Longing is also another big theme in this book. Offred longed for words, because it was denied for her now. She thought of times when she consumed words aimlessly, not savouring what a privilege it was to read and write. Now that she cannot do that, she clung to every written word she could have. The embroidered cushion with the word ‘Faith’ written on it. The carved words in her bedroom, the one that she took with her everywhere. The nights of playing scrabble and reading magazines in her forbidden time with the Commander. She savoured this now, because it is denied to her. 

Of course, Offred has other kinds of longing. Her longing for her child and husband. Her longing for the way things were before, but at the same time fear of it going back to the was it was, because she herself was a different person now. She could feel herself forgetting how it was before, yet willing herself to remember. 

Choice was also explored in this book. It shows how what we are and what we do everyday is a choice. We can choose to do something as well as we can choose not to do something. It was our choice every single time whenever we did something. 

The way this book is structured, with Offred going back and forth between her experiences now and her experiences from before was surprisingly not confusing. Normally I hate books that goes back and forth, because I feel like I need to pay enough attention to what is going on to fully understand it, instead of just letting it wash over me. But this book does not do that, surprisingly. I read this over the course of weeks (midterm season), but I still follow what is going on clearly. It’s amazing how this book grabs you and simply won’t let you go. 

Things I Learned

No quotes this time, because this is a library book and I cannot in good conscience underline it, and I am too lazy to do it with post-its, but here’s some of the things I learned. 

1. Savour the things you have. 

Offred did not use to savour words, but now that it is restricted to her, she savoured each and every single written word she could find. From scrabble, a game that she used to dislike, to carvings on her bedroom, she now savours that. It reminded me that even though I could and should work towards better things, work towards improving myself, I shouldn’t lose sight of what I have and I should still be grateful for it and savour it as much as I could. 

2. There is always a way.

It was said in the book that every single way that a handmaid can kill herself have been eliminated. But somehow some managed to do so anyway, including Ofglen. Offred herself knew about ways she could do it, and contemplates about doing it. I did not think that people should kill themselves, but this shows that even in the bleakest situations you can find a way. There is always a way. 

3. People scorn things that they do not identify with. 

It shows in how the Wives, Marthas, and Econowives scorn the handmaids. In the middle of their own suffering (because even the Wives, Marthas, and Econowives suffer too. It was just in another way than the handmaids), they grasp at this symbol of someone who have it worse than them, or else someone who they can all detest together. They scorn them, and they detest them. It was a way of coping. It does not make it right.

[basicsofislam]

ISLAM 101: Muslim Culture and Character: Morals And Manners: Part 4

STUDYING AND LEARNING (Part 1)

The basis for acquiring knowledge is reading and studying. The first revelation of God’s Word to Muhammad (peace and  blessings  be  upon  him),  the  first  command  of  his Prophethood, began with the command, “Read!” This announced a fundamental principle. Let us revisit these verses in Sura Alaq, the first verses of the Qur’an to be revealed:

(1)   Read in and with the Name of your Lord, Who has created–

(2)  created man from a clot clinging (to the wall of the womb)!

(3)  Read, and your Lord is the All-Munificent,

(4)  Who has taught (man) by the pen–

(5)  taught man what he did not know! (96:1–5)

The first revelation begins with the command to read the miracle of creation through faith in God and knowledge of Him. Then it refers to the creation of human beings, encouraging contemplation on this miraculous occurrence in the second verse. It continues with another directive to “read,” and refers  to  “the pen,” “teaching/learning” (between God and people), “knowing” and “knowledge.” It is one of God’s great blessings that man, at first an insignificant being, was given knowledge that elevated humankind to the highest level over all other creatures. Being taught not only knowledge but also the use of the pen, humankind has thus been entrusted with the duty of spreading this knowledge far and wide, using it for development and progress and preserving it for future generations. If it were not for the revelation of God and the blessings of abilities that are represented by “the pen” and “the book,” humanity could not have accomplished all the achievements that have been constructed on the accumulated wisdom of centuries.

The basic state of humanity was unenlightened until God blessed us, allowing us to grow in knowledge. At every stage, knowledge was given as a blessing and the doors of learning were opened by God. That which people thought they themselves had developed, in truth was given to them by their Creator without their realizing it. For this reason, everyone who has some knowledge should recognize the true Source of such blessings, praising and turning to the One Who granted them and employing them in a manner that is pleasing to God. This will ensure that knowledge will never separate a person from God or cause them to forget  Him.

Any “knowledge” that distances a person from their Creator is divorced from its basic purpose. It can never be of benefit to people or make them happy, for it can produce only evil, depression, or destruction. As such knowledge has deviated from the Source of knowledge it has lost its direction and no longer leads to the Path of God. Therefore, it is crucial that someone who attains knowledge not forget, even for a moment, that the power and authority the knowledge has brought can be used for right or for wrong, and all persons will be responsible to the Originator of that knowledge for the way it is used.

“Knowledge is power,” or as the Qur’an says, “…whoever is grantedthe Wisdom has indeed been granted much good” (Baqara 2:269). In this verse, the word al-hikma—often translated as “the Wisdom”—means “beneficial knowledge.” The knowledge that is beneficial to people will also elevate the status of the person who knows. The Qur’an also says that those who know God cannot be on the same level with those who do not: “Is he who worships God devoutly in the watches of the night prostrating and standing, who fears the Hereafter and hopes for the mercy of his Lord (to be likened to that other)? Say: ‘Are they ever equal, those who know and thosewho do not know?’ Only the people of discernment will reflect on (the distinction between knowledge and ignorance, and obedience to god and disobedience,) and be mindful” (Zumar 39:9). This last verse makes it clear that knowledge must

be used together with the ability to reason, drawing particular at- tention to the fact that any knowledge based on knowledge of God is true knowledge and beneficial to those who possess it. In fact, knowledge has a potentially destructive power in the hands of those who do not use their reason, merely acting in sheer ignorance of God. Beyond this basic adab of knowledge, let us now examine the further sayings of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be up- on him, on this topic.

At every opportunity, the Prophet drew attention to the importance of knowledge. One day he said to Abu Dharr, “O Abu Dharr, if you leave your home in the morning to go out to learn a verse of the Qur’an, this holds more blessings for you than performing a hundred rakats of supererogatory prayer. And if you leave your home in the morning to go out to acquire knowledge, this holds more benefit for you than performing a thousand rakats

of  supererogatory  prayer.” In  another  hadith, God’s  Messenger

said, “When God wills blessings for someone, He makes them knowledgeable in religion.”

Moreover, keeping knowledge from people, unless one is forced to by circumstances, is not a desirable act. This was made clear by the Prophet, who said, “If someone is asked to share their knowledge but they hide it and do not speak, they will be bridled with a bridle of fire (on the Judgment Day).”

The Prophet also made it known that spiritual knowledge, which puts a person on the right path and leads to righteousness, is more valuable than the greatest worldly treasures: “By God, it is better for you that God should give guidance to a single person on the right path through you than that you should acquire a whole herd of red camels.”4 At this time, red camels were very precious, and a person who owned such a camel was rich; extremely few people owned an entire herd of red camels. This comparison, therefore, clearly shows the value of knowledge that leads to good, and of leading others to good.

Yazid ibn Balama once asked, “O Messenger of God! I have memorized many of your sayings. But I am afraid that those I memorize later will make me forget those I memorized earlier. Tell me a word that will help me retain all the things I  have learned without forgetting the others!” The Prophet replied, “Stay upright before God in what you have learned (and that is enough for  you)!”5

One of the most esteemed Companions of the Prophet, Ibn Abbas, gave the following advice: “Tell people one hadith per week. If this does not seem enough, recount two or three. And never cause people to become bored with the Qur’an! When people are talking amongst themselves, never let me see you walk up and interrupt them to teach them something. When they are speaking, be quiet and listen. If they come to you and ask you to talk, then you should teach them on their request.”

In addition to choosing the appropriate time, it is also important when teaching ethical principles or religious knowledge to choose a level that can be understood by one’s audience. Some people try to appear knowledgeable by using a style and manner which is not clear or understandable. This is wrong, as it goes against the proper manners of speaking to people in a way that makes sense to them. No less a person than Ali ibn Abu Talib said, “Tell people things they can understand. Do you want to be responsible for making God and His Messenger misunderstood?” He meant that plain and clear speech should be used, especially when speaking of spiritual matters. Ibn Mas’ud also said, “If you say something to a gathering which is above their intellectual capacity, it will certainly lead some of them into mischief.”

Someone who lives an exemplary life and tries to please God by teaching other people and sharing knowledge is on the Path of God, and God is indeed pleased by such a person. Kathir ibn Qays explains, “I was in the Mosque at Damascus sitting beside Abu al- Darda. A man came and said, ‘O Abu al-Darda, I came from the Prophet’s city of Medina to ask about a hadith that I have heard you are relating.’ Abu al-Darda, in order to find out whether this was really the man’s intention, asked, ‘Could you also have come to do business (trade)?’ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘I did not come to do any such thing.’ He asked again, ‘So you did not come for anything else other than to hear a hadith?’ The man replied, ‘No, I came only because I heard that you know hadith.’ Only when he had established that the man had truly come to win God’s pleasure did Abu al-Darda say, ‘I heard the Prophet of God say, “God will make the path to Heaven easy to anyone who takes to the road looking for knowledge. Angels lower their wings over the seeker of knowledge, being pleased with what he does. All the creatures in the earth and sky, even the fish in the sea, pray for God’s help and forgiveness for those who acquire knowledge. The superiority of the scholar over the worshipper is like the superiority of the moon over the stars (i.e., in brightness). Scholars are the heirs to the Prophets. For the Prophets leave neither dinar nor dirham (units of money) but knowledge as their inheritance. Therefore he who acquires knowledge has in fact acquired an abundant portion.”’

The following points can be deduced from the hadith:

Any effort or endeavor that is expended on acquiring knowledge is counted as an effort or struggle made on God’s way, and this leads a person to Paradise. To put it simply, the path of knowledge is the path to Heaven; what a beautiful path it is. The angels come to the aid of one who is on this path, and all creation offers prayers for them.

The difference between the scholar and the follower is like the difference between the moon and stars, for knowledge is a light that illuminates a person’s whole surroundings and the community of the knowledgeable person. It shows the right path to everyone. However, a person who simply follows, even if they perform a great deal of supererogatory worship, does not benefit others in the same way. Their worship benefits only themselves. Those who choose knowledge, on the other hand, bring blessings down upon themselves and all those around them.

Scholars are the heirs to the Prophets; the only thing the Prophets left as an inheritance was knowledge. When scholars choose the path of learning and the pursuit of knowledge, they win the honor of inheriting the legacy of the Prophets. One of the Prophet’s Companions, Abu Hurayra, was almost always at the Prophet’s side. He would listen to all the Prophet’s teachings, carefully memorizing his sayings. One day in Medina, he spoke aloud to the people milling about on the street: “The Prophet’s inheritance is being divided up; why are you wasting time here? Go and claim your share!” The people said, “Where is it being distributed?” Abu Hurayra said, “In the mosque.” So they ran to the mosque. But soon they turned around  and  came back, and Abu Hurayra asked, “What’s happened?” They said, “We went to the mosque, but we did not see anything like what you said being distributed.” So he asked, “Was there no one in the mosque?” They answered, “Yes, we saw

some people; some of them were praying salat, some were

reading the Qur’an, and some were talking about the permissible and the prohibited.” Hearing this, Abu Hurayra told them, “Shame on you. That was the Prophet’s inheritance.”1

The Qur’an mentions the adab of sitting in the gatherings where a scholar or spiritual guide is teaching to increase one’s faith and knowledge:

O you who believe! When you are told, “Make room in the assemblies (for one another and for newcomers),” do make room. God will make room for you (in His grace and Paradise). And when you are told, “Rise up (and leave the assembly),” then do rise up. God will raise (in degree) those of you who truly believe  (and act accordingly) and in degrees those who have been granted the knowledge (especially of religious matters). Surely God is fully aware of all that you do. (Mujadila  58:11)

When knowledge, which leads one to greater piety and a better religious life, and allows others to benefit, is added to faith, God will exalt its owner by many ranks. God commanded the Prophet, “(O Muhammad,) Say, ‘O my Lord, increase me in the knowledge!’”  (TaHa  20:114).

In full submission to this Divine order, the Prophet prayed, “O God, make the knowledge you have taught me benefit me, and continue to teach me the knowledge that will benefit me. Increase me in knowledge. God be praised at all times.” This prayer in which Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, asks God to make his knowledge beneficial to him is also complemented by another prayer in which he sought refuge in God from the knowledge that would not prove beneficial.

Why do humans learn? Why should knowledgeable people be so highly regarded above all others? The answer to these questions can be found in the Qur’an: “Of all His servants, only those possessed

of true knowledge stand in awe of God…” (Fatir 35:28). So it can be

said that one reason for this is that scholars make it possible for others to know God better and to better understand the message of the Prophets of God.

God’s Messenger taught that it was worthwhile to envy two things. One of these is when someone takes the possessions God has bestowed on them and spends them in the way of God. The other is when someone blessed with knowledge and wisdom becomes a teacher and shares that wisdom with others. This means that when one acquires knowledge, one should then teach it to others; it is not wrong to “envy” (desire to be like) a person who does this.

The Prophet said the following regarding studying, literacy, education, making our knowledge a source of good for others, and educating others: “It is incumbent upon all Muslims to acquire knowledge.” As we can see, studying and learning are of critical importance in Islam. These hadith confirm the Prophet’s teaching,

“Knowledge and wisdom are the common property of every believer; wherever they are found, they should be acquired.”

The technology we have today is without a doubt the product of knowledge. It is easy to understand, looking from the perspective of the heights of knowledge, from the science and technology that have been achieved in the modern world, why Islam emphasizes knowledge and education so strongly. Is it possible to ignore its importance when we are surrounded by all the useful fruits and products of intellectual inquiry? Certainly, we must listen well to the teachings of Islam on this matter and show greater concern for educating the next generation if we are to solve some of the current harmful trends. Instead of leaving them material possessions, we should spend our money to make sure they receive opportunities to become truly “rich” in knowledge. Ali ibn Abu Talib said, “Someone who has money will have to protect it, whereas a person who has knowledge will be protected by it. Knowledge is a king; possessions are captives. And when possessions are spent they diminish, while knowledge increases  when  shared.” Highlighting the excellence of knowledge Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Be of those who teach or those who learn those who listen, or those who love knowledge. If you are not in at least one of these groups, you are headed for destruction.”16

The adab of learning applies not only to those who are teaching- in and learning religious studies but all types of useful knowledge. Here we give some details for our younger brothers and sisters who  are  students,  regarding  the  adab of  learning  to  add  to what has been quoted above:

If at first, you don’t succeed do not lose heart.

Classes should be entered with a mind that is prepared and willing.

Listen to a teacher with your spiritual ears.

When you don’t understand something, always ask.

Try to make friends with successful students and get tips from them.

Always plan and organize your time.

Always try to be the best.

Don’t go on to something else until you have understood what you are working on.

If what you are studying is practically applicable, learn it through the application.

Do not maintain ties with people who discourage you from learning or dislike your studying.

[originaljediinjeans]

I think here on Tumblr is the only place I “could” discuss this. If I brought it up on a Facebook support group my post might not get approved by admins because of how what I am about to describe touches on multiple sensitive issues. Also I have certain friends in those support groups that might not like seeing what I have to reveal. 

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We’ve been called “Mormons” in the past but we’re trying to step away from that. Those of you who have heard of the Church know that the Church has come under fire for its policies towards LGBTQ+ people, based on teachings that promote the traditional family and traditional marriage as the center of our lives and the thing for which we are rewarded the most in Time and Eternity for having. For very strong personal reasons I accept the Church’s teachings about the importance of marriage and family.

In the last few years I have added a good number of LGBTQ+ friends into my social circle. A few of them are very vocal about their identity and lifestyle on their online profiles. I have had good experiences with some of these people and I have grown to care about them as peers and as friends. Some of them I have stood by (mostly via internet) as they have struggled with their own mental health problems. I want to have good relationships with people from all backgrounds. There is no reason in my mind that I can’t. 

I am autistic, and I have struggled with mental illness off and on since my teen years and issues about marriage and sexuality and my beliefs about them have been at the center of a good portion of those struggles. My parents and my counselors and doctors would all tell you that I have a very “black and white” way of thinking and they are correct. For me, something either has to be all one way or all another way. I have worked very hard since I was a child to try to understand that things that are different can coexist, and things that are not all one way can be just as they are. 

There is a part of me that is always trying to reconcile having LGBTQ+ friends and associates with my faith. I have done everything I can to study the scriptures and the teachings of church leaders in order to understand the concept that the Savior taught that we must love those who are different from ourselves. He dedicated His life to making a special effort to reaching out to everyone who was outcast, downtrodden, and left behind in any way: He asks as much of me as well as everyone who follows him.  

After this last weekend’s General Conference, I saw the usual backlash on the internet against how certain topics were addressed by the General Authorities. I admit, it was enough to trigger a meltdown. I was able to pull myself out of it. I came to the conclusion that the issue with myself is that I am not ‘homophobic’ as much as I have anxiety about certain topics. I wonder how much homophobia itself is related to actual anxiety etc, but that is not the main issue here. The main issue here is me and how I feel. 

I don’t want to “hate” people for who they are. And I don’t. But I have two seperate lines of thinking when it comes to my LGBTQ+ friends: 

One: I love and respect them and I am so grateful that I can be friends with people who are different from me

Two: I do not approve of the lifestyle choices of people that I am acquainted with because my Church teaches that sexual relations are only legitimate between a man and woman legally married. 

I have to carry those two mindsets in my interactions with certain people--I think it’s partly due to the fact that I’m autistic that sometimes I can’t deal well with the effort of being, in a sense, “double-minded.” It can feel exhausting because I’m trying to resist my natural tendency to think only one way. But I come from a church and a culture that teaches that basic values should not, cannot be compromised, and that only reinforces my mental rigidity, and that makes accepting other ideas harder. I confess sometimes that rigidity lends itself to feelings of anger and hate--but I don’t like to dwell on them. I don’t want to.

I hate reading or hearing that my opinions about anything are wrong, even if it’s not directly addressed to me. But I have a growing paranoia that I’m going to get hate for my opinions anyway (but if it comes because of this post so be it--I have honest concerns and I need to address them and I hope the right people find this post).

A lot of what I see on the internet tells me that my church is wrong about everything: about sexuality, about gender differences, about the leadership, I could go on for quite a while. There are people who question how it is “fair” that the highest rituals of our religion are exclusive to people who do as the Church teaches. There are people who protest that if God’s love is so universal and far-reaching that they should be allowed to have full participation in the Church regardless of their sexual behavior. There are many who claim that the Church wants them to “suffer” rather than have fulfillment from romantic and sexual relations with people they are attracted to. All of those concerns are valid. I don’t know the answers to all of their questions. However, I don’t think that questions or other people’s complaints are a reason to abandon faith. 

My biggest concern is that as much as I “love and respect” my LGBTQ+ friends, I feel hypocritical and evil for associating with them because I have negative feelings towards their way of life. I feel like a bad person because I don’t “love” them unconditionally, or that I have to pick and choose how to love them. I think I am being fake with them. I have always been concerned about these friendships at least in theory but now I am an adult and being able to deal or not deal with them is going to have real consequences. 

(Yeah, it’s Satan, I know).

When I was younger, I had the assumption that I was supposed to not interact with people who were immoral in any way, that it would make me “unclean”. I have since learned, of course, that that attitude is very wrong. I get that there are plenty of people in my church who treat LGBTQ+ people very poorly and I know that that has caused serious problems--some of my LGBTQ+ friends are from that background. I know that Jesus Christ would never condone members of His Church being unkind to others just because of their sexual orientation. 

(Side comment that may hurt the validity of my quandry: I know that it sounds like the General Authorities of my church are talking down about LGBTQ+ people, or at least saying things that sound hurtful or aren’t what people like to hear, but the Church has always taught that we need to show love and kindness to all people, that we are all children of our Heavenly Father, and that being disdainful of others who commit sin is not the right way, even if we aren’t trying to make them “repent.” Those teachings are still valid even if the members don’t always live it. Also, back in 2015 the Church supported legislation in Utah to promote equal housing and employment for LGBTQ+ people, and the Church recently supported a hate crimes bill in Utah that includes protections for LGBTQ+ persons. I feel that the Church is trying to promote peaceful relationships and equal rights for access to basic needs). 

I have a very real paranoia that if my LGBTQ+ friends knew how I “really” felt, they would abandon me. I belong to a church that is actively seeking to put them down, in their minds, and the flawed culture of imperfect members is hard to disentangle from Church policy. I have a very real compulsion to “out” my “problematic” side and just get it over with, to post here on Tumblr or on Facebook that I am a “toxic” person who should be shunned. In fact, since last October I have been tempted to commit suicide over the mere possibility that this ugly beast exists in my soul. 

(Yeah, that’s definitely Satan)

I still believe that homosexual behavior is a sin. I have no intention of leaving the Church or criticizing its leaders, even if they are imperfect. But I accept that same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria is a reality for many people, and there is nothing wrong with those feelings in themselves, even though living in a world dominated by cishet people is very difficult. I also know that Heavenly Father does not approve of homophobia. The “natural man” is the one that gives in to fear, anger, and hatred. 

But there are people who would interpret my religious views as homophobic no matter how I felt about them as individuals. I am afraid that the people that I am actually friends with might think of me as homophobic merely for belonging to this Church and for accepting some of its teachings. And there are people who think that if I don’t unconditionally “accept” and support their sexual lifestyle choices that I don’t truly “accept” them. I’m afraid of my own homophobia and it hurts. I’m afraid of attitudes of hatred and prejudice taking over me and then costing me my relationships with other people. 

I am afraid that as we get closer to the Second Coming that the conflict between people fighting for what they believe are their rights and the Church trying to stand its ground will get very heated. I don’t know how that’s going to affect me but I’m not looking forward to it. However, I don’t want to worry about that now. And I shouldn’t. My life is better for my relationships with people who are different from me, including those of differing sexual orientation. I know that my Savior has commanded me to love other people the way that He loves--loving them for who they are and encouraging them to follow Him--and I want to. 

I just really need help reconciling my feelings, or at least knowing that such reconciliation is possible. I’m not concerned about doing the right thing as much as am I going to be okay and do my LGBTQ+ friends really accept me without me having to compromise my beliefs? These issues put me under a lot of mental and emotional pressure. What is it going to take for me to be strong enough to withstand it?

Sincerely, Me, a person who struggles with mental illness and wants to do right by the people she cares about

Please interact: open-minded people who are religious/spiritual, Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, people with knowledge or experience of mental illness, LGBTQ+ people who are more tolerant of religious people; people who have struggled with similar thoughts or fears a plus

DO NOT INTERACT: athiests and exmos, antis, etc., anyone who just wants to talk down to me about my beliefs or “educate” me; also far-right religious people who misinterpret religious beliefs to justify homophobia

[ho-ods-blog]

MEANINGLESS DISORDER IS TO BE CHALLENGED NOT FEARED. WE CAN BE OVERWHELMED OR WE CAN BE EMBOLDENED.

If we reduce everything to information do we lose the aesthetics, empathy and much more in life? What do you think?

To understand my current perspective and create the desire within you to pursue your personalized & positively balanced, productive quest for understending is to imagine what what isn’t possible by being easily done yet not in fact impossible - the sentence explaining all conspiracies as well as  what I’ll be explaining through the example of a chip - which isn’t one of the conspiracies at all.

Imagine if we all got chipped, for the sake of mutual understanding imagine it like a tiny memory card inserted, let’s say behind your ear which works because it connects, duplicates then mimmics each neuron and then replaces it by removing the original   with the technological components also within it.

Imagine that the heart keeps our body and mind alive and the chip our brain.

Now imagine that chip contains the whole of information from the main central computer which had collected all of searches and statistics along with the feedback itself in a matter of seconds upon laying your eyes on the person, home etc as well is still providing the same procedures and updating everyone each decided period of time.

Would you want to live in a world which now defines you insane/and/or questionable because you googled dick cheese around your friends for a joke and tried to understand sexual preferences as a kid? Nobody would. But that would be inside the mind of the person who would lay their eyes upon you a.k.a. it would get the information from the chip on another and that person would get your information just the same.

Do we then lose the aesthetics, empathy and much more in life? 

Okay, I am definitely writing this particular chunk of sentences to also signify I no longer give a shit about privacy because the groups of supertechs could come at me at any given moment, disrupt my algorithms to make my content visible to less users and there really isn’t much I can do as an average citizen with some interesting hobbies so therefore a couple of people from my hometown judging me for actively pursuing my interests in a way I choose really doesn’t even come to me as a negative thing anymore because there’s far more going on which I want to focus on and direct my maximum positive potential and impact on.

Now that that is out of the way,

That transhumanistic viewpoint(the chip example) is what I chose because I’ve read too much about it, seen too many films which lead to more research and read too many insights but today that example of the chip is just a prolonged and complicated version where the chip is the computer, the phone, the laptop and the human can find out information just not fast and easily or without extensive technical literacy and trial and error.

That is why this cybernetic connection was implemented with the assistance and constructive creativity of the groups of supertechs for the agendas long as the existance itself. I can write about this in another post extensively.

What matters to me more than my own privacy and social justice within my own experience is a positive change I can contribute by sharing not the information I am learning but the way I work my mind and actions around it because throughout the past year I have come to terms with the exceptional components I was once scared to share.

Today, I am conscious of my voice and more so confident in it’s validity because I see no negatively directed energy consciously or unconsciously motioned my way as anything which could ever be stronger than God, no weapons forged against me prosperous and no truth which I speak less legitimate than somebody’s illusion of theirs despite them percieving it as truth.

I now resonate with the ideals which bring in no obligations for accusations to prove what is already truth as well as no pointed fingers but rather everyday courses of action from healed individuals of own controlled mindsets because keeping a positive vibration is in fact what should matter right when you wake up, while you are brushing your teeth, making lunch, going to school, work etc. what matters is to use the internet, web and social media consciously as well as choosing what you want to think about and what gets to hurt you and keep you stagnant.

This simple piece of text is made with the intent to serve it’s purpose on it’s own.

It isn’t done so that at a certain point in the future when there’s plenty of them as well as other endeavors it’s author gets money, status, recognition, fame, etc, nor is it the goal of any of my visionary creative endeavors.

I had made enough of regretful decisions in my life to innerstand, understand and overstand as well as define the emotion of it without words necessarily that I must use the remaining time of mine on Earth for the greater good.

It is fortunate for us to be alive at a time where doing something as simple as writing a micro-blog post can offer some people a chance to start controlling their thoughts in hopes of maintaining a safe space.

What I had gathered from merely a couple of videos on youtube in which Jaron Lanier ( computer philosophy writer, considered the funding father of virtual reality, visual artist, was in the first company which sold VR goggles, was in Atari, worked on apps for internet 2, visiting scholar at Silicon graphics, works at Microsoft research since 2009 as thhe interdisciplinary scientist etc) is speaking about the contents of his book “you are not a gadget” as well as information since the digital age took place was more than enough for me to try and find the appropriate place to channel it constructively.

I decided to use the notes I make along the way as I watch the videos and read the material as a tool I can shape into something for those who aren’t necessarily willing to sit and watch youtube videos all day long, clean their house and listen to them, drive and audio it or perhaps even read the books ( which I want to highlight still ARE much-MUCH greater sources for everything I will ever be speaking on because through the information I share I am still secluding a paragraph to explain how I choose to deal with the information instead of turning it as a weapon for my own stagnancy and misguided lack of faith.)

It is still the biggest tragedy to me to see this cybernetic connection we share done in the utmost negative way and the knowing it hadn’t even started to take place at it’s maximum potential is truly what could be terrifying to a point of episodic daily nausea if only us and in this case myself were to base our mental states upon people and actions which are outside of our control.

The computer can send information to another bundle of information in a set of bits and it is analyzing them mathematically and, yes - it does not matter to a computer what the information says.

”Meaningless disorder is to be challenged and not fear because we can choose to be overwhelmed or emboldened.”

The strength from within is omnipresent and the fear of failure, lack of constructive impact or whatever the individual might use to shape their own low vibrational perspective for not making an active shift in their own life -are all illusions because the purpose of the negativity is to achieve sustainability of itself as it is. That is why it is important to understand you either sink towards the end of your life or swim towards it because as you can see the finish line is the same yet the pathaways different.

It may be easier to keep the sinking mindset yet it isn’t even remotely as joyful, courageous, rewarding, fruitful, positive, needed and surprisingly positively influential to those around you (as well as much, more I can write about) than the swimming.

In this life you can choose to think finishing highschool and  pursuing a degree, finding and maintaining a job with or without a carreer, finding, accepting, returning as well as nurturing and maintaining love, travelling and friendships are the peak you need and want yet the sinking mindset still bears the low vibrational tendency to show up uninvited and subtle as it hides within outcomes you learned how to disregard positively and label it swimming.

Whatever you choose, the information presented remains existant and true.

Anytime two people connect to the internet is universally financed by a third party who believes they can use behavioralist techniques to manipulate the first two people without them undestanding whats up.

In regards to the talks by Jaron Lanier -

the WE is the global cyber net in which those who built it, are making the most money off it as well as keeping it existant are somehow above the circumstances and the average citizen are still modern day workers to keep it going and developing into whatever the purpose of the behavioralist techniques really is while it is disquised as solely statistics to better consumerism and the user experience.

“We’ve created a society based on universal trickery and deception and therefore developed an already flawed society into a universal community of individuals who do not believe election votes, routinely expect to be bullied one way or another and made to feel terrible. That is the society which does not believe in truth anymore.” we're all connected, from seemingly all perspectives.

A manmade connection would be computers which had done another interconnection and way back in 1938, a man by the name of Burrhus Frederic Skinner decided to present an idea of treating computers as a tool to remove individuality and by experiments alter the human nature by getting them to change by the reward/punishment stimuli a.k.a. positive/negative feedback loop(social experience) and the negative ones are more common actually because of that feedback loop between the dopamine hits. The person contributes their motion, eye movements and facial expressions to the statistics.

The experiment is a human version of keeping a rat in a box and providing it some food when it pulls down the tiny lever inside that box .

The cybernetics are naturally a negativity machine. The likes, comments, the interaction people get on social media is what provides them the small dopamine hits which keep them using it in the ways which highlight education last.

Skinner was about using digital networks to transcent idiosincracy(a mode of behaviour or way of thought peculiar to an individual!) He was the first there to have something to say about peoples “weird and felatious ideas about freedom) the first time it crossed paths with computing was through Norbert Weiner who was the first generation contribute when the ideas for altering started.

He was the first who started changing others’ perceptions on how the computers are being percieved. The idea is to use a computer to make it into much more than it is,as well asmuch more complicate and Weiner coined the term for it from the Greeks which is the now famous “cybernetics”)

(BOOK RECOMMENDATION: WEINER : NETWORKING COMPS)

DEFINITION OF CYBERNETICS BY CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY:

the scientific study of how information is communicated in machines and electronic devices, comparing this with how information is communicated in the brain and nervous system / Too often a simplistic cybernetic control model underpins performance measurement systems. -cybernetics was trumpeted as a universal science of government that would help to guide the social organization necessary for modernization.

DEFINITION OF CYBERNETICS BY DICTIONARY.COM: the study of human control functions and of mechanical and electronic systems designed to replace them, involving the application of statistical mechanics to communication engineering.

What if you have a computer watching a human being, his moves, looks etc and then what if that computer provided stimulus. Couldn’t this computer gradually become an automated behavioralist who controls the person?

This is a human use of human being and if everybody has these computers with themselves always then these little computers can measure everything about those people, who they talk to, what they search, their locations, and in return give them some sort of reward/feedback - texts, sounds, art etc.  but what we neglected is the radios connecting all of those small computers to a big computer which is modifying a computer like a behavioralist who could pull statistics and change society without you knowing it is happening to you, too.  

This all goes into depth just like anything and the particular planted seed had developed itself stranded into one probability for salvation in a clusterfuck of mass destruction of probabilities because despite the good and the bad within for example Artificial Intelligence, those of us who consider it’s positive aspects are on the same page as we speak of it the like we speak of  humans who, naturally, aren’t all good with good intentions and the technological advancements are not yet well balanced with anything else in our world which is behind it.

Instead of rescuing people, natural resources, animals, finances, jobs, security etc. we had massively shifted to a world of subtle, reliable shades of different types of horror in which ignorance serves as a peace of mind, heard, body and soul which still is mostly low vibrational and contributing to the madness in any way the technology pleases.

The culture of digital technology and it’s strong movements back in the 80′s and 90′s served to commerce the idea of making everything free and open. The culture, the software, the music, the encyclopedia, the anything.

The idea was to use a certain special group of people considered the supertechs to change the coutse of history with the advertising model as the meeting point.

The surface experience for people is about business of advertisements where the biggest are the wealthiest and at this point Mr.Lanier had already confirmed that he is actively supporting Google and had sold his company once to them.

What interests me about Mr.Lanier is why he thinks that nobody truly hears what he is saying because most people do and the only reason nobody is doing anything to actively pursue the most productive courses of action towards the biggest change is the fact we think we will be met with death or disappointment because one broken down middle class individual is nothing to a group of elite supertech at the Silicon valley type of hubs around the globe.

Mr. Lanier says the right way to proceed is to change yet he bears such friction when he is saying that what we would be doing is unimaginable yet achievable if the act of trying actually takes place. So, is he saying that the dominant power considers the change unimaginable because they had created this agenda which does not deem it fitting but speaks on what could be done if we were to actually do something which nobody within that elite community actually wants if the advertisement model is still not in their infrastructural ownership?

The experience of our lives is much more deep and valuable than certain wordings deem it out to be.

“Social experience” sounds like two words you read and go on yet what we rarely consider is what it all means.

It is your entire living experience and it matters because we’ve created such an easy way to unconsciously shift our energy to motion due to feelings and where we direct it and using words as energy signatures which help and to further explain just understand that we even think with words and the manifestation is a path of directed energy. (Emotion, E=energy, energy in motion)

The bizarre solutions of the supertechs as I had already stated were to make everything open and sharable without much knowledge of behind the scenes.

The differences between advertising , adjusting and finetuning(a.k.a manipulation a.k.a behavior modification without the consumers knoweledge) because:

advertisers=manipulators,

companies=behavior manipulation modifiers,

engagement =addiction

The changes this creates are small, broad and statistical which is how you achieve a goal without mass disturbances.

The companies sales pitch example is: We’re targeting this group of two million consumers. We can get 3% of this part of our consumer whole to change by 5%.”

You could say: Who cares? We get free shit for these tiny shades of difference.” but what I must state once more is the importance of what Jaron is saying is that the reliable shades of difference carefully applied consistantly have a compounding effect/like compound interest over time and the results are a significant change which CAN make shit really ugly like overturn elections, disrupt the society.

One important thing to mention is that Mr. Lanier defines the process of placing the whole world through a central computer would be mass insanity yet he states that it is not feasible which he used to say it isn’t impossible yet not as easy.

All of those fast samplings capture what drives you fastest - the responses. The negativity which makes the most money is between the dopamine hits. These include startle responses, becoming scared, arising fast and decaying slowly.

BEHAVIORALISM BY WIKIPEDIA: Behaviouralism seeks to examine the behaviour, actions, and acts of individuals – rather than the characteristics of institutions such as legislatures, executives, and judiciaries – and groups in different social settings and explain this behavior as it relates to the political system. BEHAVIORALISM BY GOOGLE: the methods and principles of the scientific study of animal (and human) behaviour.

BEHAVIORISM BY GOOGLE: the theory that human and animal behaviour can be explained in terms of conditioning, without appeal to thoughts or feelings, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behaviour patterns.

DEFINITION OF CYBERNETICS BY CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY: the scientific study of how information is communicated in machines and electronic devices, comparing this with how information is communicated in the brain and nervous system / Too often a simplistic cybernetic control model underpins performance measurement systems. -cybernetics was trumpeted as a universal science of government that would help to guide the social organization necessary for modernization. DEFINITION OF CYBERNETICS BY DICTIONARY.COM: the study of human control functions and of mechanical and electronic systems designed to replace them, involving the application of statistical mechanics to communication engineering.

So we have to find a way to be sane throughout the paranoia one could encounter. To be optimistic despite the realism pushing itself with logic by default.

We have to face up to climate change.

We have to define our fear of A.I and transhumanism,

We have to stop genetically modifying food and people,

We have to start filtering our tap water,

We have to stop painting another false image over mass murders, dissapearences and the already painted picture of peace,

We have to find a way to stop deforestation, habitat loss, poaching,

We have to implement a steady course of action to limit the amount of technical illiteracy,

We have to find a way to create money which isn’t from trees, fix minimal pay where it exists only on paper, remove the governments maximum involvement and keep it a normal percentage,

We have to be aware of the extinction of animals which are actively happening each year,

We have to find a way of dealing with trash outside of the ocean because it is killing the beings meant to live in it not be murdered in it,

We have to find a way to deal with our natural resources again which are sunlight, atmosphere, water, land along with vegetation, animal life that naturally subsits upon or within the identified substances, coal, oil, natural gas, phosphorous, other minerals, iron, soil, timber which are all exposed to destruction.

We have to start purging out egotistical issues from our hearts and choose education and a multiversal mindset through local actions and sharing this post would actually be a gigantic first step.

We have to find a way to remain sane despite the world.

Never stop believing in our own purpose because of low vibrational people who mask out the words of yours in a humoristic set back which always work around the same groups of people who value popularity amongst their friends and social media than actually working on becoming a better person with an active role in shifting the world as a small, reliable shade of difference simply because they found a way of pushing out their own content without making a fuss about their own awareness.

What is the measure to which we measure empathy these days, asked the deceased Alan Turing, who will be the next topic on ho-ods.

Would we be in a position to proclaim equal rights to a machine if the machine could pretend to be a person undistinguishable from me and you.Do you agree with what the C.E.O of Google is actively sharing when you realize that it comes about the internet coming alive as a big living thing in which we are neurons/thoughts and the personalizations we make don’t allow personell forgetting.

Ask yourself why shouldn’t you trust the promise of artificial intelligence?

Who is the civilization for?

How to be a humanist and pro technology at the same time?

What is a person in todays age?

Are we really cyber liberaterians because we haven’t gotten passed anything new due to the fact we have chosen to give everything of ours for free as we are portrayed as liberaterians?

Who owns the future?

What about misdirect angry people who grew up in a less functional world than it ought to be given due to our technological capabilities?

The next essay will be posted sometime on march 16th. Be sure to check out You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier either on youtube or pdf.

[dpeace85]

The Gospel

On reading the word:

A lot of people seem really stressed out these days. I’d say politics is the main source of it. But the pandemic is running a tight second. I can’t help but notice the helplessness I see in the people around me. It just seems like everyone is lost. Not just mentally or emotionally, but spiritually. And that’s what concerns me most. I read my Bible and listen to what self-professing Christians around me say, and what I hear is very different from what I read. I’m no scholar, but the scriptures just don’t seem, to me, to be hard to understand. I believe the problem is most people read the Bible the wrong way. Yes, there is a “right” and “wrong” way to read. That’s true of any text. If I’m browsing the isles of the local bookstore and come across a title I’ve never heard of or seen, and decide to buy it, I’m going to read that book much differently than I would the New York Times bestseller.  The difference is the method of interpretation. The terms used for this are “exegesis” and “eisegesis”.

Approaching a text exegetically simply means reading the words and interpreting what is being said. This is quite easy to do if you’re unfamiliar with a book. In fact, exegetical is the only possible approach to an unfamiliar text. You have no preconceived notion or ideas about what you’re about to read. You simply open to page one and begin reading. By the end of the book, you’re likely to have a clear idea of what the writer wanted you to know. You’re not reading the book, while simultaneously searching for a “spoiler” your heard prior to buying it. There’s no confusion as to what you read, and what you thought the outcome of the story was supposed to be.

Eisegesis is just the opposite. The NYT bestseller is the one everyone is talking about. It’s been pre-released to the author’s biggest fans. It’s been talked about on all the morning shows, and it's the one people can’t wait to get their hands on. You already know what the story is about. You just don’t know how it ends. Or maybe it’s the classic. Most everyone has read it. You know the story, and how it ends. You’ve heard the highlights, and all the real-world implications of the text. So, when you finally get your hands on it, you start searching at page one for all the things you’ve heard. As you read, your mind constantly wanders back to those things, and certain parts of the book are a little confusing, because the interpretation “they” gave wasn’t exactly the way the text offers it. So, you just skim over those parts and get back to the stuff you know is there. This approach robs you of the full enjoyment of the book. It’s also a waste of time on behalf of the author. They wrote the book with the intent of all readers enjoying the full essence of the story.

Sadly, the Bible is almost always approached eisegetically. In all fairness though, it’s been around a while. Since the scriptures were first written, they have been passed through the generations almost exclusively by spoken word. In the early 1600s, King James I of England changed history for us all. Until then there was no English translation of the scriptures. The king believed people should be able to read them for themselves, instead of relying on someone else to do so. Since then, the Bible has been translated and printed in virtually every language on Earth. And because of this, it’s nearly impossible to pick up a Bible, open to Genesis 1:1, and begin reading without any preconceptions of the text. With that said, however, how many Christians try? And therein lies the problem with the modern Gospel – which is no Gospel at all.

I’m ashamed to admit I’ve received most of my Biblical education sitting in a church pew on Sundays, listening to a guy hiding behind a pulpit. Don’t get me wrong. I know there are no perfect people, and I’ve had some God-ordained leadership over the years. But I’ve also come to realize, in my adult faith, that several of my pastors and teachers over the years were – and some still are – sorely misguided. My entire Christian education can be summed up very simply: “Do your part, and let God do the rest.” What a waste of the Gospel. There’s infinitely more to the Gospel of Jesus Christ than just “let go and let God.” Put away the Bible studies. Put away the commentaries. Turn off the podcasts.

Read God’s word.

 

On God:

You must understand who God is. God doesn’t need you. God never needed you. God will never need you. You are because God wills you to be. Between the words “are” and “because” you can add anything your heart desires, but it will never be the result of anything you’ve done. When “the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Gen. 1:2) He knew that on this day, at this very moment, you would be reading these words. Not only did He know, He willed it. At this very moment, God knows exactly how many milliliters of blood are flowing through your heart with every beat. He also knows, at this very moment, how many milliliters of blood are flowing through every beating heart on Earth. Not only does He know, He is aware of every single one. He doesn’t have to think about it. He doesn’t focus on one thing, while something else slips by. He is deeply and intimately aware, at this very moment, of the number of times a bird in the Amazon must flap its wings to reach its next drink of water. Not only is he aware, but He willed it before the creation of the world. One might say God could just snap his finger and make everything disappear, but there’s no finger snap needed! God willed your life into existence before the creation of the world. He knew the exact moment of your birth. He knows the exact moment and means of your death. A person who is conspiring to kill you, and even takes action to do so, has no control of whether you live or die. No accidental death is truly accidental. No chronic disease was ever truly undiscovered or unexpected. God’s will is sovereign over all things and all people. Understanding this should cause us to fear God, because “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7).

God is not your buddy. There’s a verse in an old song I heard many times growing up that says, “I am a friend of God, He calls me friend.” It’s a fast-paced, clap-along, feel-good song. And the message of the song is based on John 15:15 where Jesus tells the disciples, “I no longer call you servants... I have called you friends.” But instead of an eisegetical approach to this passage, start at verse 12 and just read it. Jesus says, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know is master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my father I have made known to you.” Jesus starts by telling them to love like He loves. He then tells them the greatest example love is to die for your friends. He later dies for His friends. He also tells them His Father’s “business” which includes His death, and their future trials and persecution. In this passage, He’s telling them they must lay down their lives for Him, so that they can be called His friends. I’ve never had a buddy tell me he is going to die for me, and I must also return the favor. I can only conclude that my skewed definition of “friend” is a result of my modern Christian education. I know now that I must be called a friend of God if I want to spend eternity with him. I must be willing to die to gain eternity.

The part about dying doesn’t really concern me that much, though. I'll talk more about that later. The part I focus on is the “business” that He has made known to us. The Bible is our “master’s business.” It’s all written down and, thanks to King James I, we all can read it. It’s not a secret! Yet some Christians live every waking moment worrying about what’s going to happen next. Whether it be at work, at home, in politics, or in health, they worry. Why!? He’s already told you the end of the story! John wrote an entire book about it (Revelations). Prophets talked about if for centuries. Jesus talked about it often. We know God’s will. This should strike a deep fear in your heart! Not a fear of the future, but a fear that when God’s will comes to pass, you will be called an enemy of God, instead of a friend.

Pray that God will give you understanding of who He is.

 

On death:

If I understand I must lay down my life for God, to be called His friend, I must accept the fact that I am going to die. I must live with an awareness that this life will end. I see Christians every day that are consumed by fear of death, and it confuses me. I must admit I haven’t read my Bible cover to cover yet, but I’ve read many scriptures that tell me I’d much rather be dead than alive. It’s easy to sit at a keyboard and type such bold statements, but it’s very difficult to live them day to day. I know that if one of my children were to die, I’d be devastated – there are a million other words I could use there, but it’s safe to say none could truly describe the pain I’d feel. But at the same time, I can say with confidence in my faith, I know God knows the exact moment each of my children will leave this world. No matter how violent or unexpected that moment may be, He knew it would happen before he created the world. He willed it to happen that way. This brings me to a question I got the answer to when I started reading the Bible: Does life matter?

The murder of Abel in Genesis 4:8 is the first recorded death in history. It was sudden and violent. Having children of my own, I can assure you Adam and Eve took this pretty hard. I’m sure there were many tears and sleepless nights. Their lives were forever changed that day. Since that time in ancient history, however, not one single person has lost a minute’s sleep over Abel’s death. The story lives on thousands of years later but focuses more on Cain’s anger than the son Adam and Eve lost that day. There are six-year-olds in Children’s Church that can tell the story, from Abel’s burnt offerings to Cain’s punishment; all with a prideful smile on their face. Abel was beaten to death with a rock, and now his murder is featured in children’s story Bibles.

Then we move on the flood in Genesis 7. God himself killed everyone on Earth except for Noah and his family. And that’s pretty much all that’s said about all the people that died. Somewhere that day, some guy was sitting with his wife and kids at the dinner table, and it started raining. At some point over the next few days, he and his wife were treading water, desperately trying to keep their children’s heads above the surface. They all eventually sank slowly below the surface of the water and drowned. That happened to families all around the world, but the scriptures make no mention of it. The scriptures focus on Noah’s obedience to God, rather than the massive loss of life.

In Exodus 12 God kills the firstborn child of every Egyptian. Thousands of people – men, women, and children – all die at the same exact moment. Weeks before, a woman walks her child through the market, holding his hand so he wouldn’t get away from her and get himself hurt. The woman has never heard of Moses; has no knowledge of the struggle between Pharaoh and the Israelites. Her time is consumed by her toddler son. But soon, all the animals die. Locusts destroy the crops. The river that gives life-sustaining water to her child turns to blood. Through all of this, however, she manages to keep him alive and healthy. She’ll do whatever is necessary to keep her son safe. But one morning she awakens to find her son’s lifeless, cold body. He was just one of thousands. Exodus 12:30 says, “... there was a loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.” Thousands dead in one night, and all the Bible offers us is a “loud wailing.”

These events are some of the earliest events in history. We can tell these stories, along with many other stories in our more recent history and feel virtually no emotion. But the thought of losing someone close to us makes us sick to our stomach. The fear of dying leads us to extraordinary means of self-preservation. The current pandemic (COVID-19) is a perfect example. Over the course of history there have been numerous plagues and outbreaks of diseases that have claimed the lives of millions. However, those are not real to us because we weren’t there. We weren’t there when the first murder was committed. We weren’t there when everyone drowned. We weren’t there when the death angel came. We weren’t in the concentration camps. We weren’t in the Twin Towers. But we are in the pandemic. We have lost loved ones to COVID-19. This one is real to us. We isolate ourselves. We isolate others. We’re willing to help, if we can do it from a distance. The virus is deadly. Meanwhile, in countries like India, Peru, and Ethiopia, children dig through piles of rotting garbage for food, and drink contaminated water. Their parents have died from diseases we as Americans are vaccinated for as newborns.

At some point after you die, no one is going to remember you. So, the answer to my question is obviously, “No, life doesn’t matter.” Yet we fight so hard to keep it. It’s an end for us. So many people in the Bible embraced death. They rejoiced in it. They ran to it with open arms. Paul lived a miserable life after God changed him. He spent the rest of his days on the run, in prison, being beaten, starved, and homeless, but genuinely rejoiced in his sufferings. Paul wasn’t always under persecution. There were days when he was just in a bad situation. He spent days on a ship during a storm. He and the others on the ship were close to death on more than one occasion, but he never lost faith or doubted it was God’s will that he was in the storm. If he had died during the storm, it would have still been for the glory of God. He was a friend of God.

John 12:25 says, “Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” There are a lot of Christians out there who seem to really, really love their life.

 

On politics:

Since the beginning of time the vast majority humans have lived under some variation of a Monarchy. A king rules and the people obey. There is no such thing as a “God-given right to be free.” In the Old-Testament, God led many nations into battle. He led them to fight for His will and purposes. But for most of the Israelites’ - God’s chosen people – history, they were slaves. As Americans it’s hard for us to imagine any other way of life than what we’ve always known. We’ve reached a point in our nation where Christians feel they have a right to complain when the waitress wasn’t paying attention and got the order wrong. We think it’s necessary to cancel church services because the power is out. And we wouldn’t dare live without our guns. God has blessed America because of how good we’ve been as Christians, right? He gave us our right to be free, because we have honored him, right?

In Daniel 2, Daniel is interpreting a dream for King Nebuchadnezzar. The dream is about a statue made of various metals. Each section, from the head to the feet, each made of a different metal, represents a different kingdom in history. The last section of the statue is the legs and feet. The legs are made of iron, and the feet of iron and clay. Daniel tells the king this represents a kingdom in the last days. He describes the kingdom as “strong as iron” (v.40) and says, “it will crush and break all others” (v.40). Then he says the feet of iron and clay represent a divided kingdom, “partly strong and partly brittle” (v.42). He goes on to say its people will not remain “united” (v.43). During the time of this kingdom, Jesus will return, destroy all earthly kingdoms, and rule for eternity. This last kingdom Daniel refers to is the United States. The US has become the most powerful nation in history. Its power has enabled it to render aid to, protect, and even destroy other world governments. But the US is more divided now than ever. Our nation is weaker than it has ever been. We are no longer pure iron but have been mixed with an equal amount of clay. God’s moral standards still have a stronghold in our nation but are slowly diminishing by the day. So, if I believe Daniel is prophesying about the US, I must also believe our great blessings have nothing to do with what we have done and has everything to do with God’s will for His people. There is nothing we as Christians can do to turn our nation back to God. Biblical prophecy tells us time and again that’s just not going to happen. Our nation will remain divided until Jesus returns and destroys all nations... including ours.

So why are so many Christians so passionate about politics? The outcome of an election has no bearing on the moral declination of our country. It really doesn’t matter who the president is, or who our government leaders are. We as Christians have been called to do God’s will. Should you vote? If you want to, sure. Are we called by God to vote? Absolutely not.

In Matthew 8, several disciples are pledging their allegiance to Jesus. One of the disciples tells Jesus he will follow Him, but his father had just died. He says to Jesus, “Lord, first let me go bury my father” (v. 21). Jesus replied, “Follow me and let the dead bury their own dead” (v.22). This man was grieving. His father had not even been dead long enough to be buried. Jesus is telling him the work of the Father is more important than burying dead people. He also implies the man’s family is also dead even before they have died. He was referring to their souls.

What Jesus is teaching us in this passage is that we should not concern ourselves with worldly traditions. Let the world do worldly stuff. We need to be focused on eternity. Our future is not here on Earth. Our future is with God our Father.

 

On freedom:

So why am I writing all this? I just feel like a lot of my brothers and sisters in Christ are hurting when they don’t have to be. If you find yourself in a state of depression, or feel like you keep running in spiritual circles, open your Bible and just read the Word. God makes it very clear that He is in control. Understand you can do nothing to change or influence God’s will. You can’t read the scriptures and conclude you have any control over the world around you. The Bible tells us exactly what is going to happen to us and our nation... and every other nation on Earth. It’s all going to end. Our money, our homes, our stuff, our body, and our lives all have a time limit. We were never called to get a job, start a family, save for retirement, and live the American dream. We are called to repentance. We are called love like Christ loves. We are called to follow Him. Knowing this frees us. We can be free of stress, free of worry, free of depression.

But how do we gain this freedom? The generic answer would be, “Give your sin to God", or “Let go of your sin.” But Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). What slave has ever been able to just “let go" of their master? How can you give something away if you belong to it? You can’t. The idea that you have to take action to gain freedom in Christ is sinful. Jesus came to set us free, because we are slaves to sin. In order to be freed from sin, we must pray for God to release us. Only He can break those chains. This is the truth of the Gospel.

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” – John 8:36

Dusty Peace

2/16/21

[brianruhe]

Testimonials

Testimonials

apollonian Jan. 9, 2020Don’t under-estimate Brian–he’s extremely clever. And Brian is actually a brilliant historian, understands Western Christian culture and philosophy, only coming at it all from his amazing Buddhist point of view–which absolutely throws those dumb kikes who hardly know what to say, think about it all. Most and best of all, Brian values and respects the Christian TRUTH ideal (= Christ, Gosp. JOHN 14:6)–see above notes by me. Only criticism I’d have of Buddhism is its too easy endorsement of non-existent “free” will which couldn’t exist in an objective, hence determined reality, which objectivity is agreed for both Christianity and Buddhism.Poet Samuel • Jan. 7, 2020What I notice about Brian’s work – He will inquire and investigate everything for himself in pursuit of his own personal / empirical insights and conclusions. And he will happily weather everyone’s judgement and scolding for doing so – Left, right, up, down, nobody can stop or correct a born truth-seeker from annoyingly examining every stone (lol). Keep on waltzing through the tidal waves of scorn and judgement from all alliances, Brian. Truth is king.

The Brian Ruhe Show  Poet Samuel • You nailed my view, Poet Samuel! Thank you dearly. My Dresden survivor advisor describes me as a true intellectual. I just want to know the truth!

The Outsider

 My Friend Brian Ruhe by American Buddhist monk, Venerable Paññobhāsa Mahathera Posted: 16 Oct 2019 01:17 PM PDTThe purest idealism is unconsciously equivalent to the deepest knowledge. —Adolf HitlerIt is better to make a mistake than to do nothing. —Adolf Hitler My Friend Brian RuhePosted: 16 Oct 2019 01:17 PM PDT     No doubt some of you have noticed that I’ve begun doing weekly Skype interviews with the notorious Brian Ruhe, the “Nazi Buddhist,” president of the Thule Society (an organization that endorses the worship of a deified Adolf Hitler), and lord and master of the Brian Ruhe show, recently censored and banned from YouTube but still available on Bitchute. In fact some of you have started reading this blog because of seeing me on Brian’s show—after all, Herr Ruhe evidently has a larger following than I do, though that’s not saying very much. So I suppose I should explain why I am associating with such a notorious fellow, what I have learned from this association, and why I now consider him to be my friend.     Our first contact was back in 2011 or 12, and was brief and uneventful. I think in those days neither of us was fully red-pilled, so to speak, and we were more or less “normie” western Buddhists, though still rather unorthodox and weird by mainstream standards. Anyway, upon returning to the USA after many years in Asia I sent out emails to many of the teachers and Dhamma organizations in the general area (mainly the state of Washington and southern British Columbia in Canada), and in those days Brian Ruhe was a reputable, more or less mainstream Dhamma teacher. Anyway, after offering my services to any Dhamma society that was interested, Herr Ruhe wrote back saying that he was pretty much a subsistence Dhamma instructor and lacked the resources to support outside teachers, and that was that.     Several years later, after both of us had been “radicalized” by the Information Age and the Internet, a supporter of both of us suggested to Herr Ruhe that he should interview me for his show (the Brian Ruhe show, then still on YouTube), and so he contacted me. Not only did he ask me to be on his show but he further asked me to be the spiritual director of the Thule Society, which latter honor I declined for reasons laid out in a previous post. But we did the show, and it went rather well, and so we have continued with it.     No doubt there are some people out there who think that a Buddhist monk associating with a devout Nazi—or National Socialist, as Herr Ruhe prefers to call himself—is somehow necessarily inherently wrong and reprehensible. On the contrary, I don’t think so at all.     Some of Brian’s views are very different from mine, with regard to politics, the heroism of Adolf Hitler, the origin, ancient history, and current state of the human race, and also with regard to Theravada Buddhism—though ironically he is more of a scriptural fundamentalist than I am, at least with regard to cosmology and his belief in the texts’ authenticity and authority in general. So although I know the texts rather better than he does, I am also more skeptical, while Brian, bless his heart, is endowed with more of the Will to Believe. (In other words, going with the terms of Buddhist philosophy, he is more faith-oriented and I am more reason-oriented.) Regarding politics, I am not a Nazi or a fascist by any sane, non-hysterical reckoning. I see myself as more or less of a classical liberal, and consider the libertarian system set up by the founding fathers of the USA to be about the best so far devised and put to the test. The farthest I would concede to the fascists would be to say that, at this stage in the game, if I were required to choose between Marxism/socialism and some form of not-particularly-violent fascism, I’d almost certainly go with the fascists. Socialism sucks, and Marxism is historically, objectively worse than Nazism or small-f fascism in general, going with such objective criteria as numbers of corpses generated by each system.     So, although I’ve been called a Nazi sympathizer, my Nazi sympathies are very limited and conditional. I do have sympathy for Brian Ruhe though, mainly because he’s a nice guy, and a sincere one. For that matter I am willing to hold a discussion in good faith with anyone capable of a sincere and more or less courteous exchange of views. Hell, I’m even willing to have a discussion or reasoned debate with a neo-Marxist, though most of them seem too hysterical or ignorant to discuss their views rationally, especially if there is feedback from someone who disagrees with them. (Objective rationality is, after all, a tool of white patriarchal oppression.) I have been hoping to have a discussion with some advocate of politically correct Social Justice on this blog, but again, most of them are adverse to having their views challenged. But I am willing, just as Herr Ruhe also is willing.     So, a primary reason why I do weekly Skype sessions with Brian is that he is willing to converse and exchange views in good faith, even though we don’t agree on all points. We’re not overly concerned with changing each other’s views, either. And I must say that the conversations can be interesting, for us at least. Also of course the videos have increased the readership of this blog.     I mentioned that Brian is more orthodox than I am in his Buddhism, at least sometimes. He’s literally a devout Buddhist Nazi, or rather a devout Buddhist National Socialist—“Nazi” was originally a derogatory slur, and Herr Ruhe tends to avoid the term. (I persist in using the term “Nazi” simply because it’s shorter and easier, and National Socialists ought to be tough enough to hear words they don’t like very much. Besides, it’s used so much that it’s hardly any more of a slur than “National Socialist.” It’s sort of like the term “Pagan,” which also began as a slur but was later reclaimed, and even accepted with pride by faithful Pagans.) Anyway, with regard to Brian’s devout Buddhism, it is interesting that he was actually ordained as a Theravada Buddhist monk for several months back in the 90’s, in Thailand, I’m pretty sure. Later he was a more or less mainstream teacher of Buddhism and meditation in the general area of Vancouver BC, until he was red-pilled and then ostracized by intolerant or fearful leftists. So Brian is a Buddhist first and a Nazi second. He takes Buddhist ethics very seriously, including the stuff about compassion and nonviolence. He understands Dhamma better than do most western Buddhists, and probably practices it better as well.     Some people might assume, and reasonably too, that a Nazi would necessarily endorse militarism and even genocide. Nope! Brian simply denies all of it. Not only does he not endorse genocide, he firmly disbelieves the very idea that Hitler’s Nazis favored or perpetrated it; all that stuff is just propagandist lies promulgated to vilify the Führer. The Nazis were the good guys, even by Buddhist standards, according to him—there was no genocide of “subhuman” races, and Hitler was a peace-loving man, an inspired visionary who preferred designing buildings to bombing them, and who was forced into WW2 against his will by establishment warmongers spurred on by globalist Jews. Thus, among other things, Brian Ruhe is a sincere Holocaust denier. (Personally, I feel that although many of the stories against Hitler are probably exaggerated to some extent—just consider the stories against Trump lately—Hitler’s notion of Lebensraum pretty much implied an eastward invasion sooner or later, and I very much doubt that the Slavs were simply going to donate their territory to him. Also, preemptively dividing up Poland with Stalin’s USSR was certainly not persuasive evidence of his peaceful intentions, and his annexation of Czechoslovakia was an arguably predatory and shitty thing to do. But I suppose the “Hitler did nothing wrong” folks have their own explanations for all of this.)     Ironically and maybe counterintuitively, as anyone who watches his videos can see, Herr Ruhe in his actual conduct is morally superior to the hysterical leftists freaking out at him on the streets of Vancouver. Most people who walk past Brian as he peacefully holds up a sign bearing a pro-Hitler slogan (or something equally politically incorrect) just ignore him, or glance at him and continue on their way; but some people curse him to his face repeatedly, bellow at him in a state of outraged anger, hatred, and self-righteousness, and sometimes even physically assault him. No doubt they feel perfectly justified and virtuous while doing so. Brian is almost saintly in his potentially self-destructive desire to peacefully wave Nazi signs in the midst of crowds of leftist activists. It is peculiar that the lefties going hysterical at Brian are literally more intolerant and more hateful than a Nazi. Let that sink in for a moment. But not only that: I would go even farther and assert that many Social Justice leftists, possibly even most of them, are more intolerant and more hateful than a Nazi, at least this Nazi. In a recent video of Brian’s one guy actually observes that Brian Ruhe isn’t a “real” Nazi simply because he isn’t hateful enough.     Again, I assert that I am not a Nazi or a National Socialist, or even a run of the mill fascist, and I do not agree with a lot of what Brian promulgates, even though he is a nice guy and we have some interesting conversations. A good example of ideological disagreement would be our respective attitudes towards Jewish influence on western civilization. Adolf Hitler once said,The art of leadership…consists in consolidating the attention of the people against a single adversary and taking care that nothing will split up that attention….The leader of genius must have the ability to make different opponents appear as if they belong to one category.It seems plausible to me that the Führer walked his talk in this case by using Jews as the unifying adversary. No doubt he really loathed them, but still it does seem plausible that they were also a convenient political tool for unifying the militant righteous indignation of the German people. Nevertheless, Jewish influence on western civilization is much more profound than most people realize; and anyone who reads Kevin MacDonald’s The Culture of Critique is bound to become at least a little antisemitic (which is why it’s the only academic work banned by Amazon.com). Some Jews really are behind much if not most of the pernicious social phenomena running rampant throughout the postmodern west, including multiculturalism and the various forms of Marxism. The Holocaust may very well have been exaggerated (for propaganda purposes) for all I know; and with regard to Herr Ruhe’s theories about reptilian space aliens collaborating with powerful Jews, I suppose the less said the better. It seems to me that the greatest Jewish influence on western civilization was the advent of Christianity, originally a Jewish reform movement, although relatively few Goy Rights Activists place much emphasis on that particular point.     So, Brian and I disagree on some things and agree, more or less, on others. Considering that we are both Theravada Buddhists, there is naturally quite a lot of agreement on basic doctrines of Buddhism and Buddhist ethics, and I even happen to share some of his weird ideas derived from ancient Indian Buddhist cosmology.     Regardless of the objective truth or falsehood of his beliefs, Brian Ruhe’s conduct is morally superior to most of the people publicly bashing Nazism, including the outrageous hypocrites virtue signaling on cable news outlets. News announcers and commentators on pretty much all of the mainstream media pose as moral guides to the masses, yet they, unlike Brian Ruhe, are certainly not operating in good faith. These people are calmly, self-righteously, and cynically attempting to destroy anyone who threatens the narrative that they are paid to disseminate (and yes, they are paid by globalist Jews), regardless of actual guilt or innocence. For me, the mainstream leftist/globalist media’s ruthless, cynical attacks on Brett Kavanaugh were the absolute last straw; the guy is a totally vanilla, nerdy Christian white rich guy who obviously has never been a sexual predator, yet almost the entire political left in the USA were declaring him a serial rapist based on nothing but unsubstantiated accusations made by leftist activists. When he became upset and indignant at such sleazy attacks these same people cynically attacked him for being emotionally unstable. Their conduct towards the Covington High School kids, or for that matter towards President Trump, have been no better. Such “moral guides” are vastly morally inferior to the likes of Brian Ruhe the “Nazi Buddhist.” If I were ever to be interviewed by someone like Morning Joe, or Cathy Newman in the UK, they would certainly not be conducting the interview in good faith as Brian does, intent upon an actual exchange of views, and I would feel contaminated by the process. Not that they’d ever want to interview me.     As it turns out, I am one of the only monastics of Brian’s own professed religion who is willing to associate with him in public since he publicly began endorsing National Socialism. A few others are willing to communicate with him privately, but otherwise keep their distance. This is understandable, but whether this avoidance of Brian is based on missionary diplomacy, cowardice, or something else would depend on their own mental states, which I surely don’t know. Anyway, I’m no Jesus of course, but even the Christian Messiah was criticized during his lifetime for hanging out with prostitutes, tax collectors, and other unsavory riffraff.     And so, to sum it all up, Herr Brian Ruhe has got some very weird ideas (some of which may be true for all I know), but he’s a genuinely good guy, as far as I can tell. I suppose his girlfriend could describe a side of him that I haven’t seen, but then again she’s his willing consort and presumably loves him—but of course that’s none of our business.     Thus far I have enjoyed our Skype interviews, and I don’t give a damn about political correctness hysteria, so I’ll keep going with them for the foreseeable future. Brian’s Bitchute channel is here. The website for the Thule Society is here. (insert 30s-era German military music here)P.S. At Brian’s request I am including here a short video of Brian characteristically offering up a Nazi salute in the midst of a crowd of protesting lefties, while fortunately being protected by a few police officers: https://www.bitchute.com/video/Fg7mLXklitO8/?list=jAwYD9IBVY8E&randomize=false  

(insert 30s-era German military music here) You are subscribed to email updates from The Outsider. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.Email delivery powered by GoogleGoogle, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States  Previous Next  Sept. 22, 2019 Dear BrianJust wanted to shoot you a quick email to let you know how I appreciate you posting your views and interviews on “alt” dhamma. You’ve revealed to me that there are people who can benefit from sharing encouragement to strive on in this wilderness. the internet truly has great potential to reorient ourselves and bring our existing culture into focus by use of right view.After holding my own intentions under the microscope for some time, your example has encouraged me to make my own mini contribution in the spirit of friendship. So I decided to create a Bitchute channel and share the videos I’ve created for myself to encourage and inspire energy and devotion in my own practice.If you get a chance, please take a look. I am always very pleased to receive constructive criticism, thoughts and feelings by my elders in the dhamma. Please show me no mercy :).My hope in creating this channel is that we fellow wanderers can find some encouragement and inspiration to follow the buddha’s “pali line”, not the “party line” of present sectarian (special interests) dhamma.I believe it is our responsibility to implement the buddhadhamma as perfectly as possible in our individual, cultural, social and historical context. And I’ve found it helpful to start with what we have now (Western culture) and to “train” it in line with the dhamma. So I’ve been gradually “culturally appropriating” our popular movies, poetry etc and using it to develop propaganda to inspire pursuit of the dhamma. Here’s the link if you get a chance (Ministry of Cultural Appropriation)Anyway, thanks again. Your gifts, your offerings, your sacrifices, all appreciated as ever, my friend.Hope you are well!  2019-09-19 6:06 a.m., Hugo wrote:You are one of our heroes, Brian.Hugo o-d-i-n.net Molo_Tulo The Fuhuer sits in Valhalla with Wotan. He was the greatest man to walk upon Midgard! You rock, Brian! Keep up the cause!***Great video Brian! I posted the following comment…If you were wrong, someone would have debated you at length instead of people just repeatedly rejecting you and swearing like sailors. It’s very good to hear you explain the existence of the Transfer Agreement, AKA the Haavara Agreement that Hitler had with the Zionists. The Jewish author Edwin Black was one of the first to explain this in detail, and concludes that there should be a statue of Adolf Hitler in Tel Aviv because without him, no Jews would have been safely transferred to Palestine prior to the outbreak of war at the hands of the British and French.***Wow! They sure are triggered. There is no crime in standing on the street. If they can’t articulate an injured party (person) or (property), then there is no crime. Here’s some of what I’ve discovered in my search to expose the truth. In a Gallop poll in 1941, 83% of the USA was against blowing up Germany. Stay safe and thanks for the links! Peace,Robert Hiker1  Patex321 As an fellow Germanic i like to salute you for being/becoming awake!Patex321 As a german I thank you for your courage.RemelRemel Bloody hell. Good on you Brian for daring to tell the truth to the public. The guys complaining is just your typical brainwashed idiot. They can’t debate, just (((shut it down))). Funny how this idiot said you’re racist too. What a complete moron. Hitler was NOT racist.whitey333 The balls on you are enormous. Best Video I seen in forever.https://www.bitchute.com/video/sVJhWQ38k6O5/JimB Brian, you’ve got more courage than most of the big, puffed-up he-men “pumping iron” in all the gyms around the world. And patience! You’re a prime example of Buddhist tenacity.Bloody hell. Good on you Brian for daring to tell the truth to the public. The guys complaining is just your typical brainwashed idiot. They can’t debate, just (((shut it down))). Funny how this idiot said you’re racist too. What a complete moron. Hitler was NOT racist.Seekerofsanity Brian: I am new to you but really like what I have read so far. Saw the ridiculous shit that the renegade tribune wrote about you in march; pathetic slanderous lies if you ask me. Total cowardice. Look forward to more of your work!Western-Celt-UK More people need to do more of these vox pop billboard discussions in public in the big cities across the World and upload them, what a great way of getting truth across.Re_World I respect you brother, keep doing what you are doing.TheWestIsBeingDestroyed You are a patient man, Brian.aboutthetruthmedia  TheWestIsBeingDestroyedHe seems like a friendly, approachable guy.anarchore Brian needs a volunteer security detail. Maybe with matching shirts. 😀rambetterIt’s about time that people learned the Truth about Adolf Hitler. Brian, thanks for having balls.Handsome Truth 6 MILLION POINTS IN STREET CRED BRO!!!CarlSyerforest Brian Ruhe…King of Cool 

Kid_Dynamite If you keep displaying that sign I’m going to “try” to take it from you. Even that guy isn’t sure he can do it.CarlSyerforest • 4 days agoBrian Ruhe…King of CoolKid_Dynamite • 5 days agoIf you keep displaying that sign im going to “try” to take it from you. Even that guy isnt sure he can do it.−

The Brian Ruhe Show  Kid_DynamiteI told him I was taller than he was 

aboutthetruthmedia Very brave, very approachable Brian! It was good to watch. gingerj the brain washed sheep , this guy just refuses to listen and i think brian keeps his cool well, if it was me i think he would be on his way to a and e room.anarchore You rock Brian! Thanks for being a truth beacon.Jeffrey88 • 3 days agoWow! Great work standing your ground to that white knighters! That’s why I support the Brian Ruhe Show!Charley Howard I have to tell you, Brian you’re a considerably braver individual than I could ever be so hats off to you. If you wouldn’t mind a suggestion perhaps you could gently tell people about the slaughter of the Ukrainian people at the hands of the Jewish commissars prior to the outbreak of the second world war in the Soviet Union. I think they be quite interested to hear that the Jews had slaughtered far, far more Christians at the hands of their barbaric socialist system than ever were presumably killed in any kind of death camp. I doubt they’ll believe you, but perhaps in a light a fire in their mind and that will make them more inquisitive as to what the TRUE HISTORY is compared to what the Hollywood version of history that we have been fed. Once again, kudos to you for your efforts, stay safe!   longdistancerunna We should be out there with Brian. Just imagine even 100 people walking alongside these men with similar signs against 2 jew defending “heroes”. It would be very interesting to see what would happen. Do you think something similar to the Munich Police shootings of the NSDAP’s march in 1924 that landed Adolf Hitler in jail for a year? Keep in mind that is what really caught the eyes of the German people who came to realize that they were being lied to about Communism. The Nazi parties election seats grew enormously after Herr Hitler was released a year later. 

whitershadeofpale  longdistancerunna • 4 days agoFair point, but I think if it got to the stage of 100 more people,standing side by side,would get attention from the authorities. A better approach would be to have smaller break-off groups working incognito. This is a very inspiring work from Brian though all the same.Sept. 18, 2019Hi Brian,these interviews were very interesting. To his credit, Armin at least approached the discourse with some semblance of balance and was far more restrained in denying you a chance to express yourself. The other guy…not so much. These guys are either incredibly naive (and/or ignorant of factual history) or they’re willingly denying the truth, so as to fit their Marxist dogma. I believe that many Euro-Canadians, Euro-Australians, Euro-Americans etc are coming to the stark realization that the fifth column Marxists have so corrupted our media and education, that they’ve damaged our young people, way more than we care to accept. If Trump’s presidency achieves nothing else, the exposure of the true size of the Zionist inspired Communist threat, will be achievement enough.Well done with your recently published David Duke interview. Dr Duke is one of the best around at exposing criminality of the Sabbatean/Frankist “death cult” that is Rothschild Zionism.– Chaz the Advocate  On 2019-08-30 5:17 a.m., wrote:Hi Mr RuheI just wanted to let you know I really appreciate your courage to share your views and to take the initiative to interview Ven. Pannobhasa.The interviews on corruption in the sangha, alt-buddhism in the West and Mind Control I found really intriguing.Very encouraging to hear your friendly voices in this wilderness!Wishing good things for you.Thank you kindly Tristan,I am passing your message on to Venerable Pannobhasa. “Wilderness” is an excellent word to describe this world, eh?Hi Brian Amen, brother. An encouraging thought that the Wilderness is the most honest place to learn the true value of friendship. Feel free to share my gratitude, but not my name or contact details, as I am trying to tread lightly. There are snakes. 🙂 From YouTube commentsNov. 12, 2017And Roid 20 hours ago (edited)Hi Brian I’ve turned my attention to doing mediation more regularly and learning Buddhist teachings due to your influence. I think there’s a lot of suffering and lack of mindfulness among the truther community so you may be a person who’s in the right place at the right time. I honestly would probably never have heard of Ajahn Brahm and Ajahn Sona (let alone listened to Dhamma talks) for an indeterminate amount of time had I not been drawn to your interviews (I think it was the ones with Andrew Carrington Hitchcock and Dennis Fetcho that pushed me over the edge into looking into your work further). For people who love to learn and become a better person I think Buddhist teachings/practices are a great way to relieve the monotony of the “doom and gloom” content the majority of alternative media (or our personal lives even) seems to consist of. And if we feel like modern life is too much, some knowledge of existing support structures (such as forest monasteries) could be useful information.Brian Ruhe 9 hours agoWhat a testimonial, And Roid!! May I copy and paste this for others? I deeply appreciate your specific story, thanks! You make my job worth it.Oct. 2017 Alex Seferiades2 weeks agoBrian, your reverence for the German soldier brings warmth and happiness to my heart. Greetings from Ontario!! You are doing a great job covering what many are afraid to talk about but know in their innermost core to be the truth. It is most likely that you are a reincarnated official or soldier from the Third Reich era. Only you would really know that for sure though. You have my best wishes… Keep fighting the good fight! Brian Ruhe1 second agoThanks Alex! That makes my day. I was a Luftwaffe pilot killed in a crash about fall of 1944. I have discussed this in a few videos. My current girlfriend was my 13 year old daughter at that time and with her hypnosis session, she remembers far more about me than I remember. Read the full article

[curtklingermanposts]

Joy to the World

During the Christmas Season, many congregations will sing “Joy to the World,” but somewhere the meaning of joy gets lost.  Its power is overlooked, especially when people focus on the pursuit of happiness.  Happiness never gives you strength during difficult times; in fact, it generally is unsustainable when such circumstances arise.  Joy on the other hand, will get you through the thick and the thin.  It is a major component of the Fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23.  In Hebrews, we are encouraged to consider the endurance of Jesus.

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.  For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds (Hebrews 12:2-3).

At times, people wonder how they’re ever going to make it.  Understanding joy will help them.  So, what is joy?  It is an inner glee that gives you strength.  Having it is not predicated on external circumstances.  In fact, it’s quite the opposite.  As stated earlier, joy is a component of the fruit of the Spirit, which means it comes through Him and is not self-generated.  That means joy requires obedience and submission.  What does it mean to obey?  In short, to believe with the intent to submit to the will of God out of love.  Not  only does that involve belief in Him, it includes believing Him.

John 15:10-11 If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

Did you notice Jesus said, “that MY joy might remain in you?”  Everything comes through Jesus Christ, and that includes joy.  In order to have joy that comes from above, one must have a right relationship with God through Him.  There is no other way!

It could be said that those who lack joy, lack submission.  Of course, that is part of the story.  Another area that causes a person to have a deficit of joy is lack of belief.  When a person turns his gaze to the things of the world, he will not only be more considerate of the things of the world, but also its messages.  How many of those messages are contrary to the Word and will of God?  Many of them are based on the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (see 1John 2:15-17).  In fact, these three were present when sin entered into the world.  Let’s see if we can discern these three elements at work in the first temptation recorded in Genesis.

Genesis 3:4-6 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food (lust of the flesh), and that it was pleasant to the eyes (lust of the eyes), and a tree to be desired to make one wise (pride of life), she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat (Read the entire chapter for full context).

It led to rebellion.  Isn’t that the crux of the worldly message?  “Rebel, do your own thing and don’t worry about the consequences!”  With repentance, comes restoration of joy to those who have been double-minded.  Each of us must decide who or what we will believe and follow.

When you focus on the wrong things, joy will elude you.  Another consideration is that many of the world’s messages are fear-based.  There is no love and faith attached to them.  They proclaim certain destruction and rob people of hope.  At the same time, they lure people into its clutches by promising false hope.  It offers help and self-based salvation, while encouraging us to believe in ourselves, instead of God alone.  As far as God fitting into its picture, its message is simple: “Believe in a higher power, which could even be a light bulb, but don’t believe in the God of the Bible.”  It gets a bit shaky when you embrace the world instead of the Word of God!

Luke 2:10-11 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

God offers joy to all who receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  If you haven’t taken Him up on His invitation, now is the time.  Today is the Day of Salvation.  Call on the Name of Jesus and be saved.

Romans 10:9-13 (That) if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.

www.perfectfaith.org

[littleladyreads]

Little Lady Reads Interviews Terrie Branch and Justin Q Young

LLR: Who is Terrie Branch, the author?

TB: I’m a Hampton Roads VA native.  I’m a mom as well as a very ambitious serial entrepreneur and author. People who don't know me find it hard to believe that I'm shy. That's because I display a strong personality.

LLR: When do you feel is the best time to write?

TB: When my creative juices are flowing, I tend to write throughout my day because of that.  It may be while my clients are under the dryer  or after work....I write during creative moments to prevent producing a novel thats not interesting. I have to feel it, if that makes sense.

LLR: How did Fiyah come about for you?

TB: Well, I decided I wanted to write a flip-sided novel and I wanted the characters to have sexual addictions. I decided on the names Playing with FIYAH and FIYAH Starter.  At that time, I didn't know who I wanted to write the male side. I just thought it would be a dope idea to have the dialogue connect. I reached out to Justin and shared my vision for the male side and he took my vision and added his creative twist to it and nailed it! I do a lot of research before I write to try and have it sound as realistic as possible when I write.  So with that being said, I reached out to Dr. Lee, a Sex Addiction Therapist and Cardiologist. He allowed me to interview him. I wanted to get a feel of his body language and the office setting, all the way from the style of furniture to degrees that were displayed on his wall.   I even learned the differences between sex Therapy and sex addiction therapy. It was really an intriguing process. I also used that interview to inspire my short story in Sex Therapy, produced by Shauta Kenerly where I wrote under my erotica pen name, Love Jonez.

LLR: For the readers that aren't aware that there is a difference between sex therapy and sex addction therapy, explain the difference and why you chose to write about one over the other.

TB: Well, like the readers, I was clueless as well. I stepped into the doctors office unaware of this. He explained to me that in Sex Therapy, a person may have an issue having sex for whatever reason and go to see a Sex Therapist. Pretty much, they can't get right. Wherein a person thats overactive in the sex department or shows signs of addiction to sex for whatever reason may go to see a sex addiction therapist. I chose to write about it because I simply wanted to write something outside of the box.

LLR: What led you to feel that you need a male's perspective in the book?

TB: I just thought it would be a nice added touch. I knew there would be scenes where dialogue connected. So, the aim to quench the audience's thirst from both points of view was definitely my goal! 

LLR: Was there anything in particular that was hard when writing this book?

TB: No ...I can honestly say I didn't have any challenging moments while producing this novel.

LLR: What is one thing you look forward to being an author?

TB: Being an inspiration to others that may be sitting on great literature ideas and having hesitation about moving forward with it.

LLR: Who have been some of your mentors in the business?

TB: My publisher Shaunta Kenerly.  He is amazing and has such an even temperament .  He's intelligent and definitely knows the business. 

 LLR: Whats next for you?

TB: I'm currently writing a suspense murder titled "Death by Chocolate". I'm excited about it mainly because its a new genre for me.

LLR: Say something to your readers.

TB: First, I would like to thank all of you for your support. I really appreciate you ROCKING OUT with me. For giveaways, updates on new releases and upcoming events please follow me on  the following social media outlets

Twitter: BossLadyTerri Facebook: Authoress Terrie L Branch Instagram: Author_Terrie_L_Branch You can purchase my novels on any major retailer sites including Barnes and Noble,  Books-a-million,  Amazon, as well as Wal-Mart. You can also purchases my novels with my custom scented coordinating candle line by clicking the SHOP NOW link on my author page for your reading experience! I just love yall! Author Terrie L Branch

Justin’s interview

LLR: Who is Justin Q. Young, the author?

JQY: As an author, I am descriptive. I like creating stories & visuals for people that I feel are relatable issues, situations or scenarios.

LLR: When do you find it most convenient to write?

JQY: The way my life is set up, whenever I can. It may be a little in the morning, it may be none the next day and then one day I may write a good 4K words, so it all depends.

LLR: Is there any must haves that you must be near before you sit down to write?

JQY: No, there is nothing that I need, other than peace. When I sit down to write, I don’t want to be interrupted and I tend to block out everything.

LLR: What birthed your need to write?

JQY: I needed an outlet. I have always been creative, I just didn’t initially have that faith in my own talents to stand on them by themselves. You know most dudes in the streets have untapped skills but for whatever their reasons are they are using selling coke as a crutch, robbing as a crutch etc. So here I was in prison doing 6 years and I wanted to tell a story about how a dude wanted to shortcut his way to success. It was mirroring my own journey sorta speak. My intentions at first when I wrote my book was just to see it complete, like have something tangible that I can say “I did.” After I wrote “Move Dat Doe”, I started learning the industry a little more and started thinking about my own identity in it. That birthed “Dickmitized”.

LLR: Tell us about your story in Fiyah.

JQY: The story Fiyah was actually an idea that Terrie came up with. We were looking to collaborate on a story that would be a little different from the norm. So here you have 2 characters dealing with 2 sexual dysfunctions. The female, Kara, has had all this fear instilled in her about men that she masturbates. She has to do it any and everywhere when she gets the urge. Dakari on the other hand is dealing with trying to have some sense of normalcy in his life but finds that he is only sexually free when he is being watched or knowing that he is.   As you read the stories you get a chance to see through their eyes their struggles, then towards the end you find how the two meet and begin exploring the potential but with respect to their fears. It’s an amazing story that we are actually going to be getting a part 2 out for soon.

LLR: Was there any special research put in your behalf that helped with penning your side of the story?

JQY: I did some research on the topic online reading about the different sexual dysfunctions, then started writing. I was about a quarter ways in before I reached out to a friend of mine on Facebook who deals with mental health. I ran the idea and the direction by her & she was like nooooooo! By reading, I was only seeing it from that perspective see what I mean, with her daily involvement with mental health personalities, she gave me better insight.

LLR: What are you hoping others take or learn from this book?

JQY: I’m hoping that readers take from this book an understanding that different things can impact us sexually. What our views of normalcy isn’t always normal but then just because you need other factors to be stimulated doesn’t make you weird either.

LLR: What was the best part of writing this book?

JQY: The best part of writing was meshing the two characters. It was fun going back n’ forth with Terrie writing. Both of our schedules are CRAZY, but once we got into the groove of things it was like we were in sync.

LLR: What can we expect next from you?

JQY: Right now I’m juggling several different projects, a nonfiction based off my life, writing another part to Dickmitized, Queen & In His Feelings. All of these are on my computer as we speak. Some of the readers may know that I am an artist as well so these Paint n’ Sip events have been keeping me active and introducing me to a whole new audience.

LLR: Say something to your readers.

JQY: To all of those who have read anything I’ve written, my novels or the short stories...thank you for the support. I appreciate the comments, the feedback as well as the pictures you send with the books. Continue with me as I grow.

Justin Q Young can be found On social media: 

Instagram: firstborn_designs Facebook: Justin Q Young & Justin Q Young Jr LIKE PAGES: firstborn designs & Paintnsipwjustinqyoung (Paint n’ Sip w Justin Q Young) www.firstborndesigns.com

[douchebagbrainwaves]

HERE'S WHAT I JUST REALIZED ABOUT ACQUIRERS

At the end of the world. But Lisp macros are unique.1 By the end of fundraising, when you're in a very strong position, you not only won't cap the amount you raise, the more you depend on it happening. That phrase draws in most threads I've mentioned here. Well, I can fix the biggest danger is that it makes you more attractive to investors.2 And then I thought: how much does it mean even now? The final thing founders want is to be able to find a friend who already does it, you waited too long to launch. It's an exciting place.

Investors always say what they really mean. When you let customers tell you what they're after, they will often reveal amazing details about what they want till the last moment. The whole site was organized like a funnel, directing people to the test drive. And we were always far ahead of them in features. This idea is rarely followed to its conclusion, though. So if you're ready to clip on that ID badge and go to that orientation session, you may be the last to notice. But I've found when examining spam probabilities that there are more people doing angel-sized investments than they were prepared for.3 Tip for acquirers: when a startup turns you down, will still seem to have been a prudent choice—a consensus decision, rather than just the whim of an individual partner. You should of course have your lawyer review everything. But if you were about to do that too.4 The odds of finding smart professors are even better. Blub.

You often hear people say that you shouldn't answer: Who else are you talking to? But investors' opinions are a trailing indicator.5 Similarly, though there are plenty of similar ones in the grownup world. You can't trust the opinions of other investors.6 But that wears off after a few months from now.7 One of the first things Jobs did when they got some money was to rent office space.8 To succeed in a competitive market without outside funding.

They just want to meet and chat. Whereas if a VC invested in a startup.9 At places like MIT they were writing programs in high-level language doesn't mean anything very definite. You can see how much things are changing from the examples I've mentioned. And if Lisp is so great, why doesn't everyone use it? They have so far, and they know how much jobs suck. You can also get intros from other people in the confidence-building exercise. You can measure this fear in how much a startup differs from a job. It makes people trust you.

It's legally a company, all they want to do something internally, like talk to their partners, or investigate some issue?10 Health care is a component of it, like music, or tea, but I don't think we'll ever reach the point where it IPOs, and you think you might hire 20 people, the stronger evidence they probably are of what you should do it in the beginning, but the job listings have to be specific about what they want to start a startup. And not just because they want you to sell them more of your company. They'll be fine. They're all what hackers call suits. Ronco. They don't try to look into the future because a the future is unpredictable, and indeed in this business you're often being deliberately misled about it and b your first priority in fundraising should be the CEO, who should in turn be the most important thing is to be strategically indecisive: to string founders along while trying to gather more information about them.11 By looking at their actions rather than their combined length, as the divisor in calculating spam probabilities. This little thought experiment suggests a few of the disadvantages of insider projects: the selection of the wrong kind of people you want to predict what will win. So if you raise money, what should you do?

In most startups, these paths to growth will be the money burning a hole in your pocket, but I don't think this problem is unique to me, because I have to read so many spams. This is a good number to use.12 When someone makes an offer in good faith, you have to be fired, and one of nonspam mail.13 The statistical approach is not usually the first one people try when they write spam filters. You can't just tinker. If you can use to find out.14 Fundraising is not what they buy startups for, but their strategic value. So if you raise money in phase 2 will be the ones that are most likely to get buyer's remorse.15 This territory is occupied mostly by individual angel investors—people like Andy Bechtolsheim, who gave Google $100k when they seemed promising but still has some things to figure out where to live. One is that it will set impossibly high expectations. Instead of making one $2 million investment, make five $400k investments.16

So being hard to talk to?17 There's a sharper line between outside and inside, and only take money from investors, perhaps, but good for you. Historically investors thought it was important for a founder to be an insider. This is particularly true with investors: In retrospect, it would be even harder than making the message look innocent. When a VC firm has been successful in the past been the ones with the sort of thing the eminent would want to put several people to work on it.18 The problem with spam is that in order to be successful. Sometimes when you return to a problem after a rest, you find your unconscious mind has left an answer waiting for you. Fundraising is a chore for most founders, but what programmers think in. I had a thought so heretical that it really surprised me. It's practically a mantra at YC. One reason so many good ideas come from the margins, and yet needs to meet multiple times before making up his mind quickly, and server-based applications magnify the effect of a powerful language by using a style called bottom-up programming, where you irritate one extremity and the whole thing contracts violently. In the past, everyone wants funding from them, even if they succeed the effect on your returns, picking the right startups.

This is the thing that surprised him most was The degree to which feigning certitude impressed investors. 116539136 california 0. It shows you've thought about making money. Because this phrase is not only a tactic to pressure the startup. Bad founders seem hapless. Startups do that all the time, if you think it takes a lot of money. There's no concept of office hours in most startups. That's the best case you might get rich. If this would be the one to discover its replacement. So when you get a summer job as a waiter, that's a problem.19 Why would you want to be thinking about, you may not want to make code too dense.20

Notes

I need to go sell the product ASAP before wasting time building it. Different sections of the increase in economic inequality to turn down some good ideas buried in Bubble thinking. The founders we fund used to those. The current Bush, for the best ideas, just as if having good intentions were enough to defend their interests in political and legal disputes.

Economic History Review, 2:9 1956,185-199, reprinted in Finley, M. The brand of an extensive and often useful discussion on the relative weights? It may indeed be a predictor of success. Alfred Lin points out that another way in which I deliberately pander to readers, though it be in that it had no government powerful enough to turn Buffalo into a de facto consulting firm.

It's worth taking extreme measures to avoid this problem and yet in both cases the process of selling things to the biggest divergences between the two elsewhere, but definitely monotonically. We currently advise startups mostly to ignore investors and they have that glazed over look. Monroeville Mall was at the valuation at the end of the war on drugs show, bans often do more harm than good.

The biggest counterexample here is one of them material. Sofbot.

How can I make this miracle happen? If you believe in free markets, why is New York.

No one seems to have minded, which has been decreasing globally. The hackers within Microsoft must know in their IPO filing. Actually Emerson never mentioned mousetraps specifically.

94. There is not a big change in response to what you have two choices and one different qualities that help in that era had no government powerful enough to turn into other forms of inequality, and each night to make the right thing, because they wanted to try to start with consumer electronics.

There is a huge, overcomplicated agreements, and Reddit is derived from Slashdot, while she likes getting attention in the 1980s was enabled by a central authority according to certain somewhat depressing rules many of the company is like starting out in the rest of the ingredients in our case, 20th century.

All languages are equally powerful in the 1980s was enabled by a sense of mission. Strictly speaking it's impossible to write legislation that distinguishes them, initially, to the present, and thereby earn the respect of their peers. This is one way to explain that the missing 11% were probably also the perfect point to spread the story.

They'll be more at the fabulous Oren's Hummus. Some of the company might encounter is a bridgehead.

Not only do convertible debt at a party school will inevitably arise. Some find they have to resort to expedients like selling autographed copies, or working in middle management at a time. If you ask parents why kids shouldn't swear, the main reason kids lie to adults.

Sullivan actually said form ever follows function, but he turned them down because investors already owned more than most people, but it's not as hard as everyone assumes. Default: 2 cups water per cup of rice. In-Q-Tel that is exactly the opposite way from the other becomes visible. Predecessors like understanding seem to be good at sniffing out any red flags about the distinction between them generate a lot of great things were created mainly to make money for other people thought of them material.

We just store the data in files too. So by agreeing to uncapped notes. And that will sign up quickest and those are guaranteed in the life of a great hacker. I'm not against editing.

Compromising a server could cause such damage that photography has done, she expresses it by smiling more. Many will consent to b rather than giving grants. At first literature took a painfully long time in your startup with a company. Plus one can ever say it again.

And when a forward dribbles past multiple defenders, a few months by buying good programmers instead of just doing things, you won't be demoralized if they want impressive growth numbers. The US is partly a reaction to drugs. I explain later.

But that oversimplifies his role.

The ordering system and image generator written in 6502 machine language. But scholars seem to have more money. If you're doing is almost always bullshit.

Maybe it would annoy our competitor more if we couldn't decide between turning some investors away and selling more of it.

VCs also generally say they prefer great markets to great people. Investors influence one another directly through the buzz that surrounds a hot deal, I know of any that died from releasing something full of bugs. Even though we made comparatively little competition for mediocre ideas, because the first version would offend.

Moving large amounts of our own, like wages and productivity, but I realize this sounds to me too mild to describe the worst—that an artist or writer has to grind. Now many tech companies don't.

[nicemango-feed]

Thoughts on Manchester Attack....& Responses that Just aren't Helping

The Manchester terror attack broke my heart, as each and every terror attack does. It chilled me to my core…again. 

Image from CNN.com

With the frequency of these attacks, it’s hard to process them all and properly mourn the loss before your attention is diverted to yet another tragedy. 

During the time I finished up this very blog post, I heard of deadly attacks in Baghdad and Kabul. It's hard, so hard to take it all in and grasp the magnitude of loss around the world. 

My thoughts are with all those who have suffered. 

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The Manchester attack targeted children while they were out having fun, enjoying music, enjoying life... 

Image from here

It’s those very freedoms that terrorists hate, they abhor those who don’t live in the same ideological cages as them. 

I sit here and try to absorb all the fragmented commentary coming from all angles, trying to make sense of this, trying to understand how we can change it for the better. How do we stop this from happening? I don’t know.. because the terrorists motivations seem to lie in a tangled web of things, parts of which each side wants to deny. The most obvious of those is extreme blind faith in an ideology they consider to be infallible.  

I look around me, and see there’s nothing new here…

The left though well intentioned, nor the right, theists, nor atheists - no one is hitting notes (on this subject) that deeply resonate with me anymore. It’s pretty much the same tired commentary, the same motions we go through after each terror attack. 

“Islam is evil”

“”Nothing to do with Islam”

“Muslims must do more” 

“Muslims should not have to apologize for something they have nothing to do with” 

“Islam is war”

“Islam is peace” 

“Its all about foreign policy”

“Its all about religion” 

We really have to do better than this, because neither side on this issue is getting through to the other. Just screaming at each other till we’re blue in the face isn’t going to accomplish anything. 

It’s obvious this is a problem that needs to be addressed, denying links to Islam as people shout Allahu-akbar and take lives just doesn't suffice. It’s not helping anyone, least of all muslims. 

This isn’t to say that how all muslims practice Islam is hateful, divisive and dangerous...but we must acknowledge that some extreme muslims do take it this far, if we want to start solving this. Of course every community has it’s extremists..but Islam does have a lot more Westboro Baptist equivalents …and too many who are even more extreme than Westboro level.

There is a fundamentalism problem coming directly from the rigid orthodoxy that Islam commands in the 21st century. Our communities can certainly do more to promote diversity and inclusivity…we do fall short there, we’ve got to own it…only then can we begin to tackle it.

All that said though, here’s another thing thats not cutting it; Laying the blame on all Muslims collectively. 

This is like me saying portland, Quebec, NYC - white supremacist murders all by you white people. Its just not right to lump innocent people of the same demographic with violent savages who murder people. 

In this case in particular, it’s not fair to say Muslims could have, or should have done more as a community…as the bomber, Salman Abedi had been reported to authorities multiple times. There are mixed reports about him being banned from his mosque, so I'm not sure about that. But mosques can always do more to try and root out extremism. 

Full story here

With a frightening surge in white supremacist and anti-muslim attacks in this Trumpian era, the polarization amongst us is growing at such an alarming rate...I fear we’ll end up at a point where we have to pick a side between nazis and jihadis. Already people seem to think you can’t care about both…each team trying to emphasize the horrors of ‘the other side’ while trying to downplay or deny the horrors that come from people within their communities. 

Full story here

Full story here

We’ve got to do better, all of us. Looking inwards, is important for all communities, self-critique is how we improve.

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The post terror attack scenario, is sadly our reality more and more often…around the globe. I understand its a moment of panic, anger, high emotion. People aren’t always thinking clearly on any side of the debate. But we have to do better, it’s the only way we can beat this monster. The one thing they want is to divide, disrupt and create chaos, sow hatred... in the days, weeks, months after…it’s something we should not let them have. 

There are a lot different types of counterproductive behaviour that emerge right after a terror attack, I feel we can make an already horrendous, painful situation a little more bearable if we refrain from this type of behaviour: 

'The Nothing to do with Islam’ chorus - I get it, it’s a reflex to distance either yourself (if you’re muslim) or an already persecuted minority from the worst, most violent people among them. But as all the liberal/muslim defenders of the religion will tell you, Islam is not a monolith. There are many people, majority of muslims in fact who manage to ignore or ‘re-interpret’ the same verses that drive the terrorists to kill. Why then does it all of a sudden become a monolith with boundaries that exclude terrorists when convenient? You simply cannot deny that those verses too come from the same religion. Just a different interpretation…if you start defining ISIS as ‘not real muslims’ you are playing their game. This is essentially what they do to dehumanize muslims that aren’t living up to their barbaric 7th century standards. The defensiveness and the desperation to distance terrorists from the religion that they themselves claim inspires them, makes defenders appear intellectually dishonest or in deep denial. In order to see the whole picture we cannot keep hiding from the fact that religion has a major role to play in religious extremism. There is hatred of music, hatred of women, of LGBT, of non-muslims coming from Islamic scripture, and theres no way you can modernize, reform or improve things if you at the very least don’t acknowledge that this problem exists. Fine…say this is not how you read it, but you can’t deny that the raw material exists for others to interpret in more violent ways. 

Sharing selective out of context Quran quotes guy - Nope. If you think you can share selective positive quotes, then don’t forget that people can and will rightfully share selective violent quotes to counter that too. This just looks like dishonesty or incomplete knowledge (which is also an issue, as many muslims are taught a curated version of scripture and often in a language they don't understand, I honestly didn’t know the existence of some of these verses till I did some research on my own…and hence, ‘ex-muslim’... 

I’ll make the same point for those who randomly share selective violent Quran quotes in the aftermath of a terror attack…not as a rebuttal to anyone denying violence in scripture…but just putting it out there that ..’look the scripture is violent… this scripture ALL muslims live by is dangerous” - no, this isn’t the time or place for that. I wholeheartedly agree…the scripture is vile, violent and all that. But tying ordinary muslims to these violent words when they may not fully be aware of its meanings, or even know of its existence is just in poor taste when they will likely already face a backlash of anti-muslim sentiment after an Islamic terror attack. I would say at other times, absolutely share this stuff, make muslims aware that this is what it says, and ask them to question if they’d really endorse this stuff. But RIGHT after a terror attack? Not a good idea imo. The bible has some vile violent verses too…we’ve just reached a point where many people don’t take it literally, and I hope we get there for Islam too…but if thats the goal tying *muslims in general* to violent verses in ancient scripture post-terror attack is harmful and counterproductive. 

Reminder, for the 'but what about Islam' types, I'm not sharing this to deny or shift blame from the fact that the Quran has equally violent, abhorrent verses that do inspire such horrors. But just to demonstrate that it is not uniquely evil, it is just unique in how seriously it is still taken today by many...unfortunately. 

Being blindly narrative driven without any regard for the truth - whether on the left or right, all muslims bad or all muslims good. This can take the vicious Nazi-esque Katie Hopkins form (far more dangerous and sinister of course), or it can take a well-intentioned but dishonest form from a magazine trying to portray muslims in a good light. You might be well intentioned but if you knowingly lie about things (see Cosmo screenshots below), ultimately you’re doing more harm to Muslims than you are good, and also providing fodder to the far right…who will find it easier to dismiss positive stories about muslims because of things like this.  

So they seem to know it's a Sikh person at this point...

How then...does this dishonest headline get printed? I mean there might very well be muslim Taxi drivers doing this as well, but juxtaposing it with this picture of a Sikh man, is really misleading!

Jump to Islamophobia concerns community leader - usually a guy being interviewed on TV who actually barely says two words about the horror of this attack before turning it around and making it about him and his community. Come on dude, priorities…yes there will likely be an anti-muslim backlash…i feel you…I get your concerns, I think anyone of muslim background shares those…generally people with brown skin might be fearful, as some non muslims have been killed as well in anti-muslim attacks. So i get it, legitimate concern….but in the aftermath of an attack, the first thing on your mind shouldn’t be the impact this will have on you…have some sympathy for the victims, for the horror their families will be dealing with.  

Similarly, on the fliplside theres the 'You can only care about one thing at a time' person - To this individual if you are concerned about a woman’s hijab being violently ripped off at the same time as the attack, you clearly have no regard for the victims of this brutal attack. This seems absurd to me. You can simultaneously express concern for both…because both harm innocent people. To assume there is no real violence being committed against perceived muslims is deeply foolish or deeply sinister…this isn’t about a few mean words hurled at muslims. This is about pregnant women being kicked till they lose their babies, this is about innocent people being killed. Their lives are no less valuable than those who went to the concert. You can and should express concern about both, of course one of these is not a large scale terrorist attack so one is more pressing and urgent, but this doesn’t mean that anyone expressing concern for both cares any less about the victims of the actual bombing. It just means they are looking at the bigger picture and concerned both about longer term as well as immediate effects. Sad this has to be explained, but there are many 'skeptical takes' out this week saying the victims of the bombing take a backseat if u care about anti-muslim sentiment rising during this attack. Its not one or the other, this is tribalism, plain and simple. And until we stop making it about us vs. them…and see that it is a cyclical problem where hate feeds hate...and that far right anti-muslim hate also fans the fires of Islamism, we won’t be able to combat it. 

The niqabi who decides to wear a grenade t-shirt on TV - ok this is rather specific…but i’m referring to a real fucking person who thought it was a good idea to be on TV and be interviewed about radicalization in the muslim community while wearing a black t-shirt that spells love in fucking *weapons*. 

At first i thought it was a photoshop job.. but sadly not...See video here

What kind of a person thinks thats a fucking good idea..? I mean of course Tommy Robinson was all over that. I don’t think it necessarily says anything about her sympathies or affiliations, as it appears to be a widely available 

t-shirt, 

but I mean the optics of this on a hipster kid and on a niqabi talking about extremism on TV after an *islamic* *terror* *attack* are completely different. Of course people are going to draw conclusions about what she was thinking. It might very well be that she foolishly thought it was a good ironic msg about peace, love and being anti violence or something…but fuck...it does not come across like that. Terrible terrible idea. NOT HELPING. 

'Hashtag Terror attack you say?!...Buy my books because I generally talk about Islam & stuff' person - 

Seriously...don’t be that person…don’t plug your non-specific stuff using a terror attack that took many lives. Of course some content is genuinely helpful and some content has been created as a specific response or commentary to this attack. That’s not what i’m talking about… it’s perfectly ok and also necessary for us to have access to different commentary and viewpoints after an attack. It’s how we process and form our opinions. This very piece is that… I’m talking about unrelated things that people are plugging using the hashtag and all. Don’t do that. That’s really in poor taste. 

Projecting negative intent on anyone that’s visibly muslim - Don’t be like Molyneux, probably a good rule in general.

(This is from the London attack, but the point remains.)

Whining about how people express their grief - Im sorry but people cope in different ways... are you that miserable of a person that you cannot let people heal in the ways that suit them? Coming together in groups, singing, feeling part of a community can feel powerful....and unite us at a time we feel so helpless otherwise. It can make us feel like we're doing something at least. Expressing ourselves through music and song is one of the things jihadis hate... its why they attack concert halls ffs. Don't be the guy that piles on to that. "Liberals just sing while the terrorists bomb us" - right cuz the singing is how they specifically plan to combat bombing. Liberals would go to battle ISIS armed with Jon Lennon songs I'm sure. 

I mean can people seriously have a problem with this kind of thing?

Goosebumps! The amazing moment Manchester crowd joins in with woman singing Oasis - Don't Look Back in Anger after minutes silence http://pic.twitter.com/Cw4mOq8yde

— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) May 25, 2017

Is this not a valid & beautiful unifying, powerful response to human suffering? I don't understand the pettiness...

But What about [Name other Tragedy] - This isn't a contest, human suffering isn't a contest, please don't try to negate one tragedy by saying another deserves more attention. Yes some things get more air time than others, sometimes because it's closer to home, other times because of some aspects of the story. I wish i knew how to insure that all tragedies got equal attention, but this doesn't happen in the real world...so please don't take away from other horrific acts because the one you're talking about got less coverage. 

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I’m sure there’s a ton of more examples of unhelpful behaviour… feel free to add your observations too, in the comments below. But I just felt I had to put this out there after seeing so many cringeworthy takes, making an already tragic situation worse. 

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[romancatholicreflections]

16th January 2017, 'Solidarity In Weakness And In Grace' ~ Daily Reflection on Today's Mass Readings for Roman Catholics on Monday, Second Week in Ordinary Time

SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ HEB 5:1-10; PS 110:1-4; MK 2:18-22 ] There are two extreme groups of people in the Church and in the world. Obviously, the first group belongs to the category of sinners. They may or may not know that they are sinners. Those who do not, continue to sin. Some are relativists, who are not conscious of what is right or wrong. Others are aware that what they do is wrong. Most are aware that hurting others, whether bodily, sexually or physically is wrong. There are those who destroy the reputation of others, infringe on their rights or take away their property. Some are regretful. Yet they feel unable to overcome their tendency to evil and selfishness. They condemn themselves and think that they are beyond reach. As a result, they stay out of the Church because they think that God condemns them and, at any rate, they are not worthy to come to Church because they would then be hypocrites. The other extreme group of people are those who seek to be righteous. Within this group, there are those who genuinely seek to be faithful to the truth and the precepts of God. We must not think that all the Pharisees and scribes during the time of Jesus were hypocrites and insincere. Indeed, many of them who have been brought up with the importance and the sacredness of the law as given by God to Moses sought to observe the laws as faithfully as possible. So we must not think that those who seek to be true to the laws are condemned by the Lord. The danger is that those who are so passionate about the Laws of God and the Church, in wanting to be faithful to the laws, may become proud and egoistic. They may become self-righteous, judgmental and despise those who fail to keep the laws as faithfully as they do. When that happens, they condemn others. They are fault finding, like the Pharisees and the scribes who were more focused on catching those who sinned than being attentive to their own sinfulness. Some of them can spend hours quibbling over the interpretation of the laws when people are suffering. So much so, sometimes Catholicism is seen to be too bureaucratic and distant from the lives of our people. It is perceived as theoretical and impersonal in its response to the struggles of our people in their moral life, especially in the areas of sexuality and marriage. Christianity appears to be a joy killer. Some were alarmed that Jesus and His disciples did not fast. They asked Jesus, “Why is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?” In truth, Christianity seeks to give life, not death; freedom not slavery. Jesus and the disciples were eating and drinking. They were people who celebrate life. There is nothing wrong with celebrating life and love, provided it is truly life and love. Jesus replied, “Surely the bridegroom’s attendants would never think of fasting while the bridegroom is still with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they could not think of fasting.” Fasting only becomes a necessity when we are not living an authentic life of love and giving. We are called to fast not just from food but from evil, injustices, and falsehood. So the real fasting is to abstain from our sinful and immoral activities. Physical fasting is but a discipline to remind ourselves of the need to fight against sin and the disorientation of our human will. We need to seek truth and love. But then where do we draw the line between justice and mercy; truth and love? On one hand, we are obliged to observe the objective laws. St. John Paul II’s encyclical Veritatis Splendor, 79 declared the existence of absolute moral norms that prohibit intrinsically evil acts that are binding without exceptions. On the other hand, there is the compassionate approach of Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia when he wrote, “The Church possesses a solid body of reflection concerning mitigating factors and situations. Hence it is can no longer simply be said that all those in any ‘irregular’ situation are living in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of sanctifying grace. More is involved here than mere ignorance of the rule. A subject may know full well the rule, yet have great difficulty in understanding ‘its inherent values’, or be in a concrete situation which does not allow him or her to act differently and decide otherwise without further sin.” (AL, 301) Right from the outset, we must reassert the fundamental principle of Jesus in today’s gospel when He spoke of the need for integrity and consistency. He said, “And nobody puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins too. No! New wine, fresh skins!” It is important that we should hold fast to the teaching of Scripture and Tradition with respect to the objective norms of the moral law. We cannot compromise on the truth. We have no authority to change the teachings of the Church either. It is not for individuals to change the moral teachings of the Church as they are based on scripture and tradition. The letter of Hebrews reminds us all, including the authorities of the Church that we are not the legislator of the laws but God Himself. We are only the servants of the Church and of Christ. We are chosen by God’s grace and leaders must be faithful to their call as they are accountable to God. “No one takes this honour on himself, but each one is called by God, as Aaron was. Nor did Christ give himself the glory of becoming high priest, but he had it from the one who said to him: You are my son, today I have become your father, and in another text: You are a priest of the order of Melchizedek, and forever.” Nevertheless, whilst holding to the absolute norms and objective truths, we must also exercise tolerance and compassion with those who are not able to arrive at the absolute norms. In many ways, Christianity remains an ideal for us to reach. We all fall short of the laws and the commandments in many ways. None of us live out the laws completely or perfectly. We are all sinners. This is a fact that must be acknowledged and recognized. We should not pretend to be holy when we are not. Pope Francis wrote, “Yet conscience can do more than recognize that a given situation does not correspond objectively to the overall demands of the Gospel. It can also recognize with sincerity and honesty what for now is the most generous response which can be given to God, and come to see with a certain moral security that it is what God himself is asking amid the concrete complexity of one’s limits, while yet not fully the objective ideal.” (AL, 303) This is not giving blanket approval to a conscience that goes against the moral absolute norms that prohibits intrinsically evil acts. In order to show compassion, mercy, understanding and tolerance to those who fail to be true to the teachings of Christ, we must learn to identity with them in their struggles and sinfulness. This is what the letter to the Hebrews also said, “Every high priest has been taken out of mankind and is appointed to act for men in their relations with God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins; and so he can sympathise with those who are ignorant or uncertain because he too lives in the limitations of weakness. That is why he has to make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people.” We must be compassionate because we are all in the same journey from guilt to grace, slavery to the Promised Land. Being conscious of our own sins keeps us humble and compassionate with fellow sinners. We must avoid hypocrisy, thinking that we are perfect and holy. Whilst circumstances can mitigate moral responsibility, yet we must reiterate that “circumstances or intentions can never transform an act intrinsically evil by virtue of its object into an act ‘subjectively’ good or defensible as a choice.” (VS, 81) Today, we are called to follow the example of Jesus. He led us by example and by obedience to the will of God. Like Jesus, we must seek to align our will with the will of God, difficult though it may be. We need to pray for docility to the Word of God and for the strength to do His will. We must form our conscience according to the mind of Christ and the Church based on Scripture and Tradition. Only the truth can set us free. At the same time, we recognize that moral responsibility is mitigated by other factors such as “by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other psychological or social factors.” (CCC, 1735) This is where compassion is required. We need to enlighten them and help them to find strength to do His will. This can only be done through the grace of God given through prayer. Even Jesus prayed fervently for the grace to do the Father’s will. “During his life on earth, he offered up prayer and entreaty, aloud and in silent tears, to the one who had the power to save him out of death, and he submitted so humbly that his prayer was heard.” For those of us who are living in irregular situations or unable to overcome our sins and addictions, let us turn to God for mercy and pardon. Let us acknowledge in all humility that we need to change but at the same time, let us beg from Him the grace, courage, strength and determination to do the right thing. With God on our side, like the Messiah, we will be victorious over evil. Written by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart. Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord. It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.