#System abased

[the-silent-fellowship]

Hyperombased

[PT: Hyperombased]

Hyperombased, is a system based in one’s Hyperromanticism. This means Hyperromanticism has affected the way the system exists, but is not necessarily an origin. This could mean that the system often forms Hyperromanticism symptom holders (Hyperludusian), that Hyperromanticism affects the way a system functions, or anything similar.

-Based Info(link) | Hypersexual Version(link) | Hyperose Version(link)

[Wavy ID: none yet]

[Non Wavy ID: none yet]

[Tagging] @pluralitywords, @pluralterms, and @radiomogai

[Credits] Colors based off, this flag(link). Symbol made by FNF_antosha(link) on Pinterest

[hadleysmis]

'The burning library: Benjamin, Hugo, and the critique of violence'

By Deborah Elise White

“[…] In Les Misérables, the secret political society […] ‘Les amis de L’A B C’ […] poses publicly as a club supporting the spread of literacy – a politically and socially acceptable cause. But in French, ‘Les amis de l’A B C’ is a homonym for ‘the friends of the abased,’ l’abaissé: ‘The abased – that is the people. They wanted to raise them up […]’

L’abaissé may also be translated as the ‘abject’ or the ‘wretched’; in other words, it is a synonym for Les Misérables, as if the very title of Hugo’s most famous work encrypted a riddling reference to the alphabet.

‘Les amis de L’A B C’ testifies […] to benign liberal humanism (a campaign for literacy) and revolutionary struggle (a fight for the abased) and in doing so it also testifies to the violence of inscription in which both projects articulate themselves as if they were one and the same. Notably, the law cannot read the revolution that reveals itself in the punning contingencies of the letter […] the police do not know how to read – which is why the conspirators of Les Misérables are never arrested […]

Puns are serious in politics because the violence of the letter ensures that the canons of meaning necessary to sustain law cannot even sustain themselves.”

I.e. The usage of puns is to expose the inconsistencies in laws and political systems.

Reference:

White, D. E. (2009). The burning library: Benjamin, Hugo, and the critique of violence. European Romantic Review, 20(2), 247–260. https://doi-org.yorksj.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/10509580902840533

[unwelcome-ozian]

The mind control (invasion) transference (MCT) is an extreme form of traumatic transference in patients with dissociative identity disorder (DID) and related very severe, complex dissociative trauma disorders. It is defined as he patient’s belief that the therapist’s overt helpfulness and concern is really in the interest of gaining access to the patient’s mind in order to malevolently invade and control the patient psychologically. To some extent, all DID patients have some aspect of this type of transference. This is because coercive control is at the center of the type of extreme, tortuous perpetration that most DID patients report experiencing. The MCT becomes a dominant transference in several specific clinical situations, that are not mutually exclusive: 1) Intra- or extra-familial childhood perpetrators that are mental health clinicians, who use “therapy” like techniques, including hypnosis as part of childhood abuse, and/or are psychologically extremely intrusive. 2) Parents with DID who are psychologically invasive and consciously or not invade the child’s mind, often to access, control, or create self-states that correspond in some way to their own. 3) Sadistic abusers, often in organized groups, with a variety of manifest belief systems, who focus on complete enslavement of victims using extreme torture to dominate, control, completely abase, and humiliate victims, and to create automatic obedience. 4) Patients who have been abused psychologically as adults by mental health providers, often involving sexual victimization, where the perpetrator uses psychological techniques to control, dominate, and humiliate victims. Many victims of these types of abuse may continue to be victimized/revictimized and/or trafficked by perpetrators into adulthood. They are often susceptible to intimate partner violence with extreme coercive control, and may be particularly vulnerable to coercively controlling mental health providers. For many of these patients, psychotherapy, especially by providers knowledgeable about dissociation, may be experienced as another attempt at mind control/invasion for the purpose of enslavement. This may lead to a myriad of seemingly endless impediments to progress in treatment. In this presentation, I will describe the MCT, and mind-control countertransference, in depth, and how both manifest in psychotherapy. I will discuss clinical interventions that can assist therapy to move forward – if only very slowly - particularly if there has been superimposed revictimization in adulthood by mental health providers. Source

[sharpestasp]

FemFebruary: Padmé Amidala

Padmé Amidala. Two time elected queen of Naboo. Shouted down an attempt to let her serve more per some Legends sources. Has a bevy of Handmaidens who are trained to stand in for her, and basically have the full repertoire of skills she has, to some degree or other.

Fourteen years old when her planet was invaded.

Twenty-four years old when the galaxy falls to war.

Twenty-seven or twenty-eight at the time of her death. Murdered, IMHO, by Palpatine stealing her life force to raise up Darth Vader as a mechanical monster.

Mother of Leia and Luke, biologically. (Leia has a mother, it is Breha, and I stand by this.)

Firstly, I hate the condensed time line the prequels gave us, and the fact that Leia remembers her very sad mother in the original trilogy, but we're supposed to accept that it is a birth memory only. Secondly, not enough Sabé on screen with her after the first movie.

Moving on.

I actually love the idea of a council of elders led by a very young but willful person in a democratic monarchy. That made me honestly happy to think about, because the elders lay out the case, and the young person applies fresh eyes and IMAGINATION to the outcomes, then the elders rebut, with a solution hammered out between them.

When the system works correctly, anyway.

Also, in theory, the way the system was set up, it would be hard for a catspaw to make it all the way to the top, I think.

Padmé, as the first version of this we see, seems like a very tough act to follow. Yet the other queens show they followed in her footsteps on resisting as they could, being killed for it, etc…

Her revealing moment in TPM made me actually squee out loud, because THAT? That is how you start mending fences with a maligned colonial-displaced people. The Gungans are native, the humans are not. Her abasing herself in front of her own people AND revealing the secret of the royal handmaiden shuffle was exceptional.

Too bad the Empire undid the gains that were made after that…

I wasn't sold on the relationship as presented on screen, and cutting the family scene on Naboo is a big part of that. It revealed that Padmé had been following Anakin's career at a distance, and that her fondness for the boy had been morphing into a crush on an unattainable.

Then again, the cutting room floor swallowed a few of her key moments. She is the literal mother of the Rebellion. She was pushing Bail and Mon. She was questioning. In that, I think the TCW cartoon did her more justice, as it is far more clear there that she didn't just wake up one day and buck against Palpatine. She'd been fighting against the war before it began, and never STOPPED.

"Lost the will to live" is the stupidest thing, and GL was a male dumbass to take his own personal fear/near tragedy and project it in this moment. Should have stuck to the original 'tried to kill Vader on Mustafar' plot point.

If Force Ghosts were a thing that happened for strong willed people in general, she'd be one.

[kiragecko]

Les Miserables

/le mi‧ze‧ʁabl(ə)/

lā mē‧zā‧ʀabl(ə)

One of the ways I connect with foreign media is to figure out how to pronounce the names. Been on a Les Mis kick this week, so I decided to share with y'all. Could only double check my work with half these names, so if anyone actually knows French, please correct me.

I'm using a respelling system (based off the one that the New Oxford and Random House dictionary systems) in case you don't know IPA (the international phonetic alphabet). I speak Canadian English, which makes guides that assume I speak an American or British dialect iffy. So I've tried to match the vowels to their corresponding Canadian, American, British, and Australian versions. If something seems off here, ALSO correct me.

There are two major differences between French and most varieties of English - nasal vowels and rounded front vowels. So, some info on both (as well as French 'R'):

Nasal vowels - 'Nasal' refers to things pronounced with air going through the nose, like the consonants 'n' and 'm'. In English, vowels are only nasal if they're right beside a nasal consonant. The 'o' in 'on' is pronounced slightly differently than the 'o' in 'off' is. We start breathing through the nose before we get to the 'n'.  To pronounce the French nasal vowels, start saying the vowel like there's going to be an 'n' after it, but don't actually say the 'n'. It sounds a little bit like you have a cold.

French nasal vowels that show up here are 'ɑ̃', 'ɔ̃', and 'ɛ̃'. The respelled versions look like 'ûⁿ', 'ôⁿ', and 'eⁿ' - the little 'n' reminds you to breath through your nose.

Rounded front vowels - 'Front vowels' are vowels like 'i' and 'e', where the tongue is closer to the front of the mouth. There are also 'back vowels' like 'u' and 'o' where the tongue is futher back in the mouth. When saying back vowels most languages have the lips make a small circle ("rounded"). Front vowels usually have a much wider mouth ("unrounded"). But languages like French have vowels that are both at the front of the mouth AND rounded. You say 'i' or 'e' with your lips rounded like you're saying a 'u'.

French rounded front vowels that show up here are 'y', 'ø' and 'œ'. The respelled versions look like 'ēᵘ', 'āᵘ' and 'eᵘ' - the little 'u' reminds you to round your lips. (There's also 'ɥ', which is a 'y' (IPA 'j') with rounded lips. It's respelled as 'yᵘ'.)

R - The French 'r' sound is also a lot farther back in the mouth than in most English dialects. It's most similar to how 'r' is pronounced in 'group' (in contrast to how it's pronounced in 'trap'). The IPA for this sound is 'ʁ' and the respelling is 'ʀ'.

-

Sounds and Symbols:

( ~ means the sound is between the sound in the example words.)

IPA | Respelling | Canadian | American | British (RP) | Australian

a | a | lad | tide¹ | lad | lad |

ɑ̃ | ǔⁿ | not | not | math | time³ | (nasal)

ɔ | ô | sort | law ~ sort | lot | lot |

ɔ̃ | ôⁿ | north | gnaw ~ north | not | not | (nasal)

o | ō | tow² | tow² ~ sort | law | law |

u | oo | threw | threw | threw | put |

ɛ | e | bed | bed | bed | bed ~ lad ~ day¹ |

ɛ̃ | eⁿ | bed | bend | bend | bend ~ lad ~ day¹ | (nasal)

œ | eᵘ | bed | bed | bed | bed ~ lad ~ day¹ | (with rounded lips)

ə | ə | about | about | about | about |

e | ā | day¹ | day¹ | day¹ | bed |

ej | āy | day | day | day | bed + y |

ø | āᵘ | day¹ | day¹ | day¹ | bed | (with rounded lips)

i | ē | city | city | city | bit |

y | ēᵘ | city | city | city | bit | (with rounded lips)

ʁ | ʀ | group | group | group | group | (see 'R' above)

ʒ | zh | treasure | treasure | treasure | treasure |

ʃ | sh | ship | ship | ship | ship |

j | y | yes | yes | yes |

ɥ | yᵘ | you | you | you | you |

¹English has a 'y' at the end that isn't there in French

²English has a 'w' at the end that isn't there in French

³English has a 'e' at the end that isn't there in French

-

French Spelling

IPA

Respelling

Les Amis de L'ABC (l'abaissés "the abased")

/lez a‧mi də la‧be‧se/

lāz a‧mē də la‧bā‧sā

Enjolras

/ɑ̃‧ʒol‧ʁa(s)/

ǔⁿ‧zhôl‧ʀa(s)

Combeferre

/kɔ̃‧bə‧fɛʁ/

kôⁿ‧bə‧feʀ

(de) Courfeyrac

/(də) kuʁ‧fej‧ʁak/

(də) kooʀ‧fāy‧ʀak

Grantaire | (Grande) R

/gʁɑ̃‧tɛʁ/ | /(gʁɑ̃‧d)ɛʁ/

gʀûⁿ‧teʀ | (gʀûⁿ‧d)eʀ

Éponine Thénardier | Jondrette

/e‧pɔ‧nin te‧naʁ‧dje/ | /ʒɔ̃‧dʁɛt/

ā‧pô‧nēn tā‧naʀ‧dyā | zhôⁿ‧dʀet

Gavroche

/ga‧vʁɔʃ/

gav‧ʀôsh

Azelma

/a‧zɛl‧ma/

a‧zel‧ma

Marius Pontmercy

/maʁ‧jys pɔ̃‧mɛʁ‧si/

maʀ‧yiᵘs pôⁿ‧meʀ‧sē

Cosette  | Euphrasie

/kɔ‧zɛt/ | /ø‧fʁa‧zi/

kô‧zet | āᵘ‧fʀa‧zē

Bossuet  | Lesgle  | L'Aigle ("eagle")

/bɔs‧ɥɛ/ | /lɛz‧glə/ or /lɛ‧glə/ | /lɛg‧lə/

bôs‧yᵘe | lez‧glə or le‧glə | leg‧lə

Joly

/ʒɔ‧li/

zhô‧lē

Musichetta

/my‧zi‧kɛ‧ta/

miᵘ‧zē‧ke‧ta

Feuilly

/fœ‧ji/

feᵘ‧yē

Bahorel

/ba‧ɔ‧ʁɛl/

ba‧ô‧ʀel

Jehan  | Jean Prouvaire

/ʒə‧ɑ̃/ or /ʒɑ̃/? | /ʒɑ̃ pʁu‧veʁ/

zhə.ǔⁿ or zhǔⁿ | zhǔⁿ pʀoo‧vāʀ

-

Fantine

/fɑ̃‧tin/

fǔⁿ‧tēn

Jean Valjean | Madeleine | Ultime Fauchelevent | Leblanc /lɛ‧blɑ̃/ | Urbain Fabre

/ʒɑ̃ valʒɑ̃/ | /ma‧də‧lɛn/ | /yl‧tim fo‧ʃə‧lə‧vɑ̃/ | /yʁ‧bɛ̃ fabʁ(ə)/

zhûⁿ val‧zhûⁿ | ma‧də‧len | iᵘl‧tēm fo‧shə‧lə‧vûⁿ | iᵘʀ‧beⁿ fabʀ(ə)

Javert

/ʒa‧vɛʁ/

zha‧veʀ

Jean Maximilien Lamarque

/ʒɑ̃ mak‧si‧mil‧jɛ̃ la‧maʁk/

zhǔⁿ mak‧sē‧mēl‧yeⁿ la‧maʀk

Mabeuf

/ma‧bœf/

ma‧beᵘf

Bishop Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel

/ʃaʁl‧fʁɑ̃‧swa‧bjɛ̃‧və‧ny miʁ‧jəl/

shaʀl‧fʀǔⁿ‧swa‧byeⁿ‧və‧niᵘ miʀ‧yəl

Baptistine Myriel

/bap‧tis‧tin miʁ‧jəl/

bap‧tēs‧tēn mēʀ‧yəl

Gillenormand (Marius' grandpa)

/ʒi‧jə‧nɔʁ‧mɑ̃/

zhē‧yə‧nôʀ‧mǔⁿ

Fauchelevent

/fo‧ʃə‧lə‧vɑ̃/

fō‧shə‧lə‧vǔⁿ

Toussaint (Cosette's servant)

/tu‧sɛ̃/

too‧seⁿ

Champmathieu (mistaken for Jean Valjean)

/ʃɑ̃‧mat‧jœ/

shǔⁿ‧mat‧yeᵘ

-

Patron-Minette (group of 4 criminals)

/pa‧tʁɔ̃‧mi‧nɛt/

pa‧tʀôⁿ‧mē‧net

Montparnasse

/mɔ̃‧paʁ‧nas/

môⁿ‧paʀ‧nas

Babet

/ba‧bɛ/

ba‧be

Claquesous  | Le Cabuc

/kla‧kə‧zu(s)/ | /lə ka‧byk/

kla‧kə‧zoo(s) | lə ka‧biᵘk

Gueulemer  | Brujon (Brujon minor criminal in book, replaces Gueulemer in musical)

/gœ‧lə‧me/ | /bʁy.ʒɔ̃/

geᵘ‧lə‧me | briᵘ‧zhôⁿ

[marinetti-dinner-party]

tbh fascist aesthetes being uggos reminds me a bit of fat people who go out of their way to hate other fat people.* when i was chunkier (at the risk of projecting) i remember i made lots of denigrating comments about fat people. because i wasn't like them, i thought, i knew how terrible it was to be fat. you gotta love me, random people i'm trying to ingratiate myself with, i share your values (of being weird and gross about fatties). the important thing isn't to be thin but to feel shame. it's like how people are more forgiving of fat people if they act out the appropriate public self-flagellation (exercising to the point of abasement, eating gross expensive diet food). you gotta police the boundaries of acceptability. if you're on the border between chubby and fat you're the last hired first fired of body politics. you're the italians of fatness. there's a hierarchy and if you have to pull the ladder up after you, so be it.

maybe the ugly fascists think that if they have the good sense to feel shame they'll be forgiven for the crime of existing while ugly.**

a clever fascist aesthete might say "yes, the world has made me ugly, i grew up around degeneracy. but the important thing is that i'm improving." which does seem to contradict the 'beauty is truth' argument. at this point, beauty is tautology.

a more thorough and thoughtful fascist aesthete person might say "it's not even beauty. the world sucks, it made me this way, my body is full of microplastics, and i want it not to be, this is being done to us on a systemic level." which is something i like, something i agree with, as someone who wants the world to be better. that's where i could meet people on their own terms. most of the time online it gets turned into 'individual solutions for collective problems' (as in: eat raw eggs and avoid seed oils), but we can fix that by banding together as working people and ensuring democratic control over our workplaces.

or maybe it's all immaterial and it's a case of "you don't need to be a chef to know when food tastes good." i can respect that take. a critic doesn't need to be good at doing art, they just need to be incisive in interpreting it.

*i'm using 'fat' as a neutral descriptor here, as one might use 'thin' or 'tall' or 'brunette.'

**same with the word 'ugly.' except it's even more abstract and arbitrary.

[yiqi-painting]

Work on 5/5 part series

The last painting of five series is a female's portrait. I mainly focus on Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). A typical sign of SLE is a red, butterfly-shaped rash over cheeks and nose, often following exposure to sunlight. I have a slight SLE, especially after I've been in the sun or the temperature is very high, my face will become noticeably red. I used to feel self-abased because of my red face. Now I'm trying to be brave when I show this weakness. This red butterfly-shaped rash symbolize my fragility as well as my strength.

[absolutebearings]

this thanksgiving vs updated because of course it did, i tweeted about it in a rush of anger and managed to irritate some of its ardent defenders despite not tagging anyone

this is what i was reacting to:

that is indeed a pair of native americans begging the colonizers for forgiveness, for being the ones who started it when one of their own attacked the poor innocent protag who just wants things to be nice after he elbowed people aside and mutilated land to set up his nice colony. it was the day of mourning, so i had an especially emotional reaction. my tweets irritated someone enough to write a long thread claiming to be a 'part-indigenous' student of the subject reassuring everyone that actually this is totally accurate and respectful and you dont need to worry about that bitter ranting over there, you're still a Good Person for consuming this manga.

i think anyone who would defend portraying native americans as credulous naifs and support the contorting of events and mangling of sources so theyre the ones who take the first swing at the nice settlers, the ones abasing themselves begging for the pardon of their wonderful colonizer friends, is as morally incontinent as they are ignorant. anyone who would invoke existing colonizer apologia in defense of a fucking manga has deeply misaligned priorities. it isn't only sadists that uphold these systems; you are injecting even more bullshit into an apparatus of elimination that has persisted for centuries precisely because of people who make up shit to comfort themselves and protect their favorite cope narratives. of COURSE there's such a thing as a Good Colonist! of COURSE the correct ideology and a nicey nice affect solves everything wrong with invading a place that doesn't belong to you! of COURSE almost all of the native americans were delighted to be colonized. now doesn't that just feel better to think about?

almost as hilarious was the DUDE TRUST ME pressure re: their claims -- you shouldn't even be taking my word for this. by all means:

in search of first contact: the vikings of vinland, the peoples of the dawnland, and the anglo-american anxiety of discovery, annette kolodny

this land is their land, david j. silverman

restoring the kinship worldview, wahinkpe topa (four arrows) and darcia narvaez

indigenous continent, pekka hamalainen

in the hands of the great spirit, jake page

doodem and council fire: anishinaabe governance through alliance, heidi bohaker

the invention of race in the european middle ages, geraldine heng

i'd say this is a representative vertical slice. read my sources and draw your own conclusions.

[clostridioides]

o'brien & 1984

But the problems of perpetuating a hierarchical society go deeper than this. There are only four ways in which a ruling group can fall from power. Either it is conquered from without, or it governs so inefficiently that the masses are stirred to revolt, or it allows a strong and discontented Middle Group to come into being, or it loses its own self-confidence and willingness to govern. These causes do not operate singly, and as a rule all four of them are present in some degree. A ruling class which could guard against all of them would remain in power permanently. Ultimately the determining factor is the mental attitude of the ruling class itself.

After the middle of the present century, the first danger had in reality disappeared. Each of the three powers which now divide the world is in fact unconquerable, and could only become conquerable through slow demographic changes which a government with wide powers can easily avert. The second danger, also, is only a theoretical one. The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed. The recurrent economic crises of past times were totally unnecessary and are not now permitted to happen, but other and equally large dislocations can and do happen without having political results, because there is no way in which discontent can become articulate.

--

A Party member is expected to have no private emotions and no respites from enthusiasm. He is supposed to live in a continuous frenzy of hatred of foreign enemies and internal traitors, triumph over victories, and self-abasement before the power and wisdom of the Party.

--

All past oligarchies have fallen from power either because they ossified or because they grew soft. Either they became stupid and arrogant, failed to adjust themselves to changing circumstances, and were overthrown, or they became liberal and cowardly, made concessions when they should have used force, and once again were overthrown. They fell, that is to say, either through consciousness or through unconsciousness. It is the achievement of the Party to have produced a system of thought in which both conditions can exist simultaneously. And upon no other intellectual basis could the dominion of the Party be made permanent. If one is to rule, and to continue ruling, one must be able to dislocate the sense of reality. For the secret of rulership is to combine a belief in one's own infallibility with the power to learn from past mistakes.

--

O'Brien smiled faintly. "You are no metaphysician, Winston," he said. "Until this moment you had never considered what is meant by existence. I will put it more precisely. Does the past exist concretely, in space? Is there somewhere or other a place, a world of solid objects, where the past is still happening?"

"No."

"Then where does the past exist, if at all?"

"In records. It is written down."

"In records. And—?"

"In the mind. In human memories."

"In memory. Very well, then. We, the Party, control all records, and we control all memories. Then we control the past, do we not?"

"But how can you stop people remembering things?" cried Winston, again momentarily forgetting the dial. "It is involuntary. It is outside oneself. How can you control memory? You have not controlled mine!"

O'Brien's manner grew stern again. He laid his hand on the dial.

"On the contrary," he said, "you have not controlled it. That is what has brought you here. You are here because you have failed in humility, in self-discipline. You would not make the act of submission which is the price of sanity. You preferred to be a lunatic, a minority of one. Only the disciplined mind can see reality, Winston. You believe that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right. You also believe that the nature of reality is self-evident. When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same thing as you. But I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes; only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party. That is the fact that you have got to relearn, Winston. It needs an act of self-destruction, an effort of the will. You must humble yourself before you can become sane."

--

O'Brien smiled slightly. "You are a flaw in the pattern, Winston. You are a stain that must be wiped out. Did I not tell you just now that we are different from the persecutors of the past? We are not content with negative obedience, nor even with the most abject submission. When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us; so long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him; we bring him over to our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul. We make him one of ourselves before we kill him. It is intolerable to us that an erroneous thought should exist anywhere in the world, however secret and powerless it may be. Even in the instant of death we cannot permit any deviation. In the old days the heretic walked to the stake still a heretic, proclaiming his heresy, exulting in it. Even the victim of the Russian purges could carry rebellion locked up in his skull as he walked down the passage waiting for the bullet. But we make the brain perfect before we blow it out. The command of the old despotisms was 'Thou shalt not.' The command of the totalitarians was 'Thou shalt.' Our command is 'Thou art.' No one whom we bring to this place ever stands out against us. Everyone is washed clean. Even those three miserable traitors in whose innocence you once believed—Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford—in the end we broke them down. I took part in their interrogation myself. I saw them gradually worn down, whimpering, groveling, weeping—and in the end it was not with pain or fear, only with penitence. By the time we had finished with them they were only the shells of men. There was nothing left in them except sorrow for what they had done, and love of Big Brother. It was touching to see how they loved him. They begged to be shot quickly, so that they could die while their minds were still clean."

--

He knew in advance what O'Brien would say: that the Party did not seek power for its own ends, but only for the good of the majority. That it sought power because men in the mass were frail, cowardly creatures who could not endure liberty or face the truth, and must be ruled over and systematically deceived by others who were stronger than themselves. That the choice for mankind lay between freedom and happiness, and that, for the great bulk of mankind, happiness was better. That the Party was the eternal guardian of the weak, a dedicated sect doing evil that good might come, sacrificing its own happiness to that of others.

--

"Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness; only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?"

--

"You are thinking," he said, "that my face is old and tired. You are thinking that I talk of power, and yet I am not even able to prevent the decay of my own body. Can you not understand, Winston, that the individual is only a cell? The weariness of the cell is the vigor of the organism. Do you die when you cut your fingernails?"

He turned away from the bed and began strolling up and down again, one hand in his pocket.

"We are the priests of power," he said. "God is power. But at present power is only a word so far as you are concerned. It is time for you to gather some idea of what power means. The first thing you must realize is that power is collective. The individual only has power in so far as he ceases to be an individual. You know the Party slogan: 'Freedom is Slavery.' Has it ever occurred to you that it is reversible? Slavery is freedom. Alone—free—the human being is always defeated. It must be so, because every human being is doomed to die, which is the greatest of all failures. But if he can make complete, utter submission, if he can escape from his identity, if he can merge himself in the Party so that he is the Party, then he is all-powerful and immortal. The second thing for you to realize is that power is power over human beings. Over the body—but, above all, over the mind. Power over matter—external reality, as you would call it—is not important. Already our control over matter is absolute."

--

thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty toward the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always—do not forget this, Winston—always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever."

--

"You could not create such a world as you have just described. It is a dream. It is impossible."

"Why?"

"It is impossible to found a civilization on fear and hatred and cruelty. It would never endure."

"Why not?"

"It would have no vitality. It would disintegrate. It would commit suicide."

"Nonsense. You are under the impression that hatred is more exhausting than love. Why should it be? And if it were, what difference would that make? Suppose that we choose to wear ourselves out faster. Suppose that we quicken the tempo of human life till men are senile at thirty. Still what difference would it make? Can you not understand that the death of the individual is not death? The Party is immortal."

[woodenb2b]

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[principiumindividuationis777]

What Nietzsche was saying here is counterintuitive. We often think that by abasing ourselves, we will become better, more forgiving people.

The opposite is true. The pathological need to avenge every trifle, the inability to laugh off insults, the holding of grudges, eventually an animosity towards everyone, in the sense of seeing people as "systems", not individuals... all of this is born of feelings of weakness and insecurity.

On the other hand, the behavior of others, including the negative and disrespectful, is far less important to someone utterly confident in him or herself.

This is where Nietzsche, though not God, not perfect, is fundamentally misunderstood. He was not advocating for one person stepping on another, as some pathetic overcompensation mechanism. Rather, he was saying that we should conquer ourselves to the point at which we no longer felt a need to conquer or take vengeance on others, hence his statement to the strong, "Let your kindness be your final self-conquest."

Before this happens, you will likely have to confront your dark side with complete honestly, what Carl Jung called the Shadow, but the goal is to reach a point of being so strong that one can afford to be kind.

[tillerman1]

O Head Fully Blood and Wounds

A translation of O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden by

Paul Gerhardt

O Head Full Blood and lesion, full Pain and full of Scorns, o Head, to taunt allegiant with single Crown of thorns! O Head, else nice trimmed with lace with highest Praise and Tree now only high does abase: Compliments be you me

You noble Angel wisdom, next that else[,] scares and fawn The superb World court system, how are you so spit on: How are you so abuttals, who has your Angel-spate that else a Light not parallels, so shameful lacerate?

[newsource21]

The movement of Islamism began in the early 1900s as an indigenous, grassroots movement championed by both poor and educated Muslims throughout the Muslim world. “Islam is the solution!” was the Islamist call to action against Westernization and secular governments which provided the masses with little hope or future. Early Islamist writer, Sayyid Qutb, in Signposts on the Path, wrote:

The leadership of Western man in the human world is coming to an end, not because Western civilization is materially bankrupt or has lost its economic or military strength, but because the Western order has played its part, and no longer possesses that stock of values which gave it its predominance. The turn of Islam has come!

Islamists do not consider themselves to be revolutionaries, in the sense of revolution changing society in a new way. Rather, Islamists strive to rebuild internally by applying traditional principles to reestablish the past strength and glory of Islam. To simply dismiss Islamists as extremists is short sighted. Islamists endeavor to build a constructive society based on justice, using the best moral values from Islamic tradition, history, and law.

Today, Islamism is the only serious political alternative to secular forms of government in the Middle East, and represents the innermost aspirations of most Muslims. Islamism has already achieved political power in Iran, Sudan, Afghanistan, Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen, and exerts wide-ranging influence and pressures upon secular leadership in Muslim countries who live in fear of their power over their populations. Though divergent ideas can be found, central beliefs of Islamism focus on these areas:

Government and Law -- Islamism advocates the implementation of Shari’ah (Islamic law) and the restoration of the Koran as the sole authority for government in Muslim countries. A return to success necessitates a purification of Islamic society from secular government systems, legislation, and institutions borrowed from or imposed by the West. For Islamists, political upheaval -- if needed by the sword -- is a necessary part of the purification of their society, hundreds of years in the making.

Culture-- All Muslims know of their history as a superior religious, military, and cultural force in the world. Islamists feel their culture is threatened by Western secular influences, especially Western values, political structures, social patterns, roles of women, secular lifestyles, and styles of dress

Wealth and Poverty -- Islamists are strongly concerned about social issues, especially the gap between rich and poor. As responsibility for the needy is central in Islam, a society with rich elites and poor masses is unacceptable. Islamists have created welfare institutions in many rural areas and poor city neighborhoods.

Dominance of Unbelievers Over Muslims -- Western military presence in Muslim countries constitutes an affront to Islamists. Islamists believe that dominance by unbelievers is blasphemous, as it can lead to abasement of faith, immorality, and violations of Holy Law.

The United States of America-- Islamists often refer to the United States as “evil,” “the enemy of God,” and “the Great Satin.” Most Westerners have trouble understanding such passionate rhetoric, and simply dismiss it as comical. However, as the United States is the acknowledged heir and reigning master of Western civilization, it inherited the historic animosities against the West, becoming the target of objection, hate, and rage by Muslims.

Jewish/Western Conspiracy -- Islamists view Israel as the center of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy, whose purpose is to infiltrate Muslim countries, destroy Islamic values, and instill the germ of Westernization, with the ultimate goal of eradicating Islam.

Israel -- For Islamists, the very existence of an independent Jewish state called Israel is a theological and historic impossibility. In Islam’s natural social order, the Jews’ proper place can only be as protected tributaries (dhimmi) under the leadership of Islamic society, not as rulers of a sovereign state. Israel is thus their number one target, and unacceptable in any size or circumstance. On its road to revival, Islam must reacquire Palestine to redeem itself from the humiliation of a Jewish dhimmi state. Therefore, Western-style “peace” between Israel and the Islamic world is unattainable. Peace can only be achieved in Islamic terms -- peace with justice -- which requires the eradication of political independence of Jews and the domination of the Islamic society (ummah) over them.

Western misunderstanding of the movement of Islamism led to today’s conflict in the Middle East. For Israel, the Gaza war represents the final collapse of the misunderstandings and political fantasies of the Israeli left who embraced the secular PLO terror organization and turned over the Gaza Strip to them in 2005. The PLO was quickly routed by the duly elected Islamist Hamas movement who expelled the PLO and established a Palestinian state whose sole purpose was to wage war on Israel.

The U.S. government is today mistakenly characterizing HAMAS as “a few bad apples” while lionizing and promising massive aid to “civilian” Gazans, whom they view as innocent bystanders who deserve protection, food, medicine, Internet, cell service, and ultimate statehood. All this is to set up a U.S. led political settlement after the war.

As depicted in my 2008 film, Farewell Israel: Bush, Iran and the Revolt of Islam, the assumed friendly Jewish secretary of state Henry Kissinger played Golda Meir and Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War with military assistance to set up after-war diplomacy. So too today is another Jewish secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, setting up Israel for political defeat after the Gaza war.

The Biden administration will demand payback for assisting Israel in the war with a PLO run Palestinian state to include Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. The U.S. Middle East “peace plan” will include security guarantees from the increasingly far Left anti-Israel Democrat party-run U.S. government and promises of recognition by various Arab states. If Benjamin Netanyahu refuses the plan, claiming it is an existential threat, a major U.S. effort will be made to remove Bibi from office in exchange for his political rivals who will accept “peace.” Most of all for Joe Biden, the peace plan will provide him with a “success story” to counterbalance his record of disastrous domestic policies. If implemented, the U.S. peace plan will be at the expense of Israel which will be doomed to fight another future war for its very existence from indefensible borders.

[wisdomrays]

Another Way of Journeying and Initiation: Part 2

The third discipline: A carnal self that has not yet been able to step on the way to refinement through journeying in itself and the outer world, ascribes to itself whatever good and achievement it is favored with, while imputing evils and failures to either external factors and causes or its incorrect, stunted concept of Destiny. Instead of overflowing with thankfulness for whatever favors it receives, it inwardly collapses because of self-pride, conceit, and arrogance, and extinguishes its feelings of thankfulness to and praise for God. It contaminates its horizon with the filth of such bad morals, and ruins itself. Whereas, if the carnal self is able to attribute to God all the good and achievements and impute all evils, shortcomings and failures to itself, then it would be favored with blessing after blessing, even in the most unfavorable circumstances. What is necessary is that the carnal self should see that its perfection lies in its perception and acknowledgment of its imperfection, and that it should always be humble before and devoted to God. The carnal self should also overflow with thankfulness and zeal by perceiving and acknowledging that its power comes from its helplessness, and its richness lies in its innate poverty.

It is extremely important for us as believers to know that all our merits and accomplishments are from God, while all our imperfections and errors are from our own selves, and that we should keep our system of self-interrogation and self-control alive and active. So long as the travelers to God can do this, they will always yield fruit, even in the most unfavorable circumstances. Whereas, from the moment when aridity arises in the spiritual world of the carnal self, due to certain erosions, then only thorns will grow, even in the most favorable circumstances, and it will hoot like an owl, lamenting its loss.

If human beings were only physical beings, their concerns and worries about corporeality would be meaningful. Seeing a noble being as consisting only of a physical body means reducing it to the level of flesh, which is bound to disintegrate and rot away and be food for microorganisms. This is the most abominable form of despising the noblest and most honorable of all creation. But the actual fact of the matter is that humankind, by virtue of their creation, endowment, and potentials, are more valued and sublime than even the angels. Human beings are much more than being mere body; they are endowed with heart, spirit, and other inward spiritual faculties, with consciousness, intellect, perception, intelligence and other outer and inner senses and feelings. Human beings are an assemblage of values that transcends the physical dimension of their being. Human beings are such precious and well-endowed creatures that they can sometimes fly so high that even the angels desire to catch up with them; sometimes they can reach the peaks which separate the realm of mortal beings from eternity and infinity. Using their mental faculties to the utmost degree, they arrange travel to celestial bodies, and transfer sounds, voices and images from great distances, offering us the most beautiful melodies of time and space shrinking at great speed.

However, despite the extent of their capacity and exceptional nature, humans can fall into a net of hatred, grudges, greed, and lust, becoming the most wretched and abased of all beings. They can be wretched slaves and beggars, despite their nature and capacity to be the masterpieces of creation; they can become nothing more than worms creeping on the earth, despite their potential to be heavenly beings. But if they turn completely to God with all their inner dynamism, overflowing with thankfulness for all the good He has bestowed on them, and impute to themselves all the evils they may commit and shortcomings they may suffer, they can become perfected and be saved from those shortcomings through awareness and wakefulness, and by being cleansed under the taps of self-control and supervision. Then humankind can set up the tent of true humanity on the debris of evil feelings and passions, and express themselves through accomplishments, without ever losing their humility and feelings of nothingness before God. This also means discovering themselves anew at every attempt, being fully aware of themselves in their own depths, and experiencing a new revival at every moment. Mawlana sees this as the feet of the soul being freed from the fetters of corporeality and the spirit starting to become heavenly. A spirit which has become heavenly also attempts to arrange its own, inner world with its whole power of perception and consciousness, makes incessant efforts to repair the defects standing in the way of its perfection. Such a spirit travels sometimes in the realm that stands before the veil over existence and sometimes beyond it, and goes into ecstasies at every seeing of the depths of its heart. Every such seeing arouses in it a new desire to grow into perfection, and every desire a new zeal for self-renewal. It sees its heart as a home of God and utters:

The heart is the home of God; purify it from whatever is there other than Him,

So that the All-Merciful may descend into His palace at night.

The truly and fully human beings cleanse the heart of foul concepts and images, adorn their "secret" with knowledge of God, illuminate their "private" with the torch of love and zeal, and make their "more private" utter loyalty. They are always occupied with the Beloved One, and ready to sacrifice themselves for His sake. This is their affliction, which is preferred to all cures; they are exhausted with the excitement of being on the way to Him. However, their affliction is sweeter than all cures, and their exhaustion is preferable to every rest or repose. Their affliction causes them to travel through deserts in quest of greater afflictions, saying:

I used to seek a cure for my inward affliction;

They said: "Your cure is the affliction itself."

I used to seek something to sacrifice in the court of the Beloved;

They said: "Your soul is the thing you seek to sacrifice." (M. Lutfi)

The soul also utters, as many have uttered:

I used to seek a cure for my affliction;

I have come to know that my affliction itself is my cure.

I used to try to find that which is hidden in my origin;

I have come to know that my origin is that which is hidden. (Niyazi Misri)

[tetsuwan-atom]

“Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are  creating?  It  is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that  the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery is torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world  which will grow not less but more  merciless as it refines  itself.

Progress in our world will be progress towards  more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded  on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In  our  world  there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and  self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy everything. Already  we  are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived  from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child  and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman.  No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend  any longer.  But  in  the  future  there  will  be  no wives and no friends.  Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one  takes  eggs from a hen.

The sex instinct will be eradicated.  Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal  of  a  ration  card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are  at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty,  except  loyalty  towards  the  Empire.  There will be no love, except the love of your Emperor. There will be no laughter,  except  the  laugh  of  triumph  over  a  defeated  enemy.  There  will  be  no art, no  literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no  more need of science. There  will  be  no  distinction  between  beauty  and  ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment  of the  process  of  life.  All  competing  pleasures  will  be  destroyed.  But always – do not forget this, Bowen – always  there will be the intoxication of power, constantly  increasing  and  constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there  will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an  enemy who is helpless. If you want a  picture  of  the  future,  imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”

UNPROMPTED : ALWAYS Accepting!

"…You know… I thought capitalism was bad… but what you're talking about is like turning the entirety of humanity into a machine. Nothing but obedient dogs, slaves without any purpose but to keep that very machine going. I don't even understand how you could have an Emperor, your 'utopia' wouldn't even need human authority. Just put a computer in charge and let it all run on it's own."

"You can't have fear and rage without love and justice. How can you fear, if you can't feel hope, how can you be angry if you can't feel love? All I can imagine is… some from of eugenics, brain chemistry that… alters one's thinking into zombies… how can it even be called emotion, when it's all just a program. Monsters to serve, monsters to kill, monsters to…. fuck. God. What is trust? Trust what? I suppose there isn't a need for language when all it is.. is just mind programming."

"Your logic is completely flawed. You say there's going to be loyalty. What loyalty? They'll be too mindless in the end to wonder what the hell loyalty is! Love for the Emperor? So the Emperor gets to live, to laugh, to love, while everyone below them has to suffer this… zombification? I'm sure your 'neurologists' will end up facing the same torture they are creating themselves. All your doing is effectively killing the heart of the human race and turning them into what, batteries? A source of labor? Weapons? Milking them for procreation? Could they even stand up to war? Hell, why the fuck are you even doing all this in the first place? I was expecting a… machine utopia where humans were all dead save for the one who runs the whole show but this… this is is more sinister."

"Do you even trust it… trust your method? Will the Emperor trust their subjects, their slaves? Will their Emperor trust the system that might well invariably kill them? Like I said.. a computer could do a better job, with greater efficiency than any living human. No emotion, just calculations. There would be no 'intoxication of power' once it's all automated… it just grows.. and grows.. and feeds.. and feeds, ever expanding, no signs of slowing or stopping. I see a picture of the future… but it won't be how you 'romanticised' it."

"But now that I'm here… you know full well that either future will be in jeopardy. You know who I am, don't you? You know what I'm capable of? You know I'm not going to let any of this happen. Your plan will fail, your empire will fall, your people will be set free."

"You will be stopped."

[tawakkull]

ISLAM 101: SPIRITUALITY IN ISLAM: PART 93

Human Nature and the Purpose of Existence

Like all Muslims, Sufis believe that human life is but one part of the soul's journey and that there will be an afterlife that consists of either Paradise or Hell following a Day of Judgment. For practitioners of Sufism, the purpose of life is to cultivate the kind of relationship with God that draws them close to God, in order that they may experience the presence of the Divine while they are alive as well as once they die.

As opposed to a system of belief that recommends storing up good deeds in order to benefit from the Divine only in the afterlife, Sufism holds that one can and should strive to behold the divine in this life, through achieving transcendence of the self.

Fitra is the Arabic term used in the Quran for the primordial state of purity with which every human is endowed at birth. According to some Sufi interpretations, as humans age, taking on the trappings of earthly life such as family and wealth, they become more corrupted and distant from the original state of fitra, which is a state of being directed toward God, instilled in humans at birth by God. Sufis believe that the best way to please God is to train in order to return to the state of childlike fitra. Once there, one is unable to sin or displease God. In that state, one is not driven by fear of hell or hope of heaven and is driven to do good deeds solely out of love for God, which is the ideal.

This concept is echoed in a famous story about the 8th-century female mystic Rabia al-Adawiyya, who is said to have walked around with a bucket of water and a hammer, symbolizing her wish to put out the fires of hell and destroy heaven in order that she not be motivated by fear or hope, but love for God alone. By seeking only God's pleasure, Rabia embodies a selfless love, one that does not fear punishment or seek praise. This kind of ascetic quality, one that shuns the trappings of worldly emotions (fear, pride, hope) as well as worldly goods, is part of the Sufis' mission to cultivate the purification of their souls.

All ideological and doctrinal branches and belief systems within the broader Islamic tradition have relied on various schools of law for the elaboration of how to perform required religious practices such as fasting or prayer. This is the outer dimension of the law. In Sufism, there is also an inner dimension to the law that has to do with repentance, the abasement of desire, and discipline of the self, or the elimination of the ego. Ironically, this can only be achieved in the context of finding a community within which one can train. By affiliating with a teacher or joining a Sufi order/tariqa, a Sufi embodies the belief that the Sufi path is one that cannot be undertaken alone or through independent learning.

Ibn Arabic composed a poem in which he wrote, "Every special (ascetic) effort (mujahada) which is not ordered by a master (shaykh) can't be relied upon—and likewise with every sort of spiritual discipline (riyada). For (such) disciplines entail harm for the soul, and (such ascetic) efforts entail harm for the body." By learning from a teacher who is part of a tariqa, the Sufi joins his or her life and practice to a tradition that ostensibly derives from the lifetime of Muhammad. It should be remembered that Sufism is said to have arisen precisely as a reaction against the wealth and power of the Islamic empire, issues that were not part of Muhammad's life, but were features of the later Empire. Sufism's concentration on the avoidance of worldliness and the discipline of the soul redirects the believer's attention to what is believed to have been the original and pure message delivered by Muhammad to the first believers: to worship God as if one could see Him at every moment.