Social Philosophy & W: LP: GRP: IC: The Coming Insurrection

The Coming Insurrection by The Invisible Committee

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is a comprehensive critique of French society permeated as it is by the State. Every aspect of the culture is taken to task from formal institutions down to the family, and the current generation is filled with alienation, isolation, and desolation. Even the enfranchised are alienated. With this destruction of the soul comes the conviction that the only solution is the rise of collectivism via nihilistic destruction of society and the state.

As I thought about the valid criticisms made here, I could see very clearly that much of dysfunction was caused by the intrusion of the State into every aspect of life. So, while I can understand the reaction against commercialism and materialist culture, the state, and society, especially when you've been disenfranchised your whole life, it must be remembered that every time a collectivist revolution succeeds, it re-establishes the state in a more evil form.

For a revolutionary answer to the critique of French civilization (and by extension, Western civilization), it must bring individualistic personal liberty regulated by ethics. True individualism unhampered by the enslaving state results in freedom, and freedom is the answer to the mindless materialism of consumerism.

Perhaps unknown to the invisible committee (or the new universal collective), is that the abrogation of the individual and the rise of the collective is only another type of materialism. It asserts that the space-time construct of the current mass of human life is all that there is, and thus, happiness can only occur in the making of a utopia.

The only solution proposed by this book is only perpetual revolution.



View all my reviews

W: LP: GRP: YZ: We

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With almost 13,000 reviews for this book, there doesn't seem much point in rehashing what the book is about, but I did want to point out a few things. The author enters the psyche of the main character in a way that reminds me of Dostoevsky's treatment of the underground man and the criminal in "Crime & Punishment" with bits of the Inquisitor thrown in. In this story this approach works, and it becomes an analysis of a society built around a collectivist "scientific" rationalism. The main character is infected with the growth of a soul or individual self-awareness, and as the story progresses he struggles against his programmed desire to be unconscious in the collective and the new feelings of self.

All this, I find interesting, and it makes a wry comment on all utopianist experiments. In a way it is a bridge between the ideas in Dostoevsky and Rand and Orwell and Huxley. Very well done in sparse modernist prose. I wish I could read Russian to see how it worked in it's original language.



View all my reviews

W: LP: GRP: RH: Farnham's Freehold

Farnham's Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein

I have read many of Heinlein's earlier novels (marketed to the YA demographic) in my youth, and then later I absorbed a few of his more well known works (like Stranger...etc.), but this novel is new to me.

When I come to a novel that I haven't yet read, I find it helpful to NOT check reviews or plot spoilers before plunging in. Sometimes, I end up seeing some reviews, but for this novel, a few of the reviews that I took a peak at seemed to be describing two different stories. Now that I am mostly through this novel I think I can understand why. As I began this novel, I thought, "Oh, good! I haven't read a post-apocalyptic story in awhile, and this seems interesting." Then at about on third of the way into the novel, the story suddenly morphed into a story about a one-way time travel 2100 years into the future of our present day with a complete mirror image of the social conditions of America in the early 1960s.

This sudden change of the story somewhat irritated me, and I was going to give this low marks. Then it occurred to me that if I took the actual story less seriously, and looked at the morphing story as a metaphor of the idea of liberty as it intersects with the reality that each individual must endure, it became much more interesting. Examples from the story where Hugh Farnham (the main character) is working for an overlord in this new society and earlier where he and family and friends were struggling to survive, serves to illustrate the struggle between ideals and reality as it is thrust upon you. I don't know if this was intentional, but it does open perspectives on what it means to be free, whether you are without society and fighting to survive nature or you are within society and comfort but are essentially a slave. How do you seek freedom and liberty when you are deeply enmeshed within the system of an un-free society? Can you escape? How do you make peace with slavery when you know the truth of liberty?



View all my reviews

W: LP: LG: Fyodor Dostoevsky

Despite the demise of the Literary Group that I used to belong to, I am continuing to read from and study about one of my favorite authors, Fyodor Dostoevsky. So I came across another mini-biography in the Christian Encounters series about this great writer. The first book I read in this series was the excellent survey of J.R.R. Tolkien by Mark Horne. Like the biography of Tolkien, this account of Dostoevsky is fairly general and light, but accurate, easy to read and good for introducing new readers to the lives of these great men. Here following is my quick review from Goodreads:

Fyodor Dostoevsky by Peter Leithart

The author uses the conceit of the fictional biography to tell the story of FD's life. The story is fairly light and an easy read, but still deals with the important events in Dostoevsky's life as it relates to the development of his writing.




View all my reviews

W: LP: GRP: NS: Cobweb

The Cobweb by Neal Stephenson

This is the second book by this combination of writers (Neal Stephenson and J. Frederick George), and it is still in the category of mainstream thriller involving political intrigue. The story takes place during the run-up to the first Gulf War. The premise of the story is that part of Saddam's biological warfare production was being done at various universities in the US with Iraqi exchange students using funding from the US gov't. Much of the action takes place in the Midwest, and the characters are better drawn than the first novel by this combination of writers. Well done.



View all my reviews

Social Philosophy: Statism as Baal worship

The following is a re-post of an article from http://www.flaglesscoop.com/; I'm posting it here so that if it gets taken down I can still find it:

Has the American State Become Your Religion?

“You shall have no other gods before me.” (Ex. 20:3)

Before falsely using YHWH’s name, before the sabbath, before honor of father and mother, before murder, adultery, theft, or false witness or coveting, before all of these is this single command: “You shall have no other gods before me.” It is unqualified. Commentators have noted how the commands that follow this one command and every book that follows Exodus relate to it. Jesus summed up the two tables and their Deuteronomical and Levitical reiterations well. He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and…you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” (Matt. 22:37-38). Throughout the Old and New Testaments the command is clear. When a king of Israel set up idols to Baal? He got sick and died or got killed in battle. When the Israelites themselves served Baal? The whole nation experienced strife and suffering. Israel was eventually conquered and destroyed for their idolatry. When Ananias and Sapphira worshiped their stuff rather than their creator? They died. Moses made it clear. The prophets made it clear. The Psalmists made it clear. Job made it clear. Jesus made it clear. Paul made it clear. There is no God but YHWH. You cannot serve YHWH and serve another god.

Whenever the followers of YHWH have ceased following Him, be it the church or Israel (if you choose to make that distinction,) and followed gods and systems who disdained human life, indulged in human sacrifice, and called for general immorality, the followers of YHWH have proven themselves not followers at all but, rather, idolaters who fall into many immoral pursuits. The writer of Hebrews said it well, “For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief,” (Heb. 3:16-19). This is one of those rare texts that connects disobedience closely with unbelief. Those people who called themselves follower of YHWH? They were no followers at all, they were unbelievers and they proved it with their actions of unfaithfulness to YHWH.

Imagine a god who calls for you to sacrifice your children! Imagine a god who calls for you to slaughter humans on his altar! Imagine a god who calls you to steal from your neighbor! Imagine a god who demands that you devote yourself to it and no other. “Baal!” you say. “Moloch!” you say. Why, yes, those gods did demand human sacrifice, theft, and pure devotion. They are gods of aggression. They are gods whose image we surely do not bear. They are not YHWH. They are not the true God. If you worship them you worship nothing and show yourself to be an unbeliever.

However, I am not talking about Baal or Moloch per se. I speak of the modern Baal.

Hear me out.

When you pay your taxes, the state takes that money and uses it to kill women and children both here and abroad in the protection of their own interests. When you put on a uniform and wield a weapon on behalf of the state to kill, you kill the son of another father and mother and a creature created in the image of God. When you vote, you perpetuate a system of democracy that is rooted in injustice (imagine using a majority of 51% to screw 49% out of their inherent right to something!) When you take millions of dollars from the state you swear your devotion to it for life. When you campaign for Rick Perry, or Ron Paul, or Michelle Bachmann, or Mitt Romney, or Barack Obama, or any human, you say, “This, I worship!” “The state?” you say? “HOW DARE YOU!?”

I am tracking a deeply disturbing trend: many Christians maddeningly refuse to hear “Christarchists” out when they decry the state’s protection of itself in war. Many Christians virtually stop their ears and gnash their teeth before they will hear us out when we decry the use of your taxes for abortion and the killing of the Muslim (while they somehow still “oppose” abortion and murder.) Many Christians refuse to hear us out when we decry the perpetuation of a system rooted in the injustice of the many oppressing the few. Many Christians refuse to hear us out when we question the validity of an institution that calls them to murder, steal, and inflict poverty wherever they go.

It is as if we were decrying the worship of YHWH! It is almost as if we used the very name of YHWH in vain! I, personally, have been sworn at, accused of being “inconsistent” with my worldview, and told that I am a disgrace to to the concept of freedom.

Why? Because I have chosen to live consistently with the Sermon on the Mount? Because I have attempted to live as consistently as possible with the system of non-aggression that the Bible predominantly espouses? Because I have expressed disdain for a Church that largely refuses to do its work and feed the poor? Because I have called for Voluntary consent to all taxes and systems of government (imagine a world in which we may voluntarily decide where we want our money and efforts to go! Is that not freedom?!) Because I have asked you to actually do what you say you’re doing and read Thomas Jefferson’s hatred of centralized government and banking? Because I have dared to point out that we in Evangelicalism and many Reformed circles are treating the Constitution as if it were God breathed?

Christians, the American state is the modern Baal! The voting booth is the modern “high place!” Politicians are the modern Asherim, the Constitution a modern Golden Calf, partisan politics the modern Marduk. As Moloch asked the Israelites to sacrifice their children on his altars, the state demands that we fund its murder of children. As Asher demanded immorality on her altars, the state demands at the point of a gun that we fund every immorality which we supposedly oppose. As Nebuchadnezzar built a giant image of himself and demanded Daniel worship it, the state presents politicians of all colors who build an image of themselves through various media and demand that we worship them with our vote and consent (and, subsequently, our money, time, and lives.)

I am seriously uncomfortable in my church now. Why? Every time I look at my pastor (who preaches amazing, Biblical, Christ-centered sermons) I see the American flag directly behind him. That’s right, the symbol of the modern Baal, proudly displayed for all to see and hear that we condone the murder of children, that we love war, that we adore theft! That flag speaks so loudly I cannot hear my pastor anymore. We may as well have a Pentagram on the wall! Let us display the Asherim! Let us build a high place! Let us mold a golden calf and dance around it! Let us bow down and worship Tiamat! If we’re going to go this far we may as well “go the whole hog!”

Christians, the American state is dangerously close to being our religion if it is not already. It is becoming hard to distinguish between the two for me. Do we serve Baal, or do we serve YHWH? Choose, and choose quickly, because this state is about to demand your total and complete worship.

If we bow down, we prove our unbelief. YHWH and YHWH alone is God. If we dance around this golden calf, we prove that we do not ultimately believe that Christ is the one and all-sufficient King.

Do we serve YHWH, or do we serve Herman Cain? Do we serve YHWH or do we serve the Republican party? Do we serve YHWH, or do we serve the American state? Has the American state become our religion?

We worship in vain before blocks of wood and dead pillars of stone wrought by the hands of men if we continue to serve America, the modern Baal.

There is no King but Christ! Let us serve the King!

Ryan Day Thompson, Contributor
The Flagless Cooperative

Natural Philosophy: Neuroscience and memory

In The Palaces Of Memory: How we Build the Worlds Inside Our Heads by George B. Johnson

This an excellent explanation of the development of neuroscience as it relates to memory in the human brain. The author does a good job of explaining the various concepts and mechanisms for the layman; you don't have to have a degree in Biology or Chemistry to understand the subject related here. A good introduction to the vast field of Cognitive Science in general. Recommended.

Further comments:

I have studied the area of applied physics concerning Electromagnetism as it relates to the design, installation, and maintenance of electrical systems and devices. In my studies (both formal and self-educated), I have surveyed electronics, computers, information theory, and cybernetics, among other things of related interest. The deeper I delve into the details of these subjects, the more I see the similarities between the underlying principles of man-made machines and biological machines. In my reading of the above referenced book, I noticed some striking parallels between the inner workings of solid state devices (SCRs, transistors, microprocessors, etc.) and the action of neurons in the process of an organism forming memories. I would have to quote too much about solid state physics to spell it all out, so I will just quote a small passage of the book and leave it to my audience to notice interesting correlations. From page 82:

Apparently, there was something special about NMDA receptors that was integral to memory--or at least to LTP. Researchers soon discovered that the receptor was unlike any other. Receptors generally work by opening ion channels in the cellular membrane. Until very recently, all ion channels were believed to be either chemically gated or electrically gated. Either the arrival of a neurotransmitter at the receptor or a change in membrane voltage caused them to open and close.

The NMDA receptor had the distinction of being both electrically gated and chemically gated--it required both kinds of stimulation before it would open its ion channel. Normally, a magnesium ion blocked the channel. No matter how much neurotransmitter crossed the synapse and stuck to a neuron's NMDA receptors, they would be incapable of responding. But if the neuron was already in a state of electrical arousal--stimulated by a previous signal that had activated the cell's normal glutamate receptors--then the magnesium stoppers would pop out. Now the NMDA receptors were free to react to a second rush of glutamate by opening their channels. The receptor was, in other words, a two-step device. One pulse cocked the trigger, the second pulse fire the gun. And while normal receptors worked by allowing sodium ions into the cell--the positive charges that led to the firing of an action potential--the NMDA receptor also let in calcium.

The importance of the last sentence of the second paragraph has to do with Dr. Gary Lynch's work on the mechanism of calpain in changing the cytoskeleton in the synapse. Fascinating stuff.

Neal Stephenson on Innovation

The article in the following link so succinctly points out some of the issues surrounding innovation in my culture that I have to recommend it to my audience of 0.78 persons. Here is the link: Innovation Starvation

Here is another link (I archived it on my own tertiary blog): Innovation Starvation