ORP: HG Creel's "Confucius, The Man and the Myth" part 1

The book begins with the social conditions in China at the time of Confucius' birth and childhood (about 2500 years ago):

 "Centralized government had broken down. The feudal lords acknowledged only nominal allegiance to the king. Yet they could not be called independent, for some of them were no more than puppets in the hands of their own swashbuckling underlings. Public and private wars raged unchecked. There was very little law and order save what each man could enforce by his own right arm, his armed followers, or his powers of intrigue. Even the greatest noble could not be sure that he would not be ruined and perhaps assassinated. The position of the common people was tragic. Whoever won the wars, they lost. Even when there was peace they had no security, for they had no power. They were virtual pawns of the aristocrats, whose principal interests had come to be hunting, war, and extravagant living. To pay for these pastimes they taxed the people beyond what the traffic could bear, and suppressed all protest ruthlessly."

--from "Confucius: The Man and the Myth" by H.G. Creel

Speculative philosophy: Julian Jaynes on the imperialistic takeover of the American continents

"It is possible that it was one of the few confrontations between subjective and bicameral minds, that for things as unfamiliar as Inca Atahualpa was confronted with--these rough, milk-skinned men with hair drooling from their chins instead of from their scalps so that their heads looked upside down, clothed in metal, with avertive eyes, riding strange llama-like creatures with silver hoofs, having arrived like gods in gigantic huampus tiered like Mochian temples over the sea which to the Inca was unsailable--that for all this there were no bicameral voices coming from the sun, or from the golden statues of Cusco in their dazzling towers. Not subjectively conscious, unable to deceive or to narratize out the deception of others, the Inca and his lords were captured like helpless automatons. And as its people mechanically watched, this shipload of subjective men stripped the gold sheating from the holy city, melted down its golden images and all the treasures of the Golden Enclosure, its fields of golden corn with stems and leaves all cunningly wrought in gold, murdered its living god and his princes, raped its unprotesting women, and, narratizing their Spanish futures, sailed away with the yellow metal into the subjective conscious value system from which they had come."

ORP: Latest reading and self study plans, misc. personal

Since I am trying desperately to liquidate my debt in anticipation of near future US economy woes, I cannot take classes at my local college or university. I am engaging in self study of history, literature, and some psychology and science. This has the advantage in that I get to choose some really interesting books that are not normally assigned in a class, and I get to tailor the knowledge acquisition to fill in the specific gaps in my mind. The disadvantage of self study is that all the credential worshipers in our society will have no regard for my efforts, so no credit in university unless I can find a CLEP exam that applies--I'll chronicle this experience when and if I have the opportunity.

Along with the self study plan (organized in a quarter system to mirror the local colleges--also gets me used to study at certain times), I am embarking on a fairly comprehensive survey of science fiction literature in rough chronological order starting with the early twentieth century. I am a fan of Jules Verne, so I'll include some reading from the nineteenth century as well. As I was listing many of the titles in preparation for this survey, I noticed many books that I had read in middle school and high school. I read so many in those years (primarily for escapism) that I had forgotten how many I had consumed. As I make my way through these many works of pulp to space opera to hard s.f. to literary science fiction, I will be experiencing some interesting mental experiences as my current operating memory synchronizes with my sub-conscious.

I will try to make a few blog entries about all this, and I will get back to George Orwell when I get to the twentieth century in my history survey. After a few years of this, I will start taking some accredited classes at the local community college to get my lower division requirements completed. When I get to the science and mathematics, I'll be sure to take the time to make some entries that actually relate to Natural Philosophy.

For now,

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ORP: True Sociology: Herbert Spencer readings

After reading a short pamphlet by the author called "The Right to Ignore the State", I have moved on to this next book:

 The Man Versus the State by Herbert Spencer

Though this collection encompasses essays from 150 to 130 years ago concerning the consequences of State interference in society, the parallels in the loss of liberty for the individual and the growth of the over-weaning State in 19th century England are eerily similar to what has happened to us in the 20th century (and continuing in the early 21st) in America.

Miseries are compounded and progress in technical and social development was slowed and stopped then and now by that great evil called the State, thus this book is still relevant to all of us today who value liberty.

After this I hope to move on to the author's book entitled "Social Statics". I have yet to read the author's three volume series on sociology, as it is out of print and quite expensive to acquire (some libraries have the volumes in the reference stacks, but one needs time and access). If I have time, I will comment on "Social Statics" here in a future entry.

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ORP: GO: Burmese Days, et al

I've been busy with all manner of personal family difficulties, so I've not had the inclination or time to make any intelligent entries. (For ephemeral stuff like the on-going loss of liberty and various other atrocities of statism, I have been on Facebook.) For now, here is a review of one of several books I have just finished reading:

Burmese Days, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Coming Up for Air by George Orwell


This book is a three novel collection of (to some) the lesser known novels of Orwell.

Burmese Days:

I found "Burmese Days" interesting for the attitude of the English, in the last part of their Empire phase, toward their subject peoples. If the reality in history was as bad as the characters portrayed in the novel, George was right to criticize and show us this, warts and all.

I liked the story for the poignant account of the protagonist's loneliness and desire for soul-mate companionship that he thinks can be fulfilled in Elizabeth. He is mistaken about the reciprocity of his love or desire, because Elizabeth just doesn't get it. Here is a passage that describes all this:

"'I said just now that I loved you. Love! The word's been used till it's meaningless. But let me try to explain. This afternoon when you were shooting with me, I thought, my God! here at last is somebody who can share my life with me, but really share it, really live it with me--do you see--'

He was going to ask her to marry him--indeed, he had intended to ask her without more delay. But the words were not spoken yet; instead, he found himself talking egoistically on and on. He could not help it. It was so important that she should understand something of what his life in this country had been; that she should grasp the nature of the loneliness that he wanted her to nullify. And it was so devilishly difficult to explain. It is devilish to suffer from a pain that is all but nameless. Blessed are they who are stricken only with classifiable diseases! Blessed are the poor, the sick, the crossed in love, for at least other people know what is the matter with them and will listen to their belly-achings with sympathy. But who that has not suffered it understands the pain of exile? Elizabeth watched him as he moved to and fro, in and out of the pool of moonlight that turned silk coat to silver. Her heart was still knocking from the kiss, and yet her thoughts wandered as he talked. Was he going to ask her to marry him? He was being slow about it! She was dimly aware that he was saying something about loneliness. Ah, of course! He was telling her about the loneliness she would have to put up with in the jungle, when they were married. He needn't have troubled. Perhaps you did get rather lonely in the jungle sometimes? Miles from everywhere, no cinemas, no dances, no one but each other to talk to, nothing to do in the evenings except read--rather a bore, that. Still, you could have a gramophone. What a difference it would make when those new portable radio sets got out to Burma! She was about to say this when he added:

'Have I made myself at all clear to you? Have you got some picture of the life we live here? The foreignness, the solitude, the melancholy! Foreign trees, foreign flowers, foreign landscapes, foreign faces. It's all as alien as a different planet. But do you see--and it's this that I so want you to understand--do you see, it mightn't be so bad living on a different planet, it might even be the most interesting thing imaginable, if you had even one person to share it with. One person who could see it with eyes something like your own. This country's been a kind of solitary hell to me--it's so to most of us--and yet I tell you it could be a paradise if one weren't alone. Does all this seem quite meaningless?'"

Keep the Aspidistra Flying (update 1):

I just finished the second novel, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, and I give it four stars because of the unlikeable main character, but the whole critique of society (English, of the time) was brilliant. This novel is where Orwell is channeling Dickens and James Joyce at the same time. So far the volume still gets high marks for the interesting way that the author writes.

Coming Up for Air (update 2):

I didn't know what to expect when I began this novel. At first it came across as a critique of the petit bourgeoisie, but now that I have finished the story, as I write this update, I find it to be a poignant history of a typical Englishman (warts and all) during the rapid change in society from the Victorian era to the current (of the time-1930s) brutal, soulless age. It shows also how easily we are constrained and compromised in any thought of liberty by the banality and pettiness of life.

Even Orwell's unsavory characters still come across as truly human. I recommend this collection of novels not for the sake of some nice twisty plot or some such innovation, but for the character studies. As character studies, they come across as metaphors for the soul of England as a nation (and by extension, the soul all of us). There is something for everyone in these three novels. For all these reasons, it gets four stars.
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At another Terran norm system, just outside of the spaceport, ...

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Mad Russian at the beginning of 2013

My fiftieth birthday present is this set of glasses.