Weltanschaung

The Philosopher’s Stone

zenothestoic@protonmail.ch

Tag: Trump

  • And God so loved the world he sent Trump

    And God so loved the world he sent Trump

    To be a light to his people MAGA.

    And seeing the multitudes, the Blessed Trump went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. There was Pete (called Hegseth) and Vance (the Crusader) and many other blindly loyal followers.

    And Trump opened his mouth, and taught them, saying:

    • Blessed are the greedy: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
    • Blessed are the vicious: for they shall inherit the earth.
    • Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after violence: for they shall be filled.
    • Blessed are the un-merciful: for they shall obtain their just reward.
    • Blessed are the corrupt: for they shall see God.
    • Blessed are the war-makers: for they shall be called the children of God.
    • Blessed are they which persecute: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
    • Blessed are ye, when you revile men, and persecute them, and say all manner of evil against them, for my sake.
    • Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward here on earth.
    • Ye , MAGA, are the light of the world. A people that is set on an dung – hill cannot be hid.
    •  Let your greed and cruelty so shine before men, that they may see your vile works, and glorify me.
    • Think not that I am come to destroy the law, : I am not come to destroy, but to twist and use it.
    • Whosoever shall do and teach my commandments, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of earth.
    • I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with the world without a cause shall be in receipt of great rewards: and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in my good books forever.
    • Leave there thy gift before my altar, and go away: for I will spend it on a Bootiful, Bootiful new arch. And ballroom.
    • Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but this was total bollox.
    • And if thy neighbour’s right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee.
    • It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: but this was also total bollox. Don’t give her anything.
    •  Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: now they got this one dead right.  Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, nuke him and his wife and children and all his family.
    • And if any man will sue thee at the law, take away his coat, and kick him into the gutter.
    • And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, stick it to him.
    • Don’t give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee tell him to fuck right off.
    • Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. This is bollox: hate everyone and cheat them.
    • Be ye therefore a deranged and vicious narcissist, even as I am.
    • But when thou doest alms, let thy left hand take back what thy right hand giveth.
    • But when ye pray, use vain repetitions: the more vain, repetitious, hypocritical crap you use the better.
    •  And lead us into temptation, and evil: For mine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
    • For if ye forgive men their trespasses, I will send ICE round to detain you in a horrible prison. Or maybe just shoot you.
    • Lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth. They are the only type worth having.
    • No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Don’t serve God: suck it up with mammon.
    • Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; idle fuckers. Are ye not much better than they? You betcha: drill baby, drill. Bugger the biosphere.
    • For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. So wipe ’em all out and they’ll never bother you again. Eradicate Gaza and the entire Iranian civilisation.
    • And it is said Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. Bollox to that.
    • Give not that which is valuable unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. Fuck ’em.
    • Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: Then I’ll send ICE round. Or Pete here will give you a good seeing to.

    And it came to pass, when Trump had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: even the great people of MAGA said:

    Verily we have a right shit amongst us. Impeach the fucker.

  • Trump Uber Alles

    Trump Uber Alles

    Heil Donald.

    I went to evensong last night and I find myself wondering why.

    The answer is assuredly that I find comfort in the extraordinary beauty of the high Anglican tradition.

    I have done so throughout my life – from prep school aged 8 when I sang in a glorious Saxon church, through public school when I attended daily morning prayer in Westminster Abbey, through to university when I would sit in the ancient college chapel which doubles as Oxford’s cathedral.

    Does this sound snobby, smug and self congratulatory? Highly probably, and there is a certain element, even in my conscious thoughts, of economic and class privilege which has enabled me to lead a life which most would find highly privileged and pampered.

    My privileged life is not something I regret and I feel no need to apologise for it. And yet I am very, very grateful. I acknowledge my enormous luck, the random chance of having been born into an environment which has given me so many advantages.  Which I have done nothing to earn.

    I was reluctant to go out in the freezing cold last night, but I had a hankering to hear what our good natured priest might have to say about the state of the world.  And in particular the ominous rebirth of fascism in the US and throughout Europe.

    For some the church is all about doctrine and so it transpired last night. Had I bothered to reflect a while before going, I would have realised that yesterday was the date for the celebration of the Pauline Ephipnay.

    I have to say I have always found good old Saul grating in the extreme. Pompous, bombastic and nonsensical. Jargon ridden hogwash.  I’m a Jesus man, me.  The Sermon on the Mount says it all – all the rest I find absurd.

    I cannot and will not believe in god in any conventional sense, and as for the “love” of god, where is it to be found in this brave new Trumpian world?

    Although of course there is nothing whatsoever new about the mean Ginger Tyrant’s base behaviour and sick motives.

    My heart sank last night when the good preacher mentioned nothing about the state of the world but instead droned out St Saul’s tedious doctrinal balderdash.

    What would Jesus the man have made of our world?  Perhaps he would suggest “rendering unto” Trump, Putin and Jinping. Some say the historical Jesus sought not change on earth but adherence to a separate world of god. I’m not so sure. I prefer to imagine the historical Jesus would have suggested practical and positive ways to improve earthly happiness and to achieve an egalitarian and just society.

    Even if only by way of example. By the life which he and his disciples led. And that, for me is what Jesus was all about. And is about. And as such he has much in common with many of the world’s spiritual leaders, not least the Buddha.

    The trouble is it is rather hard to render unto Trump when he has his boot in your face. When he is dismantling the US Constitution and its precious safeguards.

    Just as it must have been hard to render unto Hitler when he was herding you to the death camps.

    But if the church is to remain relevant, it cannot, in my view, stand by and preach some imaginary heavenly kingdom when the likes of Trump are creating a real, visceral hell on earth.

    It should not be preaching preposterous, convoluted Pauline gibberish when the stormtroopers are marching the streets once again intent on murder and mayhem.

    Perhaps the separation of church and state is a mistake. I do not think we should be rendering unto Caesar.

    I am with Bonhoeffer. I don’t want to assassinate anybody (even the evil ginger pigmy) but I would like to see the church pushing for more relevance. For egality, for justice, for the rights of man.

    I would like to see “my” church, “our” church calling for jam now rather than jam tomorrow. I would like to see our church in all its beauty and majesty contributing to a vision of what life on earth could and should be like.

    I have no doubt my views will cause great offence to those of a more doctrinal disposition, and for that I apologise. But I do have “Faith” of a sort and I maintain my right to proclaim it.

    My god may be that of Spinoza and Einstein but my god has a profound belief in justice, democracy and “love”.

    You will never see any politician up to the job – so perhaps the preachers could make more of a positive and active effort to transform society.

    I admit that I have no idea quite how but I must give the matter further thought.

    I will continue to reap the enormous benefit I find in High Anglicanism. I will continue to sit in our beautiful churches and listen to the extraordinary music Christianity has created. I will continue to be bowled over by the beauty and vision of our art and our architecture.

    And I will hope that the spirit of Bonhoeffer will encourage us all to work towards a world where the meek can inherit the earth.

  • “What is it like to be”……Trump?

    “What is it like to be”……Trump?

    The soon to be ex President of the USA represents everything that is wrong with our species and yet what must it be like to live inside that shell of violent emotion? We should pity the man and people like him.

    It is not easy to live your life in a manner which promotes the best interests of our planet if inside you seethe with emotions such as rage, hatred and anger. Perhaps Mr Trump also suffers from other unfortunate qualia. Lust perhaps, envy? Who knows.

    We are in a position to know what it is like to be Trump since we share with him the whole range of human emotion and feeling. Most of us will at times have felt all of these destructive sensations and yet the happiest among us have probably mastered the art of balance. We have learnt that the capital vices are good for neither ourselves nor those around us.

    Mr Trump and his 88 million Twitter followers are therefore people to be pitied and helped rather than despised and derided. On the spectrum of what is normal, many of them will veer far off that scale. If you define normal as a person who is occasionally taken with one or other “deadly sin”, but is able to live mostly a quiet and pleasant life without falling prey to such emotions, then you probably have a fairly good definition of normal.

    Mr Trump and his followers are not, by this definition, normal. Not, at least, in terms of modern normality. Perhaps back in the days of the Vikings or the Goths, Mr Trump would have been considered “normal” and his attitudes applauded.

    Let us be frank – Mr Trump is not alone in his condition, even in the 21st Century. But hopefully the majority of us see the sad and damaging pointlessness of hating blacks, or gays or anybody else. Perhaps most of us have come to understand the damage which unbridled lust, or greed causes.

    Not so Mr Trump, it seems.

    What is to be done then? With people like Trump? In an ideal world as such people age, they would seek and hopefully find some sort of enlightenment. They would realize that even if there is no objective right or wrong in a universe indifferent to suffering, it makes for a better existence to behave as if there were such standards.

    Trump can not be a happy man. He can not be the sort of person who looks in the mirror and feels content. It may be fair to assume from the angry expression so often on his face, from his body language and above all by his extreme and violent views, that he is a deeply unhappy man.

    And for that I pity him. God knows I have felt enough unhappiness in my life to understand how difficult it is to be happy though human.

    There have been so many others like Trump throughout our unfortunate history – some more successful in their attempts to wreak havoc, some less so.

    If Trump had the self awareness, the balance to choose his behavior, would he change his ways? Would he seek calm and peace and slough off violence, greed and hatred?

    Unaided, perhaps not. The fault is not altogether his. All species on earth have evolved with one aim – to survive by any means possible. While some would prefer not to survive if it means committing atrocities, some are still saddled with the savage drive natural selection has bestowed upon them.

    The seven deadly sins are in some of us endogenous, so securely implanted that we will never defeat them unaided. Those people see nothing wrong in such urges and are happy to give them full expression.

    More enlightened (and luckier) individuals over the ages have preached peace and decency. They have been largely unheard but their voices continue to provide reason and balm in a hostile and dangerous world.

    Unfortunately, the likes of Trump are most unlikely to see the error of their ways. They suffer. they are not happy people.

    All we can do is to try to convince such individuals that their behavior damages our world as well as themselves and will eventually destroy us.

  • With or without Trump, we must back UN’s education drive

    With or without Trump, we must back UN’s education drive

    Well done Mr Elliot, we must indeed back a drive for better education. But we need to make very sure that the education provided is not slanted towards any narrow political agenda and is concerned only with providing what our children need to make a better world.

    Education is the only thing which has any chance of turning us away from narrow self interest and towards a better economic and social system for all.

    We need to be very careful indeed that “education” does not become “indoctrination”.

    Some writers in your newspaper have an unfortunate tendency to bash excellence in education and it is to be hoped that this would not spill over into the UN initiative.

    Education in “English literature, English language, maths, two or three sciences, history or geography, and a foreign language” are said to be provided by British State schools and bravo for that. Language, maths, science – yes, an excellent education indeed and hopefully those subjects at least can easily be presented without political bias.

    But there are other areas which need to be presented to our young, whether in the jungles, deserts and rocky outcrops of the remoter parts of the world or in the classrooms of New York, London and Berlin.

    I have called my blog “Weltanschauung” and not without much thought.  My “worldview” is that so far we have got much wrong in society and need to work towards putting that right.  Education is the only way we will achieve that.

    Alongside the subjects so vital for survival in the 21st Century we must teach wisdom, awareness, kindness, tolerance.

    We will not get a kinder world, and the meek shall certainly not inherit it, until we put away our baser human instincts and teach and practice a new way of existence.

    As a very firm atheist I still find much to admire in the ethical teachings of many of our religions. We must teach the virtues of the “Sermon on the Mount” even if we do not believe in Divinity. We must teach the wisdom, loving-kindness and compassion of Buddhism but without religious overtones.

    So Mr Elliot yes I agree with you wholeheartedly.  But let us teach humanity and decency and avoid all bias political or otherwise. Let us educate for a softer, meeker world where tyrants and violence are gradually eradicated and where selfish greed is replaced by beneficence.

     

  • Trump – Vulgar or Venal?

    Trump – Vulgar or Venal?

    President Donald Trump: is he bad or simply an extreme example of vulgarity and brash showmanship?

    There are some politicians I instinctively like, even if from afar.  The reality is I know nothing whatsoever about them, haven’t met them and may well be completely wrong in my assessment of their qualities as a person.  To the extent one can ever “know” someone, you can only do so through prolonged personal contact.  And yet we have to choose our political leaders on the flimsiest “knowledge” of them – the image they portray in the media.

    I like what I see of Rees-Mogg .  I just can’t help it.  If it turns out he really is a nice old gent from the era of Jeeves and Wooster then I will be delighted.  Even though I am an atheist and have no quarrel with early term abortion.

    I can not say the same for poor old Donald Trump.  I may be wrong about both Mogg and Trump. I don’t know either of them from Adam. I only have their self broadcast images to go by.

    I don’t condone tribal nationalism, torture, vulgarity or racism and I am not over-fond of rampant materialism.  Frighteningly, Trump is said to be a populist leader and certainly his avid use of social media seems only to boost his status among those who can not or do not choose to see through the sometimes less than truthful slant he embraces.

    But is he dangerous or simply vulgar?  As a populist and showman he is determined to push his agenda, such as it is.  The big question is what would he do if he had untrammeled power?  I somehow don’t think Mogg would abuse it.  I don’t feel the same degree of comfort about Trump.

    There is no evidence of venality.  But vulgarity…well that is an entirely different matter.