YOU WERE BORN TO SNATCH AND KILL. WHY ASCEND FROM THAT BASIC FORM?

[Jeffersons Ghost]

After all, animal nature is a fine form in a society of covetousness, which constantly blooms into wanton greed. If it's not broken, don't fix it, right?

Forms are just as basic to Platonic philosophy as ascension is in the over-all scheme. While there is enormous temptation to launch into a self-righteous dissertation here, I'll take the advise of an old Navy pal and "spare you the literature."

Cut the chase and hush, Clarisse. You're no fragrant flower.

From your first primal breath, you've been snatching and grubbing for everything except what you need. Saying Peace is the goal sounds cornier than a Nebraska sheeply but truth can't be denied.

You can dig through every Neo-Platonist from Porphyry to Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and it all comes up the same. Will you choose to be Hannibal or Clarisse?

Pico merged Platonism and host of other ideas into a single system. Above all, Pico represents a very early Humanist. Before Pico's birth in 1463 CE, Humanism, which focused on relationships between humanity and the Divine, became a social force in Italy. In his Oration on the Dignity of Man, Pico states that you have “free choice and dignity, so you may fashion yourself into whatever form you choose. To you is granted power of degrading yourself into lower forms of life, like the beasts, and to you is granted power, contained in your intellect and judgment, to be reborn into higher forms, like the Divine." Almost a manifesto for the Renaissance, his speech affirms the importance of a human quest for enlightenment and inner peace.

Hannibal merges traits most people find reprehensible into a character that resembles Ali-Baba Bush and his forty thieves. Easily, we can relegate this riff-raff of humanity to Machiavellian realms but we drop the bombs, not Bush. By not raising signs and voices in protest, as tax dollars fund the atrocities, we not only allow it we commit the crime as surely as a good soldier following orders does.

And Clarisse, humanity sits teetering on the precipice of a Neo-Renaissance, with computers acting to ignite a spark of Divine Perfection innate within your higher form. Movable type combined with a wine-press fueled the last great evolutionary leap for humanity and frankly, my laptop blows that equipment away. Even if you insist on succumbing to your most basic instincts, the choice is ours. Can we mentally ascend?

Now, in the interest of enlightenment, ascension and a free-press, I'll offer my ultimate image for a religiously guarded Friday: Mohammed...

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oops...






Well okay, I didn't want to insult those folks anyhow. After all, there's about a billion and a half Muslims on the planet and they get real pissed over people succumbing to animistic desires for things like Western concepts of free press.


Don't hang your head because censorship is not your fault. You're on DU posting and kicking up ideals that serve not just you but humanity, right? At least we've ascended to that level, so have a Good Friday. But remember, even my small yellow dog can show pride. What is patriotism without the wonder of basic pride?

Let's ride into the Temple this day on a donkey, instead of an elephant. As we relinquish pride, why not enter the gate of High, Holy DC, with women by our side, like Jesus? Admittedly it was a revolutionary notion then and a woman for president is revolutionary now: but why not?

In the interest of enlightenment and free press, let's show the image of Jesus entering Jerusalem on Good Friday.


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opps...


Don't want to offend anyone...




Plato wrote on government, making it philosophically correct to offer imagery that condemns the very essence of decaying democracy he predicted, right?


In the interest of enlightenment, truth and the free-press our Constitution guarantees, why not present imagery that shows the results of spending $500 BILLION a year in borrowed money on defense?



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oops sorry...





I guess we better call off that Renaissance, classmates, because i just can't find imagery of dead men, women and children in Iraq. On our path to enlightenment through learning the truth we forgot to take the government grading curve into account.

HALLELUJAH, HAIL CAESAR AND HEIL HITLER! I FINALLY SEE THE LIGHT!

and welcome to the Dark-Ages. You weren't ready for a neo-Renaissance anyway, right?

[Terran1212]

1. To the fractured and sociologically unstable "Muslim World"

Religion is very important. There should not be overt attacks staged against it. I beleive in full freedom of speech and no legal barring or censorship of images, but it is unwise to try to be provocative.

You think this is equivalent to attacking Jesus or the Bible? Most Westerners don't care at all if those things are attacked because they are more apathetic or pluralistic or a combination of them both.

Muslims who don't even know where to find their next meal and are putting all their trust in God don't want to see some kind of hegemonic superpower that's already putting a gun to its head (the West) mocking the only thing they have left. It leads to an explosion.

But to be fair it was only a few thousand people each in countries that have tens of millions of people. The press gave them too much coverage and probably helped the riots grow.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

2. thank you for your wisdom... I'll take it into account

sorry you missed my point... did you read the thread that fast? and then type all that in? WOW!

on edit; try thinking for a minute before you throw the free-press out with the bathwater.

[jokerman93]

3. Wow JG!

You're really cranking 'em out lately!

Good stuff!

:applause:

[Jeffersons Ghost]

5. what bugs me is the imagery and words that disappear daily from the web

I challenge ANYONE to present the lyrics to Ballad of a Soldier by Leon Russell. You can believe it or not that post My Lia song was everywhere last week before the U.S. Govt. paid those Iraqis $2,500 a head for a similar event on a smaller scale.

[liberalitch]

4. Who says I have ascended?

[Jeffersons Ghost]

6. certainly not me.. perhaps re-read the OP more carefully

all it says is that you have a choice as to whether or not you raise yourself from beastly traits.

[liberalitch]

7. Alas.... it seems I've made my choice.....

liberalitch growls.... throws feces

[Jeffersons Ghost]

8. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA....

I truly found that post hillarious... thanks liberalitch

[Jeffersons Ghost]

9. Perhaps the true weakness in philosophy is its lofty ideals...

Why not just refine it into a personal approach that I wear like a freakish crown of thorns: Why ask what humanity can offer me, when my tax dollars offer so little to humanity.

Why worry about fixing my brother or sister, when I can't even fix myself?

Why attempt to control others, when I am devoid of self control?

Ask not what you can do for humanity, when you lack the guts to do anything for yourself.

I ask myself these questions, why can't those fuckers in DC, who have turned the Temple of Democracy into a whore, do the same?

i can still find this online. You better hurry and fix it Homeland Security Trolls.:

[Jeffersons Ghost]

10. a kick on my birthday, GOOD FRIDAY this year as I lament lost liberty

bye bye miss american pie...

fuck it... I'm headed for the coast before those record breaking hurricanes hit.

but in all my self-righteous indignation, I better remember that I ain't god yet and the republican ultra-rich elite better remember it too.

[jokerman93]

11. I ask myself those questions too

But a "freakish crown of thorns"? Not at all. That seems unnecessarily extreme. Perhaps the lofty ideals are the real strength of "philosophy". As I see it, we have them for a reason. They exist as images of the world toward which we move. Some days we have the guts we need; other times we lack everything we know we need most.

And yet we aspire. Hey, sometime we even live to crown those ideals in personal ways as well as politically/socially. Since when was success an all-or-nothing deal?

In the past, there've been many renaissances - rebirths of many kinds. There have been and there will be again. Isn't renaissance inevitable? We're human. We aspire. That's what we do and the strength of that is what finally gives us the power to co-exist with "the beast" un-cowed. And that's how we (humanity) manage to thrive nevertheless. Life finds a way. Always. (IMNSHO.)

As far as the fuckers in DC...man, they ARE us. And that tells me that we -unambiguously- have the power to change things. And no doubt we're doing that.

More or less,
:-)
J

[Jeffersons Ghost]

12. Not only do you get "IT" jokerman93, you reflect IT'S brilliance

No, I take that back...


It's as you say, we ARE the DC fuckers, just as you are the Ultimate Genius of Divinity, when you choose to be.

I'm not only honored but also awed.

Would you like to attend a D.C. Temple-clearng tomorrow? I have an extra :kick:

You'll see, I can emulate Jesus. The fundies asked for it and the teachings say, when they ask for the shirt off my back, offer my cloak. Christian ideals are heart-warming, while we're freezing my asses off but hey, what matters most is heating things up when we're Temple-clearing.

Do you wanna party tomorrow?

Of course, I'll present my usual sampling of peace-rally threads but you'll see the real party. Illumination is hard to ignore, while absurdly easy to resist.

I've got some extra donkeys to ride in on but Hannibul got all the elephants. Did you catch that sublty in the op? Well, they don't pay me for this crap, so let um read between the lines or lose it.

Whether I have a donkey or not, I can make an ass out of myself, while I make others take a long hard look about their choices.

[jokerman93]

19. Do you wanna party tomorrow?

I'm your huckleberry.

Preach it brother!

:evilgrin:

[MissMarple]

13. I just have to bump this, sweetheart.

Good points. :applause:

[Jeffersons Ghost]

14. thanks.. at midnight my time the party started... here's a Temple to clear

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x936193

[Neil Lisst]

15. yeah, this is just great! the world trembles at pissing off someone

it's 2006, and self-censorship is out of control

[Jeffersons Ghost]

16. I hope you didn't forget meeting a freakish ghost over a bowl of Plato

Mr Lisst... it's like the French Revolution around here... do you know the secret tin foil phrase, when it comes to Plato?

Mr List... if you fail, the secretary of state will disavow any knowledge of your actions because he's a nit-wit.

[Neil Lisst]

18. the Secy of State is a 95 pound lap dog named Condi

she's really resolving problems, isn't she?

she's a friggin' good will ambassador with no real authority

[Jeffersons Ghost]

17. while on the topic Mr Lisst

Under Senator McCarthy's tutelage, I'd like to direct DU's focus on one of the more subversive forms of media in need censoring in America today.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2567186

dangerous isn't it?