Political Philosophy: 2012

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Philosophers are Kings

The society we have described can never grow into a reality or see the light of day, and there will be no end to the troubles of states, or indeed, my dear Glaucon, of humanity itself, till philosophers are kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands, while the many natures now content to follow either to the exclusion of the other are forcibly debarred from doing so. This is what I have hesitated to say so long, knowing what a paradox it would sound; for it is not easy to see that there is no other road to happiness, either for society or the individual. (Plato, Republic)

It dawned on me just this morning that it is not about kings taking a community course in philosophy but rather we, the people - the true sovereigns of this world taking the path of loving wisdom and gaining the good life in the process.
Rather simple really.

Saturday, September 01, 2012

Does God like to pray?

If for us the people praying is a way to communicate with God then for God prayer must be a way to communicate with us. I can say that because i believe we are created in God's image and if that is so then possibly the good parts of us are the Godly parts - in other worlds the true unadulterated image of God and I believe prayer is one of those things.

It would be impossible to know if God likes prayer in general but I can personally say that in my particular case the answer is - yes.

I feel good about it and so should God.

But what is the point in that.

Does God ask us to do certain things as we tend to do in our prayers.

Or does God simply pray may thou will be done.

I believe that is what God does and that is scary.

It's easy for us to pray for God's will to be done safely assuming it will be good for us but that is an illusion.

If God set us free because God loves us even in our stupidity it is prudent to assume that God will make our deepest wishes come true without judging them if they are good or bad.

That means that God not only makes our dreams and most elevated yearnings come true but our nightmares and basest urges too.

Be careful what you wish for.

Because your will will be done.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Pussy Riot vs Putin 1-0

Vladimir Lenin defeated capitalism.

Vladimir Putin - Pussy Riot.

And that is the man who Sarah Palin was secretly ogling from her Governor’s mansion in Alaska whole he was horsing around half naked or otherwise posing.

We, the men are disappointed.

Always on the look out for our next hero, with Clint Eastwood growing old and David Beckham falling pray to a Spice Girl we were expecting His KGB Fearsomeness Vladimir P. to parry the Pussy Riot challenge with James Bond elegance. But it seems the girls knew exactly what they were doing. They didin't damage Mr. P.'s credibility (if he ever had any) - they provoked him into revealing his insecurity and that of his inner circlie.
Sorry Sarah - you misjudged him.

The biggest threat to Vladimir's authority is not Madonna's support for Pussy Riot but his own insecurity.

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Thoughts from PD

The first face of God is love expressed in life.

The second face of God is wisdom expressed in the light of knowledge

The third face of God is the truth expressed in freedom

Wisdom is the world of the outer divine forms weaved by love.

Love is the essence and wisdom represents the forms of the harmony that flow into music and poetry.

Wisdom is the world that contains from times immemorial all things that God has created all things that the higher powers have created and all things that people have created on Earth. That is why this world is accessible to us. From this world comes all true and essential knowledge.

Strive towards the light and don’t forget that knowledge doesn’t come from one place only and that light doesn’t enter only through one particular window.

Invest wisdom in your mind so the light can come and the knowledge to give you its power.

Only the enlightened path of wisdom leads to the truth. Without being good you cannot attain any knowledge.

All knowledge starts with learning what is good.

There is no love without wisdom and no wisdom without love.

If a thought comes to you bringing joy, peace and light you can be certain it comes from above – from the divine world. If it brings confusion, sadness, darkness, fear, worry and uneasiness it comes from the underworld.

Reason is the harmony between love and wisdom.

Thought is concentrated love. Light is concentrated thought.

Give freedom to your thought. I call freedom only that which can free you from life's adversities. Only then you are free. If you have an idea but it doesn't set you free – you don't need that idea. You need a philosophy that can free you from your life's adversities and contradictions in which you can find an explanation of the inner laws of life.

Wisdom is the source of hope. If you don't have hope – you cannot achieve anything. Hope is the foundation of health and without health you only suffer. Hope gives you direction in the physical world.

Love is the foundation of life that creates faith and faith is the source of intelligence. Intelligence is the foundation of a life that gives us the ability to know God.

Tell me what you think>

Sunday, January 01, 2012

The Strait of Hormuz between Allah and Mammon

The Ayatollahs: Allah, Petrol and the Great Satan

The last weeks brought a seemingly incoherent actions by the Iranian dictators. First they threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, next they invite international inspectors to play the game of cat and mouse with the Iranian nuclear program and its suspected military aspects.

What could be the reason for such inconsistent behavior. Either stick it up to the man (the USA, the Western world and the world public opinion) or meekly accept their superiority and do as they say. It would be difficult to divine supernatural causes because I would expect an omnipotent and omniscient God to inspire consistency. So if it is not Allah it must be the Great Satan who can be blamed for the wavering of the faithful.

That has certain logic behind it. The United States have hurt the international transactions of Iranian banks by imposing sanctions on them and have paraded an aircraft carrier near the narrow straight which is so important for international oil trade although not affecting particularly US oil imports which come mainly from other sources.

So if not God or the Great Satan who can be the culprit? The last suspect is Mammon. The Ayatollahs are not so worried about things divine or they would have defied the Great Satan but more about things pecuniary. That is why it is easy for them to continue with the military posturing – they know that the US is no position politically, military or financially to sustain another war (and Iran is a much more dangerous adversary than Saddam's Iraq or Afghanistan) and on the other hand the rulers of Tehran wouldn't risk their earthly positions in a war with the USA too because the fate of Saddam, Milosevic and Gaddafi is not something to be desired. On the other hand it turns out that petrol has become the US main export. So both countries US and Iran (actually even Russia) will benefit from a rise in the price of petrol and certain military posturing won't hurt (especially bearing in mind that the US military are facing painful cuts and need an excuse to boost the perception that the bloated defense budget is still needed).

Nuclear weapons are something else althogether. The USA has demonstrated with Saddam that this pretext can be used easily for an intervention that is why the Ayatollahs invite international monitors to preempt such a possibility.

That makes them quite clever and decisive and not inconsistent at all. They need a foreign enemy to scare the ignorant part of their subjects into submission (the Arab spring was preceded by the demonstrations against voting irregularities in Persia, now Russia has the same problems but more about that later).

Unfortunately it looks like it's not Allah or other high ethical principle or enlightened idea that motivates them and the Americans but petty business interest which could be not bad if it leads to good results but higher price of petrol is a good result only for those who trade in it and for the rest of us remains the hope to manage to save enough for an electric car to be able to travel further than the natural limitations of a bicycle.

There could be one good consequence of all this – expensive gas leading to less pollution.

Links:

Political Philosophy

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Philosophers are Kings

Saturday, September 01, 2012

Does God like to pray?

Monday, August 20, 2012

Pussy Riot vs Putin 1-0

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Thoughts from PD

Sunday, January 01, 2012

The Strait of Hormuz between Allah and Mammon

U.S., EU Rebuff Iran's Hormuz Passing Threat | New Middle East News

Iran plans missile tests near Strait of Hormuz | World | DAWN.COM

Iranian missile spin closes Hormuz for five hours | MELCHIZEDEK ...

Iran backs off threat to close oil strait | News24

Iran Delays Missile Test & Suggests Talks - War On Terror News

THE BIBLE BLOG | Blog | Strait talking: Iran gets tough as US fleet ...

Iran - Press TV

Britannia Radio

BBC News -Iran denies test-firing long-range missiles in Gulf

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