The Contest of Angels

“The Will of God prevails.”

ALLEN C. GUELZO: 

Lincoln is working out on paper his own problem, his own difficulty. 

This is Lincoln's own agony and sweat over the ultimate question, 

"What is The Will of God in this crisis?"

“In Great Contests, each party claims to act in accordance with The Will of God. 

Both may be, one must be, WRONG. 

God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. 

I am almost ready to say that this is probably True, that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet, by his mere quiet power on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the union without a human contest. 

Yet the contest began. And having begun, he could give the final victory to either side any day. 

Yet the contest proceeds.

Man, it feels good to be Home….

Meet Grady, a 29-year-old construction worker.

After coming home from a hard day's work,

he walks in the door of his trailer park home : to find His Wife 

in bed — with another man

What the FUCK?!?

Superman Red 

Superman Blue

Eminem - Guilty Conscience (Official Music Video) ft. Dr. Dre

Alright, calm down, relax, start breathin'

Fuck that shit, you just caught this bitch cheatin'

While you at work, she's with some dude tryna get off

Fuck slittin' her throat, cut this bitch's head off!!

Wait, what if there's an explanation for this shit?

What, she tripped, fell, landed on his dick?

Tsh, alright, Shady, maybe he's right, Grady.

But think about the baby before you get all crazy

Okay, thought about it? 

Still wanna stab her?

Grab her by the throat, 

get your daughter and kidnap her?

That's what I did,

 be smart, don't be a retard

You gonna take advice from somebody who slapped Dee Barnes?

What you say?

What's wrong? Didn't think I'd remember?

I'ma kill you, motherfucker

Uh-uh, temper, temper —

Mr. Dre, Mr. NWA, Mr. AK

Comin' straight outta Compton, y'all better make way — 

How in the fuck you gonna tell this man not to be violent?

'Cause he don't need to go the same route that I went —

Been there, done that…

Aw, fuck it, what am I sayin'?

Shoot 'em both, Grady, where's your gun at?

Lord of all, we bow before thee 

All on Earth thy scepter claim 

All in heaven above adore thee Infinite thy vast domain 

Everlasting is thy reign 

Infinite thy vast domain 

Everlasting is thy reign 

Be seated. 

What do you do when 

You're Not Sure? 

That's The Topic of 

My Sermon today. 

Last year when President Kennedy was assassinated, 

who among us did not experience 

the most profound 

Disorientation? Despair? 

Which way? What now? 

What do I say to my kids? 

What do I tell myself? 

It was a time of people sitting together, 

bound together by a common feeling of Hopelessness. 

But think of that. 

Your Bond with 

Your Fellow Being 

was Your Despair. 

It was a public experience. 

It was awful, but We were 

in it together. 

How much worse is it then for the lone man, 

the lone woman, stricken by a private calamity? 

"No one knows I'm sick. " 

"No one knows I've lost my last real friend. " 

"No one knows I've done something wrong. " 

Imagine the isolation. 

Now you see The World as through A Window. 

On one side of the glass, happy untroubled people, 

and on the other side, you. 

God bless you, Sister.

Thank you. 

I wanna tell you a story. 

A cargo ship sank one night. 

It caught fire and went down, 

and only this one sailor survived. 

He found a lifeboat, rigged a sail, 

and being of a nautical discipline 

turned his eyes to the heavens 

and read the stars. 

He set a course for his home, 

and, exhausted, fell asleep. 

Just keeps going on. 

Clouds rolled in, and for the next 20 nights, 

he could no longer see the stars. 

He thought he was on course, 

but there was no way to be certain. 

And as the days rolled on, 

and the sailor wasted away, 

he began to have doubts. 

He just keeps on going. 

Had he set his course right? 

Was he still going on towards his home? 

Or was he horribly lost 

and doomed to a terrible death? 

No way to know. 

The message of the constellations, 

had he imagined it because of his desperate circumstance? 

Or had he seen Truth once... 

Straighten up! 

... and now had to hold on to it 

without further reassurance? 

There are those of you in church today 

who know exactly 

the crisis of faith I describe, 

and I wanna say to you, 

Doubt can be a bond 

as powerful and sustaining as Certainty. 

When you are Lost, 

You are Not Alone. 

In the name of the Father, 

The Son and The Holy Ghost. 

Amen. Please rise. 

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow Praise him all creatures here...

Hey, Father. 

Hey, champ. 

That was some sermon. 

Did it mean something to you? 

I wanna do that. I wanna be a priest. 

You'd be a good one, I'm sure. Here. 

Take a look. See? 

She's dancing. Kind of neat? 

Yeah. Here. You try. 

That's for you. Take it. 

Thank you, Father. 

Welcome. 

Like Noah's Ark, girls. Two by two. 

Maryanne said it. - Let's do it together. Okay. - Yeah. It's true. And did I tell you that Jessica's having a sleepover on Saturday? Morning, Sister James. Good morning, Father Flynn. Beautiful day. Not too bad. How're the criminals doing today? - Not bad, Father. - Good, Father. - Morning, champ. - Morning, Father Flynn. You wash those hands today, Mr. London? I washed them, Father. I don't know. They're a different color than your neck. Morning. - Morning, Father Flynn. - Sister, are we having the test today? - Get in line. Tomorrow, William. - Is it long division? - Among other things. Sister. - Good morning, Sister. - How much of it will be long division? - Boy! William London. Come up here. Come smartly, now. Don't make me wait. What did he do? - He touched Sister James. The dragon is hungry. You don't touch a nun. Take out your history books, please. Turn to page 683. - Yes, Ralph. - I forgot my history book. You can look on with Raymond. Mr. London? - Do you have your history book? - No, Sister. - Share with Mr. Malloy, please. - Do I have to? His breath stinks! I'm sure Mr. Malloy's breath is just fine. Be seated. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32nd president of the United States. That barrette out of your hair, Miss Horan. Yes, Sister. Morning, Sister James. Continue. Franklin D. Roosevelt, together with Abraham Lincoln and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was perhaps our greatest president. When he assumed office, 13 million people in this country were unemployed. They'd lost hope, and President Roosevelt said to these people, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." What did he mean by that? James? I think he was trying to say there's nothing really wrong. - You know? So don't get so emotional. - Maybe. Maybe he was saying that the world is good and we need only work together to overcome our problems. What's this, Mr. Conroy? I don't know, Sister. You don't know you have a wire coming out of your ear? - No. - Huh? Huh? No, Sister. I didn't. You come with me, boy. Go. Who knows what the New Deal was? The first noel The angels did say Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay I love this song. In fields where they lay keeping their sheep On a cold winter's night that was so deep This past Sunday, what do you think that sermon was about? Sister James? Huh? What was Father Flynn's sermon about? Well, doubt. He was talking about doubt. - Why? - Excuse me, Sister? Well, sermons come from somewhere, don't they? Is Father Flynn in doubt? Is he concerned that someone else is in doubt? I suppose you'd have to ask him. No, that would not be appropriate. He is my superior, and if he were troubled he should confess it to a fellow priest or to the monsignor. We do not share intimate information with priests. - No. - That's true. What are we saying? I want you all to be alert. I am concerned, perhaps needlessly, about matters in St. Nicholas School. Academically? I was not inviting a guessing game, Sister Raymond.

We Hold.

“Our glacial days of digital perennialism place us in a constant ‘now’ without ever really being present, and icons are torn apart. 

No sooner does A Hero rise than He or She is exposed as A Hypocrite — Malcolm X was a rent boy, Gandhi had some odd nocturnal habits and even Che, the obligatory teen portal into rebellious sentience, was a Homophobic MURDERER. 

Too MUCH Information.

The iconoclasm of our omniscient but omni-dumb days unweaves the carpets that we may have walked upon and leaves us in the wasteland of the ‘only Human’.”

Excerpt From

Mentors

Russell Brand

“If I say, ‘Well, Jimmy isn’t Perfect,’ I will ultimately use the ordinary details of Human Fallibility to impair My Own Progress.

Sometimes when I am making an incredible fuss over some minor piece of bullshit, when I am contemplating leaping out of my car like a slender James Gandolfini to confront someone at a traffic light, I think: ‘Wow, there are Men who call me up for advice and here I am, unable to contend with normal emotions – what A Fraud I am.’ 

But this is not the case, my all too evident flaws do not prevent me being a successful mentor as long as these relationships are correctly BOUNDED. 

All of the people I mentor understand the nature of this dynamic, its benefits and its limitations. They know that The Method I Use is Verified and Ancient. 

They know that I want nothing FROM them, that My Only Intention is to HELP them; I don’t want Money, Prestige or Power from them. 

These are Men Like Me, Men that have turned to Drugs and Sex to cope with the absence of a Spiritual Dimension to Their Life — who in the abscence of loving guides have improvised philosophies from their primal urges and crazy circumstances. 

When They NEED Me,

I am not The Fool 

at The Traffic Lights, 

I am The Man 

They Need Me to Be.

Once I called Jim when he was about to take his seat at the theatre or something that meant there was little in the way of small talk, and though I was quietly frantic he dispatched insights like sharp, quick darts, for all I know while buying a box of Maltesers. 

Perhaps Young Men like Me go awry because nobody can hold them. I don’t mean embrace, I mean in a parental sense, like (parentheses), to ‘bracket’ them, to stand as a dam either side of the wayward lash and unmovingly emit Care. 

The only Authority I ever knew was Negative. Either Inefficient or Corrupt. This is the consequence of living with false ideals in a Materialistic Society. 

The Authority that I give to Jimmy is SACRED, I know he is flawed but I am not consulting with the flawed part of him, I am consulting with the part of him that is willing in spite of his own numerous obligations, work, and family to provide loving counsel for free. 

I believe this relationship becomes a conduit for Truth, Divine Truth. 

That needn’t mean it’s all chocolates and roses. There’s a fair amount of ‘suck it up’ and ‘face your fear’, but it is Truth. Perhaps we can take Truth to mean The Timeless, The Universal. Things that will not erode and fade, qualities I need to live the life I have moved into.

How does someone who has never been A Father become one? 

How do any of us progress beyond our temporary limits? 

The Potential Person we can Become hums in an invisible grid Within and Without us. 

A Genius may actuate by intuition but all of us need Heroes, Role Models and Mentors, that we may see what is possible, living mandalas to lock onto as we inhale and expand into new states.”

Excerpt From

Mentors

Russell Brand

Effort

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 

together with 

Abraham Lincoln 

and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 

was perhaps Our Greatest President. 

When he assumed office, 

13 million people in this country were unemployed. 

They'd lost Hope, 

and President Roosevelt 

said to these people, 

"The only thing we have to fear is Fear Itself." 

 

What did he mean by that? 

James? 

 

I think he was trying to say

"There's nothing really wrong."  You know? 

So "Don't Get So Emotional."

 

Maybe. 

Maybe he was saying that 

The World is Good and 

We Need Only Work Together 

to overcome Our Problems.

I am certain that My Fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels. 

 

This is preeminently the time to Speak The Truth, The Whole Truth, Frankly and Boldly. 

 

Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. 

 

This Great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. 

 

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is : Fear Itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified Terror which paralyzes Needed Efforts to convert Retreat into Advance. 

In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.

More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.

Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.

Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.

Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.

Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly.

Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people's money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.

There are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the several States.

Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment.

The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in all parts of the United States--a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest assurance that the recovery will endure.

In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor--the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others-- the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.

If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good. This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife.

With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.

Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations.

It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.

I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.

But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis--broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.

For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less.

We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stem performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life.

We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.

In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.

Evil

evil (adj.)

Old English yfel (Kentish evel) "bad, vicious, ill, wicked," from Proto-Germanic *ubilaz (source also of Old Saxon ubil, Old Frisian and Middle Dutch evel, Dutch euvel, Old High German ubil, German übel, Gothic ubils), from PIE *upelo-, from root *wap- "bad, evil" (source also of Hittite huwapp- "evil").

In Old English and other older Germanic languages other than Scandinavian, "this word is the most comprehensive adjectival expression of disapproval, dislike or disparagement" [OED]. 

Evil was the word the Anglo-Saxons used where we would use bad, cruel, unskillful, defective (adj.), or harm (n.), crime, misfortune, disease (n.). In Middle English, Bad took the wider range of senses and Evil began to focus on moral Badness. 

Both words have good as their opposite. 

Evil-favored (1520s) meant "ugly." 

Evilchild is attested as an English surname from 13c.

The adverb is Old English yfele, originally of words or speech. Also as a noun in Old English, "what is bad; sin, wickedness; anything that causes injury, morally or physically." Especially of a malady or disease from c. 1200. 

The meaning "extreme moral wickedness" was one of the senses of the Old English noun, but it did not become established as the main sense of the modern word until 18c.

As a noun, Middle English also had evilty. 

Related: Evilly. Evil eye (Latin oculus malus) was Old English eage yfel. The jocular notion of An Evil Twin as an excuse for regrettable deeds is by 1986, American English, from an old motif in mythology.

evil (n.)

"anything that causes injury, anything that harms or is likely to harm; a malady or disease; conduct contrary to standards of morals or righteousness," Old English yfel (see evil (adj.)).

Entries related to evil

bad, evildoer, ill

LECTER :

Oh, Clarice, 

Your Problem is that 

you need to get 

more Fun out of Life.

Clarice :

You were Telling me The Truth 

back in Baltimore, sir.

Please continue now.

I've read the case files. 

LECTER :

Have you?

Everything You Need to find him 

is right there in those pages.

Clarice :

Then Tell Me How.

LECTER :

First Principles, Clarice.

Simplicity.

Read Marcus Aurelius :

"Of each Particular Thing, ask, 

'What is it in Itself?'

‘What is its Nature?’

What Does He Do, 

This “Man” you seek?

Clarice :

He Kills Women.

LECTER :

NO, That is Incidental.

What is The First 

and Principal 

Thing He Does?

What NEEDS

Does He Serve 

by Killing?

Clarice :

Anger.

Um. . . Social Acceptance 

and, um, Sexual Frustration, sir.

LECTER :

No. He COVETS.

That is His Nature.

And how do We 

Begin to Covet,

 Clarice?

Do We seek out 

Things to Covet?

Make an Effort to Answer Now.

Clarice :

No. We just.... No. 

LECTER :

We begin by coveting 

What We See Every Day.

Don't you feel eyes moving over Your Body, Clarice?

And don't YOUR eyes seek out 

The Things You Want?

Clarice :

All right, yes. 

Now please tell me how.

LECTER :

NO.

It is Your Turn 

to Tell Me, Clarice.

You don't have 

any more vacations to sell.

Why did you leave that ranch?

Clarice :

Doctor, we don't have any more time for any of this now.

LECTER :

But we don't RECKON time The Same Way, 

do we, Clarice?

This is all the time you'll ever have.

Clarice :

Later. Now, please, Listen to Me.

We've only got five -

LECTER :

NO! I Will Listen NOW.

  EVIL AND GOD

 DR JOAD'S ARTICLE ON `GOD AND EVIL' LAST WEEK' SUGgests the interesting conclusion that since neither `mechanism' nor `emergent evolution' will hold water, we must choose in the long run between some Monotheistic Philosophy, like the Christian, and some such Dualism as that of the Zoroastrians. 

I agree with Dr Joad in rejecting mechanism and emergent evolution. Mechanism, like all materialist systems, breaks down at the problem of knowledge. If thought is the undesigned and irrelevant product of cerebral motions, what reason have we to trust it? As for emergent evolution, if anyone insists on using the word God to mean `whatever the universe happens to be going to do next', of course we cannot prevent him. But nobody would in fact so use it unless he had a secret belief that what is coming next will be an improvement. Such a belief, besides being unwarranted, presents peculiar difficulties to an emergent evolutionist. If things can improve, this means that there must be some absolute standard of good above and outside the cosmic process to which that process can approximate. There is no sense in talking of `becoming better' if better means simply `what we are becoming' - it is like congratulating yourself on reaching your destination and defining destination as `the place you have reached'. Mellontolatry, or the worship of the future, is a fuddled religion.We are left then to choose between monotheism and dualism - between a single, good, almighty source of being, and two equal, uncreated, antagonistic Powers, one good and the other bad. Dr Joad suggests that the latter view stands to gain from the `new urgency' of the fact of evil. But what new urgency? Evil may seem more urgent to us than it did to the Victorian philosophers - favoured members of the happiest class in the happiest country in the world at the world's happiest period. But it is no more urgent for us than for the great majority of monotheists all down the ages. The classic expositions of the doctrine that the world's miseries are compatible with its creation and guidance by a wholly good Being come from Boethius waiting in prison to be beaten to death and from St Augustine meditating on the sack of Rome. The present state of the world is normal; it was the last century that was the abnormality.This drives us to ask why so many generations rejected Dualism. Not, assuredly, because they were unfamiliar with suffering; and not because its obvious prima facie plausibility escaped them. It is more likely that they 'saw its two fatal difficulties, the one metaphysical, and the other moral.The metaphysical difficulty is this. The two Powers, the good and the evil, do not explain each other. Neither Ormuzd nor Ahriman can claim to be the Ultimate. More ultimate than either of them is the inexplicable fact of their being there together. Neither of them chose this tete-a-tete. Each of them, therefore, is conditioned - finds himself willy-nilly in a situation; and either that situation itself, or some unknown force which produced that situation, is the real Ultimate. Dualism has not yet reached the ground of being. You cannot accept two conditioned and mutually independent beings as the selfgrounded, self-comprehending Absolute. On the level of picture-thinking this difficulty is symbolised by our inability to think of Ormuzd and Ahriman without smuggling in the idea of a common space in which they can be together and thus confessing that we are not yet dealing with the source of the universe but only with two members contained in it. Dualism is a truncated metaphysic.The moral difficulty is that Dualism gives evil a positive, substantive, self-consistent nature, like that of good. If this were true, if Ahriman existed in his own right no less than Ormuzd, what could we mean by calling Ormuzd good except that we happened to prefer him. In what sense can the one party be said to be right and the other wrong? If evil has the same kind of reality as good, the same autonomy and completeness, our allegiance to good becomes the arbitrarily chosen loyalty of a partisan. A sound theory of value demands something different. It demands that good should be original and evil a mere perversion; that good should be the tree and evil the ivy; that good should be able to see all round evil (as when sane men understand lunacy) while evil cannot retaliate in kind; that good should be able to exist on its own while evil requires the good on which it is parasitic in order to continue its parasitic existence.The consequences of neglecting this are serious. It means believing that bad men like badness as such, in the same way in which good men like goodness. At first this denial of any common nature between us and our enemies seems gratifying. We call them fiends and feel that we need not forgive them. But, in reality, along with the power to forgive, we have lost the power to condemn. If a taste for cruelty and a taste for kindness were equally ultimate and basic, by what common standard could the one reprove the other? In reality, cruelty does not come from desiring evil as such, but from perverted sexuality, inordinate resentment, or lawless ambition and avarice. That is precisely why it can be judged and condemned from the standpoint of innocent sexuality, righteous anger, and ordinate acquisitiveness. The master can correct a boy's sums because they are blunders in arithmetic - in the same arithmetic which he does and does better. If they were not even attempts at arithmetic - if they were not in the arithmetical world at all - they could not be arithmetical mistakes.Good and evil, then, are not on all fours. Badness is not even bad in the same way in which goodness is good. Ormuzd and Ahriman cannot be equals. In the long run, Ormuzd must be original and Ahriman derivative. The first hazy idea of devil must, if we begin to think, be analysed into the more precise ideas of `fallen' and `rebel' angel. But only in the long run. Christianity can go much further with the Dualist than Dr Joad's article seems to suggest. There was never any question of tracing all evil to man; in fact, the New Testament has a good deal more to say about dark superhuman powers than about the fall of Adam. As far as this world is concerned, a Christian can share most of the Zoroastrian outlook; we all live between the `fell, incensed points'2 of Michael and Satan. The difference between the Christian and the Dualist is that the Christian thinks one stage further and sees that if Michael is really in the right and Satan really in the wrong this must mean that they stand in two different relations to somebody or something far further back, to the ultimate ground of reality itself. All this, of course, has been watered down in modern times by the theologians who are afraid of `mythology', but those who are prepared to reinstate Ormuzd and Ahriman are presumably not squeamish on that score.Dualism can be a manly creed. In the Norse form ('The giants will beat the gods in the end, but I am on the side of the gods') it is nobler by many degrees than most philosophies of the moment. But it is only a half-way house. Thinking along these lines you can avoid Monotheism, and remain a Dualist, only by refusing to follow your thoughts home. To revive Dualism would be a real step backwards and a bad omen (though not the worst possible) for civilization.


The Empty Chair

Capt. James T. KIRK: 

You know, maybe this is less about an empty house than 

That Empty Chair 

on The Bridge of The Enterprise. 

Ever since I left Starfleet I haven't made a difference. ...

Captain of The Enterprise, huh?


Capt. Jean-Luc PICARD: 

That's right.


Capt. James T. KIRK: 

Close to retirement?


Capt. Jean-Luc PICARD: 

I'm not planning on it.


Capt. James T. KIRK: 

Let me tell you something : Don't! 

Don't let them promote you. 

Don't let them transfer you. 

Don't let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, 

because while you're there, 

you can make A Difference.


Capt. Jean-Luc PICARD: 

Come back with me. 

Help me stop Soran. 

Make A Difference again.


Capt. James T. KIRK : 

Who am I to argue with the Captain of The Enterprise? ...

What's the name of that planet, ...Veridian Three?


Capt. Jean-Luc PICARD: 

Yes.


Capt. James T. KIRK : 

I take it the odds are against us, and the situation is grim?


Capt. Jean-Luc PICARD: 

You could say that.


Capt. James T. KIRK : 

You know if Spock were here, 

he'd say I was an irrational, 

illogical human being 

for taking on a mission like that. 

...Sounds like fun.

Every System is Vulnerable to Empathy

David :

I don't believe that any System 

is totally secure.

I bet you Jim could get in.

Melvin :

I bet you he couldn't.

David :

I bet you he could.

Jim :

You'll never get in through frontline security, 

but you might look for a back door.

Melvin :

I can't believe it, Jim!

That girl standing over there listening 

and you tell him about our back door?

Jim :

Mr. Potato Head! 

Back doors are NOT secrets!

Melvin :

Yeah, but you're giving away 

all our best tricks.

Jim :

They're not TRICKS.

What's a back door?

Jim :

Well, whenever I Design A System, 

I always put in 

a simple password 

that only I know about. 

That way, whenever I want to get 

back in, I can bypass whatever 

security they've added on.

That's basically what it is.

David :

Yeah?

Jim :

You really want to get in, 

find out as much as you can about 

The Guy Who Designed The System.

David :

Come on, I don't even know 

The Guy's name.

Melvin :

Boy, are you guys dumb. 

You guys are so dumb.

I got this thing all figured. 

I figured it out all by myself.

Jim :

Oh, yeah, Melvin? 

How would you do it?

Melvin : 

The FIRST Game on The List.

Go right through 

Falken's Maze.

Down

“I think that this is something that is opening for the first time - 

I think when I was younger, the mood for Men often involved Ascension.... 

I mean, that’s a heavy suggestion of Christ, with Ascension. 

And in the 60s, as you know, with Higher Consciousness 

and ‘Head’ material, was very strong.

So, it seems to me that the attempt to become a Man by ascending 

has not worked somehow.

And the movement I found valuable in my own life 

was the attempt to go down 

into certain Earth-energies or Sorrows, also. 

And only recently have I begun to associate that descent with also 

a descent into Childhood, 

and into the Sufferings and Loneliness of Childhood.” 

— Robert Bly.

Richie “Trashmouth” Tozier :

I should go back there. 

I just fucking left them in the lurch, man. 

I should go back there.

What the fuck are you talking about? Fuck that.

Fuck them.

I got dates in fucking Reno, man.

Stanley Uris,

Aged 13 :

Reflecting on the meaning of what I just read, 

the word "Leshanot" comes up a lot, which means 

"to change, to transform."

Which makes sense, I guess, 

because today I'm supposed to become A Man.

It's funny, though.

Everyone, I think, has some memories they're prouder of than others, right?

And maybe that's why Change is so scary.

'Cause the things we wish 

we could leave behind...

Good morning, Mike. 

How you doing?

...the whispers we wish 

we could silence...

His pa is the one. 

The one that set that fire.

...the nightmares we most want to wake up from,

the memories we wish we could change, 

the secrets we feel like we have to keep

are the hardest to walk away from.

The Good Stuff?

The pictures in our mind 

that fade away the fastest?

Those pieces of you 

it feels the easiest to lose.

Maybe I don't want to forget.

Maybe if that's what today is all about — forget it, right?

Richie “Trashmouth” Tozier :

Thank you, Stanley.

Stanley Uris,

Aged 13 :

Today, I'm supposed to become a man, 

but I don't feel any different.

I know I'm A Loser.

And no matter what, 

I always fucking will be.

Richie “Trashmouth” Tozier :

Thanks for showing up, Stanley.