tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4917494492495819584.post1249427278276820820..comments2023-08-03T07:27:04.314-04:00Comments on The Ascent of Humanity: The BrotherhoodCharles Eisensteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09537299105835446336noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4917494492495819584.post-43896351605452859032011-01-20T14:49:27.726-05:002011-01-20T14:49:27.726-05:00Winston is right, and I echo his sentiment. I thi...Winston is right, and I echo his sentiment. I think that it is unfortunate that you seek to twist the very simple message in Orwell's books to promote a state he warned against. What happens if humanity ascends as you predict? I'm sure that you and your ilk, as early members of the sodality (interesting choice of words by the way), will see yourselves as more equal than everyone else.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4917494492495819584.post-59233840906063359612010-05-02T20:23:13.776-04:002010-05-02T20:23:13.776-04:00I haven't read 1984 since I was a teenager jus...I haven't read 1984 since I was a teenager just out of High School (back when I had my more secular-humanist, postmodern liberal attitudes). I'm 22 now. <br />However this entry, Charles, has helped me really notice something about people's perceptions of "wrong" and "bad" - and my own aswell - that I hadn't really thought about too in-depth before.<br /><br />I still have yet to be fully able to articulate them, though, haha.Giveadonthttp://giveadont.livejournal.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4917494492495819584.post-78480756012039761432009-06-10T16:57:47.172-04:002009-06-10T16:57:47.172-04:00Charles,
Well said.
Anon 1:07's comment made ...Charles,<br />Well said. <br />Anon 1:07's comment made my skin crawl... I could tell within a few sentences that a rigid ideologue was writing. Here's a screamer:<br />"The tyrannies and totalizing systems Orwell decried do not emerge from western civilization: they grow out of resistance to it."<br /><br />Wow! Western Civilization is synonymous with freedom. What a howler - as if totalitarianism itself wasn't a product of Westeran thought and Platonism gone to its logical conclusion: the perfect form, the perfectly structured, all-controlling state.<br /><br />Keep up the good work, Charles... I only discovered your writings recently. I'm glad I did.Jacob Gitteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10559764359800682222noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4917494492495819584.post-16910020475599874352009-01-17T18:27:00.000-05:002009-01-17T18:27:00.000-05:00Thank you, Charles, for this wonderfully reflectiv...Thank you, Charles, for this wonderfully reflective and thought provoking piece. I agree that Big Brother and the Party represent the Program of Control in general, and yes, we DO have a choice. We can allow our souls to be crushed in despair, or we can focus our attention on creating The More Beautiful World in the endless stream of singular moments of our lives. The vision I hold for humanity is breathtaking; it thrills me to see you share it. Being a part of its creation, even in the most simple of ways, is what inspires me to take the next breath, and the next, and the next.<BR/><BR/>An ally in the Brotherhood,<BR/>Stevie StonehengeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4917494492495819584.post-87524361745938824652008-12-08T18:54:00.000-05:002008-12-08T18:54:00.000-05:00This is beautiful:)Thank you.dennis gaudetThis is beautiful:)<BR/>Thank you.<BR/>dennis gaudetAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4917494492495819584.post-31134166776710827362008-11-13T13:07:00.000-05:002008-11-13T13:07:00.000-05:00In fact, the Orwellian state and "Big Brother" rep...In fact, the Orwellian state and "Big Brother" represents a rejection of western liberal civilization, and its core tenets. This is the central feature of totalitarian systems, and Orwell spent his life trying to point this out. Your analysis does a disservice to Orwell, in that you extend the analysis far past the intended point. The tyrannies and totalizing systems Orwell decried do not emerge from western civilization: they grow out of resistance to it. In a great many ways you may never quite grasp (though I hope you do), you're closer to Big Brother than you think. Stop looking outside your philosophy for clues to interpreting Orwell. There is no mystery to his style or his message. For you, his writings are a mirror. If you can glean this, and take it to heart, you may at last understand what George Orwell is trying to tell you. The thought path you are on leads to the "Orwellian" state. On this, old George was unequivocal.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4917494492495819584.post-38049858288739870892008-10-22T00:04:00.000-04:002008-10-22T00:04:00.000-04:00I've read 1984 a few times myself. First I thought...I've read 1984 a few times myself. First I thought he was talking about Stalinist Russia. Then I thought he was talking about postwar Britain. A friend of mine (who turned out to be schizophrenic) used to rave about how we were living in 1984 ... I told him he was crazy, of course. Well, who's crazy now?<BR/><BR/>I've often wondered if schizophrenics don't have a firmer grasp on reality than we credit them with.psychegramhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11914887999856166297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4917494492495819584.post-50700430759958880282008-10-16T19:17:00.000-04:002008-10-16T19:17:00.000-04:00I see it as the illusion of free will – that even ...I see it as the illusion of free will – that even if we know a thing is futile and has already been weighed and measured, we act blindly, as if we make a difference. By the act of rolling the dice in a game we know is fixed, we change the game – even if we know this could not possibly be true.<BR/>If you feel this way, nothing matters but the truth of it, and at the core of our understanding you find you are the way you are and do the things you do, because in the end, as we carve our names among the dead with words, that’s all that matters.<BR/>Of course, schizophrenics are just as sure of this as I am, but that’s different?Mike Bradyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05926952562355237548noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4917494492495819584.post-64618310477528227382008-10-13T17:20:00.000-04:002008-10-13T17:20:00.000-04:00We don't know if the time is now or not. We can, h...We don't know if the time is now or not. We can, however, act as if it is (or not). And thus make it so.<BR/><BR/>Believing that we are powerless is just that, a belief. The only thing that makes money more important than people, relationships, honoring each other and our environment is our belief that it is so. <BR/><BR/>We can not eat money, can not buy happiness, love, friendship. The money system just crashed and is being reloaded, at the expense of the only real resource in that system: our time/life/effort energy.<BR/><BR/>Obviously this structure works for the money manipulators but not quite for the rest of us.<BR/><BR/>Now, in the middle of all this, what are we doing?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4917494492495819584.post-91807303977173732862008-09-19T23:38:00.000-04:002008-09-19T23:38:00.000-04:00I thought of posting this under the Herbs heading,...I thought of posting this under the Herbs heading, but then decided it was more appropriate here. Even Western medicine is not impervious to progress and enlightenment. James Gordon, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, has written <I>Unstuck -- Your Guide to the Seven-Stage Journey Out of Depression</I>. In the book, he explores Eastern and Western spiritual traditions in finding ways beyond depression and Dark Nights of the Soul. He even says he works with Chinese herbs and prescribes antidepressants only as a last resort. I couldn't help wondering what David Foster Wallace's life might have been like if he had known of such alternatives to antidepressants and had had a compassionate practitioner skilled in such healing arts. One article reported he had taken antidepressants for twenty years and had undergone electroshock "treatment" last summer. I hope he finds respite and renewal in the hereafter, and soul healing that eludes so many in the HERE and NOW when darkness leads to despair. <BR/><BR/>Here is an interesting podcast with James Gordon, MD:<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=weblog&wlid=9&id=497&cn=15" REL="nofollow"><BR/>mentalhelp</A><BR/><BR/><BR/>Ursus MaritimusAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4917494492495819584.post-56882534685549950252008-08-29T01:55:00.000-04:002008-08-29T01:55:00.000-04:00"The things we admire in men, kindness and generos..."The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest -- sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest -- are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first, they love the produce of the second." -- John Steinbeck, Cannery RowAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4917494492495819584.post-75829405916119861912008-08-28T04:03:00.000-04:002008-08-28T04:03:00.000-04:00Brave New World's Room 101Rx for rats in a bottle....Brave New World's Room 101<BR/><BR/>Rx for rats in a bottle. <BR/><BR/>John Breeding for freedom, truth and love. <BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.wildestcolts.com/adhd/book.shtml" REL="nofollow"><BR/>wildestcolts</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com