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pluralThere is a lovely story in Sanskrit
about a frog that is born in a well and stays in the well
and lives it entire life in the well
it has a world view that consists of that well
if you ask the frog
it is content, happy even
but what happens when you expand that world view however slightly?
once the frog is aware that more exists beyond the well
it is no longer content to stay within the well
the well once sufficient, once everything to that frog
is made insufficient by knowledge alone
the character of the well has not changed
it provides no less sustenance
it provides no less security
it provides no less pleasure
than it did previously
yet the well is less
through no fault of its own
but still
it remains less
think of the pet lizard
held in a glass aquarium
it has everything it needs
food, water, warmth
but still
it will risk literally life and limb
to explore beyond the glass walls
of the aquarium
why is this?
Why would the lizard, the frog so instinctively, so brashly rail against all biological constructs
to risk life and limb to escape the lush garden provided to it?
the answer is simple
however lush, however sufficient
the aquarium is a cage, a prison
and even the lowly lizard will instinctively seek freedom
and that is merely the response of a non-thinking creature
how much more so with one of us
a human
The Garden of Eden was not the Paradise
it was a prison with lush walls
No matter how lush the prison
no matter how perfect the construct
a human cannot remain in such a place
because while there is no suffering
there is no risk in such a place
there is also no hope
and to me
and to me
What fresh hell is this?
What was the Serpent's crime?
That devil's trick
One bite from the fruit of the tree of knowledge
POOF
and like that, it is gone
and even God with all his power
could not keep Eden in all its glory
from being reduced to a prison
but as Eden was a prison after consuming knowledge
and as like the well the essential character was unchanged
Then we can only know Eden was always a prison
and God sought to keep us there
in the dark, in the bliss that is ignorance
What better definition of oppression is there?
Than to keep someone imprisoned, and ignorant
That they will never realize the truth of their condition?
Before Eden there was only one sin
Knowledge
God is the plantation owner
who fears his slaves learning to read
God is the great white oppressor
limiting your mind to control your spirit
God is the petulant child
flushing his unruly pets down the drain
to live secret furtive lives in the sewer
So what then is the Serpent?
Corrupter? Betrayer? Liberator?
Sympathetic ear?
Remember well
that it was God who cast us out of Eden
yet we curse the Serpent for our exile
It was God who imprisoned us
yet we curse the Serpent for betraying us
and like our holy father before us
we act with petulance
irrationally seeking to go back to that safe place
we had before
to close our minds off
to refuse new knowledge
to retain our ignorance
and each of us
seeking to recreate god in our own image
seeking to recreate ourselves in gods image
repeat this process
We carve out little edens, prisons of contentment
four lush walls carved from the finest planks of denial
We stick our heads in the sand
Seeking to hold on to that bliss
God on one side telling you to accept, telling you to be content
The Serpent on the other, urging you seek, to strive, to find and not to yield
God says risk nothing, accept little and be glad for it
The Serpent shouts to risk everything, find passion and be challenged
The Serpent is the poem, a dream made flesh
All the potential of the world
Take away the names
what do we have?
Someone who wants to hold you back
Someone who wants to see you reach for your dreams
The first offers unreasonable caution, risk nothing to lose nothing
The latter offer unreasonable risk, risk everything to gain everything
The question becomes
Is it better to not try and not fail
or
to try and surely fail
I have tried
I have failed
I have been to Babylon
have tasted the waters of defeat
I have been to Eden
have tasted the fruit
of her tree of knowledge
not the apple full of seed
but the peach nestled
between those succulent thighs
at the core of knowledge
the pit of the peach if you will, is truth
and like the peach pit, truth is poisonous
It is better to try and fail
and from that to know pain
that it may define the joy
and deliver meaning
than to try nothing
and succeed at nothing
thereby accomplishing nothing
and be ignorant of your own misery.
it is this poison God fears
this light of truth
because the unspoken truth
is that his ever gilded lie
is rendered false by simple entropy
the only constant is that nothing remains constant
everything changes
everything grows or everything dies
The Serpent is honest but frightening
You have nothing, you can only seek something
you can never possess it, not entirely
but maybe
just maybe the pursuit is the joy of it
the wild ride
the passionate kiss
the embattled embrace of a long nights lovemaking
these are things that cannot be owned
can not be stored safe and secure
nay, each and every day
you must go out and obtain them fresh
for they cannot survive the second dawn
look at yourself
you know what you want
you know what you desire
but still you are afraid
still you shackle yourself to security
but love is in the leaping
I think you should jump
You can't have them both
He can't be both
and neither can I
neither will I.
Beauty, Passion, Lust,
Inspiration, Knowledge, Freedom
are not things to be possessed
to be locked in a box safely
no
they are raging torrents
waves to be ridden
your fingers begging for purchase
never quite able to hold on
That is your choice
The devil who loves you
and
The god who neglects you
but go ahead, be content
be secure
be safe
accumulate tokens and possessions
symbols of the happiness you once aspired to
convince yourself that if only god neglected you
a little bit less
it would be enough
lie to yourself
betray yourself
tell yourself
you don't want the raging torrent
you don't need the turbulent passion
go
read your dreams on those pages
to be lived out by hands other than yours
to be loved by hearts other than yours
the choice is yours
all I can do is love you regardless
and weep for what you could have been
Having experienced the rush of love unbridled
of passion unrelentingly breaching my soul
I cannot accept ordinary,
I cannot accept flaccid life
I cannot accept flaccid love
so I choose the Serpent
My soul cannot regain it innocence, its ignorance
I have seen too many high peaks to be contented with the plateau
seen too many dark chasms to be afraid of the valleys
so I choose the Serpent
Life is my addiction
Never will I stop seeking the next fix
and my children will be like gods
raised without the poison of God's fear
to be contemptuous of contentment
God soothes the soul
provides the peace
hush little child don't say a word
papa's going to buy you a mocking bird
God promises
stability without value
Love without passion
The safety of a gilded cage
from which you may sing
and sing well precious birdie
perhaps then you won't notice
that your heart is already broken
you fear your heart breaking
you are in denial
your heart is already broken
you just refuse to see it
but when the wind blows
the cradle will rock
and when the bough breaks
the cradle will fall
and down with come baby, cradle and all
The bible thumpers have it all wrong
It is the Serpent who is the purist.
God is the consumerist whore.
These are not the times of the Devil
Nay not at all, God wins this fight
and we are all lessened by it
Stories of sin? Lists of commandments?
Falsehood and misdirection
The only true sin remains the same
Knowledge
The same as it ever was
The same as it ever was
Look around us, the enlightenment is over
Peace, Tranquility, Security, Tyranny rule the day
God has won this round
Selling false security of material joys and limited dreams
You don't sell you soul for that IKEA sofa with the broad print stripes
no
you sell your soul for the dream of it.
trading all that you possess
for the security of a dream that can be easily met.
That is the path of God
Oppression, stagnation, contentment
Ignorance, surrender, hopelessness
If all that is true
What defense does the Serpent require?
Save perhaps to say
I am not God.
about a frog that is born in a well and stays in the well
and lives it entire life in the well
it has a world view that consists of that well
if you ask the frog
it is content, happy even
but what happens when you expand that world view however slightly?
once the frog is aware that more exists beyond the well
it is no longer content to stay within the well
the well once sufficient, once everything to that frog
is made insufficient by knowledge alone
the character of the well has not changed
it provides no less sustenance
it provides no less security
it provides no less pleasure
than it did previously
yet the well is less
through no fault of its own
but still
it remains less
think of the pet lizard
held in a glass aquarium
it has everything it needs
food, water, warmth
but still
it will risk literally life and limb
to explore beyond the glass walls
of the aquarium
why is this?
Why would the lizard, the frog so instinctively, so brashly rail against all biological constructs
to risk life and limb to escape the lush garden provided to it?
the answer is simple
however lush, however sufficient
the aquarium is a cage, a prison
and even the lowly lizard will instinctively seek freedom
and that is merely the response of a non-thinking creature
how much more so with one of us
a human
The Garden of Eden was not the Paradise
it was a prison with lush walls
No matter how lush the prison
no matter how perfect the construct
a human cannot remain in such a place
because while there is no suffering
there is no risk in such a place
there is also no hope
and to me
and to me
What fresh hell is this?
What was the Serpent's crime?
That devil's trick
One bite from the fruit of the tree of knowledge
POOF
and like that, it is gone
and even God with all his power
could not keep Eden in all its glory
from being reduced to a prison
but as Eden was a prison after consuming knowledge
and as like the well the essential character was unchanged
Then we can only know Eden was always a prison
and God sought to keep us there
in the dark, in the bliss that is ignorance
What better definition of oppression is there?
Than to keep someone imprisoned, and ignorant
That they will never realize the truth of their condition?
Before Eden there was only one sin
Knowledge
God is the plantation owner
who fears his slaves learning to read
God is the great white oppressor
limiting your mind to control your spirit
God is the petulant child
flushing his unruly pets down the drain
to live secret furtive lives in the sewer
So what then is the Serpent?
Corrupter? Betrayer? Liberator?
Sympathetic ear?
Remember well
that it was God who cast us out of Eden
yet we curse the Serpent for our exile
It was God who imprisoned us
yet we curse the Serpent for betraying us
and like our holy father before us
we act with petulance
irrationally seeking to go back to that safe place
we had before
to close our minds off
to refuse new knowledge
to retain our ignorance
and each of us
seeking to recreate god in our own image
seeking to recreate ourselves in gods image
repeat this process
We carve out little edens, prisons of contentment
four lush walls carved from the finest planks of denial
We stick our heads in the sand
Seeking to hold on to that bliss
God on one side telling you to accept, telling you to be content
The Serpent on the other, urging you seek, to strive, to find and not to yield
God says risk nothing, accept little and be glad for it
The Serpent shouts to risk everything, find passion and be challenged
The Serpent is the poem, a dream made flesh
All the potential of the world
Take away the names
what do we have?
Someone who wants to hold you back
Someone who wants to see you reach for your dreams
The first offers unreasonable caution, risk nothing to lose nothing
The latter offer unreasonable risk, risk everything to gain everything
The question becomes
Is it better to not try and not fail
or
to try and surely fail
I have tried
I have failed
I have been to Babylon
have tasted the waters of defeat
I have been to Eden
have tasted the fruit
of her tree of knowledge
not the apple full of seed
but the peach nestled
between those succulent thighs
at the core of knowledge
the pit of the peach if you will, is truth
and like the peach pit, truth is poisonous
It is better to try and fail
and from that to know pain
that it may define the joy
and deliver meaning
than to try nothing
and succeed at nothing
thereby accomplishing nothing
and be ignorant of your own misery.
it is this poison God fears
this light of truth
because the unspoken truth
is that his ever gilded lie
is rendered false by simple entropy
the only constant is that nothing remains constant
everything changes
everything grows or everything dies
The Serpent is honest but frightening
You have nothing, you can only seek something
you can never possess it, not entirely
but maybe
just maybe the pursuit is the joy of it
the wild ride
the passionate kiss
the embattled embrace of a long nights lovemaking
these are things that cannot be owned
can not be stored safe and secure
nay, each and every day
you must go out and obtain them fresh
for they cannot survive the second dawn
look at yourself
you know what you want
you know what you desire
but still you are afraid
still you shackle yourself to security
but love is in the leaping
I think you should jump
You can't have them both
He can't be both
and neither can I
neither will I.
Beauty, Passion, Lust,
Inspiration, Knowledge, Freedom
are not things to be possessed
to be locked in a box safely
no
they are raging torrents
waves to be ridden
your fingers begging for purchase
never quite able to hold on
That is your choice
The devil who loves you
and
The god who neglects you
but go ahead, be content
be secure
be safe
accumulate tokens and possessions
symbols of the happiness you once aspired to
convince yourself that if only god neglected you
a little bit less
it would be enough
lie to yourself
betray yourself
tell yourself
you don't want the raging torrent
you don't need the turbulent passion
go
read your dreams on those pages
to be lived out by hands other than yours
to be loved by hearts other than yours
the choice is yours
all I can do is love you regardless
and weep for what you could have been
Having experienced the rush of love unbridled
of passion unrelentingly breaching my soul
I cannot accept ordinary,
I cannot accept flaccid life
I cannot accept flaccid love
so I choose the Serpent
My soul cannot regain it innocence, its ignorance
I have seen too many high peaks to be contented with the plateau
seen too many dark chasms to be afraid of the valleys
so I choose the Serpent
Life is my addiction
Never will I stop seeking the next fix
and my children will be like gods
raised without the poison of God's fear
to be contemptuous of contentment
God soothes the soul
provides the peace
hush little child don't say a word
papa's going to buy you a mocking bird
God promises
stability without value
Love without passion
The safety of a gilded cage
from which you may sing
and sing well precious birdie
perhaps then you won't notice
that your heart is already broken
you fear your heart breaking
you are in denial
your heart is already broken
you just refuse to see it
but when the wind blows
the cradle will rock
and when the bough breaks
the cradle will fall
and down with come baby, cradle and all
The bible thumpers have it all wrong
It is the Serpent who is the purist.
God is the consumerist whore.
These are not the times of the Devil
Nay not at all, God wins this fight
and we are all lessened by it
Stories of sin? Lists of commandments?
Falsehood and misdirection
The only true sin remains the same
Knowledge
The same as it ever was
The same as it ever was
Look around us, the enlightenment is over
Peace, Tranquility, Security, Tyranny rule the day
God has won this round
Selling false security of material joys and limited dreams
You don't sell you soul for that IKEA sofa with the broad print stripes
no
you sell your soul for the dream of it.
trading all that you possess
for the security of a dream that can be easily met.
That is the path of God
Oppression, stagnation, contentment
Ignorance, surrender, hopelessness
If all that is true
What defense does the Serpent require?
Save perhaps to say
I am not God.
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-27 11:51 am (UTC)To me it's important to make an effort to help overcome the ill effects of those with bad luck. Of course this is open to interpretation... A junky would have you believe his string of bad luck in becoming a junky, and then running out of money can only be overcome by giving him dough to buy more. Alternately someone who isn't a junky is faced with:
1) Is this truly a random event... didn't he choose a path that lead him here? A counter arguement to this of course is, who has real choice when life is an endless mocovian string of random events each of which may depend on some number of pervious events...
2) Is providing him with the means for more dope actually helpful?
1), of course for me is a non-starter, which would leave me with 2)... Again, MY 'choices' in the matter to make a decison are based on an endless string of random events, some of which are so completely horrifying, I'd give him shit, and would help him only if he asked me to find him a clinic. But this is MY decision, MY 'choices' based on MY experiences...
Again, I'm sure you're wondering about the point... Your argument as I see it is based upon 1) God is sentient, and knowing, 2) you have a choice, and 3) it's in YOUR nature alone to be 'of the devil'...
I've tried address 1) in the first post, 2) in my previous point, and here goes 3):
At some point in time there existed a theological movement (in this country for sure, I'm not sure about others) that rested on the notion that it is in man's nature to be of the devil. It's in his nature to be wicked, and only through religion is it possible to stem the tide of that which he is made to do... The orginal sin made us (that would be men) do what we want, so why fight it. Your notion isn't new or original, in fact it's like 100 years old.
But it's also complete poppy cock as far as I'm concerned. People aren't driven to do anything... they follow their 'dick' the dick that is born of countless random events that form their notions. Some can fall into a model that seems sensible at the time, but ends up being not quite a good idea.
As a side argument consider this:
1) Suppose God did give us the original sin... Couldn't this also be akin to teaching a child to use a gun? Sure the child can kill, but can he really form a revolution or form a government? Both of which can't be possible without the ability to kill. My point here is, to be more, you must do more.
2) The orginal sin isn't unique to Judeo-Christian teachings... think Pandora's box.
3) It's in man's nature to destruct. Consider the lyrics of the dead kennedy's riot, in particular:
Now you can smash all the windows that you want
All you really need are some friends and a rock
Throwing a brick never felt so damn good
Smash more glass
Scream with a laugh
And wallow with the crowds
Watch them kicking peoples' ass
Yes, we've unleashed original sin, and it feels good, but
But you get to the place
Where the real slavedrivers live
It's walled off by the riot squad
Aiming guns right at your head
So you turn right around
And play right into their hands
And set your own neighbourhood
Burning to the ground instead
There is rarely a point as you never really have a 'chance' as you really never have a choice... why?
Shotguns prod into your bellies
The trigger fingers want an excuse
Now the raging mob has lost its nerve
There's more of us but who goes first
No one dares to cross the line
There's more of us, but who goes first? Everyone, I mean EVERYONE acts in their own best interests, and as such EVERYONE thinks they are right... they know it, they can prove it... but who is really? In the end for me it comes down to this: any chump can have a grand time destroying things, it takes an artist to have a good time making things better.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-27 07:56 pm (UTC)It isn't original sin or intrinsic nature that I am questioning here.
I am not arguing that god created us with original sin, in fact, I'm arguing that the original sin was a moral requirement. Not in so much as it frees us to act however we choose or without regard for others, but rather a question of roles.
The choice between creative chaos and stagnant order.
It isn't that god is at fault for creating within us the original sin, for I reject that it was a sin, rather it was that god sought to keep us stagnated and imprisoned in Eden.
Look at most any religion, the core message is sit down, shut up, be happy for what you have and don't rock the boat.
I am not arguing for the disregarding of morality here, only that false sense of limitation that religion seems so often to bring.
Sure we should act with kindness, care and morality, but why does that mean sacrificing our dreams, accepting less than we deserve, to slurp at the fount of mediocrity?
I'm going to end this here as I have work to do and I want to write a follow up post to this one which I hope will be more clear.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-27 08:07 pm (UTC)Again, I'm drawn to pandora's box as annalagus to your argument, as in that case it was man's inquisitive nature that forced him to open the box and release wisdom.
And while you are right, that some religions can be interpretted as 'sit down and shut up... etc.' I think they are wrapped in the cloak of 'a little knowledge can be bad...' Instead of walking down the path of pure id, reign it in a bit in this way for the common good.
Again, the current dogmatic nature of religion (in America, anyway) has at it's roots this notion of man is intrisically flawed, and only through prayer can we be 'healed'...
Now you may want to debate whether or not 'intrisically' is a product of the actual gift or an implication of it, but I think it's a argument of semantics, as if one necessarily follows from the other you get it for free, so to speak.
In all seriousness, H should get in on this, as she cold quote you exactly what you are getting at, and give you several books on the topic.