SLSL: mortality & mercy in vienna/: eddins

[Abdiel OAbdiel]

--- vze422fs at verizon.net wrote:
> 
> 
> Ya know, I was just sittin' here with Santa Claus,
> the Easter Bunny, and the
> Tooth Fairy. The TF suggested that maybe bombing the
> living shit out of
> people might not be a mature way of dealing with
> potential conflict.
> Thankfully, the EB kicked her (him? it?) in the face
> a few times and Santa
> shit on her chest.
> 
> One must keep these mythological beings in line, or
> they'll take over your
> government.
> 
> Bombing the Shit Out of Baghdad For Christ
> Joe

Ya, know, it is Spring and so I have been breathing in
a new way, bengind in a new way, praying in a new way.



In his Gorgias, Plato replies to his sophist
opponents, who operate with the ethic of worldly
sucess of the man of Power. Plato counters them with
the argument that "sucess"in life consists of standing
before the judges of the dead. Before these judges the
soul stands stripped of the husk of the body and the
cloak of earthly status, in complete transparency.
This myth deals with the examination of conscience.
Over and above the the normal testing of our actions
against the standards of rational ethics, which is
called conscience and which we as humans perform, the
experience of examination can be elaborated
metatatively and expanded to the experience of
standing in judgement. For humans know that even the
most conscientious self-examination is limited by the
bounds of our humanity: breakdowns in judgement; on
principle, incomplete knowledge of the factors of the
situation and all the ramifications of action; and
above all, inadequate knowledge of human motives that
are by and large unconsciously born. From mediation,
from this position of limited self appraisal, one can
imagine a situation in which humans are to be judged,
not at a particualr moment in a particualr situation
of life, but on the basis of an entire life and before
the omnicient judge, before whom there is no longer
any pleading of special points, no arguements of
defence, because everything, even the least one has
done to a brother or sister, is known. In this
meditation there is silence. Silence but for the
judgement that the human being has spoken upon himself
with his life. 

Today, conscience is readily invoked, especially by
politicians. Each memegber votes his conscience. The
immoral and criminal conduct of our leaders (i.e.,
Blair and Bush) is justified by having "followed the
path of conscience" or by "acting according to the
responsibilities and duties of their office" as the
conscience of a nation of a free people of the world.
But in these times conscience no longer means the
testing of one's actions against the rational
principle of ethics, but, on the contrary, the cutting
off of rational debates in stubborn, demonic
persistence in actions that passion incites. 

Islamic prayer is preced by: 

Whyn I pray, I go to the place where I wish to say my
prayer. I sit still until I am composed. Then I stand
up: The Kaaba is in front of me, paradise to my right,
hell to my left, and the angel of death stands behind
me. Then I say my prayer as if it were my last. And
thus I stand, between hope and fear, not knowing
whether God has received my prayer favorably or not. 

How does one deal with this unbearable uncertainty? 

Through a connection with non spiritual extension of
God's realm by the force of arms. 

You ridicule religion, you dismiss it as a
discontented civilization that refuses to grow up, but
if want to understand the lives of most of humanity,
you'll need to open you mind to the ways in which they
live and have been living for centuries. 

Judge not and ye shall not be judged. 

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