The myth is that Evolution is evolution.  If we expect this
causeless cause to push us into positive change we are but
reifying once again.  Evolution by our species will now be
self-evident and self-directed - or not at all.

christopher

arisensilently-AT-fastmail.fm">arisensilently-AT-fastmail.fm wrote:

What if there is no transcendence? what if evolution is a myth? I mean
reformation is the conceit that pot belly perverts play with. And really
what are you transcending to? What is that singular truth that remains
ooh so out of our grasp?

txx

On Fri, 3 Dec 2004 15:02:27 -0000, "Jet Black" jet_black-AT-ntlworld.com"><jet_black-AT-ntlworld.com>
said:
 

My old lady said she'd never speak to me again if I got a tattoo with a
snake in it. The rationale (falun gong rationale) is that by portraying
evil
you bring, or maintain, evil in the world. There's a lot of truth in
that,
(although I think my eagle and snake or devil and angel or george and the
dragon tattoo idea would be a drop in the ocean). The more you maintain
the
circulation of an Idea, the more the Idea thrives — escapes from its
initial constraints and runs amok with our spiritual futures. By her
reasoning, if the image and its other representations and handles and
invokations are eliminated from a culture, then so are the evil avenues
of
possibility which it signified.

I wonder what cinema will be like in the next dharma-time. Not much scope
for many plots if the things we struggle against are no longer there to
be
struggled against. Quick — struggle with evil now before we run out.

Anyway, it seems to me that Christophers take on this whole Allah-sucks
thing is negative. People WANT a spiritual aspiration. For many,
self-evidently, Allah provides a framework for that desire. What
Christopher
seems to be doing is to take it away from them, rather than provide a new
direction. Historical ideas are like runaway wagon-horses or trucks
skidding
on ice. There is Christopher, standing in front of all that horse power
like
King Canute trying to turn the tide.
A better place to be is on top of the engine with a hand grasping for
some
of the reins. The MEANING of Allah should be changed, the MEANING of
Islam
should be re-understood, the definitions of everything that is worthy and
noble in the world should supplant, by such detournements, their
often-corrupted predecessors. But nothing new comes into the world, (no
miracles happen, if we let miracle mean what we are told it does) and we
can
only build the future from what we have here in its past. All I have been
asking for from this forum is PRACTICALITY. It seems to me that most of
us
are far too happy to dispense with reality and use this place for sheer,
futile self-indulgence, venting spleen without a thought for what is
actually POSSIBLE, trying to break the things which we need, blaming the
tools for a bad job. And while this goes on, real opportunity, which is
to
say the power to effect the future, passes us by like buses in the rain.

That immaturity should be transcended.

PS. Shes basically right about the tattoo thing, but impractical in the
same
way as Christopher. She refuses to touch dirt and disease and by doing so
hopes to have some healing effect. By contrast, my policy has been, in
recent years, to wrestle with it, to gradually subdue, divert and
transform
it.
Once upon a time in one of the worst ghettoes of south London I was
sitting
around with the "Firm" upon whom my safety in the area substantially
depended. It was a boring Sunday afternoon and we were all skint. A
resolve
emerged to go smash down the door of a black couple known to be dealing
weed. The program involved gang rape. My options were on the face of it
pretty BLACK and WHITE. I could go along with it — get some drugs,
money,
sex and full confirmed membership of an up-and-coming tribe, or I could
leg
it — and have to abandon the whole area AND do nothing to prevent what
was
about to occur. (Trust me — the police would have been no help either,
and
too late not doing it). I came up with the proposal that I knew a much
better target for break-in and burglary, big hi-fi stuff and al that to
be
had, less risk and effort etc… I persuaded them in a different
direction.
The haul was less than they had wanted and there was a little resentment,
but not enough to cause me a problem. No one got hurt, no one got raped,
the
blatant racism of the plan (despite the fact that one of us was black but
thats another story) was at least publicly concealed and no wars were
started. What would you have done Christopher? A rapist by deed or a
rapist
by omission?

And Cordley, how about you? Would you have felt constrained to choose
between black and white options, or would you have tried to TRANSCEND it,
as
I did, and find a new imperfect way that left one mounted on that runaway
stallion, splattered with mud, blood and karma as it was, but still with
a
chance of leading it toward a better destination, by struggle after
struggle
after struggle…..

KEEP YOUR PANTS IN THE SADDLE DUDES

—jetblack

 ——-Original Message——-
 From: situationist-AT-lists.nothingness.org">situationist-AT-lists.nothingness.org
[situationist-AT-lists.nothingness.org">mailto:situationist-AT-lists.nothingness.org]On Behalf Of Cordley Coit
 Sent: 03 December 2004
 To: Situationist
 Subject: RE: Orange Alert!: Imperatornators.

 Is it Islam or transcendence? Cordley

 Jet Black jet_black-AT-ntlworld.com"><jet_black-AT-ntlworld.com> wrote:
 Thats it blame it on God instead of free will.

 k
 ——-Original Message——-
 From: situationist-AT-lists.nothingness.org">situationist-AT-lists.nothingness.org
[situationist-AT-lists.nothingness.org">mailto:situationist-AT-lists.nothingness.org]On Behalf Of Christopher
 Sent: 02 December 2004
 To: Situationist
 Cc: rasputin-AT-teleport.com">rasputin-AT-teleport.com
 Subject: Re: Orange Alert!: Imperatornators.

 Nothing like limited choices and time to make voting suck.
 Yet - if breathing ammonia or methane were your choices
 is breathing innately wretched? Hardly. We choose mutually
 confirming boredom in "black or white" choices with pseudo-
 opposition that merely suggests "black and white"; we need
 colorful smell, tasty touch, utopias to order… imagination is
 a ghost of a dead present. It's time to create Islamic heaven
 on Earth NOW. Screw messy suicide, tedious sacrifice, and
 relentless entanglements with co-frigid views. Allah condemns
 the future just as the present. An Islamic ghost told me so.
 That great afterlife? Not there. It was just a hoax to get so
 many to give up now so that the few may embrace themselves
 and others. Allah is a miser, a thief, and has hooves….

 christopher