!!  Czar DON-the-CON, is NAKED   !!                    [book mention]

FAIR USE

I’ve never been troubled by being thought a fool for Christ (Paul’s descriptor) — but Christianity itself can be downright embarrassing!  Less than a majority of US voters elected a violent sex-abuser and perpetual cheater, to our highest office. But a huge majority of those voters apparently claim to be Christians. So this contrarian, me, is now calling himself a born-again Socratic.  “Why?” you might ask. Have I traded Jesus for Socrates? No, I’m just ashamed. And I’m publicly rejecting the Biggest Heresy of all time, about Jesus, my Lord. 

It all got started by another emperor to settle a church fight (and he wasn’t even a Christian until he was on his death-bed decades later when he accepted Christ, in what might be seen as a superstitious bet). Emperor Constantine, in 325 A.D. , asserted that the Son was the Father of himself!  Like G.W.Bush, he told the bishops at the first Council of Nicaea that he, Constantine, was the decider.  Half of them said “Amen”!  And so it became “settled doctrine”. They had been arguing for years about whether Jesus was of the same substance as the Creator of the universe, or of similar substance as the Creator. (Thus entered into our idiom the phrase of “not making an iota of difference” – the battle centered on the spelling of two nearly identical words, one having an extra letter  called iota in Greek.) 

“Such a deal” said the bishops, realizing they would no longer risk being fed to the lions if they agreed with CONNIE that politics and religion could marry each other. Thus Christian “sharia” was born!  Suddenly Christian futures were highly valued; church-boy stock was up!  And any bishop, minister, pastor, or theologian who dared to disagree was suddenly potential CatChow, or maybe just out of a career. (They still teach this today to preachers in grad school and seminary: don’t touch the third rail of Jesus-as-God!)  Yeah, the Text says “I and my Father are one” — but ancient Greek had two words for “one”, while English struggles with just a single word for it.)

Well, Socrates spoke Greek; but like Jesus, neither of them wrote anything (that we know of). And nobody has yet declared Sok’ to be God in the flesh.  Both men had divine connections, to be sure.  But Jesus, it is little noticed, said “He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me” (John 12:44). And Socrates often commented on his “divine sign” which guided him to avoid going forward at certain points — which brings us to the point of this blogpost: a new book, OPEN SOCRATES: The Case for a Philosophical Life, by Professor Agnes Callard, of University of Chicago. (I’m awaiting arrival of my hardcover copy, after reading the free Kindle sample, which you might also examine and enjoy.)

Hold it to your ear, and listen. You will hear we are on the wrong path.

Photo by MeridaGOround

My prediction for tonight’s inauguration —


The Bannon-Musk battle is likely to be electric, unless Trump derails their throw-down via clever scheduling!  I hope TEAM RED are prepared to witness MAGA get plowed under by BigMoney tonight, and over the next few years.  History repeats.  

Maybe MAGA voters noticed (doubtful) what happened leading up to the Russian revolution:  the revolutionary workers opposed to the Tsarist “deep state” back then were the losers.  Those workers were essential to get the revolution rolling; but Lenin soon hired “professional” revolutionaries and had them rob banks to make their payroll, and foment his/their turn against the workers. Those “hires” were the guys who became the Bolsheviks — which then formed the Communist Party.  Hitler made a similar move, replacing his thuggish brown-shirted Hitler Youth “boy-scout” security apparatus with elite SS troops.  

Workers often tend to lose in a contest of muscle versus money.  MAGA can expect to see it happen again.  Musk and the billionaires will likely defeat Bannon / MAGA .  Enjoy the show, if you can stand it. (It’s a rerun which will end the same.)  Sadly, the middle-class taxpayers will be the big initial losers.  Trump will extend his tax cuts to his rich buddies in BigCapital, and the real workers (those who still have adequate jobs with a living wage) will foot the bill. But then society as a whole will eventually choke.  Institutions are the skeleton of our society. A starvation diet will digest that support system, sapping its strength, leaching value from the whole, into gated communities. Ronnie Raygun told a cruel joke: “I’m from the gov’t and I’m here to help.”  We need government more than we need billionaires! Civilization withers when citizens stop communicating and cooperating.  We are a social species, by nature!  (Curtis Yarvin and Bronze Age Pervert not-withstanding.)