The Dance of Death, Hans Holbein (1497-1543) 

You can be sure that when or if the secret of physical immortality is acquired (and it is a goal being actively pursued) then only a favored few will be given the prize.

Then the Earth will become even more a kind of Hell. 

Then the only way we will be able to rid ourselves of our Masters will be to kill them. 

Death has been our friend. 

He visits the rich and the poor alike in his rounds. 

When the privileged purchase the ability to stay his knock on the door, this planet will  enter a stasis.

 We shall be burdened with the same masters for thousands of years.

If we have not been already. 

Nicolai A. Berdyaev, A "Radical Christian" in the Best Sense

I last quoted Nicolai back last March but you can't get hurt having a little more.

"Egoism, self-seeking, self-conceit, pride, the will to power, hatred of others, violence, all become virtues when transferred from personality to the nation as a whole...National self-conceit and pride is a lie, just as much as it is by the way ludicrous and stupid...[nationalism precipitates] men into a fictitious and illusory life."    -- from Slavery and Freedom


"The greatest temptation of human history is the temptation to exercise sovereignty and in it there is concealed a most powerful enslaving force...The whole disquieting and tangled problem of sovereignty is bound up with the fact that man has a natural disposition to dominate others. He is in search of his kingdom and he devotes his strength to the establishment of it, but his kingdom makes him a slave."    --from Slavery and Freedom


"Habitual, time-hardened slavery may not appear to be a form of violence, while a movement which is directed to the abolition of slavery may appear to be violence." from "Slavery and Freedom"

Nicolai A. Berdyaev

Tahrir Square Cairo, Getty Images, MacDiarmid

Egyptian Army Called In as Protests Rage

Oil Price Spikes Towards $100

                                               28 January 2011 Uprising in Egypt

Police in Cairo on Wednesday January 26 prepare to keep Order.

Reports of ‘massacre’ in Suez as protests in Egypt move into third day | Raw Story

Regardless of the reassuring statements of experts and authorities and politicians around the world about the stability of Egypt, things there remain volatile. Change can happen quickly in any country. Egypt is a country of breathtaking poverty and concentrated wealth. This is a situation the human spirit will not tolerate for long.

Inspired by Tunisia and Egypt, Yemenis join in anti-government protests The Washington Post

Yemen is a country on the Arabian peninsula that has no oil. The people are poor and suffer under President Ali Abdullah Saleh who has held office for thirty years in this nominal democracy. President Saleh has enjoyed the support of the United States. This support has translated into little benefit for the people.

“True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance.”-Akhenaton

Broad Protests Across Egypt Focus Fury on Mubarak - NYTimes.com

It is about time. The Arab world has suffered under the boot-heels of their leaders and privileged class for far too long.

Quotes:

"This is the biggest protest I've seen in this era. I'm not part of any group or party. We've all just had enough."-Zeinab Khalifa, artist 


"We came here for a reason: to tell Mubarak that we don't want his corrupt regime. I came with three of my friends because we're all educated — we're all protesting for our jobs, for our rights; to get married; and for the future of Egypt." -Ahmed Mossad, 22, a translator


“We can confirm that Twitter was blocked in Egypt around 8 a.m. PT today. It is impacting both Twitter.com @applications.”- Tweet from Twitter

“The government is illegitimate, the president is illegitimate.” -crowd chanting in Cairo


“The young people decided. They haven’t seen a government listening. They got quite excited by the Tunisian change of power, or revolution, if you’d prefer to call it that.”-Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the United Nations nuclear agency




"I am here because of the poverty and because of the corruption. Nothing in Egypt is going as it should. This is the first chance the people have got to express how messed-up the country is. We want four things. We want the Minister of the Interior to be fired. We want people who have graduated to get jobs. We want the President to limit the time he is in power and we want an end to the emergency law."-Bashar Abdelmenem, a 22-year-old medical student

All or nothing at all
Half a love, never appealed to me
If your heart, never could yield to me
Then I'd rather (rather) have nothing at all
All or nothing at all
If it's love, there is no in between
Why begin then cry, for something that might have been
No I'd rather (rather) have nothing at all
But please don't bring your lips so close to my cheek
Don't smile or I'll be lost beyond recall
The kiss in your eyes, the touch of your hand makes me weak
And my heart may go dizzy and fall
And if I fell (I fell) under the spell of your call
I would be, caught in the undertow
So you see, I've got to say no, no
All or nothing at all

"All Or Nothing At All" Lyrics by Jack Lawrence, music by Arthur Altman

first recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1939

Billboard #2 in 1943

Sinatra claimed he and Harry James were fired from the Victor Hugo cafe in Hollywood after performing it to an empty house in 1939.

"The struggle between the two worlds can permit of no compromises...Either We or They."- Benito Mussolini

“You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!”-Matthew 23:24:

The desire for an unambiguous black and white world that is certain and where one knows the rules and there is no doubt of right and wrong is the root desire and need of religion and government. This desire cannot bear individual point of view.  This desire projects upon the people a superior godlike point of view that actually emanates from the rulers of state with the acolytes of religion in their thrall (or vice versa) and is perfectly congruent with their interests. This desire for a spiritual authority actually represses true spirituality because it relies on Faith. And the beauty of Faith (belief without evidence or proof and belief in the presence of evidence or proof to the contrary) is inculcated into the minds of the people from birth. It has always been in the interest of the rulers to turn off both the rational and irrational minds of the people.

Natus est Dei Filius, non pudet, quia pudendum est; et mortuus est Dei Filius, prorsus credibile est, quia ineptum est; et sepultus resurrexit, certum est, quia impossibile.— Tertullian (De Carne Christi V, 4)

"The Son of God was born: there is no shame, because it is scandalous. And the Son of God died: it is wholly believable, because it is foolish. And, buried, He rose again: it is certain, because (it is) impossible."

Tertullian's words are often condensed into the phrase
Credo quia absurdum- I believe because it is absurd.

The unknown world of Knowledge (Gnosis) must be cloaked by established Religion and the State in the cape of Fear, partly because Gnosis is a fearful thing and partly because Gnosis is a threat to the establishment.  All the liberal humanities of the Renaissance are Gnostic. All progressive impulses in man arise from Gnosticism. Conservatives know this well and that is why they must see the world in black and white and this is why they tend to encourage State Religion (Formal or Informal) whether they actually believe in it or not. The Irony is that Gnosticism and its sundry practices produce a better man than Faith based Religion which somehow has a blind spot for the constant and simple touchstone of Gnosticism, which is the Golden Rule.

I Heard An Angel

I heard an Angel singing
When the day was springing,
"Mercy, Pity, Peace
Is the world's release."

Thus he sung all day
Over the new mown hay,
Till the sun went down
And haycocks looked brown.

I heard a Devil curse
Over the heath and the furze,
"Mercy could be no more,
If there was nobody poor,

And pity no more could be,
If all were as happy as we."
At his curse the sun went down,
And the heavens gave a frown.

Down pour'd the heavy rain
Over the new reap'd grain ...
And Miseries' increase
Is Mercy, Pity, Peace.

-William Blake