Kosh's Shadow 7/29/2020 5:23:47 PM

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All around us, it was as if the universe were holding its breath, waiting. All of life can be broken down into moments of transition or moments .. of revelation. This had the feeling of both."
"G'Quon wrote: There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope. The death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future, or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.

-- Babylon 5, G'kar at the ending of the episode Z'ha'dum

Does the current time feel like that to anyone else?

Kosh's Shadow 7/29/2020 5:46:01 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 1:

In Babylon 5, there were two ancient alien races who stayed behind to help younger races advance.

One believed in advancement by strict order. They controlled. They are the Vorlons, and the two Vorlons we meet were both called Kosh. ("We are all Kosh")

The others believed in advancement by chaos; war. They are called the Shadows. We have no other name for them.

It seems like those forces are fighting right now, right here.

Kosh's Shadow 7/29/2020 5:49:15 PM

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Perhaps it being Tisha B'Av, (as of sundown) the date in the Hebrew calendar when both Temples were destroyed and other disasters occurred (and also WWI started!) is getting to me.

This day is observed with mourning; fasting; reading Lamentations....

And, iirc, it also could be the date when Mashiach (the Messiah) comes, may he come speedily in our time.

Not just COVID, riots in the US and Israel, but a lot of other things going on elsewhere, including explosions in Iran...

Kosh's Shadow 7/29/2020 5:50:37 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 3:

Also the date when the spies returned from Canaan, saying the land could not be conquered. This is what set the date.

Kosh's Shadow 7/29/2020 5:52:20 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 4:

And the date in 1492 when Jews had to leave Spain or be forcibly converted.

Now we have Jew hatred allowed, especially by blacks.

Kosh's Shadow 7/29/2020 5:52:47 PM

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Kosh's Shadow 7/29/2020 6:11:37 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 2:

Vorlons - China, Russia, Leftist totalitarianism

Shadows - Antifa, BLM, anarchist chaos

True US conservatism - the middle road between the two. 

(SPOILER)

Exactly the road Earth took in the war

buzzsawmonkey 7/29/2020 6:25:24 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 6:

The spies are an example of the evils of welfare.  The Israelites were living on divine welfare in the desert; free food (manna); their clothes did not wear out, according to Moses' oration; a well of water which miraculously followed them wherever they went. 

The ten spies who said that the Land could not be conquered did not want to leave the divine welfare state, and have to go and work for a living.  They wanted to continue the bounty they were receiving in the desert instead of being forced to make something of the Land.

Kosh's Shadow 7/29/2020 6:28:32 PM

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I guess I'm Zathras tonight - no one to talk to

"But only Zathras have no-one to talk to. No-one manages poor Zathras, you see. So Zathras talks to dirt. Sometimes talks to walls, or talks to ceilings. But dirt is closer. Dirt is used, through everyone walking on it. Just like Zathras, but we've come to like it. It is our role. It is our destiny in the universe. So, you see, sometimes dirt has insects in it. And Zathras likes insects. Not so good for conversation, but much protein for diet. Ha! Zathras fix now, this way." 

buzzsawmonkey 7/29/2020 6:29:17 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 9:

Ya missed me, Kosh.

Kosh's Shadow 7/29/2020 6:30:16 PM

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In #8 buzzsawmonkey said: The ten spies who said that the Land could not be conquered did not want to leave the divine welfare state, and have to go and work for a living.  They wanted to continue the bounty they were receiving in the desert instead of being forced to make something of the Land.

Exactly!

But only G-d can give manna and make clothes last; people need to take from some people and give to others.

G-d never runs out of manna. Socialists run out of other people's money.

buzzsawmonkey 7/29/2020 6:42:45 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 11:

There are lots of stupid trolls on places like PJM who keep insisting that "duh Bible endorses slavery, hur hur hur..."

Apparently they have missed the entire drama of the Five Books---God symbolically defeating the mightiest empire (well, one of the mightiest, anyway) of the ancient world for the purpose of ending slavery.  That the subsequent laws provide rules and regulations for the conduct of slaveowners is beside the point; they are basically along the lines of, "Since you fools must have it, this is how you are to conduct yourselves towards those in bondage."  The most telling of these laws is the commandment that if one knocks out a slave's tooth, "you are to let him go free for his tooth's sake." This, in a time of nonexistent-to-at-best-indifferent dentistry, when a missing tooth would have been a commonplace. 

Kosh's Shadow 7/29/2020 6:54:56 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 12:

Yes, the rules are meant to make slavery be uneconomical.

Please excuse short posts. This is the day our DSL went out and I am replying on cell phone

buzzsawmonkey 7/29/2020 7:01:23 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 13:

Not a problem---have to sign off myself in a minute.  

I just wanted to make some comments which related to yours, and also not let you feel quite so lonely.

lucius septimius 7/29/2020 7:07:45 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 12:

This is true, albeit for different reasons, of Aristotle's discussion of slavery in the Politics.  The Ethics (at the end of which the Politics begins) makes a firm distinction between nature and convention.  Convention are those things that societies agree upon, not because they are true, but because they represent a common opinion which may or not be consistent with nature (i.e., philosophical truth).  The discussion of "natural slavery" in the Politics has often been taken to say that Aristotle thought slavery natural, but if one reads carefully his descriptions of a natural slave -- that is, someone who has no independent will and must be told what to do in any instance -- one realizes that such a being would not be a very good slave.  Essentially such a person would be so mentally defective that it would be more trouble than it's worth to direct his actions.  Hence slavery ends up being a matter of convention, not something rooted in any kind of natural inequality of persons -- only a person who is sufficiently self-directed to carry out actions in a rational and effective way would be a useful slave, but such a person would not be a slave by nature, but only because they had been forced to be one.  So the concept of "natural slave" turns out to be typical Aristotelian lie -- no one would want a slave who was by nature suited to be one.

Kosh's Shadow 7/29/2020 7:25:39 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 14:

Thanks, and the DSL problem fixed itself about the time I could get to a person at Verizon (after being disconnected once)

I love how they tell you to go to verizon.com/support WHEN YOU HAVE AN INTERNET PROBLEM!

Kosh's Shadow 7/29/2020 7:28:12 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 16:

Reminds me how when I worked at PictureTel, they had power strips that shut off when the power went out.

After a power failure, they emailed everyone to tell them to turn the power strips back on.

No wonder the company is long gone (as are most of the places I worked.)

Kosh's Shadow 7/29/2020 7:31:11 PM

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May the internet outage be the worst of my troubles.

I've also been laid off more than once near Tisha B'Av

Kosh's Shadow 7/29/2020 7:43:36 PM

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In #18 Kosh's Shadow said: ay the internet outage be the worst of my troubles. I've also been laid off more than once near Tisha B'Av

And my security clearance is taking twice as long, if not longer, than it should, and, while I have plenty of unclassified work, the powers that be do not have infinite patience.

Kosh's Shadow 7/29/2020 8:10:30 PM

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In #15 lucius septimius said: his descriptions of a natural slave -- that is, someone who has no independent will and must be told what to do in any instance -- one realizes that such a being would not be a very good slave.  Essentially such a person would be so mentally defective that it would be more trouble than it's worth to direct his actions.

Modern computers and robots! We can program them in advance, for their limited capabilities.

And with that, Zathras say good night