We cannot plan stuff and stick to that plan (force it through if necessary), except to make it worse.

Maybe there was a time when good strategizing was possible, but if so, that time has gone.

But what I do see, in individual lives and also in the lives of nations; is that key moments, cruxes, arise; when there is ...

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Some scholars claim this is an image of Mediocrites

Socrates's older brother, Mediocrites (c 485 BC-?), is regarded by most modern Westerners as the most successful and (therefore) most emulation-worthy of all philosophers; although we know nothing specific about him; and he never said, did or ...

On 11th August 1999 there was a solar eclipse which was about 90% of totality in the south of England where I saw it. This coming 12th August there is another eclipse which will again be seen at about 90% of totality in much of the British Isles. The 1999 one was at 18 degrees of Leo and this one will be at 20 degrees ...

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Gollum in reflective mood

At my Notion Club Papers blog; I give three favourite passages from The Lord of the Rings, in which Gollum's talk - while he is dominated by the Smeagol persona - sometimes displays a moving lyricism.

Just as Shakespeare gave the monster Caliban some of the most haunting words in The Tempest; so Tolkien gives Gollum some of the most evocative passages in The Lord of the Rings.

Gollum is not only surprisingly well-informed; but during the time he is (mostly) dominated by his Smeagol persona, and remembers his ...

the first chapter of my upcoming novel, deebop, ended up being fourteen thousand words, which is technically a novelette or even a novella, so i decided to publish it as a standalone epub for free ahead of the release of the novel.

it’s called Myself When I Am Real and i would describe it as a coming of age ...

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The ending of Das Rheingold by Richard Wagner* is one of my absolute favourite pieces of music; for its dramatic complexity but also the unsurpassed grandeur of the sound and harmony.

The mood (in this except) begins with a vision of the new home of the Gods Valhalla, expressed in great chords ...

What follows is an attempt to explain that we are profoundly mistaken when we try to picture God's creation as an objective and unavoidable reality - because that is excluding the foundational role of love. Our picture of ultimate reality, needs to have love as the basis. This has many implications, including an ...

In the past, it was a reasonably effective way to become a Christian (or a better Christian) to learn and practice Christian knowledge systems - such as theology, the history of Christianity, the Bible, doctrines, rituals etc.

In other words, once upon a time, some generations ago; knowing-about and talking-about ...

Now and then, some Christian blogger or other dons his Deus vult armor and issues a stentorious rallying cry for this-worldly Christian unity and the exalted cause of defending “Christendom”.

The motive driving such noble sentiments usually stems from the desire to reinstate, maintain, and defend a bona ...

If we have concluded (perhaps from reading the IV Gospel) that it is true that Jesus came to save sinners; then Christianity is neither a doing nor an achieving religion - and being a Christian is not about self-transformation during this, our mortal life.

All of these attainments are mostly about our character and ...

Last year I wrote a post called The Spiritual Failure of Tristan about the character in Wagner's famous opera. In it I maintained that Tristan represents the failure of a spiritual test though, if failure is too strong a word, one might also interpret the opera as showing how a soul can only learn and grow through ...

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I recently watched the 2024 Netflix series, Ripley, which proved to be a fairly faithful adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, originally published in 1955. Regardless of what you may think of the story or the subject matter, the 2024 series directed by Steve ...

One of the reasons that so many deeply-dissatisfied atheist-materialists are repelled from Christianity; is that Christianity means picking a church or denomination and then obeying it.

As with a gang or cult; the prime demand is for loyalty to the institution; and this is enforced by initiation through loyalty ...

It embarrasses me when anti-Left bloggers use the word "Marxist" to describe modern Western governments and society.

There are no Marxists in The West now, at least not in politics or public life; and have not been for several decades.

Indeed; there are in practice no Marxists even among those who proudly embrace ...

I can understand why negations such as obedience, service and humility became popular things to advocate (including in Christianity - but also as part of many other religions and ideologies); as an intended corrective (or, at least, limiter) to motivations that are sinful or lead to evil - such as pride, selfishness ...

Mark your calendars, and in the meantime find something else to read.

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Note added: For those who have asked, nothing is wrong, and my decision has nothing to do with any of the commenters here. I just need to take a break to focus on another project, which I cannot share with ...

Over lunch, I read in Normon Spinrad's sci-fi novel Child of Fortune about Pater Pan, known for his distinctive patchwork Traje de Luces, or Suit of Many Colors, deciding to leave the planet where he is the king of the Gypsy Jokers, intending to travel to every single inhabited planet, in search of immortality.

This ...

everywhere can be dangerous if you know how to have fun.

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there is a rhythm and a pitch to things. and since there are many things, there are always many rhythms and pitches clashing. a practical reason to learn to make sense of dissonance and polyrhythms.

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the way machine vomit people talk about the creative ...

The question of motivation is one that has occupied me since before I began blogging; because I regard the modern West as a profoundly demotivated society. And without powerful and robust motivation - we are easily externally manipulated, and indeed come to desire and depend-upon external motivations.

This much was ...

As I have mentioned before, I regularly have to create cloze tests for which write a brief article using a dozen or so of the vocabulary items from a list the students have memorized. I then blank out those words, and the students have to decide which word goes in which blank. Since the lists of target words have no ...

William Arkle offers a lucid interpretation of God commanding Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, which I first encountered via Bruce Charlton’s Arkle-focused blog:

When Abraham "passed" his test over his son's killing, to my mind he only got 60% for obedience.

If he had said to God, "This is not like you, I won't do ...

As a teen and young adult, I wanted to read books - especially fiction, especially novels: so I did.

I read a lot of books even when I was very busy doing other stuff: e.g. studying at school or college - even when I was working as a doctor, even when I was a House Officer/ Intern - even when doing the 80 hour shift ...

Functionality is taxed, parasites are subsidized and enforced - there, in a nutshell, is the reason why the globalist totalitarian project has already collapsed; because this is happening in all social institutions, and the effect is synergistic.

There is now no way out, because there are more parasites than ...

There are many situations in the modern world where people are in a situation that they know something, but cannot explain it; they cannot justify this "knowing" in terms of their underlying assumptions - their "metaphysics".

In such situations, their knowing is weakened to the point that it is usually overcome ...

Hobbits have Big Hands: the argument is presented at my Notion Club Papers blog.

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Hobbits are something between a half and a two-thirds the stature of Men; but are often imagined, and usually depicted, with feet that are (compared with Men) disproportionately large - sometimes horrifyingly so (see above).

But the same size-exaggeration must also apply to their hands.

In both ...

I have often written about the twin ultimate-problems (ineradicable insufficiencies) of this, our mortal life; under the headings of Entropy and Evil.

My understanding of reality is that its fundamental divisions or units are eternal Beings, i.e living-Beings; such that (to modify the title of William James's book) ...

Yesterday, Maolsheachlann posted "A Big Light on Misinformation," owning up to a blatant falsehood he had been peddling about what those big lights on movie sets are called. He vowed to Do Better and to "work hard to regain the trust of my blog readers."

This morning, I read this in Missing Time (1981) by Budd ...