The Literary Corner and Philosophers Thread 📙 📖

Dr_Manhattan · September 27, 2023, 7:36am

Dr_Manhattan · October 16, 2023, 2:50pm

Opinions can become judgements when we think they are 100% true, but they can also help us discover other truths when we acknowledge them as one of many ways to look at things.

Didgevillage · October 16, 2023, 7:23pm

One man’s truth is another man’s fiction.
(Maybe)

I am struggling with the concept of multiverse, parallel world, etc.
My understanding is that there are many, many of “me” or “you” living in many different worls.

You can choose to live in one — supposedly — which suits you best.

Dr_Manhattan · October 16, 2023, 11:40pm

If you subscribe to that point of view. I am not sure one has a choice, but can control what is said and thinking in the present.

Didgevillage · October 17, 2023, 12:25am

I heard that what you think creates a (new and perhaps a different) world.
That’s the idea of Napolen Hill’s “Think and grow rich.”

Does mere thinking make you rich (or poor if the thinking is not right)? I don’t know.

But if this is total BS, the book won’t be this popular.

My current interpretation goes like this.
There is a world where you’re rich, and another world where you’re poor, and still another world where you’re doing so-so.
You will place yourself into either one of the three (for the sake of simplicity in argument) by thinking accordidngly.

The morale of the story is that negative thinking puts you into a real negative world… But we’re all human, and we oftentimes cannot control our thinking.

Dr_Manhattan · October 17, 2023, 8:18am

I think I read this book that a friend sent to me many years ago. Its all about having a certain mind set and staying disciplined to maintain it.

Didgevillage · October 18, 2023, 9:14am

“Law of attraction” became popular not long ago.
Many people were disillusioned because it did not work.

Kevin Trudeau said “Your wish is your command.”
True, but there are some techniques for the genie to work for you.

Roamingwyoming · October 18, 2023, 9:41am

“Your wish is your command” is very true on face value. If one wants something bad enough they will do what it takes to get it. On the other hand it can also become an obsession to the point it can consume a individual’s proper equilibrium.

Dr_Manhattan · October 21, 2023, 10:11am

Dr_Manhattan · October 27, 2023, 11:51am

What are some of the most “right-wing” novels?

23 fascinating recommendations:

Lord of the Rings
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Count of Monte Cristo
Journey to the End of the Night
Brideshead Revisited
Wisdom of the Sands
Ender’s Game
Submission by Houllebecq
Runaway Horses by Mishima
Dune
Bonfire of the Vanities
The Hour of the Dragon
Nostromo
That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
Death on the Installment Plan
The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K. Chesterton
Watership Down
The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales by HP Lovecraft
The Plumed Serpent by D.H. Lawrence
The Mandibles
Still Life With Woodpecker
The Book of Skulls
The Dice Man

Didgevillage · October 27, 2023, 11:28pm

Hinduism and Buddhism take reincarnation for granted. Worse still, humans can be reborn as animals depending on the behavior as humans.

The Druize religion is similar to Islam but with a touch of Buddhism and teaches reincarnation. The Druize live in northern Israel (and serve in the Israeli army), Syria and Lebanon.

There is an interesting and confirmed case of a young Druize boy who pointed a finger at an adult in a neighboring Druize village, saying he murdered the boy in his previous reincarnation. The Druize villagers took the boy’s words seriously and investigated the matter, and even searched the spot where the boy said his previous body was hidden. The villagers also found the weapon used in the murder and discarded, as per the statement of the boy, and the murderer finally confessed.

There is a relatively recent, and documented episode of an American boy who had fascination about WWII planes, and knew pretty much everything about them. The boy had a recurring nightmare about being a Navy pilot, shot down, unable to get out of the cockpit and dying.

The parents investigated the events around the time of the Iwo Jima battles and found the name of the pilot thus died and went to the reunion of the carrier that took place in California. The boy “remembered” the former comrades who initially doubted the boy’s claim.

Evidence For Reincarnation: This Kid Knows Things He Shouldn’t - He Survived Death - Documentary

Church-anity does not teach reincarnation of soul / spirit. What should we make of it?

Simple. Church-anity is wrong. Early Christians did believe in reincarnation, just like ancient Hebrews and Egyptians.

Dr_Manhattan · October 28, 2023, 12:31am

I have always been interested in this subject matter.

Dr_Manhattan · October 28, 2023, 2:39am

“As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him."

Dr_Manhattan · November 8, 2023, 7:02am

Dr_Manhattan · November 9, 2023, 7:43am

Didgevillage · November 13, 2023, 6:47am

Mirror, mirror on the wall.
(Or is it “magic mirror on the wall” nowadays?)

Who is the smartest?
Actually, real philosophers really don’t care what others think.

Dr_Manhattan · November 17, 2023, 8:43am

“We take to fiction, I suppose, because no such thing is going to happen, and at least on the printed page we can observe beginnings, middles and ends and can find where morality resides.”
~ Fay Weldon (1931-2023)

Dr_Manhattan · November 17, 2023, 8:54am

Dr_Manhattan · November 18, 2023, 10:37am

Dr_Manhattan · November 18, 2023, 3:03pm

The Fall of Ancient Rome explained in 13 points What happened in Rome is happening in your country now!

As Ancient Rome go prosperous, it turned into an unsustainable welfare state. In a 1961 book, Lewis Mumford explained how “Panem et circenses,” that is “bread and circuses,” destroyed Rome.
Mumford: “Success underwrote a sickening parasitic failure.” He wrote that “indiscriminate public largesse” became common.
A large portion of the population “took on the parasitic role for a whole lifetime.”
More than 200,000 citizens of Rome regularly received handouts of bread from “public storehouses.” Lewis Mumford wrote the desire to lead an industrious productive life had severely “weakened.” So what did people spend their time on? Distractions. Circuses.
The Roman people, not working for their livelihood but living off of the prosperity of their city, became numb: “To recover the bare sensation of being alive, the Roman populace, high and low, governors & governed, flocked to the great arenas” for games.
The entertainment in Rome included “chariot races, spectacular naval battles set in an artificial lake, theatrical pantomimes in which lewder sexual acts were performed.” Sounds familiar?
Out of 365 days, more than 200 were public holidays and 93 were “devoted to games at the public expense.”
Consuming entertainment became the primary priority of Roman citizens in Rome’s decadent phase. Lewis Mumford: “Not to be present at the show was to be deprived of life, liberty, and happiness.” Concrete concerns of life became “subordinate, accessory, almost meaningless.”
Ancient Rome could put half of its total population “in its circuses and theatres” at the same time!
A new public holiday was declared to celebrate every military victory. But the number of holidays kept rising even when Rome’s military prowess began to fail…
Mumford writes that no empire had such an “abundance of idle time to fill with idiotic occupations.” Even the Roman emperors who privately despised the games had to pretend they enjoyed them for “fear of hostile public response.”
Bottom line: The very power and prosperity of Ancient Rome set the stage for its collapse.
As welfare states expand around the world today, and entertainment options get ever more immersive, we are forced to ask a question: Is our Post-Industrial Civilization…Rome, Part II?