EPTIn preparation for the ninazerg grudge match, I have been roleplaying a Christ to help assuage concerns belonging to ninazerg with respect to religious tolerance. The following lecture and other lectures help to explain the importance of some times being a Christ. Ram Dass discusses this, "if you're a Christ..."
Importance of Spiritual Development (Ram Dass)
The purpose of this writing is to help ninazerg feel more comfortable with her position as a professed Satanist: ninazerg's rap. There is a real worry ninazerg's belief system is conflicted she cannot be open in her freedom of speech and oppressive privatization because restricted personal agency probably government infringement of liberties so ninazerg does not feel supported or is only able to openly profess religious feeling in backwater or seldom viewed threads. It is a common concern regarding devotees of politically underrepresented religions that they will experience discrimination or be "marginalized". I want to help ninazerg in this respect with the most expedience.
Later in this thread I will explain concerns regarding Church of Satan philosophy as I understand it. I have developed some personal objections or at least concerns worth mentioning about Satanic philosophy after nearly thirty years of living with a highly successful Satanist.
Like ninazerg, my dad is also a Satanist, going by the moniker "Dr. Doom" in his previous life while gaming. He worked for years in the speech and hearing clinic (emeritus SLP) and a tenured professor at Auburn University.
Ordinarily talk about Satanism is suppressed because of a fear of the occult and this is perfectly understandable. In fact I feel somewhat reticent to write this here, but in fact Starcraft must encompass all aspects of life philosophy. Because I have accepted ninazerg to my Starcraft school if ninazerg chooses to attend, I am making public a brief depiction of ninazerg's caligraphy in support of her election. ninazerg would be one of the most prestigious students, and other students will certainly feel more tutored if ninazerg chooses to attend.
A brief explication of ninazerg's caligraphy, derived almost certainly from the Korean with some Japanese influences, is included here to provide proper foundation for the grudge match. It is quite reasonable to suspend belief regarding this example, and I don't expect anyone to take it seriously. There is really no reason to, unless you are of a propensity to believe in occultism. I think rationally this is the best course of action, but for those who have the mindset to express concern regarding the artistic work of ninazerg this example is provided.
ninazerg's Caligraphy
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It is necessary to consider the significance of occultism and sacred numerology when we analyze ninazerg's writing.
'Dodge, dodge, dodge' is explicated as follows:
(DO)[D](G)[E]
{1 letter capitalized - 'D' shorthand "4" or "si" in Chinese meaning 'death' see Tetraphobia)
[2 letters omitted; DE]
(3 letters; DOG)
{4,5 - DE, alphanumeric}
[6 = DEVIL, common representation]
(7 = DOG or GOD(backwards, standard SC chat))
DODGE DODGE DODGE is thus a profanity {666, 777}
and finally, 888 (Chinese Lucky Number)
Well, feel free to disregard the above analysis of ninazerg's writing because I think most reasonable people will normally not derive pleasure from such explication.
Broken Window Fallacy
Introduced in 1850 the paradox of the broken window fallacy is one of the more intriguing economic questions presented to undergraduates. Having thought about this paradox extensively, I would conclude that it is not really a paradox at all, but that there is an interesting twist, that needles us.
Essentially regarding information, it could be argued Satanism embraces the broken window fallacy to a certain degree. Certain adherents of will to power philosophies (e.g. Nietzsche) famously claim that eliciting pain to inspire motivation or in recompense for failure is the appropriate course of action and represents a "heightened seduction to life". Of course this does lend a certain vitality to the Satanist perspective.
Well, suppose I break a window and it costs $10 to repair the window. If the velocity of money, that is the number of transactions are fairly high. then you might say there is a $5 sunk costs, opportunity costs, that represents dead ends. Then there is $5 repair fee, which is transferred perhaps at 80% return ad infinitum (reiterated until all the money is spent). Then we have something like the positive return $5! = $120 or 5*4*3*2*1, a reasonable approximation of this 80% reinvestment property. Then we adjust basically for various prices, say that there are certain goods that we want costing more than $1 or $2, and cannot be purchased with the "tail end" then perhaps the total value of breaking the window is:
(-$10 + $5!/2) = $50.
So we benefit roughly $50 to break the window, which is the basic motivation for the "mutually antagonistic" will to power of Satanism.
But what if we make a new window without breaking one? We can dispense with the $10 opportunity cost of breaking the window and have $60.
Well it is precisely because this paradox is no paradox at all, but only a paradox of information that one is so tantalized by it. Can we motivate people without breaking the window and recover the lost funds?
In other words, I think the moral of this story is that there are a lot of methods we could employ for getting people to think. But I would challenge ninazerg to answer the question: to what extent is the approach of satanism just black ice? Are we causing unnecessary scar tissue to salt the wounds?
Legitimate Counterculture
Christianity is in my opinion a far more legitimate counter culture than Satanism. Adopting a hyper-rationalist stance, embracing the cold hard truth of economic reality isn't going to get you any closer to a real situation. Where reason and rationality are concerned, there is the argument that we need to get people to think. Of course a being evincing more complexity is, all other things withstanding, perhaps a "greater being". But do you really think the future is a place where Satanism is a superior reality to Christianity? There is the argument that Christianity arose in a primitive time, before real autonomy and liberty for humans was a possibility. Complexity and cooperation were only able to arise in a context that legitimized the environment, geologically, demographically, etc. This seems to be the general argument - that the artificial constraints of Christianity are prone to create greater inefficiency than efficiency, or if they are efficient in this solipsistic mode, the rules and regulations, and articles of faith characterizing Christianity are not competitive.
And of course there is some merit to the argument that you should behave according to your philosophy, so if Satanism is your religion then philosophically I think Christians would support you behaving like a Satanist. But do you really believe in the superiority of cold-cut rationality? In terms of certainty when you are adopting Satanism, you are adopting an attitude of sublime doubt, like Zen, at least with regard to many concerns. It seems to me you are compromising yourself in the important sense that instead of truly embracing the ideal of, as ninazerg bluntly puts it, "becoming a God", you are at best becoming only a "god", because you are succumbing to economic reality, that is you are in some respect compromising your will to power because you are prioritizing economic realities instead of teleological realities (that is, essences).
So is Satanism really a superior methodology? It seems that Christianity is prioritizing correctly in its aim to create a benevolent, highly complex, cooperative rationality. One might argue that Satanism is trying to achieve the same ends, but by prioritizing the necessary means, that is, honing a will to power with object of obtaining more power. In other words, the emergent principles Satanism is attempting to tease out are the emergent principles most conducive to power, which in many ways is an economic phenomenon, and means giving "rational" priority to economic principles. But is this really what you believe in? In many ways it seems we are trying to tease out a "real" world wherein our own inner world is properly expressed, and while it may be argued that we can obtain such a world by adherence to what is economically expedient, we don't really know this is the case.
It seems that when we compromise our telos, our essence, or our personal ethos, our being, by acknowledging the reality of economic constraint, and using economic expedience as a legitimate argument for personal conduct -- that when do this we are violating a higher, more complex, more dignified rationality. So to revisit the broken window fallacy, is it a legitimate path for Satanism to invoke seductions involving intimidation, confusion, etc.? Arguably, and perhaps this is an empirical fact evident in many political environments, we could envision entire economics based on the realities of mind, information, and knowledge, and the relationship of these concepts to power and liberty -- entire economies of seductions, intimidation, envy, etc. which seem less than ideal. I think neither Satanists nor Christians would be support the generation of "artificial" economies, "artificial" consumerist-style cultures, as legitimate and desireable entities except perhaps as academic exercise.
We can, in other words, break a number of windows involving political, psychological, sociological, bureaucratic entities and argue that what arises from an emphasis on the values that generate such artificiality represent a substitute that can only arise when economics is prioritized over being and essence. In other words, in an uncompromising teleology as represented by Christian philosophy, there is a certain elegance or "whiteness" often lamented for its simplicity, when in fact it is a highly complex, that is highly efficient, enterprise with significant emphasis on error elimination.
Sexuality
It seems there is something to the saying that "the early bird gets the worm". Indeed, it has been extensively documented that males "beta males" are often homosexual because of the psychological benefits homosexuality accords. Despite the stigma attached to homosexuality in the eyes of society, the reality is that the inability to act sexuality leads to bizarre, possibly retrogressive behaviors. It seems that for a certain archetype, perhaps and especially in underworld crime syndicates, the psychological advantages provided by homosexuality are so great as to significantly outweigh the downsides.
And yet it seems humanity is unwilling to view the traditional alpha male as a cerebrate or overlord, despite the tacit recognition on the part of zoologists and biologists that a real advantage manifests for males who indulge homosexuality behavior. In fact it seems to me likely the traditional alpha male is one who enjoys superb psychological fitness, not because of any inborn trait, instead on account of the less accredited "nurture" explanation. Realistically, if we are to argue that the motivation is to get someone to think, the illicit act of flirtation and communication in the tribal setting represents perhaps the greatest barrier to a certain sort of psychological practice, often called clinical.
Indeed, it seems that the fear of being shunned, at least as described in the somewhat occult science of "pick up artistry" is perhaps a strange line in the sand, an asymptotic divide between the fit and the unfit, relegating the privileged society of alpha males exclusive access to the luminous mind of the female sapient. By no means is this only a sexual privilege, recognized in the traditional economies of reproduction; it is also a simple psychosocial reality that for one reason or another the underprivileged males, whatever the theoretical advantages of a less rapid neurological development, are denied the blossoming of psychological stability and manipulation intrinsic to a healthy, non-inverted pyramid of social satisfaction.
Consequently the mathematical, pre-frontal lobe and monogamy arose, combating the reproductive liberties of alpha males, whose access to females provided an insurmountable psychosocial advantage. Indeed, it is quite possible that religious value systems are intimately tied not only to women's rights but the rights of homosexuals also. It is regrettable that modern Christianity still discriminates against the rights of homosexuals and I concede that in the realm of the rights of homosexuals Satanism appears to have significantly preferable statutes. Anyway, without beating a dead horse the wrong way, I will hypothesize that it is the psychological advantages enjoyed by women that largely explains the pro-female manifestation that is the religious experience, and the accompanying rise in the rights of disenfranchised "beta" males is probably accounted for by the similitude between the "secondary" status of beta males and females. Although how far this winding path could be traced is difficult to say.
Certainly there is an odd, asymptotic parallelism between the psychosocial development of the female brain and the developing brain of nerds. Did the mathematical female come first, or did the mathematical man come first? What is the role of philosophy in all this? Why do we still believe in genetic evolution when the number of iterations to achieve more advanced models seems to be nowhere near the huge sum required by pure randomness, or even stochastic processes? Are we truly becoming Aeons? Should we attempt to interface with competing Aeons, and what can we learn from these memetic beings? How sophisticated a mapping can exist between a human and an Aeon? A human and a machine? What is the role of religiosity in gardening? Why are giraffes? What is a pumpkin.
Perhaps the most sophisticated mode of integration known to man is Diablo, the true union of Satanism and Christianity long prophesied, the hybrid order of Sith and Jedi long foretold. But we don't really know and sadly the two religions continue in vivacious competition even unto this very day.
User was temp banned for this post.
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