Capitalism vs. Civilization
Here’s a quick example: the rise of primitive Rap Music. Capitalist Music Producers could sell real music – trained professional singers with professionally orchestrated instrumental music, but they choose to sell sexist cussing and swearing with a background of synthetic percussion. You see, in either case they can only get about the same price for either product. The Quality product would of course cost more to produce. Finding somebody who will cuss and swear in rhymes, well, that’s almost free. Like the Colonel said to Elvis, “I can find a kid on any street corner who can do what you do”… and at least Elvis could play guitar. As far as Rap Music goes, the Ghetto is teaming with young men who can cuss in rhyme. Talent is guaranteed to be cheap, and Capitalism will be predisposed to give us as little as possible for what we are willing to spend.
Yes, Capitalism argues that it is only providing for demand, and if we wanted Quality then it would provide Quality. Yes, if only that were true. However, from my own life experience I know perfectly well that Capitalism does all it can do to Shape Tastes. Very little Propaganda is Political. Most is commercial – they call it advertising in most cases, but the shaping of Public Taste is done at many levels. Now, think about almost the entire 20th Century and you will see one solid trend, if anything, and that is that Quality and Established Culture in the Arts, of almost anything bought and sold, was portrayed as elitist, pretentious – basically ‘uncool’… to use one of their low-quality phrases. Tastes were deliberately dummed down, so that product could be churned out cheaper… so that nearly all returns could go directly to the Producers. Not only would Talent be kept as cheap as possible, but also Production. Simple things are easier and cheaper to produce than complex things, while, again, the asking price is the same.
We can track the Decline of our Musical Example. Big Bands replaced Orchestras. Impromptu off-the-cuff Jazz replaced composed and orchestrated music. Swing Bands replaced Big Bands. Then Rock and Roll replaced Bands. For a while Disco replaced even the small rock and roll bands. Now Rap has replaced Rock and Roll, and there are no musicians… just noise technicians – spitters and scratchers. Look at the credits on any CD made today. Then find a record made 40 years ago. Music used to be an Industry that employed a lot of people for a living wage. A hundred years ago Musicians formed a sizeable Profession, several percent of the population were Professional Musicians, and a good percentage of them were even respectable – not reduced to playing down to the moronic tastes of idiot kids in drugged out clubs, but actually playing the best music ever conceived. That’s been wiped out except in Socialist Societies that continue to try to keep such things alive; however, it is almost a futile gesture, remembering that the talent pool has been so much constricted. When 3% of Society were trained musicians, then the Very Best were the very best of Very Many. Now, only a tiny fraction of people ever study music, and it is likely that the best of that tiny fraction might not be very good at all. There’s not been a decent concerto written in 50 years. Some years the Chopin Award is not given because nobody who shows up for the competition is deemed worthy to even compete for it. We are on the verge of pronouncing Music a dead Art.
Literature also cultivated a Coolness, substituting an uneducated style for the Snotty Didactic University Style… again, maybe it is only a coincidence that the more primitive styles are less costly to produce. Hemingway made a career out of convincing the Public that anything written beyond the reach of a sixth grader was artificial. Well, duh. And since Hemingway little has been written much worth reading. You see, the Art in Artificial was what made literature worth the trouble. Now we have plots and pornography that anybody can understand, even dropouts. And its all on the New York Times Bestsellers List.
People are willing partners in the conspiracy to have themselves dummed down. Give Easy Ignorance an excuse to feel superior to arduously acquired Culture, and the dummies will grab it up like Free Beer.
Yes, there is the argument that a dummed down Culture is accessible to everybody but an elaborate and Educated Culture would have to be Selective and Elitist. Well, yes, but only if it were predetermined that most people would be deprived of a higher education. Yes, in America it is Public Policy to require Education only up to the age of 16. Then only High School Educations are provided for, and after that students must fend for themselves. That’s all a matter of Public Policy which could certainly be changed. Higher Education would lead to Higher Salaries which would amass more Tax Revenues – it would pay for itself. One argument against it is that it would attack the Class Privilege that now deliberately aims at limiting the access to Higher Education. The other argument against it is that the Ruling Party has found that lesser educated people vote for the Ruling Party – no Politician is going to mess with a Social Formula that brought him into power to begin with. No matter how much they speak of ‘change’, it is the Status Quo that brought them their success, and we can expect that they will do little to kill the goose that laid their golden egg, so to speak. Anyway, it follows that the Culture would be Dummed Down so that the Victims of this Policy of Class Privilege and Manipulated Voting will perhaps not notice their victimization – if the Culture of the Common Man is the only thing they see, then they will not feel as though they are being deprived of anything. And the stratagem has largely worked – the great majority of people feel as content as pigs in mud.
Also we need to consider that in Cultural Matters, formal education may have very little to do with anything. Look at the Cultural Climate that supported the Big Bands or High Literature. Kids grew up with such things and became educated up to its level by their exposure to it. People acquired their High Tastes on their own. It was something of a trick for the Producers to convince people of High Taste to be ashamed of their Elitism and Artificiality, but such is the power of Social Stigma used as a weapon by those only interested in The Profit Motive.
Well, Music and Literature are only examples. Every Capitalist Producer of anything has a financial interest in keeping his costs as low as possible, his own organization as small as possible. and so also has an interest in keeping popular tastes as low and as simplistic as possible. In matters of Taste, this has proved to have been easy for them. Manufactured Goods present a different problem, and one where American Capitalism has fallen into its most obvious areas of failure. Stuff has to work right and last a long time without breaking down. It is almost impossible to convince even the most susceptible imbeciles that broken and poorly performing manufactured goods are ‘cooler’ than working and reliable manufactured goods (Harley Davidson Motorcycles being a notable exception).
In Manufacturing the Trend toward dummed down simplicity and stripped down Production Teams works against a Quality that is almost necessary. The Profit Motive, it’s surprising to say, works against Manufacturers. Simply look at the success that the Authoritarian and Socialist Regimes have had in manufacturing. They are better at coordinating necessarily large Organizations. Russia beat Germany in WWII simply by producing more tanks, more weapons. Then the Far East’s success in the Automotive and Electronics Markets were not about stripping down their Production Facilities but about coordinating their entire National Capacities. For them it was about National Efforts to Win the Peace, when in America it was only about isolated attempts at augmenting the private profits of relatively few people.
Then there is the matter throughout the West of Private Companies and even Governments being infiltrated by Secret Societies, to the effect that Job Placement and Promotions are being conducted by the Secret Societies for the benefit of the Secret Societies. Engineering Firms, Manufacturers, almost any sizeable company is no longer assured that the Best People are being utilized, not when their Human Resource Offices have been taken over by Secret Societies. America, and even Western Europe cannot compete in the Auto or Electronics Markets when their Chief Engineers know nothing about Engineering but get their Big Offices because they are 32 Degree Masons. The Success of Asia may be attributed to nothing more than the fact that they have not YET been infiltrated by Masons.
Oh, and then the West has another problem with divided loyalties – the Company vs. the Unions dynamic. It must be extremely difficult for any worker to feel loyalty to a company, and to support its efforts toward Quality Control, when that Company so openly attacks his interests every few years, in order to give the Worker the worst contract possible. Its all very loud and its all very public. Workers and Company become bitter enemies, and all the ill feelings and grudges are barely forgotten when it becomes Contract Time again. How can one expect any Decent Product to emerge from such a bitter and vengeful process? But nearly every product from either America or Europe might as well be stamped with a Logo that says “Made With Hate and Distrust”. Yet it is the Business Model that America is trying to foist on the rest of the World… so that everybody can be as Happy!?
It should be noted that Government has very little to do with any of the above mentioned problems. This comes as a surprise to us, after the 20th Century which tried so hard to convince us that any problem anywhere was probably traceable to some Government Interference into the Saintly Affairs of kindly and well meaning Private Individuals. But, really, when the real Threat is understood, then we find that Government is not the Problem at all – “1984” and “Brave New World” were completely wrong about what the real Future Threat would be. Indeed, a Strong Government, independent and superior to Business and Private Interests would be Civilization’s only Hope. Just think about it for a moment, the difference in motivations between working for The Public Interest and the selfish and personal considerations of the Profit Motive. A quick look at History will show that the Old Government Bureaucracies and the Universities had a decent record in regards to the Public Interest. The Modern Regimes in the Far East also are not doing so badly in terms of their Public Interest. Certainly even a Mixed Record in regards to The Public Interest is better than any degree of success with what amounts to a cannibalistic and predatory Profit Motive. Screwing over People to get their money for the least possible trouble does not advance Civilization, but as we have seen it operate in America, Civilization is destroyed, first in fits and starts, but ultimately, completely.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Saturday, July 5, 2008
The Columbian Rescue Beyond Corruption
I really did not see it coming. It was so integral to Latin American Culture that one could expect nothing to be done that was at all vulnerable to corruption, disloyalty or betrayal. One could expect one set of soldiers or policemen to be taking money to give away secret plans; expect another set to give up secrets because they have friends and family among the enemies and criminals; and a third set who gives up their trust because they fear reprisal and are under the compulsion of threats. I had thought that American dollars provided to Latin American regimes was largely poured down the drain… again, into the pockets of the Corrupt.
Then came word that a complex long term operation had been pulled off apparently without a hitch. It was a project that could have been completely spoiled had the least hint gotten out. Indeed, there had been some betrayals, but it was from the Revolutionary FARC side of it. Again, let me emphasize that where Religious Morality is shunned, there remains no Morality. While people in neutral situations still may know the difference between Right and Wrong, whenever tensions and pressures are ratcheted up people do what is personally convenient. Without God watching, NOBODY is watching and people, while comforting themselves that they still KNOW the difference between right and wrong, will do what makes their life easier and more convenient. Who would know? In the case of Columbia, this time, The Revolutionary FARC proved vulnerable to Modern Amoral Materialistic Pressures. But the Government Side had somehow rallied.
It would be interesting to know how they, the Columbians, did it. How were so many operatives kept so uncharacteristically honest? I don’t think that it is a new Cultural Milieu… there are still so many signs of Corruption elsewhere – the Anti-Drug De-Forestation Flights that cost Americans billions of dollars to Fund, largely target swaths of neutral forest as there is simply too much money floating around to persuade the Targeting Offices and the Flight Crews not to drop their loads on perfectly good coca plants. Satellite data coming in shows that there is MORE acreage being planted with drug crops than ever before – upwards of 20% more. No, Corruption is still a major cultural contributor in the social and political and economic dynamics of Latin America.
But in that one particular Police/Military Operation they managed to keep Corruption completely frozen out. All of Latin America needs to go to School on how this was accomplished. Perhaps Anglo Protestant America also. With all the Crime in Latin America being denominated in American Dollars, one can’t help but to think that there may be some little bit of American Police Corruption contributing to the collective trouble. In fact I wonder of cases where Hispanic Personnel have taken on key responsibilities in America. If this same cultural mix on the Other Side of the Border is so prone to Corruption, then what is it on the American Side of the Line that is supposed to keep these people Honest? If it is NOT a concern, then that makes us all wonder whether the Broader Law Enforcement Culture simply does not look at Corruption as a problem, but more like a fringe benefit available to everybody who gets a Badge and a Free Mason Pin. Maybe the ONLY people who are being arrested are the one’s that have not been making their pay offs, or they are busting only new criminal operations popping up as competition to the Old Established Criminal Operations that have their Partners in Law Enforcement. After all, one NEVER sees these Criminals being interviewed on TV or in the Newspapers. If the Criminals have any pertinent observations concerning the honesty of American Law Enforcement Institutions, its all being successfully muffled. America enjoys Freedom of the Press, but it maybe very coincidental that the American Press only shows one Viewpoint, and that Viewpoint is from the vantage point of the Institutionalized Powers. Cops are interviewed on TV. Soldiers are interviewed. Criminals and ‘Terrorists’ are never within a mile of a microphone. As a matter of fact, even when we are told that certain very famous Terrorists have released statement, we are not given the text, but must trust our Freedom Loving Reporters when they assure us it was all just mad ranting and gibberish. Oh, and prior to the run-up to the Iraq Invasion we were not given more than 5 words in a row of anything a Certain Iraqi Dictator had been saying in his own defense. Oh, and now, even with Iranians Politicians traveling in the West, we are not given transcripts of any speeches, but are only given certain old clips of snippets of ‘crazy talk’ and our Freedom Loving Reporters assure us that everything these Enemy Politicians have to say is mad ranting and gibberish. We are all Free to know that nothing our Enemies have to say is worth hearing. Anyway, the applicable point here is that our Freedom Loving Press may be isolating us from any view of Bad News or any Perspective that may show that Corruption is not a uniquely Latin Problem.
Then, considering the Structures of Morality, it would be difficult to conclude that America would not have a BIG problem with Corruption. After all, Protestant Culture freely disseminates the viewpoint that All Sins are Forgiven. If all Sins are Forgiven, how does this not make Corruption a huge Opportunity? Corruption can make one rich, AND it’s forgiven! Then why not? Then, if one thinks one is an Elect of God (that is, if one is a Presbyterian) then one would see it as almost an Entitlement – the Poor are damned as everybody knows (well, every Presbyterian knows). If one is Saved then one needs to demonstrate that Status of Election with a Certain Standard of Living. God’s Rewards to his Elect on Earth are not subtle. And one must remember that people really believe this stuff – that unless they reach a certain level of Conspicuous Consumption then their Eternal Salvation may be seriously in doubt. To these Mainstream Presbyterians, Corruption may be their only perceived Avenue toward Religious Salvation. Now, opposed to these almost Moral Incentives to participate in Corruption, what is there that is supposed to keep people honest. There is the Fear of getting Caught, but this may be within a Community that has all tacitly agreed among each other to ‘look the other way’. Cops are like school children in their insistence on not tattling on each other.
Anyway… back to Columbia – yes, even after the most cynical reflections, there remains this Most Important Surprise that the Columbians did manage a huge complex long drawn out operation without the slightest bit of Corruption. They deserve the greatest and clearest and most unqualified Congratulations. Indeed, the rest of us should be a bit worried. With such brilliant and powerful Integrity, who could possibly stop such a Team? Remember what Joseph Stalin once said, “With ten completely loyal men I could conquer the World”.
Well, it looks like Columbia has found its “10 Loyal Men”. The Rest of the World needs to stand back and see what they can do next.
Then came word that a complex long term operation had been pulled off apparently without a hitch. It was a project that could have been completely spoiled had the least hint gotten out. Indeed, there had been some betrayals, but it was from the Revolutionary FARC side of it. Again, let me emphasize that where Religious Morality is shunned, there remains no Morality. While people in neutral situations still may know the difference between Right and Wrong, whenever tensions and pressures are ratcheted up people do what is personally convenient. Without God watching, NOBODY is watching and people, while comforting themselves that they still KNOW the difference between right and wrong, will do what makes their life easier and more convenient. Who would know? In the case of Columbia, this time, The Revolutionary FARC proved vulnerable to Modern Amoral Materialistic Pressures. But the Government Side had somehow rallied.
It would be interesting to know how they, the Columbians, did it. How were so many operatives kept so uncharacteristically honest? I don’t think that it is a new Cultural Milieu… there are still so many signs of Corruption elsewhere – the Anti-Drug De-Forestation Flights that cost Americans billions of dollars to Fund, largely target swaths of neutral forest as there is simply too much money floating around to persuade the Targeting Offices and the Flight Crews not to drop their loads on perfectly good coca plants. Satellite data coming in shows that there is MORE acreage being planted with drug crops than ever before – upwards of 20% more. No, Corruption is still a major cultural contributor in the social and political and economic dynamics of Latin America.
But in that one particular Police/Military Operation they managed to keep Corruption completely frozen out. All of Latin America needs to go to School on how this was accomplished. Perhaps Anglo Protestant America also. With all the Crime in Latin America being denominated in American Dollars, one can’t help but to think that there may be some little bit of American Police Corruption contributing to the collective trouble. In fact I wonder of cases where Hispanic Personnel have taken on key responsibilities in America. If this same cultural mix on the Other Side of the Border is so prone to Corruption, then what is it on the American Side of the Line that is supposed to keep these people Honest? If it is NOT a concern, then that makes us all wonder whether the Broader Law Enforcement Culture simply does not look at Corruption as a problem, but more like a fringe benefit available to everybody who gets a Badge and a Free Mason Pin. Maybe the ONLY people who are being arrested are the one’s that have not been making their pay offs, or they are busting only new criminal operations popping up as competition to the Old Established Criminal Operations that have their Partners in Law Enforcement. After all, one NEVER sees these Criminals being interviewed on TV or in the Newspapers. If the Criminals have any pertinent observations concerning the honesty of American Law Enforcement Institutions, its all being successfully muffled. America enjoys Freedom of the Press, but it maybe very coincidental that the American Press only shows one Viewpoint, and that Viewpoint is from the vantage point of the Institutionalized Powers. Cops are interviewed on TV. Soldiers are interviewed. Criminals and ‘Terrorists’ are never within a mile of a microphone. As a matter of fact, even when we are told that certain very famous Terrorists have released statement, we are not given the text, but must trust our Freedom Loving Reporters when they assure us it was all just mad ranting and gibberish. Oh, and prior to the run-up to the Iraq Invasion we were not given more than 5 words in a row of anything a Certain Iraqi Dictator had been saying in his own defense. Oh, and now, even with Iranians Politicians traveling in the West, we are not given transcripts of any speeches, but are only given certain old clips of snippets of ‘crazy talk’ and our Freedom Loving Reporters assure us that everything these Enemy Politicians have to say is mad ranting and gibberish. We are all Free to know that nothing our Enemies have to say is worth hearing. Anyway, the applicable point here is that our Freedom Loving Press may be isolating us from any view of Bad News or any Perspective that may show that Corruption is not a uniquely Latin Problem.
Then, considering the Structures of Morality, it would be difficult to conclude that America would not have a BIG problem with Corruption. After all, Protestant Culture freely disseminates the viewpoint that All Sins are Forgiven. If all Sins are Forgiven, how does this not make Corruption a huge Opportunity? Corruption can make one rich, AND it’s forgiven! Then why not? Then, if one thinks one is an Elect of God (that is, if one is a Presbyterian) then one would see it as almost an Entitlement – the Poor are damned as everybody knows (well, every Presbyterian knows). If one is Saved then one needs to demonstrate that Status of Election with a Certain Standard of Living. God’s Rewards to his Elect on Earth are not subtle. And one must remember that people really believe this stuff – that unless they reach a certain level of Conspicuous Consumption then their Eternal Salvation may be seriously in doubt. To these Mainstream Presbyterians, Corruption may be their only perceived Avenue toward Religious Salvation. Now, opposed to these almost Moral Incentives to participate in Corruption, what is there that is supposed to keep people honest. There is the Fear of getting Caught, but this may be within a Community that has all tacitly agreed among each other to ‘look the other way’. Cops are like school children in their insistence on not tattling on each other.
Anyway… back to Columbia – yes, even after the most cynical reflections, there remains this Most Important Surprise that the Columbians did manage a huge complex long drawn out operation without the slightest bit of Corruption. They deserve the greatest and clearest and most unqualified Congratulations. Indeed, the rest of us should be a bit worried. With such brilliant and powerful Integrity, who could possibly stop such a Team? Remember what Joseph Stalin once said, “With ten completely loyal men I could conquer the World”.
Well, it looks like Columbia has found its “10 Loyal Men”. The Rest of the World needs to stand back and see what they can do next.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Paulo Coelho The Alchemist: Materialism Posing As Spirituality
Paulo Coelho The Alchemist: Materialism Posing As Spirituality
Honesty, I wonder what people believe being tempted by the Devil would appear to be like, or perhaps such a concept has been totally forgotten in this new enlightened day and Age. But in “The Alchemist” we are shown the scenario where an individual agrees to abandon society and all sense of duty, and goes off in pursuit of every sensual pleasure and enough treasure to buy us all and make the World his Slaves. We are told this is a ‘Spiritual Metaphor’. Well, then, what would a Sensualist Metaphor be like? Anyway, the ‘moral’ of the story, if one could call it that, is that the Universe will reward such a person with an almost infinite bounty, and for what? – for such a concentrated focus on his own Selfishness and single-minded Egotism. That’s right, the more one abandons Society and flips off Civilization the more will be one’s own ‘Spiritual’ Reward.
So that’s why God has not been answering our prayers. We hadn’t been Greedy or Selfish enough! It’s a good thing we have authors like Paulo Coelho to point that out for us.
Of course this is an inversion of our Old Religious Wisdoms. All this would not be so bad if we were told outright that it would be Satan who would provide us with all this plunder, but, no, we are asked to believe that it is God who is the One funding all this Corruption. God’s Plan! I suppose this is why Paulo Coelho is respected as a new innovative writer. It does take some degree of innovation to switch the places of God and Satan, and then to have people believe it. Bravo!
But does this Moral switch and turn really hold up? If God is now patronizing Greed, then what is Satan up to? Shouldn’t we rather suppose that God is still FOR Civilization, and that Satan would be the one who would encourage treachery and the overthrow all Responsibility and Duty. God is FOR Society. That hasn’t changed. Satan is the guy who lures souls away with temptations and promises, no? When was all of this forgotten? I suppose when Religious Education was abandoned, so too was discontinued any warning wisdoms concerning Religion’s Opposite. As much as people hate Religion, they need to consider that the Opposite of Religion might possibly be even worse. If people think that Religion has Moral Problems, then they can only stand back and see what Unashamed Materialism is capable of! But, really, while all our Modern Historians are ranting about all the trouble the Priests had caused, I wonder that they forget to mention the predations of the Vikings, the Huns, the Mongol Hordes – all those fine upstanding Barbarian Materialists who were practically free of all those corrupting influences of Institutionalized Church and Organized Religion.
Oh, and there is the important matter of Deception in Satanic Promises. People often forget that not every Promise MADE is a Promise KEPT. While a Reward is PROMISED to those who give up the productive work in Society to go off digging holes for buried Treasure in the Forest, the Truth is that Satan got what he wanted as soon as he first sowed the seeds of Social Disintegration. Satan laughs in the faces of those who would hold him to his Promises. Especially promises based on the flimsy tissue of supposing that if one wishes hard enough, completely enough, desperately enough, then the wishes will come true – that if one’s Faith is strong enough then God will provide for any lust or urge.
Well, the Truth is that the Doctrine of Faith has always been suspect. After all, it was Paul who taught of Faith – not any Real Apostle. So it may be the unfortunate Truth that we cannot rely solely upon the hope that our Wishes will come true. We might have to remember what they used to say before the New Age Movement took hold – “Get a Job”. You want something, then join with the rest of Society, and earn it – take your even slice of the pie and be Happy with that.
In every Civilization, particularly with those Civilizations that actually lasted and functioned well for some period of time, it had been the expression of the Religious and Spiritual Institutions that the Individual had to make sacrifices, that the Individual would give himself for the good of All. The Saint would live his life for and give his life for the good of the Many. It wasn’t about hoping that God would aggrandize certain special individuals – those who could find just the right Magic Formula or Secret Prayer. The Idea was that everybody would contribute together for a Better Total Life Force, and that in a certain sense God could be considered our Shared Common Being. In that view any Personal Quest would only subtract from the Whole, leaving the rest of us poorer.
But really, I suppose Humanity is at an Evolutionary Crossroads. Are we Herd Animals or lone predators. Are we the Sheep that Christ envisioned us to be? Or are we cannibalistic New Age Wolves?
And then even apart from my philosophical and moral objections to the book, I must add that I found the book so dry and artless. “The Alchemist” doesn’t even pretend to want to corrupt some pure and worthy individual. Drawing up an interesting and noble character was perhaps beyond the capacities of the Author. The “hero” of the story is a young man who was bored with the advanced intellectual and spiritual education he might have gotten in Seminary, and so persuaded his obviously well-off father to buy him his own business, an entire herd of sheep, so he could bum around, drinking wine all day and forever scheme to seduce the daughters of his customers. No innocence here (the French Translation laying it out much more clearly than the stayed and prudish English edition). All the hero’s thoughts are in some mundane imbecilic rut… or maybe the author thinks that’s how everybody thinks – the most interesting piece of the book not coming from the author’s mind at all but taken directly from Oscar Wilde (search Narcissus, Poems in Prose, the Disciple), and maybe it was suggested by somebody on the Editor’s Team who had the intuition that the book should not be entirely dummed down and stupid. Anyway, the most extraordinary thing about the book’s Hero is just how extraordinary he isn’t. He is different from us only by being worse – lazier, stupider. But despite all that, we are to suppose that God or Satan, as the case may be, could find no better Target for their Temptations – in the Entire World the best that God or the Devil could come up with was just some everyday ordinary lazy good for nothing sensualist wine-soaked parasitic bum. It just doesn’t make any sense to me, Moral or Artistic. This is not the makings of great storytelling and drama. One should have some sympathy for the main character of a book. But with this character… I needed to wash my hands every time I even touched that book.
I had just come off of re-reading Thomas Hardy’s “Jude the Obscure” where the hero is exactly the opposite of “The Alchemist’s” little dirtbag. Hardy’s hero, as a young man, wanted above all things to go to School and participate in the World of the Intellect. “The Alchemist’s” little dirt bag, Paulo Coelho’s anti-hero, on the other-hand, placed in University by Family Privilege, felt simply bored by it all. Yes, Hardy’s hero confronts temptations (Life for many of us is a tension between our Ideals and our Temptations), but with Hardy’s character the ideals remained intact. Paulo Coelho’s hero, has no ideals. As the Book goes along his Wish List gets bigger, and that’s it. Coelho gives us a character who has the soul of a Bug, the definitive quintessential ‘Low-life’ if there ever had been, and we are supposed to consider THAT to be our New Age ideal.
Then there is the matter of Coelho’s approval of a Father supporting his son’s rejection of respectability and descent into dissipation – congratulating a Father for concluding that his son must learn wisdom on his own. You know, during the actual time that this book is meant to portray, fathers rather insisted upon their authority and they were also wise enough, then as now, to know that by the time their stupid children learned anything on their own, it would be too late to do anything about it. Mistakes are irredeemable, and one can’t un-ring the tolling Bells of our Lives. One is more often than not crippled by the mistakes that give us the Experience we think we need for Life, and while we Know, we can no longer Do. It would be so much better if we would only listen to our Fathers. Some do. Look at Asia.
Humans were once considered more advanced than the Apes because Humans could pass down knowledge from generation to generation. And not just Knowledge, but Property also. You know, if knowledge could be ignored by headstrong children, than institutions of Property and Power could serve to enforce Parental Authority until the Young Ones finally mature… as they say, “Life begins at 40”. Sons do not remain imbeciles forever, but until they do mature, a viable set of Civilized Institutions should be in place to protect them from themselves. And one very important Institution which should remain intact is that a Father has every right to tell a son what to do – Forever! Not just until a boy reaches the age of 21. After all, we all know what nonsense it is to say that a 21 year old is an Adult. Yes, they are big. But children in their twenties and even some in their thirties are notoriously inexperienced and lacking in judgment. It is for their own good that every Civilized encouragement be given to support the authority and responsibility of their Fathers, in telling their tall and bearded children what to do, to advance their material wellbeing and to keep them out of trouble. But, now with Paulo Coelho’s little “The Alchemist” tract, we are being asked to revert back to the Apes who must start every generation afresh. If only Monkeys could talk, surely they could give us a Chronicle of the Same Mistakes, over and over again. But if they could talk, maybe they would be wise enough to obviate the Problem. Not like Human Beings who can Talk but Won’t. Human Parents are now expected to just Shut Up and let their children go off wild and on their own – to run off and look for Hidden Treasure… a metaphor for finding themselves! Is it not rather that they are wasting themselves? And Life is often too short for second chances. Perhaps another book needs to be written, telling young people that Mistakes can’t be so easily taken back. Call the Book “Listen to Your Parents”. We can be better than the apes if we really really try.
Oh, and there are other reasons to detest that little book “The Alchemist”. Apparently the Author has some interest in the Business End of New Age-ism, or maybe he simply passes along certain New Age tenets by rote conditioning. Again and again we have the constant New Age chant about giving any New Age Representative who should happen by 10% of one’s fortune. Give a little to get a lot. Yes, of course, so it will be returned by a hundredfold. That’s what they all say, but typically the people who say such things are happy getting their 10% from the people silly enough to listen. Do the math – if some New Age Guru gets only ten people to hand over 10%, then he can quit his Day Job. And if he perpetuates this Swindle in the name of an IRS Registered Religion, then it’s even Tax Free. God Bless America!
And this is hardest of all to understand… that ordinary people are so willing to hand over every Spiritual Laurel to such obvious, such overt Money Grubbers, Chisellers, Swindlers... whose only claim to Art is their Con-artistry. There’s nothing to recommend the books. Are they not written at something like the 4th Grade Level? (Wouldn’t wish to alienate all those nice working women because they never went to College… or High School… or Junior High…) There is nothing subtle about the Predatory Greed of these New Age Gurus. The Price Lists are often right on their Menus. The Gurus Un-Conditional Love is overflowing only after the Check clears. Why is it that Spiritual Leaders are allowed behaviors that would not be tolerated in friends or family? I can only suppose it is a case in which Nice People refuse to admit to themselves that there can be Evil in the World. Nice People don’t want to believe that some Honored and Respected author standing there smiling at them, shaking their hand, flattering them, can actually be some Two Faced Liar and a Thief. So they extend the benefit of every doubt. Oh, yes, and of course it is drilled into them that their Doubts are simply manifestations of Lack of Faith… and we mustn’t have that, must we? So nobody cries ‘Wolf!’. And the Wolves take advantage.
It’s ultimately the fault of the Publishers. Because these trashy books obviously appeal to a sizeable market segment, like pornography, they are published. It little concerns these Publishing People that real damage is being done to Society in general and to True Religion. Their argument is that they are only giving people what they want, and it is up to the people themselves to make their own Moral Decisions. But the question arises as to whether every person has the Intelligence necessary to support any real sense of Moral Responsibility. Yes, most everybody knows Right from Wrong if the conditions are kept simple and easy. But Moral Deception and Trickery always come with a degree of Complexity – the cards are shuffled and the pea is hid under the moving shells. The truth is that many people simply do not have the intellectual wherewithal to keep themselves from being easily deceived. Show them the Truth and Show them a Pretty but False Picture, and while their Limited Intellects can’t tell much of a difference, they WILL have an emotional preference for what they FEEL is Pretty. The Greater Part of the Masses do not Think, they FEEL. And feelings can be manipulated apart from all Rationality. And the Publishers know that they are providing these Counterfeit Choices. After all, while they are willing to take advantage of everybody else’s stupidity, they are probably very smart themselves. In that sense, there is no doubt concerning their Moral Responsibility.
Honesty, I wonder what people believe being tempted by the Devil would appear to be like, or perhaps such a concept has been totally forgotten in this new enlightened day and Age. But in “The Alchemist” we are shown the scenario where an individual agrees to abandon society and all sense of duty, and goes off in pursuit of every sensual pleasure and enough treasure to buy us all and make the World his Slaves. We are told this is a ‘Spiritual Metaphor’. Well, then, what would a Sensualist Metaphor be like? Anyway, the ‘moral’ of the story, if one could call it that, is that the Universe will reward such a person with an almost infinite bounty, and for what? – for such a concentrated focus on his own Selfishness and single-minded Egotism. That’s right, the more one abandons Society and flips off Civilization the more will be one’s own ‘Spiritual’ Reward.
So that’s why God has not been answering our prayers. We hadn’t been Greedy or Selfish enough! It’s a good thing we have authors like Paulo Coelho to point that out for us.
Of course this is an inversion of our Old Religious Wisdoms. All this would not be so bad if we were told outright that it would be Satan who would provide us with all this plunder, but, no, we are asked to believe that it is God who is the One funding all this Corruption. God’s Plan! I suppose this is why Paulo Coelho is respected as a new innovative writer. It does take some degree of innovation to switch the places of God and Satan, and then to have people believe it. Bravo!
But does this Moral switch and turn really hold up? If God is now patronizing Greed, then what is Satan up to? Shouldn’t we rather suppose that God is still FOR Civilization, and that Satan would be the one who would encourage treachery and the overthrow all Responsibility and Duty. God is FOR Society. That hasn’t changed. Satan is the guy who lures souls away with temptations and promises, no? When was all of this forgotten? I suppose when Religious Education was abandoned, so too was discontinued any warning wisdoms concerning Religion’s Opposite. As much as people hate Religion, they need to consider that the Opposite of Religion might possibly be even worse. If people think that Religion has Moral Problems, then they can only stand back and see what Unashamed Materialism is capable of! But, really, while all our Modern Historians are ranting about all the trouble the Priests had caused, I wonder that they forget to mention the predations of the Vikings, the Huns, the Mongol Hordes – all those fine upstanding Barbarian Materialists who were practically free of all those corrupting influences of Institutionalized Church and Organized Religion.
Oh, and there is the important matter of Deception in Satanic Promises. People often forget that not every Promise MADE is a Promise KEPT. While a Reward is PROMISED to those who give up the productive work in Society to go off digging holes for buried Treasure in the Forest, the Truth is that Satan got what he wanted as soon as he first sowed the seeds of Social Disintegration. Satan laughs in the faces of those who would hold him to his Promises. Especially promises based on the flimsy tissue of supposing that if one wishes hard enough, completely enough, desperately enough, then the wishes will come true – that if one’s Faith is strong enough then God will provide for any lust or urge.
Well, the Truth is that the Doctrine of Faith has always been suspect. After all, it was Paul who taught of Faith – not any Real Apostle. So it may be the unfortunate Truth that we cannot rely solely upon the hope that our Wishes will come true. We might have to remember what they used to say before the New Age Movement took hold – “Get a Job”. You want something, then join with the rest of Society, and earn it – take your even slice of the pie and be Happy with that.
In every Civilization, particularly with those Civilizations that actually lasted and functioned well for some period of time, it had been the expression of the Religious and Spiritual Institutions that the Individual had to make sacrifices, that the Individual would give himself for the good of All. The Saint would live his life for and give his life for the good of the Many. It wasn’t about hoping that God would aggrandize certain special individuals – those who could find just the right Magic Formula or Secret Prayer. The Idea was that everybody would contribute together for a Better Total Life Force, and that in a certain sense God could be considered our Shared Common Being. In that view any Personal Quest would only subtract from the Whole, leaving the rest of us poorer.
But really, I suppose Humanity is at an Evolutionary Crossroads. Are we Herd Animals or lone predators. Are we the Sheep that Christ envisioned us to be? Or are we cannibalistic New Age Wolves?
And then even apart from my philosophical and moral objections to the book, I must add that I found the book so dry and artless. “The Alchemist” doesn’t even pretend to want to corrupt some pure and worthy individual. Drawing up an interesting and noble character was perhaps beyond the capacities of the Author. The “hero” of the story is a young man who was bored with the advanced intellectual and spiritual education he might have gotten in Seminary, and so persuaded his obviously well-off father to buy him his own business, an entire herd of sheep, so he could bum around, drinking wine all day and forever scheme to seduce the daughters of his customers. No innocence here (the French Translation laying it out much more clearly than the stayed and prudish English edition). All the hero’s thoughts are in some mundane imbecilic rut… or maybe the author thinks that’s how everybody thinks – the most interesting piece of the book not coming from the author’s mind at all but taken directly from Oscar Wilde (search Narcissus, Poems in Prose, the Disciple), and maybe it was suggested by somebody on the Editor’s Team who had the intuition that the book should not be entirely dummed down and stupid. Anyway, the most extraordinary thing about the book’s Hero is just how extraordinary he isn’t. He is different from us only by being worse – lazier, stupider. But despite all that, we are to suppose that God or Satan, as the case may be, could find no better Target for their Temptations – in the Entire World the best that God or the Devil could come up with was just some everyday ordinary lazy good for nothing sensualist wine-soaked parasitic bum. It just doesn’t make any sense to me, Moral or Artistic. This is not the makings of great storytelling and drama. One should have some sympathy for the main character of a book. But with this character… I needed to wash my hands every time I even touched that book.
I had just come off of re-reading Thomas Hardy’s “Jude the Obscure” where the hero is exactly the opposite of “The Alchemist’s” little dirtbag. Hardy’s hero, as a young man, wanted above all things to go to School and participate in the World of the Intellect. “The Alchemist’s” little dirt bag, Paulo Coelho’s anti-hero, on the other-hand, placed in University by Family Privilege, felt simply bored by it all. Yes, Hardy’s hero confronts temptations (Life for many of us is a tension between our Ideals and our Temptations), but with Hardy’s character the ideals remained intact. Paulo Coelho’s hero, has no ideals. As the Book goes along his Wish List gets bigger, and that’s it. Coelho gives us a character who has the soul of a Bug, the definitive quintessential ‘Low-life’ if there ever had been, and we are supposed to consider THAT to be our New Age ideal.
Then there is the matter of Coelho’s approval of a Father supporting his son’s rejection of respectability and descent into dissipation – congratulating a Father for concluding that his son must learn wisdom on his own. You know, during the actual time that this book is meant to portray, fathers rather insisted upon their authority and they were also wise enough, then as now, to know that by the time their stupid children learned anything on their own, it would be too late to do anything about it. Mistakes are irredeemable, and one can’t un-ring the tolling Bells of our Lives. One is more often than not crippled by the mistakes that give us the Experience we think we need for Life, and while we Know, we can no longer Do. It would be so much better if we would only listen to our Fathers. Some do. Look at Asia.
Humans were once considered more advanced than the Apes because Humans could pass down knowledge from generation to generation. And not just Knowledge, but Property also. You know, if knowledge could be ignored by headstrong children, than institutions of Property and Power could serve to enforce Parental Authority until the Young Ones finally mature… as they say, “Life begins at 40”. Sons do not remain imbeciles forever, but until they do mature, a viable set of Civilized Institutions should be in place to protect them from themselves. And one very important Institution which should remain intact is that a Father has every right to tell a son what to do – Forever! Not just until a boy reaches the age of 21. After all, we all know what nonsense it is to say that a 21 year old is an Adult. Yes, they are big. But children in their twenties and even some in their thirties are notoriously inexperienced and lacking in judgment. It is for their own good that every Civilized encouragement be given to support the authority and responsibility of their Fathers, in telling their tall and bearded children what to do, to advance their material wellbeing and to keep them out of trouble. But, now with Paulo Coelho’s little “The Alchemist” tract, we are being asked to revert back to the Apes who must start every generation afresh. If only Monkeys could talk, surely they could give us a Chronicle of the Same Mistakes, over and over again. But if they could talk, maybe they would be wise enough to obviate the Problem. Not like Human Beings who can Talk but Won’t. Human Parents are now expected to just Shut Up and let their children go off wild and on their own – to run off and look for Hidden Treasure… a metaphor for finding themselves! Is it not rather that they are wasting themselves? And Life is often too short for second chances. Perhaps another book needs to be written, telling young people that Mistakes can’t be so easily taken back. Call the Book “Listen to Your Parents”. We can be better than the apes if we really really try.
Oh, and there are other reasons to detest that little book “The Alchemist”. Apparently the Author has some interest in the Business End of New Age-ism, or maybe he simply passes along certain New Age tenets by rote conditioning. Again and again we have the constant New Age chant about giving any New Age Representative who should happen by 10% of one’s fortune. Give a little to get a lot. Yes, of course, so it will be returned by a hundredfold. That’s what they all say, but typically the people who say such things are happy getting their 10% from the people silly enough to listen. Do the math – if some New Age Guru gets only ten people to hand over 10%, then he can quit his Day Job. And if he perpetuates this Swindle in the name of an IRS Registered Religion, then it’s even Tax Free. God Bless America!
And this is hardest of all to understand… that ordinary people are so willing to hand over every Spiritual Laurel to such obvious, such overt Money Grubbers, Chisellers, Swindlers... whose only claim to Art is their Con-artistry. There’s nothing to recommend the books. Are they not written at something like the 4th Grade Level? (Wouldn’t wish to alienate all those nice working women because they never went to College… or High School… or Junior High…) There is nothing subtle about the Predatory Greed of these New Age Gurus. The Price Lists are often right on their Menus. The Gurus Un-Conditional Love is overflowing only after the Check clears. Why is it that Spiritual Leaders are allowed behaviors that would not be tolerated in friends or family? I can only suppose it is a case in which Nice People refuse to admit to themselves that there can be Evil in the World. Nice People don’t want to believe that some Honored and Respected author standing there smiling at them, shaking their hand, flattering them, can actually be some Two Faced Liar and a Thief. So they extend the benefit of every doubt. Oh, yes, and of course it is drilled into them that their Doubts are simply manifestations of Lack of Faith… and we mustn’t have that, must we? So nobody cries ‘Wolf!’. And the Wolves take advantage.
It’s ultimately the fault of the Publishers. Because these trashy books obviously appeal to a sizeable market segment, like pornography, they are published. It little concerns these Publishing People that real damage is being done to Society in general and to True Religion. Their argument is that they are only giving people what they want, and it is up to the people themselves to make their own Moral Decisions. But the question arises as to whether every person has the Intelligence necessary to support any real sense of Moral Responsibility. Yes, most everybody knows Right from Wrong if the conditions are kept simple and easy. But Moral Deception and Trickery always come with a degree of Complexity – the cards are shuffled and the pea is hid under the moving shells. The truth is that many people simply do not have the intellectual wherewithal to keep themselves from being easily deceived. Show them the Truth and Show them a Pretty but False Picture, and while their Limited Intellects can’t tell much of a difference, they WILL have an emotional preference for what they FEEL is Pretty. The Greater Part of the Masses do not Think, they FEEL. And feelings can be manipulated apart from all Rationality. And the Publishers know that they are providing these Counterfeit Choices. After all, while they are willing to take advantage of everybody else’s stupidity, they are probably very smart themselves. In that sense, there is no doubt concerning their Moral Responsibility.
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