Phantom Stranger

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Posts by Phantom Stranger

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  12

  A definition of "fundamentalism" - and a great passage

  by Phantom Stranger in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was reading the thread about the secular humanist's comment about jws, and the discussion about fundamentalism that follwed, and i was reminded of a book i read not too long ago.

  i dug it up and re-read the passage dealing with fundamentalism, and decided it was worth sharing - mostly because then some of you might go buy the book, and i think this book is the most inspiring i have ever read.

  i also thought that some of the comments described jws very well.. .

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  Phantom Stranger

  Maybe you should read the book.
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  124

  Amazing is back ... the Wheels of Justice have turned

  by Amazing1914 in

  1. forum
  2. announcements

  i am back from underground ... i have more to tell you than you can imagine ...

  i cannot use my old screen handle for now, but we are working on that, and it will be restored as soon as simon and i can get it done.

  so, simon has allowed me to create a new screen name for the time being.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Well, so much for the betting pool here that had you fishing in the bahamas!

  Thanks for the update and welcome back!
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  12

  A definition of "fundamentalism" - and a great passage

  by Phantom Stranger in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was reading the thread about the secular humanist's comment about jws, and the discussion about fundamentalism that follwed, and i was reminded of a book i read not too long ago.

  i dug it up and re-read the passage dealing with fundamentalism, and decided it was worth sharing - mostly because then some of you might go buy the book, and i think this book is the most inspiring i have ever read.

  i also thought that some of the comments described jws very well.. .

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  Phantom Stranger

  Dan, this also speaks to a question you posted some time back about the difference between being "for something" and against its opposite.
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  8

  Has anyone else asked this question about blood?

  by eyeslice in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  not too long back, when i was an elder still administering the advanced medical directive, i asked a question regarding blood fractions to which i never got a satisfactory answer.

  if a brother or a sister agrees to accept blood fractions then we need to be aware that these fractions have come from donated blood, very often not just a single donation but the result of extraction made from multiple donations.

  however, if i was found to be a source of a fraction that could save a brother or sister's life could i give blood in order to save them?

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  Phantom Stranger

  After asking questions like that, see where you are now!

  My mom recently went through a treatment that involved blood fractions, and she was very much concerned about it. I made sure not to ask too many questions... didn't want to queer the deal.
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  12

  A definition of "fundamentalism" - and a great passage

  by Phantom Stranger in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was reading the thread about the secular humanist's comment about jws, and the discussion about fundamentalism that follwed, and i was reminded of a book i read not too long ago.

  i dug it up and re-read the passage dealing with fundamentalism, and decided it was worth sharing - mostly because then some of you might go buy the book, and i think this book is the most inspiring i have ever read.

  i also thought that some of the comments described jws very well.. .

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  Phantom Stranger

  Yeah, but the Medicis weren't the actual artists, were they?

  I also think that this passage oversimplifies things (hard not to in 600 words), and I personally think that defeat and powerlessness are as widespread in "dominant" cultures as in "defeated" ones... but as you said, the spirit of the thing is apparent.
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  10

  Dreams

  by Elders_Kid in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it's been a while since i have posted here, but i still try to read a thread or two when i have time.. question: does anybody have dreams/nightmares about being a dub?

  over the course of the past couple of months, i have had some really realistic dreams about my younger days as a dub.

  usually they involve me in a heated argument with my parents about going door-to-door.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Never had any of those. Have never dreamed about it that I remember.

  A Jungian would tell you that there might be some other conflict or control issue triggering you to recall your folks and the WTS at this time. Me, I'm just some guy.
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  3

  Short recent history of const.gov't in Islamist states

  by Phantom Stranger in

  1. social
  2. current

  one iman, one vote

  what do islamists mean when they talk about democracy?

  by lee smith .

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  Phantom Stranger

  It's been pointed out by better writers than I (or at least more successful ones) that democracy has rarely flourished in lands without ingrained cultures of liberal republics... such as France and England in the 1700's.

  Knock down a counrty with a lousy set of laws, and a population who disrespects them, and erect an "instant democracy", and you have Russia, the Phillipines, various South American states, and plenty of African states too.
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  12

  A definition of "fundamentalism" - and a great passage

  by Phantom Stranger in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was reading the thread about the secular humanist's comment about jws, and the discussion about fundamentalism that follwed, and i was reminded of a book i read not too long ago.

  i dug it up and re-read the passage dealing with fundamentalism, and decided it was worth sharing - mostly because then some of you might go buy the book, and i think this book is the most inspiring i have ever read.

  i also thought that some of the comments described jws very well.. .

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Phantom Stranger

  I was reading the thread about the secular humanist's comment about JWs, and the discussion about fundamentalism that follwed, and I was reminded of a book I read not too long ago. I dug it up and re-read the passage dealing with fundamentalism, and decided it was worth sharing - mostly because then some of you might go buy the book, and I think this book is the most inspiring I have ever read. I also thought that some of the comments described JWs very well.
  

  It's The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield, a noted author and screenwriter. You can buy it here. (Please do!) The following short excerpt is under 600 words, and is late in the book, which is a short but not quick read about creating, and what we erect in our paths to prevent ourselves from doing so. If you are a nascent writer, artist, performer, or have a dream you won't let yourself pursue, buy this book.
  

  The artist and the fundamentalist both confront the same issue, the mystery of their existence as individuals. Each asks the same questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of my life?

  At more primitive stages of evolution, mankind didn't have to deal with such questions. In the states of savagery, of barbarism, in nomadic culture, medieval society, in the tribe and the clan, one's position was fixed by the commandments of the community. It was only with the advent of modernity (starting with the ancient Greeks), that such matters ascended to the fore.

  These are not easy questions.Who am I? Why am I here? They're not easy because the human being is not wired to function as an individual. We're wired tribally, to act as part of a group. Our psyches are programmed by millions of years of hunter-gatherer evolution.We know what the clan is; we know how to fit into the band and the tribe. What we don't know is how to be alone. We don't know how to be free individuals.

  The artist and the fundamentalist arise from societies at different stages of development. The artist is the advanced model. His culture possesses affluence, stability, enough excess of resource to permit the luxury of self-examination.The artist is grounded in freedom. He is not afraid of it. He is lucky. He was born in the right place. He has a core of self-confidence, of hope in the future. He believes in progress and evolution. His faith is that humankind is advancing, however haltingly and imperfectly, toward a better world.

  The fundamentalist entertains no such notion. In his view, humanity has fallen from a higher state.The truth is not out there awaiting revelation; it has already been revealed. The word of God has been spoken and recorded by his prophet, be he Jesus, Muhammad, or Karl Marx.

  Fundamentalism is the philosophy of the powerless, the conquered, the displaced and the dispossessed. Its spawning ground is the wreckage of political and military defeat, as Hebrew fundamentalism arose during the Babylonian captivity, as white Christian fundamentalism appeared in the American South during Reconstruction, as the notion of the Master Race evolved in Germany after World War I... Islamic fundamentalism ascends from the same landscape of despair and possesses the same tremendous and potent appeal.

  What exactly is this despair? It is the despair of freedom. The dislocation and emasculation by the individual cut free from the familiar and comforting structures of the tribe, the clan, the villiage, and the family.

  It is the state of modern life.

  The fundamentalist (or, more accurately, the beleagured individual who comes to embrace fundamentalism), cannot stand freedom. He cannot find his way into the future, so he retreats into the past. He returns in imagination to the glory days of his race and seeks to reconstitute both them and himself in their purer, more virtuous light. He gets back to basics. To fundamentals.

  Fundamentalism and art are mutually exclusive. There is no such thing as fundamentalist art. This does not mean that the fundamentalist is not creative. Rather, his creativity is inverted. He creates destruction. Even the structures he builds, his schools and networks or organization, are dedicated to annihiliation, of his enemies and of hiomself.

  But the fundamentalist reserves his greates creativity for the fashioning of Satan, the image of his foe, in opposition to which he defines and gives meaning to his own life.
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  3

  Short recent history of const.gov't in Islamist states

  by Phantom Stranger in

  1. social
  2. current

  one iman, one vote

  what do islamists mean when they talk about democracy?

  by lee smith .

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  Phantom Stranger

  One Iman, One Vote What do Islamists mean when they talk about democracy? By Lee Smith Iraq's interim constitution, signed just this Monday, begins with the words "The people of Iraq." If it's not as immediately bracing as "We the people," it's still a good start for a country whose citizens, over the last several decades, have been the collective victim of terror and violence. Moreover, according to a number of observers, it's a very good constitution, guaranteeing freedom of speech and religion; equal rights for all citizens, including women; and outlawing torture. Indeed, it's a model constitution for the Arab world, much like the one that Iraq's constituent assembly drafted, under British supervision, back in 1924.

  Of course that constitution, while never on very firm ground, was officially laid to rest with the 1958 coup that brought Brig. Gen. Abdel-Karim Qasim to power.

  It is a sad, unfortunate fact that liberal constitutionalism has a bad track record in the Arab world.

  The rest as http://slate.msn.com/id/2096916/
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  13

  I'm Ordained and I'm Not Gonna Take it Anymore

  by gitasatsangha in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i got myself ordained as a reverend off the internet at universal life church.

  i figured it would be handy to get clergy parking and so on.

  but now i started thinking, hell git, you can start your own damn religion and make money like the watchtower does.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Yeah, you, the Beatles, and Johnny Carson!