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wudang's picture

...those who trespass against us:

what difference between squatters, trespassers and refugees? what punishment fitting for either? how long or much should penalties and fees work to repay such improprieties or settle disorder? strong dissuasion (even expulsion) has slowed misconduct of this type, has it not? many hands, nevertheless, can build more than few, and I urge comprehensive immigration reform because I think we should de-villify and de-stigmatize our neighbors - this is a civil rights and race relations imperative that will, I fear, prove as intense and dearly-won as formerly found.

...separate but equal:

the mere affiliation of separate "nations", into which they could not comfortably join themselves (confederation), was a notion rejected by those great-great forefathers who signed forged a Constitution and founded a democratic republic; and so should we also treat overly factious ideas, when expressed by lawmakers now, as unacceptable (unless the "states rights" argument rests on some other historical foundation - oops). Yet, as with regard to individual rights, the worth of each must be equally preserved - as we, together, mature in pursuits and warrants [?]

..."reality-show" is a contradiction:

The fog of falsehood and forgetfulness is perturbing. Are we "fast asleep and prey to troubled dreams" with respect to truthfulness? Is it easier or more difficult for those "engaged in preparing forgetfulnesses and fears in order, by these means, to beguile those of th\e middle and to make them captive" (Gospel of Truth, Nag Hammadi Library)? What discretion should public discourse exercise over unreliable "sources", and how do we rightly divide "information" (illusions, doublemindedness and misdirection) that spills over, so to speak, into public discourse? How is it that "taking the side" of peer reviewed "truth" and/or "best estimate" surmised a posture now unrecoverable? How, then, can we avoid fear, confusion and lack of confidence (ignorance) that cloud our understanding ("free press")? I fear we might find no recourse to simply confirming common biases, nor method that will return us to the Socratic/scientific; re-settling our Spirit's search in the element of "objectivity/truth".

 

[?]

the virtual operation of high finance (and its unbounded largess relative to local commerce) is another example of impersonal state we should, I hope, wish to otherwise avoid. But, I fear that a malleable sym (like Romney) activated with regard to political expediency, while serving inscrutable purposes, is culturally revealing. What is "factual" and "true" have faded in modern intellectual and, especially, political conversation. The Republican candidates lie shamelessly with regard to economic and political "realities", cast disgraceful aspersions on the President and cloud our "liberal" social purposes. What has been accomplished over the past century is brought into question facetiously (the GOP knows that good has been done and should continue to be done to help our neighbors, as they admit only while disparaging those very achievements - as if we should not have cared for the needs of the many).