Gurdjieff, Time Loops, and Germany Revisited
Last year I went to a meditation group. I call it a 'meditation group'
even though this group worked primarily with the ideas of
G.I Gurdjieff.
I have nothing at all against meditation since I see it as an excellent way to settle down, helping my mind to become more peaceful, calm and focused. Basically, meditation helps my awareness to become 'rejuvenated. I have nothing at all against it. But I got a problem when people think that meditation is 'all that is.' I call these type of people 'bliss ninnies.' However meditation can be very helpful. Personally it helps me to relax and breathe correctly during times of great stress.
Considering the rapid pace of today's world, it seems nobody breathes right. Everybody's rushing from here to there, rushing from home to work, rushing from work to home and all the while we fight traffic to get there. We rush to pay bills, rush to do our taxes, rush to eat, rush to sleep, rush to wake up. We even rush to go on vacations so we can 'relax.'
We rush to take care of family, we rush to buy this or sell that. We rush everywhere to really go nowhere except maybe to the nut house! And all the while that we are rushing we breathe wrongly because when we rush we take short breaths from our chests and not from the belly. If you observe an animal you will see that it breathes from the belly. Even a baby breathes from the belly. But in the abnormal conditions that we find ourselves in we are out of touch with our organic animal instincts because we can't even breathe like an animal. Were out of touch with our own physical reality as things speed up faster and faster until 'there will be time no longer.'
Makes me think that things are purposely designed that way so we have no time to become aware of certain things, like maybe that the universe is changing in some way? But I don't want to rush ahead of myself here.
Well anyway. getting back to this meditation group I was talking about (who really fancied themselves a 'Gurdjieff group'). I remember talking with the instructor after our class and I talked about the ominous signs that I see around me that indicate to me that the United States is fast becoming a Totalitarian State and how there were many inconsistencies about the 911 event and that we may have but a small 'window of freedom' left to tell anyone about it. Well you'd think I said something blasphemous! At that moment he scrutinized me and looked at me as if I had two heads on top of my shoulders instead of one and he curtly mentioned to me that I'm paranoid and that I "think to much' (which is true!) and he implied that these kinds of things are irrelevant to what they do there. He even implied that I might need to have my head examined!
Well at that moment I began to realize that this group is not the one for me because
I concluded that this 'Gurdjieff group' only concerned themselves exclusively with their meditation practices and were overlooking the one thing the Gurdjieff himself was most concerned with.
They overlooked the present state of the world in favor of their own 'inner state' and were completely blind to the dangers around them from their own 'United States' and how it's fast becoming a fascist, totalitarian, militaristic society that will soon threaten their own group and any freedoms that they may have to meditate, travel, or do anything else for that matter.
Along with this my instructor seemed to not be too concerned with how they themselves support the murder of others in the Middle East by NOT concerning themselves with the present state of the world. Thus, or so it seems to me, they are complicit in the very acts of our murderous administration in Iraq by not informing humanity of the 'horrors of war,' as Gurdjieff himself did in his epic book
Beelzebub's Tales
Gurdjieff may not have had all the answers but he was not afraid to ask the questions and he put his very life on the line by APPLYING what he knew so as to help humanity become more aware of the horrors and psychopathy of this mindless destruction that we call 'war'.
Gurdjieff did not speak of 'meditation' in his epic book, but rather, he related much of what he said to the horrors of "reciprocal destruction" and how man insanely participates in this 'horror of horrors' without any conscious awareness or concern.
And because of this lack of awareness wars have repeated themselves, endlessly, throughout history, in much the same way we might drive a car around a road that endlessly loops around itself to no end...on and on...until it runs out of gas.
In fact, the only history the we only know, thanks to our pitiful education system, is the history of war. And even that is srewed up.
I'll excerpt a part of chapter 43 from Beelzebub's Tales that I think illustrate very well what I just said above. In the excerpt below Beelzebub's grandson Hassein was questioning his grandfather on the senseless scourge of this 'need' that man has for reciprocal destruction:
"Dear Grandfather! Your thorough explanations of various episodes that occurred during the process of existence of the three-brained beings on the planet Earth have given me a clear idea and satisfactory understanding of the surprising strangeness of their psyche: nevertheless, the question still arises in me about one particularity of theirs which I cannot understand at all and which, even taking into account the strangeness of their psyche, appears to me illogical...
"From all your explanations abut the process of existence of these three-brained beings, I have seen very clearly that although most of them, during their responsible existence have a purely automatic Reason, yet even with this automatic Reason they can deliberate so well that they are able to determine, more or less exactly, many of the laws of Nature on their planet, in accordance with which they can even invent things on their own.
"At about the same time, parallel with this, reminders of that particularity proper to them alone--that is, the periodic need to destroy one another's existence--run like a crimson thread through all your tales.
"And so, dear Grandfather, I cannot understand at all how it happens that in spite of having existed for such a long time, they have never become aware and even now remain unaware of the horror of this property of theirs.
"Don't they really ever see that of all the horrors that could possibly exist in the whole of the Universe, these processes are the most terrible? And don't they ever ponder on this matter so that they might become aware of this horror and find some means of eradicating it?
"Please, Grandfather, tell me why this is so and which aspects among all those
making up the strangeness of their psyche are the causes of this particularity of theirs"?
"Having said this, Hassein again looked at his grandfather expectantly, with an inner desire to know.
In response to this request of his grandson, Beelzebub looked at him steadily with a "smile full of remorse" and then, sighing deeply, he said:
"Ekh!...my dear boy...
"This particularity, with all the results ensuing from it, is the chief cause of all their abnormalities and of their so to say 'muddled logic.'
"Good, I will help you clarify this question -- all the more as I have already promised to explain to you in detail.
"But, of course, for the sake of the development of your active mentation I shall not give you my personal opinion on this subject, and will only present the necessary material for logical confrontation in a way that could bring about the crystallization in you of the data for your own individual opinion.
"By the way you asked me if it is possible that they never ponder on this abominable predisposition of theirs -- inherent in them alone.
"Of course they ponder, of course they see...
"Some of these three-brained beings ponder very often, in spite of the automaticity of their Reason, fully understand that this predisposition to periodic reciprocal destruction is such an unimaginable horror and so hideous that no name even can be found for it.
"Unfortunately this pondering of theirs leads to nothing.
"And it leads to nothing because when certain isolated beings do think seriously about this horror and come to some sensible conclusion, then because of the absence of one common planetary organization for a single line of action, this view of theirs is never widely spread and fails to penetrate into the consciousness of other beings. Incidentally. as far as this 'sincere pondering' is concerned, the state of affairs among terrestrial beings is really lamentable.
"I must tell you that from the beginning of their responsible age, thanks to the abnormally established conditions of being-existance, the 'waking psyche' of each one of them has gradually become such that he can 'think sincerely' and see things in a true light only if his stomach is so full of the first being-food that the 'wandering nerves' in it cannot move or, as they say, he is 'stuffed full', and also if he has fully satisfied, of course only for the moment, all the needs inherent in him, unworthy of three-brained beings, which have become the dominant factors for the whole of his presence.
"Well then, owing to these same wrongly established conditions, not all terrestrial beings have the possibility of satisfying these needs, and so, for this and many other reasons, most of them, no matter how much they desire it, can neither 'think sincerely' nor see and sense reality; and therefore 'sincere thinking' and the 'sensing of reality' have long since become a rare luxury on your planet and inaccessible to most of the beings there.
"The only terrestrial beings there who have the possibility of being satisfied to repletion are those called 'important power-possessors'; indeed, it is precisely these beings who because of their position could do something to eradicate this evil, or at least to diminish it to a certain extent.
"But these 'important power-possessing beings,' who have the possibility of filling themselves to satiety who could perhaps do something toward this end, in fact do nothing at all for quite other reasons.
"And the fundamental reason is that same maleficent means fixed in the process
of their ordinary being-existance which they call 'education.'
"This maleficent means is applied there to all the young beings during their preparatory age, but especially to those who later on almost always become power-possessors.
"Well then, since these future power possessors do not make use of the time intended by Great Nature for the preparation of data for a worthy and responsible existence, but only waste it in developing in themselves the properties resulting from this celebrated education--which as a rule only dictates to them how best to give oneself up to what is called 'self calming'-- when they become responsible age undertake to fulfill responsible obligations, they naturally have no data at all for manifesting 'logical reflection' and prove to be incapable of any impartial relationship with those of those fellow beings who comer under their sway by virtue of surrounding conditions
"Owing to this abnormal education of theirs, nothing is deposited in them which would enable them to reflect and put anything effective into practice,,,
"When the contemporary three brained beings of your planet who can afford to gorge themselves and to satisfy all their other needs, and perhaps could do something to struggle against this phenomenal evil pervading on their planet, are fully satiated, and are reclining in what are called their 'soft English armchairs,' in order, as is said there, 'to digest it all,' they do not even take advantage of these favorable conditions for sincere thinking, but only abandon themselves to their maleficent 'self calming.'
"And since it is in general impossible for any three-brained being of the Universe and therefore also for any of the beings of your planet to exist without mentation taking place in them, and since at the same time, your favorites wish to be able to give themselves up freely to their 'inner evil god, 'self calming,' they have gradually and very effectively accustomed themselves to a sort of purely automatic thinking without the least being-effort on their own.
"One must give them their due--in this they have attained perfection; and at present time their thoughts flow in all directions without the intentional exertion of any part of their presence...
..."However, it does occasionally happen that some important power-possessing being of the Earth suddenly thinks, not under the influence of the reflexes of his stomach and sex organs but sincerely and quite seriously about some question relating to this terrifying terrestrial problem
"But even the sincere reflections of the power possessors occur for the most part quite automatically, from casual outer causes: for instance, the existence of someone very near to them is brutally cut short in the latest process of reciprocal destruction; or someone offends them deeply and painfully; or someone touches
their emotions by giving them something they either value very highly or did not in the least expect; or finally, when they really feel their own existence drawing to an end
"In such cases, when these power-possessors ponder sincerely on this terrible evil rampant on their planet they are always greatly agitated by it, and while in this state, of course, they vow to undertake and carry out at all costs everything necessary to put an end to this scourge.
"But here lies the misfortune: no sooner do the stomachs of these 'sincerely agitated' beings become empty or no sooner do they recover a little from those disheartening outer impressions then they not only forget their vow but again begin, consciously or unconsciously, to do everything that generally causes the outbreak of these processes between communities.
"It very often happens that these power-possessing beings, unintentionally or even half-intentionally, do everything to hasten the outbreak of the next process of reciprocal destruction, and even dream of it taking place on as large a scale as possible.
"And this monstrous need arises in their abnormal psyche because they expect certain egoistic profits from these processes, and with their degenerate mentation, even hope that the greater scale of the process, the greater the profits will be for themselves or for their relatives.
So you can see that this psychopathic need of man for 'reciprocal destruction' is one of the fundamental issues that Gurdjieff deals with throughout his epic work so that humanity may become more aware of what is really going on around him.
He does not speak of 'meditation.' He speaks of the horrors of war.
Perhaps Gurdjieff wrote his book for his 'grandchildren,' that is, for US, at this most critical point in history. After all Gurdjieff was around for both WWI and II so it's quite clear to me why he speaks so much of it in his book.
As has been said, those who forget
HISTORY
are doomed to repeat it.
Umberto Eco said it so very well:
"It is frequently claimed in American philosophy departments that, in order to be a philosopher, it is not necessary to revisit the history of philosophy. It is like the claim that one can become a painter without having seen a single work of Raphael, or a writer without having ever read the classics. Such things are theoretically possible; but the 'primitive' artist, condemned to an ignorance of the past, is always recognizable as such and rightly labeled as a 'naif.'* It is only when we reconsider past projects revealed as utopian or as failures that we are apprised of the dangers and possibilities for failure for our allegedly new projects. The study of the deeds of our ancestors is thus more than an antiquarian pastime, it is an immunological precaution."
So do we learn from history? I think not.
Dan Froomkin once noted in the Washington Post the following observation concerning George Buch's 'bastardization' of the word 'freedom' in his Inaugural speech. Froomkin said:
"And although Bush used the words ''free," "freedom" and "liberty" 49 times in the speech, he didn't once use the words "terror" or "war" or "Iraq" -- even though his first term was defined by terror and war, and even though American blood was still being shed in Iraq as he spoke."
So nothing is learned, all is repreated, and so it is with war. We never learned from Germany. We never learned from Hitlers madness and how, just like Bush, he outlined his violent plans in his speeches. Germany didn't listen then nor do we listen now.
Hitler scrapped the treaty that ended World War I, but no one paid attention. And nothing was done when he built up his military, reoccupied the Rhineland, seized part of Czechoslovakia, and then took the rest. Finally he invaded Poland, and by then it was too late to stop him without a war that cost over 40 million lives.
We never learned that we can’t appease violent megalomaniacs. We never learned then and we are not learning now.
Al Cronkrite makes some very interesting observations on the similarities
between the Bush 'regime' and the Nazi regime. He says:
"The similarities between America at the turn of the Century and Germany in the 1930s are stunning, frightening, and unprecedented. They offer an apodictic history lesson of perils, present and future.
"The American press and media have for several decades been lap dogs of the pernicious policies and apparent totalitarian intentions of our government. In spite of heavy Jewish control of our newspapers, television, and movies and the genocide suffered by their near relatives, the owners of these public voices have consistently failed to warn us of the dangers that lie ahead.
"Like America, Germany, before the rise of the Nazi government, was a democratic republic, Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg was President, and Adolph Hitler was a boisterous politician with some disreputable associates and a gift for oratory.
"In the March 1932 presidential election Hitler ran second to von Hindenburg with a mere 30.1 percent of the vote. However, there were two other minor candidates and von Hindenburg’s 49.6 percent set up a mandated run-off. The run-off gave Hindenburg 53 percent and Hitler 36.8 percent.
"The National Socialist Party (Nazi) did better in the ensuing congressional election garnering 230 Reichstag seats out of a possible 608. The 230 seats made it Germany’s largest political party and granted Hitler new political clout. On July 27th, 1932, four days before the election, Hitler attracted some 60 thousand listeners in Brandenburg and Potsdam and 220 thousand 120 thousand inside and 100 thousand outside) at Grunewald Stadium in Berlin.
"By November 1932, gridlocks in the Reichstag forced new elections; the Nazis lost seats but remained the largest political party. Hitler asked von Hindenburg to appoint him Chancellor. Hindenburg refused. Franz von Papen whom Hindenburg had appointed Chancellor in June of 1932 was a farcical individual and under his leadership the Reichstag remained in chaos and deadlock. In an effort to remedy the situation von Hindenburg appointed army General Kurt von Schleicher who, unable to gain a majority coalition, resigned after 57 days.
"On January 10th, 1933, President von Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor.
"The following month in February, 1933, a fire at the Reichstag building resulted in the arrest of a Dutch Communist name Marinus van der Lubbe and an blustery assertion by the new Chancellor and his associates that Communist terrorists had begun the revolution and were planning to burn buildings, museums, mansions, and industrial plants. It was shrilly proclaimed that women and children might be murdered, private property endangered and the health and welfare of the peaceful population put at risk.
"Hitler persuaded President Hindenburg to issue a decree "For the Protection of the People and the State". The decree suspended constitutional guarantees of civil liberties by calling for "Restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraph and telephonic communications; and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits prescribed."
"Two weeks after the Reichstag fire on March 23, 1933, Hitler went to the Reichstag and secured an overwhelming vote to suspend the Constitution freeing him to be dictator of Germany.
"The existing judicial system with its independent judges was quickly replaced with controllable courts overseen by trustworthy party members whose job it was to protect and enforce the new regime
"Hitler had made no secret of his hatred for Jews and in 1935 the Nuremberg laws were enacted legalizing anti-Semitism.
"The most frightening corollary between Hitler’s Germany and Bush’s America involves the reactions of the citizens. Bernard Weiner in a review of German author Sebastian Haffner’s book, "Defying Hitler" records the following in regard to the German people: "Given their built-in weakness and their willingness to swallow the most outrageous Big Lies emanating from the propaganda ministry and the media, most Germans were fruit waiting to be plucked by the Nazi harvesters. ‘They still fall for anything. After all that, I do not see that one can blame the majority of Germans who, in 1933, believed that the Reichstag fire was the work of the Communists. [The Parliament burned down and a convenient Communist arsonist was fingered, which the Nazis used as the excuse to unleash police-state tactics against all opponents.] What one can blame them for, and what shows their terrible collective weakness of character clearly for the first time during the Nazi period, is that this settled the matter. With sheepish submissiveness the German people accepted that, as a result of the fire, each one of them lost what little personal freedom and dignity was guaranteed by the constitution; as though it followed as a necessary consequence.’" Sebastian Haffner lived in German under the Nazi regime "Defying Hitler", published in 2000, is a post humus publication found in his files following his death at the age of 91.
"America is rife with similarities to Nazi Germany. The Reichstag fire was allowed to go forward and loudly blamed on Communist terrorist-conspirators in order to frighten the people into accepting suspension of the Constitution in much the same way the 9/11 episode has been used to override much of our own Constitution. Devvy Kidd has written a review of a new book by Michael Ruppert entitled "Crossing the Rubicon" that documents suspected government complicity in the 9/11 tragedy.
"Hitler received some support for all classes of Germans but his largest voting block was among rural Protestant Christians. The situation in America is some different but the present regime has been able to gain the backing of large numbers of Protestant Evangelical Christians. In reviewing a new book by Daniel J. Flynn entitled "Moronic Intellectuals" Thomas DiLorenzo writes "Carefully surveying many of Strauss’s writings, Flynn notes that although he was an atheist and "scoffed at the idea of God," he nevertheless thought that appeals to religion could be helpful in duping naïve Christians, especially, into going along with his interventionist foreign policy agenda. It seems to have worked, since ‘evangelical Christians’ are among the most bloodthirsty warmongers in American society today."
"There is an interesting parallel between Hitler’s anti-Semitism and America’s denigration of the Arabs. Again, it is not exactly the same but Israeli and American hatred of Islam and willingness to see Arab men, women, and children killed in an illegal war bears a considerable resemblance to the general anti-Semitic sentiments in 1930s Germany.
"Another familiar excuse for membership in an aberrant political party was that it might allow reform of the Nazi Party. This mindset was prominent among intellectuals. How many thousands of American citizens and political hacks maintain membership in the Republican Party with the vain intention of returning it to Conservative Constitutionalism?
"Though real anti-Semitism is rare in America there is a direct corollary concerning the success and affluence of Jews and their equal success and affluence in 1930s Germany. In Germany Jews were resented and Lutheran Protestants had the vehement anti-Semitic writings of Martin Luther to re-enforce their sentiments.
"The misgivings that hung on as the Nazi regime came to power, the lose of personal freedom, the police state restrictions, murder, and genocide began to be offset by victories on the battlefield, by order in the economy, and realization that most Germans who conformed and did not resist were allowed to live orderly lives without government interference.
"Those who were involved in the regime itself - the magistrates, the law enforcement officials, and the soldiers were intent on their own careers and conformed to the orders they were given. The massacres that occurred in Nazi Germany and on a much smaller scale in America at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas in April, 1993, were not carried our by crazed or mentally unbalanced individuals; the murders were committed by normal citizens acting as comrades with the approval of the governments that employed them".
even though this group worked primarily with the ideas of
G.I Gurdjieff.
I have nothing at all against meditation since I see it as an excellent way to settle down, helping my mind to become more peaceful, calm and focused. Basically, meditation helps my awareness to become 'rejuvenated. I have nothing at all against it. But I got a problem when people think that meditation is 'all that is.' I call these type of people 'bliss ninnies.' However meditation can be very helpful. Personally it helps me to relax and breathe correctly during times of great stress.
Considering the rapid pace of today's world, it seems nobody breathes right. Everybody's rushing from here to there, rushing from home to work, rushing from work to home and all the while we fight traffic to get there. We rush to pay bills, rush to do our taxes, rush to eat, rush to sleep, rush to wake up. We even rush to go on vacations so we can 'relax.'
We rush to take care of family, we rush to buy this or sell that. We rush everywhere to really go nowhere except maybe to the nut house! And all the while that we are rushing we breathe wrongly because when we rush we take short breaths from our chests and not from the belly. If you observe an animal you will see that it breathes from the belly. Even a baby breathes from the belly. But in the abnormal conditions that we find ourselves in we are out of touch with our organic animal instincts because we can't even breathe like an animal. Were out of touch with our own physical reality as things speed up faster and faster until 'there will be time no longer.'
Makes me think that things are purposely designed that way so we have no time to become aware of certain things, like maybe that the universe is changing in some way? But I don't want to rush ahead of myself here.
Well anyway. getting back to this meditation group I was talking about (who really fancied themselves a 'Gurdjieff group'). I remember talking with the instructor after our class and I talked about the ominous signs that I see around me that indicate to me that the United States is fast becoming a Totalitarian State and how there were many inconsistencies about the 911 event and that we may have but a small 'window of freedom' left to tell anyone about it. Well you'd think I said something blasphemous! At that moment he scrutinized me and looked at me as if I had two heads on top of my shoulders instead of one and he curtly mentioned to me that I'm paranoid and that I "think to much' (which is true!) and he implied that these kinds of things are irrelevant to what they do there. He even implied that I might need to have my head examined!
Well at that moment I began to realize that this group is not the one for me because
I concluded that this 'Gurdjieff group' only concerned themselves exclusively with their meditation practices and were overlooking the one thing the Gurdjieff himself was most concerned with.
They overlooked the present state of the world in favor of their own 'inner state' and were completely blind to the dangers around them from their own 'United States' and how it's fast becoming a fascist, totalitarian, militaristic society that will soon threaten their own group and any freedoms that they may have to meditate, travel, or do anything else for that matter.
Along with this my instructor seemed to not be too concerned with how they themselves support the murder of others in the Middle East by NOT concerning themselves with the present state of the world. Thus, or so it seems to me, they are complicit in the very acts of our murderous administration in Iraq by not informing humanity of the 'horrors of war,' as Gurdjieff himself did in his epic book
Beelzebub's Tales
Gurdjieff may not have had all the answers but he was not afraid to ask the questions and he put his very life on the line by APPLYING what he knew so as to help humanity become more aware of the horrors and psychopathy of this mindless destruction that we call 'war'.
Gurdjieff did not speak of 'meditation' in his epic book, but rather, he related much of what he said to the horrors of "reciprocal destruction" and how man insanely participates in this 'horror of horrors' without any conscious awareness or concern.
And because of this lack of awareness wars have repeated themselves, endlessly, throughout history, in much the same way we might drive a car around a road that endlessly loops around itself to no end...on and on...until it runs out of gas.
In fact, the only history the we only know, thanks to our pitiful education system, is the history of war. And even that is srewed up.
I'll excerpt a part of chapter 43 from Beelzebub's Tales that I think illustrate very well what I just said above. In the excerpt below Beelzebub's grandson Hassein was questioning his grandfather on the senseless scourge of this 'need' that man has for reciprocal destruction:
"Dear Grandfather! Your thorough explanations of various episodes that occurred during the process of existence of the three-brained beings on the planet Earth have given me a clear idea and satisfactory understanding of the surprising strangeness of their psyche: nevertheless, the question still arises in me about one particularity of theirs which I cannot understand at all and which, even taking into account the strangeness of their psyche, appears to me illogical...
"From all your explanations abut the process of existence of these three-brained beings, I have seen very clearly that although most of them, during their responsible existence have a purely automatic Reason, yet even with this automatic Reason they can deliberate so well that they are able to determine, more or less exactly, many of the laws of Nature on their planet, in accordance with which they can even invent things on their own.
"At about the same time, parallel with this, reminders of that particularity proper to them alone--that is, the periodic need to destroy one another's existence--run like a crimson thread through all your tales.
"And so, dear Grandfather, I cannot understand at all how it happens that in spite of having existed for such a long time, they have never become aware and even now remain unaware of the horror of this property of theirs.
"Don't they really ever see that of all the horrors that could possibly exist in the whole of the Universe, these processes are the most terrible? And don't they ever ponder on this matter so that they might become aware of this horror and find some means of eradicating it?
"Please, Grandfather, tell me why this is so and which aspects among all those
making up the strangeness of their psyche are the causes of this particularity of theirs"?
"Having said this, Hassein again looked at his grandfather expectantly, with an inner desire to know.
In response to this request of his grandson, Beelzebub looked at him steadily with a "smile full of remorse" and then, sighing deeply, he said:
"Ekh!...my dear boy...
"This particularity, with all the results ensuing from it, is the chief cause of all their abnormalities and of their so to say 'muddled logic.'
"Good, I will help you clarify this question -- all the more as I have already promised to explain to you in detail.
"But, of course, for the sake of the development of your active mentation I shall not give you my personal opinion on this subject, and will only present the necessary material for logical confrontation in a way that could bring about the crystallization in you of the data for your own individual opinion.
"By the way you asked me if it is possible that they never ponder on this abominable predisposition of theirs -- inherent in them alone.
"Of course they ponder, of course they see...
"Some of these three-brained beings ponder very often, in spite of the automaticity of their Reason, fully understand that this predisposition to periodic reciprocal destruction is such an unimaginable horror and so hideous that no name even can be found for it.
"Unfortunately this pondering of theirs leads to nothing.
"And it leads to nothing because when certain isolated beings do think seriously about this horror and come to some sensible conclusion, then because of the absence of one common planetary organization for a single line of action, this view of theirs is never widely spread and fails to penetrate into the consciousness of other beings. Incidentally. as far as this 'sincere pondering' is concerned, the state of affairs among terrestrial beings is really lamentable.
"I must tell you that from the beginning of their responsible age, thanks to the abnormally established conditions of being-existance, the 'waking psyche' of each one of them has gradually become such that he can 'think sincerely' and see things in a true light only if his stomach is so full of the first being-food that the 'wandering nerves' in it cannot move or, as they say, he is 'stuffed full', and also if he has fully satisfied, of course only for the moment, all the needs inherent in him, unworthy of three-brained beings, which have become the dominant factors for the whole of his presence.
"Well then, owing to these same wrongly established conditions, not all terrestrial beings have the possibility of satisfying these needs, and so, for this and many other reasons, most of them, no matter how much they desire it, can neither 'think sincerely' nor see and sense reality; and therefore 'sincere thinking' and the 'sensing of reality' have long since become a rare luxury on your planet and inaccessible to most of the beings there.
"The only terrestrial beings there who have the possibility of being satisfied to repletion are those called 'important power-possessors'; indeed, it is precisely these beings who because of their position could do something to eradicate this evil, or at least to diminish it to a certain extent.
"But these 'important power-possessing beings,' who have the possibility of filling themselves to satiety who could perhaps do something toward this end, in fact do nothing at all for quite other reasons.
"And the fundamental reason is that same maleficent means fixed in the process
of their ordinary being-existance which they call 'education.'
"This maleficent means is applied there to all the young beings during their preparatory age, but especially to those who later on almost always become power-possessors.
"Well then, since these future power possessors do not make use of the time intended by Great Nature for the preparation of data for a worthy and responsible existence, but only waste it in developing in themselves the properties resulting from this celebrated education--which as a rule only dictates to them how best to give oneself up to what is called 'self calming'-- when they become responsible age undertake to fulfill responsible obligations, they naturally have no data at all for manifesting 'logical reflection' and prove to be incapable of any impartial relationship with those of those fellow beings who comer under their sway by virtue of surrounding conditions
"Owing to this abnormal education of theirs, nothing is deposited in them which would enable them to reflect and put anything effective into practice,,,
"When the contemporary three brained beings of your planet who can afford to gorge themselves and to satisfy all their other needs, and perhaps could do something to struggle against this phenomenal evil pervading on their planet, are fully satiated, and are reclining in what are called their 'soft English armchairs,' in order, as is said there, 'to digest it all,' they do not even take advantage of these favorable conditions for sincere thinking, but only abandon themselves to their maleficent 'self calming.'
"And since it is in general impossible for any three-brained being of the Universe and therefore also for any of the beings of your planet to exist without mentation taking place in them, and since at the same time, your favorites wish to be able to give themselves up freely to their 'inner evil god, 'self calming,' they have gradually and very effectively accustomed themselves to a sort of purely automatic thinking without the least being-effort on their own.
"One must give them their due--in this they have attained perfection; and at present time their thoughts flow in all directions without the intentional exertion of any part of their presence...
..."However, it does occasionally happen that some important power-possessing being of the Earth suddenly thinks, not under the influence of the reflexes of his stomach and sex organs but sincerely and quite seriously about some question relating to this terrifying terrestrial problem
"But even the sincere reflections of the power possessors occur for the most part quite automatically, from casual outer causes: for instance, the existence of someone very near to them is brutally cut short in the latest process of reciprocal destruction; or someone offends them deeply and painfully; or someone touches
their emotions by giving them something they either value very highly or did not in the least expect; or finally, when they really feel their own existence drawing to an end
"In such cases, when these power-possessors ponder sincerely on this terrible evil rampant on their planet they are always greatly agitated by it, and while in this state, of course, they vow to undertake and carry out at all costs everything necessary to put an end to this scourge.
"But here lies the misfortune: no sooner do the stomachs of these 'sincerely agitated' beings become empty or no sooner do they recover a little from those disheartening outer impressions then they not only forget their vow but again begin, consciously or unconsciously, to do everything that generally causes the outbreak of these processes between communities.
"It very often happens that these power-possessing beings, unintentionally or even half-intentionally, do everything to hasten the outbreak of the next process of reciprocal destruction, and even dream of it taking place on as large a scale as possible.
"And this monstrous need arises in their abnormal psyche because they expect certain egoistic profits from these processes, and with their degenerate mentation, even hope that the greater scale of the process, the greater the profits will be for themselves or for their relatives.
So you can see that this psychopathic need of man for 'reciprocal destruction' is one of the fundamental issues that Gurdjieff deals with throughout his epic work so that humanity may become more aware of what is really going on around him.
He does not speak of 'meditation.' He speaks of the horrors of war.
Perhaps Gurdjieff wrote his book for his 'grandchildren,' that is, for US, at this most critical point in history. After all Gurdjieff was around for both WWI and II so it's quite clear to me why he speaks so much of it in his book.
As has been said, those who forget
HISTORY
are doomed to repeat it.
Umberto Eco said it so very well:
"It is frequently claimed in American philosophy departments that, in order to be a philosopher, it is not necessary to revisit the history of philosophy. It is like the claim that one can become a painter without having seen a single work of Raphael, or a writer without having ever read the classics. Such things are theoretically possible; but the 'primitive' artist, condemned to an ignorance of the past, is always recognizable as such and rightly labeled as a 'naif.'* It is only when we reconsider past projects revealed as utopian or as failures that we are apprised of the dangers and possibilities for failure for our allegedly new projects. The study of the deeds of our ancestors is thus more than an antiquarian pastime, it is an immunological precaution."
So do we learn from history? I think not.
Dan Froomkin once noted in the Washington Post the following observation concerning George Buch's 'bastardization' of the word 'freedom' in his Inaugural speech. Froomkin said:
"And although Bush used the words ''free," "freedom" and "liberty" 49 times in the speech, he didn't once use the words "terror" or "war" or "Iraq" -- even though his first term was defined by terror and war, and even though American blood was still being shed in Iraq as he spoke."
So nothing is learned, all is repreated, and so it is with war. We never learned from Germany. We never learned from Hitlers madness and how, just like Bush, he outlined his violent plans in his speeches. Germany didn't listen then nor do we listen now.
Hitler scrapped the treaty that ended World War I, but no one paid attention. And nothing was done when he built up his military, reoccupied the Rhineland, seized part of Czechoslovakia, and then took the rest. Finally he invaded Poland, and by then it was too late to stop him without a war that cost over 40 million lives.
We never learned that we can’t appease violent megalomaniacs. We never learned then and we are not learning now.
Al Cronkrite makes some very interesting observations on the similarities
between the Bush 'regime' and the Nazi regime. He says:
"The similarities between America at the turn of the Century and Germany in the 1930s are stunning, frightening, and unprecedented. They offer an apodictic history lesson of perils, present and future.
"The American press and media have for several decades been lap dogs of the pernicious policies and apparent totalitarian intentions of our government. In spite of heavy Jewish control of our newspapers, television, and movies and the genocide suffered by their near relatives, the owners of these public voices have consistently failed to warn us of the dangers that lie ahead.
"Like America, Germany, before the rise of the Nazi government, was a democratic republic, Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg was President, and Adolph Hitler was a boisterous politician with some disreputable associates and a gift for oratory.
"In the March 1932 presidential election Hitler ran second to von Hindenburg with a mere 30.1 percent of the vote. However, there were two other minor candidates and von Hindenburg’s 49.6 percent set up a mandated run-off. The run-off gave Hindenburg 53 percent and Hitler 36.8 percent.
"The National Socialist Party (Nazi) did better in the ensuing congressional election garnering 230 Reichstag seats out of a possible 608. The 230 seats made it Germany’s largest political party and granted Hitler new political clout. On July 27th, 1932, four days before the election, Hitler attracted some 60 thousand listeners in Brandenburg and Potsdam and 220 thousand 120 thousand inside and 100 thousand outside) at Grunewald Stadium in Berlin.
"By November 1932, gridlocks in the Reichstag forced new elections; the Nazis lost seats but remained the largest political party. Hitler asked von Hindenburg to appoint him Chancellor. Hindenburg refused. Franz von Papen whom Hindenburg had appointed Chancellor in June of 1932 was a farcical individual and under his leadership the Reichstag remained in chaos and deadlock. In an effort to remedy the situation von Hindenburg appointed army General Kurt von Schleicher who, unable to gain a majority coalition, resigned after 57 days.
"On January 10th, 1933, President von Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor.
"The following month in February, 1933, a fire at the Reichstag building resulted in the arrest of a Dutch Communist name Marinus van der Lubbe and an blustery assertion by the new Chancellor and his associates that Communist terrorists had begun the revolution and were planning to burn buildings, museums, mansions, and industrial plants. It was shrilly proclaimed that women and children might be murdered, private property endangered and the health and welfare of the peaceful population put at risk.
"Hitler persuaded President Hindenburg to issue a decree "For the Protection of the People and the State". The decree suspended constitutional guarantees of civil liberties by calling for "Restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraph and telephonic communications; and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits prescribed."
"Two weeks after the Reichstag fire on March 23, 1933, Hitler went to the Reichstag and secured an overwhelming vote to suspend the Constitution freeing him to be dictator of Germany.
"The existing judicial system with its independent judges was quickly replaced with controllable courts overseen by trustworthy party members whose job it was to protect and enforce the new regime
"Hitler had made no secret of his hatred for Jews and in 1935 the Nuremberg laws were enacted legalizing anti-Semitism.
"The most frightening corollary between Hitler’s Germany and Bush’s America involves the reactions of the citizens. Bernard Weiner in a review of German author Sebastian Haffner’s book, "Defying Hitler" records the following in regard to the German people: "Given their built-in weakness and their willingness to swallow the most outrageous Big Lies emanating from the propaganda ministry and the media, most Germans were fruit waiting to be plucked by the Nazi harvesters. ‘They still fall for anything. After all that, I do not see that one can blame the majority of Germans who, in 1933, believed that the Reichstag fire was the work of the Communists. [The Parliament burned down and a convenient Communist arsonist was fingered, which the Nazis used as the excuse to unleash police-state tactics against all opponents.] What one can blame them for, and what shows their terrible collective weakness of character clearly for the first time during the Nazi period, is that this settled the matter. With sheepish submissiveness the German people accepted that, as a result of the fire, each one of them lost what little personal freedom and dignity was guaranteed by the constitution; as though it followed as a necessary consequence.’" Sebastian Haffner lived in German under the Nazi regime "Defying Hitler", published in 2000, is a post humus publication found in his files following his death at the age of 91.
"America is rife with similarities to Nazi Germany. The Reichstag fire was allowed to go forward and loudly blamed on Communist terrorist-conspirators in order to frighten the people into accepting suspension of the Constitution in much the same way the 9/11 episode has been used to override much of our own Constitution. Devvy Kidd has written a review of a new book by Michael Ruppert entitled "Crossing the Rubicon" that documents suspected government complicity in the 9/11 tragedy.
"Hitler received some support for all classes of Germans but his largest voting block was among rural Protestant Christians. The situation in America is some different but the present regime has been able to gain the backing of large numbers of Protestant Evangelical Christians. In reviewing a new book by Daniel J. Flynn entitled "Moronic Intellectuals" Thomas DiLorenzo writes "Carefully surveying many of Strauss’s writings, Flynn notes that although he was an atheist and "scoffed at the idea of God," he nevertheless thought that appeals to religion could be helpful in duping naïve Christians, especially, into going along with his interventionist foreign policy agenda. It seems to have worked, since ‘evangelical Christians’ are among the most bloodthirsty warmongers in American society today."
"There is an interesting parallel between Hitler’s anti-Semitism and America’s denigration of the Arabs. Again, it is not exactly the same but Israeli and American hatred of Islam and willingness to see Arab men, women, and children killed in an illegal war bears a considerable resemblance to the general anti-Semitic sentiments in 1930s Germany.
"Another familiar excuse for membership in an aberrant political party was that it might allow reform of the Nazi Party. This mindset was prominent among intellectuals. How many thousands of American citizens and political hacks maintain membership in the Republican Party with the vain intention of returning it to Conservative Constitutionalism?
"Though real anti-Semitism is rare in America there is a direct corollary concerning the success and affluence of Jews and their equal success and affluence in 1930s Germany. In Germany Jews were resented and Lutheran Protestants had the vehement anti-Semitic writings of Martin Luther to re-enforce their sentiments.
"The misgivings that hung on as the Nazi regime came to power, the lose of personal freedom, the police state restrictions, murder, and genocide began to be offset by victories on the battlefield, by order in the economy, and realization that most Germans who conformed and did not resist were allowed to live orderly lives without government interference.
"Those who were involved in the regime itself - the magistrates, the law enforcement officials, and the soldiers were intent on their own careers and conformed to the orders they were given. The massacres that occurred in Nazi Germany and on a much smaller scale in America at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas in April, 1993, were not carried our by crazed or mentally unbalanced individuals; the murders were committed by normal citizens acting as comrades with the approval of the governments that employed them".
posted by Capricious Mad Hatter @ 7:00 AM
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