Walking – Henry David Thoreau

Walking

What is it that makes it so hard sometimes to determine whither we will walk? I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright. It is not indifferent to us which way we walk. There is a right way; but we are very liable from heedlessness and stupidity to take the wrong one. We would fain take that walk, never yet taken by us through this actual world, which is perfectly symbolical of the path which we love to travel in the interior and ideal world; and sometimes, no doubt, we find it difficult to choose our direction, because it does not yet exist distinctly in our idea.

I did it, eventually today I went out for a walk!

Ken Wilbur and hierarchy of being

ikosmos: Content and Context

Throughout his works, Wilber shows how the great wisdom traditions of the past, in all cultures, painted a consistent picture of the chain or cosmic hierarchy.

Looks like Ken Wilbur is into hierarchy of being. Chain is an interesting word here… chained to our place in the hierarchy. Obviously heroic to break those chains.

Techne & Psyche

Techne & Psyche
Dolores Brien has been weblogging again… great little essays, especially the one on George Gilder.

As a public intellectual George Gilder is on a par with Newt Gingrich but he’s interesting because he exemplifies two dominant strains characterisic of our technoscientific culture. First, he is only among the most recent, in that long tradition going back to the Middle Ages, to give a religious significance to scientific discovery and technological innovation. As David Noble notes in The Religion of Technology, they are driven, despite their apparent worldliness, “by distant dreams, spiritual yearnings for supernatural redemption.” Second, his writings and speeches expose that inclination beginning as far back as the Greeks to see in the principles governing the most significant or defining technologies of the time as the same principles by which every other aspect of human life is governed.

Ithaca

Ithaca

Always keep Ithaca fixed in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for long years;
and even to anchor at the isle when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Love this poem by Constantine Cavafy. Thanks Stephen, for sending it along a few years ago.
Continue reading “Ithaca”

Horatio Alger

Welcome to the Horatio Alger Society

To further the philosophy of Horatio Alger, Jr. and to encourage the spirit of Strive and Succeed that for half of a century guided Alger’s undaunted heroes – lads whose struggles epitomized the great American dream and inspired hero ideals in countless millions of young Americans.

An essay here to fill in the background a bit more: Horatio Alger: The Moral of the Story, by Theodore Dalrymple

I am linking this in connection to the previous item … realising that the archetype at work is the HERO… in a way I grapple with that image a lot. Even the links before that are a reflection of my interest in Pop Heroes.

Autonomous psyche

I have been writing some paragraphs and adding them to my Autonomous psyche page. These snippets are beginning to describe a basic philosophy I have about the psyche. I wish I could get it together beyond snippets. Here is a quote from today’s effort.

There once was a hierarchy of being, and it was valued to “know one’s place” somewhere between God and mere dust. The way such a perception of the world has been used for control and to induce guilt is bad. However there is another side to the ancient idea which originates with Plato. We need to honour the fact that our birth circumstances are potent. We do not choose many aspects of our lives; we do not choose our genes, our culture, our birth geography or our sexuality.