Psyberspace

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
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.

Field, Form and Fate by Michael Conforti, Ph.D.

In this book Michael Conforti convincingly argues that Jung’s theory of archetypes is the psychological parallel to the scientific theory of self organizing dynamics in nature. I have just discovered this and noticed some resonance with my own reflections on archetype this morning.

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.

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.

O’Brien, Richard Creator of The Rocky Horror Picture Show

I just heard him interviewed by Kim Hill. So sad that these interviews are not available online. What an interesting man, and he grew up in NZ.

Mindjack – Interview – Warren Ellis Ellis writes comics, graphic novels, adult. Melanie McBride I have linked to before for her writing on McLuhan. I like the interview, and makes me want to read the books.

There is such a thing as truth. Non-relative, unassailable, valuable truth. Do not let people relativise the concept of truth into vapour.

Guardian Unlimited Observer | International | Gore Vidal claims ‘Bush junta’ complicit in 9/11

America’s most controversial writer Gore Vidal has launched the most scathing attack to date on George W Bush’s Presidency, calling for an investigation into the events of 9/11 to discover whether the Bush administration deliberately chose not to act on warnings of Al-Qaeda’s plans.

Even if the Bush junta was not complicit they have capitalised on it in all the ways that they would have if they were… and that is just as bad, and also reveals the bankruptcy of terrorism as a tactic.