Feb 17, 2015 - ISIS zombies behead 21 Egyptians for the crime of being Christian ISIS is death cult* : a perfect example of a dragon being born right before our eyes, apparently from nowhere. It's easy to see ISIS as horrible, inhuman and deeply frightening. Unless you have actually been assimilated by ISIS, this is all very obvious. If you are playing close attention to the reaction in the West, you may also be somewhat dismayed at the hollowness and lack of in-depth understanding of how ISIS stepped on to the world stage. There is a lot of hand-wringing about it's all the fault of the Western powers (the core leadership of ISIS is not religious - it comes from former Ba'ath party members -- Saddam's party) -- a logical consequence of centuries of meddling in Muslim affairs. This is perhaps true, but only in that ISIS could not exist without an enemy, just as the Third Reich could not exist without the Jews. The US was created as not-England. France was created not b...

The Leviathan is mentioned six times in the  Tanakh , with Job 41:1-34 being dedicated to describing him in detail: [1] 1  Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope? 2  Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? 3  Will he keep begging you for mercy? Will he speak to you with gentle words? 4  Will he make an agreement with you for you to take him as your slave for life? 5  Can you make a pet of him like a bird or put him on a leash for your girls? 6  Will traders barter for him? Will they divide him up among the merchants? 7  Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears? 8  If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! 9  Any hope of subduing him is false; the mere sight of him is overpowering. 10  No-one is fierce enough to rouse him. Who then is able to stand against me? 11  Who has a claim against me t...

When I think of dragons and the way they assimilate people, the Borg is never far from my mind. The Borg, named the fourth nastiest villain of all time by TV Guide in 2013, brought the idea of assimilation to movie audiences, Borg absorb all sentient beings, along with all of those being's knowledge and abilities but (of course) leaving any ethical considerations behind. The goal of the Borg is simply to expand, grow and assimilate ... to "add the biological and technological distinctiveness of other species to [their] own... [in pursuit of] perfection". The concept of perfection is the unifying idea at the core of the Borg Collective. The pursuit of an unemotional, mechanical perfection is the Borg's only motivation. This is achieved through forced  assimilation , a process of 'conversion' in which technology and life-forms are adapted for the Collective's use. - From Wikipedia Such "perfection" involves the destruction of all that is unique an...

Dragons are a special kind of monster with a long and rich history. They are not all bad, in fact some are downright cute. For example, one of the most ancient and most feared monsters in the Old Testament tradition is "Leviathan". Leviathan just so happens to have been chosen by Thomas Hobbes for what is perhaps the oldest treatment of the subject of this blog -- the State as a living thing. Anyone looking at the pictures of the Biblical Leviathan will see he's a dragon. It also turns out that the dragon is a recurring symbol of monarchy in the Eastern thread of dragon lore -- quite close to what I'm writing about here. It's not so much of a stretch to use the "dragon" to refer to the state itself, rather than a symbol for the monarch, who personifies the state -- not just rules over it. So, dragons work for me since they are obviously mythical, but well known to all readers as vigorous, big, non-human and dangerous. If I refer to your favorite group a...

For the first time in a long time, I had trouble getting up today. I've been reading a lot of Chris Hedges lately and he can be very depressing. To get an idea of how depressing, watch the first 10 minutes of this speech, which pretty much sums up the Hedges world view and prognosis. Hedges can be persuasive. It is his business  to be persuasive. Although he may not make precisely this claim for himself, he's a prophet in the Biblical sense, preaching truth to power, gloom and doom, collapse of empire. The reason for collapse is moral decay of the entire society. Sound familiar? Of course his facts are more or less credible, but we are entitled to look a little deeper. Chris has spent a lot of time in the very worst "bleeding edges" of modern civilization. He's entitled to have a dark view. He's also a Presbyterian Minister, which saddles him with a unique set of assumptions. He sees things in moral terms. He does not shrink from apocalyptic vision. But in th...

"In the wars of the twentieth century, not less than 62 million civilians have perished, nearly 20 million more than 43 million military personnel killed"  - War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning - Chris Hedges - Page 13 Hedges paints an unforgettable picture of 20th century industrial-scale slaughter, rape and pillage. Much of what he writes comes from his own personal experiences, especially in Bosnia and Kosovo. His inescapable conclusion is that there is a dark, destructive, cruel side to every human personality. He holds out no real hope -- there has always been war and there will always be war. The difference these days is the industrial scale of war. The desire to totally obliterate the enemy has often been referred to as "Biblical" for good reason. The story repeats itself down through history. For example, Hannibal's repeated slaughter of the Roman legions sent against him should not be remarkable to the modern reader. I suppose what makes it so horrible...

The Canadian Series, Ideas lately had a great program on habits . Of course, anyone intent on self-improvement will want to understand habits. The program is interesting because it pushes out the boundaries of what we think about habits themselves. For example, it introduces us to Judith Butler , the prolific and articulate American philosopher and gender theorist who considers gender to consist (mainly?) of habits. This is all particularly relevant to students of Zen, who consider the self to be an illusion - an almost-fictional creation of the mind. Obviously, habits of mind are fundamental to the process of building up this illusion. Zen challenges us to strip away such illusions to discover what (if anything) we are. For example, is it true that we are male or female depending on totally unquestioned habits of mind, behavior and speech patterns? Judith Butler would seem to say that's the case. The program is worth a look ...

This post is based on the Canadian "Ideas" segment about Chris Hedges. Hedges has a deeply disturbing message, which I will get to shortly. First, I invite you to listen to the excellent Ideas segment. Listen to the tone and style of Hedges' speeches ... " As a correspondent for  The New York Times  - and other publications - activist and ordained Presbyterian Minister Christopher Hedges has covered wars all over the world. In 2002, he shared a Pulitzer Prize for his work on global terrorism. The author of 14 books, he's no stranger to controversy, having once been escorted off stage while delivering a commencement address. In the fall of 2014,  Christopher Hedges  gave a lecture at Ryerson University in Toronto, and later joined Paul Kennedy in conversation. " -- Ideas The term "prophet" is widely misunderstood and heavily loaded. My own use of the term is not too far from this: A prophet is basically a spokesman for  G-d , a person chosen by G...

An excellent piece on PBS  points out parallels between ISIS and the Kmer Rouge - the idea that "purification" - slaughter of "unbelievers" on a vast scale - is necessary to create the ideal secular state. Sadly this is a very common theme. It can be detected in Hitler's "final solution", in the Inquisition and the genocidal conquest of Palestine outlined in the Bible. We can't help but notice that the Old Testament is full of capital crimes -- many having to do with violations of religious custom and many specifically justified in the name of "purification". According to many Christians who take such things seriously, we are forgiven for our many sins because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. This is known as "being washed in the blood". Without this sacrifice (the story goes), we would *all* be slaughtered by God and that would not be punishment enough - we'd be sent off to suffer unspeakable pain for all eternity! I...

Zen teaches that the past, present and future are all fictions created by the human mind. On one level this is transparently obvious. However, we find it amazingly easy to forget this fact when it comes down to thinking about the world on any level or scale. In his classic book "What is History" , Edward Carr argues that what we think of as history is actually a story woven around "facts" cherry picked to make the "past" seem relevant to the present.  As the "present" changes, the "past" magically evolves to fit into the story we weave around our present issues and challenges. When I first read this book, I was surprised to see that Carr seemed to give religion a pass. Religion is a creature of culture and perhaps the most active force in culture seeking to re-write the past to suit the needs of the present. Ironically, the "source" materials of religion, for example, the Bible, also contain a strong thread of historical inter...

See this PRI Documentary Segment Daoism (the politically correct spelling of "Taoism") flourishes as a religion in China, virtually unrecognizable by Western followers of the simple philosophy outlend in the   Tao Te Ching . In China, Daoism is basically Chinese traditional culture, along with all the gods, priests and mythology. The fact is that culture grows religion like manure grows weeds. My first serious brush with Christianity came in 1970 when a friend gave me the Gospel of Thomas , which opens with these compelling lines: These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down. (1) And he said, "Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death. " (2) Jesus said, "Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the All." (3) Jesus said, "If those who lead you sa...