Pink Floyd does a wonderful 12-minute version of "Comfortably Numb" on their double c.d. - Pulse. The Pulse double c.d. was recored live; it's a collection of their more well-known songs. As I said, the rendition of "Comfortably Numb" on Pulse is a marvelous one.
Rapunzel
JoinedPosts by Rapunzel
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11
Uncomfortably Numb
by Guest with Questions inhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkjnyqfapry.
just feeling down today.
some aspects of my life are good but one isn't and i'm allowing it to take over today.
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jws and jury service
by nelly136 insome of those questioned mentioned personal hardships that could prevent them from serving on a trial that's estimated to last four weeks.
the reasons ran the gamut from being a jehovah's witness (whose religion doesn't allow them to sit in judgment) .
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1587373/20080513/kelly_r.jhtml quoted from this.
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Rapunzel
Good question!!! The topic of paradoxical thinking on the part of witnesses has been mentioned on previous threads. Another question that I have is this: Witnesses take great pride in the fact that they have brought several cases of their to the U.S. Supreme Court. These famous cases have centered on the right to express unpopular or dissenting opinions. And yet, we all know how they treat dissenting opinions/ideas within their ranks. Why can they not extend to their own members the self-same rights that they have petioned the Supreme Court for?
They oh-so-glibly criticize "Caesar," and yet they have no problem accepting assistance from "Caesar" in the form of food stamps/welfare/ and other social programs. Mnd you,I have no qualms with their accepting government assistance per se. I just wonder at their hypocrisy. Something about not biting the hand that feeds you.
Why do they forbid mention of the word "luck/lucky" (on the basis of its "pagan" origins), and yet happily use other "pagan" terms to designate days of the week and the names of months.
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Text Message I Just Received From An Old Witness Friend
by str8?so is spaghetti..until you heat it up inthis is a text message i just received from a guy who was in my old congregation.
(ps, no there was no shenanigans going on there, i wasn't interested in this guy in that way...even though he was possibly the best friend i had ever had within jws).. "hi rob.
please come back to the truth.
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Rapunzel
Str8 - Since you, yourself, say that this fellow was possibly the best friend whom you ever had among the Witnesses, I would recommend that you NOT change your number. I would recommend that you give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he is acting in good faith. As you are without a doubt aware, true friendship is something rare in this world. True friendship is precious.
I recommend that you have a totally frank heart-to-heart talk with this guy. Try to do everything possible - while maintaining your own integrity, of course - to preserve your friendship with him. I may be naive, but I think that this might be an opportunity to enhance your friendship. Of course, you need not bring up issues related to your sexuality [after all, that is none of his business]. You can simply limit your discussion to doctrinal or other issues. I think the most imortant thing is to be honest. Although, I wouldn't know you "from Adam," I do have the utmost respect and admiration for you, based on my reading your posts. You seem to be a person of phenomenal courage and integrity. In that respect, you're almost "superhuman. I have every confidence that you will do well by him, and by yourself, if you and he meet for a frank discussion.
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Where do atheists' morals come from?
by dorayakii inmany theists believe that atheists have no morality at all.
they argue that because atheists dont believe in the laws, limitations and boundaries that god has set up for us, there's nothing stopping them from becoming violent, lying thieving sociopaths.
there have been many stories of people who have "found god" and changed their life, giving up drugs, repenting for past crimes.
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Rapunzel
Immanuel Kant demonstrated quite clearly that either morals are autonomous or they do not exist it all. If I refrain from murder; rape; arson; theft; ect. out of fear of divine retribution, my behavior is directed not by moral values but by caution, fear of the "Holy Policeman," egoism. On the other hand, if I do good solely with an eye to salvation, I am not really doing good at all (since my behavior is now dictated by self-interest, rather than by duty or love) and will thus not be saved. A good deed is good not because God commanded me to do it (in which case it would have been good for Abraham to have slit his son's throat); on the contrary, it is because an action is good that it is possible to believe that God would have commanded it. Rather than religion being the basis of morals, morals are the basis of religion. It is not the case that morals are derived from religion; but, rather, religion derives from morals. Morals precede religion. To have a religion is to acknowledge all of one's duties [i.e. the "commandments" that we impose upon ourselves] as commandments. The word ethics simply means knowing that we are spirit and thus have certain obligations, for noblesse oblige, that is to say that our nobility obliges us to acknowledge and carry out our duties.
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Oh boy, the committee wants to meet with me........
by Alpaca inthey want to schedule my thesis defense next month for my geology masters.. did i get you guys going???
sorry.... it just feels so good to use normal words in a normal way....if ya' know what i mean.. cheers,.
alex.
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Rapunzel
Alpaca - You "got me going", but good. I nearly had a heart attack!!! Don't you know it's not nice to scare the s*** out of us old folks. Someone ought to whup your butt
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Can Hermann Hesse Be Considered A "Prophet."
by Rapunzel ini just finished reading hesse's steppenwolf; and as anyone who has read it can tell you, it is a truly vertiginous book.
it makes the reader dizzy for several reasons, including the fact that it is full of profound psychological, aesthetic, and cultural insights.
it is also dizzying due to its continually shifting narrative perspective.
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Rapunzel
Hi, Narkissos, in regard to the idea of "being caught in between two ages," perhaps you are refering to the "preface" to Steppenwolf, supposedly written by the nephew of Harry Haller's landlady. Actually, in the following passage. the nephew of Haller's landlady quotes the words of the "Steppenwolf," hence the double quotes that I use: "'Every age, every culture, every custom and tradition has its own character, its own weakness and its own strength, its beauties and its ugliness...Human life is reduced to real suffering, to hell, hell only when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap. A man of the Classical Age who had to live in medieval times would suffocate miserably...Now there are times when a whole generationi is caught in this way between two ages, two modes of life, with the consequence that it loses all power to understand itself and has no standard, no security, no simple acquiescence...A nature such as Nietzsche's had to suffer our present ills more than a generation in advance. What he had to go through alone and misunderstood, thousands suffer today.'" - page 22, Picador edition.
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The JW's will never completely axe the door-to-door work and justifiably so
by yadda yadda 2 inthe jw's will never completely stop the door-to-door work but they will eventually make it only optional.
in "in search of christian freedom", ray franz makes the excellent point that how we translate the greek kat' oikon that the watchtower society translates as 'house to house' depends entirely on the context, and there are other scriptures with the same greek work that are translated 'according to homes' or 'in homes', etc.
however, the greek preposition kata does have a 'distributive' sense and, unfortunately, ray franz did not adequately address this in his research.
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Rapunzel
My idea is that the Witnesses have thoroughly misunderstood and misinterpreted the "door to door" scripture(s). As I know, the bible idea is more like preaching/proclaiming in public places such as town squares and markets.
Also I have to disagree with your contention that door to door is an effective way to proclaim the "good news." In fact, it is highly ineffective. This is borne out by the Witnesses very own figures. Just add up all of the collective hours that Witnesses put into "service." And then count the number of converts or "new publishers." Then, try to figure out how many hours it takes to make a new convert. I think you will find that the Witnesses put in a lot of hours collectively, but what do they have to show for it? Especially in develpoed nations, their methods have proven very ineffective.
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Earthquake rocks China. The End is nigh?
by easyreader1970 inlast week was the cyclone.
this week it is the chinese earthquake that so far has taken about 8,000 lives.
i feel an awake!
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Rapunzel
I lived in Taiwan [an island off the coast the Chinese coast, located to the south of Japan] for about 20 years. I can assure you that Taiwan is "earthquake central." I experienced many earthquakes. The briefest glimpse of a geological map will explain why this is so. Taiwan is literally criss-crossed with fault lines, as is Japan. In fact, the whole Pacific ring is a "hotbed" of seismic activity. Japan, China, and Taiwan all have long, long histories of earthquakes, tremors, and the resulting aftershocks. Japan and China have suffered horrific earthquakes throughout history - an example is Kobe, Japan.
It is never going to stop. As long as the earth endures, there will be earthquake after earthquake in that part of the world. I wonder how many witnesses know about tectonic plates. The Earth's crust is made up of the plates, which collide against each other. When two meet and the pressure builds up, something has to give. One has to go over the other. The energy released is almost unimaginable - the combined force of thousands of atomic bombs.
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Can Hermann Hesse Be Considered A "Prophet."
by Rapunzel ini just finished reading hesse's steppenwolf; and as anyone who has read it can tell you, it is a truly vertiginous book.
it makes the reader dizzy for several reasons, including the fact that it is full of profound psychological, aesthetic, and cultural insights.
it is also dizzying due to its continually shifting narrative perspective.
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Rapunzel
hamilcarr - I thank you for your responses; and I thank for the quote from Derrida's Structure, Sign, and Play. The citation that you provide helps to serve me as a reminder of why I don't relish reading Derrida. I really have to concede that you know far more about his theories than I know. I find his writing nearly inpenetrable. As we say inthe States, his writing is abstract with a capital "ABST." Derrida brings abstraction to new level. Or perhaps, it's a defecit/defect of my thinking. Please let me not be misunderstood. I appreciate his insights and the high level of his thought. It's just that I wish that he would somehow bring it down to a level where "mortals" like me could understand him
Narkissos - You write how you hesitated in responding. I fully understand and sympathize with your reasoning. Hesse's novel has particular resonance with you. I just hope that I "rubbed no salt in your wounds," as we say in English. This was most certainly not my intention. You know, ironically enough, I bought Steppenwolf after reading one of your posts about a week ago. It was one of your posts that prompted me to buy the book. You mentioned the novel in connection with the notion of identity [or self identity]. This is an idea which greatly interests me. And since I have the utmost confidence in your opinions in regard to literature and the life of the mind [I'm serious, no irony intended], it came to my mind to buy the book.
In regard to Steppenwolf, I distinctly remember being in a city public library, at age fourteen or fifteen, and holding the book in my hands. As I remember, I decided not to read the book. And, I have to admit that, at age fourteen or so, that was a very wise decision on my part. At age fourteen, there as absolutely no chance at all of my understanding it.I n fact, I seriously doubt that anyone younger than forty could possibly appreciate it, or give it the attention that it deserves. In fact, in his "Author's Note" written in 1961, Hesse seems to be slightly dissuading young readers from reading his book. As he states, "poetic writing can be understood and misunderstood in many ways."
In any case, Narkissos, I apologize if my post caused you any undue discomfort. Please feel free to ignore any subsequent posts of mine, should I make any
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Can Hermann Hesse Be Considered A "Prophet."
by Rapunzel ini just finished reading hesse's steppenwolf; and as anyone who has read it can tell you, it is a truly vertiginous book.
it makes the reader dizzy for several reasons, including the fact that it is full of profound psychological, aesthetic, and cultural insights.
it is also dizzying due to its continually shifting narrative perspective.
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Rapunzel
hamilcarrr - You mention the term post-structuralism [as opposed to "postmodernism"?]. I'm hardly an expert on the matter, and perhaps there are those here who disagree, but I see post-structuralism as inclosed in - subsumed by - postmodernism. In other words, postmodernism is the broader of the two terms; it includes post-structuralism within its broader scope. Given this fact, there is indeed an overlap in the meanings of the two words.
As I see it, post-structuralism refers primarily [but by no means exclusively] to the domain of linguistics. Post-structuralism is a response to - and to some extent, a reaction against - structuralism, also called "descriptive linguistics," a field of study defined largely by Ferdinamd de Saussure. Other linguists who greatly contributed to the theory of strucuralism are Roman Jakobson and Mikhail Bakhtin. And just as post-structuralism can be applied to fields of knowledge and "sciences" other than linguistics, so can the term structuralism. For example, the French anthropologist, Claude Levi-Strauss, is often labeled a "structuralist" anthropologist. Levi-Strauss was a renowned lecurer at the University of Paris. In addition to many other works, he wrote The Raw and the Cooked.
Notice how, in the title of his famous anthropological study, Levi-Strauss establishes a binary opposition. And while simplifications pose a conceptual "trap" and "snare" [especially if they are gross and facile], what I just said may have some value because structuralist linguists and philosophers did concern themselves with indentifying and establishing binary oppositions, either within the text (if they were linguists) or within the domain under study.
In regard to post-structuralism, it could be said that post-structuralist thinkers go one step farther than structuralists. Post-structuralists do indeed establish binary oppostions, but they then attempt to "transcend" these oppositions by "subverting" them. Many post-structuralist thinkers are French: Derrida; Lacan; Foucault: and Kristeva come to my mind.
A related field of study is that of semiotics - the study of "signs." The grand doyen of semiotics is Umberto Eco who is, in my opinion, one of the world's greatet living "polymaths." Speaking only for myself, it is - in general - not a pleasure for me to read Derrida or Lacan. I find their writing decidedly not "reader friendly;" using their own terminology, I find that they produce writing which is "scriptible" and not "lisible." However, it is a pleasure to read Umberto Eco.