exponentiation ezine: issue [1.0: features]
"On the concept of God"
I neither will nor can deny that this is partly a religious writing; however, it differates greatly from what we label as "religion" or "spirituality" in modern society. I attempt to capture some universal truths about the cosmos and thus aim for its totality as scope of this writing. As one aspect of this quintessential sphere is irreversibly bound to another, interconnected and flowing through each other, I will both aim for both spirituality and intellectuality, although without dividing this thought into dualism. Categorization and generalization is the foundation of intellectual realization, but I don't construct abstract terms of convenience to suit my ideology or convictions; I seek reality as it is in itself: Hegel's "Wie es eigentlich geweisen," to use a philosophical language of higher culture. Hence, generalization is to say something about a set of events, or phenomenas, without having to dwell into the irregularities of deviance. Categorization is simply a way to arrange our thoughts in these regards. It can be argued that my inductions are colored by myself as an individual, but this as such should not hinder men in interpreting their surroundings based on knowledge on the world as it steps forth, understandably not influenced by any predetermined social constructs based on emotionalism and generated convictions after being exposed to dualist dogmatism.
Let us first approach the concept of God, the notion of an absolute being as the source and maintainer of totality, the universe as a whole. We know that everything that has a physical manifestation also has a causal origin, that is, a cause other than itself from which it necessarily springs. God as such is explained to be the source of everything, but is at its essence an uncausal being. From this follows, that God cannot be a manifested entity, and rather exists as a potential for perfection, that is unreachable at the essence of reality. It is a natural law that perfection in one direction negates perfection in the other: you cannot be the perfect man and the perfect woman at the same time, you cannot be warm and cold at the same time, and you cannot be truly benign and truly malignant at the same time, as different creatures would be subjective in these regards. As a consequence of this realization, it dawns that the Divine cannot be personified without being limited, and thus not divine. Not personified, not manifested.
For this reason the Judeo-Christian concept of Jehovah, an allegedly all good, all powerful entity must be faulty, and his struggle with Satan bordering on the ridiculous for this omnipotent creature. Yet we still have the notion of this divine being, on an abstract, spiritual level, as a potential unreachable for a limited creature with a will. A will is the direction of a matter, the basis of totality embrace all aspects of being that can be reached, and must thus be without will in itself. As for the basis of having knowledge of a will outside of your own intellect, it would suffice to say that your intellectualism is only a small part of your existence, what defines the self. One might say that rationality is but an island floating on top of a sea of instincts, external prospects, and pre determined destiny, and as such, one cannot doubt the reality of a world outside one's own senses. Since external prospects such as mechanical damage, experiences, chemicals and the like effect your brain and thus your mind, there can be no doubt as to their actual existence independently of your mind.
Onward to the world of representation that takes form as time, space and matter, conceived by the senses and interpreted by them, yet existing independently from them. The matter can be seen as a manifestation of totality; let me attempt to categorize these aspects in a basic manner. The totality as such is divided into living material and dead material, the first standing out as it has a will, on the most primitive and foundational a will simply for life, and without this will to life, the material would be dead. Also flowing through in interconnection with these aspects are the absolute, Brahman or Tuisto of Indo-European tradition, that was approached above, and we have thus a categorized quadrualism to deal with. As a given creature dies, his living material returns to dead matter, and his will, his direction returns to the all potential. All that is living takes this course, and all that is dead and undirected, namely matter and the absolute, will again take new form as a living entity.
This metaphysical understanding come as a supplement and a furtherment of the lessons taught in physics, in that energy can neither be created nor vanish, only take different forms, and it should be quite obvious for any properly schooled person that this knowledge based on reason also can be found in various Indo-European religions, and that philosophy as such is related to this ancient lore. All ages have a level of wisdom, and all ages are close to spiritual understanding and close to God in these regards.
Furthermore, there are two basic forces that move the represented world in terms of space and matter, those being expansion and contraction. The being of the universe is still in a state of expansion after the big bang, and it's a strong theoretical possibility that once this working power has ceased to propel the matter away from each other, the pull of gravity will work as a catalyst for bringing the matter back together again. As such, one must take into account of there being a third state of being the universe can descend into, that is namely total stasis, there being a perfect harmony between the forces of expansion and contraction. This state would in practical terms only be possible at two given stages, namely when the universe has expanded to it's full potential, and the pull of gravity comes into play to counterbalance the expansionist force perfectly.
In such an event, one might say that the universe, the absolute, has reached its most abstract level, the matter is spread out in vast distances, and the direction of the matter, the will, is at its most limited level. The Indo-European concept of Brahman or Tuisto can be best used to describe this stage, for the absolute has no physical totality, only potential for being, stardust floating across the vast seas of space. More so, living material would long have ceased to be, as it's conceivable that the atoms themselves would be spread out to thin for life to take form, in addition to there being no warming sun to ignite the spark of life in the first place. To clarify, this state of complete expansion before the pull backwards, would move God (previously explained) to its most abstract level on our table shown here:
The state of Brahman:
Dead material (y) ñ Living material (n) ñ Will (n) ñ The all potential (y)
Irrevocably, however, the basic forces of the universe would again come into play. Contraction, that is, the gravity of each object and every matter would start working on each other, pulling the matter back together. The process would accelerate, until all the matter in the universe was gathered at one point, a sphere of absolute totality. Needless to say, this would again lead to a return of the big bang, when all the matter is hurled out in different directions. When the force of gravity in this stage is in harmony, stillness with expansion, before the plunge, we are at yet another stage. The absolute would be at its most total physical manifestation, that is to say, a manifested entity at one given location, containing all the aspects of the matter unlimited by space and time. Space outside this sphere would be void, and time would be irrelevant as nothing came to pass. Life as we know it would be impossible, as all such life would have direction within the matter. The matter here would be whole, or "Heil," with no potential nor need for deviance.
I would label this stage as the state of Ymir, to use yet another concept from Indo-European mythology. The absolute would be manifested, but for it to become life, to become directed, it would have to spread out. For the will is manifested in all it's totality, but cannot become directed before being hurled out in the cycle of time and space again. Thus, as the gods of Norse mythology created life through the body of Ymir, the possibility of existence and development comes through the terrible power of expansion that yet again disrupts the manifested totality.
The state of Ymir:
Dead material (y) - Living material (n) - Will (y) ñ The all potential (n)
Let us now delve deeper into the concept of time. Time can per definition only be a valid tool when events take place in cosmos. Deprived of this, time becomes irrelevant, but in between the two stages of harmony, namely Brahman and Ymir, Potential and matter, time comes into play. Time develops is a single, progressing line, what is done cannot be undone, and one cannot move in any direction but forward. Time is also the prerequisite for life, without time, one would have no movement at all. It's an interesting knowledge that the passing of time can be bent by speed, curved so to speak, however, this will be explored later. I will on the other hand approach the subject of a mathematically pre determined universe. Past, present and future are bound together with the strongest seals of cosmos, without it, the universe would have had to entered stages of Nirvana. Events in the past effect the present, and that again will effect the future, all has it's casualty.
Thus it is a given, that once the linear time has been launched, the universe is mathematically predetermined, conceivable only for a mind of the greatest magnitude, the universe itself that embrace it. Destiny, it seems, is in us all, and as such, in the span of the lifetime of a universe, we shall go through ages both of grandeur and the greatest shame. An age of greatness is reached when the collective will, society or the tribe, works towards a higher end, whatever that end might be. An age of decay comes when the pleasure and comfort of the individual is put before anything else, as such individualism negates a collective direction except the seeking of pleasure, and thus, little can be achieved. Different culture groups have had varying ways to tackle the realization of a destiny once they have developed sufficiently to grasp it. Eastern cultures have tended to stagnate into fatalism, and passively accept whatever ills and joys that come over them.
Western cultures, at least during the last millennia, have attempted to tear from this realization by introducing free will, as if man was in complete control of his surroundings and the past before him. While such a mentality leads to a more active approach to the world, it completely defies the laws of nature that we are bound to, as we attempt to assert our will and dominance over it regardless of the consequences outside our own constructed, moral world. In all simplicity, this free will has lead to the wishy wishy fantasy world that a society is successful that produces the greatest amount of happy individuals, that needless to say, all wills for happiness. These individuals together have a limited base of resources, and to pursue such happiness each moment would lead to a neglect of the concept of necessarily ills to reach a higher end. Creatures would thus dance, feed and multiply merely like the grasshopper, not realizing that winter is approaching, and winter is coming fast.
The wise ant, however, prepares and is thus capable of existing even in the harshest climates. Likewise, a bread, cheese and some wine is all that it takes to make a small group of friends happy, but if you share it with a thousand uncontributing outsiders this little joy is split up into irrelevancy. Indo-European groups of the past had a third approach to this philosophical problem, namely a heroic spirit and an accept of fate as it is. Such as the ant doesn't know wether or not he, or in a greater view the hive will endure winter, he works hard nonetheless, and in the same way, the Germanic warrior faced the previously unbeatable Roman legions on the battlefield. The course of history was made by men and women of such courage.
For the feeble mind, such predeterminism would discourage the deployment of constructive action, and lead to only the endorsement of comfort in the longing for better times. Know this, that if the path of sloth is chosen, it becomes your destiny, if cowardice takes hold, it becomes your faith. On the other hand, when the longing for betterment becomes great enough, creatures of consenting will shall come together and form new ages, a resurrection from the ashes of the ancient times. For the cycles of microcosmos go faster than the macrocosmos, the universe as a whole.
Two thousand years of Christian hegemony, the furtherment of the individual into lesser thought, lesser blood and lesser being, stands on the brink of a cataclysm. Even now, we consume 20% more of the resources than the earth can replenish each year, and the world population is expanding in an almost linear graph year by year. Roughly around 1940, there were 2,5 billion people on this planet. By 1990, these were doubled, as we had 5 billion humans to feed, consume and rape our mother. As this is written, we are closing in on having seven billion people. Even the most anti-alarmist professors acknowledge that this planet as a maximum can hold 12 billion people, if they only eat rice and have as many belongings as an average peasant at the Chinese countryside. Clearly, the first world is consuming much more than that, and combined with the explosion of the population in the third world, this day and age will be brought to its knees.
But out from the ashes of our failure, something new shall arise, something stronger, something that has flowed through the waves of folly that have washed over us the past 2000 years. Where Christ brought us equality, we shall have inequality, where Christ brought us mercy, we shall be merciless, where Christ gave us quantity over quality, we will see that only the strong and intelligent survive the hard times that are over us. A new society must be built, where renewable energy sources fuel technology only used for higher aims. An agricultural existence will be the fate of the common man, where small communities come together to defend their interests, grow their crops and rule themselves as they see fit.
Those of the highest genetic quality will either become warriors or the ruling thinkers. Warriors, naturally, are to defend the establishment against insurgents, maintain order, and perhaps even hunt down the remnants of the Judeo-Christian internationalist anticulture, that in their bitterness would tear at the very fabric of the social structure. The thinkers on the other hand, would be only the select few with largely superior intellects, living separated lives while guiding the masses on a greater scale than petty politics, and working towards goals of bettering the human race and furthering technology towards altruistic goals, such as space travel and eventually space colonization. Electric power would only be available to this caste, as only decay and unnecessary luxury would be the result if the short sighted mob took hold of this. Membership of this high ranking order would have to be earned, and even though their sons and daughters would be favored genetically in such regards, they would have to prove their worth before ascending in rank.
We now find ourselves at the stage of motion, when the universe moves from one stage to another, and as the quadrualism of the universe is expressed to it's full extent, the possibilities are many and the potential endless. As we ascend in spirituality, our understanding of cosmos, the totality will increase. Spirituality here is not the faulty belief of a personified, dualist God, an unmoving mover behind the stage, but a realization what the universe is, and what it can become. Still, divinity is a concept to explore, let me elaborate this a little. If I were to travel thousands of years years back in time, and bring along a helicopter, a TV, and an assault rifle, the primitive tribes would surely think of me as a god. For to the lesser mind, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and for the lesser creature, a higher form of life is terrible to behold. Imagine how an ape views a human wielding a rifle, or how a dog views a human wielding a whip.
Mankind as a whole is at a stage of growing toward something greater to ourselves, when we are able to breed fourth humanoids with vastly superior intellects, and vastly superior bodies, they will become the new gods for us. Not some abstract punisher looming behind the clouds, but a god in flesh and spirit, just as the olds gods were. Odin, Thor, Hercules and Apollon were all human prototypes of something greater than ourselves, and we can make them walk this earth once more. It is in the individuals interest to see this done, for through the blood we are passed on, and only a higher form of man can escape the warm embrace of our earth mother into the vast emptiness of space. Immortality can only be reached if we evolve, if our blood somehow endure tests unimaginable today. Finding ourselves capable of utilizing the resources of space, we would have billions of years before the end came in form of a collapse, and it is then conceivable that there can be found ways to avoid it.
When a star collapses inward, it often forms a black hole, a field of concentrated gravity that all matter is drawn to. Such phenomena would Irrevocably lead to the contraction of space, given there are enough and arguably powerful enough black holes. However, theories have been conceived that this matter again can be distributed in space by utilizing white holes, or wormholes, where the represented world is curved and distances as such is of little concern. Imagine a piece of paper, travel from point A to point B would necessarily have to be done in a linear pattern, at least in conventional wisdom. But if the paper is curved, point A and B would be merged, and the matter the black hole attract to itself could be poured into a new location. As such, the universe might be given eternal life beyond its cycle of creation and the undoing of creation.
Only by utilizing our direction, our will, this can be done, a will not to become everything, as in the contracted sphere before the big bang, but a will to be what we are. "Thou shall," those cursed words that has haunted us since the fall of our civilization, shall be answered with, "I will." For the path of Jehovah is to deny life, to long for one's direction to become equal to and thus similar with totality and yet again be thrown into the circular pattern of existence. Our Nirvana would be to balance the worlds perfectly and unrelentlessly, to thus exist forever. - GarmGormius
"Clashing Steel: The Myth of Conan the Barbarian"
Clashing skulls, crushed bones and shimmering crimson blood on cold steel, truly a spectacle to be beheld by eyes ravished with the fires of battle's passion. It's the fiery battle-ridden epic of Conan the Barbarian that mirrors these spectacles, much as the eyes that are ravished by the gleam of battles flare. It is an arcane and immortal tale, which forges its themes in a Hyperborean world; it is a feral habitat fit to temper Conan with the values of Nietzsche's overman and of Zen's spiritual focus and discipline.
Many a tale has been told that coincides with the principles of the overman and of Zen, but few of them crash down on it so perfectly as Conan the Barbarian. Conan is the self actualized man, the vehical in which, much like Nietzsches Zarathustra, promotes the values and the ideals of the Ubermensch, the new man. The quest of Conan mimics that of classic western myth it is laced with battles and it exemplifies the individuals journey into the realm of self-actualization and self mastery and it does so with the nod towards Nietzsche and bow towards the Samurai.
Conan began as a series of short pulp fiction stories created by Robert E. Howard during the 1940s that writer/director John Milius converted into a movie concept in the early 1980s. It is specifically Conan's journey taken in the film by Milius that will be focused on in regards to its Nietzschean and Zen themes. Sometimes it would appear when viewing Conan the Barbarian as though Nietzsche sat down with a Zen philosopher and etched out the script to a film. Utilizing both the themes of the will to power and combining it with a Zen sense of honor and discipline, Milius' Conan is one of unparallel will, honor, and strength and is of disciplined, spiritual supremacy like that of the a Samurai warrior.
The movie opens with a black screen inscribed with the ponderous words, "what does not kill me, makes me stronger," a paraphrase of one of Nietzsche's great mantras. Truly that small but heavy phrase is the backbone to Milius' version of Conan, as that which tests Conan to the brink of death only makes him stronger and more disciplined. This hero's tale follows in the vein of the epic heroic structures of grand tales such as Gilgamesh, the Odyssey, and other fantastic hero journeys. Conan is the tale of one mans journey for redemption, one mans journey into becoming the overman, using what Nietzsche called "the will to power." This is the tale of an iron will forged in a blistering flame, freely from the hands of God; this is the tale of a man birthed and nurtured by the earth and swept into the enigma of the cosmos; this is the tale of a man whose personality and character are forged like a sword in the fire and cooled into unbreakable strength by an unbending desire into the journey for self supremacy.
While Conan was a child of nine his town and people were slain by the Snake Cult led by Thulsa Doom, a spiritual leader in search for the answer to the riddle of steel. It is Thulsa Doom who represents the spirit of the mob and the spirit of the Abrahamic religions which promote the herd mentality philosophers like Nietzsche fought against. He is the spiritual sage who realizes the void of existence and attempts to blind others of that reality, feeling that man can not obtain value in a valueless world withtout the illusion of a grand, all powerful god figure. Thus is the nature of Thulsa Doom and it is Conan with his journey into self actualization who will prove the spirit of the ubermensch can overcome the herd and establish grand value in a world and universe feral and cold. Doom then represents passive nihilism and Conan represents the anthesis in active nihilism.
When the Snake Cult sacked Conan's village, Conan witnessed his mother and father driven down before him in pools of blood by the hands of Thulsa Doom. This moment marked the first step into Conans journey as it was his summons to action, the begining of his great quest for redemption in which his will and courage would be forged. This concept is also illustrated by Joseph Campbell's traditional hero path as it was the moment that marked Conan's summons to action and began his journey into the abyss. The abyss marked by Nietzsche's words, "when one stares into the abyss the abyss surely also stares into them," is the void in which one can either be consumed or where one can rise to the task and establish ideals and dreams in a tangible way. Conan is the man who's journey actualizes his dreams and ideals and thus revamps the pagan sense of spirit and honor. This is a quest as old as the earth itself and as eternal as the night sky; from it there is something for us all to learn and for us all to extract, somthing pagan, something immortal.
As Conan's eyes witnessed his peoples life soak into the snow, the marble of his eyes reflected back the birth of his will, his will for revenge; it was the birth of his will to power and the start of his journey. From this summons came a series of tests that would help to forge his being into a Nietzschean hero for he was alone with nobody to help him and he had to overcome the struggle within; his alienation would help birth his will and would help him create a new moral code away from the standard and the bourgeois. The first grand test came as Conan was enslaved by the Snake Cult and sold to the Mongol warriors who led him to the wheel of pain, a mammoth structure with no purpose other than to serve as a form of laborous torture. For ten years Conan pushed at that wheel until he grew into a man all the while child after child, man after man, dropped from the wheel from exaustion and fatigue, but Conan mustered the strength and will to overcome the conditions and rose to success.
When he achieved the state of physical manhood he was like an innocent child in spirit, born fresh to the world, inquiring of what it had to offer and teach him. The wheel had acted like a mother towards Conan's spirit, it was his teacher and one of his great tests in the Hyperborean world. The willingess of Conan to surive the ordeal of the wheel of pain echoed to the world that he had the nature of a champion and his courage helped him accomplish great tasks. He had the spirit of a Samurai and the strength of the Ubermensch.
Conan the Barbarian is a story that takes a step back in time and dives into the pagan sense of being and consistantly furthers itself from the Judeo-Christian moralism that has filled the world. Conan is a man endowed with the spirit and soul of a pagan warrior; he is a demigod, a man who attains the strength to mold his ideals into reality. Pity is not a concept known to Conan, neither is weakness. Conan never gives up on an idea, he never slips from his goals, and he follows through his quests with great prudence and dignity. Never is he afraid to try a new means to obtain his goal and never does he exhibit fear and weakness. He is a man driven by a fire unseen by the common eye; he is a man propelled by the fuel that ebbed the essence of creation. The story of Conan does not soften the blows or turn the quest for redemption into a martyrs pity ridden journey. Conan the Barbarian is ebbed with valor, honor and the strength to succeed. This is evident in Conan's ability to rise to the test of each trial he faces without fear and witout complaint. Never does Conan moralize an action, or pity a cause, for he always rises to the occassion with strength and ferver all the while staying true to his code of honor.
A new and higher morality is embraced by the spirit of Conan and it is a spirit and code that orbits first and foremost around action. Conan is a man of few words and is instead a man with many modes of action. The redemption of Conan is pursued in full glory and is not left to the action of gods to decide the outcome, it is left to the hand and breast of Conan. This revelation is realized in the film as Conan called to Crom during a final battle and said, "battle pleases you Crom, so grant me one request. Grant me revenge. And if you do not listen, then to hell with you!"[2] Conan refuses to yield to the fates and instead carves his own destiny. God or no God, Conan sees that destiny must be siezed by his hand and should not be left to the suppositions of a God figure fufilling those dreams and ideals. Conan breaks from the common morals and codes of living which embrace passivity and yield to a godhead to heal and take care of all dreams and ideals. Instead Conan sees that active disipline helps man forge his destiny and obtain his goals and to be passive in action and towards one's ideals rarly allows ones goals and dreams to see fruition.
Whereas the Judeo-Christian codes yield to faith and the intervetion of a supreme being to yield results the pagan essence of Conan the Barbarian is one of self-actualization and self-determination, free from the constraints of an instinsic metabeing who is active in controling this world. This pagan concept is also a foundation of Nietzsche's self-created ubermensch and is also apparant in Zen's spiritual self-actualization. Conan holds no abosolute moral dogma, but instead acts doing what is necessary to obtain the goals and ideals he has set. For example Conan will not moralize the act of killing, he sees no intrinsic evil in the action and to kill is somthing that is a part of life, but Conan goes about killing only when necessary and when warranted; he would not go around killing men, women and childeren blindly; this shows he is a man with a code of honor, the code of a warrior, as opposed to a code of absolute morals; in Conan there is no moralizing of the action.
This is the aspect of the new morality as espoused in the philosophic texts of Nietzsche and it was also the code of the Samurai warrior. Another aspect that seperates Conan from the herd mentality is his vieying for redemption without pity or moralizing. He goes forth in full stride to obtain redemption for the killing of his family and village when he was a young boy. Whereas the Judeo-Christain act of revenge is stooped in bitterness and self-rightousness, the revenge saught by Conan is cloaked with honor and self-control. He has not twisted himself into a pitiful wretch of anger and resentment, but instead has transfigured the pains and strifes into an armor of inner strength which he brandishes with pride. Conan strives to create and self-actualize, whereas the Judeo-Christian revenge seeker strives for equalization and is commonly fueled by pity, morals and bitterness, quite often towards one who does not fall into line with their belief; the inquisition and the Crusades serve as twoexamples amongst many.
Many tests were presented to Conan which probed his might and helped forge his desire and will. They helped carry him beyond good and evil. The fighting pit introduced Conan to his ability to overcome strife in a heartbeat, as it was an arena where the most ponderous and strongest slaves fought to the death. Conan's first journey into the pit saw him with the spirit of a child; he carried with him a spirit like Enkidu of Gilgamesh, innocent, feral and awaiting experience so as to be molded. Conan took the journey from pure innocence to heroism. In the pit Conan grew stronger and he crushed his opponent, and in that moment Conan knew that which did not kill him surely would make him stronger; Conan had in those moments learned to tune his will, he learned to fight and win, he learned to master the tests of a hero. He went on to kill many men and he learned to do it very well, so well that the Mongol warriors who held him as a slave embraced him. They taught him the art of Kendo and the spirit of Zen; they taught him sword fighting, and they taught him how to attune his will through discipline, and served as his teachers on his quest. The warriors served a purpose suited to express the Niezschean and Zen values of the story as they believed in honor, duty, individual strength and the power of the will to overcome all adversity in order to obtain a sense of higher being, free from the hand of a supernatural being. Man is left free to mold his destiny.
Upon absorbing the skills that the masters had to teach him Conan enters the feral world for the first time, breaking the chains of his slavery and entering the abyss. Conan entered the abyss of the earth and was chased by wolves in a primordial, prehistoric and lawless land; he had crossed the threshold of the hero and had entered a state of nihilism where the world was void and his will was what would allow him to become king to make his own values. Weaponless and defenseless against the barren landscape around him all Conan could do was run into the night until he was able to find a shelter; that shelter came when he fell into a cave embedded in a rock in the middle of the desert. What Conan found in the cave would be what would take him through his trials and tests and it would be like a brother to him on his quest. Conan found a dead warrior sitting on a throne and in his hand he was holding a rusted sword, a sword that Conan grasped and from which he chiseled the rust. It became an extension of his inner self and was wielded by his side as his most faitful companion. That sword represented Conan's manhood and Conan's strength, it was the one thing he could trust, and it was infused with his strength and will. Steel was his first and greatest helper on his quest.
Flesh, like steel, can be molded and tempered into strength; thus is the nature of Conan. He is the blacksmith of his soul and of his will, always tempering himself in the fires of strife so as to forge the ultimate self, which embodies his ideals and dreams and goes beyond good and evil. Conan had crossed the abyss and stared it streight in the face. He realized that the world would have to be commanded by his will and could not be left to the will of others, or even worse, the will of a false god. Many trials and test saw their way to Conan, and each one served to temper a new element of his personality and character and they help him distance himself from the herd.
Conan's trials cut right down into the depths of his soul; they challenge him mentally, physically and spiritually. It's the will of Conan's spirit that is tested on his quest for Thulsa Doom and it's Conan's strength of body and mind that helps him to get there. There is much sorcery that meets Conan on his journey and it is this sorcery that serves to represent the ways of the old order and lesser spiritualisms that must be overcome in a new area and the new area of man would be the ones to rush out the weak spiritualism and embrace instead the strong and perinneal mysticism abound in the feral landscapes of the earth and within the vast abyss of the night sky.
Conan is the new man rushing in these new concepts and higher principles. He is strong and in his ability to overcome the sorcery and manipulation that he finds in the world around him he learns to better harmonize himself with nature and he learns to better attune his will so that he may obtain his goals for redemption and for a higher self. Conan tunes his mind and his spirit in order to become just like the overman that Nietzsche talked about in his philosophic texts. The quests in Conan's adventure serve to show his transformation from child to man to overman.
The journeys of Conan are not done fully with sole independence, as he dwells in solace and he is alientated from the normal man, but he does engage with higher spirits like his own and they help his quest; these principles embody a Samurai sense of community. Upon first coming out of the cave with his new sword, Conan quickly encounters companions who assist him on his journey. These companions do not stay with him through all aspects of his journey, particularly the climax, but they offer him aid that helps him conquer his foes and accomplish his goals. The ability for the companions to come and go allows the deeper themes of the Conan legacy to seep though. This is a man of self-reliance, he self-actualizes and has the ability to handle his own, but he accpets help when given and he takes it when it helps his goal, but there comes a time where he must part company to continue to strive for the goal and this marks Conan's Zen disipline and his ability to alienate himself so as to mediate and self-actualize like the Nietzschean overman.
The companions Conan meets with are two thieves, Valeria and Sabotai and from them he learns many things. From Valeria he learns the art and values of companionship and from Sabotai he learns of the loyalty in close friendship and what it means to have an ally. Eventually Conan breaks from their companionship for a time for he must seek his own spiritual quest in much the same way Sidhartha did in Hermen Hesses novel of the same name. This point of companion parting came when Conan and his companions had received gold from King Osric for promising to find his daughter for him. Valeria wanted to take the money and split but Conan had a deeper more spiritual mission to fulfill, that of avenging his boyhood and coming into contact with Thulsa Doom, the leader of the Snake Cult. Conan took the path of the hero and stayed true towards what his higher goals were, this is somthing very present in classical myth.
In the sense of how Conan engages in friendships he exhibts his personality that vies for efficiency, sincerity and minimalism. Conan surrounds himself with a few close allies who remain deeply loyal to him and his cause, they would ride with him into the bowels of hell and he would do the same for them. This ability exhibits a prinicple of the higher man to decree his own values and live by them with honor and integrety. Conan has a sense of duty and obligation, but it is a duty he set forth for himself, not one that was forced upon him by a supernatural abstraction. There is an ability in Conan to blend both idealism and physicality, as he is rooted in the material world yet is able to embrace the mystery of the cosmos and create concepts and dreams. The character of Conan is very much like a romantic in that light, as he is passionate about existence and the things that fill it but he is also able to be passionate about his conceptions and his abstractions. He is not consumed by adherence to a false or weak dogma and he does not give in to being consumed by the abstractions of a supernatural godhead as the Snake Cult has.
This spiritual and more conceptual side of Conan is exhibited in the Zen aspects of the Conan film. Conan is very much like a samurai, bonded to the world and he has deep sense of spiritualism, a transcendental spiritualism that, and this is key, self-actualizes and materializes as opposed to dematerializes into an abstraction that never sees fruition. Conan's spiritualism is linked to his body and it is linked to his passions, ideals and dreams in which he seeks to see them forced upon the world to create change. The Snake Cult on the other hand deals in nothing but lofty abstractions that do not see fruition in the material world. They are willing to see the material world as an illusion and will create principles based upon the illusion and this is exemplified by Thulsa Dooms calling to a maiden high on a cliff to come to him and she obeys, falling to her death for nothing.
Conan roots his values, spiritualism and ideas within the physical world and sees value in decreeing his own value. The Snake Cult are slaves to abstraction and abstracted ideas that hold no merit in the physical cosmos. Thus Conan embraces a pagan idealism which self-actualizes and embraces the physical world and creates its romanticism around it, whereas the Snake Cult represents those who have created a lofty ideal and serve to represent the Christian form of passive idealism. Finally, Conan is unfocused on obtaining the good will of a non-existent diety though applying a code of morals, or a standard of living, much like that of the pious Snake Cult who are latched to the ideas of an allmighty godhead.
In Conan the Barbarian there is a sense of a father figure in Thulsa Doom that is recognized throughout the film. This father figure is something that pops up often in classic myth. It was Thulsa Doom who killed Conan's parents and it was Doom that Conan sought revenge upon. It was also Doom, however, who fathered the will of Conan, for if he did not slaughter Conan's village and Conan's parents there would be no quest for Conan and no current goal for him to strive for. The pain and strife is what created meaning, not pleasure, this is somthing that is also embedded in the philsophy of Zen. It was also Doom who sent Conan to the wheel of pain and sold him as a slave to the Mongol warriors and it was the wheel that had acted like a mother to Conan. A sense of the spiritual father figure liters Conan's adventures and it is a vehicle to push forward the themes of obtaining atonement and redemption. Eventually Conan would stare his father figure Thulsa Doom in the face and overcome him and the restraints he imposed, thus making the full break from man into overman.
There is a moment in the film where Conan is faced with the father figure atonement of a traditional hero's journey. The father figure, Thulsa Doom, had captured Conan and brought him on his knees bleeding before him. Conan vocalizes to Doom, "you killed my parents," in which Doom replys that the action was a phase of his youth. Doom then goes on to explain how he has fathered Conan by sending him to the wheel thus instilling in him the fire for revenge that has driven him over the years. Thulsa Doom tells Conan what he has discovered to be the riddle of steel, he says to Conan, "what is steel compared to the hand that wields it? It's nothing. Flesh is power, flesh is strength."[1] In that moment it is recognized that Conan is strength of flesh and he is what Doom can never be; Conan is beyond Thulsa Doom, for Doom relies on magic and Conan relies on his will and the strength of his own hand. Doom then crucifies Conan in the desert, symbolically representing the enlightening death/rebirth apparent in classic myth. Conan is sent to the gates of death out in the desert but he is rescued by his old companions and brought back into the world of the living. When he is resurrected he arises as a full man of pure will and power, and he has recieved a sense of psychological atonement for addressing Doom in person. The only thing left to do for Conan is to fulfill his quest for redemption and then only would he have crossed fully into the realm of the overman.
After Conan's revivification he bashes forth to accomplish his goals and ends up doing more than he had set out to do when he began his journey. After being revived by his companions Conan sets out to the lair of Doom and his followers and rescues the King's daughter. Time and time again Conan managed to thwart Doom and his minions and this proved to show the heroics of Conan; he never stopped, he never gave in, he was pure will and he was driven by his passion, his spirit and his mind and he overcame adversity at all odds. Even when it was magic being tossed at him, Conan found a way to out strength it. Adaptation is one of Conan's greatest virtues and it is a virtue of the overman. Along the path to retrieving the princess Conan lost Valeria and he experienced loss once more, but he converted it into more will and desire to obtain his goal for revenge against Thulsa Doom; these are the many tests of the traditional hero and Conan met them aptly.
Conan took down Doom's challenges one by one. When Doom came to collect the princess Conan outwitted him and set traps; when Doom lost his best men to Conan and was defeated, he attempted to kill the princess from afar with an arrow, but he once again failed as Conan managed to thwart him. This is, again, the spirit of the overman, it is determination, skill in many areas of life and the ability to adapt to the situation quickly and efficently. After being defeated Doom retreats to his followers who still collect en masse and Conan follows him to his palace. When Doom is giving a speech to all his followers up on the balcony of his tower, Conan approaches him out of the shadows so as to represent his coming out of the darkness, his prevailing over the threshold and the stranglehold Doom has held on his soul. Doom sees Conan and knows his time is coming to an end and says to Conan, "my son come to me, join me and we can rule the world!"
The eyes of Conan reflect the fire of the torches in this moment so as to symbolize his passion and desire. Conan knew not to be manipulated by Thulsa Doom's hypnotic words and eyes, he was seeing at that moment though his heart, and these things saw the truth clearly, thus allowing Conan to lift his sword from his side to lop off the head of Thulsa Doom, thus vanquishing himself from the father figure and marking his return from the threshold of the hero journey. In this moment Conan overcame his last and greatest obstacle, he became the true overman.
Conan had come out of the quest's abyss a whole man, the overman, a heroic man and he not only had vanquished himself he had also vanquished the souls of the followers who had become captivated by Doom; this was his gift to the people which he gave upon his return from the threshold. Each follower one by one extinguished their torch and wandered into the black horizon, free from the cult, free to self-actualize and embrace the void. Conan was a hero to the people and put an end to the Snake Cult for good by throwing a grail of fire into the temple, allowing it to burn to ashes. The new man, the overman, towered above the flaming tower supreme in will and spirit.
This climax of Conan the Barbarian served as Conan's greatest test, as it was the overcoming of the father figure and the releasing of the people into the abyss, away from the false security offered by the Snake Cult. Over and over again the character of Conan proves the strength of his heart and will are able to overcome all odds and all challenges thrown at him, even when he should lose he conquers.
Conan's journey taught him the will to survive, the will to succeed, and the will to power. He learned the value of the opening mantra, that which does not kill him only makes him stronger. He learned to overcome the superstitions of the common man and he arose to the spirit he created for himself. At the end of his journey in Conan the Barbarian, Conan learns that it is he who is the answer to the riddle of steel, it his he who is strength and forger of his destiny. Conan learned the arts of Zen, strength, and thought from the Mongol warriors and he learned the art of his will from his journey and from his quest for redemption from the psychological father figure that was Thulsa Doom. Conan was a silent intellectual, pondering but never getting into tangles over his thoughts, instead he took action upon them. He is an archetype of strength and discipline, he is the overman. Truly, rare a story these days so perfectly embodies the principles and philosophies of the overman and of Zen, but Conan the Barbarian does, andit does so with the flare of the battles flame. - Phantasm
Works Cited
[1] Conan the Barbarian. Dir. John Milius. Perf. Arnold Scwarzenegger, James Earl Jones, Max Von Sydow, and Sandahl Bergman. Universal, 1982.
[2] Smith, David C. "A Critical Appreciation of John Milius's Conan The Barbarian" The Barbarian Keep Oct 28 2004 http://www.barbariankeep.com/ctbds.html
"What Dualism?"
Dualism - or a metaphysic that divides reality into two distinct, often oppositional states - has recently been subjected to an astonishing array of criticism within contemporary intellectual circles. The popular embrace of relativism and subjectivism as applied to cultural studies, the paradigm shift away from Aristotelian logic and towards "fuzzy" multiple-truth value logics, and the widespread death of Romanticism in the arts have all played their part in developing a new taboo against binarism and related modes of philosophical understanding. Yet not all dualisms are created equal, and it would be foolish indeed to categorically denounce all such systems of thought offhand. In the present essay I aim to consider three different perspectives on dualism - the Kantian, the Christian, the Nietzschean, and the "Pagan" (traditional Indo-European) - and in so doing offer my thoughts regarding the intricacies of each and their place within an emerging ontology of man's relationship to natural reality.
The modern revolution against dualism can be traced directly back to Nietzsche's philosophy of value. Nietzsche attacked Christianity's division of reality into the earthly and the divine; more than this he attacked the assignment of positive value to the divine and negative value to the earthy, a valuation that he saw as representative of weakness, resentment, and cowardice. His criticisms however were not limited to theology, and Nietzsche is only slightly less famous for his denunciations of Schopenhauer, Socrates, and Kant on similar grounds. It is Nietzsche's treatment of Kant that interests us here, in which the claim is made that Kant's critical theory is, in essence, merely a watered down version of Christianity's spiritual dualism.
Nietzsche's account of Kant is enticing and, as is often the case with Nietzsche, astonishingly poetic, but it is also highly flawed. Whereas Christianity draws a distinction between the symbolic-spiritual (divine) and the literal-physical (earthly), Kant's distinction is oriented towards an altogether different set, namely the objective-external (metahuman) and the subjective-internal (human). The difference is subtle but crucial. Christian dualism posits two external realities - the physical and the metaphysical - in which the latter is to be equated with truth and the former with a distortion of truth (or at most a pale echo of truth). Kant posits only one external reality, identified as objective and non-human, which he contrasts with an internal reality, identified as the subjective human realm of thought and perception. The difference is not between physical and metaphysical, natural and supernatural, real and ideal.which is what Nietzsche railed against.but between reality as it is and reality as it is perceived.
At the heart of Kant's thought is the conviction that reality as conceptualized by the human mind cannot be equated with the true nature of existence. His distinction between the thing in itself and its appearance does not denigrate earthly existence or do idealists any favors. It simply asserts that the mind imposes form and structure onto sensory data and thus constructs what man perceives as external reality (which, as Kant correctly recognized, is not "external" at all, but rather an internal subjective structure masquerading as an objective one). In different language, it might be said that human beings never interact with existence directly, but only navigate reality by way of a mitigating symbolic realm consisting of mentalist abstractions. The notion that the mind is more than a reflective mirror and in fact participates in actively coloring what it beholds strikes me as an almost intuitively obvious conclusion.
When Nietzsche wrote, "The 'true world' and the 'apparent world' - that means: the mendaciously invented world and reality," he revealed quite plainly the problem inherent in his own thought. The "mendaciously invented world" - what is this but an incorrect perception, in Kant's language an inaccurate appearance? If it is admitted that human beings are capable of perceiving "reality" incorrectly, then surely the distinction between perceiver and perceived, from which the bulk of Kant's critical theory is derived, must also be valid.
Nietzsche's position is, characteristically, too anthropocentric for its own good, and I do not share his faith that our human powers of observation are so finely tuned as to be wholly accurate, or that the problem of differentiating between objective reality and the perception of that reality is invalid; I also hold to my conviction that there is a difference between being-in-the world and being-the-world, the significance of which I cannot stress enough. To be in the world is to have a limited comprehension of the greater existence to which one is bound. To be the world is to posses a one.to-one, total comprehension of said existence.s raw essence and all interaction within it. The latter gives humanity far to much credit. We are error-prone and have proven it countless times throughout our brief history on this earth.
At the same time however I find myself unsatisfied by Kant's assertion that perceived existence is not merely incomplete, but fundamentally arbitrary and necessarily incorrect. It is probably a sound statement that "True Knowledge," which is to say knowledge uninfluenced by the active structure of the human mind, can never be attained and is futile to pursue, but perhaps there is some kind of representational understanding that communicates an approximate, but never complete, portrait of external reality. This might explain what is meant when people refer to the "kernel of truth" sitting at the heart of otherwise improbable or skewed concepts.
Darwin alone should serve as proof that not all our knowledge regarding the external world is purely arbitrary. How else does one explain a theory such as Evolution? To be sure, the language used to describe evolutionary processes and the conceptual framework upon which the perceived structure of genetic mutation sits must be severely colored by the mind of Darwin and the subsequent interpretations of scientists and laymen, but only a fool would deny that the theory of evolution describes, however distantly, something that is occurring consistently, externally, and as far as we can feasibly determine, independent of human interference or observation.
Such a view no doubt emerges from precisely the kind of dogmatic empiricism that Kant sought to transcend and that Schopenhauer sought to deny. Yet it is exceedingly difficult to escape the feeling that external reality must resemble, if only in a distant fashion, the mentalist representations we use to navigate it - even the immaterialist Berkely had to find some way of dealing with reality's consistency and relative stability; in any case, there is no obvious reason why one should give serious consideration to the notion that this is not so, all (mandatory) respects paid to Descartes and his tricky evil demon. If I am critical of Nietzsche's rendition of the Kantian dilemma as a non-issue than I am even more displeased by modern man's persistent refusal to lay trust in common sense, observation, and intuition.
***
But what of my assertion that Christianity is responsible for western man's conception of the divine? That paganism conceived of gods is clear. That most of Europe's formative races conceived of reality in dualistic (though not absolutist or moralist) terms is also evident.[1] Pagan dualism however, like Kantian theory, was not describing a relationship between the divine-unseen-spiritual and the human-apparent-physical, but rather a relationship between the external-material-metahuman and the internal-immaterial-human.
In pre-Judaic religions, nature and the divine were not divided into separate realities. Every deity, god, and mythological tale was representative of forces within nature, or of nature itself.[2] Because pagan spirituality did not consider nature to be a human domain, but rather an externalized superhuman domain, the resting place of truth was not in something symbolic and abstract, but in something material and external. When heathen peoples spoke of the unseen, they were not referring to an unknowable abstraction (such as the Hebrew Yahweh), but rather to a perceived essence, the existence of which was still deduced by the observation of natural physical phenomenon (such as wind for instance, the presence of which is felt and the manifestations of which observed, but the "essence" of which is elusive). The supernatural was not a valid concept to the pagan mind, and as such the gods were not metaphysical, but only metahuman.
The realm of symbols was the realm of representations, which existed purely as human interpretation and speculation in the form of mythology, while the realm of nature was the realm of the "divine" - of truth, of spirituality. It was only with the coming of Judaism that the gods were split from nature, turned into something abstract and symbolic, and given divine existence in their own right. Suddenly truth was not only metahuman, but metaphysical as well; the gods were above both man and earth. Symbols had become truths in and of themselves.
From such an assessment it is clear that Christian spiritual dualism is in actuality a degeneration of Indo-European trilogism, an anti-natural construction comprising the kingdom of man (internal, subjective), the kingdom of nature (external, false, sinful), and the kingdom of god (super-external, immaterial-symbolic, absolute truth). That Christianity lumps internal human existence together with external earthly existence, thus transferring its "dualism" away from the internal/external to the physical/meta-physical, can only be regarded as a hideously large intellectual blunder.
In Christianity the divine is little more than a composite of traits from the internal world of human ideation and the external world of natural existence. I regard this as highly dangerous, because in its elevation of symbols to truths it has removed any chance for empiricism to ground our abstracted knowledge. It is also rather arrogant; it has created a dominion for truth that is both symbolic/abstracted and external/absolute, therefore unfoundedly gracing the human world with the transcendent rightness of the metahuman world.
Finally a tentative genealogy of dualism begins to appear: the early Indo-European tribes utilized dualism as a framework through which to understand man's place in the scheme of nature, and had no conception of the metaphysical; Christianity, mingled with European custom and thought, introduced the concept of the divine and shifted the duality away from man and nature and onto nature and meta-nature; Kant rescued something of the dualism of the ancient Germanics; Nietzsche, violently reacting against both Christianity and the perceived influence of said religion on Kant, dismissed the latter perhaps too hastily.
The modern philosopher - especially if he subscribes to a "nihilistic" mode of understanding - must give serious thought to the evolution of dualism and its place in contemporary thought. Some form of dualism will be present in any philosophical discourse, and it is not clear that a "non-dualistic" reality is even remotely comprehensible. If nothing else the structure of our cognition, which is thoroughly rooted in binary-oppositionalism, seems to guarantee that we will not be evolving beyond the need to understand reality dualistically anytime soon. The question is: what dualism? What system is best suited to our current selves, our strange mix of "modern ideas" (to use a Nietzschean turn of phrase) and our integral culture? I remain optimistic that the answers are forthcoming.
- Though for the Kelts this dualism was almost lazily established in a manner that allowed for constant interaction and traveling between its two perceived worlds. The blending of real, historical peoples and places with mythological, superhuman narrative is commonplace in Keltic literature. There is a tale in which, for instance, the Tuatha De Danann are struggling with tax laws.
- This should be obvious upon even a cursory reading of European mythological cycles. That these Gods (Thor, Manannan, Odin, Lugh, etc.) also exhibit human characteristics should not be read too literally; rather this is the expected outcome of a people attempting to understand that which is greater than them by giving natural forces human faces and personalities. There are of course instances of mythological characters who are idealized representations of human archetypes - such as Cuhulain - but these are less common than tales revolving around nature deities and, when taken holistically, usually depict man's struggle with natural forces in some fashion or another. Although the gods are surely representative of a complex matrix of ideas, they are all bound in some fashion or another to the Indo-European's mystical conception of nature. - Jordan
Biography of Malcolm X
The infamous Malcolm X, best known for his involvement with militant black nationalism, first gained notoriety as the most vocal minister in the "Nation Of Islam," a fundamentalist Islamic cult which emphasized the importance of black self reliance and separatism (racial separation from other racial groups such as Caucasians and Mongoloids). Malcolm X's rise to infamy can be best attributed to a change in his outlook on race relations - from his time before jail and his time after as a NOI member - which would forever change the course of his existence from a life of petty crime and racial ambiguity to America's most outspoken black Nationalist leader in the 50s and 60s. We must punctuate how Malcolm's philosophy on racism and "white" culture developed over time, from extreme hatred towards white society to a less destructive outlook on racialism focusing on the equality-yet separation-of the races. It helps us to understand Malcolm's contribution to both black racialism and the human rights movement when the evolution, impact and appropriateness of his work is examined in detail.
Born on may 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska as Malcolm Little, Malcolm became quickly aware of the racial inequality that befell his kinfolk, although any reason for it would elude a boy of his age. His father Earl Little (supposedly murdered by KKK members or members of the "Black Legion" [a]) was a preacher and follower of Marcus Garvey, a vocal black leader who understood that Africans could never truly be "free" in America living side-by-side with the white population. Malcolm's mother, Louis Little, was a homemaker of partial white ancestry. While in Elementary school Malcolm recalls how he was encouraged to become a carpenter instead of a Lawyer by his teacher Mr. Ostrowiski, because the latter profession wasn't acceptable for a "Nigger", as follows "You've got to be realistic about being a nigger. A lawyer - that's no realistic goal for a nigger." ( Haley 38 ) This came to a shock for Malcolm since he was one of the top three students in his class and was well liked by his classmates, and even the teacher. Malcolm's ignorance of the race issue would only be corrected in adulthood after a "racial awakening."
While still a teenager Malcolm left his residence to live with his half-sister Ella in Boston. The move not only brought young Malcolm to a more significant social setting, providing him with job opportunities and interaction with other blacks, but it also introduced him to the street life, one in which drugs, theft, prostitution, illegal gambling and other crimes were a way to survive for the downtrodden. An obvious example of Malcolm's clueless attitude towards the issue of race was a hair style he and other blacks of that era adopted called a "Conk" which involved putting lye into the hair to make it straight, thus looking more "White". Malcom describes his disappointment with altering his natural hair when he was younger, just to make it appear "white" - "How ridiculous I was! Stupid enough to stand there simply lost in admiration of my new hair looking 'white' reflected in the mirror in Shorty's room. I vowed I'd never again be without a conk, and I never was for many years." (Haley 56)
Prior to his change in attitude, Malcolm's desire to emulate the white racial hairtype was a relatively "hip" behavior within black youth circles. Here race was an unimportant subject when the apex of daily life was confined to the decadence associated with the streets. On January 12th of 1946 Malcolm, his friend Malcolm "Shorty" Jarvis and their female accomplices were taken into custody after burglarizing a residence in a failed attempt to organize a small crime ring. Malcolm was sentenced to 10 years in prison where his spiritual journey into religion and race would begin. During his incarceration Malcolm was approached by his younger brother Reginald with the philosophies taught to him and the rest of their family by Elija Muhammad, leader of the black nationalistic cult the "Nation Of Islam".
After a long talk with his brother about the teachings of Muhammad, Malcolm began to reflect on what was told to him. He makes it clear how having been brought up to speed on black racial issues left him with something to think about - "When Reginald left, he left me rocking with some of the first serious thoughts I had ever had in my life: The white man was fast losing his power to oppress and exploit the dark world; that the dark world was starting to rise to rule the world as it had been before; that the white mans world was on the way down, it was on the way out". (Haley 164)
While in jail Malcolm was introduced to books and for the first time he was exposed to a variety of different texts concerning philosophy, world history, religion and ancient African history. Malcolm learned about his ancestors and his African heritage, all of which had been kept out of grasp until then. Malcolm became highly interested in exploring his heritage after various talks with his brother Reginald, most importantly when Regi relates to Malcolm how history had been distorted by "The White Devils." As Malcolm explains "The teachings of Mr. Muhammad stressed how history had been 'whited' - when white men had written history books, the black man simply had been left out." (Haley 177)
After more visits from his brother Reginald, his sister Hilda (who also converted to Islam) and finally Mr. Muhammad himself through letters, Malcolm would focus deeply on the black nationalistic philosophies regarded by the NOI and Elija Muhammad. Malcolm served only seven years in jail and was released to the outside world a more developed man than the punk kid aimlessly riding the extreme highs of life. Not only did the experience make Malcolm "self educated" from the number of books he thoroughly read and studied (he at one point copied an entire dictionary from A to Z in his own handwriting), but his entire outlook on racial issues changed. Gone were the days when a young and confused Malcolm was dubbed "Satan" by fellow inmates for his seething hatred of religion, especially Christianity. Malcolm was now deeply involved with fundamentalist "black" Islam which saw Christianity as the driving force behind the "White man" - "....The slavemaster injected his Christian religion into this 'Negro'. This 'Negro' was taught to worship an alien God having the same blond hair, blue eyes and pale skin as the slavemaster." (Haley 166)
After being released from prison in 1952 Malcolm spent 12 years under the tutelage of Elija Muhammad. As a minister in Elija's "Nation Of Islam", Malcolm spoke on behalf of the NOI's objectives to separate whites and blacks among and establish a pure black nation. He would become the most hated and controversial black representative in his time. Malcolm spoke at rallies, universities and other public events around the world and venomously tore apart the oppression of white society, it's history of conquering and enslaving of non-white people and the eventual downfall it would face. Malcolm was no less disgusted with blacks seeking a peaceful coexistence with white society and labeled them as "Integration-Happy Negroes" or "Uncle Toms". In one debate, Malcolm asked a black Professor on the side of integration "Do you know what white racists call black PHDs?" and after an unsatisfactory response, retorts loudly with "Nigger!" (Haley 290)
During his rise to prominence through the NOI, Malcolm attained the last name of "X" (used also by other black Muslims) which he states was to symbolize his forgotten African family name. Note that switching from "Little" to "X" was further evidence of Malcolm's views on separatism and black racial pride. "....I received from Chicago my 'X.' The Muslim's 'X' symbolized the true African family name that he never could know. For me, 'X' replaced the white slavemaster name of 'Little' which some blue eyed devil named 'Little' had imposed upon my paternal forebears." (Haley 203)
Malcolm X was instrumental in opening many temples around the country for NOI members. He often became the minister of these temples, helping them establish a foothold in the community and inducting new members into the organization. During one of his ventures Malcolm met a female disciple of the Nation named Betty Sanders and the two soon developed a relationship. In 1958 Malcolm and Betty married, producing six children throughout their time together, all of them were girls - Attilah (b. 1958 ), Quilah (b. 1960), llyasah (b. 1962), Amiliah (b. 1964) and twin daughters born after Malcolm's death in 1965, Malaak and Malikah. (a)
By this time, however, tensions within the NOI began to intensify. Malcolm discovered that Elija Muhhamad was having extramarital affairs with several of the NOI's female members, and even sired their children. Though X knew that this was a blaspheme against the NOI and Islamic doctrines he agreed to keep quite in order to save face and out of respect for his teacher. In 1963, after the assassination of John F Kennedy, then President of the United States, Malcolm stated in one of his public speeches that the death of JFK was a case of the "Chickens coming home to roost" - essentially, karma - in that JFK.s policy of violence had caught up with him. A public outcry followed as a consequence and Malcolm was "silenced" for six months from speaking on behalf of the NOI. Although the punishment was accepted, it was the begining of the end for Malcolm and his involvement with the NOI. A year later Malcolm broke from the NOI and established the Muslim Mosque, Inc. continuing where he left off. Also of note was the initial stages of his autobiography which was a collaboration between himself and writer Alex Haley (the famous book was written from a period between 1964 and 1965). (a) (b) (Haley)
Wishing to fulfill his duties as a Muslim, Malcolm would Pilgrimage, or "Hajj" to Mecca after arriving in the middle east by plane. Malcolm brought his backswept view of white culture with him, unaware that his anti-white philosophy would soon be in test, as he explains - "That morning was when I first began to reappraise the 'white man'....In America, 'White Man' meant specific attitudes and actions towards the black man and all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been." (Haley 340) Malcolm also acknowledges "That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook on 'white' men". (Haley 340)
During his Hajj, Malcolm found that the White man was no longer a "devil," "murderer" or "subhuman" and should not be chastised as an entire group for the exploition of nonwhite populations by some whites. Back in the states, Malcolm confessed that whites could also be brotherly - "In the past, yes, I have made sweeping indictments of all white people. I never will be guilty of that again - as I know now that some white people are truly sincere, and are capable of being brotherly toward a black man". (Haley 369) One of the clearest indications of Malcolm's "awakening"- his newfound acceptance of the white man as a brother and ally instead of an enemy - can be pointed to in this passage - "It was in the holy world that my attitude was changed, by what I experienced there, by what I witnessed there in terms of brotherhood - not just brotherhood for me but between all men, of all nationalities and complexions who were there." (Haley 369)
Though Malcolm's views on white society changed dramatically from the time he was with Elija Muhammad to his Hajj to Mecca, he was still very much in support of black self reliance and separatism (first widely preached by Marcus Garvey), though much more tolerant of whites and working with them to bring about change. At this point in his life Malcolm believed that whites and blacks could live "side by side," coexisting in a way that was separate from each other but very much united - "We will completely respect our white co-workers....We will meanwhile be working among our own kind, in our own black communities - showing and teaching the black man in only ways that black men can - That the black man has got to help himself. Working separately, the sincere white people and the sincere black people actually will be working together." (Haley 384)
Malcolm rallied a sizable group of supporters with his new take on the race issue, and his statements were given no less attention by subjects of the NOI. By this time Malcolm had already severed his ties with the Nation Of Islam and Elija Muhammad, which now considered him a threat to their movement. Insiders of the NOI warned that an attempt to knock off Malcolm and his family was imminent. Malcolm took the threats seriously enough to take his body guards with him whenever feasible. Without warning on February 15th, 1965 Malcolm's home in Elmhurst New York was fire bombed but he, his wife Betty and their four children escaped unharmed. It was clear at this point that whoever was behind the attempts to finish him off was steadfast and eager to get the job done quickly - without special care to keep his family away from the line of fire.
On February 21, 1965 while Malcolm spoke at Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom a man from the audience began yelling "Get your hand outta my pocket! Don't be messin' with my pockets!" and rushed the stage with two other men brandishing firearms who then shot down Malcolm, unimpeded. At 39 years old, the revolutionary black leader Malcolm X was dead. The three men were later identified as Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3X Butler, and Thomas 15X Johnson - all members of the NOI. The three NOI members were charged with first degree murder in March of 1966. (B)
Malcolm X's dreams for a better world where the races were equal but separate were shattered, but his message is eternal. Though his views are lauded by many persons without the slightest clue of the racial issue as a whole, Malcolm X continues to inspire, even those few White nationalists and separatists who find his better qualities and wisdom a sane example for the entire human community. - Wilhelm
Works Cited
Haley, Alex. "The Autobiography Of Malcolm X", 1964. Ballatine Books. (http://tinyurl.com/5hqgw) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X (a) http://www.africawithin.com/malcolmx/malcolm_bio.htm (b)
"Internet Trolling as Postmodern Infoterrorism"
Almost a joke among most people now, discussion via computers was once limited to a relatively select group of those who could make it into universities or tech firms, or acquire the technical knowledge to call up bulletin board systems, and thus gain access to the simple software required to maintain conversation. Any number of parallels can be drawn, from the founding of civilization to the degeneration of musical genres, for what happened: in 1996, AOL opened the gates to mainstream America, and soon computer mediated communication was as neurotic and spiteful as PTA meetings in "real life."
From that point on, the futility of any kind of meaningful discourse increased in direct relation to the breadth of the audience. You cannot talk about a philosophy of life if the vast majority of users think that "All I know is what I like, and therefore, you can't tell me that's wrong" is a viable counterargument. Nor can you overcome the little social groups that cluster like flies on every topic area, reverting discussion from the abstract subject at hand to such mundane details as personalities and allegiances. In short, expressing oneself and trying to network with others is no longer achieved via discussion in its many forms, including Web forums, USENET, and IRC.
This dumbing down of discussion, such that it can no longer have a topic and must instead focus on the lowest common denominator interests of its audience, removes the split between speaker and audience, and the result is chaotic screaming where those who are most persistent are assumed to represent the de facto beliefs of the group as a whole, and thus quickly establishing calcified hierarchies devoted to anything but the topic at hand. In turn, this drives anyone sensible insane, as their best thoughts are ignored in favor of personal attacks and trivial snappy comebacks. Communication is replaced with a broken form of socialization that allows those who fail in life to seem important via electronic avatars, or symbolic representations of self as an external construct in the consensual consciousness of the group.
When it became apparent that this was the case, the golden age of Internet trolling began. Recognizing the futility of communication, these outsiders began to instead attack the non-communication, but, realizing that logical argument would be immediately dismissed, took discourse to a new level by instead of describing what they believed, demonstrating it through the negative reactions of others. Trolls had previously existed in an offhand manner, usually when a member of a community got fed up with another and decided to assume a fake name and draw that person into some argument so trivial that everyone else got just as fed up with that member. However, once the foolishness was no longer the minority of traffic but its mainstay, trolls realized not just an emotional reaction, but a logicality behind their method.
Somewhat predictably, reactions to trolls are mostly negative. Much as dissident writers and thinkers through history have been ostracized and forced to live in poverty, trolls get no public recognition from anyone with a stake in the status quo. If one has a vested interest in what is, trolls are the enemy, as their inclination is to tear down what is and thus, by the factor of exclusivity to any dominate system, replace it. Consequently, mainstream definitions of "Internet troll" fit the following pattern:
An Internet "troll" is a person who delights in sowing discord on the Internet. To them, other Internet users are not quite human but are a kind of digital abstraction. As a result, they feel no sorrow whatsoever for the pain they inflict. Trolls are utterly impervious to criticism (constructive or otherwise). You cannot negotiate with them; you cannot cause them to feel shame or compassion; you cannot reason with them. They cannot be made to feel remorse. For some reason, trolls do not feel they are bound by the rules of courtesy or social responsibility. - http://members.aol.com/intwg/trolls.htm
An internet troll is a person who sends duplicitous messages hoping to get angry responses, or a message sent by such a person. Proposed motivations for trolling - Anonymous attention-seeking: The troll seeks to dominate the thread by inciting anger, and effectively hijacking the topic at hand; Cry for help: Many so-called trolls, in their postings, indicate disturbing situations regarding family, relationships, substances, and school--although it is impossible to know whether this is just simply part of the troll. Some believe that trolling is an aggressive, confrontational way by which trolls seek a sort of tough love guidance in an anonymous forum. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll
There are two main types of trolls: 1. people who are psychologically disturbed, and seek to feel good by making other list members feel bad. This is a sort of "psycho troll", whose deception involves deceiving themselves as well as others. 2. people who pretend to be someone that they are not - they create personae that you think are real, but they know is fictitious. - http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/troll.htm
What fails with such definitions is that they do not address the motivations for trolling, only its effects on a discourse that is assumed to be worthwhile, and thus is incapable of seeing its own emptiness, much as dissident falls on deaf ears when there are no blatantly obvious (twenty-story tall monsters, invading Visigoths, race riots, climate change) signs of society's failure. A better definition of trolling takes into account both the intent of trolls, and the effect of their actions one generation of discourse after the trolls make their appearance. To do this requires we for a moment set aside any moral judgment of what trolls do, and stop trying to consequently ascribe to some personality failing their actions, but assess them instead as serious participants in the discussion who have turned to unorthodox methods to express what could not be done via conventional means.
Trolling, as a tactic, is a method of drawing one's opponents into paradox by either making them confront the hollowness of their attitudes, or by revealing their own personal flaws and lack of mental discipline to avoid provoking comments, thus lashing out and shattering their carefully-constructed self-image. To be effective, an internet avatar must appear to be in control and to represent something other than the mundane bickering, but when punctured by a troll, the internet avatar is unmasked as a repository of human frailty and frustration, and thus its authenticity as an authority on the topic of the group is depleted. In short, trolling is wielding the futility of computer mediated communication against those who maintain it but, through careful social manipulation, avoid appearing to be continuators of that morass, but are able to fool many people into believing their public position that they are opposed to it.
Since this dual layer between appearance and reality exists, and in fact is the source of much of the social power from which internet talking heads derive their perceived authority, blurring that distinction invalidates the very premise of authenticity as exists in computer mediated discourse. That the status quo of such discussions is based on upholding this illusion means that trolls disrupt the layer of appearance, in which internet avatars pretend to be on topic when they are at a level below the ostensible maintaing a social and not logical order, and restore a topicality to the discussion by aggregating the social impulse away from the actual content of the discussion. In postmodern theory, it is posited that all discourse has both a "text," or the nominal meaning of the tokens being exchanged, and a "subtext," or an unstated shared psychological meaning to the discourse conveyed mainly by context, including social factors.
Viewed in this light, computer mediated communication can be seen as a victim of its own lack of differentiation between avatars and conversation; soon the needs of the avatars dominate the topic, and thus even if what is being discussed is "on topic," its context is one of the manipulation of personalities and self-image. Trolls by forcing this to identify itself group the subtextual factors apart from the text, and by virtue of what they do not target, create an identifiable stratification of conversation into social and textual factors. For this reason, we can see computer mediated discussion as an appearance which contradicts reality: those who appear to be on topic are using the topic to transact something entirely unrelated, and those who appear to be off-topic are often reassociating the topic with its meaning.
The probable cause of this duality is that, in a Platonic sense, there is no distinction between object and its manifestation in the computer world. Where in public discourse the individual is clearly separate from the text, in computer mediated discourse the individual is expressed entirely within the text, giving rise to the subtext of the individual. The forced linearization of dual "real world" factors, such as personality and social need, with abstract textual factors, such as the topic at hand or the underlying philosophies expressed, therefore induces a form of advanced concept entropy which leads to discourse being replaced with personality factors. Trolls approach this as a solvent, and divide the two again, revealing most of the discussion as the socialization that it is, and separating real content as unworthy of assault.
Metaphorically, this is similar to the political situation in the world today, which can be seen as an outpouring of the same psychology of duality seen in computer discussion, as brought about by a technological world in which we are each numbers on a triplicate form, phone numbers or email addresses. Those who accept the standard of civility that allows us to discuss a topic without discussing it, and thus let the status quo of relentless profit at the expense of nature and culture and the individual continue, are by the nature of having accepted the subtext as text unable to realize where their criticism of it must start, should it start. Those who embark on thinking outside of the standard of civility are correspondingly categorized as outsiders, since their beliefs are not only critical of the status quo, but entirely deny its validity. Currently, such dissidents, who tend to use dramatic means of introducing confusion that forces society to respond with increasingly rigid and impractical reactions, are categorized as terrorists, but we might as well call them trolls, or borrow language of a former time and refer to them as revolutionaries, or even, Minutemen.
