Lying,lying ,lying! Why do people focus so much on Trump?! Lying is the M.O. of American society.Just watched an ad from eHarmony.The actors that they choose to represent potential candidates for dating are people that are so attractive they would never need to go on a dating website! They would be surrounded on a daily basis by numerous applicants for the post.More mischief from modern marketing-of which the Americans are the gold medal winners! If we really wanted to rein in lying,we would have to start by serious regulation of the marketing industry! Not going to happen!”it’s the economy,stupid” lol Advice from Sufi Ibrahim:Stay with the Truth except for life-threatening situations.That’s the Sufi way.
All posts by jebrahim2@gmail.com
Epistemology- from the World of Politics
More Epistemology from the World of Politics: So now we have two highly intelligent men-Mike Pompeo,Secretary of State, and Bill Barr,Attorney General defending falsehood in a clever,thoughtful way! In contradistinction to their boss who defends falsehood in a foolish,braggadocious way.Actually,generally speaking, the former are much more dangerous to our ability to decipher truth than the Trumpian way which is obvious in its egotism and ignorance.Don’t kid yourself!
The contemporary world is full of Pompeos and Barrs and many of them, unlike the former, carry the stamp of approval of “politically correct and progressive”.So beware!We really are in need of an educational system that teaches true discernment.But I don’t see any signs of that happening.Instead our educational system has become another form of indoctrination-mostly in the direction of philosophical materialism and Emipiricism and an excessive reliance on so-called “rationality”. Big,big problem! Way bigger than Trump!
Theocracy reinvented
I think theocracy has, unfairly, been given a bad name.A theocracy(the rule of God) requires a human element that legitimately represents the Divine Will on Earth.That needs to be someone with a high degree of wisdom, a superior level of morality and a deep level of inspiration and insight.Examples of a true theocracy would have been Madina during the time of the Prophet saws and arguably during the time of the Rightly -Guided Successors(the Shia would disagree) or The time of Moses leading his people out of Egypt.What we have now, in Iran for example, is a theologicracy i.e. a regime ruled by sectarian ideas about God-devoid of wisdom and devoid of humanity.That is a most dangerous mix-in fact probably worse than our secular democracies-if that is possible lol.Now demo-cracy is government by the people.When you go out shopping today-to the supermarket or Walmart or wherever,look around at the people there and tell me that’s what you really want lol
Metaphysics and Politics-A Positive Alternative!
If you watch carefully the Democratic nomination process or the Congressional hearings in the U.S, you will see that the politicians have three characteristics,generally
They are clever,articulate and willful( read the hubris of “plans”)This is NOT what we need!
We would be much better served if they were wise and insightful rather than clever; able to listen,especially with ” the ear of Truth”, rather than articulate and lastly Compassionate and receptive rather than willful.This change would represent a real revolution! Plato called this person a ” philosopher- king” but that wasn’t a philosopher like Wittgenstein nor a king like Mohammed Ben Salman lol
Salaams,Ibrahim
Metaphysics and Politics-3
( Watching Mitch McConnell summarizing his position relative to the impeachment of Trump)We should all be really concerned by the impeachment going on in the U.S! Not because it introduces a new level of corruption and indignity but rather because it highlights the corruption and indignity that is already occurring on a daily basis in the U.S-the corruption of Truth and indignities hurled at individuals in the courts of our nations as a regular ritual.It goes by various names- “adversarial” “rule of Law” and “spinning”.
This manouevre goes on as well in advertisements,in arguments about privacy,in ideological debates,in how bureaucracies prevent you from getting your rights! In fact it even happens in daily discourse with people you know well where I sense,especially amongst young people a reflex,even a need, to disagree(I am not talking only about adolescents but rather young adults and millennials)- as if they need to do this to preserve their very identity.Needless to say this is very corrosive to Truth and prevents them from listening to Reality instead of maintaining their biases!
This being said,I have never seen a better exemplar of this “spinning” than the current impeachment debacle.But make no mistake about it- this process is going on in our courts and public institutions as a matter of course. In fact it is the default process of our society!
No wonder people are confused!
The Metaphysics of Politics-2
Three clear-cut take-away messages from the American impeachment hearings 1) The adversarial process is a completely ineffective way of ascertaining Truth!(The true Islamic scholars and Sufis denounced argumentation a long time ago!) 2-No-one is objective!(I thought Freud had made that case clearly enough 100 years ago) and 3)Reason( most of the politicians speaking are relatively smart despite common beliefs to the contrary ) is a completely inadequate means for obtaining Truth or Justice,(Sorry Aristotle,Voltaire and Rousseau lol).Bottom Line- the system has failed us once again.A new paradigm is needed..
Impeachment-The Deeper Roots
Impeachment Day! Does Donald Trump deserve to be impeached?! Of course! But one could also argue,as no-one,certainly not the sheep-like journalists, is lol,that the U.S. Constitution itself should be impeached -because it is not working! The U.S. has the worst record on ALL social variables(crime,violence,efficiency of health care delivery,wealth distribution,childhood poverty etc.,etc.)of ALL developed nations.Shouldn’t that get people thinking?!
In my view,one of the major reasons for that is that the basic premises of the Constitution are false!”All men are created equal”(obviously false.Needs no explanation!).”They are endowed with inalienable rights to life(wrong! That is in the hands of God) liberty(no,there are all kinds of restrictions to liberty-especially if you believe in Divine Law) and the pursuit of happiness(a false goal as happiness,too,is outside of our control,the idea is often linked to hedonism and it is ultimately not our goal which should be acceptance and serenity about the Divine Will)-that is what brings peace of mind.So,and this may sound too strong,the American Constitution, despite the well-meaning intention of the founders to correct the excesses of monarchy,is corrupt to the core!It is a recipe for selfishness,superficiality and unreality! Put that in your pipe and smoke it,lol.
The Metaphysics of Politics
Two concepts explain why the political and legal processes that surround us almost never get to the heart of the matter- “adversarial” and “consistency”! If you look at the mindset of politicians and lawyers you will see that these are foundational ideas.
Now, ironically,these two are at antipodes to each other- completely inconsistent lol.So adversarial means that you are arguing only one side of the equation as in a formal debate.Supposedly through two opposing parties offering completely opposite viewpoints,one is supposed to be able to clearly see the Truth! Really?! Think of the O.J. trial for example, which is not as unique as the lawyers would like to pretend.You put enough opposing information in front of people and what happens? They get confused.
That’s all!
As to “consistency” ,the argument is that the truth can be obtained by taking a few facts or alternatively masses of data and logically extrapolating from those facts or ” crunching the data” and then you can see the truth emerging! Ever seen that at work lol?! Try looking at all the Commissions and committees investigating the Canadian medical system as it continues to degrade itself and you’ll see how well that works!
The metaphysical flaw here is to believe that Reality is some logical structure that can be taken apart and reconstructed when in fact Reality,itself,is full of contradictions and inconsistencies.(C.F. Jellalludin Rumi)The most potent instrument we have for detecting it is inner vision(basirat) intuition
and discernment- not logic.So,with these two concepts at the heart of the processes,no surprise that we are deeply mired in confusion-especially at the societal level!
Epistemology 202
If you carefully watch the Congressional hearings you will notice an underlying assumption-that if you get the facts precisely right and then use impeccable logic to elaborate from those facts .you will get to the Truth of the matter and be able to convince people of it.That is SO wrong in so many ways! Amongst others,it ignores the importance of the inner- the intentions,the unconscious bias,the ideological bias and the level of awareness(also an inner element of the Reality).False Epistemology =false conclusions.So don’t be surprised if they get to the wrong conclusions! It is totally predictable
Efficiency!
If there is one word to summarize what is ruining our lives it is….EFFICIENCY!( We can include in that term cost-cutting as a financial form of efficiency).Efficiency,so touted by our politicians,economists and other management intelligentsia, is causing people to be more and more stressed out and overwhelmed at their workplaces.Efficiency is causing our foods to be contaminated with artificial fertilizers and pesticides and OGMs.Efficiency is causing our construction materials to be more and more contaminated with cancerogenic ingredients.And efficiency is causing us to abandon our children to commercial day-cares and our elderly to old peoples homes.Interesting that not a single Democratic candidate including the hallowed Bernie Sanders is bringing this up.That is because they are all socially conditioned by materialistic philosophies-Socialism/Marxism being just one amongst others.All of them value measurable results-another form of so-called efficiency.All of this is killing our hearts,ruining our relationships and creating a greedy,egocentric society!